• 2 days ago
In this episode, I analyze the complex dynamics of compassion in society, discussing how genuine empathy is often exploited by those in power for personal gain. I highlight the disparity between altruistic narratives from institutions and the harsh realities faced by the average citizen, questioning the effectiveness of charitable efforts that benefit bureaucratic elites.

Emphasizing direct action over outsourcing moral responsibilities, I advocate for personal engagement with those in need to better understand poverty’s nuances. I challenge the belief that financial aid alone can solve these issues, urging listeners to take an active role in their communities and maintain the integrity of their compassion.

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Category

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Learning
Transcript
00:00Hey everybody, Stefan, I just wanted to mention a couple of things because it's the end of the world, as we know it, and I feel fine.
00:10The really interesting thing that's sort of rippling along through people's consciousness,
00:14which is, you know, people look back at history and they say, gee, you know,
00:19history for most of our existence has been really, you know, cruel and mean and so on.
00:25And sort of the question is why, you know, the original sin, fall of Adam, our bestial nature and so on.
00:33It's not really that, you know, why is it that our history has been so bloody and violent and so on.
00:48And the reason for that is compassion gets fucked.
00:54So people who are compassionate, people who are thoughtful, people who care about the feelings of others,
01:00get held down and fucked by the pretend empath sociopaths, right?
01:08This is how it works.
01:11So if people have a great sympathy for the poor and the downtrodden,
01:19then usually through the power of the state or it could be through the power of religion,
01:23the poor and downtrodden use that sympathy as leverage to extract resources and obedience
01:32and eventually often a kind of slavery from the compassionate, right?
01:36So if you see something that doesn't show up very much in human history,
01:40even though it's considered to be a good thing, then the question is, well, why?
01:44Why doesn't it show up much in human history?
01:47Why is there not more compassion and so on, right?
01:51Societies that concede a lot of things to women end up with lower birth rates
01:56and then get taken over by societies that don't concede a lot of things to women.
02:00I mean, it's just facts that we can see being played out across the world.
02:06And so there are people who do well, there are people in the middle, and there are people who do badly.
02:13And the people who do badly will always cry that they're victims and hard done by
02:18and oppressed and subjugated and so on.
02:21And then what happens is they play upon the compassion and empathy of those who are doing better
02:28and then this transfers a lot of resources, again, usually through either material punishments
02:33through taxation in the state or supernatural punishments through hell and religion.
02:38It transfers resources from those who are doing better to those who are doing worse.
02:45And then society collapses, right?
02:49So what we're seeing, I think it's a very interesting thing that's going on right now,
02:54what we're seeing right now, just look at the USAID thing, right?
02:59What we're seeing right now is that the left claims to be very caring, very compassionate,
03:11very thoughtful, very sensitive, and wants to help the downtrodden at the expense of the wealthy.
03:21That's the story.
03:24Now, what everyone is focusing on, and it's important to focus on,
03:30is the billions and billions and billions of dollars spent on obvious leftist boondoggles
03:37and DEI musicals and Sesame Street in Iran and so on, right?
03:44But what people aren't focusing on as much, and there's a few exceptions,
03:48Mike Cernovich is one of them, is the absolutely absurd salaries
03:53that are being paid to the people who are running these grifty, scammy programs, right?
03:58People need $200,000, $300,000, $400,000 a year or more,
04:03plus a tidy set of benefits, I'm sure, and pensions and job security and so on, right?
04:10So this is a great crashing, cracking sound as an entire narrative.
04:19Collapses, and the narrative being that the left has compassion,
04:24wants to help the poor, and is willing to take stuff from the rich.
04:28Because when you've got a median income in America of, you know, $40,000,
04:35and the heads of these boondoggle USAID programs are paying themselves, you know,
04:40$300,000, $250,000, $400,000.
04:43I mean, at the top end, they're paying themselves 10 times the median salary in America.
04:53So that is not taking money from the wealthy and giving it to the poor,
05:00it is taking money from the average or below average and giving it to the super wealthy.
05:06So that is really important, and I need this to not be in people's unconscious,
05:14like it needs to be floated up and fully examined and analyzed,
05:19because this has the potential to be an inoculation against sociopathic pathological pretend altruism,
05:28which we desperately need as a society.
05:31We need that inoculation, because this is a mind virus that's taking down our entire spinal cord.
05:38So people have a sense of like, well, okay, hang on.
05:41So these people claim to be wanting to help the poor and are willing to take from the rich,
05:48but in this equation, they're taking from the relative poor and giving to themselves to become super rich.
05:54So that's a fairly obvious one.
05:57There's a more subtle one that I want to talk about for a minute or two,
05:59because it's really important that we kind of get this stuff, you know,
06:03netted into our mental and physical sinew, right?
06:08This is an inoculation that unfortunately has to go straight to the net.
06:12It's not something you can just snort.
06:17So the left, you know, claims to be very much about compassion,
06:23and we care about the working class, and we care about the downtrodden,
06:26we care about the excluded, and so on.
06:30Okay, so if they care about others, they should, at the very least,
06:38show the most empathy for those they're taking the money from.
06:43Right?
06:45Like if I have a business, I guess I kind of do freedomain.com slash donate,
06:49but if I have a business, then I should focus on that which pleases my clients first and foremost.
06:54Right?
06:55If I run a pizza store, I should care whether I'm selling good pizza
06:59at a price people are willing to pay, and they enjoy the pizza,
07:01they think it's a good deal for the money.
07:04So if I'm running a pizza joint, then I should care the most about who pays the bills.
07:11It doesn't make much sense to me, if I'm a pizza store owner,
07:15to try and sell pizza, maybe it's selling well, maybe it's not selling well,
07:19but then to do a survey about what people in Afghanistan think of Sesame Street.
07:27I mean, imagine if I had investors and they say,
07:29how are you tracking customer satisfaction for your pizza in your pizza store in Philadelphia?
07:34And I say, well, I've just run a whole giant expensive survey
07:40on what people in Iran think of Spotify.
07:47They'd be like, what?
07:49That's not your customer base, that's not your product,
07:53why on earth would you do that?
07:55So the people, if you claim to have compassion,
07:58and you claim to care about your customers, your clients,
08:01then you care about the people who are paying your bills.
08:09I mean, would it make any sense if you have a boss, right,
08:12and your boss determines your salary and your promotion and your career path and so on,
08:18and your boss is kind of annoyed because you keep failing at tasks that he proposes,
08:24and you sit down with him and you say, listen, Bob,
08:26I mean, I understand that I've messed up the last five tasks you've given me,
08:30I know that's been tough for you, but here, like on the plus side,
08:34the person I buy flowers from really likes me.
08:42Your boss would be highly confused and would say, well, hang on,
08:45I'm the one who's paying your bills, so you should really care a little bit more about what I think.
08:49I guess it's nice that the person you buy flowers from likes you,
08:53but it's not relevant to you satisfying me who actually pays your bills, right?
08:59So if you have care, compassion, concern, consideration,
09:03you should apply it to those you are getting the money from,
09:06your customers, your boss, and in this case, the taxpayers.
09:13So the heads of USAID, or could be any number of things within the government,
09:21the heads of USAID should have already set up an online voting portal and say,
09:26here are the proposed things, let us ask the taxpayers what they most care about,
09:31and then let's do that, and let's have them track the spending, right?
09:35None of that has been done, at least until the teenage Wunderkins
09:39that are coming out of Elon's shirt pockets went in and turbo-analyzed the data set
09:49using a wide variety of AI tools and created their own portal
09:52so that people could do searches and so on.
09:55So they did not create that, they did not say, well, you guys are actually,
10:00you're the taxpayers, you're paying the bills,
10:02so we should really figure out what's important to you,
10:04we should focus and pursue on that, right?
10:08No, they didn't do that.
10:10They, in fact, tried to make things as opaque as possible,
10:14and they tried, or they haven't, maybe not necessarily at USAID,
10:17because, like, I don't know if you know this, but the reason why Musk went into USAID first
10:22was that Trump and Musk put a 90-day pause on foreign aid, right?
10:28They stopped the bleeding until they could figure out what the priorities should be
10:32and what they are, and whatever waste, fraud, and abuse might be going on.
10:36And they quite quickly found out that the heads of USAID
10:39were really trying to do an end run, were trying to bypass that whole process
10:42and trying to get money out to their projects,
10:45despite the fact that there was a ban on spending money on foreign aid.
10:48USAID was trying to bypass that, so they said, oh, okay,
10:52well, we're playing whack-a-mole because that's the mole that put its head up,
10:56so we're going to have to go and take that one first
11:00because that's probably where the most corruption is.
11:02So that's kind of how it came about.
11:06So all of these people, and the heads of these departments, they claim,
11:09oh, we care so much about people, we care about others, and so on.
11:14Well, then you should care about the people who are paying you the bills.
11:16Really, first and foremost, make sure you're pleasing them.
11:18But not only did they not do that, not only did they not set any methodology up
11:22by which that could be done, but a lot of these agencies seem to be actively resisting
11:27any kind of outside scope and scoop into their datasets.
11:34So what this means is that the people who are running these agencies
11:40do not, do not possess the virtue called compassion and empathy.
11:54If you have a big investor in your business,
11:57and the investor is concerned about misuse of funds,
11:59and the investor wants to look at your books, you have to let that happen, right?
12:03That's a moral, decent thing to do.
12:06Now, the only reason that you wouldn't let a big investor in your business
12:12look at your books is because you know you're doing something wrong.
12:19Wrong, not mistaken, wrong.
12:23That you are corrupt.
12:25So what that means is that all of the people in charge of these agencies, it seems,
12:30would basically are acting as if they know that there's a lot of corruption and problems,
12:35and that what they're doing does not align with the preferences and purposes
12:39of the American electorate, which means they do not have the virtue called compassion.
12:45Now, if people claim to be acting in the name of compassion,
12:50but they don't possess the virtue called compassion,
12:53they are con artists as a whole.
12:56I'm not talking about anyone in particular.
12:58I'm just saying it's a general principle, right?
13:01So if somebody says, oh, you really care about the children,
13:04they see that you really care about the children of gypsies,
13:06and they come in and they say, don't worry, I'll take care of the children of gypsies
13:09because I really care about the children of gypsies,
13:11and then they take a bunch of money or you give them a bunch of money
13:13and they use it for hookers and blow,
13:15then they don't have the virtue called compassion or empathy.
13:21All they know is that you have that virtue and they can use it for their own benefit.
13:25This is why kindness gets fucked in a world chock full of sociopaths,
13:32conscienceless people, con artists who will rip you off.
13:35But I don't want you to play the victim here
13:41because the fundamental inoculation,
13:44I mean, it's good what's going on with Doge and Trump and Musk and big balls and so on.
13:49Yeah, it's good.
13:50But here's the thing.
13:54The fundamental inoculation that you and me and everyone needs
14:01is this fundamental statement.
14:06I will never, ever, ever outsource my moral obligations.
14:19What do I mean by that?
14:21Somebody comes along and says, oh, no problem, man.
14:24I'll take care of the poor.
14:26Just give me money.
14:32Don't do it.
14:34Don't do it.
14:36The desire to give money to people so that you feel the poor are being taken care of
14:41is the most fundamental corruption.
14:43All this other stuff is just a manifestation of it.
14:46If you want to help the poor, fantastic.
14:50Fantastic.
14:52So let's say you're an accountant and you want to help the poor.
14:56Great.
14:59Go set up a booth and answer people's accounting questions free of charge.
15:04You're a lawyer.
15:06It's already baked in, right?
15:07Pro bono, man.
15:08Go help people.
15:09Right?
15:10I'm a moral philosopher, so I help people by, you know, for almost 20 years,
15:16not charging a penny.
15:17I mean, there are private calls now, but I don't charge people for the show.
15:21I don't put ads in my books I give away for free.
15:24So I do work and talk with people for free and share it with the public
15:31so that everyone can get the benefit of these conversations.
15:34So I do philosophy for free with people because I care about the poor,
15:39and you shouldn't have to be able to afford an hourly rate
15:42to be able to talk to a moral philosopher,
15:44so I've set it up so that that can occur.
15:46And if you appreciate that, again,
15:48freedomain.com slash donate to help out the show.
15:50I really would appreciate that.
15:52But, yeah, if you care about the poor,
15:54if you're a gardener and you care about the poor,
15:58find some way that you can do the manual labor that the poor can't afford.
16:02Right?
16:03Let's say you're a gardener and there's some old guy down the street who's broke.
16:06Well, maybe you can go and do some gardening for him.
16:10Do it yourself because almost everyone you pay to do it is going to rip you off,
16:16and if it's not them, it's going to be someone they work with,
16:19and if it's not someone they work with, it's going to be their successor.
16:21It's going to be someone.
16:24Because the moment there's a big fat pile of cash,
16:28based upon, quote, helping people,
16:31most people will write their way into that situation
16:35and not help others, but help themselves.
16:38Just claw, pull out the cash.
16:42Sorry, just a fact.
16:45Big piles of cash with ill-defined mission statements
16:47attract predators and conmen and sociopaths.
16:51It is like dumping a bunch of sugar in a field
16:54and not expecting any bugs to land.
16:57It's just not going to happen.
17:02So, if you want to help the poor, fantastic.
17:06Another way that I helped the poor was I started companies and hired people.
17:12I once managed a team of 35 people for many years,
17:16and helped get them raises,
17:19and I increased their pay 30-35% over the time that I was their manager.
17:27So, if you hire three people, two people, five people,
17:31you're driving up wages, you're giving people income,
17:34so if you want to help the poor, start a company, build that.
17:39If you want to help the poor, let's say you want to help people who are blind,
17:44go read audio books, go read to them directly.
17:48Do the work yourself, because that can't easily be corrupted.
17:54Maybe it can be in some way, but it can't easily be corrupted.
17:58But the moment somebody swoops in and says,
18:00hey man, give me money and I'll take care of your moral obligations,
18:10don't you worry about that baby, I'll take care of your moral obligations.
18:13You won't have to feel bad about a thing.
18:16Round up your purchases and we'll take care of hungry children.
18:20It's like, no, if you care about hungry children,
18:24go buy some groceries and deliver it up and down the street.
18:27I mean, you'll actually feel better, you're doing more good,
18:30you're actually developing personal relationships,
18:33because to outsource your moral obligations
18:37is to feed the vampires of corruption with all the blood they can desire.
18:42It's really bad, it's really bad.
18:48To me, hiring outsiders for my moral obligations
18:53is like paying someone to go on an anniversary date with my wife.
18:57It's like, it's kind of my job, it's kind of my job.
19:01And this seduction that people have,
19:06where they want to do good, but they don't want to get involved.
19:11I want to do good, but I want to get involved,
19:14I want to get my hands muddy, I don't want to actually talk to the poor,
19:17I don't want to, you know, whatever,
19:19the kind of icky you feel or something like that, right?
19:22Well, okay, then don't help the poor.
19:26But don't say, I want to help the poor,
19:29and then hand money to other people,
19:32even voluntarily, it's pretty bad,
19:35but certainly through the state, it's bad.
19:38So people who say, well, the poor need to be educated.
19:42Great, okay, great, fantastic.
19:44The poor need to be educated, wonderful.
19:46Then go learn some important skill,
19:49learn how to communicate it,
19:51and then give your lessons away for free.
19:54I mean, that's what I've done,
19:56I have 6,000 plus shows and, you know,
19:5910 books and documentaries and everything,
20:01all given away for free, no ads, no, all free.
20:06Learn an important skill,
20:09or any kind of skill, learn how to communicate it,
20:13write it, record it, I mean, it's like a phone,
20:16just do that, and then hand it out for free.
20:19So if you think the poor need to be educated, you can do that,
20:22or you can, you know, walk up and down the street,
20:25knock on the door and say,
20:27I'm happy to tutor if anybody needs any help.
20:32Right?
20:33Now, I can tell you, there are two kinds of people
20:36who don't want you to do that, right?
20:38There are two kinds of people who desperately don't want you
20:41getting personally involved with helping the poor.
20:44And I have tried, I have spent ungodly amounts of time,
20:48effort, energy, and money in helping the poor.
20:53And honestly, it's about 50-50.
20:56It's about 50-50.
20:58So the people who don't want you
21:01to have your own actions
21:04with regards to helping those who are less fortunate,
21:07number one, the con men and women
21:09who would like to take your money
21:11and use it to give themselves lavish salaries
21:14and lots of trips to study things in lovely locations.
21:18Why need to go to a conference?
21:20It just happens to be in Bali,
21:22but it's really going to help me learn how to better help the poor.
21:26So, those people don't want you
21:30helping the poor or helping the less fortunate directly
21:33because they can't get their cut.
21:35That's number one.
21:36Number two, number two,
21:39is the undeserving poor.
21:43And yes, my friends, I grew up in great poverty.
21:46I saw this for decades.
21:48I worked with it for decades.
21:50I know this very intimately.
21:52There are the deserving poor
21:53and there are the undeserving poor.
21:55And you help the deserving poor
21:57by giving them resources.
21:58And you help the undeserving poor
22:00by withholding resources.
22:02Right?
22:03I mean, if somebody has, for whatever reason,
22:06they're broke, they need some money,
22:08they want to get a job,
22:09you cover their rent for a month,
22:10that gets them out and they get their job,
22:12okay, you've really helped them out, right?
22:14However, if somebody's an alcoholic or a drug addict
22:17or a gambling addict in particular
22:19and you give them money,
22:20you make them worse.
22:23Right?
22:26There are people in this world who are underweight
22:30who need more food.
22:31I mean, very few these days.
22:32But there are people in the world who are underweight
22:34and they need more food.
22:36There are people in the world who are overweight
22:38who need less food.
22:40And if you think that the solution
22:42to all problems with people's eating
22:44is to just give them more food,
22:45give them more food,
22:46give them more food,
22:47give them more food,
22:48then you will help those who are underweight
22:51and you will half-kill those who are overweight.
22:56Like, you end up with some
23:00giant industrial machine
23:01needing to move the What's Eating Gilbert Great Mom
23:04from couch to chair to car to ambulance to morgue.
23:10So, there are the people who are
23:15down on their luck,
23:16unfortunate, less fortunate,
23:17and if you help them,
23:20they will bounce up
23:21and that is a good investment.
23:23But there are other people
23:24who pretend
23:28to be less fortunate
23:29so that they can use their less fortunate status
23:32as a leverage by which to extract resources
23:34from other people.
23:35It's like if you've ever worked in a hospital.
23:37You work in a hospital
23:39and there are people who come in
23:40who are genuinely in pain
23:41and need narcotics.
23:42And there are other people
23:43who are drug addicts
23:44who are pretending to be in pain
23:46in order to get narcotics.
23:48If you give narcotics to the people
23:50who are in pain but not addicts,
23:52you are helping them.
23:53If you give narcotics to the people
23:55who are only pretending to be in pain
23:57so they can get narcotics
23:58and feed their addiction,
23:59you don't help them.
24:00Not being able to differentiate
24:02between those who are genuinely in need
24:04and those who are playing the system,
24:06the deserving poor,
24:07the undeserving poor,
24:08not being able to differentiate those
24:10is one of the fundamental problems.
24:12I mean,
24:13you need personal experience
24:15with people to know
24:16whether you're helping them or not.
24:17Just mailing out
24:18those stupid yellow checks every month
24:20or depositing into people's bank accounts.
24:22Governments have no idea
24:24who they're helping and who they're harming.
24:28So,
24:33if you
24:36have on your plate
24:39or in your thoughts
24:40the idea
24:41that
24:42I'm just going to hand money over
24:44to other people
24:45and those other people
24:46are going to fulfill my moral obligations,
24:48I mean,
24:49that's like paying a gigolo
24:50to have sex with your wife
24:51and thinking you're a great lover.
24:53It's bizarre to me.
24:55Who has tried to directly
24:56and personally help people?
24:59Because I don't know
25:00what's going on otherwise.
25:01I don't know if we share
25:02the same philosophy
25:03or ideology or beliefs.
25:10If somebody needs alcohol
25:11to swab a wound
25:12that they don't want to get infected,
25:13that's a good thing.
25:14If somebody needs alcohol
25:15because they're an alcoholic,
25:16that's not good
25:18to get them, right?
25:21So,
25:22there's two kinds of people,
25:23two massive groups of people
25:26who want
25:27you to outsource
25:28your moral obligations.
25:29Number one,
25:30the people who want to
25:31manipulate and
25:32pillage those moral obligations
25:34so that they can get
25:35big fat paychecks
25:36and prestige,
25:37like,
25:38I helped the poor.
25:39Hello.
25:40And then there's
25:41the undeserving poor
25:42who don't want you
25:43to personally
25:46come and help them
25:47because if you personally
25:48come and help them,
25:49you'll see that your help
25:51is being exploited.
25:55So,
25:56here's an example, right?
25:58Somebody says,
25:59there's two families, right?
26:01Two families on your street
26:02and they're broke
26:04and you go and say,
26:06is there anything
26:07I can do to help?
26:08And they say,
26:09hey man,
26:10I just,
26:11give me some bus fare
26:12and lunch money
26:13because I've got a job
26:14interview tomorrow.
26:15Right?
26:16So you give
26:17both households,
26:18the Bob and Doug's household,
26:20both households you give
26:22bus fare and lunch money.
26:24And then Bob
26:25takes that bus fare
26:26and lunch money
26:27and goes and gets a job.
26:28And he's like,
26:29hey man,
26:30thank you so much,
26:31I got this job,
26:32let me pay it back to you.
26:33I mean,
26:34if he does or he doesn't,
26:35he gets the job, right?
26:36But,
26:37the other guy
26:39doesn't.
26:42Oh,
26:43I tried to get the job,
26:44there was nobody there,
26:45but man,
26:46just give it to me tomorrow.
26:47Oh, you know,
26:48I woke up with a real headache,
26:49I couldn't do the job,
26:50but you know,
26:51just one more,
26:52and you just realize
26:53that they're never going
26:54to get the job,
26:55they just want the free
26:56bus fare and lunch money.
26:59You know,
27:00it's like the people
27:01who are begging
27:02and they say,
27:03man,
27:04well,
27:05I'll,
27:06what kind of sandwich
27:07do you like,
27:08I'll go get it for you.
27:09And they're like,
27:10screw you man,
27:11right,
27:12because they just want
27:13the money for drugs
27:14or alcohol
27:15or something like that,
27:16right?
27:17I mean,
27:18John Stossel,
27:19many years ago,
27:20did a show
27:21where he followed
27:22a woman who was
27:23begging for money
27:24to get on a bus
27:25to get back to her hometown
27:26because she was broke
27:27and turns out
27:28she lived a couple
27:29of blocks away
27:30and made a pretty good
27:31living doing this,
27:32right?
27:33So do kindness
27:34directly
27:35or don't do it,
27:36but for God's sakes
27:37don't outsource it
27:39because that makes
27:40compassion
27:41prey
27:43and turns those
27:44who manipulate
27:45compassion
27:46into predators
27:47that will take down
27:48your entire society
27:49and I'm not kidding
27:50about that.
27:51It is a form of discipline
27:52you desperately need.
27:54Do it yourself
27:55or don't do it,
27:56but don't outsource it,
27:57man.