TO HELL WITH FAKE COURAGE!

  • 5 months ago
Chapters
0:00
Family Planning and Unplanned Situations
1:31
Donations and Community Support
24:00
Parent-Child Relationships and Priorities
26:37
Drama and Perspective Shifts
30:20
Coping with Addictions in Relationships
33:22
Recognizing Addictive Behaviors
35:51
Addressing the Impact of Addiction on Society
37:58
The Priority of the Children
43:23
The Cycle of Addiction
47:24
Unveiling Childhood Trauma
51:26
Addiction as Concealment of Crime
54:10
Reminiscing on Entertainers
1:01:30
Evolving Friendships Post-High School
1:05:11
Responsibility in Marriage
1:09:52
Drifting from Childless Friends
1:12:49
Unwavering Parental Devotion
1:15:06
Locals App Update
1:17:59
Novel Structure and Pinch Points
1:28:35
Real Courage vs. Fantasy Courage
1:38:08
Taking Responsibility for Your Life
1:45:45
Parenting and Childhood Impact
1:58:02
Avoidance of Addressing Real Issues
Transcript
00:00:00 Good evening, Wednesday night live.
00:00:02 I just asked in the preamble to the show, I did a call in today with a German fellow.
00:00:07 And, uh, he told me that his mother had had how many asked people, how many children
00:00:12 did his mother had have with a married man, a man who remained married and did
00:00:16 not marry his mother, she had a yes, you're correct, five children with a married man.
00:00:23 She had five children with a married man.
00:00:26 Now that's, that's special.
00:00:28 That's really real.
00:00:29 That's a certain amount of dedication to just terrible family planning.
00:00:36 That's just really, really, really remarkable.
00:00:39 So we had some cleanup to do.
00:00:42 You know, these call-in shows are tough.
00:00:44 I mean, I know I make them look easy, but they're tough, man.
00:00:47 They're tough.
00:00:49 They're tough with the fogging.
00:00:50 They're tough with the people who, who give me the fog back, you know, is this true?
00:00:54 Sort of.
00:00:55 What does that mean?
00:00:57 What does that mean?
00:00:59 And also the people you give them the blinding insights is like, huh?
00:01:02 Uh, uh, cause I can't see people, so I don't know, you know, what's going on,
00:01:07 but I know that it's, uh, this really little, it comes back sometimes, but you
00:01:11 know, again, that's why they get in touch with me and so on, right?
00:01:15 Fogzilla.
00:01:20 Oh, that's a good way to put it.
00:01:21 Yes.
00:01:21 Yes.
00:01:22 Fogzilla.
00:01:22 Well done.
00:01:23 Very nice.
00:01:24 All right.
00:01:24 Questions, comments, issues, challenges, problems, do nuts.
00:01:28 And do nations are very much welcome.
00:01:32 Given the donuts are a little tough to fit through your screen.
00:01:34 You can go to freedom, main.com/donate to help out the show.
00:01:37 Would really appreciate it.
00:01:39 Didn't get much today.
00:01:41 Looking forward to getting something tonight.
00:01:43 We've got payroll to make, and we've got technology to pay for.
00:01:50 So free demand.com/donate.
00:01:52 You can of course pay or support or help out the show.
00:01:55 If it's an exchange of value for value, you can help out the show here.
00:01:58 Of course, I'm going to throw in a little reminder, just in case you
00:02:03 wanted to join the great community at freedom.locals.com.
00:02:06 There's your promo code.
00:02:10 Give it a try for free.
00:02:11 Really should check out the Steph bot AI.
00:02:13 It's a really, really good.
00:02:14 It's really good.
00:02:15 And of course it's multi-language, right?
00:02:17 And it's pretty good at figuring out what I, what I would say.
00:02:20 And it works in like 80 plus languages.
00:02:25 You can ask it in any language you want, and it will process
00:02:30 back in any language you want.
00:02:32 So Steph bot AI, especially if English isn't your native tongue.
00:02:35 That would be a, it's well worth, well worth trying.
00:02:38 Well worth checking out.
00:02:39 All right.
00:02:39 Let's dive straight into it.
00:02:43 Let me ask you this.
00:02:44 Hit me with a why, if you have parents whose stuff they want to
00:02:52 give you, but you don't want.
00:02:54 Do you have any of this?
00:02:55 Parents who have stuff that they're eager to give to you as they age out of
00:03:02 life's great circle, but you don't want it.
00:03:05 I mean, I'm sure you would want a house or something like that.
00:03:09 Oh, Steph bot AI is under maintenance at the moment.
00:03:10 Okay.
00:03:10 Be back soon.
00:03:11 Yeah.
00:03:11 Do you have, so what is it that your parents have, or maybe your
00:03:14 grandparents, if you're young enough, what is it that your parents
00:03:17 have that you don't want?
00:03:20 I mean, for me, obviously.
00:03:23 Insanity, uh, corruption, violence, downright immorality, but, uh, so most
00:03:31 of you, yes, Zim says, holy F all the time and then act all offended that
00:03:35 I don't think it's the most amazing thing on the planet now.
00:03:38 Yeah.
00:03:40 Yeah.
00:03:41 So, you know, if you're younger, I'm just telling you, I mean, although
00:03:44 I still look like I'm 25, not a very healthy 25, but you get older, you
00:03:51 start thinking about your legacy.
00:03:53 I mean, I remember going over, I had a girlfriend in my early now mid
00:03:57 twenties and her parents were way older.
00:03:59 And I remember going to her place for dinner and her mother was like,
00:04:06 kind of dour, very dour, in fact.
00:04:10 And it was one of these situations.
00:04:11 It's just kind of embarrassing for me.
00:04:14 I mean, obviously it was much younger and she was like, well, you know, uh,
00:04:19 enjoy these plates, you know, you'll be getting them when I'm dead.
00:04:24 And, uh, of my record collection, which, which do you want?
00:04:29 And the woman wasn't even sick or anything.
00:04:32 She was just, well, at least not physically, but it was one of these, like,
00:04:36 you know, oh, you like these placemats.
00:04:40 Well, I'll be sure to set them aside for you for when I'm dead.
00:04:44 You know, these kinds of things, the jewelry and, and, uh, and it was amazing.
00:04:48 And, uh, and it was basically divvying up the possessions of the dead.
00:04:52 Yeah.
00:04:54 A backdoor guilt trip.
00:04:58 I think it was a way of, you know, I'm not here, you know.
00:05:02 Uh, yeah.
00:05:05 If you could forward messages from other platforms.
00:05:06 Thanks, Jared.
00:05:07 It's, it's a way of, you know, I'll be gone.
00:05:10 I'll be gone.
00:05:11 Are you, uh, let's see here.
00:05:16 Steph, are you opposed to doing interviews on YouTube?
00:05:18 You're a very interesting fellow.
00:05:19 Thank you.
00:05:20 I was going to ask that at some point.
00:05:21 Um, I was going to ask with that.
00:05:26 Uh, Hey Steph, my wife is desperately trying to get in touch with you in regards
00:05:32 to a potential call and show regarding the medical industrial complex.
00:05:35 Okay.
00:05:37 You can FDR URL.
00:05:39 So you can just go to free domain.com/call free domain.com/call.
00:05:46 My parents collected a bunch of crap from my childhood and now
00:05:48 they want to give it to me.
00:05:49 I thought that stuff was for them.
00:05:50 Oh, I think that's nice.
00:05:52 Personally.
00:05:53 I wish I had crap for my childhood.
00:05:55 Um, I think that's nice.
00:05:57 Right.
00:05:57 So the, you know, the eternal cry of manipulative parents is you'll be sorry
00:06:08 later, you'll regret it when I'm gone.
00:06:10 You'll regret that you weren't more affectionate with me when I'm gone.
00:06:14 And so it's a constant reminder that they're going to go, they're going to
00:06:17 die and therefore you should be nicer to them and so on, right?
00:06:20 Um, I think it's, it's obviously quite sad, but that is, uh, that is it.
00:06:26 Right.
00:06:26 Somebody says my mom gave me a memento from a funeral she went to.
00:06:32 What?
00:06:33 Yeah.
00:06:34 That's crazy.
00:06:36 They can leave me money, everything else.
00:06:38 No, thanks.
00:06:39 When this bomb goes off in my chest, I'll send you the dying China set.
00:06:44 Yeah.
00:06:45 So I was thought I thought of this because I read this on, on X.
00:06:48 Uh, telling boomers we're going to throw the China in the garbage.
00:06:53 Boomer story.
00:06:55 My wife has had it with my mother-in-law thinking we are going to preserve all
00:06:59 of her possessions, like a museum.
00:07:00 Four adult kids who were all home at Easter.
00:07:03 Mother-in-law said each of them should pick one of the four different sets
00:07:05 of China they want to inherit.
00:07:07 Everyone said no.
00:07:08 Mother-in-law got all flustered because no one wanted her memories.
00:07:12 My wife pointed out that they haven't been out of the cabinet in at least 30
00:07:16 years, and we are all here celebrating only and are using the everyday plates.
00:07:20 Mother-in-law tried to lie and say she uses them at Christmas.
00:07:24 Wife lost it and reminded her that we've been at every family gathering for
00:07:28 decades and those plates have never been used and she's going to use
00:07:31 them as Frisbees once she dies.
00:07:32 Another great memory tied to the family China.
00:07:35 My gosh.
00:07:37 I mean, obviously it may have been slightly exaggerated.
00:07:42 It's a pretty sad and tragic story, but is this really how people
00:07:46 are still spending their time?
00:07:49 Is this really how people are still spending their time is fighting over
00:07:55 China plates and whether it was used at Christmas and who's lying and
00:07:58 who's telling the truth and oh God.
00:08:01 That's horrible.
00:08:03 It's just horrible.
00:08:06 Oh, don't at some point you go, have you ever had this?
00:08:10 Oh, I've had this.
00:08:12 I've had this a couple of times in my life.
00:08:14 It's a fatal, it's a headshot.
00:08:17 It's a fatal headshot to a particular interaction.
00:08:21 Why do they care if the plates get passed on?
00:08:28 Why do they care if the plates get passed on?
00:08:34 Because they want to feel like they're providing value to their offspring.
00:08:38 And they feel deficient in the value that they're providing to their
00:08:42 offspring and so they want to give them stuff, right?
00:08:46 I mean, this is the great lie of parenting that your kids prefer stuff over you.
00:08:52 Right.
00:08:55 That your kids prefer stuff over you.
00:08:58 I know I mentioned this the other week that I was going through a list of all
00:09:02 the great things my daughter and I have done together.
00:09:03 We couldn't think of one that required money.
00:09:06 I was all role-playing or Dungeons and Dragons or hiking and chatting or, uh,
00:09:12 river walks and catching crayfish and all these things are basically free.
00:09:15 Now, parents who have a tough time connecting with their children, run out
00:09:30 into the world and make money and buy their children toys and games and
00:09:34 make money and buy their children stuff.
00:09:36 Right.
00:09:37 And then they have this weird thing where they say to their children, "Well,
00:09:40 you owe me because I bought you stuff."
00:09:42 It's like, "I don't owe you.
00:09:43 You were avoiding me for money.
00:09:44 You were throwing money at me so you didn't have to deal with me.
00:09:47 And now you think I owe you?
00:09:49 Are you kidding me?
00:09:52 You ran out into the workforce so that you could avoid the difficulties
00:09:58 you had connecting with me.
00:10:01 You bought me stuff as a way of paying off your own guilt.
00:10:04 And rather than deal with the difficulties you had connecting with me, you went
00:10:08 out and worked for other people."
00:10:09 "Well, I know how to work.
00:10:11 I don't know how to chat with kids that much.
00:10:13 I get bored playing Monopoly, but I sure know how to work.
00:10:15 So I went out and I worked.
00:10:17 And then I bought you some stuff."
00:10:20 "So you owe me."
00:10:21 And it's like, "I don't know.
00:10:21 You, what are you talking about?"
00:10:27 And in particular, when, you know, this is all the cats in the cradle stuff, right?
00:10:32 But in particular, when parents run out to work, put their kids in daycare, or,
00:10:42 you know, there's some, you know, since they're always grandparents and so on.
00:10:45 Well, that's all fine, I suppose.
00:10:47 But the kid still feels rejected by his or her parents.
00:10:50 And grandparents can't be as good a parent as young parents.
00:10:55 They can't, no matter, you know, all of the things being equal because they're
00:10:59 older, they have less energy, they're more frail.
00:11:02 I remember fondly those years when I didn't necessarily get tired in the
00:11:08 middle of the afternoon for no particular reason, but yeah, you just have less energy.
00:11:12 You're less, you're less mobile.
00:11:13 You can't play around with your kids on the playground when you're old.
00:11:18 Like you just can't be as good a parent as your parents, as the actual parents.
00:11:24 So when people pay others to take care of their children, then of course the
00:11:30 children grow up and say, well, we'll just, you know, pay to have people take care of you.
00:11:35 It's right.
00:11:39 I mean, I remember this, a friend of mine many years ago came from a very wealthy
00:11:43 family and he said he was just about the saddest and most miserable kid around
00:11:47 because, you know, he had every material thing he could ever want.
00:11:52 I gave you everything you ever wanted.
00:11:55 It wasn't what you wanted.
00:11:57 He said, you know, if I, uh, I wanted a new bike, they just say, yeah, go get a new bike.
00:12:03 I wanted the latest video game console.
00:12:05 Yeah.
00:12:05 Get the new video game console and all of that.
00:12:09 But he's, you know, had no connection with his parents and it was just really, really sad.
00:12:13 Do you love me or that I give you things?
00:12:19 The real question asked by a mother to her neglected and sexually abused by her
00:12:23 friend's son who said, I love you, mom.
00:12:25 Well, she gave him trauma and she handed him around, I suppose.
00:12:30 Yeah, that's that.
00:12:32 I mean, that's about as dark as I've have heard those stories before, uh, even
00:12:35 outside the show, even before the show, uh, talking to women whose, uh, parents,
00:12:39 uh, pass them around as, uh, victims of pedophile in a pedophile network.
00:12:46 It's really, it's just about the darkest thing that there is in the universe.
00:12:51 There's black holes.
00:12:52 And then there's that stuff.
00:12:53 Someone says, I think my parents have always valued their false ego over having
00:13:03 a good relationship with each other or me.
00:13:04 Yeah.
00:13:05 Kids just, the kids just want to know that you love spending time with them.
00:13:09 Right.
00:13:15 Yeah.
00:13:15 Pete, uh, kids want to know, I mean that you just love spending time with them.
00:13:21 Right.
00:13:22 I mean, I can have the most boring thing in the known universe to do.
00:13:26 I'll invite my daughter and she'll usually come, usually come unless
00:13:28 she's got something else going on, but she'll, she'll usually come.
00:13:32 Well, why not?
00:13:33 We can, we drive somewhere like I had an errand to run this afternoon and, uh, it
00:13:37 was a long drive and she came along.
00:13:39 We played some music.
00:13:40 We to each other, we're sort of introducing each other to our different
00:13:43 tastes of music and we had a great conversation and, you know, kids just
00:13:51 want to know how much you enjoy spending time with them and if you have that,
00:13:58 everything else is gravy and if you don't have that, everything else is crap.
00:14:10 So yeah, this, uh, my kid loved beavers.
00:14:15 Sorry.
00:14:17 My kid loved beavers and when he was four, I would put him on my back
00:14:21 in the pool and do beaver express.
00:14:23 He still talks about it.
00:14:24 Yeah.
00:14:24 You mean you take delight in your children's delight, take delight in
00:14:28 their company and that's, that's all kids need.
00:14:30 Oh, it's so expensive to raise kids.
00:14:33 No, the great stuff with kids is free.
00:14:35 The greatest stuff with kids is free.
00:14:40 I used to do this game with my daughter.
00:14:42 We were just talking about it the other day.
00:14:44 You see this game.
00:14:45 So she'd be on her bed and I would pretend that a long sort of bolster pillow was a
00:14:53 sword and then I would swing low.
00:14:56 She'd have to jump over it and then I'd swing high.
00:14:58 She'd have to duck down and then I'd thump vertically.
00:15:00 She had the role from side to side and it got pretty fast actually.
00:15:05 Right.
00:15:05 So you'd start slow and you'd say low, high, top.
00:15:08 Right.
00:15:09 So low was the undercut.
00:15:10 She'd have to jump up.
00:15:11 High was above.
00:15:11 She'd have to duck down.
00:15:13 Top was, it came down.
00:15:14 She'd have to roll to one side or the other.
00:15:15 And I would call out low, high, side, side, top.
00:15:18 And we could get really, really fast in that.
00:15:21 And it was a, it was a blast and we could, I got a good workout.
00:15:29 She got a good workout and eventually it would get so fast that she'd have to stop
00:15:33 because she'd just be giggling too hard.
00:15:35 Yeah.
00:15:35 A simple ball brings a bunch of fun.
00:15:37 I have great memories.
00:15:38 I had, we got a little light up ball from an arcade of great memories of sitting
00:15:41 with my daughter, just tossing the light up ball back and forth and chatting.
00:15:45 And, oh, it's just a, it's just a deep, a deep and abiding pleasure.
00:15:49 And you should have this of course, with everyone in your life.
00:15:52 I hope, I hope, I hope that everyone in your life knows
00:15:55 exactly how much they mean to you.
00:15:57 The people you care about in your life.
00:15:59 Tell them, tell them, tell them.
00:16:01 Like now I'm of the age where, you know, if I leave, I've been leaving the house,
00:16:05 like I had to go run an errand this afternoon and leaving the house, I'm like.
00:16:08 Well, you know, does my wife know?
00:16:11 Like if these are the last words I say to her for whatever reason, right.
00:16:14 Does she know?
00:16:14 Right.
00:16:14 And I just want her to know that's all.
00:16:16 So tell people, don't wait, don't wait to tell people, even if it
00:16:22 embarrasses them, just tell them.
00:16:24 Uh, somebody says I had lots of fun times with my parents, but they were severely
00:16:30 neglectful and abusive and invested nothing into my future or wellbeing.
00:16:33 They preferred to contribute to Rothman's, Cameo, Heineken and vodka.
00:16:37 Well, see, that's the thing, right?
00:16:39 So you want to have parents who are childlike, but not childish.
00:16:44 Right?
00:16:44 So you want to have parents who know how to have fun, but also know how to be
00:16:48 responsible because there are a lot, this is sort of the nightmare scenario for the
00:16:52 woman that she has a toddler and a husband who acts like a sibling to the kid.
00:16:57 And, and won't, this is a sort of a Mrs.
00:17:00 Doubtfire thing, right?
00:17:01 He's great with kids and has never grown up.
00:17:04 Like, is he great with kids?
00:17:05 Cause he's in touch with this inner child that knows how to have fun.
00:17:08 Or is he great with kids?
00:17:09 Cause he's just never grown up and he just likes to hide in this sort of play stuff.
00:17:13 All right.
00:17:14 Hi, Steph.
00:17:15 My toddler is now walking and we're going to parks doing more exploring, which we're
00:17:19 now, uh, around older kids, three to four years old.
00:17:23 I'm noticing more anxiety when other children try to touch or
00:17:25 accidentally knock over my son.
00:17:26 It does stun him, but he'll get up and walk towards me.
00:17:29 How do you show boundaries with children who are older than he is and boundaries
00:17:34 with the parents who are sometimes not watching their children play?
00:17:36 I'm not sure I quite follow.
00:17:41 So he's, he's 14 months, right?
00:17:43 Your son is 14 months.
00:17:44 Um, aren't you, you're playing with him though, right?
00:17:52 I mean, you're not sitting there off to the side while your 14 year old
00:17:56 toddler plays on the, at the park, right?
00:17:58 You're, you're, you're playing games with him.
00:18:00 You're, you're engaging with him.
00:18:03 You're showing him stuff.
00:18:04 So you'd be somewhat of a physical shield.
00:18:06 Wouldn't you around that in general, if I, my sort of experience has been this,
00:18:12 and I just have a lot of experience with this because I've spent a lot of time
00:18:16 around kids, I, as everyone knows, I worked in a daycare for years as a
00:18:19 teenager and you're playing with him.
00:18:22 So if there are, if there are troublesome kids around, the way that I deal with
00:18:30 it is to organize a game with everyone.
00:18:33 Right.
00:18:33 So if my daughter, like when my daughter was 14 months, if there were older kids
00:18:37 around, then I'd say, Hey, everyone, let's have a game of hide and go seek, or
00:18:41 let's have a game of tag or whatever it is right now.
00:18:44 Of course, you know, your kid may be too young for tag and all of that, but
00:18:46 you can just sort of carrying him around and stagger around and it can be kind of
00:18:49 fun, but if the kids are engaged in a game, they tend to be a lot easier to deal with.
00:18:55 And it's usually more fun for your kid.
00:18:59 If they can see that you can organize a game or get something going that way.
00:19:04 I'm famous for organizing games.
00:19:09 I used to, uh, when my daughter and I would swim, if there'd be a bunch of kids
00:19:14 around, we'd play a game called smorgsaz.
00:19:16 Uh, so smorgsaz from like the Hobbit smorgsaz.
00:19:20 So the kids would be, uh, I would say, uh, the one thing that is absolutely
00:19:27 not allowed is for children to hop towards the edge of the pool and then
00:19:36 hop in like they're giant frogs.
00:19:38 That is absolutely smorgsaz.
00:19:39 That is absolutely not allowed.
00:19:41 And then of course the kids would giggle and do exactly that.
00:19:43 Or you could say, I don't know, like smorgsaz that you are not allowed to be a
00:19:47 blind person, licking ice cream and falling into the pool, not knowing it's there.
00:19:54 You know, or you're not allowed to be a, uh, an ape jumping, getting hit by
00:19:58 lightning in the middle of the jump, like whatever you can make up.
00:20:01 Right.
00:20:01 And then, uh, it's absolutely not allowed.
00:20:03 Smorgsaz, you are absolutely forbidden from doing this.
00:20:06 Right.
00:20:06 So smorgsaz and all of that.
00:20:08 So that kind of stuff is fun and the kids really get into it.
00:20:11 And I've never had a lick of trouble with kids when we're engaged in a game.
00:20:15 So.
00:20:16 All right.
00:20:23 Yeah, you're playing with him.
00:20:24 Right now, listen, if, if there are rambunctious kids around who are
00:20:29 careless around toddlers, you just move between you and them.
00:20:33 And there's nothing wrong with, you know, holding out a hand to keep a kid
00:20:35 from running into your kid and all that.
00:20:37 So just, you know, just stay around him and, and keep a shield.
00:20:40 Hey, are Canadian geese as aggressive and mean in Canada as they
00:20:45 are when they visit the U S they're not aggressive and mean they're assertive
00:20:50 as regards their own self-interest.
00:20:53 Yeah.
00:20:53 Hmm.
00:20:57 Let's see.
00:20:58 Hey Steph.
00:21:02 I am struggling so badly in my marriage.
00:21:03 My wife relapsed on drugs about a year ago and I can't let go.
00:21:06 How do you let go?
00:21:07 She may never recover.
00:21:10 Oof.
00:21:11 Oof.
00:21:12 I am sorry about that.
00:21:13 But at least your wife didn't disappear by a bridge.
00:21:18 Oh, that's very, very tough.
00:21:22 I absolutely sympathize with that.
00:21:25 Can you tell me this?
00:21:27 Uh, I guess you're from Quebec.
00:21:29 Can you tell me, are there children involved?
00:21:31 Are there children involved?
00:21:34 Are there children involved?
00:21:40 Now I will tell you this, and if you've got, if you guys have been around
00:21:44 addicts, maybe you'll confirm what I'm saying, maybe you'll disagree with what
00:21:50 I'm saying, I'd certainly love to get your opinion, but here's the
00:21:52 basic fact, you cannot have a relationship with an addict.
00:21:58 You cannot have a relationship with an addict because, oh, five kids,
00:22:08 oh, a mixed marriage, like a mixed race marriage, five kids.
00:22:10 Ouch.
00:22:12 Yeah.
00:22:13 You can't have a relationship with an addict because the addict only has
00:22:16 a relationship with the addiction.
00:22:17 You are a third wheel, right?
00:22:20 The real marriage has been, in my view, the real marriage is
00:22:23 between your wife and her addiction.
00:22:24 You, maybe she'll have an affair with from time to time, but her primary
00:22:28 relationship is with the addiction.
00:22:31 So if you're in a marriage with somebody who is heavily addicted to whatever, uh,
00:22:41 to me, uh, it's not a marriage.
00:22:42 It's not a relationship.
00:22:44 You're just there picking up the pieces as they consummate their deadly
00:22:49 relationship with their own addiction.
00:22:52 That is my thought.
00:22:54 Now, I mean, we all understand.
00:22:56 I think if you've read Gabber Mate's book, uh, about in the realm of hungry
00:23:03 ghosts, that the addict is trying to feel normal, not necessarily chasing a high.
00:23:07 But this goes back to the thing I sort of touched on earlier.
00:23:14 I sort of reminded this.
00:23:15 Have you ever been in this situation?
00:23:17 As something just gets so denormalized in your head, you can't ever
00:23:20 believe that you did it at all.
00:23:22 Something just gets so denormalized in your head where you're like, why did I
00:23:29 ever, like, I must've been a crazy person who had done this and usually, usually
00:23:34 it happens in your head when the statement comes up, it's one of the coldest and
00:23:42 most chilling statements around when the statement comes up in your head.
00:23:46 What am I doing here?
00:23:47 What am I, what am I doing here with these people?
00:23:53 What am I doing?
00:23:53 Like you may have it, if you've got a drinking habit or you, you know, you
00:23:57 socialize and you drink and you've got a drink to socialize and socialize to drink.
00:24:00 And at some point you're looking around, you're like, everybody's acting an idiot.
00:24:06 What am I doing here?
00:24:07 What am I doing here?
00:24:10 I mean, I remember it wasn't my friend group, but it was a friend of a friend's
00:24:16 group and they were so into drinking that it was everything, it was everything to
00:24:23 them, they couldn't get together without drinking and one guy, his big claim to
00:24:29 fame was he, he had, he'd passed out or fallen asleep with a beer in his hand
00:24:34 and someone had tried to take the beer cause it was going to tip and he woke up.
00:24:37 Hey, here's my beer.
00:24:38 Right?
00:24:38 Like this was his big claim to fame, right?
00:24:41 This was his big claim to fame.
00:24:44 That's how really into drinking he was.
00:24:48 And I remember, um, there was a statement of kind of cynicism around
00:24:58 doing anything other than drinking.
00:24:59 Right.
00:25:00 So they, I remember this story kind of like, kind of like, um, you know, you're
00:25:07 like, you're sitting on the dock, you know, you're a little hungover, you're
00:25:11 sitting on a dock, sunny, a little bit of a breeze and bird sounds and bird
00:25:17 songs in the air and you're, ah, you're kind of worn out.
00:25:22 You're kind of mellow and you're just chilling and enjoying the afternoon and
00:25:27 waiting for the hangover to recede.
00:25:29 And then someone comes up and says, Hey everybody, let's play Pictionary.
00:25:35 And you're like, Oh, I've never played Pictionary.
00:25:37 I've never heard of it.
00:25:38 Hey everybody, let's play Pictionary.
00:25:41 And it was like, Oh, so, so if it's not involved with drinking or recovering
00:25:45 from drinking, if it's actually something that's vaguely intellectual, like
00:25:48 Pictionary, that's the worst thing in the world, isn't it?
00:25:51 And I just remember, I went to a couple of these parties and I was just looking
00:25:57 around after a couple of these parties in the middle of one of the parties.
00:26:00 Like it just, you ever have this, your perspective just completely changes.
00:26:03 Your perspective just completely changes.
00:26:07 And that which you were vaguely looking forward to becomes like, what am I doing
00:26:11 here?
00:26:11 Oh my God, this is terrible.
00:26:13 I remember this with a family member.
00:26:16 One of the last times I saw a family member, they had friends over and the
00:26:20 friends were like coarse and, and making really gross jokes.
00:26:24 And it's just like, what am I doing here?
00:26:26 What am I doing here?
00:26:35 Headshot.
00:26:35 That's fatal.
00:26:36 Almost always that's fatal.
00:26:37 Now, maybe you've, if you've been around an addict or you've been around somebody
00:26:41 who's really neurotic or somebody who's kind of paranoid or, you know, somebody
00:26:45 who just misinterprets things and is looking for drama.
00:26:47 And at some point, like you, you get into the drama and yes, so-and-so did do
00:26:54 something really bad and so-and-so said something that was really offensive and
00:26:56 so on.
00:26:57 And at some point there's like this, this, this silver thread just, just breaks.
00:27:02 Like the cherry orchard, Jack lost the cherry orchard.
00:27:05 The bing!
00:27:05 Do you have that?
00:27:06 Like, you know, you tighten that guitar string and bing!
00:27:09 Just breaks.
00:27:10 And you're like, I don't care.
00:27:12 It's all, it's all made up nonsense drama.
00:27:15 This is all ridiculous.
00:27:16 Well, so-and-so said such and such, and then she's all, and it's like, I bing!
00:27:21 You ever have this?
00:27:21 Like, I just don't care.
00:27:22 I just don't care.
00:27:28 I just don't care.
00:27:28 And when you stop caring about this made up, useless drama, then you get this,
00:27:36 well, what am I doing here?
00:27:37 And then of course the person gets really offended and upset.
00:27:40 Well, what do you mean you're not into my useless, made up drama?
00:27:42 Don't you care?
00:27:42 Don't you support me?
00:27:43 So yeah, if you have that thing and if you, if you've been around an addict,
00:27:51 you're like, what am I doing here?
00:27:56 What am I doing here?
00:27:57 They're just a bunch of addicts with their, you know, creepy, self-righteous,
00:28:04 manipulative as hell addict friends.
00:28:07 So, sorry, let me just get to this, this marriage question.
00:28:12 So, so sorry, the mixed marriage, what you mean is a blended family.
00:28:24 So five kids, mixed marriage.
00:28:29 So mixed marriage, I assume then means it's a blended family rather
00:28:32 than a racially mixed marriage.
00:28:33 Just that's good for the clarification.
00:28:35 And mixed as in, I came to the marriage with two, she came in with three.
00:28:42 You said my brain is messed up.
00:28:44 The man says my brain is messed up because I really think I put her before God.
00:28:48 I was just as dependent as she is.
00:28:51 So did you, this is to Quebec fellow, did you know that she had been
00:28:59 a drug addict when you married her?
00:29:01 And you can of course, always go to freedomain.com/call,
00:29:08 freedomain.com/call.
00:29:09 And we can talk more about this, but it's my foundational question is,
00:29:13 did you go into the marriage?
00:29:20 Knowing that she had been a drug addict.
00:29:22 And while we're waiting for that response, somebody says, no clue whatsoever.
00:29:32 Okay.
00:29:37 So she lied.
00:29:38 If I remember this correctly, let me just go back and check here.
00:29:42 So you said, I'm not trying to catch you out.
00:29:46 I just want to make sure I got it right.
00:29:47 I'm not trying to catch you out.
00:29:49 I just want to make sure I've got this right.
00:29:52 Has relapsed on drugs about a year ago.
00:29:56 Okay.
00:29:57 So did she become an addict while she was married to you?
00:30:00 Or had she been a drug addict and she's relapsed and you didn't know
00:30:06 anything about it until she relapsed.
00:30:07 If somebody says, I actually made this mistake too.
00:30:10 I dated a sober guy who had once been an addict.
00:30:12 He relapsed three years in it at 10 years, he committed suicide.
00:30:17 10 years.
00:30:17 That's more than dating.
00:30:18 You were dating a guy.
00:30:23 10 years.
00:30:26 He committed suicide.
00:30:28 Maybe 10 years after you knew him or you found out he committed suicide, but Lord
00:30:34 above, I hope you weren't in a relationship with a relapsed addict for seven years.
00:30:37 That's horrible.
00:30:39 He was your fiance.
00:30:42 Okay.
00:30:45 How long was the relationship?
00:30:47 How long was the relationship?
00:30:49 We were together for eight years.
00:31:06 He was worth it, but it ruined a part of my life.
00:31:08 He was worth it.
00:31:16 So you spent a half decade with an addict who killed himself.
00:31:24 He was worth it.
00:31:26 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
00:31:33 Absolutely not.
00:31:36 Absolutely not.
00:31:38 I don't believe that for a second.
00:31:40 And honestly, I think it's, I mean, unless there's something I really
00:31:43 can't even imagine, it's kind of an insult to me and the audience as a whole for you
00:31:48 to say this addict I spent 10 years with was worth it.
00:32:00 No, no, no, no.
00:32:02 See, here's the thing.
00:32:03 Addicts always portray themselves as victims, but addicts are selfish
00:32:12 bullies, addicts are selfish bullies.
00:32:18 Addicts know when they're getting addicted.
00:32:25 Come on.
00:32:26 We've all had this at some point in our life where we say, Ooh, that's really nice.
00:32:30 Ooh, that's really nice.
00:32:35 Right.
00:32:36 You ever have this?
00:32:37 I mean, when I had my, uh, still a little scar here, I had neck
00:32:42 surgery and they gave me, um, I dunno, some sort of painkillers
00:32:45 that were very strong.
00:32:46 Right.
00:32:47 So, you know, neck was sore every time I moved.
00:32:50 So I took the painkiller.
00:32:51 Right.
00:32:51 And I was like, damn, that's nice.
00:32:54 That's nice.
00:32:57 Right.
00:32:58 So what did I do?
00:32:59 Cause you can see you get this fork in the road, right?
00:33:02 Fork in, I wasn't like some, Oh, about to become an addict, but you can see your
00:33:06 body's like, Ooh, that's nice.
00:33:09 That's nice.
00:33:11 And so I think I took them for two days and then I got rid of them.
00:33:17 Right.
00:33:20 Yeah.
00:33:23 Is this what you same thing?
00:33:24 Somebody says, Oh yeah.
00:33:25 When I feel, Ooh, that's really nice.
00:33:27 I know I have to cut it out.
00:33:28 Yeah.
00:33:32 So the addict knows.
00:33:40 Right.
00:33:41 They know you don't just, I don't know.
00:33:43 You don't just pick up a drink and I'm a raging alcoholic.
00:33:46 Right.
00:33:47 You're like, Oh man, I'm kind of socially anxious, but boy, those out that
00:33:51 alcohol really helps me with my social anxiety and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:33:54 Sure.
00:33:57 You know, have a, so you know, have been addicted to caffeine a large portion of
00:34:01 my life, don't like the reliance.
00:34:02 So drink mostly decaf.
00:34:03 I mean, I love coffee, love coffee.
00:34:08 So what do I do?
00:34:11 What do I do?
00:34:11 I limit myself to two caffeinated cups of coffee a day.
00:34:15 Now I have a little coffee here.
00:34:17 It's a decaf.
00:34:18 Because I don't want that much.
00:34:23 I like diet Coke.
00:34:25 I'll have maybe one diet Coke a month.
00:34:27 There's things that I, I mean, I just had to cut out sugar because as you age, you
00:34:33 know, I don't want to have problems with my teeth and you know, I'm still trying
00:34:37 to drop another 10 pounds.
00:34:38 So my God.
00:34:40 I may even have been a little bit addicted to politics, but that's a secret
00:34:51 just between me and the microphone.
00:34:52 Don't listen.
00:34:53 So all addicts have a choice and they know going down the route of further
00:35:03 addiction is really, really bad.
00:35:05 And they take that path.
00:35:10 And then they claim to be victims.
00:35:13 Nope.
00:35:14 You made a choice.
00:35:16 You made a choice and you took the easy route rather than the practical route.
00:35:24 Right.
00:35:25 You wanted the happiness you wanted.
00:35:27 Oh man, I'm, I've got social anxiety, but when I drink, I'm the life of the party.
00:35:32 It's like, okay, well then you need to figure out what's causing the social
00:35:34 anxiety you need to deal with your childhood.
00:35:36 You need to whatever.
00:35:37 Just drink.
00:35:38 Just drink.
00:35:42 So I don't view addicts as victims.
00:35:56 I view them as victimizers because addicts in general prey upon the healthy, the
00:36:05 healthier people in their society.
00:36:07 Right.
00:36:08 I mean, they, they take welfare, they drive on roads, they use the emergency
00:36:12 medical system, they need healthcare, they get free dentist care, they, they use
00:36:17 shelters, like they rely on more functional members of society to feed their addiction.
00:36:22 Where did they get their money?
00:36:34 Where did they get the money?
00:36:36 To, right, they steal a lot of times.
00:36:39 They'll, uh, women will sell themselves, uh, sexually, thus often
00:36:43 spreading disease and dysfunction.
00:36:44 I don't have much patience.
00:36:51 I don't have much patience.
00:36:57 I mean, I'm for drug legalization for sure.
00:37:05 But when you have a welfare state and you have quote free healthcare and all of that
00:37:10 government subsidized everything, then that's a different matter.
00:37:14 That's a different matter.
00:37:17 So with regards to your wife, who's an addict.
00:37:27 Okay.
00:37:34 My older half brother always seemed to be able to find rich girlfriends to live
00:37:39 off and would steal from his jobs.
00:37:41 Right.
00:37:42 Preying on obviously gullible women and stealing from his job, which raises the
00:37:50 price of everything for everyone else.
00:38:04 Now you've got five kids in the mix.
00:38:06 So there's only one question.
00:38:07 There's only one question that matters and it's not about you.
00:38:09 And it's not about your wife.
00:38:10 What's the only question that matters when you've got an addict wife and
00:38:16 five kids that you're responsible for?
00:38:18 What's the only question that matters?
00:38:20 What's the only thing that matters?
00:38:21 What, what, what we all know at this point, right?
00:38:32 We've been around.
00:38:34 The only thing that matters is thank you for the tip, by the way.
00:38:44 The only thing that matters is the kids.
00:38:47 Yeah.
00:38:47 What's best for the kids.
00:38:48 Can you function as a parent while managing children and an addict?
00:38:53 And I assume the addiction is bad enough that it's really interfering, right?
00:38:56 What's best for the kids.
00:39:02 What's best for the kids.
00:39:03 If she's an addict and you can document it, you can get custody.
00:39:09 I'm sure it's not legal advice.
00:39:11 I'm just guessing that that is the case.
00:39:12 Right.
00:39:16 You chose to marry her.
00:39:23 You said you'd be married for 12 years.
00:39:25 You chose to marry her.
00:39:26 The kids did not choose any of that.
00:39:31 Steph, have you seen those videos of the father only bringing
00:39:33 food for his biological kids?
00:39:35 Yeah.
00:39:38 So, um, that's sadly without philosophy, we resort to biology, right?
00:39:52 Without philosophy, we resort to biology.
00:39:54 So that makes, you know, that's kind of what happens is you will feed your own.
00:40:00 Genes, not the genes of a competitor, right?
00:40:03 That's just the way, the way that it goes, right?
00:40:05 How soon can the wife get into an addiction center and out of the house?
00:40:13 Also, um, if you could answer this, my friend from Quebec, uh, smocking church.
00:40:21 Uh, how long has she been, how long has she been relapsed for?
00:40:25 And I I'll be straight up blank and harsh about this.
00:40:34 It's all just my opinion.
00:40:36 I don't have any expertise in the area.
00:40:38 I don't have any expertise in the area.
00:40:42 Just my opinion.
00:40:42 If you've been an addict and a parent, if you've been an addict and a parent,
00:40:53 what's one of the main reasons why the addict keeps going?
00:40:57 Yeah, verily.
00:40:58 Sometimes I hope not in the case in any case, but certainly I hope
00:41:01 not in the case in this case.
00:41:02 Why is it the addict keeps going on?
00:41:04 Yeah, verily unto death itself.
00:41:08 Does anybody know this?
00:41:10 At least my particular idea, not that you'd know my idea, but
00:41:14 why do you think addicts keep going?
00:41:16 See, first they take the addiction because it makes them feel normal
00:41:22 or slightly better than normal.
00:41:23 And then they take the addiction to avoid some of the negatives.
00:41:26 But why do they keep going to the point where they just don't
00:41:30 turn around and go off a cliff?
00:41:32 The next high?
00:41:33 No, there's not really much of a high.
00:41:35 Positive feedback of guilt.
00:41:39 Yeah, I think that's right.
00:41:40 So here's the problem.
00:41:42 If you say I need to self-medicate for bad feelings, right?
00:41:46 Bad feelings from my childhood, bad feelings from trauma in the distant
00:41:50 past, or maybe even the recent past.
00:41:52 So you say I'm going to self-medicate for bad feelings, bad
00:41:55 feelings mean self-medication.
00:41:58 Okay.
00:41:58 So then you become a bad person because you're a drug addict or an addict, right?
00:42:03 So then you become a bad person.
00:42:09 You steal, you cheat, you lie, you terrorize, you threaten, you ignore your kids.
00:42:13 You ignore your friends.
00:42:14 You're bad at your job.
00:42:15 You steal from your employer.
00:42:17 You, you become a bad person because you're an addict and you have this
00:42:22 equation, bad feelings mean take drug.
00:42:25 Bad feelings mean take drugs.
00:42:27 So the bad feelings you were originally self-medicating for
00:42:30 might be 10 years ago, right?
00:42:33 Something bad happened when you were 10, something really bad.
00:42:36 And then you take drugs at 20.
00:42:38 So 10 years.
00:42:38 So, but the problem is you've got this equation in your head now that bad
00:42:42 actions mean, bad feelings mean take drugs.
00:42:48 And now you become a bad person, which provokes your conscience.
00:42:52 So in the past it was because you were victimized.
00:42:54 Now it's because you're victimizing others and your conscience gives you
00:42:56 bad feelings, so you take the drug because your conscience is plaguing you.
00:43:00 But, but taking the drug means you lie to people, you cheat, you steal, which
00:43:04 makes your conscience plague you even more.
00:43:05 So you go back to the drug.
00:43:06 Bump.
00:43:07 Nope.
00:43:13 Nope.
00:43:14 So you can't, uh, you can't get out of that spiral.
00:43:26 I feel bad because of prior trauma then translates into, I feel bad because I've
00:43:33 become a bad person and my conscience is plaguing me.
00:43:35 So you weren't taken care of as a kid.
00:43:41 You become a mother.
00:43:42 You weren't taken care of as a kid.
00:43:43 You drug yourself to alleviate that, those bad feelings, and
00:43:47 then you become a bad mother.
00:43:49 And so you drug yourself, not because of what happened in the past that you were
00:43:54 a victim of, but what you're doing in the present that you're victimizing others.
00:43:58 Guy says she already moved out.
00:44:02 She has been active for about a year.
00:44:03 Yeah.
00:44:03 I'm sorry.
00:44:04 I can't, I can't do this in text.
00:44:05 It takes way too long to get a response and there's way too little information.
00:44:08 Right.
00:44:09 So she's already moved out.
00:44:11 Yeah.
00:44:11 So she's been a drug addict or some kind of act for about a year and she's moved
00:44:16 out.
00:44:16 Okay.
00:44:16 So I'm not sure what your question is.
00:44:19 That's why I have never taken any drugs to effing scare it.
00:44:26 Yeah.
00:44:26 I mean, there's, there's no, there's absolutely no logical reason to take a
00:44:32 drug.
00:44:33 Why?
00:44:35 Why?
00:44:36 You know, people would offer me weed, man.
00:44:38 He smokes weed.
00:44:39 Yeah.
00:44:39 Relax, man.
00:44:40 Nietzsche's.
00:44:41 Oh,
00:44:41 like why?
00:44:45 There's only three outcomes.
00:44:48 Either it's really bad.
00:44:51 Gives me a bad trip and paranoia in which case I don't want to do that.
00:44:54 Could damage my wiring or it's kind of neutral in which case what's the point
00:44:58 or it's really great in which case, oh great.
00:45:01 Now I've got that to prompt problem.
00:45:03 Yeah.
00:45:03 Nowadays it's not weed.
00:45:04 It's weed with elephant level sedation in it.
00:45:06 Yeah.
00:45:06 Yeah.
00:45:07 Yeah.
00:45:07 Oh, he filled out the call in form.
00:45:11 Yeah.
00:45:12 We can, we can talk for sure.
00:45:13 Someone says my theory is that the drugs don't make them feel better.
00:45:20 They just serve as a scapegoat for the thing that they're doing.
00:45:23 Yeah.
00:45:23 I mean, I'm not sure.
00:45:24 I mean, I think that's a good point.
00:45:25 I think that's a good point.
00:45:26 I think that's a good point.
00:45:27 I think that's a good point.
00:45:28 I think that's a good point.
00:45:28 I think that's a good point.
00:45:29 I think that's a good point.
00:45:29 I think that's a good point.
00:45:30 I think that's a good point.
00:45:31 I think that's a good point.
00:45:31 I think that's a good point.
00:45:32 I think that's a good point.
00:45:32 I think that's a good point.
00:45:33 I think that's a good point.
00:45:33 I think that's a good point.
00:45:34 I think that's a good point.
00:45:35 I think that's a good point.
00:45:36 I think that's a good point.
00:45:36 I think that's a good point.
00:45:37 I think that's a good point.
00:45:38 I think that's a good point.
00:45:39 I think that's a good point.
00:45:40 I think that's a good point.
00:45:40 I think that's a good point.
00:45:41 I think that's a good point.
00:45:42 I think that's a good point.
00:45:43 I think that's a good point.
00:45:44 I think that's a good point.
00:45:45 I think that's a good point.
00:45:45 I think that's a good point.
00:45:46 I think that's a good point.
00:45:47 I think that's a good point.
00:45:48 I'll tell you, for me, again, no expert, it's just my opinion.
00:45:59 For me, drug addiction is one thing and one thing only.
00:46:02 It's the cover up of a crime.
00:46:04 Drug addiction is one thing and one thing only.
00:46:06 It's the cover up of a crime.
00:46:14 What I mean by that is, if you were abused as a child,
00:46:18 you're very susceptible to becoming a drug addict or an addict.
00:46:22 Let's say drug addict, right?
00:46:23 It means more than just drug addiction.
00:46:26 So if you were abused as a child, you're much more likely to become,
00:46:29 or you're much more susceptible to being a drug addict.
00:46:31 Now, here's the thing.
00:46:33 When you first take that drug and you feel good or you feel normal
00:46:37 or you feel like you're relieved from the trauma,
00:46:39 then you get a strong sense of how much you got fucked over.
00:46:47 How much you got abused.
00:46:48 If you're miserable from abuse and then you take a drug and you're like,
00:46:52 "Holy shit, this is what it's like to feel normal?
00:46:55 My God, did they screw me up?"
00:46:58 You get a sense of how outraged your entire body,
00:47:03 your neurochemical system is, your neurological system, everything.
00:47:08 Does that make sense?
00:47:09 Everything becomes clear.
00:47:12 The amount of harm you experienced becomes radically clear.
00:47:16 The moment you feel normal after feeling miserable your whole life
00:47:21 because of child abuse.
00:47:25 So, so, that's your fork in the road, right?
00:47:33 I now know how much I was hurt.
00:47:39 Holy shit.
00:47:43 I've been in agony my whole life because my parents beat me or attacked me
00:47:47 or neglected me or verbally abused me or raped me or molested me
00:47:52 or allowed it to happen.
00:47:53 I've been in misery my whole life.
00:47:55 I took a drug.
00:47:56 The pain has gone away and I now very, very much realize how much
00:48:03 and how deeply I was violated.
00:48:08 Now, that's a fork in the road.
00:48:11 You are now aware of a crime.
00:48:15 You are now vividly bodily down in your bone marrow.
00:48:20 You are aware of a crime.
00:48:23 You are not a person.
00:48:25 You are a fucking crime scene.
00:48:31 You are not someone up and walking around.
00:48:36 You're a body in a grave.
00:48:37 You're a chalk outline on a rainy street.
00:48:40 You feel the violation foundationally when you feel normal for the first time.
00:48:47 Now, you realize there has been a terrible crime, a terrible violation,
00:48:57 and that's the fork in the road.
00:49:03 Now, what do your parents, the criminals, we're talking about a situation
00:49:09 of significant abuse, severe abuse.
00:49:12 Your parents, the criminals, do they want you to be aware of the crime scene
00:49:21 you call a childhood?
00:49:25 Do they want you to be aware of the crime scene you call a childhood?
00:49:30 Of course not.
00:49:31 Of course not.
00:49:37 Do they want you to have good people around you?
00:49:39 Do they want you to go to therapy?
00:49:40 Do they want you to truly learn about the evils and the crimes that they committed?
00:49:45 Maybe hold them to account.
00:49:47 Maybe go to the police.
00:49:48 Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe talk with them.
00:49:51 Maybe talk in the family about what happened.
00:49:57 Maybe write a song or a movie or a musical.
00:50:03 Do they want their crimes revealed?
00:50:06 Of course they don't.
00:50:08 So, to me, the addict is not an addict until he listens to the parents who want him to
00:50:18 bury the crime in addiction.
00:50:24 So his inner child is, "Finally you have found the pain.
00:50:28 Finally you have learned how badly we were treated.
00:50:31 Please, please, please get free.
00:50:33 Be good.
00:50:34 Be strong.
00:50:35 Resist.
00:50:36 Speak up.
00:50:37 Tell.
00:50:38 Talk.
00:50:39 Do all the things we couldn't do when we were children.
00:50:43 Break the cycle.
00:50:44 Break the chain.
00:50:45 Speak your mind.
00:50:46 Be free.
00:50:47 Be liberated.
00:50:48 Be honest."
00:50:49 Reveal what was done.
00:50:54 That's what the inner child wants, right?
00:50:57 What do the parents want?
00:50:58 "Shut it down.
00:51:00 Shut it.
00:51:02 Go take another drug.
00:51:04 Fuck you very much.
00:51:05 Go take another drug.
00:51:07 Cover up the crime.
00:51:10 And if you have to become a criminal to cover up our crimes, well, that's the way the
00:51:15 Yoki Koki grumbles."
00:51:16 And that's why, to me, addiction is colluding with the abuser to cover up the crime against
00:51:37 the child.
00:51:38 Someone says, "When I first heard Steph point out that drugs, even cigarettes, were not
00:51:45 a positive pleasure.
00:51:46 They were just bringing you up to what is normal for unabused people.
00:51:48 That was the beginning of my finally quitting."
00:51:50 Good, good, good, good, good.
00:51:58 Because criminals produce people susceptible to addiction if people choose to cover up
00:52:04 the crime rather than confront the honesty of their abuse, then the victims become the
00:52:11 abusers, the victims become the liars, those stolen from become thieves, those abused become
00:52:16 abusers, those neglected neglect others.
00:52:19 Those who were verbally abused become verbal abusers.
00:52:22 It's a very famous and common knowledge that addicts are emotional terrorists.
00:52:29 No, they just cover up the crimes.
00:52:36 It's a cover up.
00:52:37 Addiction is a cover up of parental crime, and it generates more crime.
00:52:45 Addiction is like a virus that replicates.
00:52:54 Someone says, "I agree and think this can apply to prescription drugs.
00:52:58 If you only function if on a drug, then is this supposed to be acceptable or do we need
00:53:01 to learn to deal with pain and therapy to learn to function and make a recovery or as
00:53:05 much as one is possible?
00:53:08 Or is that going too far?
00:53:09 I am of two minds on the subject.
00:53:11 Myself never used anything stronger than sugar."
00:53:13 Thank you, Steph.
00:53:15 This is Golan.
00:53:16 I'm glad it's helpful.
00:53:17 I'm glad this is helpful.
00:53:23 The only way to cover up the crime is to join the gang, and addicts do.
00:53:32 I view addiction as a betrayal of the inner child who is screaming for a witness, for
00:53:38 a testimony, for protection.
00:53:42 And I view addiction as the criminal abusers having taken over the personality like demonic
00:53:47 possession, have their foot on the neck of the inner child, and are constantly humiliating
00:53:55 and crushing his spirit.
00:54:00 It's horrible.
00:54:08 All right.
00:54:13 Joe Flaherty died, which was actually kind of a shame.
00:54:17 So Joe Flaherty is a comedian and an actor, and he was in SCTV, which was sort of the
00:54:24 birthplace of a lot of great Canadian comedians, John Candy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara,
00:54:31 Rick Moranis, and so on.
00:54:35 And really some quite funny stuff.
00:54:36 Very uneven comedy in my view, but still better than Kids in the Hall, which was really sinister
00:54:41 and actually quite nihilistic.
00:54:43 But a very funny guy, and there's a television series that was, I think, prematurely ended,
00:54:52 although maybe that's why it still remains very good, called Freaks and Geeks, and he
00:54:55 played a very good role of a father in the show, Freaks and Geeks.
00:55:02 Freaks and Geeks had some serious acting talent in its inception.
00:55:06 It was James Franco, Tuesday.
00:55:09 She's got a weird, I can't remember what her name is, but it's some weird blonde actress
00:55:18 who was in it.
00:55:20 And yeah, just very, very good stuff.
00:55:24 And it was about childhood in the 90s, and it was very, very good and hit me pretty hard.
00:55:31 The guy, oh yeah, the guy played the young kid.
00:55:33 He had these sort of sleepy, half stoned, half smiling eyes, and he turned up later
00:55:37 on the show Bones as Dr. Sweets, which I thought was kind of funny.
00:55:43 Yeah, yeah, Freaks and Geeks is good.
00:55:47 Martin Short, yeah, Martin Short came out of that as well.
00:55:50 Martin Short came out of that.
00:55:52 And Martin Short, boy, you see him in Damage to a Room.
00:55:55 He played a very serious role, I think shortly after his wife died, and it was really quite
00:56:00 something, really quite chilling.
00:56:01 Yeah, Freaks and Geeks is good, particularly, there's a scene where the kids are in a store,
00:56:10 like in a mall, and there are video games around, and that just sort of reminded me
00:56:13 of hanging around the video game and computer area.
00:56:17 I used to go to the Radio Shack and the Don Mills Mall and do little programming things
00:56:20 and so on with the computers and all of that.
00:56:22 And I just remembered all of that stuff.
00:56:24 There's a lot of sort of deep, primal memory stuff for me in Freaks and Geeks based on
00:56:30 all of that stuff.
00:56:31 Oh gosh, who else was in it?
00:56:32 Let me just see here.
00:56:33 I've got to remember this actress's name.
00:56:36 It's going to drive me crazy.
00:56:40 It's not as bad as Berkeley Breathed, but it was something.
00:56:44 All right, let's see here.
00:56:47 Yes, it was a Judd Apatow thing, right?
00:56:53 So yeah, Linda Cardellini, James Franco, Sam Levine.
00:56:58 Seth Rogen was in it, Jason Segel, Martin Starr.
00:57:02 Oh, played this absolutely heartbreaking geek.
00:57:04 He showed up, of course, later on in Silicon Valley and played a Satanist.
00:57:11 It was a very different kind of...
00:57:13 Busy Phillips!
00:57:14 That's the one!
00:57:15 And the opening theme was Bad Reputation by Joan Jett.
00:57:18 It was really, really good.
00:57:19 And there were only one season, 18 episodes.
00:57:22 It ended pretty early.
00:57:24 Yeah, 1980 to '81 school year.
00:57:27 So it was just as I was ending high school.
00:57:28 So it really was a view of my childhood, and it was just really, really well done.
00:57:35 Again, great acting, great writing, and all of that.
00:57:39 And really good stuff.
00:57:42 Martin Starr played an absolutely heartbreaking geek.
00:57:48 Just terrible.
00:57:49 But good.
00:57:50 But good.
00:57:54 And so Joe Flaherty, he died.
00:58:01 Don Mills' Mall is no more.
00:58:02 Now it's gone.
00:58:03 Now it's gone.
00:58:04 He's gone, baby!
00:58:05 He's gone, baby, gone.
00:58:06 And of course, now I'm at the age, of course, where the people who entertained me when I
00:58:12 was in my teens are all dropping off like flies.
00:58:14 Dying, dying, dying.
00:58:17 I remember I was reading an autobiography...
00:58:19 Sorry.
00:58:20 I read the autobiography of Marlon Brando, but I was reading a biography of Marlon Brando,
00:58:23 and he was in his, I don't know, he died at the age of 80, and he was sort of in his mid
00:58:26 to late 70s, and he's like, "I can't believe that there'd be a place where I'm not.
00:58:29 I'm not going to be here."
00:58:31 So it's hard to accept.
00:58:34 So Ayn Rand said, in a somewhat selfish way, that, "It is not I who will end to the world.
00:58:43 This is the world that will end for me."
00:58:45 And I get that.
00:58:46 Yeah, and he died, he was like 81.
00:58:48 Now he had a pretty good career, Joe Flaherty, but what happened, if memory serves me right,
00:58:52 and I'm sorry if I got this wrong, what happened was John Candy died in his early 40s, of course,
00:58:58 from, he was a heavy smoker and morbidly obese and so on, so he didn't last too long, of
00:59:04 course.
00:59:06 But even though he tried to diet and all of this kind of stuff, tried to go to fat camp
00:59:10 and so on, but obviously had a pretty traumatized childhood and all of that.
00:59:16 So the success that John Candy had, he was a real break out, so he became a movie star,
00:59:23 of course, as you know, Uncle Buck and planes, trains and automobiles, and of course a whole
00:59:27 bunch of other stuff.
00:59:28 So the star that John Candy became, I assume was somewhat resented by the other people.
00:59:36 I remember when I was in theater school, one woman did a really great scene and the acting
00:59:40 teacher who was up from New York was like, "You should have your own TV show.
00:59:44 Give me some coffee.
00:59:45 She should have her own TV show.
00:59:47 She really should.
00:59:48 She should."
00:59:49 And we were all like seething and "I want my own TV show!"
00:59:52 Because this is back before you realized the price you pay to get your own TV show, which
00:59:56 is kind of coming out of the Nickelodeon stuff thing.
00:59:59 But apparently, apparently the deal was that SCTV, they had to pay John Candy more and
01:00:07 so they'd say, "Here's everyone's paycheck except for John Candy.
01:00:11 Here's everyone's paycheck except for John Candy.
01:00:13 Everyone's got a casting, everyone's got an 8am shoot call except for John Candy."
01:00:17 So it was always except for John Candy because he was such a star, he was off shooting movies
01:00:20 and he had to be paid more and so on.
01:00:22 And apparently Joe Flaherty at the tribute to John Candy after he died said something
01:00:27 like "And look at here, we're all here and alive except for John Candy."
01:00:32 And that was sort of the bitter joke and not necessarily the best time because John Candy
01:00:37 was kind of beloved.
01:00:38 And boy, what a great name for a comedian, John Candy.
01:00:41 He's so sweet.
01:00:42 So yeah, be aware of all the people that were entertaining you when you were young.
01:00:50 They're all dropping off the planet.
01:00:54 Uncle Buck was a funny movie.
01:00:57 Uncle Buck was a funny movie.
01:00:58 Boy, that woman who played the pissed off teenager, she dug herself into that part.
01:01:03 I'd love to know that history.
01:01:07 Alright, I have more stuff to talk about.
01:01:11 If y'all feel like throwing in a tip, freedomand.com/donate, if you could help out the show that way, I would
01:01:17 really appreciate it.
01:01:18 Because I mean, donations are down, I get that, but I don't know if it's something I'm
01:01:22 doing or not doing and I'm not sure if it's just a bad economy and all of that.
01:01:26 But we'll see.
01:01:29 Alright, let's see here.
01:01:33 Did you maintain any of the friendships you had from your high school days?
01:01:35 I'm 23 and dealing with this now, outgrowing pretty much all of them, it's sad.
01:01:38 I did actually maintain a lot of friendships from my high school days.
01:01:44 Until I didn't.
01:01:45 So I won't get into any details because it's not people's fault I'm midgingly famous, but
01:01:50 let's see.
01:01:52 So I maintained a friendship, I'm thinking in particular of two guys.
01:02:01 One of them became my, no, three guys actually.
01:02:04 Three guys.
01:02:05 They all became my friends in my early teens and those relationships lasted until my mid
01:02:09 thirties.
01:02:10 Mid thirties, I guess.
01:02:13 Mid thirties.
01:02:15 Yeah.
01:02:17 So I did, and good friendships, like traveled with them, worked together and all of that
01:02:22 and saw each other on a regular basis.
01:02:25 And actually maybe even later, because I remember one of my friend, I was still seeing when
01:02:30 my daughter was born and I said, this is a friend of mine.
01:02:33 And it was quite sad in a way because he just didn't date and very, very smart guy, but
01:02:39 he just got progressively more odd over the years.
01:02:43 And he had a real claustrophobic relationship with his mother.
01:02:48 Like his mother would be like, Oh, I made some hamburger helper come down and watch
01:02:53 murder she wrote with me.
01:02:54 And he'd go down cause he needed something to eat and just staying with his mother the
01:02:57 whole time.
01:02:58 Then she died and it was like, and now that's it.
01:03:01 Cause his father was long gone and he had no siblings.
01:03:03 So, you know, he did that in a sense, a substitute husband thing for his lonely mother.
01:03:07 And then when she died, that was it.
01:03:12 And it was, it was tough, man.
01:03:13 I went with him to the hospital and he had to make some very tough decisions and went
01:03:19 to the funeral parlor and funeral arrangements and all of that.
01:03:23 It was really, really a tough, a tough time, but you know, talk about not building the
01:03:26 second half of your life.
01:03:27 Right.
01:03:28 That was really tough.
01:03:30 And yeah, it just got more and more odd.
01:03:31 And he actually ended up, believe it or not, he ended up inheriting a fair amount of money.
01:03:35 I've just kind of out of nowhere and, um, but still wouldn't.
01:03:45 He inherited a car from his mother and wouldn't get his driver's license, which meant every
01:03:49 time that I wanted to see him, I had to drive for, depending on traffic between an hour
01:03:54 and an hour and a half.
01:03:55 So then when I had my daughter, you know, it's kind of tough, especially in winter to
01:04:00 get a kid into a car who's like a couple of months old and then drive for three hours
01:04:06 there and back.
01:04:07 That's, that's not easy.
01:04:08 And I'm like, just get your license.
01:04:12 You're in your thirties, get your license.
01:04:14 You got a free car.
01:04:16 You can afford it.
01:04:17 I don't know.
01:04:18 Yeah.
01:04:19 Andrea Martin was in the cast too.
01:04:20 Yeah, that's right.
01:04:21 So, yeah.
01:04:34 So yeah, I mean, nothing particularly happened.
01:04:36 It just, you know, when you, when you get married and you have kids, your life changes
01:04:46 so much that you have very little left in common with people who aren't.
01:04:51 This is my experience.
01:04:52 And I've talked to a couple, about a couple of people, but this, and it just, just is
01:04:55 kind of like that.
01:04:56 You know, I hate to be annoying as usual, particularly when asking for donations, but
01:05:03 yeah, or hire a chauffeur or take a cab or something.
01:05:06 Right.
01:05:07 But I mean, I had a friend who didn't have a car, but he biked out to where I was.
01:05:13 So when you're responsible, like when you get married, you're responsible for somebody
01:05:20 else's happiness, right?
01:05:23 You know, my greatest, one of my greatest joys is how happy I make my wife because that's
01:05:28 the deal, right?
01:05:29 You say, you know, we're going to lock our lives together.
01:05:31 We're going to become one.
01:05:32 You're now responsible for somebody else's happiness in a very foundational way.
01:05:35 And in a way that just doesn't show up when you're dating, it doesn't show up when you're
01:05:38 dating, you're now responsible for somebody else's happiness.
01:05:42 I mean, they're responsible for yours and all of that.
01:05:44 So that's one thing.
01:05:46 And it's such a deep and serious thing to get married.
01:05:49 It is, you know, links of iron forged in a furnace of fiery love that bind you together.
01:05:58 Because, you know, I mean, I know my wife and I were like, we're together forever, no
01:06:01 matter what.
01:06:03 And because the media, it doesn't just attack you.
01:06:06 It basically attacks your relationships, is trying to attack your marriage, is trying
01:06:09 to attack all of that sort of stuff.
01:06:10 Right.
01:06:11 And they attacked my colleagues and they right scattered when I was attacked.
01:06:14 So when you get married, you enter into a very foundational covenant that, you know,
01:06:25 your friends who have somewhat dating troubles or whatever, you know, you have some sympathy,
01:06:34 but that sympathy diminishes as you kind of, you know, I got married in my thirties and
01:06:38 as sort of time sails along and people are still, oh, I had another breakup and oh, I
01:06:41 met this new girl.
01:06:42 And it's just like, come on, can you not just settle down and get serious?
01:06:45 Like, can you not just find someone who's right for you and, you know, commit to that
01:06:48 or, you know, it just starts to feel a little repetitive, not immediately, but you know,
01:06:52 over time.
01:06:53 And then when you have a kid and now you're responsible for keeping an entirely fragile
01:06:58 human soul on this planet, man, that's, that's a whole different planet.
01:07:05 Like you bring that kid home, you're driving home at three miles an hour, no bumps, right?
01:07:10 And you hit a speed bump, you get to a speed bump, it's like, you go over it like at one
01:07:13 mile an hour, you gotta be careful, right?
01:07:15 You gotta be careful and you gotta keep your eye.
01:07:18 And you're out of your own body.
01:07:19 Like you're out of your own body when you have a kid, your heart is just, you're never
01:07:23 back in your own skin again.
01:07:25 You can turn it down.
01:07:26 It's like a dimmer switch that you can't turn it off.
01:07:28 You're always thinking about what's best for your kids.
01:07:30 You're always thinking about the future.
01:07:31 You're always thinking about whether they're doing okay and like what you can do to make
01:07:37 their lives better without making it so good that they don't have to struggle.
01:07:40 Like, you know, it's complicated stuff.
01:07:42 And especially when they're very little, like that's what you do.
01:07:45 You get up and you take care of your kid when they're a baby, right?
01:07:48 And they're hungry and you feed them and then you play with them.
01:07:51 And then sometimes they'll fall asleep on you and you have to pee, but you just wait
01:07:55 till they wake up.
01:07:56 And you know, like you're not in your own body anymore.
01:07:59 You evacuate yourself.
01:08:02 And this is why I think people who are, you know, can be quite susceptible to depression
01:08:06 after they become parents, because if you don't have a secure sense of yourself, then
01:08:11 abandoning yourself feels like jumping off a cruise ship.
01:08:15 Right?
01:08:16 But you get out of yourself and you're just entirely devoted.
01:08:19 In a marriage, you're devoted to the other person.
01:08:21 And as a parent, you're infinitely more devoted to your kid or kids, right?
01:08:28 And what happens is, I think it's almost inevitable.
01:08:31 I think it's almost inevitable.
01:08:32 What happens is you just, everybody else's concerns seem retarded.
01:08:45 You know, if they're not married and don't have parents.
01:08:53 I don't know how to put it.
01:08:54 And I'm not saying this is right or objective or moral or good, but I think it's pretty
01:08:59 common.
01:09:01 But I think it's pretty common.
01:09:07 So you know, you're delighted.
01:09:10 And thing is too, because your life becomes about your kid, other people don't share in
01:09:17 that.
01:09:18 They don't share in that.
01:09:19 Now, if they have their own kids, you can at least share about how much your life has
01:09:20 been taken over by becoming a parent.
01:09:23 But especially to your single friends, you know, "Hey, I saw this really great movie.
01:09:29 Oh, that's nice.
01:09:30 I'm having some trouble at work.
01:09:33 Oh, that's tough."
01:09:34 And it's like, I'm literally keeping a human being alive.
01:09:37 And that's my job 24/7.
01:09:42 So for me, I just had less and less in common with people over time.
01:09:53 I just had less and less in common with people over time.
01:09:56 I don't honestly know if there's any fix to that, other than maybe they get married and
01:10:01 have kids.
01:10:02 But I just don't.
01:10:04 You know, like I knew a couple of friends who got divorced.
01:10:10 And it's like, I'm really, really happily married.
01:10:14 I don't know that I can be very good help.
01:10:18 Because you know, if you talk to me, it's sort of like if you have a couple who has
01:10:22 fertility problems and they can't have a kid or whatever, and you're like so overjoyed
01:10:28 at being a parent, can you really share that with them?
01:10:30 Like there's a certain amount of diplomacy and, you know, so, you know, if my friend
01:10:36 who was getting divorced or having significant trouble with his wife, I'm like, you know,
01:10:41 like I sympathize, but I sort of feel like I can't then talk about how, I can't really
01:10:49 talk about how overjoyed I am to be married and how much I love my wife and how wonderful
01:10:53 things are.
01:10:57 You know, have you ever had this, if you've got friends who are just, they're broke, they're
01:11:04 just broke all the time.
01:11:05 They just don't have any money for whatever reason.
01:11:07 I mean, maybe it's good reasons, maybe it's bad reasons or whatever, but it's just kind
01:11:10 of, it's kind of broke.
01:11:13 And you know, it's okay to make a little money in this life.
01:11:15 I'm not saying be extravagant, right?
01:11:17 But you know, you shouldn't be struggling at 40 the way you were struggling when you
01:11:23 were 20.
01:11:24 You should have made some better decisions, saved up some money, made some investments,
01:11:30 something, something.
01:11:31 I mean, what did I have in common with my friends who had bad marriages or no marriages,
01:11:43 no kids?
01:11:45 Like you just drift apart.
01:11:48 Yeah, divorce is contagious.
01:11:50 Yeah, yeah, of course.
01:11:52 I'm keeping a human being alive.
01:11:53 I felt that every day.
01:11:54 Oh yeah.
01:11:55 Oh yeah.
01:11:56 It's like, it's like you're walking around, you know, with this big weight you're holding
01:11:59 up all the time.
01:12:00 You can't forget that, right?
01:12:02 And you can't get just like, you literally have to completely abandon yourself because
01:12:05 you've got to focus all the time on the kid.
01:12:10 All the time.
01:12:15 I mean, especially my daughter was not a sit in the stroller.
01:12:18 My daughter, she didn't like being in a stroller.
01:12:20 She always wanted to be carried.
01:12:21 She always wanted to be interacting.
01:12:23 She was just, you know, you couldn't put her down.
01:12:25 She'd cry.
01:12:26 She'd want to come up and, and make faces and, and read things.
01:12:29 And she was just like, that's it.
01:12:32 I'm gone, man.
01:12:33 I'm, I'm, this is it.
01:12:34 This is my life.
01:12:35 And it's great.
01:12:36 I love that.
01:12:37 That's what I wanted.
01:12:46 And I get, maybe it looks boring to the outside, you know, so you've got a kid or whatever.
01:12:49 And it's like, and to me, anyone who wasn't delighted with my daughter was totally disposable.
01:12:54 Like honestly, there was just this cold, cold judge in me.
01:12:58 You know, it's like, if you're not delighted with my daughter, like if you come over to
01:13:02 visit and you're not delighted with my daughter and you're not playing with her or at least
01:13:07 giving her equal time to me, I have no time.
01:13:11 I have no time.
01:13:12 I'm not, I'm not at all interested because if we don't share, I'm not saying you've got
01:13:16 to love her as much as I do or anything like that.
01:13:18 But if it's just like, yeah, you know, nice kid, cute kid.
01:13:21 Hey, how's it going?
01:13:23 Right.
01:13:24 Nope.
01:13:25 Sorry.
01:13:26 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:27 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:28 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:29 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:30 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:31 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:32 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:33 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:34 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:35 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:36 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:37 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:38 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:39 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:40 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:41 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:42 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:43 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:13:44 I'm not going to send you any tips.
01:14:05 Why do some people complain about being a parent and encourage young people to avoid
01:14:07 having children and getting married?
01:14:10 Well, I think there's an instinct, which is you want your genes to win, so you want less
01:14:15 competition.
01:14:16 And, you know, honestly, I'm kind of half and half about this.
01:14:21 Like I love being a parent so much I can't even tell you, but I will say this.
01:14:25 I'm not entirely, like if you can be just talked out of being a parent, maybe you shouldn't
01:14:28 be one.
01:14:29 Like I so much wanted to be a parent.
01:14:32 Like on the third date, right?
01:14:33 My wife and I are, my wife-to-be and I were talking about this.
01:14:37 So I so much wanted to be a parent, nobody could have talked me out of it.
01:14:47 You'll be tired.
01:14:48 Yep.
01:14:49 You won't be able to write books for a while.
01:14:51 Yep.
01:14:52 What do I care about books?
01:14:53 Human being.
01:14:56 Maybe Steph is hiring DEI software engineers to work on his website.
01:15:01 I don't understand what that means.
01:15:02 I don't run locals.
01:15:03 Do you mean me, Joe?
01:15:04 I'm sorry.
01:15:05 I don't quite understand that.
01:15:07 Somebody says I updated locals and it's only improved on Android.
01:15:10 I have no problem pulling up the donation tab.
01:15:13 I didn't want to be a parent and then I was and I didn't want anything else.
01:15:16 Yeah.
01:15:17 You know, like if, if you can just be talked out of something, you probably shouldn't do
01:15:21 it.
01:15:22 Right?
01:15:24 I mean, you understand there was nothing.
01:15:29 Thank you, David.
01:15:30 There was nothing like this show before this show, nothing, not even close, not a tiny
01:15:37 bit, not in any way, shape or form.
01:15:38 There was nothing like this show before this show.
01:15:42 And if I'd have gone to a, I mean, I've made a bunch of investment presentations over the
01:15:45 course of my entrepreneurial career.
01:15:46 And if I'd gone to a bunch of investors and say, tell you what I'm going to do, tell you
01:15:49 what I'm going to do.
01:15:51 I'm going to talk philosophy to people and I'm not going to charge them and I'm not going
01:15:57 to have any ads and I'm just going to rely on Goodwill.
01:16:02 People are just, they're going to support it.
01:16:03 They'd be like, Oh, okay.
01:16:08 What year is it?
01:16:09 2007.
01:16:10 Are there any payment options?
01:16:13 Yeah, I think one just came online.
01:16:16 Well, you're going to have quite a bit of overhead because bandwidth, bandwidth was seriously
01:16:21 expensive when I first started the show.
01:16:23 That's the reason why the shows were 40K, uh, 40K of audio quality because it was just
01:16:30 blindingly expensive to run bandwidth.
01:16:34 And so you're not going to charge anything and you're not going to run any ads.
01:16:42 You're going to give away your books.
01:16:45 What's the revenue model?
01:16:47 Socrates is the revenue model.
01:16:49 I'll talk philosophy with you.
01:16:50 Maybe you could buy me lunch.
01:16:51 Maybe, right?
01:16:52 Oh, okay.
01:16:53 And you're going to do call-in shows, trying to apply philosophy to whatever people want
01:16:57 to talk about.
01:16:58 Yep.
01:16:59 Are you going to charge for those?
01:17:00 Nope.
01:17:01 Are you going to accept any payment for call-in shows?
01:17:03 Nope.
01:17:05 Free!
01:17:06 Nelson Mandela.
01:17:07 All right.
01:17:08 So, uh, no investor would have invested a penny.
01:17:11 You show me a model where this has ever worked in this field before.
01:17:15 It hasn't.
01:17:18 So there was nothing like it.
01:17:27 And again, I'm immensely proud and happy at what we've accomplished over these 17 or 18
01:17:34 years.
01:17:35 It's all too beautiful.
01:17:41 Yeah, you'd get laughed out of the room.
01:17:45 Of course you would, right?
01:17:49 I just knew it.
01:17:50 I knew.
01:17:52 I knew that I could make it work.
01:17:55 I knew that I could make it work.
01:17:57 Hi, Steph.
01:17:59 Finished your novel, The Present.
01:18:02 Amazing work.
01:18:03 Do you follow a formula for structures such as midpoints, climaxes, etc., as you outlined?
01:18:07 If so, wondering if you could define what a pinch point is.
01:18:11 A pinch point, also known in my childhood as a purple nipple, is when you grab the male
01:18:16 nipple and twist.
01:18:18 No, so I don't follow a formula for structure.
01:18:23 I have the story.
01:18:25 So The Present, so The Future was written really freeform.
01:18:30 I had the idea of the story, but I wrote it freeform.
01:18:32 The Present had scene structures.
01:18:35 Like I knew what each chapter was going to be before I wrote it.
01:18:40 And but no, I don't do the Joseph Campbell stuff.
01:18:44 Like I don't do the general structure.
01:18:46 Like I remember taking courses on scriptwriting and screenwriting, and it's like, you got
01:18:51 to have the three act and you got to have this and you got to have that.
01:18:53 And if you have the Joseph Campbell structure, you have to have this and you have to have
01:19:00 the hero and you have to have the instigating incident and you have to have the elder warrior
01:19:04 who brings him into battle and you have to have the dragon.
01:19:06 You have to have all of this stuff, right?
01:19:08 And it's like, bleh.
01:19:12 That seems like programming and marketing and bullshit.
01:19:17 Right?
01:19:19 Like why would I want to boil and bake together all of these cliches?
01:19:24 Oh, but they work.
01:19:25 And it's like, they work to make you money.
01:19:30 Do they work to make the world a better place?
01:19:33 The fuck would I want money when I could make the world a better place?
01:19:42 So you know, has Star Wars made the world a better place?
01:19:48 Has Star Trek?
01:19:49 No, not at all.
01:19:51 Has Lord of the Rings?
01:19:52 No, not at all.
01:19:53 And I've got no problem, I love Lord of the Rings and when I was a kid I liked Star Wars.
01:20:01 But has it made the world a better place?
01:20:04 Nope.
01:20:05 Has it addressed child abuse?
01:20:07 Nope.
01:20:08 Has it made people a crap ton of money?
01:20:11 Yes it has.
01:20:14 Because you know what the central message is?
01:20:17 The central message of Star Wars is very, very simple.
01:20:25 Courage exists a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
01:20:38 That's where courage exists.
01:20:42 Not where you are, not with what you can do.
01:20:45 But courage exists a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
01:20:50 So you can admire all of this courage that you see and all of this conflict and combat
01:20:56 and bravery and heroism, you can admire all of that as long as it never, ever, ever gets
01:21:03 anywhere close to the mirror where you can do a fucking thing to make the world a better
01:21:07 place.
01:21:08 It's a leech, a demon, a vampire, a succubus.
01:21:15 You can be a hero.
01:21:17 Oh, you just have to get bitten by a radioactive spider.
01:21:19 You can be a hero, you just have to be a super rich guy in Gotham City.
01:21:24 You can be a hero, you just need to come from the planet Krypton and be invulnerable to
01:21:28 everything except kryptonite.
01:21:30 You can be a hero, but you gotta run super fast.
01:21:36 You can be a hero, but you need to be born on a desert planet 13,000 years of the future.
01:21:44 You can be a hero anywhere but where you are.
01:21:51 Courage is everywhere except where you are.
01:21:55 Everywhere.
01:21:56 Oh, you're a libertarian.
01:22:00 Ooh, ooh, you're into the non-aggression principle.
01:22:02 Ooh, ooh, here we go, here we go.
01:22:09 It's about the Fed.
01:22:10 Yep, it's about the Fed.
01:22:11 It's about, oh, foreign policy.
01:22:12 Oh, taxation.
01:22:13 Oh, no, debts, debts, national debts, yeah.
01:22:15 Talk about all of that shit.
01:22:17 Don't talk about child abuse in the here and now.
01:22:19 Don't talk about the non-aggression principle that you see all around you that you were
01:22:21 subject to that you can actually do something about.
01:22:24 No, no, no.
01:22:29 Courage is for all the things you can't change.
01:22:31 Courage is for all the things you can't affect.
01:22:34 Courage is for a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
01:22:41 It's porn.
01:22:43 It's war porn for the cowardly soul.
01:22:44 It's courage porn for the frightened soul.
01:22:56 Once you see this, you can't unsee it.
01:22:58 Ooh, you know what courage is?
01:23:03 Ooh, I got one for you.
01:23:06 Courage.
01:23:07 Courage, you see, is when you're the seventh, not the sixth, but you're 007.
01:23:12 Courage is for when you're an international super spy in Monaco.
01:23:16 Yeah, yeah, that's what courage is for.
01:23:18 Yeah, that's what courage is for.
01:23:21 Not, you know, say, talking out about child abuse and child abusers within your own community.
01:23:28 No, no, no, no, no.
01:23:29 It's for the Death Star and an X-Wing.
01:23:33 And when you get beamed down to a papier-mâché paper planet to have sex with some bad female
01:23:41 sex alien with papier-mâché tentacles coming out of her blue boobs.
01:23:45 Yeah, that's what courage is for.
01:23:47 Yeah, that's it.
01:23:52 Courage.
01:23:53 Okay, go with me on this.
01:23:55 See, that's what courage is for.
01:23:56 Courage is if you're a super spy Jason Bourne guy who's given a ticking time bomb.
01:24:02 Oh, no, no, no.
01:24:03 Courage.
01:24:04 No, no, no.
01:24:05 It's for when you're a super sexy archaeologist in Egypt with a scar on your chin and snakes
01:24:13 on the ground.
01:24:14 Yeah, that's what courage is for.
01:24:24 It's not for where you live.
01:24:25 It's not for what you do.
01:24:27 And it sure as shit is not for anything you can actually affect.
01:24:31 Courage, you see.
01:24:36 All the fantasy stories, and I include science fiction in this as well, all the fantasy stories
01:24:40 about courage, which is all anyone is ever imbibing these days.
01:24:46 It's this endless Pac-Man gobble, gobble, gobble of fantasy stories about courage.
01:24:51 Well fantasy stories about courage are telling you one thing and one thing only.
01:24:55 If all you're doing is everyone is doing these days is consuming fantasy stories about courage,
01:24:59 they're telling you courage is a fantasy.
01:25:04 Courage is a fantasy.
01:25:09 Courage is unreal.
01:25:12 Courage you see is for when you can lift an X-Wing with your mind.
01:25:20 Courage is for when you can ride a giant sandstorm, a giant sandworm on another planet.
01:25:28 Courage is for when you're being pursued by rumbly-mumbly cruisers firing 13 torpedoes
01:25:35 at your raised leg butt of a spaceship.
01:25:40 That's what courage is.
01:25:44 Courage always being portrayed in unreal situations is designed to program the shit out of you
01:25:51 to believe that courage is unreal.
01:25:55 Courage and you never overlap.
01:25:56 Courage is in entirely foreign situations, in entirely CGI landscapes, in entirely science
01:26:01 fiction scenarios.
01:26:02 Courage of when the orcs pour down into Helm's Deep.
01:26:06 That's what courage is for.
01:26:07 Oh is that never going to happen to your life?
01:26:09 No does these things not exist?
01:26:10 Oh I guess courage doesn't really exist then anyway.
01:26:12 And do you not notice this?
01:26:13 Am I...
01:26:14 I'm not wrong about this.
01:26:16 I'm not wrong about this.
01:26:18 That as people's addiction to fantasy courage has gone up, their capacity for real courage
01:26:26 has gone down the fucking drain.
01:26:34 Porn don't give you children.
01:26:39 And fantasy courage leeches you of every last scrap of bravery you might possess.
01:26:51 It's horrible.
01:26:55 And you understand that everything that is approved of in the world these days is designed
01:27:00 to destroy you.
01:27:04 Everything that is allowed to reach you is there to leech you.
01:27:09 Everything that you're allowed to consume is only there so it can consume you.
01:27:22 Thank you.
01:27:23 It would be nice if Hollywood made a movie about a normal person being courageous to
01:27:28 achieve a decent life.
01:27:32 It won't happen.
01:27:33 That's not what Hollywood is for.
01:27:38 Hollywood is there to give you the fantasy of courage so that you continue to believe
01:27:42 that courage in the real world is just a fantasy.
01:27:51 And so that's why the present and Just Poor are the most impactful stories I've read in
01:27:55 a long time.
01:27:56 Can you imagine if my novel, The Present, were to go mainstream?
01:27:59 People would lose their utter shit and they would finally see the true power of art as
01:28:03 it should be.
01:28:05 Even the conversation about daycare.
01:28:09 Courage is where you can be a Power Ranger and ride giant robots.
01:28:12 Courage is when cars transform into giant robots.
01:28:17 That's what courage is for.
01:28:18 Okay, so I guess once I see these giant robots I'll have courage.
01:28:22 Hey, guess I'll never see those giant robots.
01:28:24 Excellent, I don't have to have courage.
01:28:27 No, no, see, I mean, real courage is punished, right?
01:28:40 Fantasy courage is rewarded.
01:28:42 And you see, it's a drug dealer.
01:28:43 I view people like George Lucas, just my personal opinion, straight up dopamine dealers.
01:28:51 Okay, here's the thing, man.
01:28:55 I'll sell you the belief that courage is a fantasy and in return you give me billions
01:29:05 of dollars.
01:29:06 That's a deal, right?
01:29:07 We can make that deal?
01:29:09 It's a demonic deal in my view.
01:29:11 I'll give you the fantasy of courage.
01:29:13 I'll let you feel the fruits of courage without actually having to do one thing dangerous.
01:29:19 And in return, you just give me a bunch of money.
01:29:24 Right?
01:29:28 You give me money, I'll give you release from the need to live courageously.
01:29:38 I'll let you exercise your fantasy courage in a fantasy universe.
01:29:45 You give me money and that way you get to feel courageous or you get to experience courage
01:29:51 with no danger.
01:29:53 With no danger.
01:29:56 Now, people want to feel like they're brave.
01:29:59 They want to feel excited.
01:30:00 They want to feel courageous.
01:30:01 They want to feel like they're battling and doing good in the world.
01:30:05 Of course they want that.
01:30:06 And we have a great thirst and deep desire for that.
01:30:10 And the reason we have a great thirst and deep desire for that is because it's pretty
01:30:15 scary at times and you get a lot of blowback from evil doers.
01:30:19 But the deal is, I'll give you the illusion of courage and you give me your very real
01:30:32 money, your very real self-respect, and your very real future.
01:30:42 Guys who are into Star Wars, let's say, or Star Trek or whatever, Lord of the Rings,
01:30:48 have those guys gained courage from the consumption of these works to the point where they bestride
01:30:56 the world like colossuses?
01:31:01 Getting women out, asking men out, founding companies, building things, making things
01:31:05 happen, confronting evil doers, promoting virtue.
01:31:10 Have they done that?
01:31:11 Is that the typical thing?
01:31:12 If you hear, "This guy's really into Star Wars," do you think, "Man, I bet you he's
01:31:19 a player.
01:31:20 Oh, I bet you he's a player.
01:31:22 I bet you this guy strides the earth in great confidence, confronts bad guys, promotes good
01:31:28 stuff, asks girls out, gets his way.
01:31:31 He's a fan of Star Trek?
01:31:34 Damn!
01:31:35 He's got to be ruling the universe!"
01:31:39 Is that what we think when we hear about these people?
01:31:44 Of course not.
01:31:46 Of course not.
01:31:47 And does nobody notice that?
01:31:50 That all the people who are absolutely devoted to consuming fantasy courage are the most
01:31:56 fraidy-cat cowardly people in the world.
01:31:59 "Oh, it was so brave when that guy rode the sandworm.
01:32:07 It was so brave when Indiana Jones dropped himself down on the snakes.
01:32:13 It was really brave when Han Solo came out of the sky and saved Luke Skywalker.
01:32:19 So brave!
01:32:20 Wow, you really admire bravery.
01:32:22 Yes!
01:32:23 This stuff's so cool.
01:32:24 It's so brave.
01:32:26 When did you last ask out a girl?
01:32:28 Oh, I don't do that.
01:32:31 Yeah, crying Star Wars guy, there's a reason why people remember that."
01:32:46 The only person I've ever met who actually knew everything about Star Wars was a dangerously
01:32:51 creepy person.
01:32:52 You know what courage is for?
01:33:02 Courage is for when you're facing a Dementor in an alternate dimension that you get through
01:33:08 by walking through a wall in King's Cross Road, London.
01:33:13 That's what courage is for when you're in a magic battle with a noseless guy with a
01:33:20 magic wand in another dimension.
01:33:22 That's what courage is for, you see.
01:33:39 You just can't ever portray courage in the real world that changes things for the better.
01:33:48 And you understand, it's always reactive courage.
01:33:50 It's never proactive courage.
01:33:52 It's always reactive courage.
01:33:58 Harry Potter doesn't confront his abusive step-parents.
01:34:02 What he does, you see, is an owl comes by and plucks him off to another dimension.
01:34:07 Or Luke doesn't confront Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, whatever their names were, after drinking
01:34:12 the blue milk of death.
01:34:14 Nope!
01:34:15 Obi-Wan Kenobi has to come and whisk him off away to another...
01:34:19 It's always reactive.
01:34:20 You just wait!
01:34:21 Someone's gonna come and someone's gonna show up, man!
01:34:23 Someone's gonna show up and make your life an adventure.
01:34:25 Absolutely!
01:34:26 You're gonna get bitten by that radioactive spider?
01:34:28 Yeah!
01:34:29 Someone's gonna come and make you courageous.
01:34:33 You just fucking sit there and wait!
01:34:40 You just wait.
01:34:42 Someone's gonna come and turn your life into an adventure.
01:34:46 Just hang out there, man.
01:34:49 Just hang tight, man.
01:34:50 Someone's coming.
01:34:51 Someone's coming to make your life interesting.
01:34:52 Someone's coming to make your life adventurous.
01:34:54 They're not coming!
01:34:57 No one is coming to make your life interesting or exciting.
01:34:59 Nobody cares!
01:35:01 Sorry, I'm just...
01:35:04 It's a fact!
01:35:08 Nobody is invested in making your life exciting!
01:35:13 Obi-Wan ain't coming.
01:35:15 The Owl ain't coming.
01:35:17 Han Solo ain't coming.
01:35:20 Captain Kirk ain't coming.
01:35:22 Gandalf ain't gonna knock on your door and say, "Off we go to a great adventure!"
01:35:28 You see, it's all about older men starting your adventure, which is you getting recruited
01:35:31 to get your ass blown off in some stupid-ass war!
01:35:35 Do you have the life that you want?
01:35:42 If not, get it!
01:35:45 Make it!
01:35:46 No one's coming to give you the life that you want.
01:35:49 No one's coming to love you.
01:35:50 No one's coming to stimulate you.
01:35:53 No one's coming to rescue you.
01:35:54 It's up to you, or it doesn't happen!
01:35:59 If it ain't you, it ain't happening.
01:36:04 And all of this fantasy other people will get you and drag you by the ass into your
01:36:09 adventures?
01:36:11 Nope.
01:36:13 Nope.
01:36:15 And all you have to do is ask yourself this one basic, simple question.
01:36:28 If you think that people are coming to make your life exciting, the only question you
01:36:33 have to ask—and it's actually a pretty simple question that blows the whole scam
01:36:37 wide open—if you think that someone is coming to make your life exciting, you have to ask
01:36:47 yourself one question.
01:36:50 Whose life am I dedicated to making exciting?
01:36:56 Whose life am I dedicated to making his or her life exciting?
01:37:03 And the answer is, no one.
01:37:07 You don't—there's some random kid in the neighborhood and you're like, "I'm
01:37:10 gonna make your life exciting!"
01:37:12 Well, do you have friends you're like, you're racking your brain about how to make their
01:37:18 life exciting?
01:37:19 No.
01:37:20 Well, your kids, yeah, but that's a different matter, right?
01:37:25 I'm talking about adults.
01:37:26 Spy kids.
01:37:33 Well, you know, courage is for when you find out you're actually an international super
01:37:41 spy with an invisibility ring.
01:37:44 Just wait.
01:37:45 Nah, you're fine.
01:37:47 Just wait.
01:37:48 Someone's gonna come and make your life exciting.
01:37:50 The only people who come and make your life exciting are recruiters for the military industrial
01:37:56 complex and that's really all they're training you to do.
01:38:09 Nobody's coming to make your life interesting.
01:38:10 Nobody's coming to love you.
01:38:12 Nobody's coming to stimulate you.
01:38:14 Nobody's gonna come to make you courageous.
01:38:16 Nobody's gonna drag you off to Wild Adventurous.
01:38:19 Nobody cares.
01:38:20 We're all isolated and atomized now anyway.
01:38:22 You're just gonna sit and rot in your apartment and die like some 85-year-old Japanese grandmother
01:38:28 whose kids haven't talked to her in five years.
01:38:42 Don't wait.
01:38:43 Don't wait.
01:38:44 Don't wait.
01:39:09 Before I knew I could do it at all, I was all in.
01:39:12 Oh, when I feel comfortable with it.
01:39:16 No!
01:39:17 No.
01:39:18 No, you won't feel comfortable with it.
01:39:19 Waiting for comfort is just waiting for death.
01:39:24 Waiting for ease is being half in love with easeful death.
01:39:35 Somebody says, "I remember in high school army recruiters came during lunch and I remember
01:39:41 one of them complimenting my hair.
01:39:43 It struck me as odd.
01:39:44 I guess they're told to give out compliments.
01:39:46 You don't know why the army recruiters complimented your hair?"
01:39:51 You know why, right?
01:39:54 You know why.
01:39:55 I mean, maybe you've never been in sales.
01:39:58 Death is tough to sell.
01:40:00 Death and murder, a little tough to sell.
01:40:03 I'll tell you.
01:40:04 I'll tell you exactly why.
01:40:06 He complimented your hair to engage you in conversation so he could get you in the army.
01:40:11 I would strike you as odd at the time.
01:40:12 Well, I'm sorry you were unprepared.
01:40:22 Everything around you is somebody...
01:40:24 Everything that's created around you is somebody who gave up on waiting.
01:40:32 I wanted a philosophical, moral conversation with the world since I was a little kid.
01:40:41 Everything around you that is built, that is created, is created by somebody who gave
01:40:48 up on waiting and acted and chose, made something happen.
01:40:58 Give me this.
01:41:05 Minus 10 to plus 10, do you have the life you want?
01:41:11 Minus 10 to plus 10, how much do you have the life that you want?
01:41:17 Minus 10 to plus 10, how much do you have the life that you want?
01:41:24 I don't have a plus 10, if it's any consolation.
01:41:29 Tell me.
01:41:31 Tell yourself.
01:41:32 8, 2, 5, plus 4, plus 4, plus 5, plus 8, 3, 5, minus 10, I'm sorry about that.
01:41:43 So you're all positive.
01:41:47 Minus 6, 1, 2, 5, minus 10, I'm sorry about that.
01:41:57 Minus 10 people, man, honestly, freedomman.com/call.
01:42:00 There is no zero.
01:42:01 No, there's no zero.
01:42:05 I probably, maybe an 8, maybe an 8, maybe an 8.
01:42:10 I'm two points down because I do miss traveling and giving speeches.
01:42:16 I do miss that.
01:42:17 I don't particularly love having to be a studio band for the last four years.
01:42:25 Okay.
01:42:32 So who's responsible for moving those numbers?
01:42:34 Who's responsible for getting you as close to plus 10 as you can get?
01:42:41 Who's responsible for moving those numbers and getting you the life you want?
01:42:48 Yeah.
01:42:54 You and you and no one else.
01:43:01 You and you and no one else.
01:43:06 Waiting to be fixed is waiting to die.
01:43:15 Waiting to be fixed is not quite growing up.
01:43:17 Waiting for someone to come along and make your life better is still waiting at home
01:43:21 after school for your parents to come home and love you.
01:43:27 When you say, "I and only I am responsible for the quality of my life," that's when you
01:43:32 leave your childhood behind.
01:43:33 I'm not calling you guys childish or anything like that.
01:43:36 We all have to fight this.
01:43:37 I do.
01:43:38 I do.
01:43:39 To fight the urge to blame and to wait.
01:43:44 But you're waiting for someone to come along and make your life better because that's the
01:43:48 only option you had as a child.
01:43:51 Do you know how lonely these Star Wars guys are?
01:43:54 Do you know how isolated and neglected they are?
01:44:00 They need external stimuli because they're still waiting for their parents to love them,
01:44:05 to care for them, to encourage them, to connect with them, to enjoy their company, to relish
01:44:11 the fact that they exist in this world.
01:44:15 You're waiting for your parents to come home and love you.
01:44:23 You're waiting for your parents to come home and encourage you.
01:44:27 You're waiting for your parents to come home and lift you up.
01:44:29 You're waiting for your parents to come home so you feel better.
01:44:32 You're waiting for your parents to come home so you can live.
01:44:35 You're waiting for a firm foundation so you can build a great rocket.
01:44:40 Oh, you've heard the Star Wars guys say the only thing keeping them alive is waiting for
01:44:45 the next episode to drop.
01:44:46 Yeah, now that's an addiction.
01:44:49 That's an addiction.
01:44:50 And of course, the parents allow this kind of addiction to this fantasy media courage.
01:44:54 They allow this to go on.
01:44:55 Why?
01:44:56 For the same reason.
01:44:57 They allow any addiction to go on to cover up the crimes.
01:45:01 To cover up the crimes.
01:45:05 So that their kids never say, "Why am I so invested in obviously manipulated marketing
01:45:11 fantasies?
01:45:12 Why?"
01:45:13 Star Wars is not an organic story.
01:45:17 Lucas directly consulted with Mr. Mythmaker himself to make sure it pushed every button
01:45:22 on demand.
01:45:28 You know, if my daughter was still into My Little Pony, we'd have some pretty serious
01:45:32 conversations about my deficiencies as a parent.
01:45:46 If you've got a teenage boy or girl who shows no interest in dating, you've got to have
01:45:50 some seriously caustic conversations with yourself as a parent.
01:45:58 If you've got kids drowning in the amniotic sacs of eternal adolescence, that's because
01:46:03 you prefer them there rather than sniffing around for the bodies in the boudoir.
01:46:15 The hanged childhoods in the house.
01:46:24 The knife in the kid in the kitchen.
01:46:28 Yeah, no fantasy will fix things.
01:46:33 Says someone.
01:46:34 Okay, if some rich relative I never knew existed left me ten million dollars, then I would
01:46:38 still be me with all my problems, except I would be rich for a short while.
01:46:41 Not going to happen.
01:46:44 You'd have more problems.
01:46:48 In some ways.
01:46:49 I'm not saying don't make money, obviously, right?
01:46:51 But if you didn't earn it, you wouldn't have anything in common with the people around
01:46:58 you because you'd be rich and they wouldn't.
01:47:00 You wouldn't have anything in common with the people who'd earned their own money, right?
01:47:05 Because they would have earned it or at least have inherited it for multi-generations so
01:47:09 that they got used to that kind of money.
01:47:10 You wouldn't have any contacts.
01:47:11 You wouldn't know what to do with it.
01:47:13 You'd see inflation leeching it away.
01:47:14 How would you protect it?
01:47:15 You wouldn't know.
01:47:16 Can you trust any financial advisory?
01:47:18 You don't have access to good financial advisors if you didn't grow up with money or haven't
01:47:22 earned it and stepped your way up to it.
01:47:25 You'd be paranoid about losing it.
01:47:26 You'd watch it drop in value.
01:47:27 I mean, you got ten million dollars five years ago.
01:47:30 It's worth seven million dollars and change now.
01:47:32 You would have just lost 25 to 30 percent of it in the last half decade.
01:47:36 You'd be freaking out about it.
01:47:39 Right?
01:47:41 You think that would solve all your problems?
01:47:47 I'll buy you a diamond ring, my friend, if it'll make you feel alright.
01:47:55 I don't care too much for money.
01:47:58 Thank you.
01:47:59 I appreciate the donation.
01:48:00 Freedomain.com/donate.
01:48:01 Fantasy Courage does to your soul what porn does to your balls.
01:48:15 Removes them and it.
01:48:18 The rich streamer xQc said dating is hell for him doesn't know whether when some girl
01:48:25 is looking only for his money.
01:48:27 Right.
01:48:28 I mean, there's a reason why we used to get people married off before they became successful
01:48:37 because then they would know that the person wasn't with them for their money.
01:48:39 Now we all holding off until we can really attract a quality woman and then you're like,
01:48:45 "Hey man, she's just here for the money.
01:48:47 I can't trust her."
01:48:53 That's the notch problem, isn't it?
01:48:55 Notch from Minecraft became a billionaire by selling Microsoft to Minecraft and he says
01:48:59 like, "Everyone's busy.
01:49:00 I'm home all day.
01:49:01 I got nothing to do.
01:49:02 It's driving me crazy."
01:49:03 The only thing it solves is affording a few useless material goods.
01:49:09 Well, I mean, money can be nice.
01:49:12 Money can take away the concerns of daily living.
01:49:17 But I'll tell you something interesting.
01:49:19 Everybody thinks that a stress-free life is the way to go.
01:49:22 And I understand that because sometimes stress can be tough.
01:49:26 Do you know what happened during the Blitz in the Second World War in England?
01:49:35 Because this was the first...
01:49:36 I write about this in my novel, Almost, which you should absolutely check out.
01:49:39 It's fantastic.
01:49:40 Freedomain.com/books.
01:49:41 So, in the Blitz in London, other places, we'll just talk about the London experience.
01:49:48 So this was the first time that mass bombing had been committed against civilian targets
01:49:53 in the history of the world, obviously, in the history of the world, right?
01:49:58 The first time.
01:50:00 And everybody in the government thought there'd be mass revolution, mass depression, everybody
01:50:05 would go insane, lose their minds and society, at least within London, would collapse.
01:50:10 That was the absolute expectation of everyone in charge during the Blitz.
01:50:19 Now, I don't know if you know what happened to mental health during the Blitz.
01:50:31 Mental illness during the Blitz virtually disappeared.
01:50:40 Psychics and anxiety addicts leapt out of bed in the morning, eager to drive ambulances
01:50:46 and help their fellow and solved and rebuilt and protect.
01:50:58 Go talk to a veteran about his time, even in combat, and how he looks back on it as
01:51:04 often, not for all, but often for some, it was the greatest time in their life.
01:51:13 Look at what happened to British women after Princess Diana died in the Paris tunnel.
01:51:20 Dodie Fayed and her bodyguard and some driver guy.
01:51:23 Look what happened to women's mental health in England after the object of their obsession
01:51:28 for many years that have been Princess Diana, by far the most famous and photographed woman
01:51:32 in the world, killed to some degree by her audience.
01:51:40 You miss being deployed.
01:51:41 Yeah.
01:51:42 You've got structure.
01:51:43 You've got organization.
01:51:44 You've got goals.
01:51:45 You've got focus.
01:51:46 You've got companions.
01:51:48 You've got danger.
01:51:53 I mean, Princess Diana was killed by her audience because everybody was so hungry for photos
01:52:00 of Princess Diana that you could make half a million dollars or a million dollars for
01:52:04 the right photo because that would draw in eyeballs, which would then sell blue rinse
01:52:11 hair dye or fake nails or whatever these women were buying.
01:52:17 So the crowd, the mob consumed Diana because she, yeah, you're right, she died fleeing
01:52:22 the paparazzi, right?
01:52:24 She couldn't go anywhere.
01:52:25 She couldn't do anything.
01:52:27 She died fleeing the paparazzi who were taking photos to serve the addiction and obsession
01:52:36 of the world public.
01:52:38 Now, you'd think, of course, that women who cared so much about Princess Diana, that when
01:52:44 Princess Diana died, that women would be miserable.
01:52:47 No, that's not what happened.
01:52:50 The quality of women's mental health in England went up significantly after the death of Princess
01:52:55 Diana, right?
01:53:05 Convincing you that trouble and stress is the worst thing in the world is one of the
01:53:12 foundational missions of the elites, right?
01:53:18 So they get to make all the decisions.
01:53:29 Fantasy courage is the opposite of courage.
01:53:33 Watching action movies and being excited by fake people doing fake things to fake music
01:53:45 is the opposite of courage.
01:53:52 If you're not watching comedians to learn how to make people laugh, I don't know what
01:53:58 you're doing.
01:53:59 What are you doing?
01:54:02 And why?
01:54:03 If you're not acting yourself, stop consuming the pretend actions of other people.
01:54:19 Aragorn doesn't exist.
01:54:20 Neither does Frodo or Bilbo or Captain Kirk or Han Solo or Chewbacca or Luke Skywalker
01:54:28 or Paul Atreides.
01:54:33 None of them exist, except as vampires in your mind leeching you of any courage in the
01:54:39 here and now.
01:54:40 The moment Ron Paul talks about the greatest violation of the non-aggression principle
01:54:49 which is hitting children, I respect the man.
01:54:56 But he's all about "audit the Fed" and there's corruption in foreign aid.
01:55:03 There's a military-industrial complex.
01:55:06 Great.
01:55:08 What can I do about it?
01:55:10 Nothing.
01:55:11 But I've learned about these things and I'm outraged about these things.
01:55:15 And they're wrong and they should change.
01:55:21 Okay?
01:55:24 Libertarianism as a philosophy is a quarter of a millennia old.
01:55:33 Two hundred and fifty years at least.
01:55:36 You could go longer, you could go deeper, you could go wider.
01:55:39 Let's just say it's 250 years.
01:55:43 If you look around the world, this is the result of 250 years of libertarianism, of
01:55:52 free-market advocacy, of minimal-to-no-government advocacy.
01:55:57 How's it going?
01:56:02 Are we willing yet?
01:56:04 And yet they won't stop!
01:56:07 Two hundred and fifty years.
01:56:13 Arguably worse off than when we started.
01:56:16 And if you count debt and surveillance technology, worse off than when we started.
01:56:27 Lecturing people about the evils of power is only permitted to libertarians if you can't
01:56:34 ever do anything about it and you never cause any blowback.
01:56:41 So, you're either going to talk to people in your life about the evils they do and confess
01:56:48 to yourself the evils that you've done, as I've done, as we've all done, or you're not.
01:56:56 And if you're not going to talk to the people in your life about the evils that they're
01:56:59 doing, why would I care what you have to say about the evils you can't change?
01:57:04 Why would I care?
01:57:08 If you're only a doctor who deals with imaginary patients, why would I call you when I'm sick?
01:57:16 Oh, I can't come and treat you.
01:57:19 I'm trying to figure out what happened to this Klingon in our old Star Trek episode
01:57:24 and try and figure out how I can cure his disease.
01:57:26 Okay, I guess I'll go elsewhere for some actual help.
01:57:32 With the spike through my leg.
01:57:37 We'll fight imaginary evil all day long, just don't ever ask us to talk to any actual evil
01:57:44 doers in our life that we can do something about.
01:57:48 No.
01:57:50 The political libertarians have about as much relevance to actionable courage as Star Wars
01:57:58 fanatics.
01:58:03 You understand, everything that leads you away from the scene of the crime is a benefit
01:58:11 to the criminal.
01:58:13 The scene of the crime is child abuse.
01:58:16 It's all that matters, it's all that's actionable, and it's where all the other crimes come from.
01:58:22 That is the source.
01:58:24 That is the fountainhead.
01:58:25 It's child abuse.
01:58:26 Oh, go to politics.
01:58:28 Oh, go to Star Wars.
01:58:31 Oh, go to economics.
01:58:32 Oh, go to abstract philosophy.
01:58:34 Go to Platonism.
01:58:37 Go to objectivism.
01:58:38 Go anywhere but where the bodies are.
01:58:40 Go anywhere but where the actual crimes are.
01:58:42 I don't care where you go, just don't go to where the bodies are.
01:58:49 I don't care what imaginary evidence you gather about imaginary crimes, just don't get the
01:58:57 real evidence for the real crimes.
01:58:59 That's all.
01:59:01 Just don't do that.
01:59:04 Just don't do that.
01:59:08 And we all do it.
01:59:09 I'm not above this.
01:59:10 I'm not above this.
01:59:12 I say this with deep humility.
01:59:13 I am not above this.
01:59:23 And maybe it took this kind of technology, this kind of community to make it happen,
01:59:28 finally.
01:59:29 Finally.
01:59:30 But it's going to happen.
01:59:33 It is happening.
01:59:36 And just imagine what statues of us they will build in the future for the courage and the
01:59:42 stand that we took in the here and now.
01:59:46 It's not something I particularly live for, but it's a factor anyway.
01:59:53 It's a real factor anyway.
01:59:55 They're going to look back and they'll say, "Thank goodness this community did what it
01:59:58 did.
02:00:00 Otherwise it's more of the same shit until the end of history."
02:00:07 All right.
02:00:11 Well thank you everyone for a wonderful evening.
02:00:13 I really, really appreciate your interest and support.
02:00:17 I think this is one of these podcasts for the ages that you're happy to have been here
02:00:21 for.
02:00:22 Freedomain.com/donate.
02:00:23 If you're listening to this later, I really, really would appreciate your support.
02:00:26 It's actually very important for the show.
02:00:29 Freedomain.com/donate.
02:00:30 You can of course join a great community at freedomain.locals.com.
02:00:35 And you can go to subscribestar.com/freedomain.
02:00:41 I really, really love you guys for coming by tonight and for allowing me to do what
02:00:44 I do.
02:00:45 It means more than I can possibly ever explain.
02:00:48 And Lord knows I've got an eloquent bone or two in my body, but I really do appreciate
02:00:52 everyone.
02:00:53 Thank you for coming by tonight.
02:00:54 I will see you guys Friday night.
02:00:55 It's going to be a short show Friday night because I have some guests, but we will definitely
02:00:58 talk and then again on Sunday morning.
02:01:01 And yeah, so just so you know how I'm doing my day, you know, because if you're donating
02:01:06 this morning I woke up.
02:01:08 And I did a couple of hours on organizing the data and evidence section of the Peaceful
02:01:18 Parenting book.
02:01:19 Then I did a call in show with the German guy whose mother had five children with a
02:01:24 married man.
02:01:26 And then I ran an errand with my daughter and then I did the show tonight.
02:01:29 So a very, very good and productive day.
02:01:31 Thank you everyone for making it happen.
02:01:35 And I'll talk to you soon.
02:01:36 Bye.
02:01:36 Bye.
02:01:37 Bye.
02:01:37 Bye.
02:01:38 Bye.
02:01:38 Bye.
02:01:39 Bye.
02:01:39 Bye.
02:01:40 Bye.
02:01:40 Bye.
02:01:41 Bye.
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