Category: Podcast

(upbeat music)

• So last week I talked about
  how I enjoy Senate hearings.

My immediate thought was like, whoa,
I’m a boring person who does boring things

and I have a boring life.

But then I think anything
that pretends to be one thing

and then is another thing.

I sort of an inherent entertainment to it.

As you scrape away the layers
of the onion and try to find

the truth therein, this week
they did a Senate hearing

and it was the CEOs of
social media companies

and it was supposed
to be a harming children.

And this was to me,
pretty significant issue.

This is an important thing.

If social media is found
as be harming children,

should be protected, I
think that’s a pretty fair thing.

I immediately thought about how, if,

you really wanted to
turn this whole Senate

hearing on its head,
the first step would be,

if a social media company is responsible
for a child’s harm, as a result of these,

a host of media, this
primarily online bullying.

So kids use a social media
site to bully another kid,

that other kid harms themselves, the
social media company is responsible.

If we take that, that
was the Senate’s stance

in the way they were
primarily attacking these CEOs.

I don’t have a lot of sympathy for CEOs.

If you’ve listened to a
bunch of the most recent

Seamick bees, I’m not
a pro-CEO kind of guy.

I don’t mind if these guys
get their comeuppance.

But I also have the same
feeling towards politicians.

So I was like, first thought is, how do
I turn the Senate hearing on its head?

If the CEO of a social
media company is responsible

for the harm committed by
a user towards another user,

would not therefore then,
would not then therefore,

would not therefore, a
gun manufacturer president,

be responsible for the
harm of a gun being caused

by one user towards, in a very broad
sense, the end user of the weapon.

Now, ’cause most of
the people attacking this

were Republicans and they’re
very pro-gun anti-social media.

It’s an interesting dichotomy

because if social media is
dangerous, guns are dangerous.

And then one is more
viscerally factual sort of

in your face because
what they’re talking about

is the possibility to get harm
and mental wellness and stuff.

They’re suddenly
pretending to care about that.

It’s interesting,
whenever they try to argue

against gun control, they
talk about mental health.

Mental health in America would
fall under the purview of socialism

because it would have to
be a government program.

Suppose states could do it,
but then it would still be like,

taxes go towards the health care of people.

They need to come a long way
before they can resolve that dichotomy.

I don’t think I use the word
dichotomy correctly anymore.

I think I just use it
whenever I mean something

that doesn’t agree
with something else.

That might be the correct definition.

I had a couple cocktails at lunch.

Had a bad day at work yesterday.

Came home, had a couple cocktails.

We woke up, did a news
news Japan completely sober.

If you listen to the two episodes,

you probably might notice
a difference in the way I talk.

One, I’m now leaning way
forward into the microphone

in my eyes or about half open right now.

Whereas in the news Japan, I’m fully aware

and trying to try to try
to actually do a good job.

Not to say I’m not trying
to do a good job now.

I just don’t care as much.

I kind of wanted to just
talk about happy stuff.

No, whatever.

So what I actually was
interested in in this Senate hearing

is how the Senate
hearing is about child safety

and how little they
talk about child safety.

They really ran Zuckerberg
through the ringer on

this one, which I found
that kind of interesting.

But we get to Mr. Chu,
he’s the CEO of TikTok.

And I kind of like this guy.

I don’t know if TikTok is good or bad.

I’m pretty sure it’s bad.

I think all these things are bad.

But I think of the tech CEOs, I
don’t know if he’s the best one,

but he’s probably the smartest one

or the one I would most be
amenable to speaking with.

It’s very hard to say.

This is the way he handles himself
and these things is interesting.

So I thought it’d be
interesting if we went through

just a couple of minutes of the
most famous bits of testimony

that have absolutely
nothing to do with child safety.

I think they then had the
lawsuit and it was overturned.

I can’t remember that.

No, no, it’s the other kind of– Biden
administration that reversed those sanctions

just like, by the way, they
reversed the terrorist designation

on the Houthis and Yemen.

How’s that working
out for them? Do enjoy.

So this is Senator
Khan, he’s a Republican.

He has now taken one
issue unrelated to child safety.

Connected it to a second separate,
unrelated issue to child safety

to try to take a shot at
the Biden administration.

Not a terrible thing to do.

I mean, again, I don’t really have
any feelings one way or the other,

but none of what was just said
has anything to do with child safety.

But it was sanctioned as a
Chinese Communist military company.

So that’s interesting
because this is the opening

of the door to where he’s
going because he wants to.

Just like in the last hearing,
they wanted to prove that,

I think, ByteDance was a
member since a Chinese company

that then equates to TikTok,
which I believe they’re partners

or ones like them, but the
parent company or something.

TikTok is basically based in Singapore.

Mr. Chu is based in Singapore.

He’s Singaporean.

But they desperately want
to connect him to China

so they can then say that TikTok
is a Chinese communist conspiracy,

something like that.

And then they can attack him on that front
still has nothing to do with child safety.

So you said today, as you often
say, that you live in Singapore,

you said today as you often
say you live in Singapore,

it’s going to be surprisingly
self-evident as to where someone lives.

Because it’s going to be the
place that go to most often.

I would say that is pretty much
the definition of where you live.

So it’s not like a supposedly,
it’s not like a possibility.

And I am what I want is the person
who’s being haranged on one of these

Senate hearings to talk back or explain
what the disingenuous senators are doing

and see how they react,
because if you pointed it

out, I think again, this
puts it all on display.

Really, all these Senate hearings are
about let’s make speeches on behalf of my

party to try and gain political points.

They don’t often seem to be
trying to solve any actual problems.

Of what nation are you a citizen?

Pretty self-evident.

You would actually know that
going into this if you were smart.

Singapore is it?

Are you a citizen of any other nation?

No, Senator, have you ever
applied for Chinese citizenship?

Senator, I serve my nation as Singapore.

No, I did not.

So that’s pretty definitive.

He says he served his nation.

What he’s actually saying is that Singapore
has two years mandatory military service.

He’s done military
service in Singapore.

Korea has the same thing as a few
other countries that have the same thing.

It’s a pretty significant commitment
if you literally go into the military

for your country and then to turn around an
accused of being a Chinese communist agent.

I mean, I’m not to say
it’s impossible, but Mr.

Cotton, the Republican representative
here, he’s stuck with thinking that if he

keeps asking directed
questions that eventually

Chu will make a mistake,
but Mr. Chu is not.

He’s just going to say no, even
if he’s lying, even if it’s not true.

He’s smart enough to go,
no, I’m not a Chinese citizen.

Do you have a Singaporean passport?

Yes, and I served my military for two, two
and a half years since you have any other,

do you have any other
passport from any other nation?

No, Senator, your wife is an American
citizen, your children are American citizens.

That’s correct.

Have you ever applied
for American citizenship?

Not, no, not yet.

See, Mr. Cotton believes that, you
know, everyone wants to be American.

Everyone given the opportunity
would become American.

He doesn’t realize there’s a broader
view in the world that maybe the American

passport isn’t quite as valuable
as you might think of me.

Okay.

That okay, I love.

I’m finding that one of the more
satisfying aspects of this whole thing.

Okay.

I asked you a bunch of questions.

You said no to all of them.

Pretty pretty effective deflection.

I wasn’t ready for that.

I actually kind of want to go
back and hear that little, okay again.

Not, no, not yet.

Okay.

Have you ever been a member
of the Chinese Communist Party?

Even if he was, he knows enough.

He’s smart enough to say no.

Senator, I’m single poet, no.

Have you ever been associated or affiliated
with the Chinese Communist Party?

No, Senator, again, I’m single poet.

Let me ask you some hopefully
simple questions you said earlier.

In the thing, if you’re
listening to the audio version,

Mr. Chu, the CEO of TikTok, is
basically laughing at this point.

He’s like, this is ridiculous.

How do you keep saying like, you’re saying
vaguely different things in the hopes

that at one point I’ll
mess up and go, yes, I am.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

You’ve gotten me, I’m a communist.

And there’s foster question that what
happened at Tiananmen Square in June of 1989

was a massive protest.

Anything else happened in Tiananmen Square?

Yes, I think it’s well documented.

It was a method.

I love that.

I think it’s well documented.

Like, we all know what happened, even
though it’s like Chinese state media leaked

that we all know what happened in
Tiananmen Square, it’s well documented.

So he was really hoping
he would deny the massacre.

And he just comes out
and says there’s a massacre.

Tim and Square in June,
Chinese Communist Party.

No, Senator, again, nice thing to play.

Let me ask you some hopefully
simple questions you said earlier.

Hopefully simple questions.

The sarcasm that
everyone puts on is amazing.

I actually think that is one of the reasons
I enjoy Senate hearings is because these

guys do sarcasm, but they’re
not actually good at sarcasm.

In response to their
question, that what

happened at Tiananmen
Square in June of 1989

was a massive protest.

Anything else happened in Tiananmen Square?

Yes, I think it’s well documented.

It was a massacre.

There was an indiscriminate
slaughter of hundreds or thousands.

So, Mr. Chu has just said there was a
massacre and he’s trying to reiterate it.

Like he didn’t just say that.

Let me ask you this.

Joe Biden last year said
that Xi Jinping was a dictator.

Do you agree with Joe
Biden as Xi Jinping a dictator?

Senator, I’m not going to
comment on any world leaders.

It is interesting that he says he
will not disparage any world leader.

And he’s not going to
disparage any world leader

because that would
actually make it harder

for him to sell his product,
TikTok in this case, in that country.

And he’s not going to
cut off a billion potential

customers to satisfy
one senator in America.

Now on to lighter news.

I don’t know if this has
turned into a new show.

I don’t really know what I’m doing anymore.

Since I’ve had cocktails,
this is kind of drunk news.

I had some, you know, good stuff set up.

I’m wondering if I’m doing a disservice
by doing it in this state of mind.

If I should just talk about
something else that’s a bit sillier.

This.

Fuck me, it’s science fiction, it’s
science fiction and it’s terrifying.

A Chinese lab has created a
mutation of the coronavirus.

It’s called gx_p2v.

Already, what the fuck, guys, come on.

You have the
coronavirus and you’re like,

let’s, let’s mutate that
and see what we can do.

I mean, they’re, I understand
they’re not going to go as

simplistic as just straight
up calling it the T virus.

But why would you make a new
mutated strain of coronavirus?

The more terrifying aspect
of this new mutated strain

of coronavirus that they
created in this Chinese lab

was it causes 100% death in humanized mice.

So then we get to the second, what the
fuck, what the fuck are humanized mice?

Are we killing Stuart Little?

Is Stuart Little running around in a
little, little cage and then the Chinese

scientist coming up and like,
hey, we have this new coronavirus.

Would you like to take it and
Stuart Little being innocent,

goes, oh yes, I’d love
to help out and then they

give it to him and then he gets sick
and dies because it has a 100% death rate.

Why would you want to create
a virus with a 100% death rate?

This is bad science fiction
writing science fiction.

Like when they talk
about anything in science

fiction, they always
has to, it has to be like

perfect 100% murder death stuff.

T virus infects 98% or
99% of the people and

they turn into zombies
and then in like few

1% mutate into a higher
species or something.

That’s not a good idea.

I mean, from any aspect
scientifically, it’s not a good idea.

Economically, it’s not a good idea.

If you’re a company
president, it’s not a good idea.

Don’t, don’t do that.

Stuart Little, I have to think, I actually
have no problem with killing Stuart Little.

Stuart Little is a piece
of shit and I hope he dies.

The reason though is back
when I was young, I went

to San Jose and I went,
I flew down to San Jose

from Vancouver for a job fair and I
actually been lied to by a recruiter.

So the recruiter said, come on
down, we’ll be able to get you a job.

Of course it’s not that simple.

So I fly on down, call the recruiter,
I’m like, I’m here and they’re like, what?

I’m like, I’m here.

You said, if I came down,
you’d be able to get me a job.

Recruiter then just ghosts me.

So I’m going around San
Jose trying to find something,

but the level of depression
is super deep at this point.

Then the second day, I’m only in
there, I’m only in San Jose for like three,

four days because I’m supposed to be
in my mind doing a series of interviews

like day after day after
day, did not happen.

The second day there’s a
chemical plant that has a leak.

The chemical leak, we
get a message with the

motel, not fancy hotel
stuff because I’m poor.

We get a message in the motel that we’re
not really allowed to go outside anymore.

So I have to stay inside a motel.

Now this is back when HBO was
a new channel, HBO at that time.

Basically for about 24 hours, we would
put on two or three movies on repeat.

So within the order of 26, 30, 40 hours, I
don’t know, however long I was essentially

locked in that room so that I wouldn’t go
outside into the toxic wasteland that was

America and get poisoned to death,
I watch Stuart Little multiple times.

Weirdly, I can remember very
few details about Stuart Little.

I don’t know a lot about
what happened Stuart

Little despite the fact
that I can honestly say

I’ve seen it at least four
times, probably five or six.

I know that my brain
has reorganized itself.

So I’ve put a block on the
time that Stuart Little existed.

So as far as I’m concerned, Stuart
Little is only pain, it’s only suffering.

Stuart Little, if it had never existed, I
think my life would be better somehow.

So I blame weirdly Stuart
Little for most of my problems.

But back to China, GX
underscore two P2V, a corona

related virus found in a
Malaysian Panagolins in 2017.

So they’re hunting
around, they find panagolins.

These are these cute little
bird things from correct.

Actually, I’m going to look that up to
make sure I’m not just talking at my butt.

My butt does do a lot of talking though.

Sorry, it’s a little armadillo-like thing.

So I need to back up.

In 2017, I thought they were little birds.

In 2017, these Chinese scientists
found in Malaysian Panagolins, a new virus.

And they’re like, we’re
going to take that virus.

It’s like a cousin to corona virus.

We’re going to mutate
it, fuck with it a little bit.

And we’re going to
make it so that it kills

every humanized mouse
it ever encounters 100%.

And then we’re going to make it the freakiest
fucking science fiction we can make.

All infected mice died within eight days.

Why are you hunting for
armadillo-like animals and

extracting stuff and trying to
see what viruses they have?

Why?

This is maybe a question of science.

There are lots of things
that I can understand.

Why do we do something?

It seems difficult to comprehend
to the average lame in like myself.

I’m a lame and I don’t
understand a lot of stuff.

I’m kind of dumb.

Let’s find new viruses
and mess around with them

so that they are
designed to kill everybody.

Seems like bad science.

It’s, again, I think we’ve
gotten to the bad guy

in a James Bond film
level of ridiculousness.

When we’ve hit that stage.

All infected humanized
mice still freaks me

out every time I say that
word humanized mouse.

Died within eight days.

Their eyes became completely
white the day before they died.

Which is literally the most
science fiction shit you can get.

It’s almost like the Chinese government
went to these scientists who were like,

find a disease that is the most sci-fi
thing horror movie shit you could ever find.

And make it real.

Why? Again, nothing.

I don’t know.

There is a gentleman, a Francois Balois.

He’s the University College of
London Genetics Institute said,

“I can see nothing of value or interest
that could be learned from force infecting a

weird breed of humanized
mice with a random virus.

” Now, when I say it, it doesn’t
have a great deal of impact.

This guy, it does.

He, he, he studies this stuff.

He’s dead serious about viruses
and he’s like, I don’t see the point.

When I say I don’t see the point,
you’re like, well, chunk, read, chest.

You’re too stupid to see the point.

Why can I actually have it backed up this
time by saying, no, this guy, Francois.

He doesn’t see the point.

Me and Francois were on
the same page and he’s smart.

Conversely, I could see
how such stuff might go

wrong, which is the most apocalyptic
statement a geneticist could make.

And then this, this severely
fuels the conspiracy theory.

So like I heard about all the theories at
the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic,

that it was a virus designed to kill off
old people to stem the aging population

in China or Japan or something like that.

That it was designed
to kill people to a degree.

If you have a disease and now you’ve made
it that it’s 100% fatal to humanized mice,

it’s really fueling that
conspiracy theory a little bit more.

And you might, just as a general
thing, maybe just PR, not want to do that.

Feel bad stories.

Maybe that’s where we are today.

The other story that caught my interest
this week was a 40 year old English man.

It was in Thailand, you
know what, 48 year old

English man in Thailand
do, they have a good time.

So he’s living the life.

And then of course like
every 48 year old man

who doesn’t have a job and is
just in Thailand, he ran out of money.

So he calls up his family and he says,
hey, can you send me more money?

His family’s like, fuck off.

That’s the short version.

I don’t know how the
actual conversation went,

but I’m betting it was
something either British.

So piss off might have been
more the phraseology they chose.

So of course what he
did was just packed it up

and he went home and
he got a job and he lived

a quiet life or he could
do something more exciting.

He could pretend he got kidnapped and then
it tried to extort his family for money.

Now before I continue
with the story, can you

think of all the ways
this could go wrong?

Because I did reading
the title of the article.

I was like, I can see how
this does not work out for him.

Because if you are a 48 year old man and
you spend your time in Thailand partying,

you haven’t really sort
of set a stabilized aspect

of your life so that you look
towards future consequences.

That’s what I’m going to say.

I’m going to predict that for this man.

He really committed to the plan though.

And that’s actually something I
complain about criminals on the industry.

Not committing to the
plan or not following through.

We’re not doing all the things.

This guy, he did it.

So he has three friends and he has those
three friends beat the shit out of him.

So he has bruises and stuff all his face.

If you’re one of these
guys friends, this is

probably the best night
you’ve had in a while.

It’s like, hey, we got this guy.

He’s in the friend group.

I don’t know if he’s a
friend, but he’s in the

friend group and he
just literally asked us.

To beat the shit out of him.

So he looks like he’s been kidnapped and I
would be like, you know what? I’m on board.

I’m going to call Dave.

I’m going to call everyone else.

We’re going to show up.

We’re going to beat this guy.

It’s going to be a great night.

We’re going to have cocktails after them.

Then they need deposes gangsters
and demand money for his release.

So they do some FaceTime videos.

They record some videos.

They send to his family
of him looking beat up

with guys in the
background saying he’s been

kidnapped, send money or
they’re going to finish them off.

The family does what I would consider
the most logical and obvious next step,

which our gentleman friend, the
hero of the story, had not considered.

They called the police.

The police then call Interpol
because this is an international

police issue because it’s
between multiple countries.

Interpol.

I don’t know enough
about them in real life, but

I know what I’ve seen in movies
and they do not fuck around.

Actually, most of the Interpol
movies are a bit ridiculous.

So I bet that’s not very realistic.

I spend a lot of, they spend
probably a lot of time on

computers, following money
trails and stuff like that.

But realistically, when Interpol says we
need a SWAT team strike team or something,

I bet they get what they
want and it’s pretty hardcore.

So the family is called the police.

The Interpol then track
him down at a hotel.

They don’t say what that means.

I would be interested
to know what that means.

Maybe he’s credit card
where he was staying.

They have a strike
team and breach the door.

Now, when you use the word breach,
as opposed to break down or kick in,

you know there was a small explosive
involved, which again, I do love.

I love that how far this has gotten
out of hand with him, not even realizing.

At this point, the
guys in the room, he

thinks my family’s going
to send money any day

now and we’re going to be able
to keep partying for however long.

And then I’ll just do it again.

I’ll just recycle my kidnapping scheme.

My family keeps sending money.

They’ll never catch on because
he thinks there is dumb as he is.

The police breach the door.

They do not find him kidnapped.

They find him drinking and doing
drugs with the supposed kidnappers.

Who are all his friends?

The arrests are going
to include illegal firearms.

So the ex-ed guns, which is surprising,
illegal ammunition, a variety of drugs,

possession of drugs, doing
drugs, whatnot, and expired visas.

Most likely he’s actually just
going to get deported to the UK.

The interesting thing to me is now
to think about the aftermath of this.

So he’s been deported to the,
so he’s faked his kidnapping.

He’s been arrested by
Interpol who’s probably

going to charge him,
if not for a crime,

for the money that it costs to, you
know, get the strike team and save him

from his fake kidnapping.

He has to go home to
his family because I’m

going to guarantee this guy
doesn’t have his own place.

He doesn’t have a job. He doesn’t
have, he’s not taking care of himself.

He was using other people’s money to
go party in Thailand. He’s 48 years old.

He’s not got a
handle on his life.

He’s not, you know, figured
out how the world works,

especially because he thought
this scheme would work in 2024.

I’m trying to imagine.

I don’t know his family, the first
night home where he’s having dinner.

Realistically, they should probably
disown him and not let him in,

but they’ve obviously like fostered
this kind of behavior in the past.

So I actually bet he comes home for dinner
that night, which is just off the chain.

This is like just buck wild stuff.

Now, yeah, I mean, conclusion.
I didn’t write a conclusion.

Doing multiple stories, I want a
conclusion that ties them all together.

So this is going
to be a new skill.

I’m going to have to work on, and I
shouldn’t work on it on four drinks.

Let’s put it that way.

Senate hearings need to be
focused on the actual issue at hand.

Don’t make viruses
that are going to kill

everybody on the planet and
don’t fake your own kidnapping.

Is that where I am? That’s
a very weird place to be.

And here we are. This is where we are
in the world. So having heard that though,

at least you know
you can do better.

And if you’re feeling like
you’re not doing a good job,

you didn’t fake your
own kidnapping this week.

You didn’t create a virus that could
potentially kill the entire planet this week.

And you didn’t do a
fucking weird Senate hearing

where you didn’t even
focus on the issues this

week when you were just
like political grandstanding.

You woke up and you
did your job and you

tried to be a good person and you tried
to live your life. And I appreciate you.

I don’t appreciate senators who
are just political grandstanding.

I don’t appreciate
scientists who are

creating megaviruses
that are in kill everybody.

And I don’t appreciate
fake kidnappings.

It’s a really, today’s
topic is kind of

discourse, and how
discourse is changing, and also

God.

But we’ll get to that.

That’s the second part.

There’s two stories.

One is there’s been
a study of some of the

language that’s being
used in climate denial

arguments, and it’s a
new kind of discourse.

So it used to be climate
change is not real.

Climate change is not
man-made, it’s just a natural thing.

Nothing to worry about, just keep going
on with the status quo, everything is fine.

The obvious changes
in the actual climate,

climate disasters being
more frequent in the

stuff, have made it
very hard to actively

dispute the reality, the
facts of climate change.

In my lifetime, I have seen the
difference, the effects of climate change.

It is hotter in the summer,
the summer is lasting longer.

It is winter shorter, but it’s actually
much colder for a shorter period of time.

It’s actually funny because before climate
change, I forget what they called it.

Global warming, when
they were calling it

global warming, every
winter, some news anchor

from a conservative
channel would make a joke

about, “Moo, where’s
global warming now today?”

But actually, the colder winter snap is a
result of more extreme weather changes, and

so that always just to me
demonstrated how dumb they were.

The Center for
Countering Digital Hate, I

originally wrote down
as the Center for Digital

Hate, not a group you
want to be involved with.

The Center for Countering
Digital Hate did an

analysis of the way people are
trying to dispute climate change.

Now, actually since 2023, so instead of
saying climate change isn’t real, what they

do is deny the benefits
of clean energy, so

they’re saying like solar power doesn’t
give you as much energy as you want.

Wind power is ineffective because
the wind isn’t blowing all the time.

The benefits of clean
energy don’t outdo the

current benefits of the
system we have in place.

They will attack
policy, they’ll attack

governmental policy,
saying that this policy doesn’t

address all the issues,
and this is actually

the bit that struck me
why this became something

that I was thinking about, because what
they’re saying a lot is this policy makes

a small change, that
small change doesn’t fix

the entire problem,
therefore why make that

change at all, let’s just keep
everything going the way it is right now.

It’s the core argument of if you cannot fix
100% of the problem immediately, then there

is no point in trying to fix the problem
at all, because we can’t fix the problem.

So there is no incremental
change or benefits that can be done.

The other way is to malign
scientists and advocates.

And this has now become 70% of the
denial content on YouTube since 2023.

So they’re no longer attacking
climate change as a thing.

They’re attacking the scientists and the
people who talk about it in positive terms.

They talk about it in terms of government
policy and how it’s not effective enough.

They talk about it in terms of clean
energy and how that’s not effective enough.

So there is no benefit to actually doing
those things in the first place, renewable.

This is actually
interesting because what it

does, it gets around one
of the policy guidelines

of YouTube and a
lot of these big social

websites, what they say
is if you say something

that is factually incorrect,
they’re going to take it down.

So if you come out and
you say climate change

is not real, that
YouTube is then obligated

by their own terms and services to actually
take down that video, whereas if I say this

policy is not good and
it won’t make enough

change and it won’t do all the things
I like, that gets to say on YouTube.

So this is not, this
actually has a dual purpose.

It keeps your videos up and it still kind
of attacks the issue of climate change, but

without actually
attacking it directly so

you don’t get, you
know, there’s no violation

so you can keep your voice
active, maybe is what I want to say.

Renewable energy
generally is now basically

cheaper than fossil fuel,
something interesting

that I learned, if we
had stayed on the path

of nuclear power, so
we had seven mile island,

kind of turned America off a lot of nuclear
energy and then we had Fukushima, which

is made Japan a
little, but if all countries

had maintained the
progress in nuclear energy,

we wouldn’t be having
a climate crisis right

now because overall nuclear
energy is cleaner than the alternatives.

And I think if we kept
up with our engineering

practices and safety
standards, I actually

think that would have
been the thing that makes,

because Fukushima,
that power plant that failed

was about 60 years old and it hadn’t
been really upgraded in any real way.

If they had continued
to upgrade, I mean this

is me, you’re going
to put money into it,

but if they put modern
engineering practices

into place, I think it
would have survived

without a meltdown,
without any problems at all.

I have a lot of faith in
engineering, something

I don’t know anything,
it seems like magic

to me the way engineers
can make things work

and that’s something
I have a lot of faith

and that engineers can
fix problems if you let them.

Now, often letting
them fix problems is

expensive, but if it means
no nuclear meltdowns

in the future and we no longer
have to even think about the

climate crisis, that seems
like a pretty good deal to me.

Of course, I’m not a policy
maker, I don’t have any money.

So they had now, then
they did a survey in America

of 1,000 teenagers and
30% of teens because

they get a lot of their information
from TikTok and YouTube now.

Say that climate policy
does more harm than good.

So the one that’s
famous right now is the

Green New Deal because
it has kind of a catchy

name and people can say it very quickly.

And what they’re
saying is the Green New

Deal, if we do that,
it will actually damage

the world in the future
more than not doing it.

Yeah, I’m not attacking that part directly.

So Jay just said the
problem is that it would

take money away from oil
companies and that’s a big no-no.

All right, I’m not even talking
about oil companies directly.

I’m actually talking about the way
people are attacking the arguments.

So it’s the discourse is what
I’m actually trying to get into.

There was a Senate hearing, I
was watching a Senate hearing.

This is how you know
I’m a party dude because

I just said I was
watching a Senate hearing.

I was actually, I was watching bits of it.

I don’t watch whole Senate hearings.

I’m not that bad.

You can tell I’m
getting up in years when

Senate hearings are
vaguely interesting to me.

And it was about, they had some people who
were in renewable energy and this one woman

was very anti-plastics, she said
we should basically stop using plastic.

And it was the way they
spoke back and forth.

It was almost disingenuous on both sides.

This is something I found very interesting.

I don’t actually understand
the point of Senate

hearings anymore because
what they do is they

come out and they make a statement and they
badger the person and they shout at them.

And they don’t ever actually ask
a question and wait for an answer.

This is all just a show.

And the show is, hey,
listen to me, I’m making

this person look bad, not
actually dealing with the issue.

This was the start of the bit.

I was very interested in it.

She want to end all plastic manufacturing.

So that’s it.

The first question.

Do you want to end all
plastic manufacturing?

And the answer is going to be yes, but it,
he’s going to say, like I already, without

even seeing the rest of it, I
actually know what’s going to happen.

She’s going to say yes, I do want
to end all plastic manufacturing.

He’s going to go, well, that’s impossible.

We can’t do that and
she’s going to say, you

know, we could try
or we could start or we

could use less plastic and he’s
going to go, everything’s plastic.

We can’t like I mean, if we look at my desk
right now, keyboard is plastic, microphone

is plastic, web cameras,
plastic, the monitors,

plastic, the computer
has plastic in it.

Yes, plastic isn’t everything.

That doesn’t mean we can’t
transition away from it in some way.

The Senate hearing,
what he’s saying is

basically if you do not
give me a 100 complete

full solution immediately,
then there is no

point than even
furthering this conversation.

And again, I don’t even
need to watch the rest of it.

I’ve seen parts of this clip, but I don’t
need to watch it to know what they’re going

to say because I’ve now watched enough
Senate hearing to know what they’re doing.

He’s, they’re holding people to a standard
where you have to come up with a perfect

complete solution or
you have no solution at all.

So the idea of let’s use less
plastic bottles isn’t enough.

If let’s use less plastic
overall, let’s use lighter plastic.

Let’s inject air into the
plastic we use so that the

plastic is lighter and we
use less plastic overall.

That’s not enough because it
doesn’t erase plastic completely.

So we’re listening to
a bit of this and then

again, I’ve already said I
know I’ve seen bits of it.

And I already know,
but I knew as soon as he

opened his mouth and
said that first sentence,

I knew where this was
going because this is the

quality of discourse
we get in congressional

hearings and Senate hearings and it’s part
of what they’re attacking on the internet.

They’re using this kind of argument.

I don’t know if it’s
an argument in fallacy

that has a name it probably
does, but I just don’t know it.

But essentially it’s
saying if you do not, you

can’t do anything in
stages or transitional,

you have to do everything
in a complete 100% or zero.

There’s no like one, two,
three, four percent improvement.

She want to end all plastic manufacturing.

I said the plastic
industry must be stopped.

So does that mean end
plastic manufacturing?

I mean in my dream world’s shore.

So there you go.

He’s saying he wants you to make a definitive
statement and plastic manufacturing.

She said, yeah, in my dream
world, she’s more reasonable.

She understands that we’re not
going to get rid of plastic tomorrow.

We’re not just going to shut down
every plastic company in the world.

And then he’s going to
go on the offensive and

say, I know it in this
case he actually says

your glasses are made of plastic
and that bottle’s made of plastic.

He starts explaining like how
much plastic is in the world.

She knows.

I mean, she knows how
much plastic is in the world.

But I think that um, oh, oh, God.

So I don’t mean to be kind of sitting here.

I just point out what I don’t
mean to be condescending

here, but he’s absolutely
being condescending

because he’s talking
to her like she’s a child

because again, he’s going
to hold her to a standard.

He would never hold himself to whenever he
is tasked with coming up with a solution.

He probably doesn’t come up
with a 100% complete solution.

I mean, if you want
to start talking about

politics, there are standards
that need to be put into place.

Like I actually think a retirement
age, I’ve said this a bunch of times now.

I don’t know if I’m
just like beating a drum.

Both Trump and Biden are in their late
70s and going to be in their early 80s.

Why are these men even
up for running the country?

If the government decides
that they’re retirement

age 65, then politicians should
have to be have to retire by 65.

If politicians then
decide to move up the

retirement age, then it should be
across the board and they can stay on.

But you have to be, I think it’s
30 or 35 to become president.

That’s the minimum.

There should be a maximum.

Like that just seems self evident.

If you cannot complete your
tasks, you should be fired.

The problem I think
in American politics,

politics, probably all
over the place, is that

a lot of places you cannot remove
politicians who aren’t doing their job.

So if you do not come to an agreement within
a set deadline, you all lose your job.

And I bet deadlines get met really quickly
in every branch of government everywhere.

Because people don’t
want to lose their jobs.

This is their power and they
want to hold onto that power.

So I think most recently
at the end of America,

they’ve been talking about
government shutdown.

Again, this is something
that’s come up in the

past and they don’t want
to come to agreement

because the conservatives want a government
shutdown to make the liberals look bad.

But I would actually say, if you guys don’t
come to an agreement, you’re all fired and

then bring in a whole new group and
they make it seem like that’s impossible.

It’s not.

Like you could always
have someone second,

third, and row and they just like move
up and then, okay, you guys are out.

You don’t get reelected.

You don’t get to run
for re-election if you’ve

lost your position in
power and government.

That would change the
dynamics of what government is.

I bet a lot of people
wouldn’t want it anymore

because they’d be
held to a standard that

they wouldn’t be used
to because they’d actually

have to get things done
within a certain time frame.

But I, sorry, back to this.

That was all just a tangent about
how to make government work.

I think I watched some rich guy say it.

There are smart rich guys.

There was this rich guy and he said,
like, I could fix the budget in a month.

And he’s like, basically just fire
everyone if they don’t fix the budget.

And I was like, that would work.

They would come to a plan to
improve things and it wouldn’t be 100%.

It would be transitional
and it would be step

by step in stages and we’re going to
improve this and we’re going to fix this.

And that would be it.

And again, this is what this man in this
hearing is demanding of this woman, give me

a 100% complete
solution to replace all

plastic in the world
right now, or you have no

argument that you can make
here in front of me right at all.

And if she had called him out on
that, I think it would be interesting.

I don’t see a lot of these
congressional hearings

where the person
being spoken to actually

makes a claim as to
what’s being done to them.

I watched the TikTok hearings.

I was very interested in that.

He was clearly smarter
than everyone in that

room when it came to
computers and phones

and apps and all this
other stuff and he would

say stuff and they
just didn’t understand.

I mean, that was just
the first actual breaking

communication is he
would say things that

they clearly just didn’t
understand what he was saying.

In this case, he’s
holding this, I assume,

just activist to a
standard he wouldn’t hold

anyone else in the
world to in a realistic way.

Classes.

Um, so I do know, they’re made of plastic.

Maybe.

And it’s a when she starts
to speak, he interrupts her.

So she’s not going to
actually get to answer.

That’s another sort of secondary
issue, but that really bugs me.

Once you ask, as a senator,
once you ask a question,

you should be forced
to listen to the answer.

And even if you don’t like it.

And what they do is they ask a question.

When the person starts to
speak, they interrupt them again.

They reiterate their
question, sometimes not

very rude, but this is a
power play that people do.

It’s a psychological
tactic because if every

time I go to speak,
you interrupt me and

I stop, then you’re in this weird situation
where they’re interrupting you and it puts

you sort of off balance.

This is one of these like old, the really
shitty, busy business psychology books.

And it’s, it’s a tactic you
can do to people on purpose.

You ask them a question.

When they go to answer, you
reiterate or you interrupt them.

And then you finish speaking.

And then when they go to speak again, you
interrupt and you do like five, six times.

It’s a power move and it’s done on purpose.

And the counter to that is to just stop.

And then you have a huge silence
and then go, do you want me to answer?

And they have to either say yes or no.

And then when they say yes, you go, because
they’re out there, of course, I want you to answer.

I want you to answer
honestly and that kind of stuff.

Then you say, are you
going to interrupt me?

And the instant there and there, there’s
now like an unwritten agreement that if you

interrupt me, you’re actually breaking
your own rule that you’ve just established.

I didn’t keep track
of it the first time, I

should have actually, how many times
he interrupts her while she’s speaking.

They’re me not out there.

So, and I just point
out some things here

because I just want to
be realistic when we’re

having conversations because
when statements are made like this.

So there you go.

She’s gone to speak again.

This is at least the second
if not third interruption.

And after he’s asked his question of,
what are you going to replace plastic with?

And he’s, when she went to
speak, he’s like, what do your

glasses made of and he’s going
to speak and he’s going to do it.

So we’re not having a conversation.

He’s giving a speech
and he’s interrupting

you so that you can’t
answer in any real way.

They will.

Okay.

That’s easy to say, but what’s
the solution? So he’s there.

You go.

He’s saying,
what’s the solution?

He’s not letting her speak though.

So she’s not often able
to offer up any solution.

And again, the solution
can’t be 100% right away.

So it’s this disingenuous
attitude of something.

Apparently this is really
happening on YouTube,

70% of the climate
denial is actually going

through this form of
secondary attacks that

current things you’re
doing aren’t going to work.

So why even bother to do them?

If the government
asks you for a solution,

if you don’t come up with 100% solution,
then there’s no reason doing it at all.

It’s one of those
things that now that I’ve

become aware of it and
I hear it, these dialogues

become more interesting to listen to.

This is a different story.

It’s a different kind of
discourse we’re talking about.

So what you are looking for
was Nirvana perfect solutions.

Ah, thank you.

Yes, I knew there must be this is
not like a new way to attack arguments.

So the Nirvana perfect
solution fallacy as I

guess what I actually
like, I actually could

have come to that conclusion of myself
because that is what they’re always asking.

It’s ridiculous.

It’s ridiculous to want that.

And then if you
speak in realistic terms,

like, yeah, let’s let’s
focus on water bottles first.

We’re at a water like plastic bottles
and replace them with something else.

Or again, in Japan,
what they’ve been doing

for a lot of bottles is
making them 50% less plastic.

Well, that’s 50% less plastic.

Let’s do that.

Let’s do try to do
50% less plastic in

everything, make the
plastic thinner or, again,

I think my glasses are made of plastic,
but they’re the lightest frames ever made.

And I think the idea is that the
plastic is actually injected with air.

So there’s less plastic
overall, less weight,

which is they’re
selling the weight, but

they’re actually probably
way cheaper to produce.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

Thank you.

The perfect solution
fallacy is an informal

fallacy that occurs when
an argument assumes

that a perfect
solution exists or that a

solution should be
rejected because some part

of the problem would still
exist after we’re implemented.

But thank you for that.

Thank you for the fallacy thing
because I knew there was one.

I just didn’t know what it was called.

That’s the story of my life.

I know stuff, but I don’t
know what it’s called.

Like people.

I know you, I don’t know your name.

There was a Colorado pastor called Eli,
how man Peter, Regal Lando, whatever.

It was called Eli, my
handwriting’s so poor in this.

I got this.

I actually stuff.

I have to start typing up notes.

I did notice there was a thing, Elgato
has made a teleprompter for web stuff.

And so it goes around your
webcam and it just prompts up.

And then I would just sit here and
like, like a newscaster and just read.

And it would look like I was
looking at the camera the whole time.

I’m always looking slightly down
because I’m actually reading my notes.

I’ve learned to hold
my notes up under the

camera so they don’t
like wave around in front.

That’s the techniques
is how they’re coming.

There’s a Colorado
pastor named Eli and he

launched a cryptocurrency
called INDXcoin index

coin already not a great
name, I mean, not inspiring.

If this is supposed to
be like funded by God,

because he’s a pastor,
it’s already suspicious.

Pastor and cryptocurrency are not
two things I put together to be successful.

But there was
nothing behind it, it was

basically worthless
because usually you launch a

coin with a certain
amount of fiat currency

behind it or something
behind it, some way you

could exchange it, something
like that, to make it have value.

So you could actually say the same thing
about Bitcoin, Bitcoin has no actual value.

The value is injected by our
perception of it and all that other stuff.

That’s also how money works.

But I could trade out cryptocurrency,
Bitcoin, let’s say, for cash.

Whereas this didn’t have
anything to support it.

People maybe had to buy it,
but there was no foundation.

The first, let’s say, thousand coins
that were created had no foundation.

So buying them actually meant buying the
source, not the actual value of the coins.

You could only, this was again, the
second part that’s very suspicious.

You could only buy index coin through
the crypto exchange that Eli created.

So not only was it a
coin that had no value,

it couldn’t be traded
in any real way with

any other exchange to either create or grow
in value, because you couldn’t trade it.

So you could, and he
called it the kingdom

wealth exchange as
American pastors and these

like mega churches and
stuff and they’re always

like, it’s almost a joke
to me because I live so

far outside of that culture.

But it’s just, I see it and I’m
like, it’s not real, it’s not real.

If you said, hey, I have
the kingdom wealth

exchange with a coin
made by a pastor and you

can only trade it on
the kingdom wealth

exchange and you can’t
trade it anywhere else.

I’d be like, look, I’ve been scam
before, but this seems like a real scam.

He shut the exchange
down last year and in

his defense, he said it
was God’s idea, maybe

he misinterpreted what
God said, which would

imply that God is not a
very good communicator.

Because, okay, I was
thinking about the times

God in the stories I
know, because it’s very

shallow knowledge of a
relationship, let’s be honest.

The times God has communicated with people,
so the most famous one to me is Noah.

He took this guy.

He’s like, hey, no, buddy,
I want you to build a boat

and I was like, dude, I don’t
know how to build a boat.

He’s like, oh, God, you’ll build a boat.

It’ll be fine.

I want you, when you
build the boat, this animal’s

going to come, they’re
all going to get on board.

It’s going to have to be super big.

He’s like, dude, I can’t do that.

He’s like, dude, you can’t do it.

And then Noah built a
boat and the boat was

big enough to house
all the animals and then

the flood happened and all those
animals repopulated the earth.

I mean, it worked out.

I don’t even know if Noah was a carpenter.

If he was a boat builder,
if you knew anything

about it, but through
God, God communicated

enough to him to build
this boat, apparently

God’s communication
skills have dropped since

then, or maybe just cryptocurrency is too
complicated for God to really get his head around.

That’s actually certainly
maybe the other issue.

I think the interesting
bit here is that God

sends you a message
and you didn’t understand

or interpret the message
properly, throws up

a lot of questions about God that
maybe you don’t want answered.

In October of 2021,
God brought this crypto

idea to me and he said, take this
to my people for a wealth transfer.

God wants a wealth transfer.

Now, again, God being God, I never
thought God would be that into money.

I never thought that
money would be kind of

the focus of God, but
there is like all these

wealth churches now
and where they’re like, if

you give us money, you’ll
get blessings in return.

That’s not a new thing.

That’s actually been around.

You could buy forgiveness
at some point and had a name.

Again, I don’t know.

I need one of my friends who actually knows
religion on here to actually like shout in the back.

This would be really cool.

I sit here and I make
vaguely incorrect

statements because I don’t
really know what I’m talking about.

And then I have
someone, an expert in the

back who just shouts the
correct answer over my shoulder.

Would actually be
a really good show.

I’d really enjoy that.

I’d have to end up with like a
panel of experts of different things.

So everything I talk
about, they’re just

like different people are
shouting at me from the back.

Anyways, so God wanted
this for a wealth transfer.

I want you to build this.

Now, the thing is, that’s
actually pretty clear.

God said, build a cryptocurrency, build
an exchange and create a wealth transfer.

Indulgence says, that’s not it.

It does.

Jade, man.

You’re awesome.

Paying for forgiveness is indulgences, yes.

I will never remember the actual terms.

Thank you.

The thing that is, okay.

So if you look at this statement,
God said to me, create a

cryptocurrency, take this to the
people, create a wealth transfer.

That’s actually really clear.

So God’s communication on
this, there’s not a lot lacking in it.

He successfully built an exchange.

He successfully built a cryptocurrency.

He’s actually very hard
things to do anyway.

And then he did it and then it collapsed.

And so they made me think that
maybe God wanted you to go to prison.

This was God’s
roundabout way of putting

you in prison because
you’re a bad person or

to punish you in this
life or something like that.

There’s always the secondary
part when this stuff falls apart.

And these people said
that God told me to do

this, they’re not taking
into account, maybe

God wants you to fail
in this to learn a lesson.

Maybe God wants
you to go to jail, maybe

there’s a third one, I’m not
going to say until the very end.

So Eli said to God, I
do want the explanation.

So the pastor, I’m going
to assume is praying.

And that’s when God’s voice comes to
him and he says to God in his prayers.

Is it a voice?

Is it a feeling?

To know, because when if I say, if I’m
laying in bed, let’s say, if I’m laying in

bed and I hear, do I
hear a voice that says,

hey, make chunk coin,
make beef bucks, and

then create the chunk, exchange, is
that God or is that just me having an idea?

I do, like I want to
know a more perception

oriented version of what
happens when they hear

the voice of God, because these
pastors and stuff do hear the voice of God.

So they claim, what is that like?

Just give me an
explanation of that because

then I’ll know if God’s
talking to me because

I actually, a lot of times, I’m like,
did I have that really messed up idea?

Because I have had the
idea of killing my own son.

It’s pretty dark, but I didn’t
because I didn’t believe the voices.

So I said, Lord, I don’t want to do this.

I don’t know how to do this God is
giving you hard times to forge you for him.

Just like stealing the
fire, if times never got hard,

if things never get hot,
how can you get stronger?

Oh, God is giving you
hard times to forge you

for, Eli said God is in the business
of doing new things and breaking seals.

Is he, I mean, that’s
actually another thing

that he’s using business terms
to describe God’s actions now.

So anyways, he got to $3.2
million dumped into this exchange.

He claimed a malfunction and he
exchanged closed the whole thing.

So it wasn’t that he did something wrong.

It’s not that he
just like drained it all

of the money and kept
all the money himself.

There was a malfunction and that closed it.

He did actually admit, and I think
I’m going to be able to find the video.

I have a couple of videos saved.

I’ll cut those in here.

He said, yeah, I took a bunch of the money.

I took one point, oh,
wait, wait, one point three

million dollars was
used for personal benefit.

That’s what the IRS says.

The charges are that
Caitlin and I pocketed

$1.3 million dollars and I just want to come
out and say that those charges are true.

He took out it as work
and sold a cryptocurrency

with no clearings or that
cryptocurrency turned out to be a scam.

And so the Lord says,
give that to him, but

also give them a 10x and I’m like, well,
where’s this liquidity to get a come from?

And the Lord says, trust me,
a $500,000 went to the IRS.

He renovated his house
because God said, take

the wealth exchange
and put it into your house,

put it into your assets
because that’s important.

God said, you know,
redo the bedroom, buddy,

where the action
happens, where you make

more babies to glorify me.

He bought a Range Rover.

So God said, buy one
of the worst rated cars

on the road because God
doesn’t care about safety.

Range Rover has
a good reputation.

That’s from decades back.

The current Range Rovers that come
out now, absolutely pieces of garbage.

You’re buying them for the status symbol.

Sure, God in this
situation seems to be all

about status symbols,
not about actually taking

care of people because
if you wanted to take

care of someone and
you wanted to spend an

expensive car, you
get a Mercedes like it’s

as much higher safety rating
on Mercedes than a Range Rover.

Just keep that in mind.

God might be trying to kill this guy.

God said, you know, take some of the money
and buy handbags and jewelry because what

glorifies your wife, glorifies me,
no, I might be getting good at this.

If I keep this going, I might start my own
little cult because we’re calling it beef nation.

We’ve decided that we’re
going to go a fan of the

chunk we’ve you just
in any format is a chunk.

And so I got to I didn’t do it.

I got to start going.

What up beef nation?

Hello, all you little
chunks out there, like

and subscribe, a set
of phrases I’ve never

used before, but I mean,
if I can put them into

practice, if I can make
that sound natural,

I think this is the cusp of my fame
when I say, what up beef nation?

Some money was put into
boat rentals, I’m leaving.

Whoa, I hit the keyboard and
the the transition went off to that.

That would be awesome
if I said, what up beef

nation and then just know
whatever, download it again.

Because I measure this
off podcast downloads.

I don’t look at I YouTube, I
get like maybe six, 10 views.

I know it’s not really that’s not
really why I used to doing this.

There’s a couple other like video websites,
I get like 20, 30 views or whatever.

This is a audio podcast first.

If the week after I said
what up beef nation,

no one ever downloaded
again, all the message

would have been very clear, God misinformed
me of what I was supposed to do.

So some of the money went to boat
rentals smart enough not to buy a boat.

God was saying boats are bad investments.

They’re money saying
don’t buy a boat rent a boat.

At least in this one case, God was right.

God was saying you
don’t want to buy a boat.

You just want to rent a boat.

It is a way better deal.

And then the final
one, which I loved the

most for some reason,
God said, you know what

you need, you need a
snowmobile adventure.

I would love when Noah
again, the only really

direct form of communication I can
remember from the Bible in any real way.

Noah, he’s like build a boat.

This is going to be
like incredibly difficult

for you because we’re
talking about a massive

boat, you know, 10 stories high, no qubits
or whatever it was is going to take so much

of your life and energy, your family and
everyone’s going to think you’re crazy.

You got to do this.

And then with this guy with Eli, he’s
like Eli, man, snowmobile adventure.

That’s what you need.

That’s going to glorify me.

That’s going to save the
earth if you have a snowmobile

adventure and then bring
that back to your congregation.

So I came to three
conclusions or three possibilities.

God is giving you bad
advice, but being God,

he’s giving you bad
advice on purpose so

that your life gets fucked up.

The second one, which I would actually kind
of hope to be the real one is God is just

fucking with you because
God doesn’t like Eli.

But what a way to
figure that out is that, oh

shit, God’s just fucking with me
because he’s enlightened me very much.

Or and the last one I wanted
to save is the big finale.

Maybe you’re not actually hearing God.

[MUSIC]

[Music]

I had a bunch of notes in
my notebooks and it was like

little things that weren’t
going to make a whole episode.

Often I’ll let them sit
there and then when I get

three or four things that
sort of match together

I will then make an episode
out of them but it just kind

of dried this week. I was
working on a ton of other stuff.

So I was like you know what I’m going
to throw a couple random things together.

I used to call these episodes
randomitis in my old podcast.

And just see maybe it comes
together maybe it doesn’t

but you’ll get some
nice little stories out of it.

First one’s about a company called Temu.

It is a sales portal on
the Internet and I think

they’re thinking it’s
like shop like a billionaire.

I bought a cute little keyboard
from the mechanical keyboard.

I was very happy about
it. I was very excited

because it was 400
yen which is like $4.

And this is like full-on
mechanical keyboard.

This is not like a it’s plastic
but it’s not like garbage plastic.

I don’t know how you’d explain it.
It’s high quality plastic.

It’s actually got solid keys
and it feels really good and

I’m using it instead of my
other keyboard that I had before.

I was like wow this is incredible.
How can they do this?

You need to have at least a
thousand yen to get free shipping.

A thousand yen that’s $10.

I bought a crappy little
light because some of my

podcasting friends are saying
I have to be lit up better.

I actually see there’s a shadow
now I’m actually using it right.

Watching the video.

If you’re on the actual
podcast podcast thank you

because I never wanted to
be on video in the first place.

So I bought this combo.
This is like a improving my setup.

I thought wow you know this
they got to be selling this at a loss.

Like the keyboard is
worth and dollars minimum.

These mechanical keyboards
like $20, $30 for the cheap ones.

They go up to the hundreds of dollars.
How is this possible?

Well the week after a
keyboard and light arrive.

I watched this video on YouTube.

This video on YouTube is explaining
that the developers of Temu.

previously had another app and that other
app was also a sort of sales portal app.

And that sales portal app was also
selling things at incredibly low prices.

And how is that possible?

What they were doing is
in the app was harvesting all

your personal information
and selling it illegally.

So the app that they used
previously that they made

previously was banned from the
Google store or being malware.

And now Temu hasn’t been caught yet.

But it does seem like the same
developers selling things at an

average of $30 loss are probably
doing the exact same thing.

So they’re probably harvested all
my information from my phone illegally.

And they are probably going to sell it.

But we don’t know that yet.

So the question is this is one of the
problems of trying stuff on the Internet.

I bought a fake Rolex on the
Internet knowing it was fake though.

I bought a watch for
Instagram that was free with like,

it was only like 500
yen or something like

incredibly cheap
shipping like $34 shipping.

I bought it just to see what the watch was.

Now the risk is you give
these people your information.

But I’m torn.

How much is my information worth?

So I’m worried that they’ve
got all my passwords and stuff.

Maybe my credit card information.

I use PayPal.

Pay them.

But that felt at least there
was one layer of safety

that they weren’t going to
get my financial information.

But if they’ve installed malware
on my phone, they have access

to credit card details,
logging details and other stuff.

I’m pretty sure I’m
about to do a factory

reset on my phone and
change all my passwords.

It isn’t fun.

I don’t know if the
question is, was the

incredibly high discount
on this very good keyboard

worth a factory reset and
changing all my passwords?

I should be changing all
my passwords regularly

anyways as should you,
but it’s not something I do.

Because I have to remember
my passwords to log into stuff.

That’s problematic.

But I’ve taken the app off my phone.

I’m preparing to do a factory reset.

Problem is it was a really good deal.

So if I see other stuff
on Temu, if I’m willing

to download the app,
buy the thing I want to buy,

do a factory reset and
change all my passwords.

How much work is that?

That’s basically the
experiment I’m about to run.

How much effort is it for me to do?

You change all my
passwords and then factory

reset my phone and
put everything back on it.

Is that worth every product I buy being
3000 yen cheaper or 30, 30 dollars cheaper?

Because how much is my time worth?

Mr. Warm hands are just put in the chat.

How valuable do you think your data is?

That is actually my question.

I don’t know.

Because I am willing to do the change.

I’m willing to put the
effort in to make the change.

If I’m willing to put in the
effort to make the change, is

that worth 30 bucks off every
product I buy from now on.

Because it might be.

Because if I do a bulk purchase
and get a really good deal on

let’s say in my example mouse
keyboard, light, camera, other stuff,

that would be 30
dollars off each product,

factory reset my phone,
change all my passwords.

Does seem like it’s worth it?

Because if I get really good
at it, that’s not a lot of effort.

Or I could get a second phone.

I just thought of this.

I could buy a phone through Temu.

That could be my burner
phone that only has essentially

information for Temu, which is
not all my personal information.

Like make separate accounts.

Could I scam this camera?

I didn’t know what my
data is worth to anyone.

I’m not easily swayed by advertising and
I’m out of the most desired age bracket.

I’m not thinking my
data is that valuable, but

people taking my passwords
and using my accounts.

Data isn’t what I’m worried about
so much is like my credit card.

Because I had my credit
card stolen ones and I

was able to like, it
fixed that pretty quickly.

But it’s a pain in the app.

So them buying stuff on your
credit card, even if you don’t end up

getting charged for that, you
have to change all your information.

That’s my concern.

Because that’s not going
to be worth 30 bucks to me.

That’s going to be someone
else is trying to steal all

my stuff or use all my stuff
to make their purchases.

Which becomes my new life.

And then the identity theft where
they open credit cards and other stuff.

That’s my concern of
them selling my information.

Because that’s where it’s not worth
anything to the individual, but it’s worth a

lot to the person as they open five credit
cards and ruin my credit score or others.

That would be my actual concern.

I recently tried to make an AI video.

And so I went online, of
course I went online and said,

“AI video creator free, free
being the optimal word there.”

Because this project wasn’t
enough, worth enough to pay for it.

And so you do get a lot
of stuff free on the Internet.

And of course they are also
trying to harvest your information.

This might be the theme, the
ongoing theme throughout this

is harvesting your information
for other people’s profit.

How much do you protect yourself?

How much is it worth it?

I essentially have not
been scammed yet by Temu.

But my expectation is
that I will be scammed by

Temu if I don’t take
steps to protect myself.

But I went into this thing
that claimed it was free.

And it was free to make the video.

Because I put a song
in with lyrics and then

it was going to do
a lyric video for me.

Then you had to pay for a
subscription to download the video.

So this was a technically true
statement that is not true in spirit.

They were saying, if you want to
make a video making the video is free.

You can take all your stuff,
you can log in and you can

make all your information
and then put all the stuff.

We’ll make the video, you can
watch it online in your account.

You won’t be able to
share it with anybody else.

But if you want to download
it and actually let’s say

upload it to your YouTube
or use it wherever else,

that’s going to be part of
the subscription package.

So I just stopped.

I was like, okay, well I don’t care.

I’m going to log out.

I don’t want this video.

I’ll make my own at home.

We’ll take my home.

Then I started getting the emails.

Because I had to use an email to log in.

And the emails were, you wouldn’t
leave your video unfinished, would you?

I was like, are you trying
to guilt me that I put effort

into this project that you
said was going to be free?

And then it wasn’t free.

And then because I haven’t
been suckered by you, you’re

going to try to make me
feel guilty that what is this?

A baby has been left out
in the cold and it’s my fault.

No, it’s your fault for not being
honest from the beginning saying

that this was a paid subscription
that I didn’t want to pay.

And I wouldn’t have put
the time into the video.

There is the sunk cost fallacy
and it’s famous for car dealerships

that the idea is that the longer
you stay at a place or do a thing,

you feel like the time you’ve
put in is part of a value of your life.

So if a dealer a salesperson,
the longer they can keep

you there, the more likely
you are to buy a product.

In this case, even though I
have quite large one like a car.

I now knowing of the
sunk cost fallacy, being

aware of it, it doesn’t
work on me anymore.

So I recently had to buy a new car.

We had a car, it was quite old.

Taxes in Japan, the way they work, the
older your car, the higher the taxes go.

That’s why you don’t see a lot
of old cars on the road in Japan.

We were getting to
that borderline where

our car was old and
the taxes were going up.

Was it worth keeping?

We decided no because the
commute my wife was going to

have to do was going to
get very long stuff like that.

It was worthwhile to get a new car for us.

I immediately said when
we sat down to do the

car dealership to the
guy, I have 30 minutes.

So I’m going to talk to you for 30 minutes.

And you can see he was like, hmm,
I said, I have another appointment.

You have 30 minutes to talk to us
and then we’re going to get up and leave.

And he got to the 29 minute Mark.

You see he got really nervous.

He was like, okay, well, your
time’s up, we’re going to go.

Then my wife actually got up and left.

And I said, he’s talking to me.

Now I’m pretending I
don’t speak any Japanese.

This puts a lot of
pressure on the salesperson.

I just looked at him and said,
you can keep trying to sell to me.

But I technically your sales
pitch isn’t going to work.

You either just give me all the
information now or I’m going to leave.

And we didn’t end up, he
kept trying to find a way around

it by getting us to come
back and make an appointment.

We said, no, no, thank you.

We didn’t buy from that dealership.

We went to another one.

Did the exact same thing we said, we got
35 minutes an hour or something like that.

We didn’t want to be unfair.

The question is the
conversation about a car.

It’s a big purchase.

It’s going to take some time.

But I also don’t want them wasting my time.

I don’t want them using
the cost, I’m fallacy.

Song cost time.

I should actually look that up.

It’s, it’s sunk.

I’m sunk.

Did this to myself just now?

I’m, oh, it’s just called, sunk
time fallacy comes up pretty quick.

So I’m sure that’s right.

That’s probably right.

Anyways, if you heard the
clicks, that was my second time.

That was my sexy new
keyboard that might be malware.

But by setting that time limit, we set it
the way we could just excuse ourselves

get up and leave and
then he had to get the

deal done where he
wasn’t going to get the deal.

We got a pretty good deal in the car.

My wife went back and then
heightened the screws a little

bit on him, but that’s a talent
she has that I don’t have.

Anyways, why did I start that?

Ah, yes.

That’s what they were trying to pull on me.

Like you put all this
work into this project.

You want to download your video, not
realizing that no, I have no investment.

I just wanted to see
what it would look like.

I’m done.

Then I started getting, it
was about six months ago.

I started getting emails from photo bucket.

Now I don’t remember using photo bucket.

So it must have been
like five, 10, 15 years ago.

I’m thinking there was a
work event and I wanted to

share those pictures with
people from my workplace.

Students who participated
because I was a teacher at that time.

Don’t want to use a personal account.

So I made a photo bucket
account where I could

just share the link
and everyone can look.

Photo bucket has every
two or three weeks been

sending me emails threatening
to delete my pictures.

But they’re trying to use gilts
and they tried to use nostalgia.

Like you wouldn’t want to
lose these precious memories.

I don’t even remember
what the fucking pictures are.

So as far as I’m concerned,
go screw yourself.

Photo bucket, pull the fucking trigger.

Stop being a pussy.
Be the photo bucket you want to be.

Pull the trigger.
Delete those photos. I dare you.

And here’s the thing.

The instant they actually
delete my photos, they no

longer have a link to me
that would matter in any way.

They can’t use nostalgia
because those pictures are gone.

I can’t use gilt because
those pictures are gone.

They could try to make me feel
bad and then recover the images.

But we both know that
the only thing that they

have over me is those
photos and those photos.

I don’t care about photo bucket.
Go fuck yourself.

I got weirdly aggressive at the end.

I think I’m annoyed at how
long it’s taken photo bucket.

They’ve been threatening me for months now.

And I’m just like do it.

Do it. It’s like when the guy in
the movie has the gun to your head.

He’s because I’m going to shoot
you and you just pull the trigger.

Do it. Do it.

Pull the trigger.

I just woke up Dave.

Okay. This is completely unrelated.

I guess it is the
don’t fuck with people

because photo bucket
has been fucking with me.

And him who fucked with me.

Maybe there’s my feet.

Dave had a serious WTF.

He had a serious what the fuck.

I don’t think he’s ever heard
that sound from me before us.

That’s probably a bit disturbing
the first time you hear it.

He might think I’m talking to him.

There’s only he and I
in this room right now.

So when I start saying
like, hold the trigger, do it.

Dave might be like, I don’t
have fingers or a thumb.

Can’t pull the trigger man.

Chill out.

Okay. I got two more stories.

I don’t know if he’s going to link up.

Oh, this isn’t related to fucking with me.

This is me fucking with Steven Seghal.

A name I said I would never say again, but
I’m saying it again in this one instance.

I’m giving myself an
excuse because I need to tell

this story about how I did
not promote Steven’s Seghal.

So there’s a young guy.

You need to have the D-shirt on.

Okay.

You’re right.

Harry hard to tell.

Which is the front of the shirt.

So I put it on backwards
every time, but it feels.

This would be great.

If I do the transition right,
he’s smelling the shirt.

It smells weird, right?

My feet.

Come on.

Get your butt in the,
get your butt in the bed.

My, uh, my lap isn’t comfortable
enough for him to sit on.

So I have to put the dog bed on my
lap or he’s not happy and he just stands.

So this is an improvement.

Good.

Good.

All right.

He’s settled.

Okay.

So we’re going to start this story again.

Uh, there’s a, a young guy
started going to judo with me.

He’s in his early 20s.

I think 24 maybe.

I was making fit.

So in the judo club, there’s
this massive matte area.

So there’s maybe 50%
of it is the judo guys.

It’s the biggest club.

You got some MMA guys
who practice in the sides.

Some karate guys practice in one corner.

Sometimes a break dancer
will come in and do a little

break dancing, which I
actually think is really cool.

Our corner lately, there’s
been some my keto people.

I personally have
respect for all the martial

arts as long as you
admit what they really are.

Now judo used to be self
defense, but now is a sport.

It’s an effective sport.

It could still be used in
some elements and self

defense, but I wouldn’t
call it a self defense thing.

Uh, resiliency judiu
have a lot of respect for

what they do, but it is
really poly on the ground.

Uh, that’s not something you would
actually want to do on concrete.

So again, it’s more of a sport.

It’s a great sport.

You should probably try
it karate once you kicky.

Cool stuff.

Uh, I’m not actually flexible
enough to do Taekwondo

and stuff like that, but
a lot of respect for that.

Akido is pretend.

Are you doing wrist locks
and the person jumps over?

It is one step away from make believe.

I don’t want to shit on Akido,
but I do shit on Akido a lot.

So sometimes this young guy
and I will stand and I will look

over at the Akido guys at what
they’re doing and I will make.

I would say fairly
disparaging comments on the

effectiveness of the
techniques they’re doing.

Because I watched some Akido
guys do a full contact competition

and it looked like judo real
quick, which I found quite funny.

But I, he said, why do
you hate Akido so much?

I don’t really hate Akido.

I just like to make fun of it because
of the man himself, Steven Sago.

Just realize this shirt, his
throat goes up into my throat.

If I could get that up a little higher.

I have Steven Tukulch.

My depth of hatred towards Steven
Sago, everything he is and everything

he represents is why I now have
a negative impression of Akido.

I think there probably
was a time in history

when I would have
said, “Aikido is great.”.

Again, I wouldn’t say
it’s the most effective

martial art, but it’s a
good thing to practice.

Everything has all these
things have benefits.

If you’re doing nothing and
you start doing Akido, there

will be a benefit for you
physically, mentally, whatever.

Akido has its place in the world,
but Steven Sagoch does not.

My hate for Steven Sagoch
is so passionate and so thick

and so deep that it has
colored my feelings of Akido.

It’s almost like Akido didn’t
produce Steven Sagoch.

Steven Sagoch produced my hate for Akido.

If I actually met a person who does
Akido, I don’t think I’d make fun of them.

I don’t think I would ask
some questions, stuff like that.

But I would be judging
them and that’s important.

I said, “I hate Akido so much
because of Steven Sagoch.”

Then I stopped for a second and
said, “Do you know who that is?”

He said, “No. My questions
as to someone who

did Akido. What questions
would I ask them?”

My first question would not be
why do you love Steven Sagoch.

It would be, “What do you
think of Steven Sagoch?”

Because that would be the
point I would judge them all.

If they then turn around
and said, “Steven Sagoch is

a great practitioner for
the sport. He’s grown it.”

Whatever, I’d be like,
“You suck. I hate you

so much. I hope you
get hit by a truck.”.

If they said, “Steven Sagoch is
an embarrassment to everything

Akido represents, I think you
and I might be on the same page.”

That is a sincere answer to that question.

I would ask about techniques
and stuff, but I probably

would ask, “What do you
think about Steven Sagoch?”.

My friend who comes with me to judo, I
mentioned the name of Steven Sagoch, and

then I said, “It looked on his face like,
“Oh, I don’t really know who I’m in.”.

I said, “Do you know who that is?” He said,
“No, I don’t. What was the name again?”

I refused to tell him.

Just like when I ended
Velocipod cast, I said,

“I would never mention
Steven Sagoch again.”

This is context of the story, and
he doesn’t listen to this podcast.

I refused to say the name twice.

In a way, this guy can’t even go learn
about Steven Sagoch to hate watch him.

I hate watch Steven Sagoch. I
get every movie that ever has

come out, and I watch it,
and I hate every second of it.

I can just marinate in the juices of my
anger of how much I hate Steven Sagoch.

I did do an episode, and the question was, “Should
I expose young people to Steven Sagoch so they can

hate him as much as I do, or should I try to improve
the world by removing Steven Sagoch from them?”

I’ve taken that second step. I have
said, “No, I will not teach you his

name. I will not share him with you.
You will never see one of his films.”

He is now dead to the world.
He is now less famous than he

could have been, because I
could have introduced you to him.

You could have pirated
his movies, no one’s

ever going to pay for
a Steven Sagoch movie.

But, end of the day, now Steven Sagoch
is less famous than he could have been.

Yes, only I shall hate him, my hate
is unique, my hate is not a burden.

It’s a fire that burns within me
that drives me to be better than

Steven Sagoch, which is about
as hard as standing up in your film.

He’s made films, and in those
films he no longer stands up.

That’s actually a noticeable fact that he
doesn’t stand up any more in his movies.

He’ll do action scenes, and he’ll stand
up for the action scene, and then you

can see another much thinner actor
takes over for the actual action scene.

I assume it’s like a stuntman.

I had one more story
to round out my stories.

I guess this is just people f*cking
with people in different ways.

Temu fcking with me, me fcking
with photo b*ck it, a young guy, me

fcking with Ikea-DO, and not letting him fck with Steven Sagoch.

Last one is just don’t f*ck with people.

In general, because they
might f*ck with you back.

So, a long time ago
before switchboards, there

were ladies, operators
who would connect the call.

So you’d say you’d pick up
your phone, and you’d call,

and you’d say I want to
speak to this office downtown.

I want to speak to this store.

I want to talk to the grocery store
and have some groceries delivered.

These kind of things.

You would say to the person
who you want to speak to, they

would pull out, you’ve
probably seen it in old movies.

You’d pull out this big
wire and connect you to

another place, and then
you could speak directly.

That was a job that houses in
thousands of women across the world.

But there was a small town,
and there was an undertaker.

There were actually two
undertakers in the town.

Thing is, the woman who was
working the switchboard for

that small town was married
to one of the undertaker.

Let’s call him undertaker b.

So I have a relative who is just dying.

Very sad.

And I call up the operator and say, I
would like to speak to undertaker a.

And then the woman married to
undertaker b, she would connect

me to undertaker b, not the
person I asked to speak to.

But again, I’m in my moment of grief.

I’m not really going to
argue there’s a service I want.

I want to get that service.

So this switchboard
operator was abusing her

power to push customers
to her husband’s business.

The undertaker a, kind of figured
out what was going on, probably

had someone call and then
actually asked specifically for him.

And then had the call rerouted
to someone who wasn’t him.

And then they’d like talk to him
later and be like, I tried to call you.

But when I called you, the operator
routed me to a different phone number.

That’s kind of bullshit.

But he knows that the woman is rerouting
the calls for him to another business.

So what does he do?

He invents the automatic
switchboard and puts millions of

women out of business
because this lady fucked with him.

And that’s don’t fuck
with smart people, I guess.

There’s no way you would
have known that this guy has

the ability to figure out
how to automatically switch.

And put thousands and
thousands of people out of work

by automating a process
that was done by a hand before.

And I don’t know why,
but I love that story.

And I love that level of revenge
because he didn’t just burn her.

He burned an entire industry because
this lady fucked with his business.

And I don’t have a conclusion.

I’m just that level.

As a level, maybe I
aspire towards in the hopes

that I can burn down
what’s left to Stephen

Sago and he is so fat
he would burn so well.

I can’t end with that statement.

That’s so horrible.

But I think I might.

Don’t be petty.

Is it petty to hate Stephen Sago?

Yeah, don’t be petty B next level.

There you go.

Mr. Warm Hands hits the final phrase.

Don’t be pity.

Be the next level.

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(upbeat music).

I was thinking about big oil.

What?

I’ve been really honest
with a very weird

thing to sit around
thinking about, but I think

about big oil and how
they miss an opportunity.

And this sort of goes
into a couple episodes ago.

I talked about in shitification.

This relates in that I’m also
thinking about self-preservation.

So I’m going to start
with big oil companies.

They are going to die out.

We have all the climate crisis.

We have the energy crisis.

Oil is a finite resource.

So eventually it will run out.

And that should have
been the thought they had.

They knew this back in the ’70s.

They had models of
how long oil is going to

last, how long we can
extract oil from the earth.

The impact is having on the climate.

They knew all this in
the ’70s and ’80s and

just decided to keep
it quiet and move along

with the status quo
as if nothing was wrong.

And that to me, it was a
distinct lack of foresight.

Because if at that time
the big oil companies

weren’t thinking of
themselves as oil companies,

as energy companies,
they could have been at

the forefront of developing the
new technologies that we need now.

So imagine if Exxon, I
don’t know if Exxon’s

a company anymore, BP,
anything, just a big oil company.

Back in the ’80s had said,
we’re not just an oil company.

We are an energy
company and take a minute

amount of their profits,
because we know they

make billions and billions
of dollars every year.

We put it into alternative energy research.

So they could have been the ones in the
’90s, in the early 2000s, to come out with

feasible solar panels,
a new grid that works

off of their technology
that’s proprietary.

So they own it.

They could have ended up being the
foundation for all energy at the moment.

They could have created hybrid systems.

So as oil became
less viable, their other

technologies could grow
and they would never

lose any of the profits that
they so desperately want.

Now there is a
short-sightedness in that,

well, 20, 30 years from
now, I’m going to be

dead or I’m not going
to be in this position.

All I care about is money and power.

That’s fine, but it shows
that you’re not really

thinking about the
future because if climate

change strikes us all
down in the next five

years, whether you’re
rich or not isn’t going

to matter very much, you’re
still going to be involved.

I also did an episode about
billionaires trying to make bunkers.

And the obvious failures there, again, show
a very distinct short-sightedness when they

should be trying to solve the problem
not just trying to survive the fallout.

But if they had
done this, if the big oil

companies had thought
of themselves as energy

companies and created
new energies in the past, so in

the 70s and 80s and 90s,
they would have maintained

a dominant market share
essentially for all of eternity.

And the oil companies
that didn’t think forward,

that didn’t try to develop
anything new, would die out.

And then you would
end up with one massive

company that controls
all the energy in the world.

And that is what they want.

So they actually missed by not innovating.

They missed the opportunities to be the
like despots they really, really want to be.

And now we’ve hit this weird stage
where we can see storms have increased.

Huge chunks of the earth are on fire.

And this is happening
more and more every year.

We have record heat waves.

But then we have the
recent Republican debate.

The legitimately saying, I want to
be president and this is what I think.

The ocean hits 101 degrees
off the coast of Florida.

The climate change.

The climate change.

The climate change agenda is a hoax.

But you don’t have
to be a scientist to see

that there are changes
of foot, that weather

has changed in the
last 10, 15, 20 years,

that things have gotten
noticeably worse, that

water in the ocean is
hotter than it should be.

And again, this is
talking about short term

gains at the risk of
self preservation in the

future because I don’t necessarily
just want to be successful now.

I want to be successful
into the future so

much so that my kids
can be successful in the

future and other generations
that follow their end.

I guess I don’t know, call me selfish.

I don’t know.

There are other ways
this is manifested as

well that I’m really enjoying right
now because we’re seeing Trump.

And recently, Giuliani
went to court and since

Trump isn’t paying legal bills
anymore, everyone’s rolling on him.

So Giuliani goes to
court and admits that he

lied and all these other people are
going to court and admitting their lie.

They lied.

And that is because
you have Trump, he said,

like, oh, if you don’t support
me, I will take care of you.

But we’ve seen he doesn’t support anyone.

He doesn’t take care of anyone.

He doesn’t spend any money.

You can go on the Internet and find all the
stories about people who have done work for

him contract work and
he just doesn’t pay out.