1 00:00:03,440 --> 00:00:06,000 Speaker 1: On this episode of Newts World, We're going to be 2 00:00:06,040 --> 00:00:09,160 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Abyss of Infinite Lunacy, and I think 3 00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:11,520 Speaker 1: you're going to find it one of the most amazing 4 00:00:11,560 --> 00:00:15,159 Speaker 1: podcasts we've done. I say that because I'm pleased to 5 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:18,960 Speaker 1: welcome my guest, Doctor Gad said. He is a professor 6 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:24,480 Speaker 1: of marketing at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Doctor Gad 7 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:29,240 Speaker 1: Said pioneered the use of evolutionary psychology in marketing and 8 00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:33,720 Speaker 1: consumer behavior. He's the creator of the YouTube channel That 9 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:37,760 Speaker 1: Said Truth and author of the recent best selling book 10 00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:43,400 Speaker 1: The Parasitic Mind, How Infectious Ideas Are Killing common Sense? 11 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:46,040 Speaker 1: And I have to say when I first began reading, 12 00:00:46,479 --> 00:00:48,839 Speaker 1: I broke up so much. I thought it was so 13 00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:52,400 Speaker 1: amazing that I promptly reached out and asked doctor said 14 00:00:52,400 --> 00:01:01,360 Speaker 1: if he would join us. Let me start and just 15 00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:05,080 Speaker 1: say thank you for joining me on this. And I 16 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:08,200 Speaker 1: was intrigued by the video you posted on your YouTube 17 00:01:08,240 --> 00:01:11,679 Speaker 1: channel on February twenty eight, Welcome to the Abyss of 18 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:15,360 Speaker 1: Infinite Lunacy, in which you said the rate in which 19 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 1: our society is tumbling into madness is truly bewildering, and 20 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:23,639 Speaker 1: I just want people to have a chance to listen 21 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:28,360 Speaker 1: to you and hear what you're describing. Hi, everybody, this 22 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:32,520 Speaker 1: is got sad. I just posted the following on my 23 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:35,200 Speaker 1: Twitter account, and I thought I should read it for 24 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:37,600 Speaker 1: you here in case you don't follow me on social media. 25 00:01:37,720 --> 00:01:40,520 Speaker 1: I'll probably also be posting them on my other social 26 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:44,080 Speaker 1: media platforms and on my website. So here we go. 27 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:47,680 Speaker 1: The rate at which our society is sinking into madness 28 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:53,320 Speaker 1: is truly bewildering. One it is now racist for a 29 00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:57,040 Speaker 1: white person to translate the work of a black person. 30 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:01,360 Speaker 1: Two it is now home of BBIC for a straight 31 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:06,640 Speaker 1: actor to play a gay character. Three. It is now 32 00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:12,400 Speaker 1: racist for a white therapist to treat a black client. Four. 33 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:18,079 Speaker 1: It is now racist to have advanced high school programs. Five. 34 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:25,120 Speaker 1: It is now transphobic for biological females to reject having 35 00:02:25,160 --> 00:02:30,440 Speaker 1: to compete against trans women i e. Biological males. Six. 36 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:37,120 Speaker 1: It is now islamophobic to criticize any tenets of Islam. Seven. 37 00:02:37,680 --> 00:02:44,440 Speaker 1: It is now science denialism to question the ongoing COVID lockdowns. Eight. 38 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:50,160 Speaker 1: It is now science denialism to question any tenets stemming 39 00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:57,680 Speaker 1: from climate change alarmists. Nine it is now epistemological bigotry. Yes, 40 00:02:57,760 --> 00:03:00,760 Speaker 1: I coined that term, as I have many others to 41 00:03:00,880 --> 00:03:05,080 Speaker 1: support the scientific method as the means by which you 42 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:11,560 Speaker 1: adjudicate scientific hypotheses. Ten. It is now racist to argue 43 00:03:11,639 --> 00:03:18,000 Speaker 1: that mathematics yields right and wrong answers. Eleven. It is 44 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:23,480 Speaker 1: now racist to promote the ethos of individual dignity over 45 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:29,839 Speaker 1: collectivist identity politics. Twelve. It is now racist to criticize 46 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:34,000 Speaker 1: a noble person of color, be it a famous athlete 47 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:40,520 Speaker 1: or celebrity. Thirteen. It is now transphobic to posit that 48 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:46,720 Speaker 1: only women menstruate. Fourteen. It is now racist to publicly 49 00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:53,120 Speaker 1: proclaim your support for quote wrong think black individuals such 50 00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:59,360 Speaker 1: as Thomas Sowell or Larry Elder. Fifteen It is now misogynist. 51 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:03,880 Speaker 1: It is now misogynists or misogynistic to note that women 52 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:10,480 Speaker 1: greatly outnumbered men in universities. Sixteen. It is now sexist 53 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:15,520 Speaker 1: to publish scientific research that yields sex differences that are 54 00:04:15,600 --> 00:04:21,279 Speaker 1: contrary to accept it politically correct orthodoxy. Seventeen. It is 55 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:26,120 Speaker 1: now racist to point to FBI murder stats broken down 56 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:32,000 Speaker 1: by interracial markers of victim and perpetrator. Eighteen. It is 57 00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:38,240 Speaker 1: now racist to openly support national borders nineteen. It is 58 00:04:38,279 --> 00:04:43,120 Speaker 1: now racist to seek to curb immigration from countries that 59 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:48,760 Speaker 1: espouse values that are deeply hateful and anti liberty. Twenty 60 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:55,000 Speaker 1: It is now racist to not decolonize philosophy and literature departments. 61 00:04:56,440 --> 00:05:01,240 Speaker 1: Twenty one. It is now racist to request that job 62 00:05:01,320 --> 00:05:05,400 Speaker 1: offers be based on the merits of an individual's dossier 63 00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:09,960 Speaker 1: rather than on the use of immutable traits. I could 64 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:14,800 Speaker 1: go on, but instead read the parasitic mind, take care 65 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:19,200 Speaker 1: of Everybody. What exactly did you mean by that? Well, First, 66 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:21,039 Speaker 1: thank you so much for having me on your show, 67 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:23,960 Speaker 1: Speaker Engrich. I've been a fan for many years. I 68 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:25,640 Speaker 1: was a kid when I was first watching it, so 69 00:05:25,720 --> 00:05:27,960 Speaker 1: it's a pleasure to be with you on your platform. Look, 70 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,679 Speaker 1: I've been a professor for twenty seven years. I always 71 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:33,120 Speaker 1: tell people that I have faced two great wars in 72 00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:36,600 Speaker 1: my life. The first, or was growing up in Lebanon 73 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:40,840 Speaker 1: as part of the last Lebanese Jews that had steadfastly 74 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:44,520 Speaker 1: refused to leave Lebanon, and we saw some horrifying things 75 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:46,840 Speaker 1: in the Lebanese Civil War and we had to eventually leave. 76 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:50,040 Speaker 1: The second great war that I faced was the forty 77 00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:53,279 Speaker 1: plus years later, where as a professor, I saw the 78 00:05:53,480 --> 00:05:57,479 Speaker 1: war on reason, logic, common sense, evidence space thinking that 79 00:05:57,600 --> 00:06:01,400 Speaker 1: was taking place on university campuses. And so both the 80 00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:04,320 Speaker 1: book and the article that you so kindly mentioned are 81 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:08,760 Speaker 1: really a reflection of my indignation at seeing what to 82 00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:12,240 Speaker 1: me appears as though it's complete nonsense, and yet within 83 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:15,479 Speaker 1: the halls of academia, if not popular culture, they are 84 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:21,080 Speaker 1: now standard positions to take. So I'm curious is Canada 85 00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:24,719 Speaker 1: has far gone in terms of the tyranny of the 86 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:28,120 Speaker 1: intellectuals as the United States? I would say even worse, 87 00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:33,200 Speaker 1: because our Prime Minister is a walking manifestation of every 88 00:06:33,279 --> 00:06:36,360 Speaker 1: idea pathogen that I describe in the parasitic point. Right, 89 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:40,359 Speaker 1: He is the final product of having gone through an 90 00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:43,880 Speaker 1: educational system where each of the parasitic ideas that I 91 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:49,120 Speaker 1: enumerate in my book he encapsulates prosmodernism and militant feminism 92 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:53,440 Speaker 1: and social constructivism and identity politics. So, if anything, I 93 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:56,839 Speaker 1: think that our pandemic of the human mind is further 94 00:06:56,920 --> 00:06:59,840 Speaker 1: along than yours, But you're catching up. You use it 95 00:07:00,160 --> 00:07:04,720 Speaker 1: in parasitic pretty steadily. What do you mean whether right? So, 96 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:07,080 Speaker 1: as an evolutionary psychologist, one of the things that we 97 00:07:07,160 --> 00:07:09,240 Speaker 1: do is if we want to study something in the 98 00:07:09,320 --> 00:07:13,280 Speaker 1: human context, we often look to other animals. This is 99 00:07:13,320 --> 00:07:15,559 Speaker 1: called comparative psychology. Right, So if you want to study 100 00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:19,080 Speaker 1: toy preferences for humans, you might study toy preferences of 101 00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:22,400 Speaker 1: verbet monkeys or recess monkeys to show that there's a similarity. 102 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:25,200 Speaker 1: And so, in trying to come up with a framework 103 00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:28,960 Speaker 1: to explain these dreadful ideas, all of which were spawned 104 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:34,280 Speaker 1: on university campuses, I wanted to find a biological comparison, 105 00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:39,400 Speaker 1: and so I discovered the parasitological model, which let me 106 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:41,960 Speaker 1: briefly explain what it is and the animal kingdom. There 107 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:46,280 Speaker 1: are all sorts of parasitic host relationships. A tapeworm, for example, 108 00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:50,800 Speaker 1: might parasitize your intestines, but a neural parasite is one 109 00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:54,480 Speaker 1: that looks for the host's brain and when it reaches 110 00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:59,520 Speaker 1: that brain, it alters its circuitry in its advantage. So think, 111 00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:02,400 Speaker 1: for example, of Toxoplasma gandhi. That's a parasite that when 112 00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:06,040 Speaker 1: it afflicts the brain of a mouse, the mouse loses 113 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:08,600 Speaker 1: it an eighth fear of cats. It actually becomes sexually 114 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:11,240 Speaker 1: attracted to the cats. Urine, which is not a very 115 00:08:11,280 --> 00:08:16,040 Speaker 1: good attraction to hold, And so I had found my framework. 116 00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:18,680 Speaker 1: I would then argue that in the same way that 117 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:23,400 Speaker 1: brains could be parasitized by actual biological warms, humans can 118 00:08:23,400 --> 00:08:26,880 Speaker 1: be parasitized by ideological warms. So in that sense they 119 00:08:26,880 --> 00:08:29,440 Speaker 1: are parasitic. But I have to ask you just for 120 00:08:29,480 --> 00:08:33,920 Speaker 1: a second, what is the evolutionary advantage of having your 121 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:37,800 Speaker 1: host attracted to cat urine if it means your host 122 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:42,640 Speaker 1: will disappear. Usually, in these kinds of relationship, to the 123 00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:46,440 Speaker 1: detriment of the animal that is parasitized, it helps the 124 00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:49,760 Speaker 1: reproductive cycle of the parasite. So, for example, if you 125 00:08:49,880 --> 00:08:54,640 Speaker 1: have a cricket that usually hates to be in water, 126 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:59,480 Speaker 1: once it is parasitized by a parasite that needs to 127 00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:04,199 Speaker 1: rip reduce in water, suddenly the cricket becomes excited at 128 00:09:04,200 --> 00:09:07,040 Speaker 1: the thought of jumping to its death in the pool 129 00:09:07,080 --> 00:09:10,600 Speaker 1: of the lake. Right. So, usually the idea is that 130 00:09:10,640 --> 00:09:13,640 Speaker 1: the parasite doesn't care about the reproductive interests or the 131 00:09:13,679 --> 00:09:17,720 Speaker 1: fitness interests of the host. It cares about it's reproductive fitness, 132 00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:20,400 Speaker 1: and therefore that's why it's parasitic. Right. It's doing something 133 00:09:20,400 --> 00:09:23,240 Speaker 1: that benefit not to that of the host. When you 134 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:28,080 Speaker 1: first had this insight that we have the mental equivalent 135 00:09:28,160 --> 00:09:32,080 Speaker 1: of parasites growing up in our culture now and that 136 00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:36,600 Speaker 1: they're leading to deranged behavior, How did that happen? Was 137 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:39,640 Speaker 1: that like Newton sitting under the tree and the apple dropping, 138 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:44,839 Speaker 1: or it's a remarkably interesting insight, but it's a complicated one. Well, 139 00:09:44,920 --> 00:09:48,920 Speaker 1: so I was familiar with an idea that was first 140 00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:52,800 Speaker 1: introduced by Richard Dawkins, the famous evolutionary biologist. In nineteen 141 00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:55,640 Speaker 1: seventy six, he wrote a book called The Selfish Gene 142 00:09:55,679 --> 00:10:00,000 Speaker 1: where he talked about not just genes can propagate, but means. 143 00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:03,319 Speaker 1: Right now, everybody knows the word meme because you talk 144 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:05,720 Speaker 1: about Internet means, but in the past, very few people 145 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:08,200 Speaker 1: knew that term. So a meme is any packet of 146 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:11,160 Speaker 1: information that can flow from one brain to another. So 147 00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:14,000 Speaker 1: if I start singing a jingle and you overhear me 148 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:16,760 Speaker 1: singing it, then it's going to infect your brain. You 149 00:10:16,840 --> 00:10:19,880 Speaker 1: might start singing the same meme. I didn't like that 150 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:24,520 Speaker 1: framework because memes could be positively valenced, they could be neutral, 151 00:10:24,800 --> 00:10:26,920 Speaker 1: or they could be negatively valenced. So I didn't like 152 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:30,800 Speaker 1: using the mimetic framework. For what I was trying to do. 153 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:34,000 Speaker 1: I needed to find some analogy in the animal kingdom, 154 00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:37,959 Speaker 1: where the ideas are only negatively valence, and that's when 155 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:41,160 Speaker 1: I had my Newton moment with the parasitic model. Do 156 00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:47,040 Speaker 1: you think that there are more parasitic mental models today 157 00:10:47,559 --> 00:10:50,400 Speaker 1: than there were in the past. I mean, look, I 158 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:53,680 Speaker 1: think the infinite capacity of human beings to engage in 159 00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:57,960 Speaker 1: imbecilic thought processes is not something restricted to the current zeitgeist. 160 00:10:58,320 --> 00:11:01,880 Speaker 1: But I think there is a unique confluence of factors 161 00:11:01,920 --> 00:11:05,160 Speaker 1: that has led us down the abyss of infinite lunacy 162 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:07,800 Speaker 1: that we currently find ourselves in. And it comes really 163 00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:11,880 Speaker 1: from a set of idea pathogens, all of which were 164 00:11:11,880 --> 00:11:16,440 Speaker 1: responded in the last forty to fifty years on university campuses, 165 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:20,120 Speaker 1: some a bit older. So, for example, if you take postmodernism, 166 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:23,120 Speaker 1: it really is the perfect idea pathogen in the sense 167 00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:25,640 Speaker 1: that it's a form of intellectual terrorism, right because it 168 00:11:25,679 --> 00:11:28,760 Speaker 1: rejects the idea that they are objective truths. It basically 169 00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:33,760 Speaker 1: argues that we are fully shackled by subjectivity, by relativism. 170 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:36,480 Speaker 1: And so you could imagine as a scientist, if you 171 00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:38,439 Speaker 1: wake up in the morning, you do think you are 172 00:11:38,480 --> 00:11:40,880 Speaker 1: working under the premise that there are universal truths to 173 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:43,840 Speaker 1: be discovered, that there are statistical regularities to be uncovered, 174 00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:47,520 Speaker 1: while postmodernism blows that out of the window. Take another one. 175 00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:52,119 Speaker 1: Militant feminism starts off as a great idea equity. Feminism 176 00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:54,960 Speaker 1: simply argues that men and women should be equal under 177 00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:56,960 Speaker 1: the law. Well, I think most people would agree with that. 178 00:11:57,400 --> 00:12:00,839 Speaker 1: Militant feminism, in the pursuit of that audible goal, then 179 00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:04,560 Speaker 1: argues that men and women are indistinguishable. Everything about them 180 00:12:04,600 --> 00:12:08,160 Speaker 1: is due to a social construction. There comes another idea pathogen, 181 00:12:08,440 --> 00:12:12,280 Speaker 1: the rejection that there are biological differences between people, let 182 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:15,080 Speaker 1: along between the sexes. And so I think what's happened 183 00:12:15,080 --> 00:12:18,040 Speaker 1: over the last forty fifty years. One of these idea 184 00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:20,400 Speaker 1: pathogens might not have led us to the abyss of 185 00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:23,200 Speaker 1: infinite lunacy. But you put four or five, six of these, 186 00:12:23,440 --> 00:12:26,480 Speaker 1: you have a comorbidity of the human mind, and you 187 00:12:26,559 --> 00:12:29,439 Speaker 1: get all the departure from reason that we see today. 188 00:12:29,559 --> 00:12:32,680 Speaker 1: So when you think of it in those kind of terms, 189 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:36,520 Speaker 1: it seems to the second half of that equation is 190 00:12:37,559 --> 00:12:42,560 Speaker 1: that almost all of them then develop a requirement to 191 00:12:42,679 --> 00:12:47,400 Speaker 1: crush descent. So It's as though if you tried to 192 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:51,840 Speaker 1: have an idea other than the ones that were considered appropriate, 193 00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:57,200 Speaker 1: that you've then threatened the life of the mean that 194 00:12:57,520 --> 00:13:01,520 Speaker 1: is currently polluting your brain. Look, I first saw this 195 00:13:01,679 --> 00:13:05,280 Speaker 1: before I entered full throttle into the culture wars. I 196 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:08,720 Speaker 1: saw it in my career as a practicing academic, because, 197 00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:12,160 Speaker 1: as you kindly pointed out in the introduction, I pioneered 198 00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:16,960 Speaker 1: the use of evolutionary psychology and evolutionary biological principles in 199 00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:19,720 Speaker 1: the study of human behavior in general and consumer behavior 200 00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:22,840 Speaker 1: in particular. And this one was considered completely heretical within 201 00:13:22,880 --> 00:13:25,719 Speaker 1: the hallways of the business school. But what do you mean? 202 00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:29,560 Speaker 1: Consumers are biological beings? Don't you dare say that the 203 00:13:29,679 --> 00:13:32,160 Speaker 1: mechanism that explains the behavior of your dog and the 204 00:13:32,240 --> 00:13:35,800 Speaker 1: giraffe and the mosquito is the same evolutionary mechanism that 205 00:13:35,880 --> 00:13:39,400 Speaker 1: explains consumer behavior. And so I already started seeing that 206 00:13:39,559 --> 00:13:44,040 Speaker 1: reflex of forbidden knowledge in academia where there were something 207 00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:48,080 Speaker 1: sex differences, race differences that you were never supposed to broach. 208 00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:51,440 Speaker 1: So that was my first exposure to that instinct, and 209 00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:54,640 Speaker 1: it has only amplified since where now you know gender 210 00:13:54,720 --> 00:13:56,760 Speaker 1: pronouns and all the other stuff. You know, now we 211 00:13:56,840 --> 00:14:00,280 Speaker 1: can't say that only women menstruate. We have to say 212 00:14:00,320 --> 00:14:03,200 Speaker 1: people and straight otherwise we are you know him Laer 213 00:14:03,559 --> 00:14:06,760 Speaker 1: transports and so you know, it is a form of 214 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:12,160 Speaker 1: orgiastic self cannibalism where once you can't, you know, cancel 215 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:15,200 Speaker 1: other people, you turn on yourself and start canceling your 216 00:14:15,240 --> 00:14:18,480 Speaker 1: progressive friends because they're not purely progressive as you are. 217 00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:40,080 Speaker 1: One of the things I've gotten involved in it, go 218 00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:43,680 Speaker 1: to column and did a podcast about, was the decision 219 00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:48,360 Speaker 1: the doctor Seuss was inadequate. This is a guy who 220 00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:53,080 Speaker 1: has sold six hundred million books, more than any other author, 221 00:14:53,800 --> 00:14:57,080 Speaker 1: including Harry Potter. Last series old six million books in 222 00:14:57,160 --> 00:15:00,560 Speaker 1: United States alone. One of every four books that are 223 00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:03,080 Speaker 1: the first book a child gets is by doctor SEUs. 224 00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:08,040 Speaker 1: You think of what we're engaged in now as an 225 00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:14,160 Speaker 1: invasion of an ecosystem by a series of infections which 226 00:15:14,200 --> 00:15:23,160 Speaker 1: are self reproducing and which outcompete the healthy portions and 227 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:27,360 Speaker 1: ultimately devour them, and you really can begin to set 228 00:15:27,440 --> 00:15:35,760 Speaker 1: up a visual understanding of the ecosystem that we're trapped in. Absolutely, 229 00:15:35,800 --> 00:15:37,640 Speaker 1: and I mean I get one of the ways to 230 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:42,240 Speaker 1: continue with the biological comparisons. So I contrast the current 231 00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:46,280 Speaker 1: zychegeist with a very important principle in evolutionary medicine. So 232 00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:50,120 Speaker 1: an evolutionary medicine, you have something called the hygiene hypothesis. 233 00:15:50,200 --> 00:15:52,280 Speaker 1: So if you think, for example, children who have grown 234 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:55,480 Speaker 1: up in very sterile environments there are meaning there are 235 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:59,320 Speaker 1: no for example, air pollutants, they end up suffering from 236 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:03,840 Speaker 1: a greater amount of respiratory ailments because their immune system 237 00:16:04,040 --> 00:16:09,280 Speaker 1: did not get triggered in preparation for mounting a immunological 238 00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:12,560 Speaker 1: defense against pollutants. So if you grow up with pets 239 00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:17,160 Speaker 1: with dander in a somewhat dusty farm, you end up 240 00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:20,400 Speaker 1: having lesser asthma than if you grew up in a 241 00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:24,800 Speaker 1: kind of OCD type sterile environment. Well, I then take 242 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:28,120 Speaker 1: that principle from evolutionary medicine, and I argue that the 243 00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:32,880 Speaker 1: human mind, not to be exposed to competing ideas, has 244 00:16:32,880 --> 00:16:36,040 Speaker 1: to be exposed to the capacity to engage in critical thinking, 245 00:16:36,360 --> 00:16:38,920 Speaker 1: otherwise it dies. So in the same way that your 246 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:42,600 Speaker 1: lungs need to be exposed to pollutants, your mind has 247 00:16:42,640 --> 00:16:46,880 Speaker 1: to be exposed to contrary ideas, otherwise you die. Life 248 00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:50,560 Speaker 1: is anti fragile. So by creating these echo chambers of 249 00:16:50,680 --> 00:16:55,600 Speaker 1: ideological conformity, we are literally being anti Darwinian. So in 250 00:16:55,600 --> 00:16:59,160 Speaker 1: a sense, when you have those kind of behavior, the 251 00:16:59,200 --> 00:17:04,800 Speaker 1: creation of safe spaces actually becomes a self defeating model, 252 00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:09,119 Speaker 1: which increases the likelihood that the people raised in the 253 00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:13,000 Speaker 1: safe spaces will not be safe exactly. And so to 254 00:17:13,080 --> 00:17:14,960 Speaker 1: continue with the analogy, in the same way that if 255 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:18,480 Speaker 1: they grow up in a sterile environment, they develop asthma, 256 00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:21,199 Speaker 1: when they grow up in the sterile environment of the 257 00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:24,399 Speaker 1: echo chamber, they get asthma of the brain, which you know, 258 00:17:24,520 --> 00:17:27,800 Speaker 1: facetiously means that they can't debate you, and that's why 259 00:17:27,800 --> 00:17:30,359 Speaker 1: they then have to cancel you. Right. The reflex of 260 00:17:30,440 --> 00:17:33,040 Speaker 1: canceling you is one that I experienced growing up in 261 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:36,640 Speaker 1: the Middle East. There we cancel you by beheading you. Here, 262 00:17:36,680 --> 00:17:39,399 Speaker 1: we cancel you by you know, taking you off Twitter, 263 00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:41,800 Speaker 1: or by firing you from your job. Just to give 264 00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:45,239 Speaker 1: you an example that recently happened to me, I had 265 00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:50,000 Speaker 1: retweeted something that AOC I call her occasional cortex facetiously 266 00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:53,119 Speaker 1: but fine, I had pleaded something that she had posted 267 00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:55,680 Speaker 1: where I said, because she was arguing for them in 268 00:17:55,760 --> 00:17:58,840 Speaker 1: every ways, I said, well, you know, Thomas Sowell seems 269 00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:01,639 Speaker 1: to disagree with you. Do you care to comment? And 270 00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:05,879 Speaker 1: someone came in and started tagging my university and said 271 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:10,520 Speaker 1: that no professor should be espousing a position that questions 272 00:18:10,600 --> 00:18:14,680 Speaker 1: the minimum wage, otherwise they should be fired. So this 273 00:18:14,840 --> 00:18:17,719 Speaker 1: wasn't that I was being a rabid racist or I 274 00:18:17,800 --> 00:18:21,520 Speaker 1: was being objectionable. Anyway, the mere fact that I suggested 275 00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:25,959 Speaker 1: that Thomas Soul had an opposing position was enough for 276 00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:29,560 Speaker 1: this person to view it as totally within bounds to 277 00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:34,159 Speaker 1: get me fired. What was their rationale? Actually it was 278 00:18:34,440 --> 00:18:38,560 Speaker 1: I was a heartless professor. I hind behind my high 279 00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:43,360 Speaker 1: paying tenured position, but I can't experience the plight of 280 00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:46,719 Speaker 1: the person who doesn't have the necessary money, and therefore 281 00:18:46,760 --> 00:18:50,040 Speaker 1: I'm just a heartless pig. I'm basically committing economic genocide. 282 00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:55,680 Speaker 1: Thomas Soul is black. You're quoting a black economist, which 283 00:18:55,720 --> 00:18:59,680 Speaker 1: proves you must be a racist, because after all, you're not, 284 00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:04,200 Speaker 1: I can therefore, you are culturally appropriating a black economist 285 00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:08,719 Speaker 1: in a truly wicked effort to pretend that people of 286 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:11,200 Speaker 1: color might have a view, which we all know can't 287 00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:14,480 Speaker 1: be true, because if it was true, everything that the 288 00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:18,000 Speaker 1: woke idiots believe would collapse. Was that a fair summary 289 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:20,840 Speaker 1: of the case. That's very fair now too. Things Number 290 00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:24,080 Speaker 1: One of the items that I listed on my list 291 00:19:24,160 --> 00:19:27,040 Speaker 1: for the Abyss of Infinite Lunacy was that if you 292 00:19:27,160 --> 00:19:31,440 Speaker 1: show any support for Thomas soul or for Larry Elder, 293 00:19:31,720 --> 00:19:34,679 Speaker 1: then you must be a rabid white supremacist. And I 294 00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:36,919 Speaker 1: think Larry Elder enjoyed it so much just like you, 295 00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:40,119 Speaker 1: that he then retweeted it to everybody. But in any case, 296 00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:44,720 Speaker 1: one of the benefits of having my personal history is 297 00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:47,600 Speaker 1: that while I may not be black, I am quote 298 00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:50,399 Speaker 1: a Jew of color from the Middle East with a 299 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:54,200 Speaker 1: horrifying personal history in the Lebanese Civil War. So by 300 00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:59,280 Speaker 1: definition I almost outrank anybody in victimology poker, or in 301 00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:03,080 Speaker 1: the oppressional Olympics, and so I end up using their 302 00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:08,000 Speaker 1: grotesque form of victimology currency against them. So if someone 303 00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:10,919 Speaker 1: comes after me and starts attacking me, and I know 304 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:13,639 Speaker 1: that they are white, then I will take out my 305 00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:17,720 Speaker 1: playbook of the Woke Taliban, and I will then say, 306 00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:21,280 Speaker 1: how come you're attacking an Arabic Jew of color? Why 307 00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:25,120 Speaker 1: do you hate people who are war refugees? And incredibly, 308 00:20:25,359 --> 00:20:28,760 Speaker 1: as you might expect, they run away because they don't 309 00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:32,120 Speaker 1: debate you on the merits of your position. The mere 310 00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:35,240 Speaker 1: fact that I outrank them in true victimology means that 311 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:39,000 Speaker 1: I want to debate. Isn't it amazing that these are 312 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:45,080 Speaker 1: people who literally cannot debate. It's almost like they're religious 313 00:20:45,119 --> 00:20:49,840 Speaker 1: fundamentalists and they can only maniacally repeat whatever they have 314 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:53,880 Speaker 1: been told absolutely true. If I write an article on 315 00:20:54,359 --> 00:20:59,720 Speaker 1: the stupidity of the position in the concept of toxic masculinity, 316 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:03,040 Speaker 1: then I will be attacked as you know, a patriarchal, 317 00:21:03,119 --> 00:21:06,280 Speaker 1: genocidal guy. If I appear in front of the Canadian Senate, 318 00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:09,080 Speaker 1: as I did in twenty seventeen, both Jordan Peters and 319 00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:13,160 Speaker 1: a fellow Canadian professor and I had each separately appeared 320 00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:15,080 Speaker 1: in front of the Canadian Senate to talk about some 321 00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:19,000 Speaker 1: of the dangers, some of the slippery slope arguments against 322 00:21:19,040 --> 00:21:22,000 Speaker 1: what then was a table bill, Bill C sixteen, where 323 00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:26,000 Speaker 1: that sought to incorporate gender expression and gender identity under 324 00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:29,080 Speaker 1: the rubric of hate speed and hate crimes. And of 325 00:21:29,080 --> 00:21:32,520 Speaker 1: course I wasn't arguing, neither was Jordan, that transgender people 326 00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:35,080 Speaker 1: shouldn't be protected from bigotry. Of course, we agree with that, 327 00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:38,560 Speaker 1: but that there were some slippery slope positions, and one 328 00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:43,200 Speaker 1: of the senators, Speaker Gingrich, said you are pro genocide. 329 00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:45,960 Speaker 1: You can go and watch the exchange. I answered, you know, 330 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:48,040 Speaker 1: you might want to be careful at using someone who 331 00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:52,200 Speaker 1: escaped religious persecution in Lebanon of being pro genocide. But 332 00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:54,919 Speaker 1: that's the level of discourse. He couldn't discuss with me, 333 00:21:55,080 --> 00:21:58,880 Speaker 1: a practicing evolutionary psychologist, the issues at hand. He could 334 00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:02,920 Speaker 1: only tarm me as a pro genocide maniac. The US 335 00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:08,840 Speaker 1: House this year adopted a set of rules which abolish mother, father, 336 00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:12,719 Speaker 1: and twenty seven other gender words. And I have to 337 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:16,119 Speaker 1: confess it. Maybe the I'm too old, but as a historian, 338 00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:19,720 Speaker 1: I don't see how this stuff works in the practical, 339 00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:23,199 Speaker 1: long term real world. It's like the nuttiest parts of 340 00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:28,360 Speaker 1: the French or Russian or Chinese revolutions, where they devour 341 00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:33,639 Speaker 1: themselves they become unsustainable by absurdity. This is a story 342 00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:36,120 Speaker 1: that I've recounted on a few previous occasions, and maybe 343 00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:38,440 Speaker 1: your viewers haven't heard it, so I think it's worth 344 00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:41,399 Speaker 1: repeating to give you a sense of the level of absurdity. 345 00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:43,679 Speaker 1: I recount the story in the Pathetic mind. In two 346 00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:45,520 Speaker 1: thousand and two, one of my doctoral students have just 347 00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:48,520 Speaker 1: defended his dissertations. So we were going out for a 348 00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:52,439 Speaker 1: celebratory dinner myself, my wife, him and his date for 349 00:22:52,520 --> 00:22:55,280 Speaker 1: the evening. Before we went out to dinner, he reached 350 00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:56,600 Speaker 1: out to me and said, I just want to give 351 00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:59,520 Speaker 1: you a heads up that my date as a graduate 352 00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:05,760 Speaker 1: student postmodernism, radical feminism, and cultural anthropology, the Holy Trinity 353 00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:08,639 Speaker 1: of BS, if I may use the acronym. And so 354 00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:10,600 Speaker 1: he was trying to say, let's have a good night, 355 00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:13,240 Speaker 1: you know, let's not argue, and I said, oh, don't worry, 356 00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:16,000 Speaker 1: I'll be on my best behavior, which, of course it 357 00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:18,040 Speaker 1: wasn't a promise that I was going to keep. And 358 00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:21,879 Speaker 1: so about halfway through the dinner, I very gently asked 359 00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:23,520 Speaker 1: the lady in question. I said, oh, I hear, you're 360 00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:26,000 Speaker 1: a postmodernist. There are no universal truth there are no 361 00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:29,240 Speaker 1: objective truths. Correct? Yes, Do you mind if I propose 362 00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:31,399 Speaker 1: what I consider to be some universal truth and then 363 00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:34,200 Speaker 1: you can correct me accordingly? She said, go fir it, okay. 364 00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:37,360 Speaker 1: Is it not true that within Homo sapiens, within humans, 365 00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:39,920 Speaker 1: only women bear children? Is that not a universal truth? 366 00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:42,800 Speaker 1: This is in two thousand and two. So she says, 367 00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:46,680 Speaker 1: absolutely not. It's not true that only women bear children. 368 00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:50,040 Speaker 1: How is that, she said, Well, because there's some Japanese tribe, 369 00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:54,879 Speaker 1: of some Japanese violand where within their folkloric mythological realm, 370 00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:57,119 Speaker 1: it is the men who bear children. So by you 371 00:23:57,359 --> 00:24:00,399 Speaker 1: restricting the conversation to the biological realm, that's how you 372 00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:03,800 Speaker 1: keep us barefoot im pregnant. Okay. So, once I recovered 373 00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:07,200 Speaker 1: from that bout of lunacy, I said, let me propose 374 00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:11,879 Speaker 1: a se less incendiary example that's not quite as corrosive 375 00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:15,280 Speaker 1: or dangerous. Is it not true that from the vantage 376 00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:18,560 Speaker 1: point of anywhere on Earth, sailors have relied on the 377 00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:20,760 Speaker 1: fact that the sun rises in the east and sets 378 00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:23,800 Speaker 1: in the west. And so here she used Jacques there 379 00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:28,040 Speaker 1: he does language creates reality, right, deconstructionism. So she said, 380 00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:30,440 Speaker 1: what do you mean by east and west? And what 381 00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:32,359 Speaker 1: do you mean by the sun? That which you call 382 00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:36,400 Speaker 1: the sun I might call dancing hyena, to which I answered, well, fine, 383 00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:38,760 Speaker 1: then the dancing hyena rises in the east and sets 384 00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:41,040 Speaker 1: in the west. And then she answered, well, I don't 385 00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:44,440 Speaker 1: play those label games. So if I couldn't get a 386 00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:47,639 Speaker 1: grown adult who is a graduate student to concede that 387 00:24:47,800 --> 00:24:50,520 Speaker 1: women bear children only, and that there is such a 388 00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:52,280 Speaker 1: thing as east and west, and there is such a 389 00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:56,000 Speaker 1: thing called the sun. And now she wasn't a psychiatric 390 00:24:56,040 --> 00:24:58,919 Speaker 1: patient who had escaped from a psychiatric institute. She was 391 00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:04,040 Speaker 1: simply aping actually what it's taught in postmodernists courses. And 392 00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:06,639 Speaker 1: so this is the kind of level of absurdity that 393 00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:09,280 Speaker 1: we have. And you know there's a cost to this, right, 394 00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:12,520 Speaker 1: I mean there's a real tangible cost. Life is about 395 00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:15,800 Speaker 1: opportunity costs. You can either study something serious or try 396 00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:19,200 Speaker 1: to study something that negates the realities of the sun. 397 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:38,639 Speaker 1: It's insane. It has to stop. You know. There's a 398 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:44,159 Speaker 1: new movement to eliminate numbers from mathematics, and apparently the 399 00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:51,399 Speaker 1: leading foundation supporting this movement is funded by Bill Gates. Yes, now, 400 00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:55,919 Speaker 1: given how much money he's made through a mastery of mathematics, 401 00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:03,160 Speaker 1: why he would favor abolishing numbers in mathematic I think 402 00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:06,280 Speaker 1: breathtakingly weird. Well, as a matter of fact, I'm going 403 00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:09,760 Speaker 1: to point you to two sad truth clips that I've released, 404 00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:13,760 Speaker 1: one about four years ago where I sarcastically introduced a 405 00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:18,199 Speaker 1: new field which I call social justice mathematics. My satire 406 00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:20,960 Speaker 1: is always prophetic. Take that to the bank. And then 407 00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:26,200 Speaker 1: just yesterday I released a clip of an article literally 408 00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:31,480 Speaker 1: titled queering mathematics. The article argues that this whole notion 409 00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:35,280 Speaker 1: of binary thinking something is a rectangle or it's not. 410 00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:38,440 Speaker 1: Something is a pyramid or it's not a numbers either 411 00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:41,800 Speaker 1: integer or odd, but it can't be both. That is 412 00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:46,520 Speaker 1: inherently transphobic. So Bill Gates by virtue of the fact 413 00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:50,399 Speaker 1: that he used binary systems. Right computers run on a 414 00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:53,960 Speaker 1: zero one code, So the fact that he made his 415 00:26:54,119 --> 00:26:58,880 Speaker 1: billions using a binary system of coding is itself transphobic, 416 00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:03,040 Speaker 1: and he should be self adulating for his grave transphobia. 417 00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:08,680 Speaker 1: How does a society exist teaching people not to learn numbers? 418 00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:12,120 Speaker 1: It won't exist forever, right, as you know, you are 419 00:27:12,119 --> 00:27:16,400 Speaker 1: the historian. As typically empires implode from within. It's not 420 00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:19,000 Speaker 1: the hores that are coming into rape and village. It's 421 00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:21,760 Speaker 1: usually you to it upon yourself. And in our case, 422 00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:24,240 Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I don't have as long a 423 00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:26,639 Speaker 1: view of history as you do, but I can certainly 424 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:30,840 Speaker 1: see the tragedy of taking all of the beautiful things 425 00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:34,720 Speaker 1: that make the West the anomalous societies that they are 426 00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:38,399 Speaker 1: in the history of human existence. Take it from someone 427 00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:40,840 Speaker 1: who comes from the Middle East. Take it from someone 428 00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:44,879 Speaker 1: who appreciates what Canada and the US represent. It is 429 00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:48,439 Speaker 1: insane how we are throwing this all away because of 430 00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:53,240 Speaker 1: these dreadful parasitic idea pathages. It's baffling. Kliston. I did 431 00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:56,480 Speaker 1: a movie called Nine Days or Change the World, which 432 00:27:56,560 --> 00:28:00,320 Speaker 1: was Pope John Paul the Second going back to Poland 433 00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:05,560 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy eight and the extraordinary impact of his 434 00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:08,880 Speaker 1: nine day visit. And while we were shooting the movie, 435 00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:13,480 Speaker 1: the representatives of Solidarity, the Great Union that had helped 436 00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:19,399 Speaker 1: lead the fight, gave me an original wall poster that 437 00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:23,760 Speaker 1: says in Polish, for Poland to remain Poland, two plus 438 00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:28,520 Speaker 1: two must always equal four. And it comes a little 439 00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:31,920 Speaker 1: bit out of Camus assertion that there are times that 440 00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:34,400 Speaker 1: a man can be killed for saying two plus two 441 00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:37,960 Speaker 1: equals four, and to sending Stone out of Orwell's moment 442 00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,600 Speaker 1: where the government says to the individual, if we tell 443 00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:43,600 Speaker 1: you it's five, it's five. If we tell you it's three, 444 00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:48,360 Speaker 1: it's three. We define truth exactly. We do not have 445 00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:51,640 Speaker 1: an appropriate language, and you may be a key breakthrough 446 00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:55,440 Speaker 1: in this. But we don't have an appropriate language to 447 00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:58,880 Speaker 1: deal with the insane as though they were saying, we 448 00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:02,400 Speaker 1: end up into h with people who are saying things 449 00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:05,200 Speaker 1: that aren't debatable. I mean, not only I think we 450 00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:08,040 Speaker 1: don't have necessarily the right language, but we don't have 451 00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:13,200 Speaker 1: the right reflex to defend against this nonsense. So I 452 00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:19,040 Speaker 1: received innumerable emails from professors, from students, from parents of 453 00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:23,520 Speaker 1: students where they literally have lost their ability to engage 454 00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:26,600 Speaker 1: in sense making because they don't believe what just happened 455 00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:29,400 Speaker 1: in their class half an hour ago, or they can't 456 00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:32,840 Speaker 1: believe what someone just espoused in a departmental meaning and 457 00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:35,600 Speaker 1: they write to me and say, doctor said, can you 458 00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:37,920 Speaker 1: help me? Am I allowed to say this? Am I 459 00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:41,280 Speaker 1: allowed to say that only women menstruate? So that's why 460 00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:44,840 Speaker 1: it's so parasitic, because when you have lost the self 461 00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:50,240 Speaker 1: confidence to even espouse positions that historically the average three 462 00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:52,880 Speaker 1: year old would have known to be true or false, 463 00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:56,640 Speaker 1: that's when the parasitic infestation has really taken hold. So 464 00:29:56,720 --> 00:29:59,280 Speaker 1: in chapter eight of The Parasitic Mind, I talk about 465 00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:02,440 Speaker 1: activating your inner honey badger, and the reason why I 466 00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:05,040 Speaker 1: use the honey badger is because, as you may know, 467 00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:07,640 Speaker 1: the honey badger is the size of a small dog, 468 00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:09,920 Speaker 1: and yet it is so ferocious that it could withstand 469 00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:13,040 Speaker 1: an attack of six lines. Why because it is so 470 00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:15,600 Speaker 1: fierce and ferocious, they figure there's no point going after 471 00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:19,320 Speaker 1: this thing. It's insane. Well, if you have principles that 472 00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:22,600 Speaker 1: are well articulated, well reasoned, you have to be a 473 00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:24,840 Speaker 1: honey badger. This is why. I mean people ask me 474 00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:27,280 Speaker 1: how come you don't get canceled? I mean, you say 475 00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:30,280 Speaker 1: fifty crazy things on Twitter. I say no, I don't 476 00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:32,400 Speaker 1: say crazy things. I say the truth. And I'm a 477 00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:34,800 Speaker 1: honey badger. If you come after me, you better not 478 00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:37,040 Speaker 1: miss because if I go after you, you're going to 479 00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:41,600 Speaker 1: remember me. But most people regrettably suffer from cowardice and 480 00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:45,440 Speaker 1: lack of assuredness, and therefore they cower away and the 481 00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:49,680 Speaker 1: parasites keep eating us. You know you want to write 482 00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:53,240 Speaker 1: a small book on learning to be a honey badger? 483 00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:56,840 Speaker 1: You know what. I'm speaking right now with my publisher 484 00:30:56,840 --> 00:30:59,240 Speaker 1: about my next book. Maybe I'll bring up exactly your 485 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:01,760 Speaker 1: I think a lot of us have to be told. 486 00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:06,320 Speaker 1: You've got to have the guts to stand up and fight. Yeah, Oh, 487 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:10,080 Speaker 1: you're gonna lose your civilization. There's no magic recipes now. 488 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:12,120 Speaker 1: People sometimes will say to me, yeah, but you know, 489 00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:15,160 Speaker 1: I'm not some fancy professor with a huge platform. I 490 00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:17,200 Speaker 1: don't have your voice, and I tell them you don't 491 00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:19,800 Speaker 1: need to have my voice. You need to simply have 492 00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:23,880 Speaker 1: the commitment to affect change within your sphere of influence. 493 00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:26,400 Speaker 1: Your sphere might simply be talking to your children at 494 00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:29,320 Speaker 1: the dinner table. Your sphere might be your friend when 495 00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:31,880 Speaker 1: you go to the pub, says something insane and you 496 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:34,800 Speaker 1: politely challenge them. In other words, don't walk away from 497 00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:38,600 Speaker 1: conversations because you're afraid to lose their friendship or their love. 498 00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:43,080 Speaker 1: If someone is not capable of recognizing that you and 499 00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:45,479 Speaker 1: I could be friends and have different opinions than I, 500 00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:48,680 Speaker 1: don't want your friendship. And so you have to teach 501 00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:52,440 Speaker 1: people to have that forgive the term testicular fortitude. If 502 00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:55,680 Speaker 1: they don't, we're going to lose our societies. I think 503 00:31:56,000 --> 00:32:00,000 Speaker 1: the central crisis of our civilization is exactly what you're writing. 504 00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:03,000 Speaker 1: Thank you. I appreciate that, and that's why when I 505 00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:05,479 Speaker 1: first read your material, I thought you have both the 506 00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:09,080 Speaker 1: width and the insight to make it memorable. I have 507 00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:12,640 Speaker 1: the guts to say it, and you're coherent in your 508 00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:16,160 Speaker 1: defense of it. That's a lot. You know what, I'm 509 00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:19,479 Speaker 1: going to take that little stiffid thing and I'm going 510 00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:24,479 Speaker 1: to advertise it to the world. Take that, haters. I 511 00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:28,320 Speaker 1: think the parasites start to shrivel when they're confronted by humor. 512 00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:30,840 Speaker 1: I'm so glad you said this, because, as a matter 513 00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:33,920 Speaker 1: of fact, I did a show earlier today with Quillette magazine, 514 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:36,720 Speaker 1: who are very much a mentioned in the culture wars, 515 00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:39,400 Speaker 1: and the host who has interviewed me said, but you know, 516 00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:42,400 Speaker 1: when you use your sarcasm and your humor and your 517 00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:45,960 Speaker 1: colorful language, isn't that a bad thing? I said, It's 518 00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:49,400 Speaker 1: exactly the incorrect way to see it, because I am 519 00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:53,720 Speaker 1: ultimately trying to persuade people. Sometimes I could be austere 520 00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:57,120 Speaker 1: and professorial if I'm speaking at Stanford Business School, or 521 00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:01,480 Speaker 1: I could use mockery and derision and stap hire. Depending 522 00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:06,400 Speaker 1: on the circumstance. I adjust my persuasion strategy as any 523 00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:10,280 Speaker 1: good marketer should. And so thank you for recognizing that. 524 00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:18,920 Speaker 1: It's truly been wonderful. Thank you, Thank you to my guests, 525 00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:22,040 Speaker 1: doctor gad said. You can find a link to order 526 00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:26,760 Speaker 1: his best selling book The Parasitic Mind, How infectious ideas 527 00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:31,440 Speaker 1: are Killing common Sense on our show page at newsworld 528 00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:35,600 Speaker 1: dot com. News World is produced by Gingwish three sixty 529 00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:40,360 Speaker 1: and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer is Debbie Myers, our producer 530 00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:44,960 Speaker 1: is Garnsey Sloan, and our researcher is Rachel Peterson. The 531 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:48,960 Speaker 1: artwork for the show was created by Steve Penley. Special 532 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:51,680 Speaker 1: thanks to the team at Gingwish three sixty. 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