Scott Adams's Blog, page 149

Episode 771 Scott Adams: Confused Artists, Hoaxes and your Question

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a

Content:

The Afghanistan war is a giant fraud…a HOAX
The Douma Syria gas attack…was a HOAX
Joe Biden’s subpoena position, above the law?
Impeachment…when the news stops talking about it
Artists (in general) seem to be more susceptible to HOAXES
President Trump should visit TerraPower, spotlight the topic

Bill Gates nuclear reactor design company


Viewers AMA

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Episode 658 Scott Adams: Oops, I’m Late. Coffee Time!

Content: 

“Science believers” believe in BOTH…

…nuclear energy SCIENCE and climate SCIENCE


SAFE Gen 3 & Gen 4 nuclear energy systems

China and Russia developing SAFE nuclear systems
If America does NOT pursue SAFE nuclear energy… …not good


Cory Booker and Andrew Yang are both pro-nuclear energy…

What they understand that other Dems do not
Coincidence that the two highest IQ Dems support it?

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Episode 657 Scott Adams: Hey, I’m Late, Grab Coffee

Content: 

Trump Admins relaxation of environmental laws…

…if that’s bad, why aren’t we seeing any problems?


Pro negotiator insights and dealing with Taliban leaders

Afghanistan pullout is dangerous, why do it?
Human pullout…will DRONE WARFARE replace them?


An AI health system that will provide better care than live doctors
CNN’s McCabe did a good gun control article

His points are well informed, practical, solutions


Mark Sanford has nothing…just shut up

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I use donations to pay for the daily conversions of the original Periscope videos into Youtube and podcast form, and to improve my production quality and search results over time.

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Episode 656 Scott Adams: All the Crazy People on Twitter Today, Hong Kong, Science

Content: 

Twitter says I’m a “Soros puppet” working with Bill Pulte…

…as Bill gives away his money to various people in need
Q crowd is outraged and full of suspicion


Kamala’s: “well said, well said” in response to cruel statement
HK protesters attempting to pull the US into their fight, should we?
Accidental discovery, epigenetic clock…it made people YOUNGER

IMMORTALITY…here we come!!!


“Quantum radar” has potential to render stealth aircraft detectable
Bill Gates concept of seeding the atmosphere to combat climate change

Hurricane prevention is another potential benefit


My weird medical symptoms and their surprising common source

Loss of hearing, loss of smell, allergy issues…but only 1 nostril


Andrew Yang: Victim of media conspiracy to delete him?
CNN’s love letter to Kamala Harris
#ChinaDecoupling as a national security interest

Lack of honor makes China an unreliable trade partner

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Episode 655 Scott Adams: #Decoupling, Rehab, Food and Healthcare, More Fun Than it Sounds

Content: 

China COULD stop sending Fentanyl to America…

…but they choose to continue


A “credit score” for China and other trading partner countries?
Bill Maher’s comments on people eating themselves to death
Successful rehab numbers are pretty low
Can DNA predict who has drug addict potential?
Bill Pulte’s internet philanthropy
Q followers suspicious, researching Bill’s motivations
Anybody have suggestions for a different, better method?

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I use donations to pay for the daily conversions of the original Periscope videos into Youtube and podcast form, and to improve my production quality and search results over time. 

 

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Episode 654 Scott Adams: The Most Eclectic and Interesting Content of All Time

Content: 

Bill Pulte’s internet philanthropy under attack by suspicious critics
Do you believe that “all major policies are racist”?
The DEVASTATING HORROR that is “Sharpiegate”…

…and its possible hilarious origin


The MATH of evolution skeptics
Whiteboard: Rebuilding storm impacted areas

Why not build entirely NEW cities with SAFE nuclear power?
Commerce zones with FREE or very cheap SAFE power

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I use donations to pay for the daily conversions of the original Periscope videos into Youtube and podcast form, and to improve my production quality and search results over time.

The post Episode 654 Scott Adams: The Most Eclectic and Interesting Content of All Time appeared first on Scott Adam's Blog.

Episode 653 Scott Adams: Climate Change Debate Winners and Losers, Hong Kong

Content: 

One-half of a percent of military budget diverted to build the wall
Thoughts on each candidate’s performance and policies

Projecting a leadership image, policies and appearance
Only what the media decides to promote, matters


Science believers…believe scientist climate change reports
Science believers…do NOT believe scientists on SAFE nuclear power?
Our Space Force will require nuclear power development

Do anti-nuclear Presidential candidates know that?

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I use donations to pay for the daily conversions of the original Periscope videos into Youtube and podcast form, and to improve my production quality and search results over time.

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Episode 652 Scott Adams: Bad Gun Control Arguments and Hollywood Blacklisting

Content: 

Hollywood rejects “blacklisting” people…they remember the horror

Eric McCormick’s weasel-out tweet
Whoopi is opposed to blacklisting and destroying lives


Why are BOTH sides of the gun control issues…talking nonsense?

Bad arguments list and analysis


Will FEWER guns, or MORE guns, lower gun deaths?

The point is that BOTH options can be tested small

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I use donations to pay for the daily conversions of the original Periscope videos into Youtube and podcast form, and to improve my production quality and search results over time.

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The Dumbest Arguments about Gun Control

People routinely have different priorities and different information, so it is no surprise we also have different opinions on what to do about gun violence in this country. As a public service, I will separate out the good arguments from the dumb ones. Reasonable people who have different priorities can still debate the stronger arguments, so there’s no point in anyone wasting time on dumb arguments. I’ll show you the dumbest arguments on both sides. Maybe we can collectively stop using them.

Look how optimistic I am!

Other Countries Argument

The Other Countries argument suggests that because tight gun control works in other countries, we should expect it would work in the United States. That is an irrational argument because the United States is different from every other country in more ways than I can list. At most, the Other Countries argument suggests gun control isn’t guaranteed to be a disaster. But that is different from saying it is likely such laws would turn out well in the United States. We simply can’t know that the experience of other countries would translate to our situation.

Nor does it matter.

The Americans who want to maintain gun rights to protect against potential tyranny from our own government are specifically worried about future events. We can’t look at the history of Denmark (for example) to know anything about the future of the United States. Nor would it matter if we could somehow magically calculate the risk of tyranny springing up in Denmark versus it happening in the United States, because any risk above zero would be enough to justify gun ownership.

The more rational approach than looking at other countries would involve trying some changes in the law in a few states or cities in this country and tracking how much difference it makes compared to states or cities that are comparable.

No match for a standing army

Gun control advocates often like to point out that private gun owners in this country would never be a match for a standing army, should we ever get to the point of some sort of dictator situation in which the military is turned on the public. But that isn’t the right question. The right question is whether the guns in this country would be sufficient to handle assassinations, kidnapping of family members of both the military and the rogue government, and economic disruption in general. For those tasks, citizens are already sufficiently armed.

Slippery slope

Slippery slope arguments are magical thinking. Everything in this world changes until it has a reason to stop. There is nothing special about being “on a slippery slope.” It is an empty idea. Society regulates all manner of products and activities, but we don’t worry about those other regulations becoming a slippery slope. We observe that change stops when the majority (or vocal minority) decide enough is enough. To put it another way, mowing the lawn does not lead to shaving your dog.

It’s in the Constitution

Gun advocates like to remind us that gun ownership is a protected right that is in the Constitution, end of story. But that ignores the fact that the Constitution was written to be updated. The process for changing the Constitution is well understood, and difficult by design, so it doesn’t happen often. But we can change the Constitution, and in the past we have. “It’s a Constitutional right” is a meaningless thing to say because we voters decide what is in and out of the Constitution. On top of that, we can, and do, create laws that constrict gun ownership all the time. Apparently the Supreme Court agrees that’s allowed.

The Constitution refers to militias, not ordinary gun ownership

I’m no Constitutional scholar, but in all likelihood neither are you. But I do know it doesn’t matter how you and I interpret the Constitution, because the Supreme Court apparently thinks private gun ownership is a right, and that doesn’t look likely to change any time soon. While I understand how people can be on both sides of the militia interpretation, I reserve the right to not listen to your blabber until you are on the Supreme Court. My opinion on what is or is not Constitutional doesn’t count. Neither does yours. So let’s take this argument off the table because we are not on the Supreme Court.

People will just use other tools to kill

This argument assumes adding friction to a process had no impact. But in the real world, adding friction to just about anything changes behavior. Extra friction might not eliminate a behavior you want to curtail, but it generally has an impact. As evidence of my point, we don’t see fully automatic weapons being used in mass shootings despite the fact they would be the best weapon for the job. They don’t overheat, for example. You can buy a fully automatic weapon in the United States, but they are super expensive and raise some flags in the system if you try. That bit of friction (price and visibility) made them effectively disappear from crime scenes. Friction works.

Friction almost always changes behavior. We’d need to do some testing to see how any particular gun law changes the variables in play, but most of human experience suggests friction — of any kind — will change behavior a bit. It is rational to say we don’t know how much impact any particular law will have. It is not rational to say we shouldn’t test some changes locally and see what happens.

Criminals can always get guns

Criminals can always get guns if they try hard enough. But I’m more concerned about the 18-year old who has no criminal record but does have some mental illness. That kid is not as resourceful as career criminals. If that kid can’t get a firearm through the normal and legal process, the friction can be enough to reduce the odds of getting one illegally.

Gun deaths are not that high

About half of gun deaths are suicides. Lots of other gun deaths involve criminals shooting each other. If you subtract out those deaths, the number of gun deaths is low compared to other risks we routinely accept, such as the risk of auto accidents, overeating, sports, etc. If the current amount of gun violence seems worth the price to you, that would be a rational point of view. But it would not be rational to avoid testing some methods to reduce gun violence even further. Americans don’t stop trying to fix a problem just because only 10,000 people per year are dying from it. That’s still a lot. And if we can test new approaches in one city or state, why not?

I might update the list of bad arguments as I see new ones.

Update:

You are ignoring the lives saved by guns

No, I’m not. I’m looking at the net deaths by guns, which is what matters. If a new law improves the net death rate, that’s good enough, unless it causes some other problem.

Testing in one state won’t work because people can just drive across the border to get guns

We might also need to restrict in-person gun purchases to residents of the state. That’s a simple Federal change, for example.

But even without that limitation, we can often tell where guns came from, at least for perps who are caught. We would soon know if the state line issue made all the difference, some difference, or no difference in gun deaths. Because all friction works (to some degree), one would expect that making people drive to another state changes behavior. We would also expect to see the least reduction in gun deaths from residents who live nearest other state borders. This is all testable and measurable.

Chicago has tight gun laws and also high gun violence

The intended point is that tighter gun restrictions do not reduce gun violence, because it isn’t working in Chicago. But the point ignores the obvious, that the places with the worst gun violence are likely to pass the strictest gun laws in response. We should expect that most if not all the places with the most gun laws violence have the most restrictive gun laws, or will soon.

The Chicago example also ignores the fact we have no way of knowing how much more gun violence would have occurred without the current laws in place.

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Episode 650 Scott Adams: China, Hurricanes and More

Content: 

We keep discovering MASSIVE illegal Fentanyl shipments from China 

…and that represents a “precipitous decline” in shipments?


Zhang, biggest Fentanyl dealer in China, is known?
Hong Kong: 2 outcome predictions
Outrage Theatre: Representative Swalwell’s tweet
Michael Shellenberger Forbes article

California embracing SAFE nuclear power options


Scott Adams Gun control proposal

If you would like my channel to have a wider audience and higher production quality, please donate via my startup (Whenhub.com) at this link: 

I use donations to pay for the daily conversions of the original Periscope videos into Youtube and podcast form, and to improve my production quality and search results over time.

The post Episode 650 Scott Adams: China, Hurricanes and More appeared first on Scott Adam's Blog.