Stefan Molyneux
  • yesterday
In this episode, I analyze the tactics used in political questioning and media interactions, highlighting how "gotcha" questions often prioritize points over truth, reducing complex issues to emotional soundbites. I discuss the problematic "single variable mindset" that oversimplifies discussions, particularly in immigration debates, and examine how upbringing influences analytical capabilities. By exploring emotional manipulation in family dynamics, I advocate for a multivariate mindset to better understand the complexities in both political and personal conversations, encouraging listeners to engage thoughtfully and resist reductionist thinking.

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Transcript
00:00Hey, good morning, everybody. I don't know. Good afternoon. Hope you're doing well
00:04So I had some thoughts. I have been gritting my teeth and looking at some of the I
00:10Don't know the conversations going on in American politics at the moment Robert F. Kennedy jr.'s confirmation process and
00:18of course
00:20What has been going on?
00:22with the whole
00:24deportation argument and so on and I don't really want to get into the content of that kind of stuff because it's
00:29Just you know boring sophistry
00:32versus actual facts
00:35so
00:36I've been watching no not so much. I used to in the past watch the people being
00:41Questioned but what I'm doing now or what I wanted what I have been doing is is looking at the people who are doing the questioning
00:48It's very interesting to watch
00:50for me
00:52so
00:53What is the purpose of these kinds of gotcha questions?
00:58You know where they try to catch people out and and so on what is what is it that they're doing?
01:03Well, of course, it's not actual, you know, if you've ever been on the receiving end of you know, hostile quote
01:11Questions then you know what it is that I'm talking about
01:16But what is it that that is actually going on with these kinds of questions?
01:21so
01:23The way that I'm working with it in my mind and I'm obviously
01:27Happy to hear what you guys think about all of this, but the way that I'm working with it in my mind
01:31It's something like this that
01:34These interactions obviously, there's no
01:37Interest in the truth, right? I mean people getting hysterical over deportations
01:43I mean, what was it? Bill Clinton deported 12 million people and Barack Obama
01:47deported millions, I mean, it's
01:49It's it's nothing to do with the truth. It's nothing to do with the facts. It's I mean particularly with the deportation stuff. It's like
01:57The price of coffee is gonna go up and the price of food is gonna go up and the price of eggs is gonna go up
02:01and
02:02That appeals to the what I talked about the other day
02:05the there's only one variable people like people whose minds or whose
02:10emotions or whose prejudices can't handle more than one variable and
02:15the one variable people
02:17a
02:20Prior to
02:22sort of one person one vote
02:25Nobody had to really take into account
02:27the one variable people
02:29the single variable people so for instance if
02:34You were a general who understood the complexities and the fogs of war
02:39You didn't have to take into account and appease
02:43the
02:45Average soldier who didn't understand all of the complexities of war right complexities of war are
02:52Enormous and of course a significant amount of battles. In fact, you could say the majority battles are won by deception
02:59So if a soldier says well, we should attack the enemy here
03:05because
03:06This is where the enemy is the weakest right? We sent out our scouts. So this is where the enemy is the weakest
03:12Well, the general doesn't hate have to take into account
03:16the soldiers
03:18Uninformed and and foolish opinion right now if he would if he took the time to sort of explain
03:24He'd say well, but you understand that the enemy is going to make us
03:29Want to attack him where he looks the weakest and so it most likely is a trap, right?
03:35because the one
03:37Variable mindset is not comfortable with risk
03:41right
03:42but all conflict involves risk and
03:47so if the one variable soldier one variable mind soldier if what he's doing is he's saying
03:54well, we should attack the enemy here because this is where the enemy is the weakest and
03:58Then the general says to him. Yes. Well, but Billy you understand that
04:03If it's obviously weak or if it appears obviously weak
04:07It could very well be a trap in other words the enemy is hiding
04:12reinforcements or is there some
04:14geographical way in which that
04:15Can be exploited to his advantage or he's got troops just over the hill that are going to come pouring over
04:21So it could be that he's appearing weak in order to get us to attack him there
04:26Because that's where he's got some advantage. We're not quite aware of right and
04:31then
04:32the single
04:34Variable mindset just flips and says oh, okay. All right. Okay, so then we should attack him
04:41We should attack the enemy where the enemy appears the strongest
04:45Because if he's faking being weak where he's actually strong, he's probably faking strong where he's actually weak
04:53To which the general will hopefully patiently say I get that for sure
04:58but he also knows that we will think that as well and
05:02Therefore it could be the case
05:05That he is actually strong where he appears strong and he's going to try and reverse
05:09Psychologize us into attacking him where he is. In fact the strongest
05:14right, so
05:15What you do is the single variable mindset thinks well, there's an answer and
05:21Then the multivariate mindset says well, there's there's not really an answer
05:27There's only a set of probabilities
05:28I mean now this isn't to do with UPB or morals principles and so on but the single variable mindset is not comfortable
05:37with
05:39Probabilities it is not comfortable with risk now
05:41this either could be to a general lack of intelligence, but most likely and most often I think it's simply because as
05:48As children
05:50people like this are often mocked attacked criticized and abused or or
05:56ostracized for taking reasonable chances
05:59right, so if you think of a
06:03kid comes
06:04Comes home and says I
06:07tried
06:09Riding my bike over a little jump I made and I landed perfectly and
06:14It was great
06:16Right, then his parents might say who would say oh good good job. Wow, that was that's exciting, right?
06:24Good job. That's exciting if on the other hand the kid comes in
06:28you know bleeding and saying and the parents say well what happened if the kid says well I I
06:34Tried to jump over a little ramp. I created on my bike and I I just spilled and cut the heck out of myself
06:42Then the parents would say well that was stupid wasn't it?
06:45In other words the parents wait
06:48For the result of the risk to come in
06:51Before they say whether that was good or bad
06:55which does not teach the child anything about risk I
07:00With my daughter, you know when she wants to do things that are physically dangerous. I just say okay
07:06Let's look at the cost-benefit now
07:08That's sort of an older thing
07:10Go into a younger person right as you get older the cost-benefit shifts because you're more aware of
07:17Consequences and it also takes longer to heal so I don't want to impose that on my daughter
07:22But it is kind of important if she says I want to jump from this high place, right? I say well, that's cool
07:28Just you know be aware that it might in you might get injured and go for it, right if you want, but just be aware
07:34right and
07:37So
07:38Sometimes she would jump and sometimes she wouldn't and I would also say like what's the cost-benefit like the cost-benefit look
07:43Obviously you want to push your limits and obviously you want to have the cool memory of jumping from a high place. That's great
07:48I understand that but also, you know, if you do turn your ankle you could be on the couch for weeks
07:55Days or weeks, right?
07:57So just you know, it's just cost-benefit, right? I
08:00Did a full wind sprint a couple months ago
08:03It's just kind of curious if I still did now, of course when I do that, I'm aware
08:07What if I pull something? What if I tear something, you know, I could be out for four weeks
08:11But I did it right just worth it and it was fine
08:14Now sometimes I've read like 95% of people don't sprint after the age of 30. That's pretty sad. So
08:20the single variable
08:22mindset is usually
08:25someone who
08:26Receives praise for a good outcome and scorn or contempt and punishment for a bad outcome
08:33Right. So someone who says a kid who says to a rough-and-tumble dad who says dad
08:39I got into a fight and I won the dad says good job
08:43And if the kid says dad I got into a fight and I lost
08:47The dad will say well that was stupid
08:50right
08:52So being praised for good or bad results makes people risk averse
08:58you want to remind kids of the variables and
09:01Help them to make a reasonably good decision
09:05Right. So if I were to say to my daughter never do anything physically risky
09:10I said never do anything fit whatever that means right never do anything physically risky
09:15well
09:16that comes with other
09:19Lifelong consequences that could be negative
09:23So the of course the typical example is and this is sort of the helicopter mom parenting stuff never do anything physically risky
09:30What that translates into is an avoidance in general of
09:34sports and exercise because sports and exercise
09:37Have inherent risks in them
09:39it's just that I think in in a rational universe the reasonable risks taken in from sports and
09:49Exercise
09:50Are variable and manageable whereas the risks that accrue from not exercising
09:56Are not very variable in other words it tends to be
10:00you know bad muscles often bad posture weak joints and
10:05maybe obesity and
10:08Softening bones like all of that kind of stuff right so and and so they're not
10:12Variable they tend to accumulate and they're not manageable. They just get worse
10:18So if I were to say to my daughter don't do anything physically risky
10:21I would be giving her I would be sort of maybe
10:25Assuaging some anxiety at the moment in the moment rather than saying yeah
10:31Take some take reasonable risks because if you don't take reasonable risks
10:34Then disaster is a certainty
10:37Right it's sort of like a silly example is if you just kept taking grade four over and over again
10:43You'd get straight A's for the rest of your life, right?
10:46You would never fail
10:48But you also wouldn't progress or get anywhere in life, and it would be pretty tragic and sad existence
10:55So in most times most times
10:58with regards to parenting what parents are doing if
11:03Your kid says I want to jump from this high place, right?
11:07if
11:08The mother often it would be the mother if the mother says no
11:13She's saying no because of her self-recrimination if her child gets injured
11:18Because if your kid says should I jump from this high place and your kid jumps from this high place
11:23And then they hurt themselves
11:25it's the self-recrimination that will occur so if your kid jumps from a high place and
11:32Laughs and giggles and is happy you feel like oh good decision, right?
11:36and if your kid jumps from a high place turns her ankle or
11:41Skins their knee and cries you say oh that was a bad decision, right?
11:46but in general
11:48That's the wrong way to look at cause and effect
11:51All decisions are going to involve risk
11:53Right all decisions are going to involve risk
11:56I mean obviously the decision to drive a car involves the risk of getting into an accident
12:03There's a I think there's a mathematical proof that if you win the lottery like some significant amount of money in the lottery
12:10You're more at risk of dying in a car accident on your way to pick it up than you are of actually winning the lottery
12:17Or you know the old thing I remember
12:20Telling people and when Jaws came out and everybody was afraid of the water
12:23it's like you know you're way more at risk driving to the beach in your car than you are getting attacked by a
12:29shark of the ocean
12:31Or people who are scared of planes which are statistically the safest form of travel
12:37so
12:39praise or
12:41condemnation
12:42for outcomes
12:44Does not help people evaluate risk because what they're doing is they are evaluating
12:51other people's responses
12:53not
12:54the thing itself
12:56so a kid
12:58who
13:01Builds a ramp and jumps as most kids do right you build a ramp you jump the ramp on your bike
13:07They're not assessing the risk of the thing itself. They're assessing
13:11Whether their friends will think they're cool for doing it or whether their parents will get mad if they fail
13:17They're not
13:19Evaluating the thing itself. They're guiding themselves according to the responses of others
13:25which is not
13:26it's surrendering an
13:29actual
13:30cost-benefit analysis of the thing itself
13:33It's surrendering that to the praise or condemnation of others
13:38In other words, you're not saying well, what are the costs and benefits of
13:43Building this ramp and jumping it it is
13:46Will I receive more praise or more condemnation?
13:51For building the ramp and jumping it and of course this means that your free will
13:56Has largely been surrendered to the praise or condemnation of others
14:01so everybody knows this experience when you're in school and you have a
14:07Question or a comment if
14:09You raise your hand and make your question or your comment
14:13Will the kids make fun of you or the teacher or both or will this be perceived as a positive
14:22Contribution and I remember this when I was arguing with a professor about the Cartesian theory of
14:28Us being a brain in a tank ruled by a demon. I
14:32remember feeling very strongly the
14:36increasing
14:37tension and annoyance
14:39From the other student as I continued to argue this point, of course, I
14:43Made similar arguments in my book essential philosophy, which you can get at essentialphilosophy.com
14:49so
14:50when it comes
14:52to
14:53questioning
14:55Teachers a lot of kids, of course know that questioning teachers can result in anger
14:59But this is all the way back to Socrates. Teachers claim to be wise. Are they actually wise?
15:04Do they actually know things or are they faking it? You know that kind of stuff, right?
15:08so people
15:09evaluate things according to
15:12praise and punishment not according to the things themselves and this means that this is this is a
15:21mechanism put in by manipulators
15:23because society or you know, really the
15:27Antiphilosophical or manipulative or control elements of society desperately want people to judge
15:33Proposed actions by praise and punishment
15:36rather than
15:38Any rational or objective metrics of costs and benefits?
15:42Because that way in order to control people all they do is they ramp up
15:47the punishments and they or they ramp up the praise
15:52And if they ramp up the punishments or they ramp up the praise
15:56so you can see this going on in the
16:00Kind of gotcha stuff that's happening in the American media regarding the deportations
16:05so
16:06The left is in general trying to hook these on to one metric
16:11Which is oh, well, you know the price of
16:15Food is going to go up like that's the only variable if all other and this is like
16:19This is if all other things being equal. Do you want the price of food to go up?
16:24Right. Well, we'll know
16:26So they're trying to reduce it to a single
16:29variable
16:30Right when there was this fracas it was last weekend, I think between
16:35Trump and the president of Colombia
16:39where the president of Colombia wouldn't take the planes with Colombian citizens who were being deported and
16:45Trump said okay fine
16:47We're gonna hit you with massive tariffs and suspend visas and so on right and then like within less than an hour
16:52The Colombian president caved but during that hour, of course
16:56And I'm sure for some time afterwards before they caught up with the news the people on the left were saying well
17:01but you know boy if you put tariffs on the price of coffee is going to go up and
17:06That is it's like a bat signal for the single variable mindset
17:10All other things being equal
17:13Do you want?
17:15the price of coffee to go up now for you and I and
17:18I'm sure everyone listening to this as a whole for you and I there's no such thing as all other things being equal
17:25Right because but we have to add that because that's implicit in the one variable mindset
17:31one variable mindset here's well if if
17:35Trump raises tariffs on Colombian imports the price of coffee will go up and they say well
17:40I don't want the price of coffee to go up. Therefore Trump should not
17:44Impose tariffs on Colombia, right? It's just one variable now again for you and I we have to say
17:51Well, look all other things being equal as if that's like a real thing when it's not in fact a real thing
17:55It's not a real thing to say all other things being equal because there's no such thing as all other things being equal
18:01It's like saying to someone well, would you go to the gym if it cost you no money and time?
18:07Would you go would you go to the gym and exercise if it cost you no time?
18:12Money or effort
18:14Now, of course if somebody says to you, well, would you go to the gym if it cost you no time money or effort?
18:18You'd say well, what are you talking about?
18:21Going to the gym implicitly
18:23Takes time effort money
18:24It takes time to go to the gym to change to do your laundry after the gym with the extra sweaty stuff
18:29Like cost money to go cost money for membership
18:32It is effort to go to the gym
18:34And and expend the effort to move the weights around or step on the stairmaster or whatever you're gonna do
18:39So if somebody were to say to you if you could go to the gym and get the benefit of exercise
18:46without expending time effort or
18:49Money, would you do that?
18:51Well, that's just a way to get you to yes
18:54to say yes
18:56But if I can get you to say yes
18:58This is like it's like cheesy sales 101 if I can get you to say yes to something then I'll consider that a sale
19:05I'll consider that a sale
19:07So, you know you can see this with regards to and it's a wide variety of things going on in politics
19:14and you can of course see this in your
19:16Personal lives, right? So if you have if you have a big conflict going on, let's say with your mother and
19:21your mother is being difficult or intransigent or
19:26Unwilling to negotiate or admit the validity of anything that you're saying. Let's say let's just say that conflict is going on and
19:32then
19:34Your your sister calls you up and says you should call mom. She's feeling sad. You should call mom and
19:41Just be nice to her and make it up because mom is feeling sad
19:46Right, like there's only one variable
19:48the only variable is mom being sad and
19:52You have the capacity to fix that variable
19:55And if all you can do all you have to do is call mom and be nice mom will no longer be sad
20:02Then why wouldn't you do that again all other things being equal just call mom and she won't be sad anymore
20:07Isn't that a better thing as a whole?
20:09Well, yeah, all other things being equal now again for you and I the moment somebody says all other things being equal
20:16You know, you're being scammed
20:19But the single variable issue or the single issue single variable mindset
20:24Everything is all other things being equal. It doesn't even need to be said because that's the mindset as a whole
20:30so your sister is saying look a 10-minute phone call makes mom happier and there are no other variables of
20:38Course, there are many other variables
20:40which is your mom is being gonna mean or difficult or irrational or selfish or or
20:46Aggressive or abusive even and so I don't want to call her up because there's another variable called
20:52That might make mom happy if I pretend she did nothing wrong, but it will make me unhappy
20:58Right now, of course
21:01Generally if you bring that up the variable called you being unhappy will be aggressed
21:08away
21:09Manipulated or finessed or aggressed away
21:12And so the way that that will work is if you your sister says call mom
21:16She's unhappy and you say well no because mom's being difficult and irrational and I need her to
21:22Be reasonable in our conversation before I want to call up or if I call her up
21:26Trust me. She's gonna get more unhappy because I'm gonna bring up her conflict and ask that she'd be more mature and resolve again
21:32so then
21:33Your sister will say in her heart may not be conscious or whatever, but she'll say in her heart. Oh dear
21:40So I want mom to be happy
21:43My siblings unhappiness is in the way. So I need to get rid of my siblings perception of
21:48The unhappiness or the validity of the unhappiness, right?
21:52So there's two strategies to eliminate your unhappiness and reduce the equation back to a single variable number one is to call your unhappiness
22:00selfish
22:01Right. You're just holding on to a grudge at mom's expense blah blah blah blah blah, right?
22:05so to condemn your unhappiness is selfish and get you to remove your unhappiness as
22:10a variable
22:12Because if you're unhappy like your mother is unhappy you should call your mother
22:15But if I call my mother that will make me unhappy. So your unhappiness has to be
22:20Eliminated in order for your free will to be overridden, right?
22:24The purpose of the single variable analysis is to remove your free will
22:28well
22:29All other things being equal all other things are equal. The only variable that changes
22:35With sanctions on Colombia or import tariffs on Colombia is the price of your coffee goes up
22:40You don't want the price of your coffee to go up. Therefore you have to oppose the imposition of tariffs on Colombia
22:47Right, so it's to get you to a single variable analysis which removes your free will your free will is
22:55to do with
22:56multivariate analyses I
22:58mean
22:59If the child who's planning to like he's built a little ramp and he's gonna ride his bike over it if the child
23:05only thinks of glory and success and being thought of as the coolest kid around and
23:10Being going viral on on social media and you know
23:13Just being getting thug life memes made then then he has no choice to not do it
23:18Because he's only looking at the positives
23:21If the child only looks at the negatives
23:24Oh
23:24I'm gonna crack my bike and I'm gonna get stitches in my head and I'm gonna be I won't be able to go play my
23:30my sports for a week or two or I could get a concussion or my parents are gonna be mad at me or
23:35I'm gonna end up in a fail video and I'm gonna be marked forever. Then the child has no choice to do it, right choice is
23:43Multivariate when you reduce things down to one variable you are eliminating people's free will
23:48Right. So should you support or oppose?
23:52tariffs on
23:54Colombia, I mean take out the sort of UPB stuff like just no, that's a complex policy decision. There are costs and benefits
24:02so
24:03in a free society people would be punished for failing to uphold their contracts and
24:10Can you punish the government of Colombia for failing to uphold its basic social contract to accept its own citizens back onto its soil?
24:17especially if it had facilitated the
24:20Passage of those citizens to America, right so you could make a even a UPB argument to the Chile a moral international
24:27space of law
24:29That it is simply
24:31Punishment and reward that resolves these things, right? So should you support or oppose this? Well
24:37It's complex, right?
24:39Now, of course if if America is unable to deport those who remain in the country
24:47illegally
24:49then it has no particular way to manage the
24:53extremely high costs of a lot of
24:56illegal immigration and
24:58Negative consequences to the American tax, but so it's a multivariate analysis, right if you're just going to do so the cost of benefit
25:04It's complex if you're going to do it on principles, then it's like well we are returning
25:10citizens to their country of origin where they actually have
25:13citizenship if the government refuses to take them then the government is
25:17Breaking its contract with its own citizens and with the US, right? I mean
25:22The citizens of other countries are allowed into the US
25:27With the express understanding that their countries will take them back. I
25:34Mean you would not allow
25:36Someone let's say there's what is the Elbonia?
25:38It's a Scott Adams made-up country if Elbonia said to the US government
25:42We're gonna send our citizens to you and you're never allowed to send them back then the US would not allow
25:47Those citizens into America or any country would allow that, right?
25:51so the
25:54Contract between countries is well your people can come to my country
25:57But you know they they have to go back right and of course by them having to go back means the country has to take them
26:04back
26:05So if Columbia has its citizens go into the US
26:08Let's say legal or illegal and then Columbia decides to not take its citizens back even though they're Colombian citizens
26:14That's a form of fraud, right?
26:16Because America wouldn't have taken those people legal or illegal not that America chose to take the illegal ones, but only
26:22Arguable in some contexts, but
26:24That would be the breaking of a contract between our states
26:29So there's a lot of variables at play. So
26:33What's office want to do is reduce it down to one variable so that you don't have a choice because choice is cost
26:41Benefits, right? We all have this with regards to the truth. We have to play
26:47The game particularly if we're in NPC normie social environments of how much truth can we tell?
26:54What are the cut we have this?
26:55Oh, yeah, the truth is a virtue, but the truth is not a sword to be drawn at all cost, right?
27:00So we all have to play this game and don't even try to pretend to me that you don't
27:05Everybody does and play this game. How much truth can I can I say?
27:09How much truth can I say?
27:11so
27:13Cost benefits now if you just say well being honest is the only variable then you'll say a bunch of truths and
27:19Then you will probably get punished and Ned very sort of bad and negative things can happen to you
27:23And I mean if that's the way you want to play it, you know, I'm
27:27I'm not gonna argue with you in particular
27:30about
27:31Discretion is the better part of valor and you want courage to say the truth, but not so much courage that it becomes self-destructive
27:39so
27:41yeah, it's it's funny because
27:43you had a thesis an
27:45antithesis called Socrates and the sophists and Socrates said I'm gonna tell the truth and the sophists said we're only gonna pretend to tell the
27:52truth
27:52Socrates says I'm gonna seek wisdom and the sophists said I'm going to proselytize the appearance of wisdom and
27:58Socrates pursued this even to the grave
28:02right, so you had
28:03One extreme which is Socrates you had the opposite extreme
28:08Which was the sophists and you had Aristotle who was very keen on the Aristotelian mean
28:13which is somewhere in the middle is probably the best policy and
28:17when he was being aggressed against by
28:20The Athenian state he left saying I will not allow Athens to sin twice against philosophy
28:27so
28:28that's just interesting that the
28:30Aristotle manifested the Aristotelian mean between
28:33Socrates one of his heroes and the sophists his
28:37existential enemies
28:38It's nice when theory and practice
28:41mirror each other
28:43so to go back to
28:45You're in conflict with your mother your mother
28:48Calls up your sister and complains how unhappy she is and your sister then calls you and says call your mother
28:53it will make her happy and
28:56Your sister is then faced with competing
28:59Variables your mother is only happy if you're nice to her
29:02But being nice to your mother when you're in a state of conflict and she's not changing for the better will make you unhappy
29:07So now we have a challenge
29:10Right because this is kind of what free will is designed
29:13There's no free will that says I want to escape gravity at least not for a sane person and free
29:18Will can't have you escape gravity anyway
29:20So where there is no choice there is no point of having free will free will cannot make you
29:26It can slow down your aging, but it cannot make you un-age. It cannot reverse time
29:31so
29:32Your sibling will say to you
29:35One of two things either negative
29:38it's either going to threaten or bribe in order to remove your unhappiness as a variable and thus
29:45Control you by reducing things to one variable
29:48All right
29:49so either
29:51you're holding on to a grudge and being selfish which means that you being unhappy is unjust and
29:58Unfair and therefore because you care about justice and rightness and fairness
30:02You should eliminate your unhappiness
30:05Because that's like the unhappiness of the criminal who got caught it is unjust and unfair
30:11So that's an attempt to eliminate. Oh stop being so selfish and just right go call mom
30:18Right, but of course that's easily opposed by UPB if being unhappy in a relationship is selfish
30:24Then mom's unhappiness is also selfish, right? This is why UPB
30:29Doesn't allow for these asymmetrical elimination of
30:33one variable which is an attempt for manipulators and often a very successful attempt of
30:38Manipulators to control you by reducing variables
30:41But you don't want the price of eggs to go up. Do you?
30:45Therefore deportations are bad
30:48Because deportations will eliminate
30:51labor
30:52The labor force in agriculture which will raise the price of eggs and that's the only variable and that's bad
30:58you don't want poor people to have to pay more for eggs and
31:02therefore and they always use eggs even though eggs were often demonized from a
31:07Nutritional standpoint eggs just have eggs just have existential power in the human mind
31:13Which is why my Taylor Swift tweet went and so viral
31:17Eggs are life both for nutrition and for human beings, right? So
31:22Your sister will try to eliminate
31:25Your unhappiness so that she can make you call mom by reducing everything to one variable mom's unhappy
31:32Calling her will make her happy. So you should call her
31:34Unless you want mom to be unhappy in which case you're a selfish bad person and you should do the right thing
31:40So that's the negative right? Which is you're selfish for
31:44being unhappy at calling your mother while in a state of conflict the other is a bribe and
31:49The bribe is I know mom's been difficult, but you need to be the bigger person
31:54You need to let go of this grudge. You have to accept her for who she is. Mom's not gonna change
32:00She's doing the best she can she means well, she just she expresses it badly
32:03I agree with you, but you will feel better for being the bigger and better person by calling mom
32:10So that's the bribe
32:11Right, so I'm either gonna apply then label selfish which is going to cause negative stimuli within you and get you to conform to what?
32:18I say or I'm gonna bribe you with the dopamine of being the bigger person the more mature person and
32:24Of being better than mom and calling her even though mom's being petty and immature
32:28You will feel better by not holding a grudge, right?
32:31So you've got to rise above her level you like all of this sort of stuff. So your sister is
32:37Punishing you with bad chemicals or trying to reward you with good chemicals in order to get you to
32:43eliminate your unhappiness
32:45Right. So when your parents are unhappy with you, it's because you're bad when you're unhappy with your parents
32:50It's because you're holding on to the past and won't move on and won't let go and and they're being petty like you don't understand
32:56It's just an attempt to reduce things to one variable
32:58So once you see this in society and you see this all over the place, of course in the media
33:03They're trying to reduce things to one variable, right?
33:06Well, if you fire a bunch of government workers the GDP goes down for a while
33:12Like there's only one variable
33:14If you deport people the price of even though I'm upset Stephen Miller made the argument only 1% of
33:21recent undocumented
33:23People end up working on farms
33:25so
33:26if there's just one variable or
33:28If you deport people, this is the Selena Gomez
33:33crying cupid doll face
33:35Which is if you deport people
33:39They will be unhappy
33:41So then of course, this is the utilitarian argument
33:44maximizing happiness is
33:46The goal of society, but of course that's never applied consistently, right?
33:51Because the majority of Americans voted for Trump's clear deportation
33:56goals and so
33:58Deportation while it makes those being deported unhappy adds to the net happiness of America because the government is doing what the Americans voted for
34:04Which is a plus for them. So so you understand right that is
34:09And it's always applied selectively and
34:12Of course, you know a fairly rational response is to say I'm not aware of any clause of the US Constitution
34:19That says laws don't apply if you can find a video of somebody crying about it
34:24Right, so you can arrest a guy unless his mom is going to be sad, right?
34:29I mean, obviously that makes absolutely zero sense, but you're trying to just say oh
34:35So if somebody is crying over deportations and you want to deport then you are making people unhappy
34:42Why would you want to make people unhappy like that's the only variable
34:45So just reduce things to one variable and take away your free will
34:50take away your
34:52quote excuse called complexity and
34:54You can see this of course in the comments about the deportations
34:57Which is that when people are unhappy about deportations and other people say well the cause of their unhappiness is
35:05Biden for bringing them in parents for well, whatever right now that parents are bringing them over and so on, right?
35:11If a man is crying
35:13Because he's being arrested for rape. Then the reason why he's crying is because he's an evil guy who raped someone
35:22Right. It is not the policeman who is making him unhappy. Now. This of course used to be understood in Christian theology
35:29back when people learned these things in that
35:33People would say well how can a good God send people to hell and of course the response is that God doesn't send people to
35:38Hell they sent themselves to hell
35:40By disobeying the moral law. It's their their responsibility their issue their fault
35:46Not not God's you don't you don't blame the policeman for the sadness of the murderer being arrested, right?
35:54So when you're talking to people
35:57You are talking to for the most part. You're talking to junkies
36:02addicted to
36:03Avoiding disapproval and pursuing approval in other words
36:08Everything that's in their sort of mind and in their heart has been reduced to one variable, which is will I feel better or worse?
36:15For holding this opinion. Will I be praised or punished for holding this opinion?
36:20And that's the variable
36:22So when when you see people being you know, like what's going on with Robert F Kennedy jr
36:27And so on you see people being questioned
36:30What's going on is and this is why I've been watching the people doing the questioning is that you see these sideways glances looking for
36:38approval looking for the approval of
36:41Those in the media looking for the approval of those in their political party looking for the approval of though their friends and so on
36:47because their friends have said well this person is a bad person therefore you must oppose him or her and
36:52Saying anything nice or positive to him or her will get you ostracized
36:56Because the pain pleasure continuum
37:00Reduces all complexity to one variable. Will I be liked or disliked?
37:05Will I be praised or opposed?
37:07for
37:08Doing this for saying this for asking that for raising this issue or not raising that issue
37:14It's just one variable and people are pretending that they are doing an analysis of multiple variables
37:20When it really comes down to one thing and one thing only which is pleasure pain punishment reward
37:25And in order to do that, they just have to reduce things to one
37:29variable and that puts out the
37:32sort of bath signal for all of the people who
37:36Usually for reasons of trauma could be root for reasons of intelligence
37:39Only process one variable and the invitation to only process one variable is an invitation to
37:47Just be dumb or to act as if you are
37:50Traumatized so I hope this helps
37:53I really do appreciate your support free domain.com slash donate to help out the show. I really would
37:58Appreciate your support. It's obviously a tricky time in social media landscape at the moment. Your support would be very happy happy
38:05I would very happy to receive your support and of course as a one variable person
38:09We should all just focus on my happiness mine and mine alone. Just kidding. Thanks everyone. Lots of love. Bye