Greetings. Welcome to whatever channel you're seeing this on. I don't know which one it's going to be.
We're doing some Q&A. I'm here hanging out with Larkin for the next week and we're having a blast
and we thought, hey, we're rarely together in person so why don't we take some questions and have some chats
that we usually have to have remotely staring into the black hole of cameras instead of each other's lovely eyes.
Although we're both staring into the camera.
Alright, so we have two more that we're going to do here. One from Remco.
He wants us to discuss an electoral property. He says, seeing as both of you generate content and media,
your thoughts on piracy, for instance, material property rights are eventually respected through force.
You acquired something through labor and now need to defend it.
How do either of you see it when you created a non-material asset?
You want to go first?
I mean, we've talked about this a billion times before, so I think we can do a sort of an abbreviated version.
We've both talked about it a billion times before.
Together, independently and every rich way you possibly can.
But I think it's one of the things that can be boiled down if you start with the premise of self-ownership.
Like, I own me. If I like write a book over here, I'm allowed to go and now that I see my book.
I'm allowed to bother to write a book, not show it to anybody.
But nobody has the right to demand the product of my intellectual effort or physical effort or any other.
However, that's, and so you can sort of say, well, that's you owning it.
Well, kind of sort of, except once it's out, then it's like, I don't have the right to retroactively make an agreement.
And to use sort of an silly example.
And I'll ask, you know, I'll ask people how they respond to this and often their position falls apart.
Okay, so you're like, I got a flat tire and you pull over and the guy and he's like, oh, shit, I hardly ever do this.
How do you even do this?
And the guy says, well, you jack it up.
Don't jack it up till the wheels off the ground.
Jack it up till it's just barely touching the ground because you don't want the car's weight on it when the lugs get loose.
But you also don't want the wheel to spin.
And if you let it rest a little bit, you go, oh, thanks, cool.
Thanks for the idea.
And you change the tire out and then you lift it up enough to put the spray on and put it back on.
And then he says, by the way, don't ever do what I just told you without giving me $50.
You're like, what the hell are you because that is my intellectual property.
It is my invention.
And I own the thing that you now have in your head as a way to do things in the physical world.
And the idea that you that somehow it would be bad for you to do a thing that's all the way in your head.
You don't need to go back to him and learn again.
If you like have a bad memory, you have the idea in your head, you know how to do it in your head.
The idea that you have to pay him for the privilege of doing something that is now part of your knowledge base is ridiculous.
And that's just sort of an oversimplified version of like, if I hear someone play a song and they go,
oh, yeah, I did.
He made a cool song in AI and we might make it in not AI.
But if I hear it and go, oh, it goes like this.
It sounds so cool when he plays it on this bad ass.
Someday you'll hear a final version.
But if I then know how to play it for him to say, well, I'm going to send people to beat the crap out of you.
If you hit that pattern of notes without my permission, like that's kind of bogus.
Now, there is a point if I go, yeah, Patrick Smith, I don't know anybody by that name.
Listen to the song I wrote.
Hey, everybody buy my song.
At some point it's fraud.
It's me cashing in on fraud if I pretend it was mine when it's not.
And so there is that side to it.
If somebody takes my book right before I print it and print this with their name on it,
like you're pretending you wrote that you fricking didn't.
But if someone says, here's the book, I memorized Larkin's book.
I'm now going to make a video and say the whole thing, which you've done.
Well, you didn't memorize it.
Wow, that would be a little difficult.
I think it's silly for me to pretend I have the right to beat you up if you say those words in that order.
The most dangerous superstition audio book on audible.
Great audio performance, I must say.
Look at it.
Indeed it is.
The voice sounds very familiar for some reason.
And so if you break it down to the simple scenarios, if you start with the premise of self-ownership,
what most people get, the basic thing.
But when people are like, I could rant forever.
Okay, I'll make this super short.
A lot of people go, well, here's my position.
Are you pro-intellectual property or anti-intellectual property?
And I would basically say anti as a general rule.
But if your answer to that question kind of retroactively makes you change your logic,
then it's like that became your new weird God instead of saying like,
I have the right to make a movie and say, nobody's allowed to see this unless you come into this building
and give me 50 bucks and you don't bring in a recording device
and I'm going to make you agree to do that or you don't get to see my movie.
I would have the absolute right to do that.
And if you came in and recorded it after agreeing not to, then you're a butt head.
And you could sort of say, well, doesn't that sort of pretend it's your property?
My time and effort is my property.
And if I make up an agreement that you don't get to hear this,
like I'm going to perform a song and I'm only performing in this building
and the only people I'm allowing into my building or the people who give me 10 bucks at the door,
I'm absolutely justified to do that because I own myself.
And the people who take, well, intellectual property isn't real.
Therefore, whatever anybody makes is mine for free.
Like, that's not how it works.
And I think it was to be with Cancella.
We did do it, yeah.
Where he was like, I think if you put a paywall, then you're the meanie bad guy.
I forget how he phrased, you want to straw me and do bad?
There was a big conflation.
I mean, I can role play Cancella pretty easily.
Yeah.
But there was a, in that discussion, there was a big misconception,
I think, with people on all sides watching,
where you making freedom content to try and improve the condition of the world,
being paywalled was a dickheaded thing to do.
Therefore, people are justified in copying it and violating the agreement
that they signed when they agreed to pay for it, right?
So like, they signed up to your thing that to pay, somebody did.
They signed up to your thing, they paid for it.
They checked the box that said, I agree not to share this.
Yeah.
And then they shared it.
So they broke their agreement with you when they shared it.
Yeah.
That's a violation of consent and property rights when they did that.
And so that was the complaint.
Yeah.
Not, but then there was also these people that were just justified
in violating their consensual agreements because it was a,
they considered it to be a dick move that Larkin would make,
would paywall freedom content.
Yeah.
Even though 90% of the content you make is free,
it's more than that.
And you pay all 1% of it or whatever.
But this is the kind of like bad thinking that I try and argue,
that makes people not like me sometimes in the anarchist movement
because I'm like, I tell status all day long that your stupid feelings
don't justify your law to control people.
Well, your stupid feelings about what's a dickhead move
doesn't justify you violating a contract.
Yeah.
And that's like, and that's sort of the commie mentality trying
to sneak in under the guise of a philosophical argument
when it is.
And it's like, I should be entitled to see your movie.
Like, no, you shouldn't.
We could have made that movie and then burned it.
You have no right to see it at all.
And if we say, we're going to put it on this platform
and you agree in doing this that you're not going to post it
somewhere else.
And people are like, hey, YouTube, YouTube to take down
my posting of the thing that literally I directly said
I will not post other people's stuff without their consent.
Yeah, I did exactly what you said.
And it wasn't you got beat up in a dark alley.
It was the thing you said you wouldn't do and did.
YouTube undid by taking it down because you said
you weren't going to do that.
You agreed to do that as part of the whole thing.
And the people who go into entitlement mentality
and there's still somebody I think it's on like
bit shoot or something.
I don't even comment there because it's just a toxic
idiot fest still under almost every one of my videos.
Copyright strike, which I didn't, by the way,
but we did point out like, I don't know if somebody
pointed out or YouTube just noticed, hey,
you this isn't yours and you agreed under our terms
to not do that.
But when you see somebody against like the
outcome based arguing, it's like, but I want
everything for free.
And I'm going to pretend it's a philosophy that
makes me entitled to whatever other people made
for free.
I mean, to be entitled for free or whatever
anybody else makes.
And no, you're not.
No, they're not.
They could literally say, hey, I wrote a book
and you have to pay me $1,000.
Read the book in this room and then leave the
book here and leave and don't bring any recording
devices with you.
And almost everybody would rightfully go,
I'm not going to make that deal.
That's really freaking weird.
You're kind of a psycho.
God, you have every right to not make that deal.
They did it.
Yeah.
People do that every day at comedy clubs.
You go to a comedy club.
They require you as part of your agreement
to enter and put your phone in a lock box.
So that nobody can record the performances.
Yeah.
And if you breach that, you're the one in breach of
contract.
And it's like nobody is obligated to provide
you with the fruits of their labor.
Now, there's the thing of, well, once
something's out there, it's like if somebody
goes, oh, look, I found a PDF of, like
there's a PDF of the most dangerous
superstition floating around that didn't
have my permission.
And the thing that most pisses me off
isn't that somebody did that.
It's that after they did the optical
character recognition, they didn't run it
through a spell checker.
So it is all these typos in it that aren't
in the book.
I'm like, you can't even like, I care
so much about spreading this, but I'm
going to let it be a totally crappy
version.
So really, you're just being a jerk.
All right.
So I'll give my quick spiel on it
and take issue with one thing you said.
So this person said, material property
rights are eventually respected through
force.
That is the opposite of how property
works.
Property is respected through consensual
agreement.
The moment the moment force is
involved, even defensive force,
property rights as a concept has
ceased to exist in the situation.
The moment somebody tries to use force
to take or damage your stuff, property
rights doesn't exist.
You're sort of dragged back down into
the state of nature where there is no
sort of right and wrong that the
thief has dragged you there and you
respond in kind.
Property rights aren't operative
anymore.
The thief removed property rights
from the discussion.
So force is when property
rights stop existing, is how
I like to say it.
And then the second thing I would
say is just the quick argument that
I've given a million times for the
absurdity of intellectual property
rights.
I did this one time on my old
this and throw channel.
You can go look it up.
It's like I steal the title of the
video is I steal from you in this
video and what I did is I just
took a piece of paper.
It was a five minute video.
I took a piece of paper.
I drew a stupid clown face on it
and I said, boom, I now have
a portion of control over all of
your property everywhere in the
world.
No matter what kind of property it
is the moment you try to arrange
it to look like this.
I have the ability to point a
government gun at you to stop you
from using your property like
that.
And then I point out the
definition of property is the
right to exclude others from the
use of a thing.
That is what ownership is.
And so if I can exclude you
from the use of your things
right now I could grab a piece
like right now I can do it.
It's magic.
It literally works like this.
Like I'm not making it up.
This is not.
And they don't even have to
know about it.
It just magically works even if
they don't know you do.
Yes.
And I can immediately
magically rob everybody in the
world of a bit of control over
their actual property.
The idea itself is completely
absurd and broken.
So that's my intellectual
property argument.
That's a little surprise.
I mean it's just stupid.
You say it like that and it's
like obviously retarded.
Okay.
The last one that we'll do
today from Mr. Liberty.
He says he she I'm assuming
he Mr.
They them sir.
Why smart people believe
why smart people.
He wants us to talk about this.
Why smart people believe
absurd things.
Not just government.
Why do intelligent people believe
in the flat earth in the
divine right of kings in
which trials state authority
media propaganda.
What mental mechanisms do
they all share?
I shall I barge in first.
Yeah go ahead.
I think by necessity
in a huge number of things
in life we defer to others
because we just we can't
know everything about
everything.
And then we sort of we
inflict the appeal to
authority fallacy on ourselves
by saying well what's wrong
with my car.
I'm going to take it to the
mechanic and say my car is
doing weird shit.
What is it?
Oh your your squonkle
Blinky is on the fritz and we
need to buy it.
And it was like okay I might
decide whether I trust you
or not.
But I don't have the
knowledge to know for sure.
So I'm going to kind of take
your word for it.
And like we do that about a
million things about history.
You read a history book.
Some people are like okay is
this actually accurate.
I'm going to dig into it.
And then they can try to
find out.
But because we sort of out of
necessity shortcut most topics.
I think where where we've never
thought about stuff like most
people have never thought about
the underlying bonkers premise
of political authority.
And so people who are very
intelligent in other ways
suddenly sound like idiots.
We actually talk about this
in candles in the dark where
there's this void because
they've never thought about it
and somebody who's literally a
rocket scientist and you're
like okay how did those people
get a right that you don't have.
And they've never looked at it
and suddenly they seem like
idiots because in that topic
they are idiots because their
brain has no exercise
thinking about that.
And that can be true of you
know there can be brilliant
people who have no freaking
idea how their car works
or how their phone works
or whatever.
They're brilliant in other
areas.
And I think that's almost all
of us.
The challenge is being someone
who understands all the
ways in which you're kind of
taking some crap for granted.
Like all right.
I don't know this.
I assume that this is the
like I said this about the
moon landing for a pretty long
time.
Like I won't say I know for
sure it happened.
It might have been easier to
fake it than to do it.
Now I think I have reason to
say now I can happen.
But I don't care whether
people agree with that.
The earth being flat.
I know it isn't.
I can prove my by myself
not having to believe NASA
that it isn't in fact
someday I hope to use that
backyard to do a 24 hour
thing that all the way proves
it so that anyone paying
attention is going to see
that.
But if people haven't thought
about it like most people
haven't like I think we were
just talking about this that
most people are obviously
it's round.
You know how to prove it.
Well no but everybody
know okay well then you
believed one thing and they
believed another thing.
Neither of you know
anything.
You're not knowing
something unless you know
how to prove it.
And my dad was a teacher for
a zillion years and he
made sure his students
actually knew how to prove
things and figure things out
for themselves.
So it isn't a matter of taking
other people's word for it.
But in most of life you kind
of have to take other people's
word for pretty many things.
I think the challenge is
having people be aware of all
the areas in which you just
took somebody else's word for
it because you didn't have
the time to question it.
And that's I mean that's
totally true of politics is
true of a gazillion things.
I think the the you know
the beginning of wisdom is
understanding how little you
know about anything and how
much you just well I assume
this is the case I've never
really looked into I assume
that's the case I've never
really looked into it.
I assume that it's this
and most people don't do
that they like to think they
know and they confuse like
you spoke you just spoke about
it.
Literally just did the
difference between belief
and knowing.
Go to the road channel.com
Yeah.
Maybe once I'll remember
to promote my own website
and all these videos we're
doing.
I got you.
Yeah.
I'll just have you do it.
I'll delegate.
I delegate that to you.
But just being aware of how
little we know is like a really
important thing that most
people don't bother doing
because like well my focus is
over here I'm like studying
the hell out of computer
programming or out of biology
or whatever it is.
When it comes to that other
stuff I don't know I vaguely
remember the stuff that
everybody knows.
And so there isn't such
thing as well your brain works
very well.
You're intelligent therefore
you know everything.
No.
Like you have the capacity
to learn stuff.
Like your brain function
being good doesn't magically
mean you have all the
information and have thought
about all that.
And I think pretty much all
of us presumably myself
included believe some stuff
that's dumb and totally wrong
that we haven't bothered to
look at yet and it may
matter more or matter less
and like okay some things
who cares.
But I think having the
wisdom to realize how much
we don't actually know
because we've never thought
about it is sadly a rare
thing in a lot of people
including people with very
powerful brains that know
a whole lot and can do a
whole lot in certain areas
but not in everything.
Yeah and like I ranted
people all the time you
guys are probably tired of
hearing me talk about it.
Like you should be proud
and happy to say I don't
know.
And what I don't say often
enough is what he just said
and that's why I won't go into
it all but it's like it's
okay to also say that you
don't know about popular
topics that everybody thinks
the matter is settled on.
Like it's okay to say
I don't know if the
moon landing happened
because I haven't looked into
it.
I have no research time on
it.
Yeah sure a lot of
scientists in credible
positions say it happened
but I didn't look.
So I'm going to say
I don't know.
Ask somebody that fucking
knows or that did the
research.
Like that's fine.
Yeah.
It's fine to just say
I don't know.
Okay so
I'll throw in one more thing.
Yeah go ahead.
One of the smartest paper
I know is my older brother
Sean.
And a thing he's said on
many an occasion is
one of my favorite things is
finding out I'm wrong.
Yes.
Because that's when you
learn something new.
And you can't find out if
you're wrong if it's like
I believe this and I don't
want to hear anything to
the contrary.
It's like well I assume
this if you have something
to offer like doesn't mean I'm
going to accept whatever you
say but learning necessarily
means your knowledge of what
you had before was either
wrong or at least incomplete.
And if you like to learn
you need to like to be wrong
and find out that you were
wrong or at least incomplete
about something.
You have to train yourself
to be happy when you find
out you're wrong.
Yeah.
And that's why he says
I love finding out I was
wrong.
It's really hard to get
there.
Yeah.
It really is.
Yeah.
It still stings even I've
tried to get myself there
but it still stings.
I'm like oh shit.
Yeah.
I'm wrong.
Okay.
Okay Patrick.
Okay step out of it.
Thank the person.
You know be appreciative.
Indeed.
Kill my ego some bat
bat my ego in the head again.
Get out of there.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I want to talk about
to answer your question of
why intelligent people believe
dumb things.
Number one I give a whole
talk about this at Anarkapoco
two years ago.
It was literally included
a whole thing about that
but I'll give you the quick
a super quick version.
There's two biases
and one mental
technique that
is what happened.
The first is confirmation
bias.
Most people don't know
that our brain
that confirmation bias
how the human brain works.
It literally subconsciously
that means that your
your conscious mind
your thinking rational
mind has no idea it's
happening.
Your subconscious mind
actively hides
incoming information
from your conscious mind
when it disagrees with your
with your already
preconceived notions or your beliefs.
So like you can be in a room
and people are talking
and one of the people in the room
you know provides some kind of
evidence against one of your
preconceived notions
and people will literally
not hear
just filter it out.
They won't even notice
that that person said it
because their subconscious
filters it out.
Confirmation bias is
existentially terrifying
for people that are trying
to know as many true things as they
can and know as few false things
as they can.
It's like your subconscious is
actively an anti-wisdom
mechanism because
there's something evolution or
something where your brain
just wants you to be right
and things that say you're
not right or scary or some kind
of I don't know like
existentially threatening.
I think that hey this time I'm
going to remember the rose channel
dot com slash humanity book
my new book on mound
talks about the fact that
if you're a species that
is very social
and gets along
there is a big incentive
to not be something that doesn't
match the crowd and annoys other
people and disagrees with them
and I think that's
at least a simplified version
of the genetic reason
why we want to fit in
like the ash
the Solomon ash
conformity experiments
of like yeah I'm going to
pretend I believe that
because I don't want to be
surrounded by like
you're not going to see a
computer do that
like well two plus two is
what are the other computers
think like it just does
the math and we don't
because there's so much
weirdly wired in pressure to
I need my pack to be alive
like for me to be alive
I need my pack
and so I want to make
sure I'm buddies with them
and that matters more than
knowing if things are true
or anything else
I will go along with the
pack because I need them
to avoid dying
and that having been wired
into us and I mean
lots of species for many
many millions of years
make creates an incentive
for us to not learn anything
that doesn't fit with what
the people around us believe
here's an example
I know it's I know
every one of you
have experienced this
you may not have actually
actively realized it happened
someone made an argument
to you
maybe it was like
in rigorous like premise
premise conclusion form
but maybe it doesn't
even matter right
they could have just been
talking to you explaining
a set of ideas
to prove you wrong
and what you did in response
was you responded by
attacking something else
something unrelated
you changed the subject
you
argued about their semantics
the words they use
the definitions that they chose
or like you didn't
charitably
take in
and let their argument
slam into you full force
you kind of sidestepped
you're like okay
well the way you said that
was abrasive
or you know
the words you use
or misspelled
or your punctuation
your grammar was off
or you know
or you maybe just
I don't know
tactically switched topics
or moved the conversation
on to something else
and what that is
it's not like
it's not always bad faith
although if you're the one
making the argument to somebody
and they do that
it really feels bad
but what it is
it's their brain sliding
around the thing
that it didn't want
you to notice
yeah
and it happened
yeah
we talked about
exactly this
in candles in the dark
and like the
the Marauds thing
we use as an example
it feels like an evasion
and if you follow them
in that direction
you miss the fact that
they part of them felt
the cognitive dissonance
of this is feeling uncomfortable
and I don't know what to say
and the brain
subconsciously is looking
for any escape route
whether it's like
oh I'm late for dinner
or
I don't like your hair cut
or anything
and yeah
most of the time
they're not aware of
they're doing it
they're not doing it maliciously
but it's
and we explained in candles in dark
it can be frustrating
because it's like
you cannot be this dumb
you're somebody I know
you have the ability
to use logic
how come when I said
2 x 2 equals 4
you said
what about the roads
like that
how did you
they don't get
that their own brain
does that
because that's just
wired into us
for some damn reason
confirmation by us
yeah
that it's
their brain is trying
to get to something
that's comfortable
to talk about
and so every time
they go to
okay but how will this work
when you're like
like government can't have
rights that we don't have
because how would we
okay but how will this work
that is
they're comfortable
looking at
and talking about
that question
they're not comfortable
thinking about
wait so the premise
of this major thing
I've believed
and taken on faith
my whole life might be wrong
that's uncomfortable
and difficult
and I have to like focus
and stuff
can we move the conversation
over to literally
anything else
just so I don't have to feel
that discomfort
so in candles in the dark
we teach you how to nudge back
to the discomfort
because that's the only time
you know people actually
think about things
and change their mind
they're not doing it
on purpose
the vast majority of time
and they don't even notice
they're doing it
they will change the
subject
and we'll say this
still like you ask
here's a specific question
and instead of answering
the question
they'll answer some sort of
tangential thing
and you're like yeah
I know but that's not
what I asked
and you're like
is this idiot
can they not understand
basic English
they absolutely can
but their subconscious is like
we don't really want to
answer that
let's pretend he asked this
and so they
it's just
it's this weird
defense mechanism
to avoid the discomfort
of cognitive dissonance
and if we don't
make an effort
to go no
I want to be back
in cognitive dissonance
to make sure I'm right
then we
start looking like
it is too
we're talking to
one more thing
and I'll go to my other stuff
this is great
this is great content
for you guys
I hope you're enjoying it
so another thing
to think about
is I want you to imagine
a parent raising a child
but they're raising them
to believe just
crazy things
about the world
you know
I don't even
I can't even imagine
what the crazy things are
but just things that are like
so dangerous
and absurdly wrong
and inaccurate about reality
but the kid
like I said in a previous video
that you probably already watched
where we talked about parenting
we as humans
accept the reality
with which we're presented
when we enter the world
right and so a kid
being raised in that environment
will believe every
line of nonsense
and inaccuracy
even dangerous inaccuracies
that their parents teach them
when they're kids
and then when they become adults
imagine a guy like me
or Larkin coming along
and trying to
introduce them
to actual reality
they react emotionally
because you're not attacking
their beliefs
as much as you're attacking
their parents
their most trusted people
the humans that they trust
with their lives
they were raised by
were taught
this set of beliefs
obviously this is an analogy
for statism right
like all
we're all brought up believing
these crazy
wild conspiracy theories
about the just authority
of the government
in our lives
and blah blah blah
and then we have a guy
like me or Larkin come along
and we start poking
a stick
in the eye
of their parents
right
because for us to be right
their parents
would have to
almost be maliciously wrong
like bad
people
right
for raising a kid
with such false beliefs
I have to throw in
a thing I deliberately
started doing
with Alyssa
when she was very young
is when she would
ask about things
I'd give her an answer
that was totally wrong
and pretty dumb enough
that she would go
wait what
I do that with my kids company
so she would get
in the habit
of not taking my word
for it
and go that can't be
and then
I started doing
Jaws bad science show
like when we're on a long road
trip and make up
like the worst explanations
for the
observations of things around us
but I think that's really valuable
even though it's
sort of weird
it's hilarious that you do that too
my kids are
my kids are ungaslightable now
yeah
to see if like
are you paying attention
or taking my word for it
that can't be right
good it isn't
anyway the point is
that was to give you
a point of empathy
right when they react
emotionally especially
because there's some people
that are mature
and they're able to handle
conversations they just agree with
but some people
you talk to about this stuff
and they just get like
strangely out of nowhere
they're like
really angry
so
flustered
what's happening
is you're
attacking their parents
in a lot of ways
at least that's how I see it
so I'm like
I'm chill with that
I'm like hey man
no big deal
yeah
anyway alright so
that was the first bias
confirmation bias
the second bias is
my side bias
this is the one I talked about
at his
event
that you can go watch right now
at TheRoseChannel.com
my side bias
is a special sort of
bias
it's unlike all of the other
biases
my side bias
is
let's see
I
defined it in here
and we look it up
it's basically
it just wrote this down
did I not say it
in the talk
I bet I said it
I just didn't write it down
my side bias
is
politics
yeah
literally politics
you chose a team
yes
things that go against
my side
or my team
or my community
and this goes to what
he was talking about
with
evolving in communities
things that go against
your side
are immediately rejected
or
worse
they're treated as
like the enemy
and you're seeing
you see this
from the left
and the right
like the right right now
the Christian nationalist
types
that are prominent
on the right right now
they're talking
about libertarians
as if we're
like liberalism
is the enemy
of civilization
and they're
talking about us
like
we're literally
I don't know
some acidic
degenerative force
on their
holy
Christian
national
nation thing
I don't know
like
and any argument
you level at them
they don't actually
take on
they just
go to the side
and be like
okay well you're not
one of us
you're not a Christian
nationalist
we're just going to
you're on the bad side
so we don't have to
refute anything
we're going to post memes
that make fun of you
and then we're going to
move on right
and
okay so the
the thing that's
special about my side
bias
is that it's the most
training
resistant
bias
of all of the biases
what that means
is
is that
it's largely
unaffected by how smart
you are
it's largely unaffected
by your education
and even if they
give you critical
thinking training
and training
specifically against
my side bias
it is largely
unaffected
and that's the bias
the government
uses to divide us all
into red and blue
donkeys and elephants
they
they put people on
a side
and they're
like exploiting
the most
intractable vulnerability
of the human
species
and I think
the best
maybe even
the only thing
I've ever seen
that does
at least
pretty often does
a pretty good job
of circumventing that
is what we teach
in Kendall's in the dark
which is instead of
have it
you believe this
I believe that
it's
let me ask you
some questions
about what you believe
exactly
and lead their beliefs
where
they're the only one
saying anything
about what they believe
up to the conflict
with themselves
and so the entire
conversation
is on the other side
of the wall
that they have
with scary outsiders
who believe different things
I'm like
never mind any scary outsiders
what do you think about this
and
what do you think about that
so that
there is no side
like it's them and them
like presumably
they're on the same side
weirdly they're actually not
we teach about that
is driving the wedge
between
what they really believe
and then the craft
they were taught
but if you can do it
in a way that
you don't feel
like an outside
different unfamiliar
foreign idea
you're just asking them
for clarification
about what they believe
until they get to a point
where they're
they're not sure what they believe
and they're not sure what to say
because every status
has massive contradictions
inside his head
instead of it
being them against you
it's them against them
and if you can gently
bring them to that
a lot of these things
either happen a lot less
or don't happen at all
if you like
carefully train yourself
in the candles
in the art mode
because there isn't
another side
it's just them and them
and then they don't have the
excuse
or the weird psychological
patterns of
I'm going to jump away
from having to think about this
by deciding
that you're one of the bad ones
or you're on the wrong side
like it can't be anything
about me
if I didn't say anything
about what I believe
I'm just asking you
what you believe
and that's the only thing
I've seen that actually
undermines
and defeats
these
these weird patterns
that make otherwise
smart people
believe
dumb crap
yeah
alright and the last thing I'll say
is
asymmetric skepticism
I'll keep it short
because this is running long again
asymmetric skepticism
is how really smart people
hold
bad or false beliefs
one of them anyways right
so asymmetric skepticism
skepticism it just means
you examine
things that you don't believe
very closely
and you don't examine
things you do believe
very closely
and like I think
the new atheists movement
that was around for a while
was really susceptible to this
I also think
that a lot of the reddit bro
Christian apologetics
were really having problems with this
but it's why
the Anacropoco talk I gave a couple years ago
I really challenged people
to
like if the only beliefs
you ever challenged are the ones that you don't hold
then you're never going to learn anything new
so you need to challenge your own beliefs
more
than
other people's beliefs
to make sure that what you do believe is true
is actually true
so that's
called asymmetric skepticism
and the reason why it messes
with intelligent people
is because well
if you're smart
if I'm smart
the things I believe
well they're probably right
so why would I waste time
challenging the smart
person's beliefs
when I could show all the
idiots out there
what they believe is wrong
that's just how it works
like the smarter you are
the easier it is for you to rationalize yourself
into bullshit
because it takes intelligence to be good
at rationalizing things right
well
yeah there you go
and once again the candles in the dark
undermines that by it being about their things
and it not being approaching it
it's not just how do you explain this
and what about this
this is a trap
it's you're actually listening to them
with the actual intent of understanding what they think
so it's not like
you're not like putting them back on their heels
like justify this
you're just going I want
like can you clarify what like
in this situation would you believe this
do you think you should disobey the law if it's at that
and walk them through it so that
it's not even like
be skeptical of your own belief system
which most people are really bad at
it's just I want to know more about
what you think
and people like to say what they think
and if you ask for a clarification
they get to a point where it's like
I don't know what I think
it's sort of a way to trick them into
looking at something that they won't use
they won't look at it if they're in argument mode
because they don't want to like
this is what I'm defending
why would I question this
why would I like be a trader to
the thing on my side
the beliefs on my side
but if it's like
oh you have some interesting beliefs on your side
can you tell me them
tell me more about them
yeah they
well they don't make sense
and so the psychological response
is like fundamentally different
because it just sneaks around all the walls
of these weird phenomena
I did that to a poor guy at your show
when I was having my first talk
about the belief
the spectrum of beliefs
I went into the audience
and I said okay
I'm going to challenge you
so get ready
and I said somebody raise your hand
if you have a really strongly held belief
that you're confident in
and I went to them
and I was like okay
what's the belief
okay
what's your justification for that belief
okay
and he gives it to me
and I'm like okay
what's the name of the author
that wrote
the most convincing
counter argument to your position
yeah
and this guy was supposed to
bumble around
and not really have one
like almost everybody else would
yeah I watched a YouTube video
or something
but no no
because this is an attendee
of Larkin's show
he was like well
this guy and this guy
and he wrote this book
I'm like well thanks
thanks for fucking up my talk
I appreciate it
no
and then you had to say well must
pay Paul
but that's the thing
like if you have a
really strongly held belief
that you're really confident about
and you can't answer that question
you know rattle off the top three
people that make
the top three strongest
counter arguments to your position
that means you really haven't
challenged your belief
if you don't know the
counter arguments
and you don't know the people
that made those counter arguments
you probably haven't really
done the work
the funny thing is
almost everybody recognizes
that everybody else does this
like the fluffers
all the people who think
the earth is flat
will often tell me
you just haven't looked into it
I can literally recite
the arguments from the guy
you got it from
in way more detail than you can
and I knew from the beginning
was wrong anyway
but I went in to see
well what do they say
where are they getting things wrong
what is their actual position
which parts are provably wrong
in which parts okay
there's sort of an excuse
for thinking that part
but then you make a flying leap
so they assume
you don't know
and I'll get into arguments
with Christians
who are like
ah you're wrong about this
and it turns out
I know the Bible better
than they do
Craig Hargis
and I keep laughing about that
because I debate status
and I don't identify as a Christian
but I mean
say just
say just to identify as Christian
and I know the Bible
better than they do
and they're like
you just
you've just never read
yes I have
but
people will assume
that of the other person
that like
the reason you don't agree with me
is because you haven't looked into it
like I've heard
8 million flat earthers say that
and that works because most people haven't
yeah and it's true
of most people
so it's an excuse to
you must be wrong
because you haven't watched
what I've watched
and that's an example
of the brain doing the slide around
yeah
we are weird creatures
it's maddening
humans are terrible at wisdom
like if we
accepting that
is the first step to wisdom
yeah
might be the only step
but we never get any glutes
but at least
at least we got one step in
alright
well let's
we've gotten way more video out of these
yeah
than I thought
there's supposed to be on vacation here
I know right
thanks for watching guys
yeah
we're gonna go do nothing for a while
yeah