 on self-interest is the Iran Book Show. All right everybody welcome to Iran Book Show on this uh Thursday late at night. I don't know where you are but over here it's 11 30 p.m. London time. I'm in my hotel room as you can probably recognize by now. I just got back from the University of Bristol. I'll tell you a little bit about that in a minute where the left tried to cancel my talk. They failed they failed but I'll tell you more about that in a minute but that was the third attempt this week so we'll talk about those. Let's see yeah 11 30 luckily I took an apple this afternoon so I should be fine. We will um we will talk today about cancel culture what's going on in universities uh the left pretends it's it's uh I don't know cleansing the world the bad guys um we'll talk about Alex Epstein and the Washington Post very much connected to what's going on with me here and then we'll talk about the slap at the Oscars I haven't had a chance to comment on that so I'll comment on that uh and uh and that's it and then I'll go to sleep so I don't know how long the show will be we will see don't forget uh Super Chat is uh is available Super Chat is open uh and uh that's how you can interact with me ask questions March has been pretty light because I haven't done many shows so hopefully you'll all you get to ask lots of questions uh please use the Super Chat to do that uh go on Twitter let people know that we're on right now maybe we can get maybe we can get more people uh it'll be a good it'll be a good conversation I'll tell you a little bit about the talks I've given in England so far I think I've done all the major talks the what's left is to talk at the at the objectivist that I manage to conference here but I've I've been to three universities two high schools and just a general talk I give one general talk all right Super Chat is open uh those of you who would like to support the show and would like to support what I do more broadly uh please uh please use either the Super Chat to support us uh or you can uh become a monthly contributor the best that's the best way to support the show you can become a monthly contributor on uh you're on bookshow.com slash support you can do it on subscribe star you can do it on um Patreon uh so great I value all of you support me Ryan thank you Jonathan is always here right in the beginning to support what I'm doing really really appreciate uh Jonathan honing support um I think that's it I think we can jump right in so as you know I'm in the UK uh in in giving talks I've developed uh sorry I'll talk about that I've I've given uh so far as I said three toxic universities the first one on Monday night was at Sussex University Sussex University all three universities uh outside of London so Sussex is to the south basically directly south from London in Brighton uh last time I was in Brighton I was probably I don't know six years old um it's a long long long long time ago a lot has passed and said Ryan thank you again and Jonathan thank you um Ryan says Jonathan is here so read the new textbook on Americanism absolutely I mean that'll give you that'll give you an eye view of what America really stands for what America really is anyway I spoke with Sussex I spoke with Sussex on inequality uh it was kind of the the a group of uh uh I don't know Liberty minded students free market type students uh who uh who invited me at Sussex we had we had a really good time I've never beat the Sussex so that was my first talk there uh you know I I gave I gave about uh 20 minutes presentation and then it was basically Q&A what surprised me at Sussex so I'll talk a little bit about each one of these talks what surprised me as Sussex is that at least one of the students maybe two or three of them were in were into and enamored by mmt modern monetary theory and and just when I you know ask these these questions about coming from a complete perspective of modern monetary theory complete nonsense uh about about monetary policy and what drives an economy and so on but it's it's it's always interesting to me that ideas bad ideas usually unfortunately started in the U.S. it used to be that bad ideas came from Europe but now I'd say over the last I don't know maybe 20 years 30 years it seems like America has taken the leadership in the creation of propagation of bad ideas anonymous dough thank you for the the support first I remember a few years ago for the first time coming to oxford and hearing students talk about um you know microaggressions and safe rooms and and things like that and that was that was a few years after that was already kind of common practice in the U.S. and suddenly it was a big deal in oxford and and and teachers were warning of microaggressions and in their syllabus and then now it's Sussex and and of course other ideas as well and then now it's Sussex um the uh this idea of MMT it's it's such a discredited theory that many of the MMT people have have have kind of are hiding right now because many many of us warned that what they were suggesting printing money handing checks to people would ultimately lead to a recession to inflation it has so they've kind of their their profile has declined but not not among students at Sussex University MMT is alive and well and strong and and and going well so that was kind of discouraging but other than that really good Q&A students were great I'm trying to remember if we recorded that one I think we did I think they're all recorded so I think you'll get videos of all of them although one of them might not be watchable but we'll get to that in a minute um so that was uh that was Sussex on Monday Tuesday I was at a lens a lens school a lens school is a school in South London it's a high school it is you know very high quality kind of private it's a it's a private school this is not my first time there either my second or my third I'm not sure they've always been very gracious to me uh and always uh provided a lively and and and and you know significantly sized audience and and that was true this time as well the the teacher that invites me is I don't think he agrees with me but I think he he he very much likes the the the the little bit provocative nature of what I say the fact that it gets us students thinking the fact that it creates conversation and debate within the classroom um and and uh this time I think this time I talked about um I talked about inequality it's their favorite topic particularly at high schools for me to talk about and I talked about inequality and it was a great event but a small occurrence happened right at the beginning so before I got started the students acceded and a student who was seated right in the front row uh motioned to me and I went over and he said uh and he said to me is it true that you have said that uh that the West should ban Muslim immigration um and I said uh you know that's a complex issue why don't you ask me about then the q and a I'd be I'd be happy to answer you and he said no and he's looking at his phone like he's looking at his wikipedia of my wikipedia page or something where somebody has quoted me as saying um I I think Muslim immigration should be banned and and and he said no no no I want I want you to answer me now and I said look I'll there's a talk there's a presentation at the end I'll take questions on anything I have no problem answering that question it's it's a complex answer and I need to uh I need you to wait until the q and a and at that point he he got up and left and went to one of the one of the teachers ushered them uh and and basically I think went outside and basically uh complained that I was a racist and and I should not be allowed to speak at the school and uh that I was islamophobic and all the all the normal crazy assertions about myself what I find particularly funny about this is today I opened my twitter page and on twitter somebody one of my one of my many many many fans writes remember that you're on is pro-muslim immigration to into europe and the destruction of western civilization so I can't win you know half of you think I'm against Muslim immigration half of you think I'm pro-muslim immigration and you usually are the ones that hate me for whatever the other position should be so um um uh it doesn't matter but uh I just found it really really funny that I can't win with the islam thing because I'm either too friendly to them or hate them too much call in thank you really appreciate the support um you know one of these days will do a show or somebody can ask me to trip it out super chat about Muslim immigration but um I you know it was it was funny anyway so I I don't know if the school will see if the school has me back we'll see exactly what happens there I think I'll have me back I think they're reasonable but there is reason to believe that this has gone to the higher ups and administration and I hope the teachers not in trouble for inviting me uh but they have they have been now complaints at the schools that's attempt to cancel me number one they have been um attempts at the at the school to um to maybe not invite me in the future or to or to complain about the fact that I was invited hopefully that goes there goes nowhere that evening um I went to Exeter now Exeter University some of you may know uh I have been to Exeter many times I've given something some of I think my best talks at Exeter uh some of my most watched videos ever were given at Exeter my my morality of capitalism and my equals unfair my inequality talk uh have seen have been viewed by by I think hundreds of thousands now that I gave at Exeter years and years ago since those two talks those were the first two talks I've given I think three uh two or three other talks at Exeter this was either my fifth or my sixth visit I can't remember anymore it might be Exeter might be the university I've spoken at most I mean University of Texas maybe I don't know but it's it's certainly up there and certainly in Europe certainly outside the United States it's the university I've spoken at most um ever um there was a letter circulated uh by some students and faculty and in a whole list of organizations signed this letter I've asked for a copy of this but I haven't received it yet I'm hoping to receive it in the next few days and maybe put up the letter on Facebook but um the letter basically accused me of being a racist an Islamophobic a hater of the Palestinians a pro-Israel I guess that's enough just pro-Israel is bad um you know one of the things that I'm that it complained about was the fact that I support uh I support um sweatshops I support I support the exploitation of labor all over the world and so on and so forth and and the letter said basically that Exeter should never have invited me uh that I'm not welcome at Exeter and that uh that there will be protest from my talk so I arrived at Exeter you know we went I was I was met by by some students some some really nice the people who organized this and I should throw a back entrance but it turned out in the end that um you know it turned out in the end that the protesters didn't show up or maybe just a handful of them showed up and then went away they tried to get the administration against the canceled event not to have me on called me names but the event went ahead and and and let me tell you as always in Exeter for some reason I'm particularly energized at Exeter the talk was excellent I think um well maybe anyway your guys don't have to listen to I just gave it so who knows I haven't listened to it but I think it's good I was very passionate it was a new talk on on on capitalism and war capitalism and the causes of war it'll go up on um on my youtube channel tomorrow I think tomorrow afternoon uh east coast time uh my talk on capitalism and and and the causes of war it's the first time I've given it's this talk it's the first recording of this talk that's ever been made um I think you'll enjoy it or I think you'll like it it was a great q and a the students really got into it uh so that was terrific unfortunately what happens at Exeter always is that I have to run right after the talk because the last train from Exeter London leaves at 850 the talk usually starts at seven so everything is very rushed which is unfortunate but I had to be rushed out of there in order to in order to catch my catch my train um the um yeah I mean going to Exeter is a is a is a is not simple it involves taking a two plus hour train ride from Paddington station to Exeter and then on the way back it's it's over three hours because I think they stop at more stations uh so it's it's like five hours just back and forth and then you've got the the time at that's it takes up a whole evening in afternoon I got back to my hotel room uh past uh past midnight so um it was uh but it was worth it because as again I think I give good talks at Exeter something in the air something in the vibe and the protest is dissipated I got to talk I mean the most important thing is not to have the protest for me the most important thing is I get to talk to these students and and the fact that uh other students want to silence it uh I think in some extent just makes my talks more interesting um or more more appealing to the students uh yesterday I spoke at a another high school um maybe I'm getting my dates wrong maybe I spoke at the other high school today I don't remember anyway yesterday no it was yesterday I can't keep track anymore yesterday I spoke at another high school again on inequality this time there were well over 100 students there maybe 120 130 140 students um it was great I love it when when I have so many people and and they're all new to these ideas and they've never heard them before I got to meet with some of the honest students in advance so we got to talk and chat a little bit before they before they get event started and which was which was a lot of fun uh and and it was a small group of students who was a dozen students and we got to dig in a little bit deeper about into Iron Man and objectiveism self-interest um and and that was that was really good and and really fun and then I got to spend time with 120 130 I didn't count but I counted and got to 100 and then I had to stop because the talk was starting so a great group of students this is a grammar school so it's a government funded school but that is selective so these are really really smart kids who go to college you go to Cambridge and Oxford and places like that uh these are these are kids are going to have an influence later on uh the same definitely is true at lands the same is true at at you know everywhere I go but particularly you know in these private schools they will go to great colleges and they will do fantastic things um it was great the Q&A was fantastic one of the goals was a real Marxist and she she she tried to challenge me on the Marxism they were incredibly polite incredibly well behaved incredibly passionate I there were enough hands I probably could have done a three hour Q&A you know I was limited by the school and the and the and the you know the bell rang and you know they all went but about I think two dozen maybe maybe maybe under 20 maybe uh 15 20 people as students came afterwards like a different room a conference room and we continued the Q&A there before I had to get into a taxi take me back to London where I did a talk for Razi I did like a panel for Razi you can find it on Einwitz Center UK and it was more about art the effect wokeness has on art right so that was that was good it was with a wall on personality in the UK and who has a TV show and so it was good we had a great exchange he said a lot of good things I think I said some stuff on art there was interesting. I think he was interested. I think generally the event was very good and very enlightening. Today, I was supposed to speak at Bristol. Oh, I did speak at Bristol. But yesterday I got an email from the organizers saying, look, the university has raised the risk of this event in medium. You are now a risk on campus. There's going to be a protest. They're accusing you of the whole list, racism, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian and sweatshops. The whole usual list. They might cancel it. I was worried that the university would cancel it. They landed up not canceling it. So I got to Bristol, took the train out to Bristol. Bristol is in the west, close to the border with Wales. It's in the west of England. And I came in through the back door to give a talk again on war and capitalism. And the protestor showed up about five minutes into the talk. And they basically sat right outside. There was security there. So it was security guard, real tough guy. I mean, he was great. He was fantastic. I love security guys. He was a former policeman, a former kind of riot trained in riot police who worked here in London. And they showed up and they stood right outside the door. And they basically spent the whole, whole of my talk banging on the door. They took a speaker and they played music and they put the speaker right against the window at the door. So the sound vibrated and the noise. Then they found some noise maker that made this like like siren noise constantly going on. So I was given a talk and this and a constant noise. So while this talk was recorded, we recorded sound, we recorded video. The sound is going to be terrible. And I might put it up anyway, just so you can hear kind of what was going on. But the sound is probably terrible. They were there the whole talk, the whole time. The police were called, the police were there. But the rules of the university are that as long as it's called peaceful, nothing can, they can't be removed. They can't, and this and making noise is considered peaceful. That is disrupting my talk, trying not to let me speak is considered peaceful. Talk about weird rules. So they stood out there with their speakers and their noisemakers and their chanting and their yelling and all of this. And I just delivered the talk and I had to yell a little bit. I had to raise my voice. I have a lot of voice anyway, so it's okay. I had to raise my voice. I hope the people in the corridor heard me. Maybe they learned something. Security kept them out of the room, which was good. They then escorted us out. You know, they, I guess they removed that they moved them to one side and then they escorted us out and I got, I got out and I'm a hotel room at the end of the evening. So everything was fine. Nobody got hurt. There was no violence. Nobody like that. But it was, you know, it was, it was disturbing that anybody thinks that this is appropriate. Now the security guy would have loved to do more, but these are the rules of the university. He couldn't remove them. He couldn't silence them. He couldn't arrest them. He couldn't do anything because the university won't allow him to do it. They are his employer. The police couldn't do anything. Same thing. They, you know, it's the university rules. So I did the talk. There was a lot of noise. I think the kids who attended the talk appreciated that. There was a good Q&A. I think they got a lot of new content. I think I've got maybe a few new followers on YouTube. But you know, I think, I think some of them will go and read my essays. They were curious about the accusations that the people made. So I went through a little bit of my views on Islam, on Palestinians, and we didn't get it to sweatshops, but the other stuff. Overall, I thought it was a really good event. It was, and, and, you know, the people, people who were there got to, got to hear my views on the causes of war, which I think you know, and you'll find out if you watch the lecture that I'm going to post tomorrow, basically is collectivism. But, but you knew that if you read Ein Rand, you all should read Ein Rand's essay, The Roots of War. Wow. Michael just put $300 onto a question. That's the most, I think Michael has ever put on a single question he spent. Thank you, Michael. That is amazing. Your question will obviously be the first I will get to. But that's, wow, that's great. So we're over halfway to the $600 mark. But I'd still like to get to $600, we're $365. So if you, if you want to support my going to these universities, if you want to support my speaking in spite of the noise, if you want to support not letting them silence me, then please use the super chat. And you're listening live, obviously, because if you're not listening live, you can't use the super chat, then please use the super chat to express that support. So I will keep speaking. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not stopping. These, these bastards will not slow me down. Now, what's interesting is I tweeted, when I got on the train on the way back, I tweeted, and I quote my tweet tonight, a group of leftist students tried tried to cancel me at Bristol University in the UK. In spite of their threats and the obnoxious noise they created, my talk in the roots of war proceeded as planned. I will not let thugs intimidate me into silence. So Dr. Joanne Passi on Twitter, you can find her tweet, you can respond, be polite. She writes, then our thugs, they're bright, brilliant students exercising their civil right to protest peacefully, yelling and screaming and not letting somebody speak is not peacefully peacefully. How dare you frame them that way? You have no respect for our students, and you are not welcome to speak here. That's good to know Dr. Presley does not welcome me to speak. I did reply to her. Where's my reply? I can't find my reply. I'm sure I replied to her. I don't think I can delete my replies. So I don't think anybody else can delete my replies. Maybe maybe there's a glitch. I basically said yelling and screaming and making loud noises and preventing somebody from speaking is thuggery. They are thugs. Tessie, thank you for the support. Really appreciate it. They are thugs and and she does not speak for the university and intend to come back to Bristol and speak again. I also said that if they were indeed intelligent and civilized and brilliant and bright and they could have come into the class, they could have come and sat down and they could have asked me all the questions in the world. Indeed, we ended the event early because security wanted us to clear. They could have come in. They could have asked a million questions about Islam and about my positions on war and about sweatshops and about anything they wanted. But no, they're thugs. They're thugs. So you know, now I'm worried about this tweet that has disappeared my response to her. Interesting. Maybe maybe I'm looking. Oh, there it is. So I wrote I was welcomed by the organization of students that invited me. You do not speak for everyone at the university. And yes, they are thugs. Peaceful protest does not entail silencing, which they actively attempted and failed to do. So there you go. If you would like to get involved in the Twitter exchange, Dr. Joanne Passi, she's right there and you can tell her what you think politely about her students and about their attempt at Bristol University to silence me. Let's show some force on the side of free speech. Let's show some force on the side of on the side of standing off our principles for our beliefs for our ideas and not letting these thugs bully us. All right, let's just see. I'm gonna let me jump into this topic about Alex Epstein because because it's related to this issue. And then Michael, I will get to your question. That'll be my first priority. Alex, thank you. Alex just did a hundred dollars. You're amazing. Can't believe they go away. They got away with disrupting your speech. Good for you and your resolve. Thank you, Alex. Absolutely. And there's no way these idiots are gonna effect what I say and whether I say it or not. I mean, Bristol might decide not to invite me in the future. I might have to zoom in or do something like that. But one way or another, I will speak and I will tell what I see as the truth. So I don't know if you've heard about this, but it now I haven't delved into it because I haven't had the time. I just discovered this this afternoon. I wish I'd heard about it earlier. But it seems like the Washington Post has is has launched a smear campaign against Alex Epstein. Now, I think you all know Alex Epstein is a good friend of mine. He's been on the show several times. He's about to come on the show again in a few weeks to talk about his new book. He is the author, of course, of the Marquise for fossil fuels. And he's got a new book coming out next month, which we will be promoting on my show. He is he is somebody that I hired that I met when he was still a college student at the age of 21, I think, or 21 or 22. He became he was my co-author on on several essays that I wrote that are published. I hired him to the Einstein Institute. I pursued him. I actively recruited him and then hired him into the Einstein Institute. When he was very young, I can't remember if he spent I think he spent six years or eight years, I can't remember. At the Einstein Institute, working for me, writing, speaking, and getting I think getting trained, he then decided to focus on energy and leave the Einstein Institute to do it himself, which I thought was a courageous and ambitious move. He became an intellectual entrepreneur. He has done phenomenally well. He's written this amazing book. And he has really changed the debate within the energy industry about fossil fuels, about climate change, about about the the political intellectual philosophical efforts to destroy our civilization by shutting down fossil fuels. Alex is courageous and incredibly smart and articulate and thoughtful. He really has a way of engaging in a way of thinking about problems that is fresh and original and new. And, you know, I am I'm one of his fans, right? I'm one of his fans and fan of the work he does. The Washington Post picked up some kind of comment he made or something he wrote when he was 18, and they've interpreted it in a way that suggests that Alex is a racist. That is bizarre. That is ridiculous. That is insane. Alex is not a racist. I again, I've known him since his early 20s, since his college days, when I visited Duke and gave a lecture there. He has worked for me. We have had, I don't know, hundreds of hours of discussion, debate, disagreement, agreement, work together on essays, you know, and never you would anybody never could you think of Alex as being anything, anything close to a racist. He's he's the exact opposite. You know, and and this is this is disgusting. Action by the Washington Post. It is it is just a an attempt to character assassinate Alex because of his political and because of his philosophical positions. It is it is an attempt to make him out to be something he is not in order to try to discredit the truth that he is writing about it is an attempt. And this is where I think you guys can help. This is a clear attempt to destroy the launch of his book. This is a clear tend to smear him says book does not do well and does not become a bestseller. You can help. If you don't like what the Washington Post is doing, if you think cancelling people because of their point of view, particularly a true point of view is wrong and evil and character assassination in the name of a political ideology is wrong and evil. Then the best thing you can do is buy the book. I don't get a percentage of royalty. So I'm not doing this because of percentage. I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do. Go to Amazon right now and pre order Alex Epstein's latest book. The title eludes me right now. I apologize. It is midnight after all in in in London. But just go and search Alex's book and and and search the latest, you know, the latest book that is coming out now. And and buy it pre order it. Let's let's let's defeat the Washington Post by making Alex Epstein's book. It's called for south future for south future. Thank you Scott called for south future. Thank you Pablo. And thank you all the rest of you. You can pre order it now. You can help make it a bestseller. You can stick it to the Washington Post. You can stick it to all of our enemies, other people want to silence me want to silence Alex want to silence anybody who has a rational perspective and wants to present new ideas, true ideas, ideas, the challenges status quo ideas, the challenge, the establishment. You can stick it to them by going right now right now to Amazon and buying the book. You should buy the book anyway because it's a great book and you'll find it really really interesting. You'll find there's a blurb by me. I don't think it's on the black cover, maybe it's on the inside, but I did write a blurb for the book. So the book is excellent. I've read, I've read it. So go you can pre order a kindle, you can pre-order it on on, you know, but get get, you know, get a hard copy. Alex will sign it. You know, you'll enjoy the fact that you you have this physical piece of of an important book that might change the world because suddenly if we don't listen, if the world does not listen to Alex when it comes to fossil fuels, then the world is going to be in a lot worse shape than it is today. Cancer culture, we can fight it. I said this yesterday at the event. The way to fight cancer culture and the way to find wokeness, the way to fight wokeness is to ignore it in the sense of tell them screw you. I'm going to continue to talk. I don't care what you think. I don't care if you want to cancel me. I don't care if you want to silence me. I don't care about your wokeness. I don't give a damn about your ideas. You're wrong. Your methods are wrong and your content is wrong. And if everybody who had a an unpopular idea, if everybody who had an idea that wanted to be canceled, if anybody and we're talking about mainstream people, because this is not, you know, they want to cancel so many of us, if all of us stood up, it all of us said no, just like J.K. Wallins does. Now, J.K. Wallins, granted, is doing it from a position where she has a lot of wealth. But if all of us did it, if we just said no, if we just in a sense ignored them, if we just continue to speak, if we just continue to present, if we just continue to write, and if we supported the people we value like buying Alex's book, then they fail. They lose. We win and it's over. That's the reality. That's the reality. Don't cancel the cancel the cancel cultures. Don't cancel them. No, we don't, you know, there's no reason to ignore them. Keep speaking. Keep saying what you believe. Don't cover is the point. The reason cancel culture is successful is because too many people cover to it. That's what makes it possible. That's what gives them energy. That's what gives them prominence is that people cover to it. Don't cover. Speak, speak, speak, speak. Todd, thank you. $100. He says just preordered the book. Excellent. Through Amazon Smile, providing a donation to A.R.I. Excellent. You should all be using Amazon Spine for this. So don't let them get to you. Screw them. I mean, they want to protest, protest. They're not going to, they're not going to silence any of us. They're not going to silence Alex. I know Alex. They're not going to silence the other objective assistants with the A.R.I. They're not going to silence me. They're not going to silence us. We will continue to fight. All right. Thank you guys. You're really showing a lot of support today. I appreciate it. Michael asks, and this is for $300 bucks. The left is on the way out. Christianity is impotent. The fascist right will not materialize the, will not materialize the power to suppress free speech in the near future. And Islam only has power in the West through the nihilistic left. Freedom of speech is sadly dying out, but its death is too slow to stop better ideas from taking root. Yeah. I think at the end of the day, that's all right. At the end of the day, it's absolutely true. All these ideas of dying the West is, I mean, I think, I think, uh, Wokeness and CRT are the death throes of the left. I think they are, they're ridiculous ideas that nobody can really take seriously. And I think that there is a massive void because while I don't think the Christianity is dying out or that it's impotent, it's not a powerful ideology. There is a real window of opportunity for good ideas to strike, for good ideas to come forward, for good ideas to be prominent. To do that, we need to speak, speak, speak right, right, right. We need to engage with the world. We need to not cower before it. We need to stand up to it. We need to form strategic alliances where it's appropriate. And, um, yeah, Michael, I think, I think you're right in the sense that there is an opportunity. And, uh, you know, we need to seize this opportunity and do whatever we can to seize the opportunity. I think, uh, I think that your support for Ayn Rand, your support for Objectivism, your support for the Ayn Rand Institute, your support for the Iran book show is a way to seize this opportunity and to really, and to really stand up, uh, to these, uh, to these, uh, evil bastards left, right, and across the political center, uh, the spectrum. All right. Uh, let us, let me talk about the slap, the slap. So I guess you've all seen this, um, uh, what's his name, who was emceeing the Oscars, uh, Chris Rock, uh, made it a bad joke, not a very funny joke, but then much of the humor's not funny about a Will Smith's wife and about the kind of the, the arrangement they have, I guess, the kind of an open marriage they have or whatever it happens to be. And, um, you know, Will Smith kind of hesitates a little bit, looks at his wife, his wife looks insulted and he gets up on stage and slaps, slaps Chris Rock. Now there's a lot to say about this, starting with the fact that violence is never the answer to insult. Uh, there's a lot of things Will Smith could have done. There's a lot of things he could have done during the ceremony, after the ceremony, uh, violence is inappropriate. He was violent in the fact that he was not escorted out of the auditorium by security is absurd and ridiculous. It's another sanction to cancel culture. It's another sanction of violence. It's another sanction of the whole idea that speech is violence. And therefore it's okay to retaliate to speech with violence. You can't hit people. There's a law and he should have been prosecuted or at least escorted out. And then I guess Chris Rock would have decided if he was going to file charges or not. So I think that's pretty simple as straightforward. I think it's interesting the number of people on the right supporting Will Smith standing up for his wife being a man. It's just that maybe the right doesn't believe in free speech either. Maybe the right thinks that slapping is okay. That speech is violence. I think it's very revealing. I think it's also pretty revealing that the immediate aftermath of this, the responses all over the place and then people kind of segregated into their tribes and into some safe space in terms of what they said and what they've used of this war or not. But it was some strange bad fellows, right? The left has been arguing for years now that speech is violence and therefore should be met with violence. And now it seemed that Will Smith has adopted that and the right is coming to his defense. At the same time though, Chris Rock is unbelievably inappropriate. And I think this has been true of the Oscars for a long time. They're inappropriate. They should be canceled. Think about what the Oscars represents or at least represented. It represented glamour. It represented achievement. It represented celebration. It represented beauty, success. This is an event that celebrates the achievement of directors and actors and writers. It is truly an intent, a noble event, a classy event. And you know, over the years, the Oscars have become more and more politicized. I mean, it was always somewhat politicized. Marlon Brando didn't go and collect his Academy Award. He sent an American Indian to do it for him and things like that. But it was never, it was like a site show, the politics. And now the politics became a mainstream. These actors are all virtue signal when they get their Oscars and they make these political speeches. But in addition to that, the people asked to host the Oscars have made it cheaper and cheaper. They ridicule. They attack, ridicule, pervert, distort. They make it a cheap event. The Oscars are not stand-up comedy. Stand-up comedy, you can insult anybody and say anything. This is not stand-up comedy. This is supposed to be classy. And it's the stand-up comedy. It's the Chris Rocks of the world being the emcees of the event that has destroyed it. Now, with the political speeches of the people. Now, I know, what's the British comedian who does a lot of these award shows and who makes fun of all the of all the all the attendees, the guy from the office, the British office, somebody will tell me his name in a minute. But it's terrible to watch him. Yes, he makes fun of their politics. He makes fun of their leftism. Gervais, Ricky Gervais. But that's not the purpose of being there. The purpose of being there is recognizing their achievement. You might not like them as human beings. You might not like them politically. But the event is there to celebrate their achievement. You want to make fun of them? Do it in your stand-up routine. You want to make fun of them? Try to get an HBO special. Making fun of Hollywood. It's easy to do. It's easy to do. And yeah, he's funny. But what's the difference between Chris Rock and Ricky Gervais? So the Academy Awards, what's sad is that it is treated as with a cynicism and a skepticism that unfortunately dominates our culture. And I think the whole slap episode is very reflective of our culture. That we demean achievement. We demean success. We demean the rewards. We politicize everything. And then of course, we sanction violence as a response to speech. As far as I know, Chris Rock is not filing charges. The Academy Awards doesn't do anything to Will Smith. It's as if it never happens. Somebody asked about Billy Crystal. I don't think I don't remember Billy Crystal insulting the audience. He made fun of some some of the old timers. He made fun of certain aspects of Hollywood. But he didn't insult them. He didn't make it personal. Now, maybe I'm mistaken because I don't remember that well. I mean, I think the Oscars ratings are going down because it's lost that glamour. People watch the Oscars because Hollywood has this dream aspect to it. This idealization, this glamour, this class, it's one area where we still celebrate achievement. Great actors, great directors. But it's gone. And it's a sad day that it's gone. It's sad for our culture. It's sad for our world that we do not have Oscars to celebrate. So I am saddened by the whole phenomena. And I think the slap is just the death of the Oscars. And hopefully it will kill them. I didn't think the Oscars were boring in the past. I thought it was always cool to try to figure out who the movie that's won. And yeah, a lot of movies have won the Oscars that didn't deserve it. But that was also interesting. It was interesting culturally to see which movies win and which don't. I always find it interesting to see some of these celebrities, not to hear their politics, but to see how they handle themselves. Will Smith did not handle himself well. All of these award ceremonies have now become opportunities for Hollywood to mark itself. And there's no joy that does not bring me joy. Yeah, I know you guys love to make fun of the politics of their politics. But that's not what Hollywood is about. Hollywood is about entertaining us, creating good movies. Some of them good, some of them entertaining, some of garbage. But but think of the potential, think of what could be and think of the glamour. Anyway, I just thought I'd share those thoughts with you about the slap. All right. So I am going to now go to the Super Chat. We have reached our goal of 600, I think with 650 or something around there. Of course, March was a thin month from a Super Chat perspective. I think I made up that income by giving these all these talks around Europe. But but still it was a thin month. So any support you show on the show today is greatly appreciated because there's going to be less revenue coming in from YouTube. All right. So let's see where the questions make sure. Okay, we'll do some $20 questions. Not sure what 200 Mexican is. Somebody let me know what 200 is. Scott, looking forward to seeing you at the ARC. Thank you. Looking forward to being there on Friday tomorrow. Alex says, considering the behavior of these childless college students and the cowardice of school administrators, and should I say administrators, to do anything about it, is the college as we know it a dying institution? I mean, no, I don't think so. I think you can still get a valid education in college, particularly if you're going into sciences. But but even in some colleges in humanities, I don't think I think it's too early to consider colleges dead. What's what's the alternative in knowledge is crucially important that colleges are still bastions of at least some knowledge. You know, I think that universities are losing their credibility with events like this. I think these students are losers and and and they're not going to be very successful in their life unless they change. It turns out most of them do change once they leave college. They most of them abandon these kind of absurd ideas and and and and dramatically dramatically shift. So I'm not ready to say that that college is a dead. I mean, I mean, you really need to think twice about what you want to study in a college and which college to go to. But I don't think they yet finished. It would be nice if there was an alternative. But there isn't one yet. There isn't one yet. Randy says, always enjoy your show and learn a lot. Thank you. Thank you, Andy, for the support. Let's see if there are any other $20 ones. Yes, Will says. Yeah, Will said he commented on content of character. They focused on your color of skin. Yes, I mean, that's typical, right? I mean, he was making an anti racist point by focusing on content of character. And they they turned it into a racist thing. But that's that's what they this is Alex Epstein in Washington Post. That's what they do. That's that's that's how they distort and pervert and try to discredit you so they can silence you. Themaster writes movies often show the good guys using violence or destroying property to someone who is very obnoxious or insulting. Does this ever begin influence against free speech? I don't think so. I don't think people take movies literally movies are symbolic. The fact that any more than, you know, I ran, you know, hard rock blowing up. The buildings suggest that oh, you should go around anytime somebody doesn't do what you like them to do, you destroy the property or something like that. That's not suggestive of it. It's a novel. There's a context. And and it's not supposed to be something you mimic. It's not supposed to be something that's suggestive of what happens of what you should do. So I think movies are the same thing. Movies kind of an opportunity for us to express a frustration at the fact that some people say horrible things and nothing of a bad happens to them and we live vicariously through the character. I don't I don't think it is it is the case that movies have that kind of influence that concrete kind of influence on people. Oh, in the movie, they beat up the guy for saying acts. So it's okay for me to do the same thing. I don't think it works that way. All right, let's take non $20 question. So one Herrera asks, what was the main message I ran was trying to send with anthem? Well, it's the danger of ignoring or suppressing the eye, the individual, the ego. So it is it is the fact that when you suppress the ego and the eye goes away, civilization goes away, life goes away, life worth living goes away so that so that it is a critique of kind of collectivism and the disappearance of the word, you know, the word eye, which represents the disappearance of individualism for the sake of collectivism. Okay, Harper Campbell asks writes, if I were Chris Rock, I would have had Will Smith arrested. And after they took him away, made jokes about his wife the rest of the evening. Yeah, I mean, I think that Will Smith should have been arrested. Liam says, the future was a way of a right has a way of arriving unannounced. I think that's true. I can't I don't have the context for that comment. If we had less of fake capitalism, Michael asks, would most people be able to retire at 40 if they wanted to? Not saying they should. I mean, you could retire 40 today. It depends on what kind of standard of living you want to live it. By 40, you should be if you really, if you really save and you don't spend a lot and you really watch what you do and where you live and all of that. By age 40, you should be able to save enough money to live at a basic level for the rest of your life. It's not about retiring. It's about retiring with a great lifestyle. If you're going to retire, and I'm not sure why anybody would want to retire at age 40. And with more freedom, you make more money. You get to save more money. You get to, you know, you get to spend more money on more and more sophisticated things. So yes, you can retire early, but but why would you retire early and live at a higher standard of living? Even today, you can retire at age 40 and live at a decent standard of living. It's just that the standard of living will rise over time. Saul asks, do your econ views align totally with Austrian economics? What is inaccurate about the Keynesian multiplier? Also would love a beginning of infinity update. God, you get, I mean, how much is that $5? And you're asking each question could last an hour in answers. I'm going to give very short answers. But for $5, that's all I can do. Do you can views align totally with Austrian economics? Well, I mean, it depends. Austrian economics is not unified. There's disagreement. I think my economics views basically align with Austrian economics. They align with at least the von Mises interpretation of Austrian economics. Do they like totally probably not probably nothing aligns totally. I don't think the Austrians among themselves align totally with Austrian economics. But I believe that Austrian economics is the best explanation of an economic system that there is. What is inaccurate about the Keynesian multiplier? God, what's wrong with the Keynesian multiplier? It just doesn't work. That is demand does not generate you know, multiples of value. And I, you know, I'm too tired to explain that. So we'll have to leave that one for a different show. Also would love a beginning of infinity update. I'm on chapter 13. I haven't read it in a while. I've been doing other things. I'm very mixed about it. So I love certain aspects of it, but he's so wrong on so many things that I'm losing a little bit of patience. He's so wrong epistemologically, and that causes him to make errors across his entire he has certain good things in his section on arts and certain really bad things in a section of art. So it's frustrating. I'm finding it very, very frustrating. Michael asked our community college a complete scam. Would you recommend not going to one even if it saves you a fortune? No, I don't think it's a scam. I don't see why it's a scam. They teach you you're not, you're not going to Harvard, you're not going to the best school in the world, but you're not paying for it either. So I don't think it's a scam. I think for many people, it's a leg up and get you could do two years of community college and then go to college. So no, I don't think community college is a scam. Hopper Campbell asks, I guess this is supposed to insult me. What is your relationship with Alma Fudd? And why have you been keeping it a secret from your audience? I guess because I talk like Alma Fudd, he's trying to be sophisticated and make fun of me. I feel sorry for the people like that. It's not funny. And it's mainly stupid. And it's not insulting. I speak the way I speak. Live with it. Okay, let's see. One asks, what should be the most important lesson people learn from anthem? It's individualism. It's live for yourself. It's, it's, it's, you know, don't get, don't give up in the eye. Don't give up on self. Don't give up on your own identity and your own values and your own life. Because if you do, the end result of that is the kind of world of anthem, which you do not want to live in. Okay, free trade, said Elon Musk blocked Alex Epstein on Twitter. I know it's horrible. Yeah, he says it's evading, I agree. Emilio says, should the United States send weapons and equipments to Ukraine? Is it an American self interest to spend taxpayer money on that? I mean, in the big context of what America spends taxpayer money on, yes, you know, America gives money to Israel for two weapons, America gives all kinds of, in a rational society, well, the world would have never happened in a rational society. So, but, but yes, I absolutely think that it's in America's interest to bog down the Russians. It's an American interest for the Russians to lose. It's in America's interest to test its equipment out. And, and, and hold back. Rado Tudo Coleman, thank you for the, for the support. Not sure how much money that is, but I really appreciate the support. So yeah, I think they should, if they can find a way to send it and have it funded, I think some billionaires can fund it. I, you know, ideally it wouldn't come out of taxpayer money. I think that plenty of volunteers who are eager to fund arms to the Ukrainians and to defeat the Russians, I would rather it be that way. But we live in a, in a world in which that is not always possible and where countries sell and, and provide arms to other countries all the time. And I think if ever there was a case to do that, this is a good case, just like the United States gave military support without entering the war during World War II to Great Britain and even the Soviet Union, unfortunately. Marquez, would it be appropriate for one to cut off friends? You cues, objectivist thought of being anti-Christian. What are your thoughts? I mean, I couldn't live with, I couldn't have a friend. I couldn't have a friend who was, who viewed objectivism as, who got upset because objectivism was anti-Christian. But that's me. I mean, if you can tolerate, I mean, because objectivism is anti-Christian. So they're actually speaking the truth. The thing is, how upset this makes, I, I, I don't think I could have a friend who took a Christianity seriously enough to make it an issue between us. But I'm not saying everybody's like that. People are married Christians, objectivist married Christians. People can, you know, can, can have all kinds of friendships and relationships. I'm a professional intellectual. Christianity is my enemy. It's hard for me to be tolerant. Colt says Alma Fudge sure has one smart friend. Thank you. I think, I think that was a compliment to me. Thank you. Dean says, Hey, your honor, if she couldn't see you in Israel, I have a question. What is your opinion on screening in airports or racial profiling? I'm for racial profiling when it's appropriate, when there's significant reason to believe that a perpetrator is of a particular skin color, a particular ethnic group, a particular religion, then it's okay to screen for that if, if there's evidence that something is going to happen. I'm against screening at airports. Screening at airports should be done privately. The airports are higher people to screen. It shouldn't be a government activity. I think the TSA should be dismantled. If airports want to secure who goes into the airports, if airlines want to secure who goes onto airlines, they should do it privately. It is not the business of government to screen airline passengers and airport people who attend to airports. So I'll do away with the TSA very, very quickly. Frank says workers start at the bottom and work in sweatshops. But what about working conditions? Critics of capitalism are going to try and go should waste fire. Working conditions are not very good. It's part of what it means to work at the bottom. And in some cultures, in some countries are so poor that that's the working conditions and there's risk associated with it. I don't know the triangle should waste fire in details. What happened there exactly? To the extent that managers lock people in and cause them to die, they should be prosecuted. But to the extent that working conditions are unsafe, that everybody knows they are unsafe, that no effort is made to cause damage to the workers on top of that. That's just part of life. Just part of life. Brian Prince says, Hey, you're on is back on intriguing title at work. Can't listen. Listen later. Okay, great. I am kind of I need to get some sleep. Thank you guys. I know it was a compliment. I call it. I appreciate it. And I'm a little slow tonight because I'm exhausted. It's like 1237. It's been a long day. I've given I've given me I've done meetings. I've given talks. I've gone on a train ride. I need to get some sleep so I can continue tomorrow. So thank you everybody. Don't forget, uh, St. Louis writes, You aren't only unfairly criticizes Christianity. That's funny, given that it just came from an event where I was accused by protesters just for the third time in a week for being too harsh on Islam. I just can't win. I can't win. I mean, the two nice days Muslims are too bad, horrible Muslims to nice to Christians are too bad, you know, to horrible Christians can't win. I think I'm pretty objective about Christianity and Islam. All right, guys. Thank you. By the way, so, so Scott says Christians are not the problem compared to protesters. Oh, yes, they are. You should have seen the protesters against me speaking in Chicago in 2016, where I was almost lynched by people in the stage who refused to talk to me. Didn't didn't want me to sign their books. It treated me like shit. And they were all Republicans, Christians. And what was my offense? I did question their beliefs about immigration. The right is just as canceling and can be just as violent and just as horrible and free speech as anybody on the left. It just happens that in universities, it's the left that dominates. But if you go, you try talking at CPAC and be pro immigration, I dare you. I'll see you all. I don't know when sometime in April, that's for sure. I am I am off to bed, which is right behind me. So it's easy to be off to bed. And I will talk to you soon. I hope you have a great weekend. I probably won't see you during the weekend. I'll be at the conference. And don't forget to support the show you're on bookshow.com slash support, Patreon, subscribe star. Great month, March. Thank you for all the support. Thank you for all the super chatters. See you soon. Bye everybody. Thank you, Radoom. Just leaving this tip for the excellent Edinburgh lecture on modern art. I loved it. I'm really glad people really appreciate that lecture. Bonus points from cleaning a photo of Bernini's David. I have a photo of Bernini's David hanging on my wall. I think I have at least one one of my favorite all time sculptures. Bernini, one of my favorite all time sculptors.