0:11 Hi everybody. I'm super happy to take 0:13 you all on this new episode of Common 0:16 Ground. And here we're taking a bit of a 0:18 break from bringing on new guests and I 0:20 am bringing on the guy who manages the 0:22 back end of What If AltHist. He's my 0:24 manager, right-hand man, and helps make 0:27 this magic happen. Also my best friend, 0:30 Merrick Right. 0:32 Right. 0:34 Merrick and I have been working together 0:36 for a couple years and he manages the 0:40 business side of the show. He takes care 0:42 of contracts. He um 0:45 edits the stock footage and gives me 0:47 advice and makes it so that I can do the 0:52 more videos for all you all. And all 0:54 this gets started with a story of how we 0:56 met or Merrick and I met 3 years ago and 0:59 he sent me 1:01 an email saying my maps aren't very good 1:03 because Merrick's maps are absolutely 1:04 beautiful. And he asked if he could get 1:07 a job making maps and I told him no, but 1:09 then we started talking, we became very 1:10 good friends, and over time I gave him 1:13 more responsibilities to manage my 1:15 email, manage the business side, and now 1:17 he works for me full-time. 1:20 Yep. That was a long process, but well 1:23 worth it, you know, um 1:25 it 1:27 it's really hard, of course, because I 1:29 have so many friends who work at some 1:31 grocery store or, you know, uh bank or 1:34 whatever and it's just this 1:36 soul-crushing job of paperwork or 1:39 dealing with customers who are a pain in 1:41 the butt. 1:42 Uh but, you know, working with Ryder, 1:43 it's just the two of us, you know, we 1:45 just text and email if anything go you 1:47 know, if one of us is sick, it's just 1:48 like, "Hey, I can't work today." And 1:50 like, you know, that's it. Uh and, you 1:53 know, this is shaping up to be a pretty 1:55 good pretty good career so far. So, you 1:58 know, I I really lucked out in a lot of 2:00 ways. 2:01 Um 2:03 It was funny because I saw of course I 2:05 was on my phone and I saw a meme and the 2:07 meme was like 2:08 uh it wasn't actually a meme, it was a 2:10 post, right? But the post said 2:12 "Just a reminder to all the Gen Z 2:14 people, there's no job where you work 2:16 from home with no college degree and no 2:19 qualifications for, you know, 50k a 2:21 year." And I'm like, that's literally my 2:23 job. 2:26 Yeah. It's um it's funny because the way 2:29 the Whatifalthist staff work for some 2:31 backtracking is Meric works full-time 2:33 for me, does a lot of the back-end 2:34 stuff. We've got an editor who combs 2:37 through the videos and cuts them up. Um 2:39 if the videos are bad production, it's 2:40 entirely my fault. Uh 2:42 but on top of that we we used to have a 2:45 researcher, Sheamus, who works for the 2:47 Hoover Institute, but he was working a 2:48 couple other jobs and he's still part of 2:50 our circle, but he was too busy. But um 2:55 I try to follow my dad's advice, where 2:56 my dad says looking for college degrees 2:58 is just an abdication of responsibility. 3:00 And I can immediately tell if someone's 3:02 qualified for a position by talking them 3:04 to for 15 minutes. And neither Meric nor 3:07 I have college degrees. And I know that 3:09 Meric has the intelligence and the 3:10 skills. And it's crazy that the society 3:13 we look at, it's a society where they 3:15 you look for 3:16 because any person can tell if someone 3:18 in their industry is qualified very 3:20 quickly in most occupations. But 3:23 it's everything is done through some BS 3:26 procedure now. 3:28 Well, for risk of management. Uh Meric, 3:30 I just want to say hi. Um not only am I 3:32 a fan of course of Whatifalthist and 3:33 Rudyard, this means by extension I'm a 3:35 fan of Meric because of the work you do, 3:37 etc. And not only do you do uh all of 3:40 the sort of the back of the house 3:41 operational stuff, but you also um are 3:43 involved in some of the thoughts uh 3:44 input into these videos and the topics 3:46 and things like that. So, I want to say 3:47 thank you. What you guys do is 3:49 incredibly interesting. I became a fan 3:51 and I had a similar experience. I 3:53 reached out to Rudyard, said, you know, 3:55 "Hello. I run a speaker series and a 3:57 think tank and I think what you're 3:58 saying is really valuable and some other 4:01 folks and more mainstream people need to 4:02 hear it." All right, so that's how we 4:04 got connected and 4:07 your experience is particularly 4:08 resonates with me. I mean, you talk 4:10 about education. I know that's one of 4:11 your areas of 4:12 interest. Maybe we can talk about that 4:14 maybe towards the end of this, but your 4:16 thoughts on education, education reform, 4:18 improving education in the world because 4:20 yeah, I've I've been the head of 4:22 recruiting. I've been an executive 4:23 recruiter. I've hired thousands of 4:24 thousands of people and you can usually 4:27 tell fairly quickly whether the person's 4:29 qualified or not. The degree doesn't 4:31 really necessarily mean anything other 4:32 than the person could put off just to 4:34 get uh um 4:35 and you get a degree. 4:36 degree. 4:37 Yeah, they they can do that. Uh they 4:39 have pretty good memory, etc. 4:41 But theoretically getting a degree gets 4:43 you in the door and it's now your time 4:44 to learn. 4:45 You haven't learned crap, right? 4:47 Right. 4:48 And real quick, I had a 72-year-old 4:50 secretary when I first got out of 4:51 college. 4:53 And she hated 4:55 with a passion, right? So I get out of 4:57 school, I got this managerial job. I've 4:59 got this executive assistant, we called 5:01 them secretaries back in the day. And 5:03 until I would run the sweeper in the 5:05 until I would vacuum, she hated she cuz 5:07 she I'm a stupid college boy. What the 5:09 hell do you know, right? She'd been with 5:10 the company almost 50 years, right? 5:13 And 5:14 and she literally hated me with a 5:15 passion. So I I started running the 5:16 sweeper at night and she softened up and 5:18 we became friends etc. and she stopped 5:20 trying to sabotage me, right? 5:22 But her point was well taken. I mean, 5:24 you get out of undergraduate school with 5:25 a management degree, it's kind of 5:27 interesting. What have you done? You're 5:28 going to manage people? You don't know 5:30 how to do crap, right? So now I get to 5:33 manage other people. No. So 5:35 I'm I'm in violent agreement with you on 5:37 that. 5:38 One of the things I think that Rudyard 5:39 wanted to do with this is get people to 5:40 know you a little bit better, maybe some 5:42 of your background, some of your 5:43 interests, etc. and especially some of 5:44 your areas of an interest, your 5:46 expertise. 5:47 Yeah, I mean, uh just to 5:50 briefly go over 5:51 uh my background, I'm from Lynn, 5:54 Massachusetts, uh originally. Uh I came 5:58 from uh 6:00 newly Christian family. My parents had 6:04 basically no background of religion, and 6:05 then just decided they were going to 6:06 start going to church. Um and then uh 6:10 I am the second of seven. Um 6:13 so I've been and my mom ran a daycare, 6:16 so I've been taking care of kids 6:18 basically my whole life. 6:19 Um I was homeschooled for most of my 6:21 life. Um fifth grade, I went to school, 6:24 and high school, I I was in public 6:26 school. 6:27 Um but 6:29 uh beyond that, I was homeschooled, and 6:31 I use the term homeschool very loosely. 6:34 Um you know, the the benefits to being 6:37 homeschooled was I could kind of look 6:39 into whatever I wanted, you know, and we 6:41 had this old uh it was like a 1995-1998 6:46 um 6:47 it like encyclopedia, right? And you 6:49 could I would just flip through it and 6:51 and read. Um I could read from a pretty 6:53 young age. 6:54 And I found the section on the two World 6:57 Wars, you know, and I would just read 6:59 through that cuz I thought it was really 7:00 cool. 7:01 Um and that's kind of where my interest 7:03 in history got started. Uh after 7:07 after I had graduated high school, 7:10 um 7:12 I had a fight with my mom uh cuz it was 7:15 really rough time for my family at that 7:16 point, and I moved with my grandparents 7:18 in New Hampshire. I lived there for 7:19 about 10 months. 7:21 Um 7:22 funny enough, before I got with Rudyard, 7:24 I don't think I've actually held a job 7:25 for over a year, just due to whatever 7:28 circumstances would come up. Uh working 7:30 with Rudyard is the first time I've 7:31 actually been, you know, with a company 7:34 uh for 7:34 years, right? 7:35 Uh yeah, just over 2 years now. 7:37 Um 7:39 and so yeah, I moved up to New Hampshire 7:41 with my grandparents, and then I moved 7:42 back to Lynn with an uncle of mine. He 7:45 died while I was living with him, so I 7:46 moved back in with my parents 7:47 temporarily, and now I've I've moved to 7:49 Milden, 7:51 where I live with my girlfriend. Um so, 7:54 I met Rudyard while I was living with my 7:56 uncle, cuz that's when I shot him the 7:58 email, 7:59 um and he and I have, you know, 8:00 progressed our relationship since then. 8:02 That was in, what, 20 2020? 20 Yeah, 8:07 2020. 8:07 Yeah, it was February 2020. 8:09 Yep. Yeah. Um and right, he and I would 8:13 shoot emails back and forth for a while, 8:15 and then we moved to Discord and text 8:17 and stuff. 8:18 And right, and so I've been working with 8:19 him ever since, and uh you know, it's 8:22 worked out really good. As anybody who's 8:23 watched his recent videos knows, you 8:26 know, we go on trips to, 8:28 you know, wherever in the world. So, 8:29 it's it's been a good time, and like I 8:31 said, I enjoyed not having to deal with 8:33 a mile of bureaucracy between me and the 8:35 person who pays me. So. 8:37 Yeah. Um yeah, so that's a bit about 8:40 what I was doing prior. 8:42 America's the only person I've ever met, 8:44 besides myself, who can draw any country 8:46 in any year of history. 8:47 Yeah. 8:49 Yeah, it's Well, it's really funny, of 8:50 course, because uh Rudyard and I draw 8:54 very different maps um when you look at 8:57 it, you know, because my thing is 8:58 to edit I'm going to put up both of our 9:00 maps during this 9:02 part of the video. 9:03 Yeah, that works. 9:04 Um but Rudyard and I draw very different 9:06 maps, you know, Rudyard draws a lot of 9:09 cultural and and anthropological stuff 9:12 on his maps, right? The borders are all 9:15 linguistic groups and religious areas 9:17 and things like that, and I'm a big 9:19 person on borders, right? I'm big on 9:21 getting the border changes, you know, 9:23 year by year um across the globe, and 9:26 particularly in Europe. Um 9:30 and so right, like I 9:32 I put a lot of What did What did Rudyard 9:35 say? You were like, it's 9:38 Rudyard will make maps because he wants 9:40 to cover a topic and I make maps because 9:42 I think it's an art form, you know? And 9:44 so it's like, Rudyard's like, "Yeah, 9:45 this will be cool and I want to get this 9:47 done." And I'm like painstakingly 9:49 researching five different Wikipedia 9:51 articles and news tabs to see if I can 9:53 figure out, you know, the border of, you 9:55 know, the Kievan Rus' in, you know, 970 9:58 or whatever. 9:59 Yeah, it's it's funny at times where 10:03 Well, we share some experiences because 10:04 we're both in a map-making. 10:06 Yeah. 10:07 On my maps, like my father likes to say 10:09 I'm the opposite of OCD and 10:13 Not wrong. 10:14 Yeah, and that's why I hire Merrick 10:16 because I don't give a [ __ ] about 10:18 details. And um 10:20 I like I don't I care that the borders 10:23 give some degree of understanding of 10:26 what was going on. So, for example, if 10:28 it's the year 1700, when Germany was 10:31 split into 500 states, I'll just 10:33 randomly draw a bunch of states because 10:34 no one really cares. And Merrick will 10:36 actually go down or we actually we drew 10:39 maps of the World War era and I had a 10:41 rough outline for the Burma-Assam border 10:44 between the Japanese and British Empires 10:46 and Merrick said, "You got the river 10:47 pattern slightly wrong." And I'm like, 10:50 "Do you think I care?" 10:52 Right. 10:52 And by the way, do you think the 10:53 observer knows the difference? And 10:55 probably not. So. 10:56 Well, right. And you have a subset of 10:58 fans that do. 10:59 Right. It's funny because I'd say 11:01 probably, you know, three-quarters of 11:02 the fan base like will go along with it 11:05 and doesn't care, right? But then 11:07 there's a quarter of the fan base who 11:08 will literally, you know, do what I did 11:10 and email us and be like, "You know, 11:11 this specific line right here is off by 11:14 like five degrees." 11:15 be an Easter egg contest. You should 11:17 have a contest to see who can figure 11:18 out, you know, what what the problem is. 11:21 Yeah. It's 11:21 And you you get a star. 11:23 so quickly. 11:24 I think that people's external I deal 11:27 with a lot of influencers and people's 11:28 external personalities are often the 11:30 opposite of what they are and people 11:33 often email like comment Rudyard's 11:35 autistic which the ironic thing is I'm 11:37 kind of like if you know me as a person 11:40 I am extremely not it's 11:43 I'm not making this a brag I'm just 11:44 horrible at details I'm constantly like 11:47 doing something I'm 11:50 I don't know how to better describe it. 11:52 Right. 11:54 I think you and I are a lot alike that 11:55 way in that I care about big picture 11:56 stuff etc. I don't care about details 11:58 too much. I care about the essence of 12:00 things. There are a few things I want to 12:02 get right that need to be right but I 12:04 it's too consuming to get everything 12:06 exactly right all the time. 12:08 Well, it's really interesting of course 12:10 because you know, I care a lot more for 12:12 details that Rudyard does but then you 12:15 know, I'll be 12:16 at the apartment with my girlfriend and 12:18 she cares more for details than I do, 12:20 you know, and so it's weird because of 12:21 course when I'm with Rudyard I'm the 12:23 detail oriented person and then I'm with 12:24 my girlfriend and now she's the detail 12:26 oriented and so there's a chain of like 12:28 you know, OCD basically where people get 12:30 more and more frustrated about literal 12:33 you know, smaller things um 12:36 you know, as things go by right and 12:38 that's that's part of how you get a good 12:40 sort of like uh command structure right 12:43 is you you delegate smaller details to 12:46 people who are better at focusing on 12:47 those things, you know. 12:49 It's 12:49 That's a good life lesson which is you 12:51 know, I was told for a long time to work 12:53 on my weaknesses. 12:54 Mhm. 12:55 You got to fix this. You got to shore 12:56 this up as opposed to play to your 12:57 strengths. 12:58 Mhm. 12:59 And then delegate the rest. You know, 13:00 people really no one pays you to be 13:02 average. 13:03 Right. 13:04 You need to be really really average at 13:05 a whole bunch of stuff. 13:06 This leads to our comments at the 13:08 educational system because neither 13:11 America and I were I don't think it's 13:13 unrealistic to say we're both fairly 13:15 intelligent but neither of us got good 13:17 grades in school and I was constantly 13:20 bashed. It's funny that 13:23 I didn't think I was that smart before I 13:25 I high school because no one really like 13:29 I like no one really said it. I didn't 13:31 get good grades in school. And then I 13:32 left high school and everyone said, "Oh 13:34 my god, I love your show. You do great 13:35 research." And it was a big adjustment 13:38 for me because 13:39 it was just like a complete 360. And I'm 13:42 kind of resentful at the educational 13:44 system. It constantly got me on stuff 13:48 that didn't matter. Where like my math 13:50 the math or like having doing grammar 13:52 properly or doing exact at reading 13:55 correctly, it's never really affected my 13:58 life. Maximizing my skill set has. And 14:01 also what I've all what I found is that 14:04 the skills that weren't taught in school 14:06 have ended up becoming the most 14:07 important. Where I do a lot of 14:09 networking and socializing and stuff for 14:11 my job. And being able to just be a good 14:15 social person and be respectful, be 14:17 charming. That's something you'll never 14:19 get taught in school. Being able to take 14:21 risks and be able to handle stress or 14:24 think out of the box. Those are things 14:25 that are actively pushed against for 14:27 school. And I look at so many people our 14:30 generation or Mavericks in my 14:31 generation, they're incapable of doing 14:33 anything because their parents have 14:35 split them off between 14:37 first of all, 14:39 I'm going to control every second of 14:41 your life and you'll constantly be at 14:42 violin recital and like 14:44 soccer practice 14:46 or their parents give them absolutely no 14:48 guidance. And it's it like I don't 14:50 pretend to have perfect parents. They 14:51 have a lot of problems in their own way. 14:54 But my my mom was obsessed with and so 14:56 if I did something impolite, she'd get 14:58 really angry at me. And my dad told me 15:01 that the the main thing that mattered in 15:03 life was honor. And so I'll run into 15:05 these other kids and I'll look at how 15:06 they act and I think, "Wait. Your 15:08 parents didn't do anything. 15:11 They just they just like 15:13 shoved you off to school and then you 15:14 watched and then you watched TV when you 15:16 came home. 15:17 You were babysat in different situations 15:19 throughout the day because they didn't 15:21 have to You know, I went to 11 schools 15:23 by the time I got to the 10th grade. 15:25 I didn't get to go. I got to go to the 15:27 all three years of high school in the 15:29 same school, which was great. 15:31 That forced me to be an observer of the 15:33 education system and of teachers and 15:35 kids and whatever, right? And sometimes 15:38 I was in a poor rural area of all whites 15:40 or Hispanic neighborhood or black 15:42 neighborhood or mixed, right? So, I got 15:44 to see all of those military ones. I got 15:45 to see all of those, right? And there 15:47 were some common things. Um, you know, 15:49 the bullying happened every where. 15:51 There were smart kids and there were bad 15:52 kids, you know, smart kids and dumb kids 15:54 and mean and and mean and nice. But, the 15:56 school system did exactly what you're 15:58 saying, which is it focused on things 16:01 that you probably weren't going to use 16:02 the rest of your life, 16:04 right? That you might not need. 16:06 Um, they didn't do a good job of having 16:08 a path for some people who had skills 16:09 this way versus that way. There's not a 16:11 lot of pay lowering, if you will, right? 16:14 Um, a lot of some people are don't want 16:16 to go get a four-year college white 16:18 white collar job or whatever. 16:20 We killed our trade schools in America. 16:22 We don't have those really anymore, 16:23 right? Um, 16:25 no almost no one is going to solve for 16:27 the area under a curve. No one's going 16:28 to look, you know, solve for X in their 16:30 job, you know, therefore algebra, 16:31 calculus. Do I need those? And do I need 16:34 to be able me to feel bad about myself 16:36 because I can't do those? 16:38 And that's really what came out of it. 16:40 At the same time in the this generation, 16:42 almost every parent in in the schools 16:45 has tried to tell little Johnny and 16:46 little Susie that they're special 16:48 and that they're unique 16:50 and that they can change the world. So, 16:52 we set up these incredibly high 16:53 expectations for you, right? 16:55 We don't really apply much discipline or 16:58 or direction, etc., right? Social media 17:01 really raises you. It's really, you 17:03 know, if parents think they're raising 17:04 their kids, they're crazy. They're not 17:05 raising anybody, 17:07 right? It's their peers and social media 17:08 that have 92% of the influence on 17:10 anybody growing up today. 17:13 And these are all things that you 17:14 observed, Merrick. You said that you 17:15 lived through a lot of them, etc., 17:16 Right? Uh some of you guys had to deal 17:18 with COVID. 17:20 Mhm. 17:20 Right? Which was a a unique experience, 17:22 which I think really put 17:24 was a huge hardship for people that 17:26 we're going to feel the echoes of for, 17:28 you know, for a generation. Um so but 17:30 from your take, um 17:32 what were the the the biggest things 17:33 that you think need to be done to 17:35 improve education, things that you would 17:37 like to have seen when you were in 17:38 school, and and and what's sort of the 17:40 prescription? If you could If you could 17:41 fix a few things If you could be king 17:42 for a day. 17:44 Right. Yeah. 17:45 Redraw the map. 17:46 Yeah, might take a little more than a 17:47 day. This is a very deeply flawed 17:49 system. Um 17:50 you know, but 17:52 So the first thing is, of course, the 17:53 parents, which you can't really fix. 17:55 There's not much that you can do about 17:56 that. Um but, you know, people 18:00 a lot of people don't stop to realize, 18:02 you know, that the struggles that you 18:03 had when you were in high school, right, 18:06 and the struggles that your kids have 18:07 when they're in high school are so 18:09 vastly different from each other that 18:11 how can you as a parent, right, who's a 18:14 boomer or Gen X, help your millennial or 18:17 Gen Z child through their, you know, 18:20 middle school and high school experience 18:22 when it is just a completely different 18:24 world from what you're used to, right? 18:26 And it's not I'm not critiquing parents, 18:29 right? I'm not like mad at them like, 18:30 "Well, how could you?" Right? It's It's 18:31 just you know, I'm sorry. 18:33 in which we live in, and we can't be 18:34 judgmental about that, right? That this 18:36 is how it is. 18:38 No, right, but that is the reality of 18:39 the situation is parents are completely 18:41 unequipped to deal with, 18:43 you know, the world. Like my mom at some 18:45 point, I don't know, I think I was 18:47 mouthing off to her or whatever, but, 18:48 you know, she was like, "You know, at 18:49 some point people had respect for older 18:52 people and blah blah blah." I was like, 18:53 "Yeah, because you used to like die at a 18:55 massive rate, you know, if you lived to 18:57 60, it was a an incredible feat, right? 19:01 And the world changed so little. If I 19:04 was born in, you know, uh uh 19:07 990 and lived to, you know, 1020, 19:13 the world had changed so little in that 19:15 time frame that a 60-year-old knew a lot 19:17 about how the world worked. Now, a 19:20 60-year-old has no idea what's going on 19:22 for Gen Z because the world has changed 19:24 so much in that same, you know, time 19:26 span. 19:27 So, 19:28 the the first thing is just sort of 19:30 everybody kind of coming to the the 19:32 understanding that things are changing 19:34 really quick and it's very difficult for 19:35 anybody to get a grasp on that, right? 19:38 And for the the parents to sort of be 19:40 forgiving to teachers especially, you 19:43 know, when they try to deal with the 19:44 situation because it's very different 19:46 from whatever the parents think that 19:47 this is supposed to be. 19:49 Um but in terms of actual like 19:51 structural changes, uh 19:53 just a few things, right? Uh gym should 19:56 just go away. Uh people don't play 19:59 outside like they used to and I I, you 20:00 know, I think that a lot of older people 20:02 would be like, well, they should be 20:03 ready to play outside. I don't think gym 20:04 get you ready to play outside. I don't 20:06 actually think it does anything 20:07 particularly useful for people. I know 20:09 it's supposed to encourage physical 20:11 fitness. I don't think it does that. I 20:13 don't think it grasps kids in any way. I 20:15 think that 20:15 Get them calmed down like overly 20:17 energetic dudes. 20:18 Right. I think the best option that you 20:20 could have for a high school is a 20:22 self-defense class. I think it would be 20:23 much better served to teach high school 20:26 kids, right? If you live in a red state, 20:27 how to deal with firearms, how to do 20:30 jujitsu, how to do, you know, basic 20:32 self-defense stuff, right? I think that 20:34 would be much better served for high 20:35 school students than 20:37 So, I'm not sure how to react to that. 20:38 So, I did wrestling, boxing, and uh 20:40 judo, and Muay Thai as a kid before 20:43 mixed martial arts existed. 20:45 Mhm. Right. 20:46 Cuz I moved around so much I got my ass 20:48 kicked a lot, right? 20:49 Right. 20:50 And I would walk into a town or whatever 20:52 into a dojo and say, "Hey, I'm I need to 20:54 learn to protect myself. I'm getting my 20:55 butt handed to me, right?" 20:56 Mhm. 20:57 And then they would say, "Well, we're 20:57 going to go through some sort of 20:58 traditional art and you're going to uh 21:00 practice etc. against nobody, against 21:02 thin air." And I would say, "Well, I 21:04 need to fight somebody. I I want to I 21:05 want to go full speed." And they said, 21:07 "Well, once you've been here a year or 21:08 two and you have seven you know five 21:10 belts, we'll let you hit somebody." And 21:11 I go, "No, I want to fight your 21:12 instructor." 21:14 And I would. I challenged the 21:15 instructor. When the time I was 15 on, I 21:17 just wherever I went I I I you know and 21:19 then but a boxing gym would let you get 21:21 into the ring right then. I didn't care, 21:23 right? 21:24 Okay, so 21:25 I had this advantage even though I was 21:27 smaller because I knew all that stuff 21:28 nobody else did. Now, today people are 21:31 doing MMA. This is horrible. This is 21:33 really bad. 21:34 Yeah. 21:35 A 250-lb guy can do all the same stuff 21:37 that I could do. I was I don't know. So, 21:39 and then my issue with that is um it 21:42 does kind of tend to promote it's great. 21:44 I mean if you're going to do any 21:45 self-defense, it needs to be MMA. It 21:46 needs to be suit boxing or that because 21:49 the traditional stuff just doesn't work. 21:51 Right. 21:51 Doesn't. Sorry. Um 21:54 But that being true, does it promote 21:56 fighting? And if you fight today, your 21:58 life is over. 21:59 In school. If you if you get in a fight 22:02 Right, but that's kind of the the 22:03 problem that that's one of the other 22:05 issues with the education system, right? 22:07 It's like my dad would always say in 22:09 1970 1980 when you were in school, 22:12 right? Middle school or whatever junior 22:13 high, if kids had a problem they'd go 22:15 and they'd punch each other and 22:17 eventually one of them would get knocked 22:18 out or get a bloody nose or whatever and 22:20 that would be it. And everybody would go 22:22 home and they'd move on after that, 22:24 right? And now the parents who grew up 22:26 in that world are like, well, I don't 22:27 want that happening to my kid. And so 22:29 right, if if you fight each other, it's 22:31 now problematic. But if you can 22:34 the way I like to say it is you can't 22:36 usually stop people from doing something 22:38 bad, but you can at least put 22:39 restrictions on how that works. So, if 22:41 you make a place, right? If you teach 22:43 boxing, if you teach jujitsu, if you 22:45 teach kids how to fight, they can do it 22:49 in a format that is not as dangerous for 22:52 them. 22:53 Yes, that's helpful, yeah. And I I was 22:55 never as nice in my life as when I was 22:56 boxing full full time. 22:58 No, right. And that's the 23:00 it all out. 23:00 If two kids have a problem, it's easier 23:02 to have It's better to have the gym 23:04 teacher there to oversee this fight go 23:06 on, right? Just uh put on the gloves and 23:08 go. Put on the gloves and go. Especially 23:10 males, I think. 23:11 Okay. 23:11 Um and that's not necessarily what I'm 23:13 saying should happen, but again, I think 23:15 that that sort of a system would be 23:16 better served than whatever it is that's 23:18 going on now. 23:20 Um so that's, you know, and the other 23:22 thing is they had take no account for 23:24 weight class, right? They divvy 23:25 everything up by weight class in 23:27 professional things. In In gym, they 23:29 don't divvy up by by anything. It's just 23:31 everybody's doing the same thing. And of 23:32 course, these kids are grossly 23:34 unequipped to do most of the things 23:35 they're being asked to do. 23:36 Um so I would replace gym. 23:38 Uh another thing I would do is math 23:40 mathematics. 23:42 You need to know how to add, subtract, 23:44 multiply, divide, you know, need to know 23:46 how to deal with decimals. And you need 23:48 to know uh probably how to deal with 23:49 fractions. After that point, math should 23:52 be an elective. It It should not be 23:54 mandatory. I've never once used algebra 23:57 in my life. I've never used calculus in 23:59 my life. Unless you are going into a 24:01 field, and if you're going into a field 24:02 that requires calculus, you probably 24:04 know well in advance. 24:06 And you need to be really good at it, 24:07 too. You don't necessarily be You don't 24:09 need to get a B. 24:10 No, right. Right, exactly. You need to 24:12 do really good. And again, I'm not 24:14 saying that you should take that 24:15 opportunity away from those people, but 24:16 if they know they're moving in that that 24:18 direction, if you're that good with 24:19 numbers, you take the elective, you do 24:20 the calculus, you know? 24:22 Um because cuz getting it almost right 24:24 at NASA on the calculation 24:27 ain't going to work. 24:28 Right, exactly, you know? So when you 24:30 need to do that level of math, you need 24:31 to be really good. And people who are 24:33 really good should have the opportunity 24:34 to go out and do it. And people like 24:36 myself who haven't calculated an angle 24:38 since I graduated, uh don't need to deal 24:41 with that. I just don't see a point, 24:42 right? And everybody's like, well, it's 24:43 problem solving. And I'm like, you can 24:45 give way better scenarios for problem 24:47 solving. There are way better things 24:49 that you can be using to to teach 24:52 problem solving in schools, you know, 24:54 much more realistic situations. Um 24:57 The schools 24:58 thing 24:59 So, this is this is a notion of 25:00 specialization, if you will, and and and 25:02 op and having options, customization in 25:04 education, right? Sort of a Montessori, 25:06 home home school type approach, which is 25:07 what do you want to study? 25:09 We're going to hold you a high 25:11 standard of that. 25:12 Right. 25:12 Right. You're not going to just be able 25:14 to screw off, but you're going to focus 25:16 on what you care about most, and 25:17 therefore you'll do better. Now, broad 25:19 now understanding of things is 25:21 important, too. We need We want a 25:22 citizenry that has a broad 25:24 understanding, right? So, 25:26 I almost argue there's a curriculum for 25:29 these are the basic things everyone 25:30 should know, 25:31 Mhm. 25:32 whether they go to college or not, 25:33 right? 25:34 Right. 25:34 Including how to write a fill out a 25:36 checkbook, balance your balance your 25:37 checkbook, or whatever. 25:38 Right. Right. 25:39 Practical things. But, um but yeah, 25:41 angles you probably need to understand 25:42 what a 90° angle is and a couple of 25:44 things like that. But, do you need to be 25:45 an expert in geog 25:46 geometry? Maybe not. 25:48 Right. No, absolutely. 25:48 So, it'd be nice if there was a 25:49 curricula that was created 25:52 that, you know, a handbook. 25:54 Well, right. 25:55 And that's the thing is it it'd be nice 25:56 to have that, right? And if I had the 25:58 ability, I'd get a team of people 26:00 together to to, you know, deal with that 26:02 issue. Uh but right, I don't. Nobody's 26:04 coming up with it right now, and even if 26:06 you could come up with it right now, of 26:08 course, there'd be a a mile and a half 26:09 of bureaucracy to get through before you 26:11 could even implement anything. 26:12 Um but so 26:14 but for self-educated You guys are both 26:16 self-educated. 26:17 Yes. 26:18 Okay. So, what should the self-educated 26:20 person teach themselves? 26:22 Oh, um 26:24 whatever interests you, whatever calls 26:26 to you, 26:27 whatever really seems like something 26:29 that you're particularly suited for. 26:32 You know, if you're if you've got really 26:34 good hand-eye coordination, play video 26:36 games. You can make money playing video 26:37 games if you're really good at it. I 26:39 don't believe in rounding yourself out. 26:40 Not that you shouldn't, but just I don't 26:42 think that you need to. I think you like 26:44 you said ear right, you need to 26:45 specialize. You need to find one thing 26:47 that you're really good at and get 26:48 really, really good at that thing. 26:49 Whatever it is that you're suited for, 26:51 you need to double down on that thing. 26:53 When your grandparents ask you what you 26:54 want for Christmas or your birthday, you 26:56 know, you ask them for a present that 26:58 suits your needs, right? You get books 26:59 on this topic, you get, you know, 27:01 whatever it is that will engage you for 27:03 this thing, right? If you're 27:04 self-educated, whatever it is that you 27:06 know you're going to focus on, because a 27:07 lot of people have attention issues, 27:08 especially in this world, you need to 27:10 find something you know you're going to 27:11 be able to focus on for long periods of 27:13 time. And so, whatever that thing is, 27:15 that's what you should get for yourself 27:16 if you're trying to be self-educated. 27:18 there's a fundamental motivation problem 27:20 that the educational system has no 27:22 concept of how actual human nature 27:24 works. And so, what ends up happening is 27:28 the reason we focus so much on STEM that 27:30 doesn't matter is that this is a theme I 27:33 constantly circle back to, and it's one 27:34 of my biggest discoveries I've recently 27:36 made philosophically, is modern 27:39 structures view everything 27:41 bureaucratically and mechanistically. 27:42 And what the decision that was made in 27:44 the middle of the 20th century was, we 27:46 need more people in STEM. Let's make 27:48 everyone take STEM classes so that we 27:51 produce more engineers. However, what 27:53 ended up happening was it actually dis 27:56 incentivized 27:58 people from joining STEM, which we've 28:00 seen recently, in that 28:03 the amount of inventions collapsed 28:05 precipitously over the last century. If 28:07 you look at the engineers in America, 28:08 most of them are Asians. We import them. 28:11 And we 28:13 structured it in a manner so that people 28:15 didn't want to go into STEM because it 28:16 was boring, and it was just a class to 28:19 pass to get to college. And 28:22 you see this in history as well, where 28:24 we don't have any concept that you need 28:26 to teach history for a certain purpose. 28:29 So, what ends up happening, 28:31 and because we have no cultural unity, 28:33 and what the left has explicitly done is 28:36 try to divide stories and concepts and 28:39 ideas of the world. This is 28:41 This is something we literally have 28:42 records of leftist thinkers doing to 28:44 destroy any sense of coherent thought 28:46 that they could be used against the 28:47 left. And so, history was turned from 28:49 something that most young men love to 28:53 think about and was key to national 28:55 identities to something that people 28:58 didn't understand because it was cut up 29:00 into a series of discrete events with no 29:02 meaning that you would study and 29:03 regurgitate for a test. 29:05 Right. Well, and and what I would do to 29:07 sort of combat that cuz that is exactly 29:09 what's going on. But, what I think would 29:11 be a good system sort of counter that is 29:13 I think there needs to be a lot more 29:15 coordination between schools and 29:17 businesses. I think that would help a 29:18 lot. Um what I would like to see is 29:22 Microsoft wants to open up a, you know, 29:25 facility in a city, okay? 29:28 Um and they communicate with all the 29:30 high schools in the area saying we're 29:32 going to need to X number of people to 29:33 fill these positions when when, you 29:36 know, once the facility's opened up. 29:38 The 29:40 the school will then, right, they're 29:42 going to need X number of uh software 29:44 programmers, right? So, we're going to 29:45 open up a course to do software 29:47 programming 29:49 for this school because we know for a 29:51 fact that Microsoft is going to open up 29:53 a facility here, right? And then, once 29:55 you graduate from this class, right, 29:57 with whatever the prerequisite grade is, 29:59 we'll get you a job interview for this 30:01 company that we know is going to need 30:02 jobs here, 30:03 right? So, now it's like you're going to 30:05 take this software, right, cuz I took a 30:07 a 30:08 programming class and I forgot 30:10 everything in it because it didn't mean 30:11 anything to me once I left school, 30:13 right? 30:13 It's funny, by the way, they call that 30:15 adult learning characteristics. And and 30:17 I worked for Accenture, 30:19 I designed training, and we focused on 30:21 adult learner characteristics. They are 30:23 the same characteristics of a young 30:25 child. 30:26 Does it matter to me? Will I use it? 30:28 Etc. Make it interesting to me. 30:31 Right. 30:32 I What is that adult It drove me crazy 30:33 that we called it adult learning 30:35 characteristics, right? 30:36 Yeah. 30:37 No. And and 30:38 So, your point is great. 30:40 Well, and Rudyard has mentioned this in 30:41 in these videos, right? But the current 30:43 format of understanding for humanity is 30:46 that when you walk into the world, you 30:48 are a blank piece of paper, and if we 30:50 write on you, we can turn you into 30:51 whatever we want, right? And that's just 30:53 objectively false. You come with a 30:54 preset amount of genetic code that 30:57 predetermines not all, but many of your 31:00 behavioral patterns and the way you view 31:02 life, right? And there's no account for 31:04 that, right? So, when you're an adult, 31:05 it's like, well, clearly this person has 31:07 interests and a life and, you know, time 31:09 constraints and stuff, but there's no no 31:11 sense of that when, you know, you're 31:13 you're 6 7 8. You know, but that's 31:15 another thing that I would do, right, to 31:17 help out teachers in in especially high 31:19 school is 31:21 give them 31:22 the same sort of format as a college 31:24 where as a teacher, I decide 31:27 this 9-5 thing is nonsensical at this 31:30 point, right? In 1950, in 1960, probably 31:33 up to about 1980, it made sense to do 31:36 the 9-5 thing because that's what most 31:37 people working was a 9-5 thing. Now, 31:39 there's jobs all over the place at 31:40 various different times, and it doesn't 31:42 make sense for people to believe that 31:44 you have to wake up at 6:00 a.m. to go 31:46 to get breakfast at the school, and then 31:48 work, you know, and then you're there 31:49 and 31:49 Especially now when young people are 31:50 five. 31:52 they learn better at 10:00 or noon 31:53 onward, right? 31:54 Right. The teacher should be able to 31:56 say, look, I'm going to set the class 31:57 the class is going to be at this time. 31:59 And then I as the student can say, okay, 32:01 right, you look through the list, when 32:02 is this, you know, maybe a nighttime 32:04 class works for me, right? Especially 32:05 like I said, especially in high school. 32:07 In in elementary school, I think doing 32:09 the 9-5 thing is best because, right, 32:10 that's that's when a lot of people a 32:12 lot, not all, but a lot of people are 32:13 working, it's just easier to have the 32:15 kids there at that time. But the the the 32:18 high schools, the teacher should have a 32:20 lot more ability to move around, right? 32:22 If the teacher wants to teach a class at 32:23 6:00 p.m., and I as a student can arrive 32:25 for that, right? Or do it online because 32:28 again, being online is a huge 32:29 game-changer for schooling now, 32:32 I should have that option, you know, 32:33 that should be available. 32:35 The only game-changer changer your 32:37 program work is is is the remote 32:39 learning. 32:40 Right. 32:40 Cuz you're not going to get a teacher 32:42 to do to teach taking class to do it at 32:45 7:00 or 8:00 in the evening. That the 32:46 teachers have a lot of saying and you 32:47 can't get enough teachers. And so there 32:49 is a worker, a teacher 32:50 No, but but if you if you had if you 32:53 change the structure of things to be 32:56 more friendly to the worker, to the 32:57 teacher, you'd probably get more a lot 32:59 more interest in that field, right? 33:01 Because even though they have a union 33:02 and everything, it's not schools are the 33:05 least friendly to teachers of everybody 33:07 in that process, right? The teachers are 33:09 getting most of the 33:11 have a family show up at 8:00 in the 33:13 evening or 5:00 in the morning. 33:15 They want to work 9:00 to 5:00 if they 33:17 have to show up. But if they can work 33:18 from home 33:20 No, right. Well, but again, I think that 33:22 you would look at that, right? I would 33:24 look at that and say college professors, 33:25 maybe they don't set a course for 8:00 33:27 in the evening usually, right? But 33:28 there's a bit of range where college 33:29 professors will say, "I'm going to set 33:32 this class for early in the morning or 33:33 later on in the afternoon." And they 33:35 kind of have the decision for when do I 33:36 want to do the classes, right? 33:38 decides whether it fills up or not. 33:40 Right, exactly, right? And so I think 33:42 having that model, like I said, 33:43 especially for high school, for for 33:45 middle school and uh and elementary 33:47 school, I don't think that that's a huge 33:48 step that needs to be taken. But for 33:50 high school especially, I think letting 33:51 the teachers pick when they're going to 33:53 put a class out and right letting the 33:54 market decide who's going to show up 33:56 would be a really good move. 33:57 I want to circle back to the point 33:59 Merrick made earlier where first of all, 34:01 the hours we do school with are insane. 34:04 As for middle school, I woke up at 5:30 34:06 a.m. and my school started at 7:20. I 34:08 grew up in the countryside where it was 34:10 a big school district, so it was a half 34:12 an hour 40-minute bus ride to the the 34:14 middle. And the thing is, there's no 34:16 good reason to put school that early 34:19 except for for for parents to basically 34:22 babysitting the kids. And it that 34:25 doesn't even work because the kids still 34:27 come home before when the parents are 34:29 still working. And the other thing I 34:31 think is that 34:33 a system that would work very well 34:35 educationally is an apprentice system 34:38 where that teaches people because 34:40 they've got an incentive to learn. And 34:43 so if you apprentice to your your future 34:45 occupation, it's partially the older guy 34:49 has got a younger person to do random 34:51 crap for them and they establish a 34:52 relationship, but also it means that it 34:57 learning happens in a personalized 34:59 manner for an actual gain. And you see 35:02 that in a lot of like German 35:03 where different knowledge could be 35:04 passed on to other people. 35:05 Yeah. 35:06 Right. What you're both talking about 35:07 here are a couple things. Is one is 35:09 you're shortening the 35:11 length of the of the education career. 35:13 Yes. 35:13 And you're moving people into the 35:15 workplace and into their adulthood 35:17 faster. 35:18 Yes. 35:18 Americans get out at 18, 19 from high 35:21 school. You go to England, it's 16. 35:24 And you start specializing at 16 into 35:26 what you're going to go to. You take 35:27 your A levels, your O levels, and you 35:29 decide whether you're going to go to 35:30 university, you're not going to go to 35:31 university, etc. We prolong childhood 35:35 this way, right? And we prolong and and 35:38 we require you to get a four-year 35:40 degree, for example, to become a doctor. 35:42 You do not have to get a four-year 35:44 generic degree to become a doctor in 35:46 England. They start specializing. They 35:49 get out of school earlier 35:51 because of this, right? 35:52 Yeah. 35:53 Well, that's one of the reasons people 35:54 don't want to be a doctor in America is 35:56 I got to go through I I get out of high 35:58 school at 18, 19. I do four years of 36:00 college. Then I start going to med 36:02 school, etc. I'm 30 something years old 36:04 before I get out with all that debt, 36:05 right? 36:06 Yeah. 36:07 So, we are prolonging childhood. 36:11 And we're keeping people from going by 36:12 getting We're not putting them in an 36:14 apprenticeship program. We're not 36:15 letting them specialize. We're making 36:17 them take courses they don't want to 36:18 take, etc., right? 36:20 So, therefore they don't end up getting 36:21 life experience. So, we end up with kid 36:23 people who are adolescents longer. 36:26 Yeah. And the fundamental reality is 36:28 that you don't need that much school. I 36:30 learned what a fall test. I learned how 36:32 to write research, um 36:36 do business management, 36:38 uh edit the videos, and the YouTube 36:41 algorithm all by myself over a period of 36:43 several years. America had no background 36:45 in it. In high school, basically. Yeah, 36:47 America had no background in what he 36:48 does, but I he's a smart dude. He had 36:50 interest in it, and so I taught him how 36:51 to do all the stuff. And that's really 36:55 that stuff works. And I like to say that 36:58 the problem with modernity is 37:01 we combine the autistic masculine with 37:03 the hysterical feminine. And I know you 37:05 two have heard me say that a couple 37:06 times. And our education system combines 37:08 this autistic bureaucracy that doesn't 37:10 really make sense with also this kind of 37:15 like tyranny feminine side to it where 37:18 it prolongs childhood, it prevents 37:20 responsibility, it prevents people 37:21 growing as individuals. And then you 37:24 turn out kids that have no agency, and 37:27 that was definitely part of the plan for 37:29 constructing the education system where 37:31 if you it's based off the Prussian 37:32 model, which exists to turn people to 37:35 turn serfs into good factory workers and 37:37 good soldiers. And 37:40 a lot of the inventors of the modern 37:41 education system, they said, "We're not 37:43 doing this to We have literal quotes. 37:46 We're not doing this to create scholars 37:48 or philosophers or artists or generals. 37:50 We're doing this to make people who can 37:52 toil who can toil readily." 37:56 Right. Well, and again, it was 37:58 it was to toil in a system that no 38:00 longer exists, you know? But when you 38:03 have 38:04 an elite and a social and political 38:07 elite that has no comprehension of what 38:12 has gone on since they left that field, 38:15 they see no reason to change it, right? 38:17 And why why bother if not if there's not 38:21 a mass of people lobbying to reform 38:23 education, 38:25 then why should we make any moves? 38:27 Because then it has to be this big 38:29 debate, we have to throw money around, 38:30 and it's more of a headache for me as a 38:31 politician, you know, to deal with it 38:34 than it would be to just kind of ignore 38:35 it and deal with whatever else shows up 38:36 on my desk. 38:37 So, you're basically you're saying if 38:38 you were McDonald's, and you didn't have 38:40 to change, right? You would keep selling 38:43 the same burgers forever and ever and 38:44 ever, right? 38:45 Right. 38:45 Because the customer has no choice in 38:47 this. And there's no other question, 38:49 right? 38:49 That is 38:50 We like it. We like our hamburgers, we 38:51 like where our locations are, we like 38:53 our hours, or whatever. We're going to 38:54 keep this. 38:55 That is the primary downfall of 38:57 communism, right? Is that it doesn't 38:59 matter what people want, you know, 39:01 the factory is going to put out 5,000 39:03 tractors because the government said so, 39:05 and it doesn't matter what's done with 39:06 those tractors, you know, if they all 39:08 rot away in storage rooms, it doesn't 39:10 matter, you know. 39:11 And a fundamental problem with that is 39:13 that we have a society 39:16 For our leadership class, we're designed 39:17 by a system to make factory workers, and 39:20 it's why our society does so much dumb 39:22 stuff, because we categorize everything, 39:24 and you wonder why society makes 39:26 decisions like shipping our factories to 39:28 China, importing millions of immigrants 39:31 while local Americans can't get by, 39:34 just like having a suicidal religion, 39:37 and the fundamental reason is that no 39:40 one is told to go 39:42 above and beyond for something they 39:44 actually believe in. Our social 39:46 educational system is designed to do 39:47 your job, sit down, go to class, go 39:49 home. But 39:51 if we had a more apprentice-based 39:53 educational system, or a system, I would 39:55 love to see an education system, this is 39:57 partially 39:58 negative feminization. Imagine if people 40:01 got together in groups that they formed 40:03 naturally, and they competed against 40:04 each other to do projects. Or one of my 40:08 friends, we're talking about making a 40:10 video game to teach philosophic concepts 40:13 and strategies, and then you have kids 40:15 play the video game, and imagine through 40:17 competing over the video game, you A 40:19 learn lessons, but you also have to 40:20 cooperate with your teammates. You could 40:22 even like people talk like group 40:25 exercises or problem-solving. 40:28 Imagine if you play capture the giant 40:29 games of capture the flag against each 40:31 other. That teaches coordination, it 40:33 teach teaches risk-taking, it teaches 40:35 groups, and that's stuff that matters 40:37 much more for work, but now like you see 40:41 this with the government all the time. 40:43 We don't have any 40:45 we our leadership class is horrible 40:47 because we don't have any ability to 40:51 train people to operate outside of 40:53 organizations where they are 40:56 where they're the um 40:58 where they're not being bossed around by 40:59 someone. 41:00 Right. Well, and this is part of the, 41:03 you know, another thing that plays into 41:05 that problem is that since 1950, there's 41:08 been sort of this crystallization of 41:11 certain things not working together and 41:14 being in opposition, right? In the minds 41:16 of the average person, religion and 41:18 science are polar opposites and it can 41:20 no way work together or be reconcilable, 41:22 right? You're either on one side of this 41:24 argument or on the other, right? I think 41:26 for a lot of people, right, uh uh 41:29 the the schooling and video games are 41:31 kind of the same thing, right? You can't 41:32 use video games to to actually teach 41:35 people things, you know, unless it's 41:38 carefully curated to be in an 41:40 educational environment. 41:42 Game of Thrones. 41:42 But if you've ever played a first-person 41:44 shooter game or like my buddy plays 41:46 them, and the level of coordination that 41:49 people will go through in video games is 41:52 insane. They will literally work like a 41:54 military unit in this video game, you 41:56 know, to go complete whatever the 41:58 objective is, right? And like you don't 42:00 There is no level of coordination in 42:03 school at all. There's no incentive to 42:05 work with people or to coordinate ever. 42:08 There's no reason to work with people 42:10 even when you're explicitly told to do 42:12 exactly that. Because the fact of the 42:14 matter is once you're in a group of five 42:16 people, I think I literally said this at 42:18 one point. We were put into a group 42:19 project. Right? And there was like five 42:22 of us and I was like, "Okay, who's 42:24 actually going to get things done? 42:25 Because I'm not. Like I have no 42:27 investment in this at all." Right? And I 42:29 was like looking to the kids and we were 42:31 like, you know, I kind of knew them as 42:33 the smart kids in the class. I was like, 42:34 "I'll literally give you guys 20 bucks 42:36 if you just if I don't have to 42:38 participate in this." 42:39 And they were like 42:40 in the grad in the grad school level for 42:41 me. I went through moot court where you 42:43 start a business in graduate school, 42:45 right? And you you got a couple of 42:47 ideas, you get people together, etc. 42:48 Some of 42:49 I and one other guy were entrepreneurial 42:51 and we were dedicated. The other three 42:53 guys couldn't give a rat's butt and they 42:56 didn't have thing whatever. One was 42:57 going to go get his big job back in 42:59 Germany with Siemens and this was just a 43:00 class for him, right? He was working at 43:02 Siemens. Yeah, he was he ended up 43:03 working for Siemens. Um 43:05 I ended up with this I should have 43:07 listened to the one 43:08 I work with them, too, but continue. 43:10 What's that? 43:10 I work with them, too. 43:12 I should have listened to the one 43:13 entrepreneurial other guy and should 43:14 have ignored the others, but I was 43:16 trying to be, 43:17 you know, collaborative and work with 43:19 everybody, etc. And I ended with one guy 43:22 I'm the only I'm the one other guy with 43:23 the only two that ever became 43:24 entrepreneurs and did anything, right? 43:26 It with in terms of starting a business. 43:28 Now, these guys were very successful and 43:29 that's fine. 43:30 Let me tell you somebody who's owned a 43:31 business, has hired people, has run 43:33 businesses, we're all looking for that 43:36 person who's somewhat on 43:37 entrepreneurial. 43:39 They they take ownership. They're like 43:41 you, Merrick. They're somebody who 43:42 enjoys what they do, they're invested in 43:44 it. They they work to fix the problem, 43:48 make the business better, 43:49 do a great job because they love it and 43:51 care about it, etc. Um and don't have to 43:54 be told every minute what to do, you 43:56 know, like a robot. 43:57 The thing about being entrepreneurial uh 44:00 and and Rudy and I we had a discussion 44:03 with some friends where we kind of 44:05 talked about this, right? But, the the 44:10 A thousand years ago, if you were a 44:12 medieval peasant, the opportunities 44:14 available to you were basically nothing, 44:17 right? You your you were born, your dad 44:20 had a farm, he'd show you how to work 44:22 that farm. At some point, you'd get 44:24 married, you'd have 12 kids, and you'd 44:26 have that farm. So, there was a level of 44:28 stability in your life, right? You'd 44:30 always have this farm, right? Assuming 44:32 there wasn't any plague or or you know, 44:34 disease out break, you know, 44:36 But, for the most part, right? Assuming 44:37 all went according to plan, you'd have 44:39 this farm. You'd never have anything 44:41 else. That was it. You're getting this 44:43 plot of land and nothing else for the 44:45 rest of your life. So, you have this 44:46 security, but you have no opportunity, 44:48 right? Now, it is the inverse, right? 44:51 You you are guaranteed nothing. Once you 44:54 graduate high school and you're on your 44:56 own, no one offers you anything. You've 44:58 got to sell yourself, right? And you 45:00 have these massive impersonal 45:02 bureaucracies, okay? And the 45:05 bureaucracies, the trade-off, right? Is 45:07 supposed to be, it is not, but what it's 45:09 supposed to be is I work in this 45:12 bureaucracy that is soul-crushing, 45:14 right? McDonald's or you know, uh Stop & 45:17 Shop, whatever it is, right? I work in 45:19 this the place that is soul-crushing, 45:21 that gives me nothing, that feeds me as 45:23 an individual in no way, and gives me no 45:26 sense of meaning, right? But, I'll be 45:28 able to over time work up this sort of 45:31 chain, and maybe move into management, 45:33 or get experience that I can use in 45:34 another another job where I can you work 45:36 up that, right? And so, the opportunity 45:38 to get a higher salary, right? To get a 45:40 more comfortable home, to get a better 45:41 car, is there, right? And so, having 45:44 this 45:45 uh impersonal bureaucracy that I have to 45:47 work towards, the the trade-off for this 45:50 this soul-crushing work that I do is the 45:53 opportunity to move up and right and get 45:56 more money, and therefore have more 45:58 opportunities for myself in the future. 46:00 Unfortunately, that is not the case, 46:02 right? Because especially in areas with 46:05 college degrees, right? Is these boomers 46:07 show up, right? And the boomers are told 46:08 that you need to move into all these 46:09 expanding factory workers and blah blah 46:11 blah. And and go, you know, move into 46:14 these management places. And so they do, 46:16 right? And they're there. And all most 46:18 of the boomers who moved into these 46:19 management level positions are still 46:21 there, right? Or were still there up 46:22 until COVID. And so they're telling 46:24 everybody else, well, this is what I 46:26 learned is I have to move into these, 46:27 but they're literally holding these 46:29 positions which have not really grown 46:31 all that much since probably 1970-1980. 46:34 And more people are coming up trying to 46:36 get these management jobs that are 46:37 basically all filled out already. And so 46:40 there's really no opportunity in this 46:42 field at this time. So the the world 46:45 does not prepare you to be an 46:47 entrepreneur. It tells you if you work 46:49 with the system, right? They they 46:51 there's sort of this propagandist idea 46:53 in America that everybody should have an 46:55 entrepreneurial spirit, but we do 46:56 nothing to encourage that. There's no 46:58 system that actually want you to be an 47:00 entrepreneur because they want you to 47:02 stay within the system, right? And 47:04 benefit the system. They want you to 47:06 benefit the corporation. There is no 47:07 benefit for me start a new business. And 47:08 you're supposed to help me with mine. 47:10 Right. I have a business. You should 47:12 come and help me with my business. And 47:13 now all these businesses are massive 47:15 conglomerates for the most part. And 47:17 they offer very little opportunities, 47:19 right? As opposed to like I said, right? 47:20 In 1950-1960, these were still sort of 47:23 expanding industries a lot of times. 47:25 Yeah. And so there was there was a lot 47:26 of opportunity, right? The primary area 47:28 that is expanding now is tech, right? 47:30 Tech still has a lot of opportunity. 47:31 Nowhere else. 47:32 Right, exactly. Even that's slowing 47:34 down. 47:34 Yeah. Um I'm reading this interesting 47:36 book. It's called the economics of 47:38 disconnect discontent. And it goes 47:40 through how 47:41 the economics allow us to have a major 47:43 crisis. And one of the interesting 47:46 points it makes is that social mobility 47:48 for people born in 1980 was half of that 47:51 people born in 1940. And then I imagine 47:53 what's it like for people like like 47:56 Merica or me who are born at the start 47:57 of the new millennium, do we have social 48:00 mobility a quarter of what the boomers 48:01 had? 48:02 Right. Right. It might even 48:04 don't know. It's interesting. I will 48:05 tell you that there are older people, 48:06 50, 60s, whatever, who feel 48:08 discriminated against because businesses 48:10 tell them, "No, we want a younger and 48:12 cheaper version of you." 48:14 Right. 48:14 Um and you need to go away now. 48:17 And it doesn't seem to be even 48:19 considered uncool to be ageist. 48:24 Yeah. 48:24 You want a young hip cool Pete kid in 48:26 this and and 48:27 that's okay. Um the baby you know, the 48:30 the inverted triangle of having a lot of 48:32 older people and and and fewer people at 48:34 the bottom is a problem. The only thing 48:35 that would be worse though is if there 48:37 were a lot of younger people trying to 48:38 get into those jobs. 48:39 Yeah. 48:40 Imagine if that pyramid was shaped 48:41 differently. Right. Then you have if you 48:43 had tens of thousands of young people or 48:46 millions more young people trying to get 48:47 those jobs as these people slowly age 48:50 out. 48:51 That would be even more difficult. 48:52 This is like This is the problem with 48:54 immigration and globalization and all 48:56 that where no one thought, "We're 48:58 screwing over all of our all of the 49:00 Americans to benefit a group that 49:02 dislikes us." And the thing is, when we 49:05 when we move factories to China, people 49:07 must have realized that we were 49:09 industrializing the country that's 49:10 potential to be our greatest rival and 49:12 we had a we were at war with them a 49:14 couple decades before and 49:16 it 49:17 Kissinger said that. Kissinger did say 49:19 that. He said, "Our biggest risk is that 49:20 the Chinese and he and Nixon were 49:21 responsible for opening up the 49:23 relationship with China." 49:24 Yeah. 49:25 He said, you know, "Our biggest concern 49:26 is that they become 49:28 uh capitalists like we are in some way, 49:30 some form or fashion, and that unleashes 49:33 this 1. whatever billion workers etc. 49:35 with their drive and industry and this 49:37 etc." 49:37 Yeah. 49:38 And what was seen, but very much like a 49:40 crack addiction, 49:42 any corporation here that was getting um 49:45 evaluated on a quarterly basis could 49:47 say, "Hey, I just cut my cost by 3% by 49:50 sending this work over here." 49:52 Well, so this is this is something that 49:54 I've always just found sort of insane 49:56 about uh a lot of people is, you know, 49:59 they people will talk about corporations 50:02 and the terrible things that they do to, 50:04 you know, the the cows that they 50:06 slaughter and package, right? And the 50:07 awful things that go on there, you know, 50:10 how how 50:11 uh as people will say corporations will 50:14 queer bait, right? The month of June 50:16 comes on and they got to slap a rainbow 50:17 flag on literally everything they do. 50:19 And then June goes away and all those 50:20 rainbow flags are gone, right? And 50:23 really all that corporations do or all 50:26 they're trying to do is increase 50:28 profits. 50:29 That is their whole goal. They are 50:31 completely amoral entities beyond that 50:34 point. 50:34 Indifferent. I mean, theoretically 50:36 you're providing a service or a good 50:39 that has value for the other person, so 50:41 they'll pay you. 50:42 Right, exactly. And so the thing is, you 50:44 cannot and people have all these weird 50:46 moral expectations for corporations. How 50:49 can they do this? Why won't they do 50:50 this? You know, they're not hiring these 50:52 They're not built to do that. They're 50:53 not They're not your saint. They're not 50:54 your brother. 50:55 Right. 50:55 Until there is a profit motive to do 50:58 something or not do something, they are 51:01 going to do whatever they believe is the 51:02 cheapest way of approaching this thing. 51:05 Right? And people will be like, well, 51:06 there's cheaper ways to do this. And I'm 51:07 like, yeah, but then they'd have to 51:08 switch all the machinery over to that 51:10 cheaper format, right? And that's 51:12 probably pretty expensive. And there's 51:13 just this general inertia of having a 51:15 large bureauc 51:16 it to the buyer, then they're not going 51:17 to do it. 51:18 Right. 51:18 But virtue signaling if woke is 51:20 important to people, 51:23 corporations will 51:25 They're going to feed into that, right? 51:27 If big portion sizes are important to 51:30 the buyer, you're going to get big happy 51:32 meals. 51:32 Right. 51:33 Right? 51:34 Right. 51:34 want, we're going to give it to you. 51:36 Right? 51:37 Right. 51:37 And we're probably even going to push 51:40 the envelope a little bit on whether 51:41 it's safe for you or it's actually 51:43 ethical to do it or not. 51:44 Right. Because again, that's not that's 51:47 the law directly, we're going to do. 51:49 Right. 51:50 Right, cuz again, as long as I'm making 51:51 the money. And so right, unless you can 51:54 have the the social cohesion as a group 51:57 to boycott them into meeting your 51:59 demands, so to speak, the corporations 52:01 are only ever going to do what is 52:03 profitable for that. And the fact of the 52:05 matter is, I don't feel any sort of way 52:07 about that, right? Some people are 52:08 really disgusted by that concept. And 52:10 I'm like, I don't it's not a huge deal. 52:11 That's just how corporations work, 52:13 right? If you want them to do the right 52:14 thing, you have to force them to do the 52:16 right thing, you know? And so you 52:20 It it's weird to me that people have 52:22 these moral standards for large 52:25 I think that is one of the things that 52:27 has happened in the post-World War II 52:30 era. And I've studied a lot about the 52:32 impact of the Second World War on modern 52:34 history. But one of the big things that 52:36 has come out of World War II is after 52:39 everybody watched, particularly the 52:41 Nazis, butcher millions of innocent 52:44 people, there was suddenly moral 52:46 standards for how institutions were 52:48 supposed to behave, right? Which didn't 52:50 really exist beforehand. And there was 52:53 lots of reasons for that, right? In 52:54 1700, most people did not have any stake 52:58 in what the the state did, right? The 53:00 government of France or England or 53:03 whatever, right? The average person 53:04 didn't really have any say in how that 53:06 worked. So it didn't really matter if we 53:08 got into a war or what these 53:09 corporations were doing or these trading 53:11 companies or whatnot, because it doesn't 53:13 really mean anything to me. I have no 53:15 say over it anyways, right? By the end 53:17 of World War II, a lot of people had a 53:19 say in a lot of institutions, right? 53:21 There was unions, there were 53:23 you know, there's elected governments 53:24 and representatives and stuff. And so a 53:26 lot of people had a lot of say in the 53:27 way institutions work. And as soon as 53:29 people had a lot of say, they were like, 53:31 well, and they saw how bad institutions 53:34 could be, there became these moral 53:36 standards for how institutions are 53:37 supposed to behave, right? And we also 53:39 had media there are this stuff, right? 53:41 So, therefore, a level of responsibility 53:44 could be forced on 53:46 organizations and and and bureaucracies, 53:48 etc. 53:49 It was a verbal 53:51 Right? But, the good old days were not 53:53 the good old days, right? Before all 53:54 this time we're talking about, the world 53:55 was a very cold, brutal place, right? 53:58 Where might made right. 53:59 Right. Well, and that's So, that's sort 54:01 of the thing, right? Is you There are 54:04 pros and cons to everything, right? And 54:06 as much as people don't want to admit 54:08 that something that they find abhorrent, 54:10 you know, could have benefits, there are 54:13 some. They don't always outweigh the 54:14 costs, but they're present, right? And 54:16 for instance, in the 1700s, like I said, 54:19 most countries in Europe were not 54:21 elected. They were monarchies, they were 54:23 mostly centralized monarchies, where the 54:26 the king and a small group of advisers 54:28 had a lot of authority over their 54:30 countries, right? And the local lords 54:32 might have some sort of intermediary 54:35 function within that, right? And what 54:37 that did was it meant that if there was 54:39 starving in the countryside, there was 54:41 not really anything the peasants could 54:42 do about it. You couldn't lobby the 54:43 government to get more food, right? You 54:45 can't say, oh, well, I don't want to go 54:47 fight this war right now. Don't 54:48 conscript my people, right? You don't 54:50 have any say in what this government's 54:51 going to go off to do. On the other 54:53 hand, war in the 1700s was incredibly 54:57 mild compared to the wars of, say, the 55:00 eight, you know, 19th and 20th century. 55:02 18th century warfare was you got a group 55:06 of guys in, you know, their little line 55:08 formation. We'd go find a hill or a 55:10 field or something. We'd shoot at each 55:11 other until the other side ran away, and 55:13 then we'd win that battle, and then 55:14 everybody would go to the map at the end 55:16 of, you know, five years or whatever 55:17 when the war was fought, and they'd 55:18 exchange, you know, five different 55:20 chunks of land and say, all right, you 55:21 know, we sign these treaties and call it 55:22 a day. 55:23 For some 55:23 That That's so not how people understand 55:27 war now, right? 55:29 Every war is a 55:31 either some colonial venture where 55:33 you're just oppressing some small 55:34 country, or it's a fight of life or 55:36 death, right? People can't comprehend 55:38 the idea because the the state has to 55:41 make this promise of we're going to win, 55:42 right? And what does a victory look 55:44 like? Because I need to sell this to my 55:47 population. I need to get them invested 55:49 in victory. I have to promise them 55:51 something tangible in return. And when 55:53 you do that, you have to mass mobilize 55:55 people because there's this sinkhole 55:57 economics idea of we need to win this, 56:00 right? You see this all throughout World 56:02 War I and World War II. Nobody's willing 56:04 to cut a peace deal because I already 56:06 told everybody we're winning and that 56:07 we're going to win and there's going to 56:08 be this grand victory. We're going to 56:10 get everything we want. And if I can't 56:11 provide that, they're going to overthrow 56:13 the government, right? That doesn't 56:14 happen in 17th century warfare. I can 56:16 just go fight a small battle, say, 56:17 "Well, we lost." and go home, right? And 56:19 then 56:20 and way less people die. 56:21 For some frame of reference, in the 18th 56:23 century, you could be at war with 56:25 another country and you could go on 56:27 vacation there. You could still trade 56:29 there. And so war was just fought 56:31 between kings and they'd all the 56:33 professional armies. 56:34 Yeah, they had volunteer armies. 56:36 Very small conscripted people and it 56:38 didn't affect a daily person's life. And 56:40 this is another thing This is also why 56:43 politically almost every system defaults 56:45 on to monarchy. The 56:47 monarchies establish a 56:50 They establish an incentive structure to 56:52 rule for the entire your entire life and 56:54 to pass on a stable country for your 56:56 descendants. And you need to have a very 56:59 well-educated, 57:00 property-owning, cohesive population for 57:03 democracy to work. And the reason the US 57:05 was the first full-suffrage, majority 57:08 voter democracy in history is the US was 57:10 the first country in history where the 57:12 average person was a property-owning, 57:14 literate person, which established an 57:16 incentive because you were you bought 57:18 into the system. You could also know 57:20 what was going on. And 57:22 another thing is that people in 57:24 modernity have no concept of how free 57:27 people, even in autocratic societies, 57:29 were in in pre-industrial world. One of 57:31 my friends, he 57:33 used to be a California congressman and 57:35 he was talking to one of his another 57:36 friend and this friend said, "You've 57:38 never experienced real freedom. My 57:40 ancestors built nine farms from 57:43 Pennsylvania to Illinois in the 19th 57:44 century, never signed paperwork, just 57:47 did it. You have to appeal to the 57:48 government to put a mosquito fly on your 57:51 back porch." And so, modern This creates 57:55 this kind of sense of extreme anger and 57:58 this extreme anger and repression to 58:01 modernity because we're all ants in a 58:03 giant cog in a giant machine and the 58:07 biggest problem we have again is the 58:09 combination of autism and hysteria where 58:12 we can't have real conversations about 58:14 This is a corporation self-interest. 58:16 Corporations will make money until 58:17 someone stops them. The government will 58:19 expand until someone stops them because 58:22 the hysteria gets in the way or they 58:23 say, "Oh my god, how could you say that? 58:25 It's so offensive." But also there's the 58:27 autism side of it where we think, "Okay, 58:30 these are our two choices. We have to 58:31 win or lose. We must pick one of them. 58:33 We have to make a policy with extremely 58:36 tight provisions that won't work at 58:37 all." And so we combine this hysterical 58:41 inability to deal with anything 58:42 emotionally 58:44 with an extremely limited mental 58:45 framework, you smash that together and 58:48 it's ineffective. 58:50 Right, and that's you know 58:56 First of all, Rudyard and I are not 58:58 advocating that America become an 59:00 autocratic state just in case that 59:01 wasn't clear when I put it that way. 59:02 a 59:03 We're all classical liberals here. My 59:05 worry though is that that's naturally 59:07 going to happen because we don't respect 59:09 the things that are necessary to a 59:11 functioning democracy. 59:12 Well, right and that's something right 59:15 and of course we've said this but that's 59:16 exactly something that happened to the 59:17 Roman Republic, right? Where over time 59:20 it it didn't 59:21 the the institutions that needed to be 59:24 respected in order to have a functioning 59:26 democracy were actively undermined or 59:29 ignored, right? And that's one of the 59:31 problems that even I have is right as 59:33 somebody who grew up in a very low 59:35 economic bracket who was on welfare for 59:38 most of my childhood, uh middle class 59:41 people are insufferable in a lot of ways 59:43 to me, you know, because they're 59:47 they just they always want to get the 59:49 state involved, right? And as a 59:51 poor person who grew up in a low-income 59:53 community, we're all doing things or 59:55 most of us are doing things that are not 59:57 necessarily legal, right? For whatever 1:00:00 the reason is. And so we don't really 1:00:01 want the state to get involved because 1:00:03 it's kind of this mutual understanding 1:00:04 of like, look, you know, we're all doing 1:00:06 stuff that maybe we shouldn't. Let's 1:00:08 just keep that between us, right? But 1:00:09 the middle class people want to keep 1:00:11 everything squeaky clean and so they 1:00:12 always want to get the state involved, 1:00:14 right? You always knew in in high school 1:00:17 uh or or middle school when, you know, 1:00:19 that one one or two kids who came from 1:00:21 middle class families, right? Cuz the 1:00:23 way they'd carry themselves and talk 1:00:25 about it and, you know, they had nice 1:00:27 stuff and they'd have like a pool in 1:00:28 their backyard or whatever. It was like, 1:00:29 all right, you know, let's not mess with 1:00:31 that kid because, you know, his parents 1:00:33 will be a, you know, a [ __ ] to deal 1:00:34 with. Um but 1:00:37 the middle class is 100% necessary for a 1:00:40 functioning democracy. If you don't have 1:00:42 a middle class in the modern era, 1:00:44 This is an invested, rule-following, 1:00:46 productive group that is cohesive and 1:00:49 tries to keep Right. Going in the right 1:00:51 way. 1:00:52 And like I said, and I I don't I use 1:00:54 this word because I'm intentionally 1:00:55 being derogatory, but they're whiny, 1:00:57 right? They lobby the government. When 1:00:59 the middle class is right, exactly. When 1:01:01 the middle class is unhappy with 1:01:03 something going on, they vote, they go 1:01:06 to town meetings, they do whatever, 1:01:07 right? They interact with the government 1:01:09 to get what they want, right? And you 1:01:11 can tell that you need them in order for 1:01:13 a functioning democracy because poor 1:01:14 people don't care. We don't think the 1:01:15 government's going to listen to us 1:01:16 anyways. And rich people have what they 1:01:18 want, you know? So those two people 1:01:20 don't really interact with the 1:01:21 government that much. The middle-class, 1:01:23 in order to survive as an economic 1:01:25 bracket, needs to lobby the government 1:01:27 to make sure they get what they need to 1:01:28 survive, you know? 1:01:29 So, to that point, 50% of Americans 1:01:32 don't pay federal income tax. 1:01:34 Mhm. 1:01:35 They have this sort of bipartated um 1:01:37 classes, right? Of people who make good 1:01:40 money, people who are very rich, and 1:01:41 then half the people who don't who who 1:01:43 don't pay any federal income tax, etc., 1:01:45 and um don't feel that connected. You 1:01:47 sort of don't feel that they feel 1:01:49 powerless. They don't have like they 1:01:51 They don't have a wheel. They can't They 1:01:52 can't make things turn. 1:01:53 Two-thirds of Americans can't pay $400 1:01:55 for an emergency. 1:01:57 Right, which is insane. 1:01:58 Another two-thirds of Americans are 1:02:00 functionally illiterate. 1:02:01 Right. So, but now you have a 1:02:04 underclass, the the poor class, wanting 1:02:06 to count on the government to take care 1:02:07 of them. 1:02:09 Right? And and when you have the power 1:02:12 to vote, one man one vote, 1:02:14 you can vote stuff for yourself. 1:02:15 And we tend to vote for things that we 1:02:17 want right now, out of emergency, out of 1:02:19 immediacy, right? We We can't We don't 1:02:21 want to delay gratification. We need 1:02:23 what we need when we need it. We need it 1:02:24 right now, and whether that has a 1:02:26 long-term negative effect on our 1:02:28 economy, on our educational system, on 1:02:31 our people, we want what we want now. 1:02:35 So, to sort of circle back to the point 1:02:38 I made earlier, right? About the 1:02:40 trade-off of in the medieval era, you'd 1:02:42 have a farm and stability, but no 1:02:43 opportunity, and now there's not a lot 1:02:45 of stability, but there's supposed to be 1:02:46 a lot more opportunity. 1:02:48 Part of that trade-off as well 1:02:51 is, like I said, right? Businesses don't 1:02:53 encourage entrepreneurialism, right? 1:02:55 They don't encourage you to come up with 1:02:57 your own business, right? That's not 1:02:58 what you're supposed to do. You're 1:02:59 supposed to work within my business and 1:03:01 make me wealthy, right? 1:03:03 As such, 1:03:06 as you expand corporations and expand 1:03:09 bureaucracy and expand the government, 1:03:11 right? And they intervene in all these 1:03:13 different areas, right? These large, 1:03:15 impersonal bureaucracies full of paper 1:03:17 pushers. 1:03:18 What you find is that, right, 1:03:21 poor people and middle class people and 1:03:24 whoever else, right, will bump into, 1:03:26 right, students will bump into these 1:03:29 instances where the world is just sort 1:03:32 of working and these gears are turning 1:03:35 and you can't really get a handle on 1:03:36 them and nobody at any step of the 1:03:38 process encourages you to do that. No 1:03:41 one anywhere wants you or encourages you 1:03:45 to step up and try to do something about 1:03:47 the systems as they are. 1:03:49 Other than to tear it down. 1:03:51 One of the 1:03:52 One of the things that shocks me is that 1:03:54 Gen Z 1:03:55 Gen Z can't really do anything. And 1:03:57 America and I were talking about this 1:03:58 where Gen Z people are scared to take 1:04:00 phone calls, they're scared to tell 1:04:03 someone that they like them 1:04:04 romantically. Like the strategy of 1:04:07 modern dating is don't ask a girl on a 1:04:09 date, ask her to hang out, sleep with 1:04:11 her, then parlay that into like then you 1:04:14 end up in a situationship where you two 1:04:16 are kind of talking but you don't 1:04:17 because 1:04:18 actually making an overture 1:04:20 by all of this. It's hysterical to me. 1:04:22 Actually making an overture that is just 1:04:24 too stressful. 1:04:25 It would be hysterical if it didn't mean 1:04:28 that a massive portion of our population 1:04:31 is effectively dysfunctional and 1:04:33 incapable of human interaction. 1:04:34 Yeah, but 1:04:37 Gen Z is too stressed. 1:04:39 They're too anxious to procreate because 1:04:42 Right. 1:04:43 to actually procreate you have to open 1:04:45 up your emotions, you have to let 1:04:46 someone else into your life, then make a 1:04:48 shared space where you can have 1:04:51 and raise them. But what I see with Gen 1:04:53 Z is that 1:04:55 they the idea of I need to have my life 1:04:58 together enough to have kids that just 1:05:01 shocking because the only thing they're 1:05:02 trained to do is perform rote tasks 1:05:05 where they're like, wait, I'm supposed 1:05:07 to be mature enough that I can provide a 1:05:09 household and let someone else in my 1:05:11 life. The only thing I was taught to do 1:05:12 was how to fill out paperwork and 1:05:15 compute what blank algebra thing is. 1:05:19 And I think that in the 1:05:21 in the '80s, right? You mostly had these 1:05:26 systems like we have them now have sort 1:05:28 of crystallized. But there was not the 1:05:32 technology on the same level in the 1:05:34 1980s. So parents could still sort of 1:05:37 give a sense of initiative to the kids 1:05:40 because they still have sort of an 1:05:42 understanding of the situation that 1:05:43 these kids are walking into. Now parents 1:05:46 are so disconnected from what their kids 1:05:49 can do. I have five younger siblings, 1:05:51 right? And I remember sitting there in 1:05:53 absolute amazement. I got my first cell 1:05:56 phone when I was 14. I remember looking 1:05:59 in absolute amazement as my like 1:06:01 3-year-old brother was operating this 1:06:03 iPad probably better than I could. You 1:06:05 know, and it's just completely insane, 1:06:07 right? What are you supposed to do? How 1:06:09 do you tell your child how to go into 1:06:12 the world when you don't even know how 1:06:14 to do the things that they're doing. 1:06:16 When you're so disconnected 1:06:18 from the way they're living their lives, 1:06:20 how could you possibly give them 1:06:21 meaningful advice? And it's really 1:06:23 difficult now because of course you're 1:06:25 like, well and technology has made 1:06:28 things so easy. It's really frustrating, 1:06:30 right? As as Gen Z to watch older people 1:06:34 complain about how, you know, kids don't 1:06:36 go outside to play anymore. And it's 1:06:38 like, well first of all, you guys put me 1:06:40 in front of a screen my whole life. You 1:06:41 guys made sure 1:06:43 All of those people talk about something 1:06:44 and complain about kids going out. It's 1:06:46 not complaining against the kid, they're 1:06:48 complaining at the situation. It would 1:06:49 be nice if a kid could go outside and 1:06:52 play all day and not be stuck in front 1:06:54 of a screen, but you know, and was 1:06:56 actually interacting with other human 1:06:57 beings. 1:06:58 Right, it would. 1:06:59 In in the room? When you're in a room 1:07:01 with with other people nowadays, whether 1:07:03 they're older or they're young, they're 1:07:04 going to be on their phone, they're 1:07:06 going to be disconnected, they're going 1:07:07 to be texting and whatever. They don't 1:07:08 tend to be present for the people in the 1:07:10 room enough. 1:07:11 Yeah. 1:07:12 That's true. And I want to get back to 1:07:13 one of the points though. There was a 1:07:14 faith and a confidence that things were 1:07:16 going to be okay even if you were poor 1:07:18 back in the day. And you just said, "I'm 1:07:21 going to get married and it's going to 1:07:22 be all right and we'll work it out. We 1:07:24 may struggle, but it's going to be 1:07:25 okay." That is not the case. What Robert 1:07:27 said is true. People say, "Well, I got 1:07:28 to get my blank together well enough 1:07:30 before I'll even think about that." So, 1:07:31 they are disincentivized to either 1:07:33 commit and/or to procreate. And 1:07:35 therefore, if you don't have a nuclear 1:07:37 family, 1:07:38 I didn't grow up in a nuclear family. 1:07:40 You didn't either. Did you grow up in a 1:07:41 nuclear family? We both 1:07:42 I wasn't either. 1:07:43 Um okay. Uh 1:07:45 all right. So, um you know, it's not 1:07:48 good. I mean, I I'd like to think that 1:07:50 we turned out okay despite I didn't I 1:07:51 didn't have a father. 1:07:53 Um 1:07:54 but it would be better if we did. But 1:07:57 now we're told you can have kids on your 1:07:58 own. You don't need a man in your life. 1:08:00 Right? Men are actually toxic. They're 1:08:02 bad. You shouldn't have one around. They 1:08:04 They need to be We need to figure out 1:08:05 how the sperm banks can replace 1:08:07 Dave sent me an incredible text that I 1:08:09 need to find my phone to read it back. 1:08:11 Actually, no, it's in my messages. We 1:08:13 can edit this out if you don't want to 1:08:14 be seen as this red-pilled, but 1:08:17 I'm I'm a little bit red-pilled, but I'm 1:08:18 also a child of the '70s, you know. I I 1:08:21 I mean, I marched for uh 1:08:23 a protest for the ERA, okay? I consider 1:08:25 myself and about them as raised by a 1:08:27 single mom for three kids, all that. 1:08:29 Okay. 1:08:29 Um but Dave 1:08:30 doesn't mean that I that I don't take 1:08:33 umbrage at the fact that I'm being told 1:08:34 now that I shouldn't exist and men 1:08:36 should be replaced cuz they're 1:08:37 completely unnecessary and evil. 1:08:39 Dave texted me, "Men keep you from doing 1:08:41 what you want. They don't enable it. 1:08:43 Only settle down when you need a beast 1:08:44 of burden to help raise your kids. If 1:08:46 you have money, men are pointless. They 1:08:48 made sperm banks to make them obsolete." 1:08:51 Yeah. 1:08:52 There's a certain amount of truth to 1:08:53 that. That's the way it makes makes you 1:08:55 feel when you're a young man or 1:08:57 I remember 1:08:58 back in the day, you know, why why do I 1:09:00 need you? What what Why do I want to be 1:09:03 around you? Because you can provide for 1:09:05 me. That was the role of the man 1:09:08 back in the day. 1:09:09 Can you reach the top shelf? Will you 1:09:11 kill a spider? 1:09:12 I mean, you know, will you take out the 1:09:14 trash, etc., right? Are you there to 1:09:16 defend me if something bad happens, 1:09:18 okay? 1:09:19 Great. Well, now I don't need you for 1:09:20 any of that. 1:09:22 And as a matter of fact, you're 1:09:23 oppressing me. 1:09:25 You're keeping me from doing 1:09:26 I had a I wrote this book on dating 1:09:28 called the official nice guy's guide. 1:09:29 I read it. It's very good. 1:09:31 That I sent that I sent you. One of the 1:09:33 tests I had for women if they were sane 1:09:35 or not was you ask a woman, 1:09:38 if I'm God and you let's pretend I'm God 1:09:41 and I can bring the perfect man or and 1:09:44 your perfect mate in your life next 1:09:46 next morning 8:00. You're knocking on 1:09:47 the door. Do you want me to do that? Yes 1:09:50 or no, right now. Say yes and it'll 1:09:51 happen. And women, especially young 1:09:54 women, said no. Over 60-something 1:09:56 percent of the women said no because I 1:09:58 want to do X. And I said, "Well, what do 1:10:00 you mean?" She said, "Well, I want to go 1:10:01 to Europe first and I want to study 1:10:02 abroad." The guy lives in Europe. He's 1:10:04 got a chateau. 1:10:05 I'm God, remember? Okay. Oh, I I don't 1:10:07 want I want to do this. I want to do 1:10:08 that. I was No, I mean, well, 1:10:11 I don't want to get married for this 1:10:12 this week of the time. There was a 1:10:14 feeling that I could just find the 1:10:15 perfect guy at the right time whenever I 1:10:17 wanted it was was sort of the magical 1:10:19 thinking, right? 1:10:20 Yeah. 1:10:21 That as opposed to this is the right guy 1:10:23 and I'll just go ahead and get married. 1:10:24 It's just like, "Well, 1:10:26 and it's it's really disconcerting and 1:10:28 then lately it's becoming more and more 1:10:30 caustic. It's being put more and more 1:10:33 the norm to believe that men are 1:10:35 actually a bad thing in your life. And 1:10:37 growing up in some black neighborhoods 1:10:38 in particular, this may people may not 1:10:40 like this, I found that in the poor 1:10:43 black communities, 1:10:44 the black women treated their men less 1:10:47 respectfully, etc. 1:10:49 And and and in many cases, it was 1:10:51 deservedly so. 1:10:53 Daddy wasn't around. 1:10:54 Right? 1:10:55 All right? So, uh we've got to figure 1:10:57 out how to heal this divide between men 1:10:59 and women generally, 1:11:01 right? And especially in this young 1:11:03 generation. And we have to be able to 1:11:04 have to heal the divide that this 1:11:06 confidence level 1:11:08 that I can't 1:11:09 get engaged, I can't become in 1:11:12 committed, I can't have a relationship, 1:11:14 and I can't marry and have children 1:11:16 unless everything in my life is perfect. 1:11:17 What if 1:11:19 You 1:11:20 Right. I mean, the problem is of course 1:11:22 ever since 1950, there's always been 1:11:24 this propagandistic idea of your life 1:11:26 will be perfect, right? And everything 1:11:28 is going to be good and there's infinite 1:11:29 opportunity and there's infinite 1:11:30 resources and whatever you need is going 1:11:32 to be available to you going forward, 1:11:34 right? And of course, that's just not 1:11:35 what reality is. And I think by 1975, 1:11:38 people started to come to realization 1:11:39 that, okay, yeah, this is not going to 1:11:41 work out with infinite resources and 1:11:43 infinite opportunity and infinite, you 1:11:44 know, uh there is a very limited 1:11:46 opportunity. There are very limited 1:11:47 resource There are very limited ways to 1:11:49 go about life, you know? 1:11:50 Curtis has seven great lies. 1:11:52 Yeah. 1:11:53 Um modernity is built 1:11:55 on seven lies, but continue, Merrick. 1:11:57 Yeah. But, you know, this is one of the 1:11:59 things that we are 1:12:01 having to sort of reckon with as a 1:12:04 society that has 1:12:07 in a sense no good way to deal with it. 1:12:10 Women historically have not had the 1:12:13 opportunities and the freedoms that they 1:12:15 have today. There is little to no 1:12:18 historical precedent that can be, you 1:12:20 know, carefully studied in detail where 1:12:23 women have had this much opportunity. 1:12:25 And even in places, right, like the 1:12:27 Nordic countries, medieval Nordic 1:12:29 countries were very good to their women 1:12:32 by the standards of the time and even by 1:12:34 the standards of today, you know, but 1:12:36 they don't have a great written record 1:12:37 for us to look into. And even so, there 1:12:40 was a uh they didn't have the pill, 1:12:43 right? That That's a really big game 1:12:46 changer, right? Birth control in many 1:12:48 formats has outstripped anything it was 1:12:50 before. And that is a huge game-changer 1:12:54 in the way that women go particularly go 1:12:56 about their lives. And right now they're 1:12:58 in the workforce and they're doing all 1:12:59 these things, right? And in general, 1:13:01 none of this stuff is particularly 1:13:03 problematic. Nobody no sane person I 1:13:06 think looks at women entering the 1:13:07 workforce and think this is horrendous, 1:13:09 this is the work of the devil, blah blah 1:13:11 blah, right? But it does open up a bunch 1:13:13 of fields, all right? And this is 1:13:15 something that Rudyard and I have have 1:13:16 talked about a lot where it opens up a 1:13:18 lot of new things, right? New problems 1:13:21 in society that are not being looked 1:13:24 into and not being discussed. Because if 1:13:26 you turn a critical eye 1:13:28 to this sort of thing, right? To women 1:13:30 entering the workforce and the impact 1:13:32 that it has on them, to the impact that 1:13:34 social media has on young girls, to the 1:13:36 impact that the pill has on the 1:13:38 relationship between men and women, 1:13:40 you're you're being critical in a way 1:13:43 that is now negative, right? It's bad 1:13:45 that you would think about this in a way 1:13:47 that could lead us to think that this is 1:13:49 bad, right? And so you cannot even have 1:13:51 the opportunity to think about this in a 1:13:53 way that would 1:13:55 think it's bad because if you're doing 1:13:57 so, it is going back to lead back to my 1:13:59 oppression, right? And in a sense, I 1:14:01 understand, right? Because women 1:14:04 implicitly understand, right? That I 1:14:06 don't think it's a conscious thing, but 1:14:08 it's sort of like an ingrained 1:14:09 psychological thing where they've known 1:14:12 for all of history they've lived under 1:14:13 pretty stringent rules and anything goes 1:14:16 wrong and they're going to go back to 1:14:18 that, right? And so it's like, well, 1:14:19 don't do anything to criticize this 1:14:21 because I don't want to go back to the 1:14:22 days where I'm locked up in a house and 1:14:24 have to have eight kids, right? And I 1:14:26 can understand why some people would 1:14:27 want to avoid that sort of a scenario, 1:14:29 right? I don't I don't hold that against 1:14:31 people, but if you don't look into 1:14:34 things, if you don't actively attempt to 1:14:35 understand it, right? Then the suffering 1:14:38 that goes on in the modern world will 1:14:40 just be something that we can't do 1:14:42 anything about, you know? 1:14:44 Let's finish up on this topic cuz this 1:14:46 is really important. You're talking 1:14:47 about the ability to have nuanced 1:14:49 conversations 1:14:50 Right. 1:14:50 and to be able to point out the pros and 1:14:52 cons of something without becoming 1:14:54 either considered evil, oppressor, or an 1:14:56 apostate, right? 1:14:58 Right. 1:14:58 Because you didn't drink the entire 1:15:00 pill, right? The need to be completely 1:15:03 accepted 1:15:05 and to be made to feel completely right 1:15:07 is a very human emotion, etc., right? 1:15:10 Right. 1:15:10 And it has risen to a level so strong 1:15:12 now if you do not 1:15:14 um accept me uh 1:15:16 I'm not sure what the word is 1:15:17 I'm looking for here, but if you do not 1:15:19 um 1:15:20 validate my view of myself and my world 1:15:23 enough, then we're not friends. 1:15:25 Right. 1:15:25 Yeah. We can't have a nuanced 1:15:28 conversation. 1:15:28 And and people like that 1:15:30 and all sorts of 1:15:32 uh kinds of functioning in our society. 1:15:33 And people like that exist on both sides 1:15:35 of the political spectrum and it seems 1:15:37 like 1:15:38 that not the number of people who feel 1:15:40 that way is steadily growing, right? And 1:15:43 social media 100% exacerbates this 1:15:45 issue, right? Because you'll see people 1:15:47 get into debates online, but I don't 1:15:49 what I think people don't really bring 1:15:50 up a lot of and that I see a lot of with 1:15:53 Rudyard's videos at for instance is you 1:15:55 can comment whatever you want and say, 1:15:58 "Yeah, I was right." and just walk away 1:16:00 from it and put down whatever you wanted 1:16:02 in that comment section or on somebody's 1:16:04 post or whatever it is, right? And just 1:16:07 say whatever you want to say about 1:16:08 whatever was posted and walk away from 1:16:11 that believing you were right and 1:16:12 nobody's there to push back, right? You 1:16:14 can you can do that. 1:16:15 not there you're not there to hear the 1:16:16 feedback and you never accepted it if 1:16:19 you 1:16:19 I don't have to return to that post, 1:16:20 right? If somebody says something about, 1:16:22 you know, anything about race relations, 1:16:24 about the relations between the sexes, 1:16:26 whatever it is, right? Even something, 1:16:27 you know, innocuous like who's in the 1:16:30 presidential elections, right? You can 1:16:31 go in and say, "Well, I don't like Trump 1:16:34 because he did this." and blah blah 1:16:35 blah, right? And you believe that's 1:16:37 correct, but you can post that comment 1:16:40 and then continue scrolling and never go 1:16:42 back to that post and never hear any 1:16:44 criticism for the thought that you gave. 1:16:47 You never have to re-evaluate the 1:16:48 opinion that you just gave because it's 1:16:51 never going to come back to you. Nobody 1:16:52 can hold you accountable for that 1:16:54 opinion that you had. 1:16:55 Well, the only accountability is will 1:16:58 your account be shadow banned, banned, 1:17:00 will you be locked out? 1:17:01 Right. Right, exactly. Right? 1:17:03 Corporations are the only thing that can 1:17:06 hold you accountable, right? And my 1:17:07 thing is, right? And Rudyard and I both 1:17:09 agree on this, is that it's I don't 1:17:13 think it's healthy for a society to only 1:17:16 for individuals to only be held 1:17:18 accountable by impersonal bureaucracies. 1:17:21 That's not great, right? That's just not 1:17:24 good. 1:17:24 One of the things that you have no 1:17:26 recourse and you have no recourse if 1:17:27 No, right. You can't appeal anything. 1:17:29 You have you have no recourse. 1:17:31 One of the things that pisses me off 1:17:32 where like I can normally talk to a 1:17:35 human being for any organiza- for most 1:17:37 things I can talk to a human being and 1:17:39 because I'm a 21-year-old too, 1:17:41 I 1:17:42 I can like share my circumstance and 1:17:44 then get some sort of like deal. Like I 1:17:47 got in my new place in Texas, which is I 1:17:49 like it, but I wouldn't be able to get 1:17:51 in as a normal 21-er, but I could tell 1:17:53 them I run a YouTube channel and a 1:17:54 business and I've done stuff and they 1:17:55 seem, "Okay, you seem responsible." But 1:17:58 for my car insurance, I'm paying this 1:18:00 horrific fee because I'm a 21-year-old. 1:18:03 I got into one accident last year and 1:18:05 they're like, "Okay, statistically, this 1:18:07 kid's going to have an accident." And I 1:18:09 I just It it's there's you can't talk to 1:18:12 anyone or with 1:18:14 that's the case with or for I think it's 1:18:16 nuts that America and I nearly slipped 1:18:17 through the cracks of the school system. 1:18:19 And the point I think I'm going to end 1:18:22 on is 1:18:24 modernity's subconscious drive is 1:18:27 towards turning people into cogs for the 1:18:29 machine because that's what makes the 1:18:31 most money. And you see this with 1:18:33 corporations pushing advertising, with 1:18:35 the government, with the education 1:18:36 system. We're all trying to turn us into 1:18:38 cogs, but that strips away culture and 1:18:40 identity. And the reason they like 1:18:42 femininity is because women they're less 1:18:45 aggressive, they're more agreeable, and 1:18:49 they're more emotional. So, they're 1:18:51 easier to manipulate, and they hate 1:18:52 masculinity because if you push against 1:18:54 a man's man's authority too much, he'll 1:18:57 slap back at you. But, the thing with 1:19:00 women is that 1:19:01 women 1:19:03 once they have children, they care a lot 1:19:04 about their children, and they stop 1:19:05 being so easily malleable. So, our 1:19:08 society tells women to never have 1:19:09 children. But, the problem with 1:19:11 industrial civilization that we've run 1:19:12 into is we've stripped away humanity, so 1:19:14 our birth rate's not functional, and the 1:19:16 world's population's going to collapse 1:19:18 by half over the next 60 years. But, we 1:19:20 have no functioning social institutions, 1:19:23 so people in my age group they can't go 1:19:26 outside, they can't have kids, they 1:19:29 can't make art, and we're going to see 1:19:33 the modern we're going to see the modern 1:19:35 era and all the cultural technologies 1:19:37 since the French Revolution, whether 1:19:39 industrialism, the idea of equality, 1:19:41 liberty, brotherhood, they're all going 1:19:43 to come crashing down over the next 1:19:44 century. And I hope that through real 1:19:47 conversations like this, that we can 1:19:49 establish something to come after it. 1:19:52 And that's 1:19:53 another thing that really breaks society 1:19:57 as well, right? Is that institutions and 1:19:59 large bureaucracies do not want people 1:20:02 to be entrepreneurs, they don't want 1:20:03 them to have initiative and think 1:20:04 freely, right? But, what you have 1:20:06 online, especially I would say with 1:20:09 people who are 1:20:11 uh Gen Z and people who are millennials, 1:20:13 but I think you definitely see it in 1:20:14 older generations, too, is this this 1:20:17 idea, right? That they 1:20:21 everybody sort of knows that they want 1:20:24 you to be a cog in machine, right? 1:20:25 There's large bureaucracies that want 1:20:27 things to run in a certain way, and 1:20:29 they'd like everybody to just go along 1:20:30 with it, right? And everyone thinks that 1:20:33 they know, right? Aside from maybe 1:20:36 college-educated people, but everyone 1:20:38 you go online and everyone says, "I'm 1:20:41 I'm outside the box, right? I'm not the 1:20:43 cog in the machine. I know, right? I 1:20:45 know what's up. I know the secrets, 1:20:47 right?" And they think you know, so if 1:20:49 you're not with me, then you're the cog 1:20:51 in the machine and you're the problem, 1:20:53 right? I found enlightenment. I am 1:20:55 correct and you're wrong for holding an 1:20:57 alternative opinion, right? And both 1:20:59 sides do this. 1:21:00 You see people on the right. It's It's 1:21:01 always funny to go into Rudyard's 1:21:02 comment section, right? And there will 1:21:04 be people there who won't even say 1:21:06 anything related to what Rudyard covered 1:21:08 in the video, right? But they'll be 1:21:10 these right-wing people who will be 1:21:11 like, "Yeah, well, you know, and all 1:21:13 these sheeple will be out there and they 1:21:14 just want to believe this and blah blah 1:21:15 blah." And I'm like, "This is complete 1:21:17 nonsense, right? I I don't 1:21:18 I'm funded by the Jews. They say I am 1:21:22 They say I am funded by the Jews, by the 1:21:25 military defense fund, by I'm a CIA 1:21:29 hack, by 1:21:31 and that I'm a that I'm paid for by the 1:21:33 liberals to destroy the conservatives. 1:21:35 And I'm sad to say, no one is paying for 1:21:37 me. No one's funding my opinions. 1:21:39 Yeah. 1:21:41 If you want to give me a couple of mill, 1:21:43 Yeah. 1:21:44 we can talk. 1:21:44 I think a lot of what you guys have 1:21:45 talked about here is fundamentally true. 1:21:47 This is very interesting conversation. I 1:21:48 think we're largely in agreement, maybe 1:21:50 not on everything and maybe not to the 1:21:51 same degree. That's fine. That's the 1:21:53 point of the discussion. We have to 1:21:55 insist that we can have nuanced 1:21:58 conversations and disagree, that we have 1:22:00 to question everything, that censorship 1:22:03 is evil, 1:22:04 Right. 1:22:04 that we have all the answers, but we 1:22:05 have to be willing to question our own 1:22:06 fundamental beliefs. And 1:22:11 the people that I think who believe that 1:22:12 they are the smart, who think they know, 1:22:15 are the least open-minded 1:22:17 Yes. 1:22:18 on the planet. 1:22:19 And to your point, Merrick, that 1:22:20 everyone seems to think they're the one 1:22:22 who knows, right? And everybody else is 1:22:24 an idiot. 1:22:26 I'm the only one who's 1:22:27 you know, cosmopolitan and enlightened 1:22:29 and brilliant and whatever and pragmatic 1:22:32 and whatever. So, two things. We have to 1:22:34 insist on being able to have nuanced 1:22:35 conversations. Censorship is evil, 1:22:39 right? That I'll get over if you if you 1:22:41 if you if you say something I disagree 1:22:43 with, I'll get over it. It probably 1:22:45 won't break my brain. It'll be It'll be 1:22:47 okay, right? 1:22:48 Yeah. 1:22:49 And that we have to figure out a ways to 1:22:51 get along and come to some sort of 1:22:55 agreement on and and let's but let's not 1:22:56 give up our principles. There are 1:22:57 certain fundamental things we're told 1:22:59 every day that just aren't true. 1:23:01 And you have to go, wait. 1:23:03 Okay. 1:23:04 Okay, I'm I'm without getting political, 1:23:06 the classic example is this. 1:23:08 There is a group of people here that 1:23:10 want you to call them a male or a 1:23:12 female, but they are unwilling to define 1:23:14 what that is. 1:23:15 Yes. 1:23:16 Okay? I'll call you whatever you want. I 1:23:18 don't care what pronoun 1:23:20 you want to be used. I'm very If you're 1:23:21 polite to me, I'm going to call you 1:23:22 whatever pronoun you want to be. I'll 1:23:24 call you a pink rabbit. Welcome, sir, 1:23:25 ma'am, whatever. I'm good with that. 1:23:27 But, let's agree 1:23:29 if if you want to be called that, can we 1:23:31 can you not at least, you know, agree on 1:23:33 on what that is and that there are 1:23:34 certain fundamental differences between 1:23:36 men and women? If we can't have that 1:23:38 broad discussion, respectfully, 1:23:40 Yeah. 1:23:41 So, so then we're not a nation anymore. 1:23:43 We're not a society. 1:23:44 Yeah, the the analogy or the 1:23:47 you know, whatever you want to call it 1:23:48 that I like to draw, right, is that the 1:23:51 the universe is infinitely complex, 1:23:53 right? There's a lot of ways you can 1:23:54 interpret anything that goes on, right? 1:23:57 And nothing is nothing that we think of 1:24:01 as real is really real. Uh but we have 1:24:04 to pretend it is, otherwise you're not 1:24:06 going to be able to get anything done or 1:24:07 do anything or go anywhere, right? If we 1:24:09 can't all just say, you know, the leaves 1:24:11 are green, then you'll never be able to 1:24:14 farm, you'll never be able to plant 1:24:15 anything, right? You're never going to 1:24:17 be able to just move forward in any 1:24:18 direction because we can't even agree 1:24:20 that the leaves are green. 1:24:20 This 1:24:21 And so people put things into sort of 1:24:24 idea boxes as I call them, right? It's 1:24:26 like you have this idea of like, okay, 1:24:28 this is what green is and we're all 1:24:29 going to say that this stuff is green 1:24:31 and we're going to put it in this box 1:24:32 and this is the green box and everything 1:24:34 in here is green, right? We do the same 1:24:36 thing for gender, right? This is what a 1:24:37 woman is and everything all these traits 1:24:39 come together in this idea of what a 1:24:40 woman is in this box, right? 1:24:42 And what happens is over time as things 1:24:45 change, right? The the ideas in the box 1:24:47 need to be explored because these boxes 1:24:48 get old, they don't make any sense, 1:24:50 they're disconnected from the way the 1:24:51 world is now. And so you got to open up 1:24:53 the box and you have to look at what's 1:24:55 in the the box and kind of go through, 1:24:57 okay, and say, is this what, you know, 1:24:59 we need from females? Is this what fish 1:25:01 really are, you know, now that we've 1:25:03 discovered new species? Right, whatever 1:25:04 the idea is, right? Does this box 1:25:07 actually make sense anymore? 1:25:08 And we've hit a point in society where 1:25:11 the right is using boxes that are 1:25:13 basically were made between like 1870 1:25:16 and 1950, right? And a lot of times the 1:25:19 right is unwilling to open those boxes, 1:25:21 criticize those boxes, or look at them 1:25:23 in any way that that could damage those 1:25:26 boxes or mean that we'd have to make new 1:25:29 boxes, right? That's horrifying to them. 1:25:30 They'd rather just keep the boxes shut. 1:25:32 Everything has to work like it did 1:25:33 between 19 1870 and 1950, right? Now the 1:25:37 left, normally what the left is supposed 1:25:39 to do is open up the boxes and say, 1:25:41 "Hey, maybe we need new boxes. These 1:25:43 ideas don't really make a lot of sense, 1:25:44 right?" Instead what the left is doing 1:25:46 is just opening the boxes, dumping 1:25:48 everything on the floor, and saying, 1:25:49 "Well, you know, that's out there now 1:25:51 and we should never put them back in a 1:25:53 box. It's a crime for you 1:25:59 to put ideas and people into boxes." And 1:26:03 it's like, I understand why you believe 1:26:05 that. There is a sort of logic chain 1:26:07 that exists to justify doing that, but 1:26:10 if you dump everything out of a box and 1:26:12 you can't have ideas around what this 1:26:14 thing is, we're never going to be able 1:26:16 to do anything because it becomes 1:26:18 instantly more is or what a fish is, it 1:26:21 becomes impossible to move forward in 1:26:23 any direction regarding that idea. And 1:26:25 it was always really crazy to me that 1:26:28 instead of right trying to disregard or 1:26:32 or redo or or even get rid of the 1:26:36 concept of gender, instead what it 1:26:38 looked like people do is they're like, 1:26:39 "What if we made 60 of these? What if we 1:26:41 just took the concept of gender, dumped 1:26:43 it on the floor and said "All that's 1:26:45 Anything can be a gender now, right?" 1:26:46 And it's like, "Why would you make this 1:26:48 more complicated, right? Weren't you 1:26:50 trying to avoid being a label? Weren't 1:26:52 you Wasn't the label the problem?" And 1:26:54 now you're like, "Well, now we need a 1:26:56 million labels." 1:26:57 All that's fun and true. Do we have to 1:26:59 kill each other over it? 1:27:01 I hope not. 1:27:02 Okay, no, but we seem to, right? So, 1:27:04 whether it's dumping it all in a box and 1:27:06 getting rid of dumping it on the floor 1:27:07 and getting rid of all kinds of 1:27:09 delineations, whether it's keeping 1:27:11 things as they were in the '50s or 1:27:13 whatever, it regardless, I'm not 1:27:15 advocating for one or the other. I'm 1:27:17 saying we are now willing to go to blows 1:27:19 over and kill each other over and to 1:27:22 tear ourselves apart over this. Is it 1:27:25 okay for us to disagree? No, it's not. 1:27:28 You have to agree with me. You have to 1:27:30 validate my worldview, and if you don't, 1:27:33 we are going to go to war. 1:27:35 This This is why societies fall to 1:27:38 dictatorships, right? Is because when 1:27:40 you cannot have discourse about ideas 1:27:44 that are critical to your society 1:27:47 and you can't move past that, one side 1:27:50 with a certain set of ideas will attempt 1:27:53 to overpower the other side and install 1:27:55 somebody to inform to provide uniform 1:27:58 thought throughout the land, right? 1:28:01 the things that gets me is that 1:28:03 none of the left criticisms are good 1:28:05 faith. You actually go through 1:28:08 Modernity's incredibly gullible. You go 1:28:10 through of writings of the big 1:28:11 postmodernist and Frankfurt School 1:28:13 philosophers, they all literally said 1:28:16 that this is made to be a wedge against 1:28:18 this previous society. It's a tactic, 1:28:20 but we're too gullible to see it. But 1:28:23 also, what I think, and I'll stop the 1:28:25 recording, we need to wrap up, but 1:28:28 no one likes modernity. And you see this 1:28:30 in both the right and the left. They 1:28:31 both think the system's horrible and 1:28:33 broken. But with 1:28:36 they and it's there's people are looking 1:28:40 for excuses to kill each other to get to 1:28:41 David's point because their lives they 1:28:44 hate themselves so much and they hate 1:28:45 the world so much. And people pick 1:28:47 [ __ ] to basically 1:28:49 They have nothing better to do because 1:28:51 they're unhappy. 1:28:52 Or unhappy. 1:28:53 And and Rudyard and I have said this 1:28:56 before and I'm sure we'll say it again, 1:28:58 right? But there's a million problems in 1:29:00 the world right now 1:29:01 and no one is taking responsibility for 1:29:04 them, right? When you see the problems 1:29:05 in the world, the left says it's because 1:29:07 the right refuses to budge and the right 1:29:09 says it's because all the changes the 1:29:11 left is trying to make. It's not my 1:29:13 fault, right? It can't be my fault. I 1:29:15 can't be held responsible for these 1:29:17 things, right? And this is a mindset 1:29:19 that comes from having all these 1:29:20 bureaucracies that prevent anybody from 1:29:23 taking responsibility, right? I there's 1:29:24 all this paperwork and red tape between 1:29:26 me and any level of responsibility, 1:29:28 right? So when somebody talks about 1:29:30 what's going wrong in society, you pick 1:29:32 insert group here and blame them, right? 1:29:35 Because it's got to be this group of 1:29:36 people that is making things wrong. It 1:29:38 couldn't be me. It can't be me. It's not 1:29:41 my fault, right? And that is a huge 1:29:43 problem, right? Is no one can stop and 1:29:46 think to themselves, how could I be the 1:29:48 problem, right? So how could I 1:29:50 contribute? 1:29:51 of the new society we'd like to live in 1:29:53 takes responsibility for what it can 1:29:55 take responsibility for, doesn't blame 1:29:58 everyone else, is open-minded, questions 1:30:00 its own thinking, yeah, still sticks to 1:30:03 some things that are fundamentally true, 1:30:04 stands on principle, right? Is respons- 1:30:07 responsible for itself and self-reliant, 1:30:09 that it doesn't ask everybody to take 1:30:11 care of them, but is also willing to 1:30:13 take care of those that they can. 1:30:14 All of those All of those things that 1:30:16 you just said are philosophical thoughts 1:30:18 that have been carefully developed over 1:30:20 the course of the West's history from 1:30:22 like 1,000 AD on. Those are all things 1:30:24 that you can find Western philosophies 1:30:26 lauding as a good society, you know? 1:30:30 Yeah. 1:30:30 We we do have to wrap it up. This is 1:30:32 good. Let's Let's all aspire to those 1:30:34 things, right? 1:30:35 This is a wonderful conversation. Thank 1:30:36 you so much for coming on. Yeah, thanks 1:30:38 for having me. I know we'll do it again 1:30:40 sometime, I'm sure.