Dear Peter. Your add for gold is incorrect. Here in Australia we have not gone to purely digital currency, nor is it currently being debated at the parliamentary level, mostly due to a recent change in government. At this time cash is still very much legal tender. I comment because I know your preference for truth. Thanks for the great work you are doing. 🙏🏽❤️
@@alexandrazachary.musician yes, and currency is already digital in terms of private banks, checking accounts, debit cards, ACH transactions. Accounting and credit existed in Ancient Sumer and other early agriculture long before anyone figured out how to mine metal and refine iron ore or other metal. Counting numbers and writing records existed before metals technology. I read that the community accountants were considered priests, or vice versa, the wise priests could do math, so priests were the one Central Bank, and provider of credit to farmers. Later, currency could be portable coins or broken tally sticks or paper contracts containing written symbols and backed by law. The govt promises that all tax debts are payable in the currency denomination that only the govt creates. That's how basic currency and credit works today. The concern is that if the US Govt replaces private banks, then transactions and rules can be a lot more POLITICAL and less about economics and solvency. I could envision the govt deciding to seize or at least freeze anyone's bank account who voted for Trump or who decided not to get the jab or who complained to their school board.
Dude your dad is benicio del toro, you look so similar. Btw I’m glad I watched this episode with you and Peter I like how you shared your story. I grew up poor in the ghetto and almost got swept into this left ideology until the New Orleans ambush on police officers. I Realized these people think of themselves as superior humans. I’m glad that I now have a name to these beliefs “luxury beliefs “. Great episode
Just a comment on the mask, wearing it being a political statement: I legit have tested positive for Covid last week, and had to travel by airplane to get from one city. I was in back home. I thought I was doing the right thing by wearing a mask to ensure that none of my aerosol got anywhere, because I was suffering from coughs, and I was verbally attacked, and the tone of the attack was so threatening I actually feared for my safety. I am not on the far left. I do not buy into this progressive, woke, ism, ideologies, and because of how far left things have got, or how far right things have got those of us who are legitimately in the middle, who remain curious and open to actual science and discussion have been put in a position that just simply wearing a goddamn mask is a political statement for one side or the other. I am absolutely infuriated and terrified by what is going on in western society.
Brilliant discussion. Tour name has popped up a number of times on other podcasts I listen to... now I know why. A very impressive , intelligent man. Thanks
My wife and I have been using his term Luxury Beliefs for some time now to break through to friends and family members who are blind to the Woke activist religion/mind virus. It does seem to help put a crack in their views and open things up.
@@drpeterboghossianI honestly think I came up with almost the same phrase (luxury values) independently. I say that only because it has a quality of obviousness after you hear it, and that suggests great conceptual strength.
God bless you! That’s all we can do is talk to our loved ones and friends about what’s happening. Dropping small bits of truth here & there will help sow the seeds.
I would also suggest going to FIRE and seeing the cases they have as far as free speech goes (on both sides these days). Check out what Dems want to do in Calif. Do they think it's okay for the state to turn totalitarian, and take children away from parents just because the parents won't go along with the "trans" nonsense? The Dems at the federal level support that too. Check out journalist Jennifer Bilek on the transgender to trashumanism front. Most people have no idea the madness that is being pushed on society, and so many children.
I'm not a sociologist or social psychologist but am relatively well read on some of the idea's, especially with regards to communication. Let me tell you as a working class ethnic minority working in a profoundly progressive field: the luxury believes concept is 100% accurate. These believes are widespread and much talked about. They are so much talked about that 'they' even dare talk to me about my own background. They simply know better. They know the subjects better, they know my oppression better. They know it all.
I've had (and I really like her as a person) someone ask me about my families' history & if I'm aware of their difficulties. As if they don't have mouths to tell me themselves. Most of that history is being rewritten by the same people because it's rather inopportune to talk about the reality, which is doubly annoying.@@randomgeneration-gu8dw
Yep. I live in super "progressive" land, travel in the artsy fartsy circles and the arrogance, and lack of self awareness around that can be astounding. Not all are like that of course, and it's quite nice when I can have a civil disagreement about things. I hope you can think of some subtle, creative ways to put them in their place so to speak.
Rob's facial expressions (27 minutes in) when the woman is discussing gender and non binary are hilarious. Its like, "not this again, how many times to I have to view this nonsense". I love this straightforward intelligent man and his background story. I have used the term 'luxury beliefs' many times. Thank you both.❤❤
I think 90% of this would be solved if we had someone besides poisonous evangelical Christians trying to explain why you don't need nonsense like "transwomen are women" to have wide latitude for civil rights for so-called gender expression. Most people have sense on these issues, but when the only people they hear making a fuss about bizarre gender stuff are people who obviously just want gays back in the closet, Jesus taught in schools, and are screaming "groomer!" at everyone, they don't want any part of that stuff. How about we treat gender beliefs the way we treat religious beliefs religiously and socially. Don't be a dick and ridicule people's sincere, but false beliefs in social and work settings. Play along with them within reason. But ultimately for import and policy we just have to defer to evidence and it isn't oppression to not believe along with you. Rights for believers, but no special protection for the beliefs themselves, but also don't be a dick. Treat people with gender dysphoria the way you treat Southern Baptists or Scientologists with respect to the line between civil rights for believers vs pressure to endorse the beliefs.
These conversations are always so damn good. Your questions are always so incredibly thoughtful, and your honesty is infectious. Genuinely, thank you for doing these Peter! This type of content is a beacon in the dark. -A fellow Oregonian!
India has a quota system aimed at elevating members of 'scheduled caste and tribes'. These quotas are a fixture in colleges and government jobs. The suicide rate among the college kids from that sector is noticeably higher. Rather than helping these kids when they are little by providing better schooling early on, they think they can fix the disparity later by forcing colleges to admit a certain proscribed number of them. The problem is that these students very quickly realize that, for no fault of their own, they are completely out of their depth and struggle with the academic demands on them. Meanwhile the hope of their entire family has been placed on their shoulders and the weight eventually crushes them. Adding to this is the merciless 'ragging' or hazing that goes on as the caste system has definitely still a very strong cultural hold in India. In the USA as well, it would be wiser to improve the quality of early education in these underserved communities which would benefit many more people rather than admissions quotas by race and skin color.
I've been wondering about India recently. I get WION news in my Facebook feed. I'm unclear how much anti-Modi anti-Hindu is like anti-Trump and anti-Christian. The latter falsely attributes quite a few traits to Donald Trump and MAGA and Christians which has slim correlation with reality.
I Don't think it's the same. Modi wasn't a newcomer to politics when he became the PM. He has a track record at the state level. He has had allegations of being involved in riots at that time, the courts found him not guilty of the allegations. (My personal opinion regarding the courts is.... not good in general) But he was successful in improving the public amenities and overall economic conditions of the state. The unfortunate part is the party which he belongs to has a history of being aggressively anti-muslim and anti-christian. And it still does in some states. But to pin it all on Modi, I'm not sure. because he is the nominal leader of the party, not exactly the one who leads everything I think people in India are really upset that the opposition parties are extremely weak
When I was in college, I was selected for a prestigious internship. They only selected six interns from around the country. We were geographically diverse-coming from the north, south, midwest, and west-and we were economically diverse. But, as it turned out, we all had the same family backgrounds. All of us were raised by our biological parents who were still married and living together. All of us had a religious upbringing, though the religions varied. All of us had parents who required us to work when we turned 16. The list goes on and on. None of these attributes were included in our applications for the internship, so they were not a factor in our selection. It just so happened that the most qualified undergraduates in this field all had a similar upbringing. I don't believe that is a coincidence.
It’s interesting how, almost by definition, the ‘diversity’ selected for is skin deep. Because for what matters you cannot afford to accept people who lack it.
This conversation was so validating for me as a woman who constantly deals with petulant children who are in my peer group, mostly women. These people jockey for status, destroy reputations, and weaponize emotion.
I think a large part of this is the merging of masculine and feminine spheres of power. Where as masculine is typically based on competency, merit, and reciprocity, the feminine is more based on care and compassion. Seeing all these young women use the traditionally feminine hierarchy to obtain power and influence by using reputational damage while maintaining a facade of care and compassion is not surprising to me at all. Academia is devolving into a place where people go to obtain power, so people become courtiers and use machiavellian tactics to obtain their ends.
@@ReallgeemachineRecently saw an interview with Cori Clark who's tried to look at related questions in a quality academic-like or professional manner. She reports a lot of her colleagues hate such lines of inquiry. But you might be interested in seeing how she's examining things using social science, while seemingly retaining a degree of openness to whatever she might find. Think she's with Heterodox Academy now...
Hey peter. Really appreciate the dialogues you continue to have with people. Last year, i spent a bit of time in Portland working with the opera company. I was quite surprised with the condition of such a beautiful city. While i generally enjoyed my time, i couldn't help but think of your work with Lindsay and your time there. My oldest sister, who is a professor at a major university in the south, has fallen prey to this way of thinking. Its very strange for her to have a turn from "we used to be labeled as oreos, white, etc. (We're "black") only to now do the same to other "black" people now.
@@drpeterboghossian It’s not the college’s job to fix childhood safety, nor to rectify alleged systemic racism- it’s job is to graduate the best possible students and turn out the future of our most specialized careers like engineering and physics, etc. Once it forgets that, it is worthless as an institution of higher learning.
Excellent discussion as usual. Regarding "Believe all women", when I first heard that I was like, "Oh, don't immediately disbelieve serious allegations because they're coming from a woman. Totally." Then I realized they meant literally believe all women regardless of evidence. And the result of this, 7ish years later, is many people who would have assumed a woman was being honest with this sort of claim say 10 years ago, now know of so many false allegations made under this premise that they are often skeptical of these claims. Such a terrible result for actual victims.
Very interesting title. The concept of a luxury belief makes perfect sense but hasn't crossed my mind. Excited to give this one a listen. Thanks again Peter Boghossian
Obsessional hobby groups, football clubs, quasi religious social groups like Lions Club or the royal order of buffalos - these are all rooted in benign pseudo-religious beliefs that in my experience have totally positive impacts on people’s happiness and the health of communities
The tendency to victim signal is highly correlated with the dark triad traits. Dark triad traits. A combination of: - Machiavellianism - sub-clinical narcissism - sub-clinical psychopathy
When I think of the name Rob Henderson I picture this guy. Quintessential Henderson. I do so love indulging in rational thought. Thanks for your work, as always.
So I wear a mask most of the time now during daylight hours because it’s a great way to further minimize sun damage. I’m very pale and care about how my skin ages. I wear sunscreen of course, but have freckles and a high risk for skin cancer and have already had to have one skin abnormality removed, even with being pretty good about minimizing sun exposure. I also use retinol, which if you do not practice great sun protection care (sunscreen) is a bit of a waste of time and money. I care more about my skin aging gracefully and without preventable skin cancer lesions than I do being mistaken for social signaling and besides I have a collection of like 50 different n95 disposable mask designs that I now use to enhance my fashion for the day and sometimes get really creative and match it to my eye-makeup. I’m probably not the only person who just likes and prefers masks for their own reasons.
Thank you Peter, for being a rare voice of reason and common sense. In a world that makes me wonder if it’s me that must be insane, you give me a little confidence that I’m somewhat sane.
Enjoying this already during my lunch hour. Luxury Beliefs seem to be the old “Stated preferences vs observable behavior” for the wealthy in order to achieve status or deflect negative judgment. Will have to get on X later to read more about your thoughts on this interview
How about Martha’s Vineyard residents who proudly raise Sanctuary City signs in one thin-wristed arm while feeding fruit loops to confided children on *paper plates* because they might dirty the china?
Luxury beliefs is one of those stone cold terms that sums up succinctly how Anglophone society has changed. Well done Rob for producing such a well phrased idea.
Peter. Just an observation. A few years back I was teaching horticulture and I would teach teachers to grow food in schools. One of my activities was to teach them how to make paper pots to put their seedlings in, I taught them how to prick out and transplant seedlings in the next session. In every session, more than 80% of the teachers could not fold a piece of paper into 3. Class after class, year after year. There was always one or two that could but the 80% was consistent across all teaching ages and years of my sessions. It was mind-blowing.
I like him! This is why institutions need people who are genuinely diverse - from various social backgrounds - rather than a lot of generically rich privileged people (of any colour) who have exploited their privilege to adopt superficial "diverse" identities.
The idea that people don't require metaphysics, and _especially_ that materialism isn't also a metaphysical belief -- and a luxury one at that --- is a prior I'd love to see Peter grapple with more deeply. Like BJJ grapple, really have to contend with the idea that the religions of the world might contain an access to actual truth that has little to do with "faith" or silly beliefs. It starts with authentic interest, putting aside smug condescension. Granted, there's plenty to condescend to, but look deeper! Start by thinking metaphorically rather than literally, like JPB does, and keep going from there. Maybe there's more to truth than "facts". When AI takes everyone's jobs, we will need more than facts!
Hey Peter - thanks for another fabulous episode. Wish I could have met you when you were here in Sydney! Thanks for all you do. I got a gender studies major at university and it did me a lot of good by alerting me to the nonsense and the danger of such ideas to our democracy!
PB: What causes people to believe certain beliefs? I'm persuaded by Andy West's answer to that question in his book "The Grip of Culture". Short explanation: we are prone to believe idea sets or ideologies which Andy calls cultural memes. This gives us a sense of belonging to a larger groups of people.
I heard Rob on the Bari Weiss podcast some time ago and it blew my mind. His story is amazing and he's such an important voice. Thanks Rob and Peter for having him on!
We have a parent shaped hole in our psychology. One of our first hard lessons we learn as a baby is that our parent doesn't watch and know everything we feel and experience all the time. We really believe they do for a while. Even when you're out of view or out of the room, babies believe you know everything that happens to them. And of course, the more we grow up, our parent falls further and further off their pedestal until they become a 'mensch' to us, shrinking gradually out of that hole. The idea of an omniscient deity, or a 'creator of all things' slots perfectly into this parent hole. We know nothing likes a vacuum. I think this is the primary reason for there being religions, the need to fill that psychological vacuum. At least teach every child critical thinking, but if you find something not religious that leads to rationality to fit in that slot, I think you're golden.
There's an interesting book 'Born Believers' that investigates the phenomenon you mention. Primed by that research, my epiphany was that in design of intelligent systems, omniscience, omnipotence etc. are the simpler naive models, and thus what you'd expect at early stages of development. Not that these ideas have much to do with metaphysics, but it is an interesting foil for Just So stories about the origins of 'religion.'
Teleology - emotional/moral blackmail is used as a tool to achieve some end by those captured. Their only aim is to force conformity according to their whim. Motte and bailey argument fallacy is another tool, where two opposing issues are conflated as being the same thing. As James says, one can simply "eject" themselves from the nonsense by saying something like, "sorry, I won't participate in your struggle session" or "sorry, I won't participate in your religious ceremony". In comments sections of online pieces where the mob arrives, I've found replying with these two gems, is quite effective. The following also is a stunner, "a main predictor that someone joins the "mob" religion, is low verbal intelligence". Of course, who knows on what sample that was determined, but I could imagine it carries meaning into the greater society. Thanks guys, for this conversation. Also thanks to James Lindsay and Jordan Peterson for teaching how all the madness works.
here's a thought experiment... assume that you can only go swimming in the pool if you know how to swim, and then we find out. we haven't taught some kids how to swim because they lived in the wrong neighborhood. Do we let them in the pool because it's not their fault that they didn't learn how to swim? Of course not first we teach them how to swim so that they can get in the pool. Trying to make up for inequalities of experience at the end is completely illogical.
They just need to consider themselves trans-swimmers. That's how reality works. For example, I'm trans-black-from-the-waist-down. If you get what I mean.
Woah, he’s incredible. Intelligent and compassion. I love Peter but sometimes he just seems a little disconnected and flawed in his thinking. It surprises me that he cannot comprehend the benefits and important needs being met by people who “believe”, and how they derive meaning from it. I’m an atheist but even I recognise that they have something that meets a very basic human need that can unlikely be replaced by our version of “truth” etc.
I remember my brother telling me something when interviewing- the most important question is can I work with this person? If not, then either they go or you do.
Yeah. But as someone who has off the charts IQ, and highly effective intuition about people, etc., even for me it is really hard to gauge a person over the course of a 60 minutes long interview. And HR often times cuts the interview duration to 30-45 minutes, despite the fact that introduction + efforts trying to strip the candidate of his interview jitters takes around 20 minutes or so.
I really like that the clips Peter chose for this segment are of reasonable people. I disagree with their points but feel like I could have a productive conversation with them.
Great conversation - thank you Peter for this conversation. Toward the tail end of this discussion, you spoke about what the right and the left get wrong. It would be so interesting for you to sit down with Ian Rowe, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the work he is doing with young people. His book Agency: The four point plan for all children to overcome the victimhood narrative and discover their pathway to power - That would be phenomenal!
On low IQ: When I was a missionary, I had to live by a set of rules, one of which was to find a place to do 3 hours a week of community service. In one place I lived in Japan, we went once a week to a place where a bunch (20+) of mentally handicapped people lived. I'm certain most of their IQs were below 81. Most also had physical disability. It wasn't quite a hospital, although there were workers there that cared for them. It was more like a group home, I guess. Anyway, the bottom floor was a factory line of sorts where they would assemble pipe brackets which could be used to hang pipes from concrete ceilings during construction. Despite their mental inabilities, they could at least assemble those. Many had custom jigs because they couldn't physically assemble them the 'normal' way. Most were also very slow. Four of us missionaries could assemble as many in 3 hours as they all could do in a week. That effectively doubled the income that activity brought in to fund the group home. So I think there are tasks that those with IQ below 81 can possibly do. Things just need to be setup right, for them. Almost 30 years later, I wonder whether that group home is still running and if they still make those brackets and if the missionaries there now are still helping.
81 IQ is not terribly debilitating. It kinda rules you out of most jobs, as even a fast food job is too complex for people below 80+something IQ points to do. Another main factor is attitude, personality and attributes outside IQ which low IQ people generally have. Low IQ people are much more irritable, put much less value in details, have far lower work ethics, are much more aggressive, and so on. My family hires a very low IQ guy to take care of small things around a building. I would guess he is below 80. Every week he drives to the house, has to sweep up a bit, take out the trash bins for the garbage truck, cut the grass a few times during summer, gather the leaves during the fall, water some flowers, make sure the snow / ice does not obstruct people, things like that. If you talked to him about normie stuff, like how is it going, etc., most people would not pick up on him being low IQ. But man, once you see his work, you would think it was done by a 4 years old child. For example, when he mows the lawn he leaves out HUGE ISLANDS OF GRASS everywhere. He is completely unable to consistently cut the grass in a uniform fashion. Anyways, there is this other guy in my home town. Everyone knows him. He has some severe mental disability, definitely below 75-70 IQ. You can see it on the guy's face, his speech, etc. One of his main source of income is lawn mowing. He has his own lawn mowing quad, and a handheld cutter, but man, that guy cuts grass like a pro.
Another excellent interview, thanks. I think pushing humans toward rational thinking is a losing battle. The only way to do this is to train humans to not be human, and that's not likely to happen. Also, humans are very egocentric and driven to have positive self-regard--doubling down and other such behaviors happen all the time, not just in trans issues. The worse the error, the greater the insistence.
@@sdrc92126 I'd say there are more layers than that. I'm more of the opinion that the outside fringes of this movement are more motivated by a kind of moral egotism and longing for community. There is a sense of smug superiority about many of these adherents, and that is not spiritual--it's bog-standard human status-jockeying. This is not to say there is no religiosity involved, psychologically, but I also think those particular circuits do not need any real supernatural element to activate, though it can lead to a certain "cognitive creationism".
@@randomgeneration-gu8dw You summed it up very well there. Moral egotism is right, although it's the irrational and inconsistent beliefs they fervently hold, as well as the phobia of close examination and discussion of those beliefs that mirrors religion. The fanatical faith in their cause, despite science and reality being at odds with their claims.
You guys should also talk with Daniel Schmachtenberger on 'Moloch' and multipolar traps. Wokeness of this kind, particularly if you talk about dark triad traits and victimhood culture opportunism, that's a first-defector game where there's a power structure or extortion racket to be created thus they see their niche immediately.
College-aged students buy into these catchphrases hook, line and sinker without ultimately questioning their validity. Second - and I have said this many many times before - automatically taking the opposing view does not mean one engages in logical, independent thinking. In fact it does just the opposite.
Love your content, Peter! After those amazing NPR episodes, I was wondering what would come next. Really happy to see that you're continuing with something great. Let's evangelize heterodoxy!!
I had watched that clip two or three times. I had missed the "I am a Gender Studies Scholler" each time. Classic! Keep 'em Coming. I look forward to your first stand up bit.
I stealing this one from you. From now on at social functions. When asked what I do. I'm going to be a Gender Studies Scholler. Best to you and your crew.@@drpeterboghossian
People with IQs under 81 can contribute. My nephew has an IQ of 63 and he has a part time job and mows lawns. A bit if supervision is needed but he is successful in maintaining his job.
Yes, it's possible. 81 IQ is not terribly debilitating. It kinda rules you out of most jobs, as even a fast food job is too complex for people below 80+something IQ points to do. Another main factor is attitude, personality and attributes outside IQ which low IQ people generally have. Low IQ people are much more irritable, put much less value in details, have far lower work ethics, are much more aggressive, and so on. My family hires a very low IQ guy to take care of small things around a building. I would guess he is below 80. Every week he drives to the house, has to sweep up a bit, take out the trash bins for the garbage truck, cut the grass a few times during summer, gather the leaves during the fall, water some flowers, make sure the snow / ice does not obstruct people, things like that. If you talked to him about normie stuff, like how is it going, etc., most people would not pick up on him being low IQ. But man, once you see his work, you would think it was done by a 4 years old child. For example, when he mows the lawn he leaves out HUGE ISLANDS OF GRASS everywhere. He is completely unable to consistently cut the grass in a uniform fashion. Anyways, there is this other guy in my home town. Everyone knows him. He has some severe mental disability, definitely below 75-70 IQ. You can see it on the guy's face, his speech, etc. One of his main source of income is lawn mowing. He has his own lawn mowing quad, and a handheld cutter, but man, that guy cuts grass like a pro.
Peter asked why the young woman believed what she believed. I have found in those situations the best idea is to ask the person when did they start to believe whatever it is they believe. Nine times out of 10 the answer is very illuminating.
Thanks Peter for this excellent interview. The main question remains: who is putting all these toxic ideas in the minds of youth? In other words, our true enemy has still to reveal itself.
The enemy is revealed if you know where to look. As Peter said many university departments with the label "studies" attached. In many schools Departments of Sociology, Anthropology, and Education. Offices of Diversity Equity and Inclusion on campuses and in the workplace. In many school districts the Boards of Education and the teachers and teaching unions. Their most common shared characteristic is the overarching dedication to Neo-Marxist thought and especially the pursuit of social equity, anti-racism and group rights instead of individual rights, equality and anti discrimination, which are classical liberal values.
That 10% number is mind boggling. So statistically 33 million plus people in the US can’t tri-fold a letter and place it in an envelope? That’s incredible
@@drpeterboghossian Wow… given that number… the fact that we “only” have a little over half a million homeless in the US right now says we must be doing SOMETHING right
There are more than a few similarities between Rob Henderson’s background and my own. Different country, era but yeah, the military at 17, the navy in my case, was my ticket to not only autonomy and financial independence but mental salvation as well. Getting out of the system, that rotten mindset of failure and being considered second (if that) class and all that. Thanks for this.
Regarding "victim signaling" and why people respond to it, I realized that it does not necessarily occur in other cultures and it did not occur in certain historic cultures. In some modern and historic cultures, a person's victimhood is/was seen as a punishment from the gods, a punishment from a previous life, or the person's own fault. Our Western mindset left that behind over 1,500 years ago. Since at least the Middle Ages, Western Civilization has focused on helping those who are victims, especially those who are victims through no fault of their own. It is ingrained in many modern Western cultures. But if we were in cultures where your victimhood is a punishment of the gods, you would most likely not see people responding to victim signaling. I'm thinking of a particular modern culture when your social class is designated at birth. Being in a low social class doesn't make you a victim. In the same society, having a life of misfortune may simply mean you were evil in a previous life. Helping such a victim could be seen in a negative light because you are thwarting their path to enlightenment. I can think of another modern culture where being a minority simply makes you lower than the majority and open to discrimination (this is a non-white country). If a member of a minority is mistreated, it is not uncommon for it to be met with laughter from the majority. As a society, they don't care if you are a majority and actively favorite one particular ethnicity-almost to the point of the Nazis. In Ancient Greece and Rome, if someone expressed their victimhood, many had the attitude, "Sucks to be you. Get stronger or tell the gods you don't like the lot you got, but it's not my problem. Be stoic and suffer in silence." So I believe it is a feature of modern Western culture (and perhaps others) but it is by no means universal. Perhaps the West should consider returning to the old ways? 😀
Obviously Rob is highly intelligent( which is probably why he is a 3%), but he is also one of the most well spoken people I've heard out of the many intellectual conversations and debates that I've listened to. He seems to have deep insight into many topics.
Omg that “non binary” woman 😅😂 SO condescending the way she says to Peter, “don’t worry mate, I know it’s new and hard to understand, but never fear I’ll explain it to you.” ❤
And how she had to "educate" her boomer parents. Imagine that, you send your child away to college and they come home and treat you like you need to be re-educated. Smh.
@@drpeterboghossianthe most unscientific thing ever written is “you know, the thing”: all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with rights… meanwhile, my physics phd and years in earth science tells me the planet trumps genomes and genomes trump individuals, hence only eugenics, genocide and totalitarianism can save the planet from the catastrophe.
You can not be moral without having a good epistemology. An easily visible example is: You love your child. Your child is sick. You believe in faith healing. Instead of the antibiotics your child needs, you provide him faith healing. Your child dies despite your best efforts and intentions. Religion is a completely awful epistemology.
Amazing how people who claim to be compassionate are some the most hateful and bitter I have ever encountered. It is is something that is clear to see in many of these activists.
I have a few thoughts from this conversation. First, it was a terrific conversation that I enjoyed with both Peter and Rob. Second is, the thought of the religious aspect of wokeism trying to turn people away from it. As a lifelong atheist oh, I know that it is very difficult to be an atheist. The thought that when you die oh, it's over. Nothing. It takes a certain strength of character to be able to deal with that, especially when religion offers you eternal life. Third, I really enjoyed Rob's take on microaggressions. I had to pause for a while and give that some thought. Last, the idea of a social construct, does this only have to apply to gender? Is not race also a social construct? The differences between men and women, they claim, is not in the physiological differences but in our self-perception. Can one not also argue that the difference between races is not between our physiological differences, but are self-perception? How much does it matter if your body has a penis or a vagina, or is black or white? Can we not use their same argument about gender being a spectrum where we should not judge and the color of our skin being the same?
In answer to your last question, I'm pretty sure that most people who consider gender to be a social construct also think that race is one also; I think that in both cases the argument is that the belief in these non-biological differences and how people treat others because of these beliefs is the problem. P.S. I hope that made sense, its late and the sentence was getting away from me.
I love the concept of luxury beliefs but it raises some questions/thoughts. 1. Isn't it the purpose of universities to be places where people play with ideas and different ways of thinking? 2. Isn't questioning assumptions an age- appropriate thing to do for college students? 3. Is there any evidence that these luxury ideas of the elite classes cause the harmful changes that affect the lower classes? What about economic and policy changes; I think they would have greater impact on the changing social structures than what people in the ivory tower are saying. 4. It seems rather paternalistic to imply that it's the job of the elite classes to model what the less fortunate should be doing.
I would ask the girl who's in favour of abolishing marriage if she encurages her mother to sleep around or if she has tried to set up her dad with any of her college friends.
"How does that happen?" Asks Peter. Poor scholarship is how it happens. That young woman does not understand sociology. The people who were teaching her very likely were poor scholars too.
Great conversation, Peter! Regarding the percentage of low IQs, I'm affraid that this may be true. I watched a video showing some americans who couldn't even answer simple math questions, like "if your were born ten years ago, how old would you be today?" And even they still argued after being told what the correct answer was.
Peter, I think you would enjoy talking with Josh Slocum of the Disaffected podcast. His whole podcast centers around how abuse dynamics and cluster B personality disorder behaviors have become part of public life. He has some fantastic insights.
Peter, the majority of people don’t think. Sounds bad to say doesn’t it? But, if you were to make them think about the consequences of the things they’re actually saying, they would have to admit, yes, it’s idiotic. But they’re so busy, wanting to belong to the heard that they will make total fools of themselves, spouting some erroneous rubbish in a serious tone, with such self importance that truth gets put on the back burner.
@@drpeterboghossianHow right you are, and now you’re going to have to multiply yourself over and over or, teach people how to do what you do because time is running out and whole countries are falling like dominoes, in a pattern straight from the playbook, with no pushback from their governments. Seems like it’s going to take independent thinkers and people with nothing left to lose but their integrity, to light the way. Thank you for provoking people to thought. Never stop.
At 42 years old I have almost emancipated myself from “belief” in my daily life and language. Anything true does not need believing in it to be a fact or real. I don’t need to believe in oxygen because oxygen IS. I don’t need to believe in male and female because male and female simply IS. I don’t need to believe in the tree I am looking at because it IS. If is say I believe something to be true then it is automatically suspect to doubt. Beliefs are great if one holds this awareness and doesn’t push it on anyone or society at large. It’s a funny subject!
Theists shall ultimately inquire or ask of the non-theist, "Well, so then what DO you believe in?" And this reveals their errant thought process in a nutshell! Even when it comes down to religion and/or dogma, it is often the person's "belief in" something that is what's commonly being discussed or debated. The atheist, for example, is not an adherent of a godless system or entity, as much as he or she merely lacks any systematic process of "belief" or "belief in" as a basis for making such unequivocal rationalizations or decisions. For instance: at the "Good Faith" auto repair, their motto is, "If you believe we fixed it, that's good enough for us!" Conversely, for those people who are agnostic or atheist, they treat the realm of what is not yet understood as something which requires more study or knowledge, while those who are more superstitious and therefore "believe" or "believe in" (not just without evidence, but by definition, this both requires and demands that no evidence shall be used as a basis) find it easy to place all such things into the realm of a Supreme Being, an entity in which they "believe in." And so, it should come as no surprise that they will often add as many additional abstractions and/or delusions as is required by the group of similar-behaving people, and therefore also "believe in" any number of additional superstitions, such as a soul, or fairies, or dragons, or spirits, etc., all things which cannot be proved or demonstrated and thus must therefore be believed. The camel's nose not only protrudes from beneath their "tent of faith," but the camel in fact has devoured their need to even require a tent. If you have "belief" or "belief in" as part of your thought system, then basically "anything goes," and this includes (or rather demands) the banishment of rational thinking, and precludes any need or desire for rational thought. Science allows for any question to direct us towards a logical conclusion, or result, or answer, and as a result of this pursuit or quest for truth, it is always willing to change with regards to new evidence; religion, on the other hand, begins with "The Answer" (God Did It ... ALWAYS), and then proceeds with whatever is necessary to support and thus maintain this allusion/illusion to actual truth. To merely "believe in" something often reveals the purest form of childhood acceptance, ignorance, indoctrination, brainwashing, and indifference; to wit: One who "believes in" Easter Bunnies, Dragons, or Tooth Fairies. When we get older, we should "put away our childish things" (1 Corinthians 13); things such as superstitions, silly dogmas, and other related beliefs. People ought to stop "believing in" talking snakes and flying horses. And so, when asked, "Well, then, what do you [non-theists] believe in?" the question itself is an absurdity; and even if it did have any semblance of meaning, a non-theist (or atheist, or anti-theist) would never 'think' to even ask it, or never ask it in such a delusional manner. The "true-believer" or theist's final rebuttal upon encountering someone who is a non-theist or an atheist often ends up as the superficial ultimatum of, "Well, so what DO you believe in?" and this is therefore tantamount to asking, "Well, so then where DO you get your superstitious and nonsensical ideas from?" It is the WRONG question to ask, because any willingness to dwell upon it involves being irrational from the very beginning! And therefore, the theist who shows a genuine interest in examining this illogical thought process should try to understand how this totally misses the point: secular thinkers do not so much "believe in" things as they "experience" things and/or "know" things, such as they would experience gravity as reality; the non-theist does not therefore have to "believe in" it. For example, non-theists "experience" a round Earth; they do not "believe in" an Earth that is round. This is a huge difference in the framework of thought that takes place in the mind of those who are not indoctrinated or brainwashed into a specific sect or group of theism. - j q t -
32:40 Wearing a mask outdoors helps to cover one's nose & mouth if the wearer is having a bad nose & mouth day. Or they may have bad hayfever and the mask helps filter out allergens.
From a psychological perspective, everything they do could be clinically diagnosed as abusive. I think this is an important insight into who they really are.
Peter, the intervention you're looking for is inoculation. Teach kids critical thinking skills & teach them before they enter college (since many kids don't go to college). We live in a society that depends on failing public K-12 education & that desperately lacks these skills (as evidenced by how media can herd us like sheep any direction they want). It's no coincidence that people most vocal about mutilating kids are intelligent people with integrity & strong logical & critical thinking skills, while the people who most vocally support it are celebs & activists who are not the sharpest knives in the drawer.
I'm not very convinced you can teach critical thinking, at least not to the majority of the population. There's a lot of disinterest in thinking in the first place, and that's without going into the number of people who have difficulty grasping abstract concepts and applying ideas laterally to novel tasks. I'd still advocate for it because catching some is better than catching none, but I wouldn't hold my breath, is all.
I used to think that was a paramount thing in public education. At some point in my life I went to uni and wanted to become an educator, and wrote a lot of essays about the topic of teaching critical thinking. In fact I've been thinking about this earlier today, due to having a toddler and wishing to raise him best. Nowadays, I'm 35, I wonder what kind of teaching is really the best way to go about it. I wonder if kids need to go through these experiences, ingest these ideas themselves and build their immune systems themselves, lest they become intellectually crippled due to always going around in the intellectual equivalent of a motorized scooter instead of walking to places. Clearly, if you teach the dogma of "homeopathy does not work", you have not done a big favor to those kids, because even though they now have the correct value in that registry, if something similar comes their way, they will not know how to determine the truth value of claims. But maybe even showing them the path of logic that leads to the right conclusion is closer to the homeopathy example, and what actually needed is experience, and vicarious experiences and them processing these experiences. Ah, sorry, just thinking out loud about something I'm not quite sure about at the moment.
According to Mike Rowe, most kids would do better going straight from high school to trade school, getting a skilled trade, and stepping out of school into good-paying skilled-trade jobs. After a few years of working and saving money, they can always go take college courses if they want.
How interesting. My husband started in the trades, then got himself a college education class by class at a local community college. You don't have to go straight from high school into college.
Thanks for sharing this conversation! I had to listen twice! Are you aware that the audio from the clips you share cuts out in the podcasts? Feedback from when you compared liberal and conservative attitudes toward charity: Most conservatives want people who need help to get help but the government isn't good at providing help. I learned from Arthur Brooks and Yongzheng Yang that conservatives donate more time, money, and blood. Thanks again for all your interesting conversations.
"Not all individuals can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps." I don't speak for the "Right", but could it be that they would want these people to be helped by their families, or in the case of orphans by (private) charitable institutions? Philanthropy used to be a thing in civilised society, before the invention of the welfare state. Great conversation, as always.
18:55 I used to be behind the idea of allowing trans women of similar hormone levels (I have no idea what all that entails!!!) compete with women in sports. But now I’m back to: This is a major fundamental reform they are asking of us.
Pre-order Rob's memoir here: www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1982168536
Peter, did you hear about the Toronto principal Richard Biltzko who killed himself because of severe harassment from DEI extremists?
Looking forward to this discussion
I have to share this
Dear Peter. Your add for gold is incorrect. Here in Australia we have not gone to purely digital currency, nor is it currently being debated at the parliamentary level, mostly due to a recent change in government. At this time cash is still very much legal tender. I comment because I know your preference for truth. Thanks for the great work you are doing. 🙏🏽❤️
@@alexandrazachary.musician yes, and currency is already digital in terms of private banks, checking accounts, debit cards, ACH transactions. Accounting and credit existed in Ancient Sumer and other early agriculture long before anyone figured out how to mine metal and refine iron ore or other metal.
Counting numbers and writing records existed before metals technology. I read that the community accountants were considered priests, or vice versa, the wise priests could do math, so priests were the one Central Bank, and provider of credit to farmers.
Later, currency could be portable coins or broken tally sticks or paper contracts containing written symbols and backed by law. The govt promises that all tax debts are payable in the currency denomination that only the govt creates.
That's how basic currency and credit works today.
The concern is that if the US Govt replaces private banks, then transactions and rules can be a lot more POLITICAL and less about economics and solvency.
I could envision the govt deciding to seize or at least freeze anyone's bank account who voted for Trump or who decided not to get the jab or who complained to their school board.
Thanks for having me on your show Peter! Really enjoyed this.
Dude your dad is benicio del toro, you look so similar. Btw I’m glad I watched this episode with you and Peter I like how you shared your story. I grew up poor in the ghetto and almost got swept into this left ideology until the New Orleans ambush on police officers. I Realized these people think of themselves as superior humans. I’m glad that I now have a name to these beliefs “luxury beliefs “. Great episode
Just a comment on the mask, wearing it being a political statement: I legit have tested positive for Covid last week, and had to travel by airplane to get from one city. I was in back home. I thought I was doing the right thing by wearing a mask to ensure that none of my aerosol got anywhere, because I was suffering from coughs, and I was verbally attacked, and the tone of the attack was so threatening I actually feared for my safety. I am not on the far left. I do not buy into this progressive, woke, ism, ideologies, and because of how far left things have got, or how far right things have got those of us who are legitimately in the middle, who remain curious and open to actual science and discussion have been put in a position that just simply wearing a goddamn mask is a political statement for one side or the other. I am absolutely infuriated and terrified by what is going on in western society.
Fantastic comments and work. Thank you!
Brilliant discussion. Tour name has popped up a number of times on other podcasts I listen to... now I know why. A very impressive , intelligent man. Thanks
My wife and I have been using his term Luxury Beliefs for some time now to break through to friends and family members who are blind to the Woke activist religion/mind virus. It does seem to help put a crack in their views and open things up.
This interview will give you some interesting food for thought if you're familiar with that concept.
@@drpeterboghossianI honestly think I came up with almost the same phrase (luxury values) independently. I say that only because it has a quality of obviousness after you hear it, and that suggests great conceptual strength.
God bless you! That’s all we can do is talk to our loved ones and friends about what’s happening. Dropping small bits of truth here & there will help sow the seeds.
I would also suggest going to FIRE and seeing the cases they have as far as free speech goes (on both sides these days). Check out what Dems want to do in Calif. Do they think it's okay for the state to turn totalitarian, and take children away from parents just because the parents won't go along with the "trans" nonsense?
The Dems at the federal level support that too.
Check out journalist Jennifer Bilek on the transgender to trashumanism front.
Most people have no idea the madness that is being pushed on society, and so many children.
I'm not a sociologist or social psychologist but am relatively well read on some of the idea's, especially with regards to communication.
Let me tell you as a working class ethnic minority working in a profoundly progressive field: the luxury believes concept is 100% accurate. These believes are widespread and much talked about. They are so much talked about that 'they' even dare talk to me about my own background. They simply know better. They know the subjects better, they know my oppression better. They know it all.
Yes, the arrogance is rather telling, isn't it?
I've had (and I really like her as a person) someone ask me about my families' history & if I'm aware of their difficulties.
As if they don't have mouths to tell me themselves. Most of that history is being rewritten by the same people because it's rather inopportune to talk about the reality, which is doubly annoying.@@randomgeneration-gu8dw
@randomgeneration-gu8dw "Arrogance and ignorance go in hand"- Metallica
Yep. I live in super "progressive" land, travel in the artsy fartsy circles and the arrogance, and lack of self awareness around that can be astounding. Not all are like that of course, and it's quite nice when I can have a civil disagreement about things.
I hope you can think of some subtle, creative ways to put them in their place so to speak.
Rob's facial expressions (27 minutes in) when the woman is discussing gender and non binary are hilarious. Its like, "not this again, how many times to I have to view this nonsense". I love this straightforward intelligent man and his background story. I have used the term 'luxury beliefs' many times. Thank you both.❤❤
She is describing her religion. Everything makes sense when you look at it like that.
I think 90% of this would be solved if we had someone besides poisonous evangelical Christians trying to explain why you don't need nonsense like "transwomen are women" to have wide latitude for civil rights for so-called gender expression. Most people have sense on these issues, but when the only people they hear making a fuss about bizarre gender stuff are people who obviously just want gays back in the closet, Jesus taught in schools, and are screaming "groomer!" at everyone, they don't want any part of that stuff. How about we treat gender beliefs the way we treat religious beliefs religiously and socially. Don't be a dick and ridicule people's sincere, but false beliefs in social and work settings. Play along with them within reason. But ultimately for import and policy we just have to defer to evidence and it isn't oppression to not believe along with you. Rights for believers, but no special protection for the beliefs themselves, but also don't be a dick. Treat people with gender dysphoria the way you treat Southern Baptists or Scientologists with respect to the line between civil rights for believers vs pressure to endorse the beliefs.
These conversations are always so damn good. Your questions are always so incredibly thoughtful, and your honesty is infectious. Genuinely, thank you for doing these Peter! This type of content is a beacon in the dark.
-A fellow Oregonian!
Watching from Trinidad 🇹🇹, I started watching your videos last week, excellent and necessary content.
Thank you!
India has a quota system aimed at elevating members of 'scheduled caste and tribes'. These quotas are a fixture in colleges and government jobs. The suicide rate among the college kids from that sector is noticeably higher. Rather than helping these kids when they are little by providing better schooling early on, they think they can fix the disparity later by forcing colleges to admit a certain proscribed number of them. The problem is that these students very quickly realize that, for no fault of their own, they are completely out of their depth and struggle with the academic demands on them. Meanwhile the hope of their entire family has been placed on their shoulders and the weight eventually crushes them. Adding to this is the merciless 'ragging' or hazing that goes on as the caste system has definitely still a very strong cultural hold in India. In the USA as well, it would be wiser to improve the quality of early education in these underserved communities which would benefit many more people rather than admissions quotas by race and skin color.
Same thing in the US. Affirmative action cases do very badly in school. They do fine in schools that match their actual qualifications.
What do you mean “underserved”? Poor areas in US cities use more resources, and wealthy areas opt out of public school entirely: zero service
I've been wondering about India recently. I get WION news in my Facebook feed.
I'm unclear how much anti-Modi anti-Hindu is like anti-Trump and anti-Christian. The latter falsely attributes quite a few traits to Donald Trump and MAGA and Christians which has slim correlation with reality.
I Don't think it's the same.
Modi wasn't a newcomer to politics when he became the PM. He has a track record at the state level. He has had allegations of being involved in riots at that time, the courts found him not guilty of the allegations. (My personal opinion regarding the courts is.... not good in general)
But he was successful in improving the public amenities and overall economic conditions of the state.
The unfortunate part is the party which he belongs to has a history of being aggressively anti-muslim and anti-christian. And it still does in some states.
But to pin it all on Modi, I'm not sure. because he is the nominal leader of the party, not exactly the one who leads everything
I think people in India are really upset that the opposition parties are extremely weak
Yeah. Similar things happen elsewhere. It's brutal.
When I was in college, I was selected for a prestigious internship. They only selected six interns from around the country. We were geographically diverse-coming from the north, south, midwest, and west-and we were economically diverse. But, as it turned out, we all had the same family backgrounds. All of us were raised by our biological parents who were still married and living together. All of us had a religious upbringing, though the religions varied. All of us had parents who required us to work when we turned 16. The list goes on and on. None of these attributes were included in our applications for the internship, so they were not a factor in our selection. It just so happened that the most qualified undergraduates in this field all had a similar upbringing. I don't believe that is a coincidence.
It’s interesting how, almost by definition, the ‘diversity’ selected for is skin deep. Because for what matters you cannot afford to accept people who lack it.
This conversation was so validating for me as a woman who constantly deals with petulant children who are in my peer group, mostly women. These people jockey for status, destroy reputations, and weaponize emotion.
I think a large part of this is the merging of masculine and feminine spheres of power. Where as masculine is typically based on competency, merit, and reciprocity, the feminine is more based on care and compassion. Seeing all these young women use the traditionally feminine hierarchy to obtain power and influence by using reputational damage while maintaining a facade of care and compassion is not surprising to me at all. Academia is devolving into a place where people go to obtain power, so people become courtiers and use machiavellian tactics to obtain their ends.
@@ReallgeemachineRecently saw an interview with Cori Clark who's tried to look at related questions in a quality academic-like or professional manner. She reports a lot of her colleagues hate such lines of inquiry. But you might be interested in seeing how she's examining things using social science, while seemingly retaining a degree of openness to whatever she might find. Think she's with Heterodox Academy now...
I never miss a Boghossian. I am never disappointed. Peter I hope you know how much we appreciate your work and efforts.
Thank you so much.
How great to hear from a thriving veteran of the foster care system.
Hey peter. Really appreciate the dialogues you continue to have with people.
Last year, i spent a bit of time in Portland working with the opera company. I was quite surprised with the condition of such a beautiful city. While i generally enjoyed my time, i couldn't help but think of your work with Lindsay and your time there.
My oldest sister, who is a professor at a major university in the south, has fallen prey to this way of thinking. Its very strange for her to have a turn from "we used to be labeled as oreos, white, etc. (We're "black") only to now do the same to other "black" people now.
Thanks for your comment. Portland desperately needs a change in leadership. Btw, I moved!
I was so excited when I saw this, Rob Henderson is one of the brightest minds around today. Absolutely stellar conversation. Great job, Peter
Oh this is an excellent, thought provoking interview! I am a new fan of Rob now. Thank you Peter! ❤
Thanks. Rob is terrific. And he has a new book coming out!
@@drpeterboghossian
It’s not the college’s job to fix childhood safety, nor to rectify alleged systemic racism- it’s job is to graduate the best possible students and turn out the future of our most specialized careers like engineering and physics, etc. Once it forgets that, it is worthless as an institution of higher learning.
Excellent discussion as usual. Regarding "Believe all women", when I first heard that I was like, "Oh, don't immediately disbelieve serious allegations because they're coming from a woman. Totally."
Then I realized they meant literally believe all women regardless of evidence. And the result of this, 7ish years later, is many people who would have assumed a woman was being honest with this sort of claim say 10 years ago, now know of so many false allegations made under this premise that they are often skeptical of these claims. Such a terrible result for actual victims.
Very interesting title. The concept of a luxury belief makes perfect sense but hasn't crossed my mind. Excited to give this one a listen. Thanks again Peter Boghossian
Thank you!
Obsessional hobby groups, football clubs, quasi religious social groups like Lions Club or the royal order of buffalos - these are all rooted in benign pseudo-religious beliefs that in my experience have totally positive impacts on people’s happiness and the health of communities
The tendency to victim signal is highly correlated with the dark triad traits.
Dark triad traits. A combination of:
- Machiavellianism
- sub-clinical narcissism
- sub-clinical psychopathy
When I think of the name Rob Henderson I picture this guy. Quintessential Henderson.
I do so love indulging in rational thought. Thanks for your work, as always.
Thank you!
So I wear a mask most of the time now during daylight hours because it’s a great way to further minimize sun damage. I’m very pale and care about how my skin ages. I wear sunscreen of course, but have freckles and a high risk for skin cancer and have already had to have one skin abnormality removed, even with being pretty good about minimizing sun exposure. I also use retinol, which if you do not practice great sun protection care (sunscreen) is a bit of a waste of time and money. I care more about my skin aging gracefully and without preventable skin cancer lesions than I do being mistaken for social signaling and besides I have a collection of like 50 different n95 disposable mask designs that I now use to enhance my fashion for the day and sometimes get really creative and match it to my eye-makeup. I’m probably not the only person who just likes and prefers masks for their own reasons.
Thank you Peter, for being a rare voice of reason and common sense. In a world that makes me wonder if it’s me that must be insane, you give me a little confidence that I’m somewhat sane.
Peter is really crankin out the interviews and vox pops like crazy recently
Stay tuned!
Rob Henderson is brilliant 👍👍
He is indeed!
Rob is amazingly articulate, what a conversation
I agree. Thank you!
Enjoying this already during my lunch hour.
Luxury Beliefs seem to be the old “Stated preferences vs observable behavior” for the wealthy in order to achieve status or deflect negative judgment. Will have to get on X later to read more about your thoughts on this interview
Isn't this term as old as the Russian Revolution?
How about Martha’s Vineyard residents who proudly raise Sanctuary City signs in one thin-wristed arm while feeding fruit loops to confided children on *paper plates* because they might dirty the china?
It's also a brilliant way to downplay your elite status, while at the same time sabotaging everyone else. A form of toxic compassion.
This guy needs to be *much* more widely known.
Agreed.
Luxury beliefs is one of those stone cold terms that sums up succinctly how Anglophone society has changed. Well done Rob for producing such a well phrased idea.
Peter. Just an observation. A few years back I was teaching horticulture and I would teach teachers to grow food in schools. One of my activities was to teach them how to make paper pots to put their seedlings in, I taught them how to prick out and transplant seedlings in the next session. In every session, more than 80% of the teachers could not fold a piece of paper into 3. Class after class, year after year. There was always one or two that could but the 80% was consistent across all teaching ages and years of my sessions. It was mind-blowing.
I like him! This is why institutions need people who are genuinely diverse - from various social backgrounds - rather than a lot of generically rich privileged people (of any colour) who have exploited their privilege to adopt superficial "diverse" identities.
So true.
Aggressive atheism is a "luxury belief", Peter.
Rob even cites this as an example of one: "Religion is harmful or useless."
The idea that people don't require metaphysics, and _especially_ that materialism isn't also a metaphysical belief -- and a luxury one at that --- is a prior I'd love to see Peter grapple with more deeply. Like BJJ grapple, really have to contend with the idea that the religions of the world might contain an access to actual truth that has little to do with "faith" or silly beliefs. It starts with authentic interest, putting aside smug condescension. Granted, there's plenty to condescend to, but look deeper! Start by thinking metaphorically rather than literally, like JPB does, and keep going from there. Maybe there's more to truth than "facts". When AI takes everyone's jobs, we will need more than facts!
Fantastic interview. I think this has been my favorite in terms of fresh ideas to consider, articulated well and dispassionately.
Thank you. Rob is terrific!
I didn't want this one to stop. Great convo
Hey Peter - thanks for another fabulous episode. Wish I could have met you when you were here in Sydney! Thanks for all you do. I got a gender studies major at university and it did me a lot of good by alerting me to the nonsense and the danger of such ideas to our democracy!
PB: What causes people to believe certain beliefs?
I'm persuaded by Andy West's answer to that question in his book "The Grip of Culture". Short explanation: we are prone to believe idea sets or ideologies which Andy calls cultural memes. This gives us a sense of belonging to a larger groups of people.
Very good conversation! Thank you for bringing this brilliant man on your channel!
You are welcome!!
Rob is great. I really like his work.
I love these conversations!
Thank you!
I heard Rob on the Bari Weiss podcast some time ago and it blew my mind. His story is amazing and he's such an important voice. Thanks Rob and Peter for having him on!
We have a parent shaped hole in our psychology. One of our first hard lessons we learn as a baby is that our parent doesn't watch and know everything we feel and experience all the time. We really believe they do for a while. Even when you're out of view or out of the room, babies believe you know everything that happens to them. And of course, the more we grow up, our parent falls further and further off their pedestal until they become a 'mensch' to us, shrinking gradually out of that hole.
The idea of an omniscient deity, or a 'creator of all things' slots perfectly into this parent hole. We know nothing likes a vacuum. I think this is the primary reason for there being religions, the need to fill that psychological vacuum. At least teach every child critical thinking, but if you find something not religious that leads to rationality to fit in that slot, I think you're golden.
There's an interesting book 'Born Believers' that investigates the phenomenon you mention. Primed by that research, my epiphany was that in design of intelligent systems, omniscience, omnipotence etc. are the simpler naive models, and thus what you'd expect at early stages of development.
Not that these ideas have much to do with metaphysics, but it is an interesting foil for Just So stories about the origins of 'religion.'
@@davidhawley1132 There is? Thanks for the tip, I'm very interested in reading that. Hope you have a good day.
Teleology - emotional/moral blackmail is used as a tool to achieve some end by those captured. Their only aim is to force conformity according to their whim. Motte and bailey argument fallacy is another tool, where two opposing issues are conflated as being the same thing. As James says, one can simply "eject" themselves from the nonsense by saying something like, "sorry, I won't participate in your struggle session" or "sorry, I won't participate in your religious ceremony". In comments sections of online pieces where the mob arrives, I've found replying with these two gems, is quite effective. The following also is a stunner, "a main predictor that someone joins the "mob" religion, is low verbal intelligence". Of course, who knows on what sample that was determined, but I could imagine it carries meaning into the greater society. Thanks guys, for this conversation. Also thanks to James Lindsay and Jordan Peterson for teaching how all the madness works.
He is so grounded. Refreshing.
Yup. Based!
here's a thought experiment... assume that you can only go swimming in the pool if you know how to swim, and then we find out. we haven't taught some kids how to swim because they lived in the wrong neighborhood. Do we let them in the pool because it's not their fault that they didn't learn how to swim? Of course not first we teach them how to swim so that they can get in the pool. Trying to make up for inequalities of experience at the end is completely illogical.
They just need to consider themselves trans-swimmers.
That's how reality works.
For example, I'm trans-black-from-the-waist-down. If you get what I mean.
Woah, he’s incredible. Intelligent and compassion. I love Peter but sometimes he just seems a little disconnected and flawed in his thinking. It surprises me that he cannot comprehend the benefits and important needs being met by people who “believe”, and how they derive meaning from it. I’m an atheist but even I recognise that they have something that meets a very basic human need that can unlikely be replaced by our version of “truth” etc.
I remember my brother telling me something when interviewing- the most important question is can I work with this person? If not, then either they go or you do.
Yeah. But as someone who has off the charts IQ, and highly effective intuition about people, etc., even for me it is really hard to gauge a person over the course of a 60 minutes long interview. And HR often times cuts the interview duration to 30-45 minutes, despite the fact that introduction + efforts trying to strip the candidate of his interview jitters takes around 20 minutes or so.
I really like that the clips Peter chose for this segment are of reasonable people. I disagree with their points but feel like I could have a productive conversation with them.
Great conversation - thank you Peter for this conversation. Toward the tail end of this discussion, you spoke about what the right and the left get wrong. It would be so interesting for you to sit down with Ian Rowe, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the work he is doing with young people. His book Agency: The four point plan for all children to overcome the victimhood narrative and discover their pathway to power - That would be phenomenal!
Thanks for your comment. I’m happy to speak with him.
On low IQ: When I was a missionary, I had to live by a set of rules, one of which was to find a place to do 3 hours a week of community service. In one place I lived in Japan, we went once a week to a place where a bunch (20+) of mentally handicapped people lived. I'm certain most of their IQs were below 81. Most also had physical disability. It wasn't quite a hospital, although there were workers there that cared for them. It was more like a group home, I guess. Anyway, the bottom floor was a factory line of sorts where they would assemble pipe brackets which could be used to hang pipes from concrete ceilings during construction. Despite their mental inabilities, they could at least assemble those. Many had custom jigs because they couldn't physically assemble them the 'normal' way. Most were also very slow. Four of us missionaries could assemble as many in 3 hours as they all could do in a week. That effectively doubled the income that activity brought in to fund the group home. So I think there are tasks that those with IQ below 81 can possibly do. Things just need to be setup right, for them. Almost 30 years later, I wonder whether that group home is still running and if they still make those brackets and if the missionaries there now are still helping.
That’s really interesting. Thanks for sharing that.
81 IQ is not terribly debilitating. It kinda rules you out of most jobs, as even a fast food job is too complex for people below 80+something IQ points to do. Another main factor is attitude, personality and attributes outside IQ which low IQ people generally have. Low IQ people are much more irritable, put much less value in details, have far lower work ethics, are much more aggressive, and so on.
My family hires a very low IQ guy to take care of small things around a building. I would guess he is below 80. Every week he drives to the house, has to sweep up a bit, take out the trash bins for the garbage truck, cut the grass a few times during summer, gather the leaves during the fall, water some flowers, make sure the snow / ice does not obstruct people, things like that.
If you talked to him about normie stuff, like how is it going, etc., most people would not pick up on him being low IQ. But man, once you see his work, you would think it was done by a 4 years old child. For example, when he mows the lawn he leaves out HUGE ISLANDS OF GRASS everywhere. He is completely unable to consistently cut the grass in a uniform fashion.
Anyways, there is this other guy in my home town. Everyone knows him. He has some severe mental disability, definitely below 75-70 IQ. You can see it on the guy's face, his speech, etc. One of his main source of income is lawn mowing. He has his own lawn mowing quad, and a handheld cutter, but man, that guy cuts grass like a pro.
Another excellent interview, thanks.
I think pushing humans toward rational thinking is a losing battle. The only way to do this is to train humans to not be human, and that's not likely to happen. Also, humans are very egocentric and driven to have positive self-regard--doubling down and other such behaviors happen all the time, not just in trans issues. The worse the error, the greater the insistence.
Trans is a core cosmological religious belief for a religion with an androgynous god and a desire to merge with that god
@@sdrc92126 I'd say there are more layers than that. I'm more of the opinion that the outside fringes of this movement are more motivated by a kind of moral egotism and longing for community. There is a sense of smug superiority about many of these adherents, and that is not spiritual--it's bog-standard human status-jockeying.
This is not to say there is no religiosity involved, psychologically, but I also think those particular circuits do not need any real supernatural element to activate, though it can lead to a certain "cognitive creationism".
@@randomgeneration-gu8dw You summed it up very well there. Moral egotism is right, although it's the irrational and inconsistent beliefs they fervently hold, as well as the phobia of close examination and discussion of those beliefs that mirrors religion. The fanatical faith in their cause, despite science and reality being at odds with their claims.
Then when have hard core atheists carrying on about the power of reason.
@@domm6812 What's the difference between mirroring religion and being a gnostic religion?
“Children can’t vote”. Well said.
You guys should also talk with Daniel Schmachtenberger on 'Moloch' and multipolar traps. Wokeness of this kind, particularly if you talk about dark triad traits and victimhood culture opportunism, that's a first-defector game where there's a power structure or extortion racket to be created thus they see their niche immediately.
College-aged students buy into these catchphrases hook, line and sinker without ultimately questioning their validity. Second - and I have said this many many times before - automatically taking the opposing view does not mean one engages in logical, independent thinking. In fact it does just the opposite.
Lea Thomas was holding back as is evidenced on film recordings.
Exactly! And even if he had lost every race, it’s still a matter of women’s safety, privacy, and dignity in the change room. 😢
Every Lea on the podium means one female athlete denied.
Love your content, Peter! After those amazing NPR episodes, I was wondering what would come next. Really happy to see that you're continuing with something great. Let's evangelize heterodoxy!!
More to come!
Starting at 55:50, I’ve never wanted to jump into a conversation as a Christian more in my life.
Loved the conversation about the masks and how it is just a show of political allegiance.
I had watched that clip two or three times. I had missed the "I am a Gender Studies Scholler" each time. Classic!
Keep 'em Coming. I look forward to your first stand up bit.
Thank you! I thought it was funny. They didn’t laugh. (Not did they ask me any questions about it!)
I stealing this one from you. From now on at social functions. When asked what I do. I'm going to be a Gender Studies Scholler. Best to you and your crew.@@drpeterboghossian
People with IQs under 81 can contribute. My nephew has an IQ of 63 and he has a part time job and mows lawns. A bit if supervision is needed but he is successful in maintaining his job.
Yes, it's possible. 81 IQ is not terribly debilitating. It kinda rules you out of most jobs, as even a fast food job is too complex for people below 80+something IQ points to do. Another main factor is attitude, personality and attributes outside IQ which low IQ people generally have. Low IQ people are much more irritable, put much less value in details, have far lower work ethics, are much more aggressive, and so on.
My family hires a very low IQ guy to take care of small things around a building. I would guess he is below 80. Every week he drives to the house, has to sweep up a bit, take out the trash bins for the garbage truck, cut the grass a few times during summer, gather the leaves during the fall, water some flowers, make sure the snow / ice does not obstruct people, things like that.
If you talked to him about normie stuff, like how is it going, etc., most people would not pick up on him being low IQ. But man, once you see his work, you would think it was done by a 4 years old child. For example, when he mows the lawn he leaves out HUGE ISLANDS OF GRASS everywhere. He is completely unable to consistently cut the grass in a uniform fashion.
Anyways, there is this other guy in my home town. Everyone knows him. He has some severe mental disability, definitely below 75-70 IQ. You can see it on the guy's face, his speech, etc. One of his main source of income is lawn mowing. He has his own lawn mowing quad, and a handheld cutter, but man, that guy cuts grass like a pro.
A college degree is the quintessential luxury belief.
Peter asked why the young woman believed what she believed. I have found in those situations the best idea is to ask the person when did they start to believe whatever it is they believe. Nine times out of 10 the answer is very illuminating.
Excellent conversation
I really enjoyed this interview. I look forward to reading Rob's memoir when it's released.
Thanks Peter for this excellent interview. The main question remains: who is putting all these toxic ideas in the minds of youth? In other words, our true enemy has still to reveal itself.
University departments with the word “Studies”. For example, “Gender Studies”
The enemy is revealed if you know where to look. As Peter said many university departments with the label "studies" attached. In many schools Departments of Sociology, Anthropology, and Education. Offices of Diversity Equity and Inclusion on campuses and in the workplace. In many school districts the Boards of Education and the teachers and teaching unions. Their most common shared characteristic is the overarching dedication to Neo-Marxist thought and especially the pursuit of social equity, anti-racism and group rights instead of individual rights, equality and anti discrimination, which are classical liberal values.
That 10% number is mind boggling. So statistically 33 million plus people in the US can’t tri-fold a letter and place it in an envelope? That’s incredible
Correct.
@@drpeterboghossian Wow… given that number… the fact that we “only” have a little over half a million homeless in the US right now says we must be doing SOMETHING right
There are more than a few similarities between Rob Henderson’s background and my own. Different country, era but yeah, the military at 17, the navy in my case, was my ticket to not only autonomy and financial independence but mental salvation as well. Getting out of the system, that rotten mindset of failure and being considered second (if that) class and all that. Thanks for this.
Regarding "victim signaling" and why people respond to it, I realized that it does not necessarily occur in other cultures and it did not occur in certain historic cultures. In some modern and historic cultures, a person's victimhood is/was seen as a punishment from the gods, a punishment from a previous life, or the person's own fault. Our Western mindset left that behind over 1,500 years ago. Since at least the Middle Ages, Western Civilization has focused on helping those who are victims, especially those who are victims through no fault of their own. It is ingrained in many modern Western cultures.
But if we were in cultures where your victimhood is a punishment of the gods, you would most likely not see people responding to victim signaling. I'm thinking of a particular modern culture when your social class is designated at birth. Being in a low social class doesn't make you a victim. In the same society, having a life of misfortune may simply mean you were evil in a previous life. Helping such a victim could be seen in a negative light because you are thwarting their path to enlightenment. I can think of another modern culture where being a minority simply makes you lower than the majority and open to discrimination (this is a non-white country). If a member of a minority is mistreated, it is not uncommon for it to be met with laughter from the majority. As a society, they don't care if you are a majority and actively favorite one particular ethnicity-almost to the point of the Nazis.
In Ancient Greece and Rome, if someone expressed their victimhood, many had the attitude, "Sucks to be you. Get stronger or tell the gods you don't like the lot you got, but it's not my problem. Be stoic and suffer in silence."
So I believe it is a feature of modern Western culture (and perhaps others) but it is by no means universal. Perhaps the West should consider returning to the old ways? 😀
Obviously Rob is highly intelligent( which is probably why he is a 3%), but he is also one of the most well spoken people I've heard out of the many intellectual conversations and debates that I've listened to. He seems to have deep insight into many topics.
New listener here. All good stuff and good comments too.
Welcome!
Omg that “non binary” woman 😅😂 SO condescending the way she says to Peter, “don’t worry mate, I know it’s new and hard to understand, but never fear I’ll explain it to you.” ❤
And how she had to "educate" her boomer parents.
Imagine that, you send your child away to college and they come home and treat you like you need to be re-educated. Smh.
Non abelian quantum field theory in curved space time is hard. Gender? Not so much.
@@DrDeuteronConservatives tend to not understand gender.
How did I miss Rob until now? Suddenly he’s everywhere.
Peter, the moral arc doesn’t bend anywhere without a deity. These are supernatural ideas.
Incorrect. See:
The Moral Arc: How Science Makes Us Better People a.co/d/7b3xMgz
@@drpeterboghossianthe most unscientific thing ever written is “you know, the thing”: all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with rights… meanwhile, my physics phd and years in earth science tells me the planet trumps genomes and genomes trump individuals, hence only eugenics, genocide and totalitarianism can save the planet from the catastrophe.
You can not be moral without having a good epistemology.
An easily visible example is: You love your child. Your child is sick. You believe in faith healing. Instead of the antibiotics your child needs, you provide him faith healing. Your child dies despite your best efforts and intentions.
Religion is a completely awful epistemology.
Amazing how people who claim to be compassionate are some the most hateful and bitter I have ever encountered. It is is something that is clear to see in many of these activists.
I have a few thoughts from this conversation. First, it was a terrific conversation that I enjoyed with both Peter and Rob. Second is, the thought of the religious aspect of wokeism trying to turn people away from it. As a lifelong atheist oh, I know that it is very difficult to be an atheist. The thought that when you die oh, it's over. Nothing. It takes a certain strength of character to be able to deal with that, especially when religion offers you eternal life. Third, I really enjoyed Rob's take on microaggressions. I had to pause for a while and give that some thought. Last, the idea of a social construct, does this only have to apply to gender? Is not race also a social construct? The differences between men and women, they claim, is not in the physiological differences but in our self-perception. Can one not also argue that the difference between races is not between our physiological differences, but are self-perception? How much does it matter if your body has a penis or a vagina, or is black or white? Can we not use their same argument about gender being a spectrum where we should not judge and the color of our skin being the same?
In answer to your last question, I'm pretty sure that most people who consider gender to be a social construct also think that race is one also; I think that in both cases the argument is that the belief in these non-biological differences and how people treat others because of these beliefs is the problem.
P.S. I hope that made sense, its late and the sentence was getting away from me.
I love the concept of luxury beliefs but it raises some questions/thoughts. 1. Isn't it the purpose of universities to be places where people play with ideas and different ways of thinking? 2. Isn't questioning assumptions an age- appropriate thing to do for college students? 3. Is there any evidence that these luxury ideas of the elite classes cause the harmful changes that affect the lower classes? What about economic and policy changes; I think they would have greater impact on the changing social structures than what people in the ivory tower are saying. 4. It seems rather paternalistic to imply that it's the job of the elite classes to model what the less fortunate should be doing.
top bloke, so grounded.
I would ask the girl who's in favour of abolishing marriage if she encurages her mother to sleep around or if she has tried to set up her dad with any of her college friends.
"How does that happen?" Asks Peter.
Poor scholarship is how it happens. That young woman does not understand sociology.
The people who were teaching her very likely were poor scholars too.
Great conversation, Peter! Regarding the percentage of low IQs, I'm affraid that this may be true. I watched a video showing some americans who couldn't even answer simple math questions, like "if your were born ten years ago, how old would you be today?" And even they still argued after being told what the correct answer was.
Peter, I think you would enjoy talking with Josh Slocum of the Disaffected podcast. His whole podcast centers around how abuse dynamics and cluster B personality disorder behaviors have become part of public life. He has some fantastic insights.
I’m glad you pointed out people were “identified at birth.” The whole “assigned at birth” thing is so ridiculous. 33:16
Rob is uniformly excellent. Turns out also a snappy dresser 👍
Agreed on both counts!
Peter, the majority of people don’t think. Sounds bad to say doesn’t it? But, if you were to make them think about the consequences of the things they’re actually saying, they would have to admit, yes, it’s idiotic. But they’re so busy, wanting to belong to the heard that they will make total fools of themselves, spouting some erroneous rubbish in a serious tone, with such self importance that truth gets put on the back burner.
That’s where Street Epistemology come in…
@@drpeterboghossianHow right you are, and now you’re going to have to multiply yourself over and over or, teach people how to do what you do because time is running out and whole countries are falling like dominoes, in a pattern straight from the playbook, with no pushback from their governments. Seems like it’s going to take independent thinkers and people with nothing left to lose but their integrity, to light the way. Thank you for provoking people to thought. Never stop.
Thoughtful, wise discussion.
Thank you
"Some people wear their fried egg on the outside" Bette Midler "Live At Last" 1976
That sounds like an AI generated image with 6 fingers.
Are you human? If so, show me the bus on this picture:
( . ) ( . )
At 42 years old I have almost emancipated myself from “belief” in my daily life and language. Anything true does not need believing in it to be a fact or real. I don’t need to believe in oxygen because oxygen IS. I don’t need to believe in male and female because male and female simply IS. I don’t need to believe in the tree I am looking at because it IS. If is say I believe something to be true then it is automatically suspect to doubt. Beliefs are great if one holds this awareness and doesn’t push it on anyone or society at large. It’s a funny subject!
Theists shall ultimately inquire or ask of the non-theist, "Well, so then what DO you believe in?" And this reveals their errant thought process in a nutshell!
Even when it comes down to religion and/or dogma, it is often the person's "belief in" something that is what's commonly being discussed or debated. The atheist, for example, is not an adherent of a godless system or entity, as much as he or she merely lacks any systematic process of "belief" or "belief in" as a basis for making such unequivocal rationalizations or decisions. For instance: at the "Good Faith" auto repair, their motto is, "If you believe we fixed it, that's good enough for us!"
Conversely, for those people who are agnostic or atheist, they treat the realm of what is not yet understood as something which requires more study or knowledge, while those who are more superstitious and therefore "believe" or "believe in" (not just without evidence, but by definition, this both requires and demands that no evidence shall be used as a basis) find it easy to place all such things into the realm of a Supreme Being, an entity in which they "believe in."
And so, it should come as no surprise that they will often add as many additional abstractions and/or delusions as is required by the group of similar-behaving people, and therefore also "believe in" any number of additional superstitions, such as a soul, or fairies, or dragons, or spirits, etc., all things which cannot be proved or demonstrated and thus must therefore be believed. The camel's nose not only protrudes from beneath their "tent of faith," but the camel in fact has devoured their need to even require a tent.
If you have "belief" or "belief in" as part of your thought system, then basically "anything goes," and this includes (or rather demands) the banishment of rational thinking, and precludes any need or desire for rational thought.
Science allows for any question to direct us towards a logical conclusion, or result, or answer, and as a result of this pursuit or quest for truth, it is always willing to change with regards to new evidence; religion, on the other hand, begins with "The Answer" (God Did It ... ALWAYS), and then proceeds with whatever is necessary to support and thus maintain this allusion/illusion to actual truth.
To merely "believe in" something often reveals the purest form of childhood acceptance, ignorance, indoctrination, brainwashing, and indifference; to wit: One who "believes in" Easter Bunnies, Dragons, or Tooth Fairies.
When we get older, we should "put away our childish things" (1 Corinthians 13); things such as superstitions, silly dogmas, and other related beliefs. People ought to stop "believing in" talking snakes and flying horses. And so, when asked, "Well, then, what do you [non-theists] believe in?" the question itself is an absurdity; and even if it did have any semblance of meaning, a non-theist (or atheist, or anti-theist) would never 'think' to even ask it, or never ask it in such a delusional manner.
The "true-believer" or theist's final rebuttal upon encountering someone who is a non-theist or an atheist often ends up as the superficial ultimatum of, "Well, so what DO you believe in?" and this is therefore tantamount to asking, "Well, so then where DO you get your superstitious and nonsensical ideas from?"
It is the WRONG question to ask, because any willingness to dwell upon it involves being irrational from the very beginning! And therefore, the theist who shows a genuine interest in examining this illogical thought process should try to understand how this totally misses the point: secular thinkers do not so much "believe in" things as they "experience" things and/or "know" things, such as they would experience gravity as reality; the non-theist does not therefore have to "believe in" it.
For example, non-theists "experience" a round Earth; they do not "believe in" an Earth that is round. This is a huge difference in the framework of thought that takes place in the mind of those who are not indoctrinated or brainwashed into a specific sect or group of theism. - j q t -
Rob's facial expressions are incredible, especially during the PSU clip of the non-binary lady 🤣
32:40 Wearing a mask outdoors helps to cover one's nose & mouth if the wearer is having a bad nose & mouth day.
Or they may have bad hayfever and the mask helps filter out allergens.
I was thinking: how can you say you ‘liked’ her, Peter? Come oonn. She was about as condescending as they get!
Another really good one, thanks.
Thank you!
"Not going to be able to fix the problem after someone is already an adult" (or late teen).
From a psychological perspective, everything they do could be clinically diagnosed as abusive. I think this is an important insight into who they really are.
So basically you think people that disagree with you are mentally ill?
Peter, the intervention you're looking for is inoculation. Teach kids critical thinking skills & teach them before they enter college (since many kids don't go to college). We live in a society that depends on failing public K-12 education & that desperately lacks these skills (as evidenced by how media can herd us like sheep any direction they want). It's no coincidence that people most vocal about mutilating kids are intelligent people with integrity & strong logical & critical thinking skills, while the people who most vocally support it are celebs & activists who are not the sharpest knives in the drawer.
I'm not very convinced you can teach critical thinking, at least not to the majority of the population. There's a lot of disinterest in thinking in the first place, and that's without going into the number of people who have difficulty grasping abstract concepts and applying ideas laterally to novel tasks.
I'd still advocate for it because catching some is better than catching none, but I wouldn't hold my breath, is all.
I used to think that was a paramount thing in public education. At some point in my life I went to uni and wanted to become an educator, and wrote a lot of essays about the topic of teaching critical thinking.
In fact I've been thinking about this earlier today, due to having a toddler and wishing to raise him best.
Nowadays, I'm 35, I wonder what kind of teaching is really the best way to go about it. I wonder if kids need to go through these experiences, ingest these ideas themselves and build their immune systems themselves, lest they become intellectually crippled due to always going around in the intellectual equivalent of a motorized scooter instead of walking to places.
Clearly, if you teach the dogma of "homeopathy does not work", you have not done a big favor to those kids, because even though they now have the correct value in that registry, if something similar comes their way, they will not know how to determine the truth value of claims.
But maybe even showing them the path of logic that leads to the right conclusion is closer to the homeopathy example, and what actually needed is experience, and vicarious experiences and them processing these experiences.
Ah, sorry, just thinking out loud about something I'm not quite sure about at the moment.
According to Mike Rowe, most kids would do better going straight from high school to trade school, getting a skilled trade, and stepping out of school into good-paying skilled-trade jobs. After a few years of working and saving money, they can always go take college courses if they want.
Rowe, like all of the guys telling everyone they should go into the manual trades, is himself a college boy.
How interesting. My husband started in the trades, then got himself a college education class by class at a local community college. You don't have to go straight from high school into college.
Thanks for sharing this conversation! I had to listen twice!
Are you aware that the audio from the clips you share cuts out in the podcasts?
Feedback from when you compared liberal and conservative attitudes toward charity:
Most conservatives want people who need help to get help but the government isn't good at providing help. I learned from Arthur Brooks and Yongzheng Yang that conservatives donate more time, money, and blood.
Thanks again for all your interesting conversations.
Thank you. I’ll have someone look into this asap.
"Not all individuals can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps."
I don't speak for the "Right", but could it be that they would want these people to be helped by their families, or in the case of orphans by (private) charitable institutions? Philanthropy used to be a thing in civilised society, before the invention of the welfare state.
Great conversation, as always.
Great as usual. When is JP coming on????😢
I find it interesting that they are quite happy to "Age shame" you
Not both of them. I think only Peter does.
Git off my lawn!
These young people's world is going to be completely messed up
18:55 I used to be behind the idea of allowing trans women of similar hormone levels (I have no idea what all that entails!!!) compete with women in sports. But now I’m back to: This is a major fundamental reform they are asking of us.