 Good day mate. 40 here. So I'm here on my vacation to Australia. I flew out of Los Angeles November 16th. I arrived in Cindy November 18th and I've not been a big spender. So I've been seeing a lot of people and so far I haven't bought a meal for anyone. It's just everyone else has been buying meals for me. The rabbi's had me to his home twice. I've been taken out to eat countless times. I've been put up everywhere I've gone when we stayed at vacation resorts. Someone else has paid for it. And I'm not a big spender. And the primary reason I'm not a big spender is that I love my freedom. And so when you spend money, that usually means that you're going to have to put in a lot of work and lose your freedom. So I want to spend my spare time reading books, making videos, creating podcasts, writing blog posts, writing in my journal, doing self-development stuff, traveling, hanging out with friends. So when you're an employee, it's a bit like being a slave. Now there are great bosses out there and I've had my share of great bosses. We're going to work is a pleasure. But being a wage slave is like being a wage slave and it's fine and good and necessary. But surely there's more to life. And so because I put such a premium on my freedom, I've generally been fairly careful with how I spend money. And I've mainly been hanging out with the family and family knows you real well. So I wanted to see if I can get an online job review from my brother, my employer, because he taught me how to do the watering. So I was just like listening on an audible book on the Russian Jewish novelist Vasily Grossman and listening to an audible book. And I didn't want to be too bothered by the particulars of my work. And so half of my work has been watering. So I just kind of put a finger over the hose and just let it spray in the general direction of the plants. But apparently just like that general spray hitting the leaves and some of it drops down into the pot, not particularly efficient. And God forbid, if my brother hadn't caught some of my sloppy watering, he'd have dead plants because plants can die in four hours here because the temperatures have been over 90 degrees every day since I've been in tandem. And these plants don't get good watering every four hours during the heat of the day. They can die. And I'm just kind of standing back there like spraying. But apparently the way to do a thorough watering is you put a crink in the hose and then you direct the nozzle of the hose like right onto the pot. Well, bloody hell, mate. There are like a thousand potted plants there. So the proper way to do my watering job would be to put a crink in the hose and then put the hose reduced flow like onto each pot. And then they're like in bunches and you'd have to like bend over and it'd be an awful lot of work. I'm just trying, I'm out here on a vacation. Like I don't mind putting out a nice spray, but like, you know, getting down and dirty and like directing the hose on each one of a thousand potted plants, that's really demanding. So I got the critique that I wasn't doing the watering right and I recognized that there was a lot of wisdom in this critique. Oh, good day, Jim. How are you, mate? Thank you so much for your hospitality and those delicious mangoes and all the rides around Sydney and to the Blue Mountains. Good to see you, mate. So I got the proper directions on how to water and then God forbid, God forbid 10 minutes later I was back to spraying because like the watering, like putting the hose like right under the potted plant, it was interfering with my audible listening. All right. I'm trying to enjoy this very pleasant book on Vasily Grossman. You know, I'm out here to have a nice vacation and like doing the watering right. It's putting a crimp into my audible listening. So I'm thinking about this and I'm asking my relies, like if you've ever been fired and like most of my relies that I'm talking to, they have never been fired and most of them have never lost a friend and that's like incomprehensible to me because I've had so many bird and bridges with friends and every job I ever held between sixth grade and 10th grade I got fired from. And then about, I got thrown out of three acting schools in 1994 and then I got fired from four temp jobs between 1995 and 1997, inappropriate language in the workplace. Like they thought I was seeing like sexually explicit things to the women who are working there. Oh, I think you think I've lost 20 pounds. Every muscle I have is tight and sore. Everything is sore. I'm doing, I'm exercising muscles that I've forgotten that I had. Like my work schedule has just been like too rigorous. I've had to cut back. It's like my work for my brother has been interfering with my live streaming. So I had said yesterday lunch, look, I need to take the rest of the week off because every muscle I have is sore. Every single muscle. But I found a solution. So I found a partial solution. So one is rest. So live streaming allows me to rest my sore muscles. And then I found one other solution. So let's listen to the ethics of alternative media. Oh, wait, here we go. Okay. What are the ethics of alternative media? Well, I show you this. Is there a responsibility to have a conversation about things that are large and going on in the world because you can access people? I mean, there's certainly an implicit obligation to have conversations that people want to watch and want to listen to. And I would, I mean, I would argue, I mean, I come from a news background. So I'm coming from a whole set of expectations, like whatever is the most interesting thing, whatever is the most novel thing, then that's something that I want to cover. I want to kind of make films that are about things that people are interested in. But I mean, that there's a whole gamut of things, like how do you choose what people want? You could just politically hijack and race to the bottom of the brain stone with that very easily. Oh, so there was one job. Like I went in there and the first thing they gave me was like this sexual harassment statement that was like five pages long. So, so this is my first day at the job. And it was my first time work. Okay, this is my, this is going to help my, my sore right elbow because I forgot to bring my flex bars. I brought my gum and I brought my crystallite, but I forgot my flex bars. I forgot my activator. And then I forgot that oil that you put on ingrown toenails, which made my ingrown toenail pain go away. So now the ingrown pain is coming back. All my muscles are tight and sore because I don't have the activator. I don't have my flex bar because you need something that brings the muscle, lengthens the muscle away from the elbow. So I went to a physical therapist and he would unstitch my muscles. This is so painful, but, but it kind of unstitches the muscles so that they start pulling on the elbow. Like I lifted like three tons of concrete the other day. Not all at once. You know, that's like a hundred, you know, a hundred bags. Oh, so unstitching those, those muscles. And then, because I did, this is my substitute flex bar. So I'm trying to like lengthen the muscle there away from the elbow. Mate, I wish I had my flex bars, but flex bars, they cost 29 bucks in Australia. That's without shipping. That's 29 bucks on Amazon, AU, Amazon Australia. 29 bucks for a flex bar. I could get them. I think I got them for like $12, $15 in the States. So I don't want to spend $30 for a flex bar. So this is the next best thing for, to a flex bar. And then I don't have my activator, you know, where I get, man, I miss my activator. Anyway, so the one problem with this substitute flex bar is that it keeps dropping all these wood chips. And this video is about how to be a joy. And one way to be, one way to be a joy is not to be dropping wood splinters, because I can't buy my way out of my bad behavior, because I'm not going to spend any money while I'm here. So, so I'm trying to watch all my Ps and Qs and be a, be a very pleasant guest. And I'm trying to bring joy. Instead of bringing money, I'm bringing joy. So normally when you're hanging out with your pieces and your nephews and like people that you want to, you know, get along with and form bonds with, you know, you bring money. Like, but I'm not really in a position to bring money. So instead of bringing money, I'm just trying to bring the joy, bring the joy. And just trying to impress them. I let them know that on one of my videos two days ago, I made $5. And at one point it had up to nine live viewers. So I'm not sure that my rallies were very impressed by that. But see, it's not the numbers. People asked me, Oh, 40, how do you make money with live streaming? Like how many viewers do you need? It's not about numbers, guys. It's about quality. It's about connection. It's about the relationship. Right. Everything comes down to relationship. You have a good connected relationship with your viewers. Then that's what matters. It's not metrics and numbers. It's just that bond that you have with the blog suit who are watching you. So according to YouTube 100% of my audience is male. Not a very good flex bar, but it's better than nothing. And it does reduce the right elbow pain after three tons of concrete lifting. Okay, so I'm trying to bring the joy on my trip. And that means I'm keeping myself like open minded to learning from everyone. Like when I was hanging out with Jim Bowden, I was thinking, what can I learn from Jim? Like Jim's very respectable man. It's about quality. It's about morale. It's about connection. It's about relationship. Like I was hanging out with Jim Bowden and think this is a very respectable man. This is a very accomplished man. This is an educated man. This is an erudite man. This is a generous kind man. And, you know, let me learn from Jim Bowden. So I was learning from the bloody troll Jim Bowden. And so I ran into some fair dinkum Aussies who didn't have any teeth, at least no front teeth. And I was learning from toothless Aussies. I mean, they were building and they were mucking around in their yard and this like, oh, they look, you know, as happy as a pig in feces. So I thought, oh, yeah, I can learn from that. And then I'm learning from my relies. I've never been fired and never lost a friend. That's unbelievable. So yeah, I started this job first day first, first few minutes go in. It's my first time with this temp firm. And it's my first time at this job. We're as desperate as you look like attracts lack. That's my first time. This is like 1996. And I read and sign off on like a five page sexual harassment guideline. And then they lead me to my office. And I'm going to be taking dictation and like their tapes that need to be transcribed. So they I come to my office and and I'm seated next I'm going to be seated next to this attractive woman. And my my my transcription machine is not plugged in. So she gets up and then she goes down and like crawls under the desk and like plugs in my transcription machine. And I said, I'm a very moral man. I'm not going to take advantage of the situation. And then I got fired. Like just for that. And she was like real disappointed. So I mean, just for like a stream mark like that. And then I can other job. I, you know, I shared a I shared copies of the movie that I made some some women at the workplace who had an interest in alternative filmmaking. And so I shared with them, you know, what women want gave them just a hint of the plot line. And I got in trouble for that. Like just sharing a copy of my movie. You know, my my independent alternative Gonzo Gonzo movie got gotten to quite a bit of trouble for that. So yeah, all sorts of alternative speech. And there was also some flatulence problems. Because the vegetarian diet produces a lot of flatulence. And people aren't as always as understanding as they should be of the vegetarian flatulence issue. Like I feel like flatulent vegetarians such as myself, I feel like we should be a protected group. Right. We should be we should be protected. I did not ask to be flatulent. Right. I did not ask to be this way. It's just something about the vegetarian diet that's done this for me. And where is the legal protection? What do women want? It was a very thoughtful exploration of Freudian themes of what women want taking it into the present day. Okay, so I'm trying to bring the joy at least. So I'm learning from from people who've never been fired. Right. They do their jobs and they pay attention. And they're diligent and they're stable. I kind of found that that there are a lot of relationships I don't want to deepen because I found that many people that I've known as long as we have a shallow relationship, everything's fine. But once we start to get deeper, either they find out things about me or I find out things about them and then we have the falling out. So so but but my relays, they don't really have this problem. So I've got something to learn from from my relays, like even the young ones, the medium ones, the old ones, hit a line as long as seriously as I've got this like humble approachable attitude as you know, virtually everybody I know has been more successful in life than I have. They've gotten married, they've had kids, they've got their own homes, their own property, they've got superannuation, which means solid retirement. That you know, yeah, I want to learn from them. And then I don't just want to learn from them. I want to bring the joy. Right. So 10 simple ways to bring joys to others is your brother envious of you having been asshole the month. No, my brother does not give off any, any signs of being envious. And I haven't mentioned that, that distinction to my nieces. I'm just not sure where we're at that stage yet. But seriously, we can, even if you're a total loser, you can bring joy to other people because one, they're usually people who are more of a loser than you are. And two, just being around, like just being a human presence, as long as you're not conscious and smell bad, you make people feel better when we simply around other people, we feel happier. If we have, you know, elementary interactions with people, we will tend to feel happier. That small talk in the elevator will tend to make you and other people feel happier. So when I would go to 12 step meetings, like five, 10 minutes early and set up the chairs, I was being of service, I helped the meeting go and just like being at the meeting and listening to people, I was making people feel happier. I'm like a really good listener. And so people want to talk, I can be of service, I can bring them, you know, some measure of peace and happiness and contentment just by just by being a good listener. So just by showing up, helping to set up chairs, just just being around people a little small talk saying hi. Look, what actually happened with with what, right? With what? So yeah, I think it's really important to bring joy. Like I can be an outgoing personality. So when I was in synagogue, a lot of people enjoyed my company because for every virtually everyone I met in synagogue, their lives were set. They'd been married for 10, 20, 30, 40 years. They had children, their grandchildren. They were entrenched in their careers. Now they'd lived in the same area for five, 10, 20, 30 years. Their lives were set. And they got a kick. They enjoyed my company as someone whose life was not set, whose life was wide open, someone who was thinking about, you know, moving from Los Angeles to Sydney. So from an Orthodox Jewish perspective, that kind of move doesn't make sense because there are far more Orthodox Jewish resources in Los Angeles than there are in Sydney. But someone who's got that kind of flexibility, that lack of obligation, that lack of responsibility, it was entertaining for them. So I could be of entertainment value and I could bring joy to people whose lives are largely set and determined. They've been in the same field for 10, 20, 30 years. They've been married for 30 years. They have kids. They have been in the same community for 30 years. So someone who's flexible between, you know, living in Los Angeles or Sydney or doing this or doing that. I'm sorry, I haven't seen all of your streams, bro, don't waste your time watching all of my streams. It's so nice of you to just stop by and have a go, mate, have a go. So we got the third Ashes test match starting Boxing Day, which is Sunday. So one of the easiest ways to bring joy is simply by smiling at them. I remember I was having some disagreements and some troubles with Dennis Prager, but we're still going to the same synagogue. And in the middle of all those disappointments, it was like after lunch, and we were enjoying music at the synagogue, I just smiled at him. And when I smiled at Dennis, Dennis smiled back at me, right? That's one way that we can bring joy is by being happy. And so I don't have a lot of concrete accomplishments in life, but at least the last five years have been pretty solid happiness at about a 95% plus level of the time. I've been a happy guy and just being a happy person who looks forward to getting up in the morning and going about the day that that can bring joy by smiling at people. But one thing I do not like is when I'm told to smile for photos. Thank you. Tell me to smile for a photo. And oh, man, I got told to smile for photos last night. And I just refused and I looked hideous. I just like, it was just like the absolute worst. Okay, so question from the chat, Luke, have you considered accepting the life you have and not comparing it to others? Well, guess what? Comparing yourself to others is inevitable. And it is unrealistic to not do it. But you should be able to tell in all the comparisons, it doesn't get me down. It doesn't make me melancholy. I don't hate myself. It doesn't make me unhappy. And I don't believe that my life is judged by how much money I have in my bank account, or whether or not I'm married or have kids. So I think that's unrealistic. So there is a lot of like self help guru advice, you know, don't compare yourself to others. And it's well meaning or that, but it's not realistic, we always have to compare ourselves to others. One, for information, because we may be doing some things wrong. And two, for safety, we need to know who our tribe is, we need to know who we're safe around. And there's comparing it's not a choice, bro, that is total delusion. The idea that you can go through life without comparing yourself to others as a choice, it's nonsense. We are wired to be constantly checking in with other people. Right? We are wired to be constantly comparing ourselves with others. Now, you can do that in a way that makes you miserable, where you compare your insights or the people's outsize, or you can accept it as a source of information, a source of safety, and as a source of bonding, like we know, we need to know who our tribe is. So a lot of people, I think they alternate between thinking, oh, I should never compare myself to others. And when they find themselves doing that, it's like, no, let me shut that off. And then the other is they go too far with comparing themselves to others, and they get become miserable. No, it's not possible. And it is not desirable. You have to compare yourself to others to know who your tribe is, like what's the status of your relationship with other people, and learn from them, like they may be doing things better than you. And so you should learn from them. Right? We are white, we can't even pull it off. It's a delusion to think that that we can live our lives without comparing ourselves to others, but we can do it in a light way. So you can be religious, and you can be religious in a heavy way that alienates you from other people and makes you really judgmental and a total jerk. Or you can carry your religion in a light way, so that it's not a burden to people. And so you can accept your comparisons with others as a source of information, as a source of safety. Right? The biggest the best way to prepare for inflation is to notice where you stand with other people. Right? The biggest protection against tsunamis, earthquakes, fires, inflation, unemployment, old age, poor health is the status of your relationships with others. That's the thing. That's the best way to prepare for an earthquake. That's the best way to prepare for inflation. Like I have various friends who say, oh, we're entering this hyper inflationary time. And you know, what's your plan? Well, the best plan is to be connected with other people. Right? Be on good relations with your family. Thank God I have that. Be on good relations with your community and with your friends and with your employer. Like your most important relationship in the workplace is with your employer. Like you both need each other. You seem to have been self-flagellating for a long time. Is this the face of someone who self-flagellates? I don't believe in denying reality. I don't believe in trying to do things that are impossible. I don't believe in being anti human. Right? To be human is to be noticing and comparing yourself with others. Right? It's, it's, it's like well meaning self-help advice. Like never compare yourself to others. It's complete delusion. We are wired. Our safety depends upon our relationships with other people. Right? And you can't, you can't relate to people unless you see them with some accuracy. And when you see them with some accuracy, you will notice things that they have that you don't have and things that you have that they don't have. All right? So if someone's poor, it would be in bad taste to talk to them about your investments. Right? So to be able to make, have that degree of empathy, you would have already had to compare yourself to them. You have to be aware of their situation. All right? So everybody has a burden. Everybody has, has vulnerabilities. And it's like, it's the same thing that you're saying earlier to don't compare yourself to others. It's the same thing that a lot of conservative intellectuals say, oh, you know, you shouldn't, shouldn't gossip. The great people talk about ideas, middle people talk about events and, you know, lower class people talk about people. That's nonsense. Like, what kind of life can you have if you're not concerned about other people? Right? If you're concerned and interested in other people, you're going to talk about other people. Right? To not gossip is totally inhuman. Right? So there are all these like moral ideals, don't compare yourself to others. Now, don't gossip. Don't be chasing after fame and honor and glory and sexual satisfaction. Like, these, these admonitions sound really good. But they're totally inhuman. Right? We are wired to connect. We are wired to compare. We are wired for a desire for social status. We are wired for a desire for, you know, a loving physical relationship. And to, you know, try to turn off these natural passions, I think is, is inhuman. And I don't think it's helpful. Chat says, Jim Bowden, I hope I am not embarrassing Luke, but having met him, he is a genuine person. What you see is what you get. Luke, do you avoid women due to your under-owning? No, I do not avoid women. Right? But I do deny them my essence. Right? I don't shun women. I talk with women. I interact with women. But I do deny them my essence. They don't get to have my vital bodily fluids. They don't get to contaminate that. Can you be concerned about others and not self-flagellate? Of course. Also, the melancholy personality likes dwelling in negative emotions. The neurotic personality likes dwelling in negative emotions. So I think I have an above average tendency to melancholy and to neuroticism. So anyone who converts to another religion, you're dealing with someone who's neurotic. Someone who's trying to get rid of an unwanted self and recreate himself through embracing some new religion or some new cult or some new community or move to a different area, you're dealing with someone who's neurotic. If you want to be socially well-adjusted, thrive in your professional and personal life, you need to watch your Apollo. The downside of having met Luke is I can't control him any longer. That's the same way I noticed in the porn industry. People in the porn industry or around the porn industry, once they meet porn stars and get to know them as human beings, it becomes a lot more difficult to jack off to them. So if you feel like you've gotten to know me, it probably inhibits your ability to use me for autoeroticism. So sexual desire depends upon objectification. When you recognize somebody's full humanity, it becomes a lot more difficult to have sex with them. Luke's tremendous potential is being limited by his adoption of orthodox Judaism. Luke's tremendous potential is also being limited by his lack of care, lack of consideration, his selfishness, his self-seeking, his attention-seeking, his histrionics, his tendencies to dishonesty, and his tremendous predilection for inordinate amounts of fear. Those have also held me back in life. There was a time when I used Ron Jeremy's face on yours and now the dream is over now. Yeah, he could easily have had 30 plus viewers right now if he hadn't converted to orthodox Judaism. I'm carrying my firstborn right now. She's nearly a month old, says Bruce Mazeltaf. How will you know when you've self-flagellated enough? I'm not sure. I think if you're a melancholy personality or a neurotic personality, you may, or if you're a writer, you'll probably engage in much more melancholy reflection, self-flagellation, and neuroticism than say someone who's working as an economist. So I noticed when I started studying calculus and economics, it changed me, like everything we do affects us. So prior to studying calculus and economics, I was most interested in English literature and poetry. Once I started studying calculus and started studying economics, I lost my capacity to enjoy poetry for a long, long time. So when I've, you know, largely been a writer for much of my life and so you engage in a lot more introspection when you're a writer. At least my writing comes out of, a lot of it comes out of my, my own experience. So I would, you know, sometimes just sit in my room and listen to songs from the 70s to take me back to events that happened in the 70s and emotions that I felt in the 70s so that I could then write about them. And I think that's, that's normal behavior. Like a normal person doesn't need to roll that way. Okay, back to ways to, to bring joy, give a compliment. So yeah, if it's genuine, it's not manipulative. Remember your manners. So logical emotion versus, yeah, so as a writer, you know, I spend a lot more time in my emotions than a normal block. There's, there's a lot of the woman in me. So if you have a job, like if you're an accountant or you're a tax lawyer or a patent lawyer, it'll probably reduce your, your capacity for enjoying poetry and the emotions. So yeah, remembering, remembering your manners. So that there are people who've been put out of their rooms, have been, been put out of their ordinary way of living so that I can stay with them. So I'm also bringing my big computer and my two phones and all sorts of electronic gear. I'm taking up space. And so a lot of people get great feeling of peace, having everything in order. And so I'm creating a mess. So I need to be cognizant of the psychic strain that I'm putting on other people and to appropriately appreciate them. So not coming with the money, but at least I can come with the compliments, the joy, and try to remember my manners. But one thing I'm learning about, because I'm around family so much, is that I got a lot of disgusting habits. So I live as a bachelor. And so I'm used to taking milk out of the refrigerator and just opening the top and drinking straight from the bottle. And unfortunately I brought that habit to my brother's kitchen and it's disgusting. Also not everyone appreciates gum chewing. You know I like to chew gum after every meal or anytime my mouth doesn't feel perfect. I like to chew gum, but a lot of people find that absolutely disgusting habits. So I've forgotten my predilection for disgusting habits, but the good thing about being around family is they've known you for 55 years. And so they spot the tendencies. And so they know you better than pretty much anyone. And it's a dose of reality. Do the dirty work. Okay so I've done some dishes and I've thrown out the the fruits and vegetable trash in the compost hole in the back. So I've tried to tried to step up that way. The little woodcrumbs that I'm letting off from my roller. I'm trying to pick them up. Look if you finally decided to make Australia your permanent place of a boat. So right now I'm about 80 percent sure that I'm going to move to Australia. But I need to get a couple of things sorted before that becomes 100 percent. So I'm working on getting getting certain things sorted out before I say yeah I'm absolutely moving to Australia. Also I want to go back to Los Angeles and see how I feel. So I don't trust my judgment. So this is an emotional move for me. I came to Australia and experienced a sense of joy and peace and thought oh I want to move here. But I don't trust myself. I want to fly back to Los Angeles. I may feel a tremendous feeling of joy when I get back to Los Angeles that I can't properly anticipate right now. So I want to be back in Los Angeles. Remember my wonderful two months in Australia and then and then try to see things more clearly. So right now all all arrows are pointing to moving to Sydney. But there may be some things I need there are definitely some things I need to sort out first. So yeah do the dirty work. Bring others joy by doing the necessary dirty work with a smile. Help someone out. Yeah bring bring joy to others by helping them out. Ask how you can help. But help moderately. Like don't get don't get too deeply involved. Typically with addicts right people will take advantage of you. People will do you know everything they can to to get what they want. I tend to do everything that I want to get what I want. I tend to ask for what I want. I tend to you know try to smooth the gears oil the the wheels so that I can get what I want. And then and then other people will take advantage of you if you allow it. So if other people are taking advantage of you then that means you need to set up boundaries. Oh it's having a discussion with someone. The other day you had the philosophy that if God is sending someone to him then that means that person needs to be in your life. And so my attitude is a lot of people are sociopaths, psychopaths. You don't want to just give people free access to you. It's wonderful to help out. It's wonderful to be of service. It's wonderful to make new friends. It's wonderful to have new clients. But belief in God, faith in God, religion does not excuse you from making the hard decisions about whether or not you should allow someone into your life. Because a lot of people out there are bad, are dangerous. They will turn your life upside down. Talking borderline personality types, grandiosity, histrionic personality types, narcissistic personality types. Like these people tend to be sociopaths and so one needs to exercise excellent judgement with regard to who you help out and who you allow into your life. Ah, writing thank you notes. That's a very Anglo-Saxon thing to do, writing thank you notes. I remember a joke in the New York Times. Why don't wasps hold orgies? Because means too many thank you notes. Be kind online. So yeah the internet can be a particularly joyless place. Make an effort to be kind online. Yeah, a little little kindness. Spend time with people, particularly people who are lonely. So someone who's in a wheelchair or like if you know a black person walks into a synagogue or you know someone who is particularly isolated at a social event I will usually be among the first people to go approach them and try to make them feel welcome because I have had the experience of feeling isolated. So I know what that's like. I feel for people who feel isolated and so that's one thing that I can do to bring joy. Volunteer your time. So I volunteer between about seven and fifteen hours a week and donate, right? So we have a lot of stuff that we don't necessarily need so yeah you can donate. All right this is a terrific academic essay that I've been reading of pathogens and party lines. Social conservatism positively associates with COVID-19 precautions among U.S. Democrats but not Republicans. So people on the left tend to be less pathogen avoidant than people on the right because one way that you can summarize someone's politics is by their threat reactivity. The bigger your reaction to a threat the more likely you are to be on the right. So because people on the right have such a big reaction to threats then they prefer traditional ways of organizing human behavior because they think that like a tried and true tested method that's operated for hundreds even thousands of years is more likely to be be the best option than some brand new untested method of organizing people. So another way of boiling down politics is do you believe in the doctrine of original sin so that would be a Christian doctrine. So people on the right tend to a skeptical or negative view of human nature. People on the left tend towards a much more optimistic view of human nature. So threat reactivity I think it has a substantial biological component. So if you walk down the street and you see a dead lizard or a pile of dog poo what's your reaction to that. If you're on the right you're likely to have much more of a reaction to that kind of disorder and that disgusting mess in front of you. So you can walk into someone's room or someone's office and you can get a read of the likely politics because people on the right tend to be more conscientious. So their room their office is more likely to be clean and organized. People on the left tend to be less organized, less clean but much more open to new experiences. So we have a seeming contradiction with regard to COVID because generally speaking we associate being right-wing with a very strong threat reactivity and a very strong pathogen pathogen avoidance. Yes Jim looking forward to meeting more of your high IQ friends. I love being around high IQ people it's very difficult to communicate with people who are to IQ gradations either below you or above you. So I think I've got about a 125 IQ so I can talk profitably to people from about a 95 IQ up to about a 150 IQ. That's my sweet. Am I bringing joy today? I'd like to think that I'm bringing joy today. So given that right wing is a more pathogen avoidant more socially reactive than left left wingers why is it that right wing politicians have generally underplayed the COVID threat and it's been politicians on the left who have taken it the most seriously. And so this essay says that the reason that we don't see as strong pathogen avoidance among people on the right with regard to COVID is that they get their information from different places they generally reject left-wing liberal news sources they also don't give as much credence to scientists and science and and the deep state right they don't give as much credence to Anthony Fauci and the CDC and the the other government agencies that have to do with with health so there's much more of a suspicion of big government and of the proclamations of public health officials on the right than there is on the left and I don't think either side is inherently going to be right so sometimes government's the problem sometimes government's the solution with regard to COVID it seems like the most sane approach is to use use government to try to reduce the threat of this this pathogen so people on the right have lower trust in scientists lower trust in the news media lower trust in big government intellect versus love is like night and day yeah so there's a time for both for everything there is a season and a time and a place unto heaven conservatives are strong uh have strong genetics and more faith in there yeah so conservatives believe much more in the power of free will to shape life outcomes and people on the left have much more belief in randomness and bad luck so generally speaking people on the right think that they can have a tremendous effect on their life outcomes and they also believe that generally speaking people are poor because people are lazy and they make bad decisions and uh they exercise bad judgment and they may be criminally inclined and so people on the left see poverty illness as much more socially determined all right so so i know during ronald reagan era there's a lot of talk about welfare queens and abuse of the uh the public welfare system and this idea that poor people are poor because they don't want to work now i love to work work is my middle name ah so i'm going to throw a link to this academic survey on why relatively reduced pathogen reaction on the right compared to to the left so why have conservatives been more skeptical than democrats about the dangers of covid-19 so generally speaking when you're a conservative you are much more sensitive to threats you're sensitive to threats from immigration to crime to filth to devious ways of doing things to new social arrangements relationships things like gay marriage going to be much more threatening to someone who's socially conservative so social conservatism and social liberalism in the american sense are ends of an attitude spectrum they basically represent resistance to or encouragement of social change so to be on the left is to be much more positive about social change to be on the right is to be much more skeptical about social change so differences in reaction to social change are associated with individual differences in threat sensitivity so do you process threat-related cues as salient attention garnering emotionally invocative and behaviorally motivating so when you see something that's threatening you go aah okay when that's your reaction you're much more likely to be on the right way so traditional social norms depend upon reducing threats right that's why we have traditions so people who are more sensitive to the possibility of threats assume that traditional and socially normative practices offer more protection against threats so we have traditions to mitigate threats essentially that we have ways of operating ways of speaking ways of organizing ourselves we have practices and norms that have an emotional resonance in people and that have been demonstrated over a long time period and if we follow a tradition we're going to be safer than if we start doing things in a new way and that our traditions can contain threats including pathogens bye bye