- 5 weeks ago
In this episode, Stefan Molyneux converses with a PhD in information management about the challenges of recognizing conservative ideas in academia. They explore creating a platform for diverse philosophical discourse and urge listeners to seek genuine dialogue and promote truth amid societal biases.
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LearningTranscript
00:00:00Well, Stefan, it's very, very nice to be with you again.
00:00:06My wife wishes or sends you her warmest regards.
00:00:12Ah, same back.
00:00:14Yeah.
00:00:15And let's start.
00:00:20I wanted to talk a little bit about my work,
00:00:24but since I've listened to one of your, not so recent talks,
00:00:31but quite recent, the episode on why your books are not reviewed by anyone,
00:00:41especially people of substance.
00:00:46Yeah, that troubled me, and it has been troubling me for a while
00:00:49because it's not just you that's being shunned away from a good review.
00:00:54It's quite a lot of people that write good stuff.
00:00:58So can we delve into this topic a little bit?
00:01:05Yeah, I think it's a great topic.
00:01:07So, yeah, go ahead.
00:01:08Okay, so would it help if I tell people a little bit about myself?
00:01:12So they're going to take my two cents with a little bit of, how should I say,
00:01:20maybe courage, and not think that I'm, you know, just a nobody.
00:01:28Anyway, so I have a PhD in information management.
00:01:31As you know, I've got my PhD in Taiwan.
00:01:35I lived there for a while, so I've been able to experience quite a bit of cultural differences,
00:01:47different ideas, different ways of looking at life, philosophy, the whole nine yards.
00:01:53So I think that pretty much gave me some intuition and some taste on philosophy especially
00:02:06and how to deal with certain things.
00:02:10Let me go back to, what, okay, so how should I start?
00:02:23Okay, so yeah, my education.
00:02:26I've been writing quite a bit, as you know, and I've also ran into the same issue.
00:02:33How do I get my stuff to be more visible, especially in a place and era and time
00:02:45when almost everything is very much to the left and they won't care to look at anything
00:02:52that's being written from a conservative point of view, and especially with the tint of philosophy.
00:02:59I've noticed that most or quite a few of the people on the left, they don't really care
00:03:06about using philosophy much, or if they do use it, they use it in ways that no one really
00:03:11wants to, I mean, normal people don't really want to deal with it, you know.
00:03:17So, well, you know, a lot of people may think or say, hey, Dan, you know, you don't really
00:03:25have a following on X or YouTube, so why would your 1.5 cents matter in this philosophy thing?
00:03:34But as you well know, Stefan, truth is truth, whether one person speaks of it or one million
00:03:42speaks of it.
00:03:44Now, I want to paraphrase you a little bit and ask the following question, what if a million
00:03:54people present falsehood and BS?
00:03:58What is that supposed to mean, that just because there's a million of them and they have a big
00:04:02following, that we're supposed to just go along with this great multitude?
00:04:08So, another point that I want to make is that, let's say that maybe there's hardly anybody
00:04:17that speaks certain truths, does that mean that there's no truth?
00:04:23So, let's think of it this way, before the truth of the theory of relativity was known
00:04:28to humankind, does it mean that the theory of relativity didn't exist?
00:04:34So, there's probably a lot of truth today that we don't even know of, and maybe a lot of
00:04:42people don't even want to speak of it because it's just not popular.
00:04:46So, how do we go about that?
00:04:50Well, it's tough, of course, through the power of the state and the media, there's so much
00:04:56profit in falsehood.
00:04:57So, for instance, if people believe that single moms are victims, or the only reason that there
00:05:06are group differences in outcomes is bigotry or things like that, if people believe that,
00:05:10then literally trillions of dollars pass from one group of people to another group of people.
00:05:18So, pretending to be a victim is really fascinating.
00:05:22Like, only a few percentage points of men are actually narcissists, but if you talk to
00:05:26women online, apparently they all have dated narcissists.
00:05:29And so, playing the victim and saying that you're hard done by, you're not responsible
00:05:35for your negative outcomes, that's all so profitable.
00:05:40In the past, if a woman was a single mother, if she got pregnant outside a wedlock, she was
00:05:45held to be morally responsible for what she had done.
00:05:49I mean, if she was raped, that certainly was a different matter, but in general, people
00:05:55would say that you are responsible for choosing to have sex with a man, and you are responsible
00:06:04for the outcome.
00:06:05Now, he is too, but in general, men were sort of accepted to be hound dogs, and women kind
00:06:09of had to say no to the endless, grabby male hands or whatever.
00:06:13But now, of course, every single mother, almost without exception, is saying, oh, but, you
00:06:22know, he promised me the moon, and there was no indication, and he was a perfect guy, and
00:06:25I'm a victim, and I didn't do anything wrong, and all I did was believe him, and he was totally
00:06:28convincing, and there were no signs, and all of that.
00:06:31And so, lies have just become so profitable that it is, as I've said before, it's sort
00:06:41of like saying to someone who just won a million dollars in the lottery, it's like saying to
00:06:44them, oh, don't cash that, because that just means everyone's taxes are going to go up.
00:06:49It's like, it's not possible with the trillions of dollars being paid for lies to have any kind
00:06:58of truth that is put forward.
00:07:00I mean, I remember when I did my graduate school thesis, I had a very good advisor.
00:07:04I actually had to go to a bunch of different people to get an advisor, because I was kind
00:07:07of outside of the history department, because I was doing history of philosophy.
00:07:12And he finally, you know, like, gave me an A, and he's like, this is a really powerful
00:07:17and good thesis, and so on.
00:07:18And I'm like, well, let's get it published.
00:07:21You know, let's get it published in a journal.
00:07:23And there was this long pause, you know, because I got an A.
00:07:26It was a very big and ambitious thesis, and I had really good proof, and it was a very
00:07:34sort of big, and in my graduate school, I remember there was, I think it was a woman
00:07:39who was studying sheep populations in a certain area of France in the 12th century.
00:07:44Like, really, really, I'm the king of a neutron.
00:07:48I'm the lord of almost nothing.
00:07:51So I had a big thesis, and he was like, it's a great thesis.
00:07:55This is really, I've never seen anything quite like it.
00:07:57He was an older guy.
00:07:58And I was like, yeah, let's, the next step, let's get it published.
00:08:02You know, if I need to refine it, or change it, or shorten it, or whatever, let's get
00:08:06it published.
00:08:07And there's this long pause.
00:08:08Like, somehow, this is like, what?
00:08:11Like, how dare you?
00:08:13And I just, you know, he gave me a couple of names, and I tried to follow up, but never
00:08:18got any calls back.
00:08:19Like, it all just kind of dies on the vine.
00:08:22It's wild just how interlocked these barriers are to getting words or works or ideas out
00:08:35there.
00:08:35Published.
00:08:36Yeah.
00:08:37Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about, because I've been in the academia research
00:08:42and publishing for a good 15 plus years of my life.
00:08:48So, when it comes to publishing stuff, you have to figure out ways, and you need to really
00:08:57learn how to publish if you want to be a researcher.
00:09:00And then, I've got over 35 publications in peer-reviewed journals, and later I can, you
00:09:08know, post a link, or share with you a link if anybody wants to see some of my publications.
00:09:16But I want to move on, and let's talk about why, you know, people like you and many others
00:09:25have such a hard time getting published.
00:09:27Well, I mean, of course, I'm thankful for it in hindsight.
00:09:34Yeah.
00:09:34I mean, at the time, it was like, I mean, I still remember when I took a really, I mean,
00:09:41Canada's best and most challenging writing course, the hardest one to get into.
00:09:46And my first teacher hated my writing, and my second teacher absolutely loved my writing,
00:09:55because, you know, I mean, it's not objective, I guess, to some degree.
00:09:59And I got really great feedback and really worked hard on my novel.
00:10:04This was my novel, The God of Atheists.
00:10:06And I then got referred to an agent who then had somebody with a PhD in literature review
00:10:15the book, and I've never seen anything like it.
00:10:17But, I mean, I have it, I read it somewhere on a podcast many years ago.
00:10:21Like, this guy was like, finally, we have the great Canadian novel.
00:10:23This is the most magnificent work I've ever read.
00:10:26And, you know, from a new author, this is incredibly exciting.
00:10:29This is going to put, you know, Canada's Canadian literature on the map.
00:10:32Like, it really was an insanely positive review.
00:10:35And I remember thinking, you know, well, this is it.
00:10:41I'm going to go and be a writer, and that's kind of what I wanted to do.
00:10:44I was in the business world, and I was, at that point, I was chief technical,
00:10:48I'm sorry, I was director of technology for a medium-sized software company.
00:10:53And I remember, like, every single time my phone rang, I'm like, here it is,
00:10:56my exit call, and being dialed out of the matrix kind of thing.
00:11:00And nothing.
00:11:02Nothing.
00:11:03Okay, so, in regards to what you were just telling me, I want to bring something forward.
00:11:15So, in my line of studies and research, I've done a few different fields.
00:11:23So, I've done studies and research and teaching in business studies, healthcare management,
00:11:31and public health.
00:11:31So, if, for example, I was going to publish something, an article or a review or anything
00:11:41like that about public health, and I wanted to submit it to, for example, the International
00:11:47Journal of Business Management, do you think that public health-related article would have
00:11:54been published?
00:11:55Well, it certainly would be a topic that they would be interested in, I'm sure.
00:12:00Yeah.
00:12:01If it has something to do with international business management, maybe.
00:12:05But, because public health and public health related material is hardly ever involves international
00:12:17business management, because it's mostly localized.
00:12:19So, most likely, no.
00:12:20So, what I want to focus on is that this new field that I think you're trying to bring
00:12:29forth, which is a philosophy based on Judeo-Christian values, but not necessarily with a religious state.
00:12:44In other words, we don't necessarily have to believe in the Judeo-Christian God in order to
00:12:53promote philosophy or in order to do the right things and so on and so forth.
00:12:57So, having said that, the major issue here is that there is no any kind of platform or journal
00:13:08designed for your take on this viewing life.
00:13:18Well, okay.
00:13:18So, I hear what you're saying, but if it's going to be my take, then I understand it shouldn't
00:13:24be published, because that would be like a movie review or, you know, this is my opinion
00:13:28or perspective on this movie, but if I'm actually proving something philosophically, then that's
00:13:36not a my take kind of thing.
00:13:37It would be my thesis based upon a fairly close reading of four major Western philosophers.
00:13:44Absolutely.
00:13:44So, it's not a take thing.
00:13:46It was like, this to me was really, really important.
00:13:49I explained something foundational about, you know, the philosophers who believe in higher
00:13:53reality always end up advocating for dictatorship, and the people who believe in empirical objective
00:13:57reality ended up with limited constitutional republics or democracies, a smaller government
00:14:03and so on.
00:14:03And I sort of explained all why, and I gave examples from each of the philosophers.
00:14:08And, you know, it's like a good 100-page tightly reasoned thesis and, you know, lots of good
00:14:15examples, and so I thought this was a pretty great argument, a pretty great idea, and it
00:14:21was validated in the text, and it was something that was actually useful in the world.
00:14:24So, when you start talking about the collective good, or the good of society, or collectivism
00:14:30as a whole, that you're going to end up in tyranny, or when you promote mysticism, and there's
00:14:35a mysticism on the left, too, which is that everything is a group phenomenon, right?
00:14:39There's only races and classes and genders and so on.
00:14:42Everything's a group phenomenon, that you're going to end up with totalitarianism, and I
00:14:47mean, it seems like a pretty important thesis, but nothing.
00:14:54And not even disagreements, not even like, well, here you misquoted this, or this is wrong,
00:14:59or that argument doesn't follow, nothing.
00:15:01It's just like it doesn't exist.
00:15:03Right.
00:15:04So, let me bring in my next point, that hopefully this will make some sort of sense, and hopefully
00:15:11we'll give everybody some intuition, and hopefully a good take on how to solve this issue.
00:15:25So, a while back, when computer technology and computers were getting more powerful and
00:15:36better, they started to develop the medical system to adapt to computers and to medical
00:15:50informatics.
00:15:51Now, that's how the electronic health records came about, which is phenomenal, because now
00:16:01you don't have to look for files in cabinets, and they can be easily sent from hospital to
00:16:08hospital, to patients, to different physicians and whatnot.
00:16:12And quite a lot of this research, important research in medical informatics was done, but
00:16:22there was no journal that would publish it, because every time we submitted, I mean, every
00:16:28time my previous peers would submit research and work related to medical informatics, they
00:16:36would just get an automatic desktop rejection, saying, well, you know, this is not within
00:16:42the scope of our journal.
00:16:43This is not within the scope of our journal.
00:16:45And what do you think eventually happened?
00:16:49Well, the former advisor of my advisor, he got together with a bunch of professionals,
00:17:02prominent medical workers and educators and whatnot in the field, and they created the journal
00:17:08of medical informatics, because they needed a journal where a platform where things can
00:17:20be, things that were researched and written in regards to medical informatics could be published.
00:17:27Obviously, you know, everybody wants to publish in nature and science, right?
00:17:33Especially if you're in the medical field or the scientific field, or sciences, the biological sciences.
00:17:42But they can only publish so much, and medical informatics isn't really the straight down the line
00:17:49of science and nature, right?
00:17:51So, they created this journal platform, and although this pioneer, he should, I think he
00:18:03should get most of the credit for it, he, you will never find his name that he created
00:18:09or he started this journal of medical informatics, because it's a combined effort from all around
00:18:18the world where people that, you know, they finally came to a realization that, hey, we need a platform,
00:18:28we need a new journal, where we can move this.
00:18:31I feel like the story is going on a little longer, if you could get me to the conclusions.
00:18:35Okay, okay.
00:18:36So, to make the long story short is, I just don't think we have enough platforms and journals to where,
00:18:46you know, we can publish things about philosophy, life, you know, from, like I said, you know,
00:18:55I mean, there might be some here and there, you know, in more conservative journals, but
00:19:03like I said, if they're approaching everything from a very religious point of view, they're
00:19:10most likely not going to publish our stuff, because it's probably not within the scope
00:19:16of their journals.
00:19:17So, that's pretty much where I'm going with this.
00:19:21Yeah, I mean, but that's not a philosophical question.
00:19:23If it is a scope question, that's a different issue, right?
00:19:28I mean, if I try and get a philosophical article or a short story published in a physics journal,
00:19:34well, that's not going to go, right?
00:19:38Absolutely.
00:19:39But what I'm trying to say is that perhaps your advisor and all the people around you,
00:19:47even though they thought this was a great paper, they just didn't think that whatever
00:19:51source you try to publish it in would be within the scope of that platform or source.
00:20:01But I never know what, I mean, what does that really mean, in the scope of or not in the
00:20:05scope of?
00:20:05I mean, it was a history of philosophy paper.
00:20:08It should be published somewhere in history or somewhere in philosophy or something like
00:20:14that.
00:20:14I mean, the scope thing is kind of subjective, right?
00:20:17Anyone can say, well, that is or isn't in the scope.
00:20:21But the question is, why wasn't an important thesis published?
00:20:27Or to put it another way, I've had this theory of ethics out.
00:20:31In the world called universally preferable behavior.
00:20:34It's a really good thesis.
00:20:36It has sustained, you know, 14 years or 15 years or 16 years of criticism and objection.
00:20:45And even the professor of logic said that, yes, it proves that rape, theft, assault and
00:20:51murder can never be universally preferable behaviors, which is, you know, he seemed to brush
00:20:55past it up and like, it's kind of a big deal.
00:20:58And why would philosophers who are trained, why would they not want to take this on?
00:21:07Now, they could say, because it's not a very good thesis, right?
00:21:11It's just, you know, fine.
00:21:12I understand.
00:21:14I would, you know, I mean, could there be ways in which it could be improved in the communication,
00:21:18blah, blah, blah.
00:21:18Fantastic.
00:21:19Okay, so I have a billion views and downloads.
00:21:23And if I'm doing something that's not as good as it should be, then why not help me improve it?
00:21:31Because I'm going to be out there talking about philosophy anyway.
00:21:35And as an academic, like if an academic philosopher said, and this has actually happened, where
00:21:41they say, I want to debate your UPB.
00:21:44It's like, I've never said no.
00:21:46That guy who called in a week ago Wednesday, I was thrilled to have him come in.
00:21:52I was a little disappointed in how it went, because I thought he was just not particularly
00:21:57helpful.
00:21:58In fact, he was just kind of insulting, which was a shame.
00:22:01But nonetheless, I'm going to be out there talking about philosophy anyway.
00:22:07Why not come and talk about it with me?
00:22:11And even before I was controversial, I guess I was controversial kind of from the beginning.
00:22:20But why not come and talk about it and help me improve and so on?
00:22:25And that's always a big question.
00:22:27Like my comment, I'm going to talk to the world about philosophy.
00:22:30If you think I'm bad at it, then call in and show the audience what a better philosopher
00:22:36sounds like and what a better reason and evidence sounds like and so on.
00:22:41But they don't.
00:22:42They just stay in their bubbles.
00:22:47And I find that odd.
00:22:48Yeah, well, you know, from my experience with the academia and publishers and editors and
00:22:56whatnot, you know, your advisor and professor, whatever his title was, he most likely knew
00:23:07a lot of the editors and the reviewers of those journals.
00:23:11And if he was, you know, in order for you to get your publications in, I mean, me and all
00:23:18the other researchers and publishers and whatnot, you have to sort of like befriend them.
00:23:23And, you know, you know, you got to kind of like, you know, be smooth and all that.
00:23:27And then if all of a sudden you throw someone their way that that is very controversial, it's
00:23:35not going to look good for you.
00:23:36So I'm assuming that that's what they were looking at or that's what they were thinking
00:23:41about.
00:23:42How could you recommend this?
00:23:43Okay.
00:23:44And now I maybe I can understand that when I sort of became a more public figure.
00:23:48But I mean, this is back when I was completely unknown.
00:23:52Yeah, well, okay, I'll give you another example.
00:23:56I've had a guy in my PhD program, information management.
00:24:03And he was really good at computer science.
00:24:10And he wrote, he wrote a, I think he wrote some protocols for security and stuff like that,
00:24:24that even his advisor wouldn't really understand and wouldn't really know what to do with.
00:24:30I mean, this guy was phenomenal.
00:24:31He was really, really smart.
00:24:33So his thesis and protocols sat on his advisor's desk for quite some time until another guy
00:24:40happened to come to, to his advisor and took a look at it.
00:24:44And he's like, Hey man, this is really good stuff.
00:24:47He's like, well, you know, I don't really know what to do with this guy.
00:24:49And, and, and, and this friend of the advisor said, well, can I work with this guy?
00:24:53Because we can take his, we can take his, we can take his ideas to, to the next level.
00:25:00So he did that.
00:25:01And this guy, you know, eventually got published and got his PhD and whatnot.
00:25:08And, uh, everything was great.
00:25:10So, um, maybe it was not so, how should I say, maybe it was not so fortunate for you.
00:25:20You, you, you don't have the, your advisor's body that came by to see your great stuff and say, Hey, you know, I know how to help this guy to get things going and to get things published.
00:25:30So your thesis just said, you know, unfortunately, uh, yeah, I mean, I certainly get that there's good and bad luck.
00:25:39I mean, of course I, there was this Darwin's bulldog, this guy who kept pushing the theory of evolution though, because Darwin was kind of a shy guy who didn't want to go out and debate it, but he had a guy who went out and debated it on his behalf.
00:25:52I get all of that.
00:25:54So, uh, there is, but, but it's been consistent over the, I mean, I was, I was very much recognized.
00:26:00As I mentioned, as one of the top two students at McGill and I had a professor read one of my papers to the class saying, this is about as perfect a paper as I've ever had in 30 years of teaching and, you know, that kind of stuff.
00:26:13Right.
00:26:13So, uh, the, the talent was there, but there was just this void of support or encouragement or, um, I mean, I remember my teacher of Aristotle.
00:26:26I took a full year course on Aristotle and I wrote bonus papers and sat down with her in her office and made the case and argued and debated and, and we had a pretty good, pretty good relationship.
00:26:35And you think, you know, I mean, I know that in the business world, I was always looking for talent, always.
00:26:40It's what you have to do in the business world.
00:26:42You have to look for talent.
00:26:43And, uh, I think it certainly is the case that I'm talented in philosophy and work hard in philosophy.
00:26:51And I suppose it's just a very different world than the business world.
00:26:54So when I had a computer programmer who was really good, I would teach him everything I knew.
00:26:59If I had a programmer, as I had a couple of times who wanted to come out and do sort of sales calls, I'd book them a ticket.
00:27:05They'd come fly with me.
00:27:06I'd teach them everything I knew because you want to develop talent.
00:27:09You want to nurture, uh, talent and so on.
00:27:12Right.
00:27:14And I guess in academia, it's just a, it's a whole different matter because it's not, uh, really customer facing.
00:27:21It's not part of the free market or something like that because, you know, a, a secure boss wants to develop talent.
00:27:28An insecure boss doesn't want to be outshone by talent.
00:27:33I think that's exactly, I think that's, that's, that's what I was going to say.
00:27:36You know, in the academia, most professors, they're not, they're not really, I mean, the only thing they have to do is publish.
00:27:44Now, uh, it would have been great for this advisor of yours if, if, if you guys would have published the paper together, because if he was a, if it's a really good paper, you know, I, I used to be an advisor too.
00:27:57And some of my students, they had some pretty good papers and, um, you know, I published them, I, I helped them publish and, uh, I got credit too.
00:28:06You know, you get credit as first author and then you get credit as a co, uh, coauthor or as, as a correspond, corresponding author.
00:28:15So as an advisor, you're automatically the corresponding author.
00:28:19So he could have gotten plenty of credit for that.
00:28:21But then, like you said, you know, maybe he was afraid of being outshined by you and, uh, he just didn't like that.
00:28:29He just didn't like the, the, the challenge.
00:28:31Uh, I also, I guess the question is, you know, for me, as I sort of thought about it later, what's the last big, important, powerful idea that's come out of academia?
00:28:41I mean, as you know, theory of relativity, I mean, you know, Einstein developed that when he was working at a patent office.
00:28:49Like, so what was the last, what was the last big, helpful, useful philosophical idea that came out of academia?
00:28:55What, white privilege, like some bigoted nonsense like that?
00:28:58Like, what is, what, what have they done that is important to society?
00:29:03And I, I think when I come along with my big dick swinging ideas, so to speak, I think it makes people feel small.
00:29:12Right.
00:29:13And people have to look back and say, okay, well, if, if this kid is doing this kind of work, what have I been doing?
00:29:21And I think the people, I don't think they're shying away from me.
00:29:24I think they're shying away from their own smallness and their own regrets.
00:29:28You know, that old statement about academia that the fights are so vicious because the stakes are so small.
00:29:32Oh, that's right.
00:29:34Yeah.
00:29:35So one thing about publishing and research and stuff like that is that, well, you know, if you, I look at, you know, most professors nowadays, especially those on the very left.
00:29:50But, you know, if they can just publish one thing that's a little bit different than the last thing, but not too different, because then that would require a whole lot of research and a whole lot of effort and a whole lot of resources and whatnot.
00:30:07So that's why, you know, especially the social sciences today have been a disaster.
00:30:19And, you know, when I was teaching business studies, I honestly didn't care if my students knew the definition of e-commerce.
00:30:30But if they can show to me, like, how to do e-commerce, that would pass them the class.
00:30:39So I actually, I never really graded much on definitions or anything like that.
00:30:45But I gave students assignments like, okay, why don't you create a platform where you can sell something or you can market something or, you know, that's what I did.
00:30:55But all the other teachers in the business department, they were like all strung up on definitions, memorized vocabulary, this and that and the other.
00:31:07And, you know, not one of them ever had a successful business in their life.
00:31:11And, you know, it showed why, because they weren't really focusing on teaching students business principles and how to use them.
00:31:19Rather, they were focusing on, oh, you know, you need to memorize this, you need to know the definition of this, that and the other.
00:31:25And, you know, that's to me, it's so much nonsense.
00:31:28That's why I kind of gave up on the academia these days and, you know, I'm doing my own thing, doing a little bit of business, you know, and stuff like that.
00:31:38And I think a lot of academia probably started in, I think, starting in the 60s.
00:31:43And I remember I had a professor who was so old, he taught, though he only had an undergraduate degree.
00:31:50He was a full professor with a Bachelor of Arts.
00:31:54He taught me some aspects of Victorian literature, and that's how old he was.
00:32:00You only needed to have a four-year degree to become a full professor back in the day.
00:32:05But I think I was probably just the last generation of people to get in and actually have non-toxic ideas, mostly boring, mostly irrelevant.
00:32:15I had a full year's course on politics with Canada's, one of Canada's most famous political theorists.
00:32:21You could torture me verily unto death, and I could not tell you one idea that I got out of that full-year course.
00:32:28I'm sure I have my notes somewhere, but I literally could not tell you anything that I got out of that course, even though I studied a lot.
00:32:36I respected the guy, and it's Charles Taylor, I think his name was.
00:32:40And I'm like, nothing, nothing, nothing.
00:32:44I can't remember a single thing.
00:32:45I remember being up in the classroom.
00:32:46I don't, and I'm pretty good at remembering things, but I don't remember a single thing.
00:32:49So I think the change in the 60s was academia went from navel-gazing irrelevance to an active worm-tongued servant to the beasts of power.
00:33:00And I think that's one of the reasons why my thesis was not scooped up, because now ideas are all evaluated relative to, does this serve the pursuit of power?
00:33:15If it does serve the pursuit of power, fantastic.
00:33:19And if it doesn't serve the pursuit of power, or if, heaven forbid, it limits the pursuit of power, then it's like it doesn't exist.
00:33:27It's not of any relevance.
00:33:29It's like if I need a screwdriver, I'm going to pass over all of the spanners, you know, all of the crescent wrenches, all of the drill bits, because I need a screwdriver.
00:33:43So that's what I need.
00:33:44And so I think the sorting mechanism, certainly in the arts, has been, does it serve power?
00:33:52Right.
00:33:53If it doesn't serve power, and my thesis would limit power, because my thesis says, here's the root justification for power, which is mysticism, and here's the proof in a variety of philosophers.
00:34:04And so I think that I was, I think the pause for my professor back in the day, to mind read a guy probably long dead, but the pause in my professor's mind was, well, this is a great thesis, but it does not serve the pursuit of power.
00:34:22So it's not going to get published.
00:34:24But I don't want to tell you that, or I don't want to admit that to myself.
00:34:27So I'm just going to have this long pause, because not only does this not serve power, but it actually serves to try to limit power, which means it's definitely not going to get published.
00:34:39Yeah, yeah, that's, yeah, so you pretty much, you pretty much answered your question and the question that I had for, you know, that I was going to actually talk about to you.
00:34:52So, going back to the point that I was trying to make earlier, is that how do you feel if our philosophy community is going to, maybe over the next few weeks, months, years, what have you, just develop a platform or a journal where, you know,
00:35:20people that have our point of view, not necessarily our point of view, but people that actually do studies and write material that's suitable to this specific point that we were just talking about, which is less power.
00:35:40I'm sure that this can help, you know, this can help philosophy, can help the world, can, you know, can help people in general, because there's a lot of great stuff that never gets published, because nobody would publish it.
00:35:56Well, but published, what happens in general is the journals get sent around and read by various faculty.
00:36:03And so, if you were to create a journal that was, say, anti-leftist or pro-free market or whatever, I mean, outside of maybe specifically economics articles, because there's still some respect for market principles in economics.
00:36:19Yes, but if you created this journal, who would read it, who would put it around, who would pay for it, who would, how would it influence anyone?
00:36:30And I'm not saying, I'm not saying it wouldn't, I just, I don't see the path by which it, it would, but that doesn't mean that it wouldn't, it just means I can't see it.
00:36:38I'm not saying that this should be necessarily an academic journal.
00:36:40So, I would, I would like it to be more of a, you know, I don't know, have you ever heard of this journal called culette?
00:36:49Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure.
00:36:51Okay.
00:36:51Well, what do you think of it?
00:36:53Give me your take on that.
00:36:55Well, I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that they do publish a wide variety of things, but they also publish some things that would be considered anti-leftist, politically incorrect, or non-Wook.
00:37:06I think they used to publish that a lot more in the past.
00:37:11I think they're being very, very friendly towards the left these days.
00:37:16So, I don't know why, it seems to me like, okay, so are you familiar with how this journal or platform got started?
00:37:24No, no, but I'd love to hear the story.
00:37:27Sure.
00:37:28So, Claire, which is the founder of this thing.
00:37:32Sorry, Claire, what does that mean?
00:37:34Oh, what's the full name?
00:37:36Claire, that's the name of the lady, yeah.
00:37:37She's the founder of the culette.
00:37:39Yeah, I don't know that a first name basis makes much sense to people.
00:37:43What's her full name, if you know?
00:37:45I think it's Claire Liederman or something like that.
00:37:50Okay, all right, that's fine.
00:37:51Yeah, I just, I mean, Claire, it sounds like, you know, Claire from down the road who we borrow sugar from.
00:37:55But okay, so let's just say Claire, so go ahead.
00:37:57Okay, so she had a great idea to start this platform for free thought.
00:38:04Which now I think is just free thought for the left, not so much for the right, but, or conservative views, but, you know, regardless.
00:38:11So she invited a bunch of prominent figures to, when she said, okay, I got this platform, journal, what have you.
00:38:19So she invited a bunch of very prominent figures like Jordan Peterson, a few other conservative, you know, famous people.
00:38:32So the, not all of them academicians or academic people, but, you know, people that were either successful in life, you know, in business, what have you and whatnot.
00:38:47So they all published, like, a bunch of papers.
00:38:52And this helped her to get, get going, to get famous.
00:38:55So, you know, they just published, like, not, not, not academic articles or anything, but just articles about life, about common sense, some philosophy here and there and stuff like that.
00:39:07And, and, uh, this is what got her going.
00:39:09Now, once she got going, of course, you know, she, she couldn't always pay these people or, or invite these people to, to constantly write for her because, uh, you know, these people, obviously they don't have time to just constantly, uh, you know, uh, keep up, uh, Colette.
00:39:26So then, you know, now everybody can actually, uh, send the publication to, uh, Colette.
00:39:31So, you know, I, I don't know, it kind of lost its, uh, uh, you know, its, um, initial goals and stuff like that.
00:39:39And I think one of the, the, the, the lead editors, she's, uh, she's a lesbian feminist, which I don't think that, uh, I mean, just because you are what you are, it doesn't mean that, uh, you can't be a good editor.
00:39:55But the thing is, you know, obviously you're going to uphold your, your, uh, your political, uh, views and you're not actually going to allow through, you know, uh, things that, uh, you find contrary to your views.
00:40:09So I think that's why, you know, whenever you, and I think Claire might've made a mistake by hiring this, this person to be like, uh, the biggest in charge, because I could tell, you know, the last good papers I read in Colette were probably,
00:40:25the nine, 2019, 2020, I haven't seen anything decent or I haven't, I haven't really seen anything conservative for the last few years in it.
00:40:35So, uh, I, I don't spend as much time in it anymore and I don't know if you do or not anymore either, but, uh, I used to, yeah, I used to spend quite a bit of time, uh, reading articles there because, uh,
00:40:49I found pretty good, uh, philosophy in some of them.
00:40:53And, uh, I don't know if you've, uh, read anything about, uh, from this, uh, uh, former, uh, academic guy.
00:41:03He was a professor, uh, one of the very few professors that, uh, is conservative.
00:41:08Uh, I think he was teaching psychology or something like that.
00:41:11His, his name is Sergio Klaasman or Klein, Kleinman or something like that.
00:41:16He's, uh, he was a Jew that, uh, migrated from Romania.
00:41:19So he was very pro free market, you know, anti-communism and all that.
00:41:25And, uh, I think the last time they published him was in 2019.
00:41:29I'm, I'm kind of curious why, because he used to write some really good stuff for Colette,
00:41:33but I assume once they changed, uh, you know, uh, leadership positions, you know, those people
00:41:42in charge, they, they, they start making changes and sometimes, well, there's a, I mean, there's
00:41:47a whole, as you get larger and larger as an organization, you're subjected to more and
00:41:52more sort of these affirmative action hiring policies and affirmative action always seeks
00:41:59to promote leftists because affirmative action, uh, it's, you know, it's women and, uh, say
00:42:04non-Europeans or something like that, all people that statistically, or, or homosexuals,
00:42:10all people who statistically tend to skew left.
00:42:12I mean, not exclusively, but there's a significant proportion of leftism.
00:42:17So, uh, all of the affirmative action stuff is to just make sure that you don't ever have
00:42:23an organization that stays explicitly conservative.
00:42:28And so I would assume, I don't know about this company, but most companies, when they
00:42:32grow, uh, it's, it's how the left gets into successful.
00:42:35They attach right through these, well, why don't you have any of X, Y, Z protected group
00:42:40on your board or like, it's all just this, or it's all just that.
00:42:43And it's not diverse enough.
00:42:45And that's just a way that they, they sort of tunnel in and, uh, and take over through
00:42:49these kinds of, uh, quota, quota systems.
00:42:53Yeah.
00:42:54So that's, that's, that's exactly the problem we're dealing with Stefan.
00:42:59That's why you, you know, um, you, you start out with something good.
00:43:04And then over time you, you can't publish any more good stuff in it because you just,
00:43:10well, I mean, I specifically, I mean, I've managed companies from, uh, you know, a few
00:43:16people to like 35, 40 people, which is, you know, quite a, quite a big growth and requires
00:43:21quite a bit of skill and I have sort of specifically refused to and avoided growing because growing
00:43:30means being subject to more and more regulations and more and more affirmative action and less
00:43:35and less choice and decision about who I want to work with.
00:43:38And I, uh, I don't like that.
00:43:42I thought, so I'd, I'd rather stay small.
00:43:44Like I don't have a fancy studio or anything like that.
00:43:47So I stay small so that I can stay working with the people I want to work with and with
00:43:53the integrity that I absolutely need to maintain.
00:43:56Cause I, I mean, certainly after all this time, having sacrificed so much for the cause
00:44:00of philosophy, uh, there's the, I mean, the more you sacrifice, the more you dig in,
00:44:04right.
00:44:04You could say it's a fallacy of sunk costs, but for me, it's like, well, there's no
00:44:07point changing now.
00:44:08I've already given up so much.
00:44:10I mean, I've already paid the price.
00:44:11I might as well, there's no point changing now.
00:44:14And so, yeah.
00:44:15And, and so I, I don't know what happened with Quillette, but I assume it had something
00:44:18to do with you grow and then you get into the sites and, and so on.
00:44:23Yeah.
00:44:24And that's, that's very unfortunate because like I said, you know, that, uh, well, you know,
00:44:28I think if you, if, if you go back, uh, if you go, uh, uh, back, uh, far enough, uh, the
00:44:34New York times, uh, wasn't so much to the left, like, like it is today.
00:44:40And boy, you have to go back a long way, man.
00:44:42Yeah.
00:44:42It wasn't Will Durant.
00:44:43No, not, sorry.
00:44:44Not Will Durant.
00:44:45There was another fellow who was Will Durant as a student in history of, of random writer
00:44:49of the history of philosophy and other things, but I can't remember his name now, but he,
00:44:54he got a Pulitzer for reporting how wonderful things were in Stalinist Russia and that's
00:45:00in the 1930s and he was published in the, uh, New York times and, uh, just, and they've
00:45:05never rescinded it or given it back or said we were wrong.
00:45:08So yeah, I think you have to go back pretty far.
00:45:12Yeah.
00:45:13So, okay.
00:45:14My point is going back to, uh, uh, book reviews and you know, whatnot, uh, you know, the New
00:45:22York times and even Colette, uh, they, they published quite a lot of book reviews.
00:45:26Now, uh, obviously if, if, uh, if I was going to, if I was going to go review on one of your
00:45:33books, what do you think is the chance that they're going to publish my review?
00:45:37Well, they would publish, they would publish your review.
00:45:40If, if you were to write something like the following, they would, I mean, they would publish
00:45:44it where they'd say, you know, here's here on the wild west of the internet, the tragic
00:45:48lack of academic or professional standards has produced this kind of puerile garbage.
00:45:53And, you know, and then you'd hear a quote from my book, uh, everything that you could
00:45:56stitch together that made the least sense possible when assembled, like some sort of
00:46:00franken thesis.
00:46:00And so if you were to, you know, haughtily deride the complete foolish, ridiculous, amateurish,
00:46:09blah, blah, blah.
00:46:09Like I'm sort of quoting from the guy who, who called in last Wednesday.
00:46:13And so if you were to put it forth as the most scathing, horrendous thing, like I was
00:46:18on the cover of the New York times, three pictures of me because some young guy had been
00:46:22radicalized into getting a girlfriend and a job.
00:46:27Yeah.
00:46:27I remember that.
00:46:28Yeah.
00:46:28But heaven forbid he was a Christian, right?
00:46:30So that's the pipeline to extremism and radicalism and so on, but they won't ever do anything
00:46:36on leftist radicalism.
00:46:37Like that's just not going to happen.
00:46:38Even though what I did wasn't even radicalized.
00:46:41But, but so yeah, you, you could review one of my books as long as it was part of a superior
00:46:46full on Douglas Murray lip curled upper class boarding school sneer at the foolish pedants
00:46:56and peasants working their way, thinking they were producing philosophy, but it's just this
00:47:00kind of puerile garbage that the filter system is designed to keep away from the susceptible
00:47:04public.
00:47:04Like if you were just having a full on, you know, uh, lip curled sneering rage fest at
00:47:12the interlopers to your professional haughty, haughty ethics, I think you could get something
00:47:17like that published, but nothing where you actually engage with the ideas and try to reason
00:47:21with them.
00:47:21So I don't doubt you at all, but that's not my intent.
00:47:25My intent is to truly review your book and, you know, list, uh, all the, uh, you know,
00:47:34all the important things in it list, you know, what we can get from it, what we can learn from
00:47:39it, how we can use it in our daily life.
00:47:41How did it improve philosophy?
00:47:43That's what I really want to do.
00:47:44And that's, I'm pretty sure many other reviewers want to do the same, but the question is where
00:47:49are we going to publish it?
00:47:51Right.
00:47:52And, you know, of course I did this show some years ago.
00:47:56I went through the door, I went through the communist manifesto with my daughter.
00:47:59And I mean, that really is puerile, hysterical, incorrect garbage.
00:48:03Like it's just, I mean, I know it's a sort of pamphlet kind of stuff and, and, you know,
00:48:09the workers of the world unite, you have a world to gain you everything.
00:48:11You have nothing to lose, but your chains.
00:48:13Again, some really great polemical writing, but I mean, is, is, is it a better book than say
00:48:20UPB or something like that?
00:48:22Well, I mean, UPB has actual syllogisms.
00:48:25It's fairly tightly reasoned and it's got examples and historical stuff and, and it's
00:48:29true.
00:48:30It's accurate.
00:48:30Like it's validated.
00:48:32So yeah, it's, it's a, it's a wild thing to see, but I, and I always try to think the
00:48:37best of people.
00:48:38I always try to think, well, you know, maybe there's this excuse or that excuse, but I've
00:48:44been writing about this in my latest book, you know, but there's this machinery that people
00:48:49don't even really see that it's kind of programmed into their brains.
00:48:53So they would come across something like my long ago thesis from like 1991 or 1992 or
00:48:59whenever it was.
00:49:00So they would come across that and there would just be this, these, this machinery, right?
00:49:05This mousetrap that would snap in their mind and say, well, we can't recoil, right?
00:49:10I can't.
00:49:11And if you were to say why exactly, they wouldn't be able to tell you with any specificity other
00:49:19than it's vaguely negative in some manner.
00:49:25It's vaguely bad.
00:49:27It's just not quite right.
00:49:31You know, sort of like in England, if you just don't have quite the right posh accent,
00:49:34what, what, it's just, it's not quite right.
00:49:37There's a little tinge of Liverpoolian, lower class.
00:49:40And like, so there's this machinery that, that is kind of programmed to people's brains
00:49:44from very early on and, you know, a million videos and movies and songs and so on.
00:49:49And there's this consensus that's built up through this uniformity of the control of
00:49:56the means of media production and academic production and literary production.
00:50:00And so people just get kind of programmed, you know, I think it's sort of the Bruce Hornsby
00:50:06and the Rangers song, the way it is, you know, it's just, they passed the law in 64 to give
00:50:11those who ain't got a little more, you know, but it only goes so far and racism and like
00:50:16the people just get, it's a pretty song, but people just get this, they get this machinery
00:50:21set up.
00:50:23There's this machinery that guides people, that moves people around like train tracks and
00:50:27they don't even know it.
00:50:27They think they're choosing stuff.
00:50:28So I think for the most part, if somebody were to be handed a book of mine, there would
00:50:36be an instinct.
00:50:37The machinery has said, you must reject this.
00:50:40This is bad.
00:50:42Yeah.
00:50:42Will harm your career.
00:50:43This is going to be viewed negatively.
00:50:46And it doesn't, it's nothing specific.
00:50:48It's not because of the why.
00:50:49It just is wrong think.
00:50:53It's bad think.
00:50:55And I wouldn't mind that in particular, except particularly in the realm of philosophy.
00:51:02These philosophy professors are all studying rebels who were often, most often dismissed
00:51:10or raged against in their own day.
00:51:12I mean, Socrates, sort of the founder of the modern philosophical tradition was, of course,
00:51:15as you know, charges were brought against him by Miletus and he was hemlocked to death.
00:51:21And so these people all study these moral heroes who stood up against the slings and arrows
00:51:29of outrageous prejudice and hostility and anti-rationality in their society.
00:51:33And everyone who studies Socrates thinks he's Socrates, but most of the modern academics are
00:51:40just Miletus.
00:51:41And there are new Socrates that they simply scorn and attack and reject and, and everyone
00:51:47thinks that they're the hero, but they're actually the villain and the petty villain
00:51:51of the piece.
00:51:54Right.
00:51:54So, um, now that, uh, you know, I want to go back to some reference you made that perhaps
00:52:03when, uh, before you were famous and all that, and you wrote the good thesis, you would
00:52:09have been way easier for, for you to, to get a published or to get a good review on it because
00:52:15people just didn't know your take on philosophy, then they didn't know your take on, uh, you
00:52:21know, uh, a lot of things, including, uh, free markets.
00:52:26But the fact that I'm saying small government means more free market and the fact that I
00:52:33am, uh, you know, I had positive things to say about John Locke, I had positive things
00:52:38to say about Adam Smith, of course, founder in many ways, a sort of modern free market
00:52:42invisible hand theory.
00:52:43And so even to have any positive references to any free market thinkers, that's enough
00:52:51to just, I think as Michael Miles said, most people's minds are just a series of mousetraps
00:52:55designed to go off when certain sounds are heard and certain stimuli is heard.
00:53:00And most people, they're like, uh, to use another analogy, they're like, I was, I was
00:53:06walking the other day at night with my daughter down some lonely road and there were all these
00:53:09dogs.
00:53:10And she said, no, I think they're on electronic collars.
00:53:12And I'm like, oh, I don't know.
00:53:14Let's turn back just in case, right?
00:53:15Just in case.
00:53:16And I think most people are just on these electronic collars, but they don't like to
00:53:20think that they're on electronic collars.
00:53:23It's sort of a sour grapes kind of stuff.
00:53:25So everybody is on these leashes.
00:53:29Uh, they have these mousetraps in their mind as you've got to veer away from things and
00:53:33they can't tell themselves the truth about that.
00:53:35So they can't say, well, this is good thesis.
00:53:39It's tightly reasoned.
00:53:41It's provocative.
00:53:42It's interesting.
00:53:42It's useful.
00:53:44And it's very well sourced.
00:53:46I mean, I can't tell you how many books I read grind through that thesis.
00:53:49The bibliography went on and on.
00:53:52But people can't say to themselves, which to me would be an interesting question, this
00:53:57is a really good thesis.
00:53:59It got an A.
00:54:01It is a very challenging subject.
00:54:02Why don't I like it?
00:54:05Ooh, that's a tough question.
00:54:08Right?
00:54:08That's a tough question.
00:54:09I mean, it's like the women who post online and say, why do I dislike the guys who are really
00:54:15nice to me?
00:54:15And I like the guys who treat me like crap.
00:54:17I mean, that's a pretty important question, right?
00:54:20It's not like sugar, right?
00:54:21So people with regards, like, let's say that somebody was handed a UPP and didn't know
00:54:31it was me or didn't know who I was, which would be great.
00:54:35And they would start reading it and they would start to feel uncomfortable because UPP pulls
00:54:40them beyond the range of their electronic collar, which is the Overton window, right?
00:54:46What are you allowed to discuss?
00:54:47And, of course, if UPP is true, then academic power is immoral because it relies on the initiation
00:54:56of the use of force and violations of property rights.
00:55:00And so people just start reading stuff.
00:55:03They get this uneasy, ooh, this is wrong.
00:55:06We shouldn't talk about this.
00:55:08We can't.
00:55:09This is not good, right?
00:55:10And they don't want to know why that is, because that's really difficult for them emotionally.
00:55:19Right?
00:55:19Like, if a woman says, if she really does dig into, well, why do I just get attracted to
00:55:23guys who treat me like crap?
00:55:25It's like, well, because my mother chose a bad guy or I had a bad guy.
00:55:28I haven't dealt with that.
00:55:29I'm like a bad father or something like that.
00:55:31I haven't resolved it.
00:55:31Or I've been susceptible to propaganda that says, well, all men are bastards, so you might
00:55:36as well screw the pretty ones or something like that, right?
00:55:39But so to actually dig in, if somebody sort of picks up a thesis and is really upset by
00:55:45it, I mean, and these are people who, you know, know thyself is Socrates' first commandment.
00:55:53So if you pick up something and you say, okay, well, there's nothing objectively wrong with
00:55:57this.
00:55:57There's nothing objectively wrong with it.
00:55:59So why do I feel uneasy?
00:56:02Why do I not like this thesis?
00:56:05Why do I feel the urge to throw it away like it suddenly sprouted adder fangs and was trying
00:56:11to sink its teeth, venomous teeth into my veins?
00:56:15Why do I feel like I need to throw it away from me?
00:56:18And why do I need to pretend like I never read it?
00:56:20I mean, that would be really interesting questions to ask yourself.
00:56:25But it doesn't happen.
00:56:26It doesn't happen at all.
00:56:27Yeah.
00:56:28Yeah.
00:56:28Well, you know, like we already mentioned, there's jealousy.
00:56:33There's like the fear of, oh, you know, if a student is outshining me and, you know, then
00:56:43it means I'm going to have to put a whole lot of time and resources and, you know, stuff
00:56:50into like writing a good paper just as this one or even better, you know, to show that
00:56:55I got good stuff going on too.
00:56:58And, you know, all this kind of stuff.
00:56:59My question now is that what I want to point out is imagine they didn't know you back then.
00:57:07And even though you had pretty much like a clean record, you know, like DMV, you know, the clean
00:57:15record, but now you got all kinds of records, white supremacist, racist.
00:57:25Yeah, we don't have to, honestly, it's not like, we don't have to go through the list.
00:57:28I think everyone knows.
00:57:29Yeah.
00:57:29Yeah.
00:57:29So, and all of that stuff is designed to give people an answer as to why what I do makes
00:57:36them uneasy without them actually going down any particular path that might lead to self-knowledge.
00:57:40Yeah.
00:57:41Yeah.
00:57:41Yeah.
00:57:42So if I may, you know, I kind of want to bring back my initial point.
00:57:52Maybe our philosophy community here, you know, your audience, me, whoever's interested, perhaps
00:58:01we can create our own new platform where we can publish stuff that, you know, we can take
00:58:09it to the next level and we don't really need to worry about it.
00:58:12Like, hey, is there like a source that's going to look at or be willing to accept my review
00:58:18or our articles, this and that and the other, you know.
00:58:21So, I've been thinking about this for a while and, you know, I was just trying to figure
00:58:27out how to go about doing something that Claire did because, like you said, it's probably
00:58:32good to do something but on a smaller scale than what she did.
00:58:37I think what she did is very successful.
00:58:39I mean, obviously, she's going somewhere.
00:58:41She's got a lot of readers.
00:58:42She's got all kinds of people that are interested.
00:58:48It's just like the message is not there anymore, Stefan.
00:58:51She lost her ways.
00:58:53I'm sorry, you know.
00:58:55Well, and of course, there would be no particular problem or issue with starting something like
00:59:02that.
00:59:02And I certainly would encourage people to, I mean, I certainly would encourage you that
00:59:06if you want to start something like that, that's a good project to get going.
00:59:11I mean, the challenge is, and, you know, I'm sure you're aware of this too, but the challenge
00:59:15is you start something like that and at some point, at some point, you will get a visit.
00:59:26You'll get a visit.
00:59:29And you know what they say in Mexico, right?
00:59:33If you become a prominent politician, you get the visit.
00:59:36And the visit is silver or lead, bribes or bullets.
00:59:42And I don't know because, I mean, I've had a couple of feelers that way, but nothing I
00:59:46would sort of point out and say that's definitive.
00:59:49But as I started to grow, I started to get some offers.
00:59:53Hey, we'd love to fund you.
00:59:55You know, we've got this.
00:59:56We'd love to put you on TV.
00:59:57We'd love to give you a big radio show, like all of this kind of stuff, right?
01:00:00And I never was particularly tempted by it because I just want to speak the truth.
01:00:03I don't, I never even really wanted to be famous.
01:00:06I just want to, if the fame serves the spread of virtues, fantastic.
01:00:11But if you are successful, just be aware that you're going to get, you're going to get
01:00:18the visit.
01:00:19It's like the envelopes handed out at some funeral to the political leaders, right?
01:00:23So you just, yeah, and you just, you just have to be prepared for the visit.
01:00:28Yeah.
01:00:28Which is, you know, we really, we'd love to fund you, but you know, you've got to, you've
01:00:31got to go a little bit in this direction or whatever it is, right?
01:00:35And there'll be the nudge and there'll be all that kind of stuff.
01:00:38And as long as you're aware of that ahead of time, because I mean, I had the visit though,
01:00:42more from money than moral corruption, but I had the visit once or twice in business as
01:00:49well.
01:00:50And yeah, just, just be aware that you're going to get the visit and you've got to be, got
01:00:57to be prepared for that and know what that's going to mean.
01:01:02Well, what I'm saying that anyone at Quillette, I don't know, right, but I couldn't answer
01:01:06that, but I will say that, be, be ready for that.
01:01:09Sorry, go ahead.
01:01:11Yeah.
01:01:11So I was thinking to, to do something a little bit different than what, so, you know,
01:01:16Quillette is based in Australia, which is, you know, a Western country, which is suffering
01:01:23from West, Western UK, just like all the other Western countries.
01:01:27Well, it's not UK so much as straight up sabotage and detonation.
01:01:31Anyway, go on.
01:01:32So anyway, my take is, or my approach is to maybe base myself either in Asia or Eastern
01:01:42Europe, where it's, you know, a little bit less problematic than it is in the West.
01:01:48And hopefully we can keep this thing going to, to, you know, a little bit further than
01:01:57Quillette was able to, because, you know, Quillette started out around 2015 and I think
01:02:04he lasted about four or five years.
01:02:06So I hope to, if we do start something to go at least 10 years, you know, or more, or
01:02:16as many years as we can, you know, but more than, more than four, that's for sure.
01:02:22Yeah.
01:02:22And, and I think, again, that has to do with how quickly you grow and what happens when
01:02:26you get the visit.
01:02:27So, yeah, and I think, you know, if, if, if this, this thing is going to be based either
01:02:35in Eastern Europe or somewhere in Asia, it's probably going to be a whole lot different
01:02:43than it is in the West.
01:02:45So that's, that's, that's what I'm hoping that's going to make the difference that, you
01:02:51know, Quillette couldn't make.
01:02:54Because I, I'm pretty sure that when Claire started this whole thing, she wanted to be
01:02:58different than, uh, than the New York Times and she wanted to review, I mean, she wanted
01:03:02to accept all kinds of reviews, perhaps all your books, uh, and your articles and whatnot.
01:03:08And, uh, yeah, perhaps in 2015, 2016, if I, if I knew you back then and I would have written
01:03:15a review for you, uh, a decent review, you know, not, not just, you know, all kinds of nonsense
01:03:21and bashing and this and that and, you know, like stuff.
01:03:24Yes.
01:03:24Yeah.
01:03:25You would have probably been, been published in Quillette back in 2015 or 2016, but, uh,
01:03:30I mean, that was the pre-Trump thing.
01:03:32So that's, uh, although I guess it was just starting then, I suppose, but.
01:03:36So good luck trying to do it now.
01:03:38You know, that's.
01:03:39I think it would be tougher now for sure.
01:03:41Yeah.
01:03:42All right.
01:03:42And when were you thinking of starting it and is there anything that you wanted to, I
01:03:46got to stop soon, but is there anything that you wanted to mention to my audience about
01:03:49how to, uh, what I wanted to ask the audience is, uh, uh, any, any people that are interested
01:03:57to help design such a platform, uh, you know, they can email me, um, they can also have
01:04:03access to my, uh, uh, writings on medium.
01:04:07Um, and, uh, I also started a soft stack because, you know, medium is, it's, it's just not a
01:04:13good place to publish anymore.
01:04:15Oh, is that right?
01:04:16And what's, uh, what's the issue with medium these days?
01:04:17Oh, they, they just, uh, you know, they just, if, if, uh, if you write from a conservative
01:04:24point of point of view, they just kind of shine you and they, they don't, they just don't
01:04:27allow you to, to be seen by anyone.
01:04:30But if your life, if you write a crazy, you don't want to take a leftist stuff or you, you're
01:04:36going to get pushed all the way to the top.
01:04:38Right.
01:04:39So, uh, yeah, I mean, you know, I mean the, the guy is hard to the left, the director, you
01:04:44know, the founder of the same.
01:04:46So, you know, it's, it's, it's just a pity that, uh, you know, everything that, uh, the
01:04:51left touches just, just, just goes to crap, you know?
01:04:55And, uh, you know, you can, I mean, what exactly do you see that's, uh, being pushed to the
01:05:00top on, uh, on, on medium these days, you know, just, uh, nonsense about Trump, how bad
01:05:06Trump is, how he's going to take us to rooms and he's going to destroy, uh, you know, democracy
01:05:12and this, that and the other and stuff like that.
01:05:15I mean, you, you can't see anything that's being propagated to the top.
01:05:20That's, uh, that's decent philosophy, decent, uh, life lessons, uh, uh, or, or just simply
01:05:26anything decent, you know?
01:05:28So, uh, but I mean, you know, I've, I've got a bunch of articles there that, uh, in the
01:05:33past they have gotten a lot of, uh, views and attention and stuff like that.
01:05:37And it's just a pity to, to keep writing for, for a place that, uh, they're just going to
01:05:42shun and, and, you know, like, uh, block everything from, from being seen by the, by, by the general
01:05:48public, you know, it's, it's, it's just, you know, I mean, it's, it's kind of like, uh,
01:05:54you know, like when, when, when you were first, uh, banned from YouTube and you had your small
01:06:00audience and stuff like that, I mean, you try to do different things.
01:06:03So I, I've been trying to do different things since, since my, uh, you know, my publications
01:06:07on medium, they have been kind of like, uh, blocked and, you know, uh, I haven't been
01:06:13exposed to the general public as, uh, as much as I used to once they learned of my views
01:06:17and my, uh, opinions and stuff like that.
01:06:21So, but, you know, just like, uh, I'm trying to follow in your shoes and, um, I'm, I'm hoping
01:06:28to, you know, do, do something different.
01:06:30Um, and, you know, just like this, uh, former, uh, advisor of my, uh, director, he got the,
01:06:39uh, academic and the scientific community to, to, to all go in on creating this, uh, this
01:06:46new journal of medical informatics where, you know, a lot of good stuff that has propagated
01:06:56and pushed the field of, uh, medicine forward, uh, was done because of his, uh, idea, but
01:07:04it wasn't just his effort.
01:07:06It was like everybody in the community.
01:07:08They said, yeah, you know what?
01:07:09We really need this.
01:07:10We can't get our research and publications in nature and science because they're just
01:07:15not meant for that.
01:07:16And, uh, obviously, you know, they, they already had too, too many people trying to, I mean,
01:07:22you know, if, uh, if, if you want to publish in nature and science, it's, it's kind of like
01:07:27being a, um, uh, a conservative person trying to publish in New York, uh, the New York times,
01:07:33you know, it's just, uh, at that level, you know, but, but then again, you know, uh, because
01:07:41look, the world population is growing, right?
01:07:44Which means our community, community of, uh, people that enjoy philosophy is also growing,
01:07:50right?
01:07:50So we need more platforms.
01:07:53We need more sources where we can have access to, you know, uh, writings, podcasts, and this,
01:08:01that, and the other and whatnot.
01:08:02And just like you said, you know, perhaps one day, uh, even this platform that I'm trying
01:08:07to create right now might be too, too, too small to, to, to, uh, publish a whole lot
01:08:15of stuff on philosophy and stuff like that.
01:08:17But, uh, just like you often say, Hey, you know, we always need a good challenge to keep,
01:08:21uh, you know, to keep focused and to keep, uh, sharp.
01:08:26Right.
01:08:27So, you know, I, I hope, you know, that, uh, if we do start this thing, um, and it's going
01:08:32to grow and someday it's not big enough, I hope somebody else will, will, uh,
01:08:37start another platform, you know, that promotes philosophy and common sense and what have
01:08:42you, you know?
01:08:43And would you, uh, do you have any sort of sense of the, uh, ideal budget that you would
01:08:48be, uh, looking for?
01:08:52Um, geez, I should probably ask, uh, Claire.
01:09:00Yeah.
01:09:00I mean, if you, I mean, if anybody who's done this kind of stuff before, uh, it's just
01:09:04certainly, uh, I'm sure you're aware, like if you have business ideas.
01:09:07Uh, then you need to, uh, I read how Claire started, she said she started in her garage
01:09:13with a couple of computers, so it didn't cost her much at all.
01:09:16Right.
01:09:16She got a bunch of help from, from, uh, people that really, uh, believed in her, uh, you know,
01:09:23uh, dream and view and aspirations.
01:09:27So I'm hoping that, okay, I can spend some money definitely to, to, to help pay for, you
01:09:34know, some of the people that want to help and stuff like that.
01:09:36But, uh, you know, I, I, I certainly hope that some people that, uh, are more or less
01:09:41like me, they have, uh, a job and they have some income and they really, really want to
01:09:46take philosophy to, to, to, uh, uh, uh, the next level or to a new, new level.
01:09:51So they can contact me and say, Hey, Hey, Dan, you know, let's get this thing going.
01:09:56Let's, let's help philosophy.
01:09:57Let's help, helps the fun.
01:09:58Let's, let's, let's, let's, let's do it.
01:10:01And then I, I, I have, I have the ideas.
01:10:03I can, I can, um, really, because I've been an, uh, you know, an editor and a reviewer
01:10:09and I know how to create platforms and stuff like that.
01:10:11I can give them ideas how they can help for us to create, uh, this, uh, uh, joint project
01:10:18or, uh, group projects, just like, just like, uh, you know, the journal of, uh, medical informatics
01:10:24was created.
01:10:26Uh, and, and now it's a very, it's a flourishing journal and, uh, you know, it, it helps to move
01:10:32the field of medicine forward.
01:10:34Well, that's fantastic.
01:10:35Well, listen, uh, I'll stop here, but I, I hope that, uh, you'll keep me posted about
01:10:39how things are going and, uh, it's a very, very interesting project.
01:10:42And is there a way you can, um, um, post my email somewhere for those that are interested
01:10:49to, uh, give me the best email to contact you and we'll publish it with the show or if
01:10:53you want to also give you, I'll also give you my, uh, uh, sub stack, uh, link and, uh,
01:10:58medium and stuff like that.
01:10:59So people can, and I also give you my publications over the years in the scientific field.
01:11:04So people can get an idea of, uh, what I did and what I know and whatnot.
01:11:09And, uh, yeah, I think that would be, uh, uh, excellent.
01:11:14Thank you so much.
01:11:15It's the fun.
01:11:15You're very welcome, man.
01:11:16And, uh, I appreciate that and we'll stay in touch.
01:11:19Yeah, absolutely.
01:11:20All the best again.
01:11:22Bye-bye.
01:11:22Great to see you.
01:11:23Bye-bye.
01:11:23Bye-bye.
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