Ask Dr. Drew - Scott Adams 2022 Predictions – Dilbert Creator Reviews 2021 & New Year – Ask Dr. Drew – Episode 62

Episode Date: January 3, 2022

Scott Adams – creator of Dilbert – discusses the biggest events of 2021 and reveals his predictions for 2022. Scott Adams is the creator of Dilbert, which has over 70 million books and products in... print. He is also a prolific podcaster who uses his training as a hypnotist and lifelong student of persuasion to analyze current events through the lens of persuasion. Online, Scott Adams is renowned for his provocative discussions about politics, censorship, and media bias. Order Scott Adam’s book LOSERTHINK at http://go.drdrew.com/loserthink  Follow Scott Adams on Locals at https://scottadams.locals.com/  Watch more Dr. Drew episodes with Scott Adams: https://drdrew.com/?post_type=post&s=scott+adams  Follow Scott Adams online at: https://twitter.com/scottadamssays  https://Dilbert.com  Ask Dr. Drew is produced by Kaleb Nation ( https://kalebnation.com) and Susan Pinsky (https://twitter.com/FirstLadyOfLove). SPONSORS • BLUE MICS – After more than 30 years in broadcasting, Dr. Drew’s iconic voice has reached pristine clarity through Blue Microphones. But you don’t need a fancy studio to sound great with Blue’s lineup: ranging from high-quality USB mics like the Yeti, to studio-grade XLR mics like Dr. Drew’s Blueberry. Find your best sound at https://drdrew.com/blue  • HYDRALYTE – “In my opinion, the best oral rehydration product on the market.” Dr. Drew recommends Hydralyte’s easy-to-use packets of fast-absorbing electrolytes. Learn more about Hydralyte and use DRDREW25 at checkout for a special discount at https://drdrew.com/hydralyte  • ELGATO – Every week, Dr. Drew broadcasts live shows from his home studio under soft, clean lighting from Elgato’s Key Lights. From the control room, the producers manage Dr. Drew’s streams with a Stream Deck XL, and ingest HD video with a Camlink 4K. Add a professional touch to your streams or Zoom calls with Elgato. See how Elgato’s lights transformed Dr. Drew’s set: https://drdrew.com/sponsors/elgato/  THE SHOW: For over 30 years, Dr. Drew Pinsky has taken calls from all corners of the globe, answering thousands of questions from teens and young adults. To millions, he is a beacon of truth, integrity, fairness, and common sense. Now, after decades of hosting Loveline and multiple hit TV shows – including Celebrity Rehab, Teen Mom OG, Lifechangers, and more – Dr. Drew is opening his phone lines to the world by streaming LIVE from his home studio in California. On Ask Dr. Drew, no question is too extreme or embarrassing because the Dr. has heard it all. Don’t hold in your deepest, darkest questions any longer. Ask Dr. Drew and get real answers today. This show is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All information exchanged during participation in this program, including interactions with DrDrew.com and any affiliated websites, are intended for educational and/or entertainment purposes only. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:45 please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Hey, everybody. Welcome to our immediate post-Christmas show. I hope you had a great holiday. New year coming up. I hope you're all looking forward to 2022 and i hope it continues to improve i think 2021 is probably better than 2020 but not by a huge margin but i
Starting point is 00:01:11 have very high hopes for 2022 uh i want to get right to my special guest today of course it is scott adams the cartoonist that uh creator and the ex who executes dilbert on a regular basis uh that is not why he's here today. Our laws as it pertains to substances are draconian and bizarre. The psychopath started this. He was an alcoholic because of social media and pornography,
Starting point is 00:01:35 PTSD, love addiction, fentanyl and heroin. Ridiculous. I'm a doctor for f***'s sake. Where the hell do you think I learned that? I'm just saying, you go to treatment before you kill people. I am a clinician. I observe things about these chemicals.
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Starting point is 00:03:19 He is here because he is also a hypnotist and a persuasion expert. He's an expert in the glitches in our rational system, such as it is. And I started listening to him. I found you before you started doing your daily, what was a periscope at the time, because you were making sense of a world that was becoming increasingly irrational and I couldn't make sense of it welcome yeah thank you uh and i think you just said that i execute dilbert but um well you execute the cartoon now you're you're the creator and the artist behind the cartoon maybe one day maybe he's telegraphing something here he is a a hypnotist. He might be dropping something in here.
Starting point is 00:04:06 I always thought that if I discontinued the comic, I would go out with a big move, maybe kill him or something. Anyway, it seems to me that the entire understanding of reality is being challenged in a way that's never happened before. And some of it is a confluence of events, just coincidence. And it started, like you said, when Trump entered the race in 2015, 2016. I predicted at the time, one of my best predictions, I think, that he would change not just politics, but our sense of reality. Now fast forward and see what has changed in just those few years. We no longer believe
Starting point is 00:04:50 the news is even real. Yeah, Trump did that. We no longer trust experts with the same kind of credibility we used to give them. Now everything is like, well, I think I'd rather follow the money before I trust what you're saying. You had the Rittenhouse verdict, which a lot of people on the left for the first time realized, wait a minute, it's not just the news we criticize on the right. Maybe it's just all the news. Maybe the business model of the news has changed. So it doesn't even make sense to give it to you straight anymore. You always leave out some context. So then you've got the Matrix movies coming out, and you've got everybody talking about the simulation.
Starting point is 00:05:32 And the strangest thing is that the COVID, the whole pandemic, has created two complete different histories that when it's done, some portion of the public in a pretty big portion will say literally nothing happened. And I hear from them all the day, all the time, they're going to say, no, there wasn't even a pandemic. If we had simply ignored it, we wouldn't have noticed it. And therefore there was no pandemic. Now I don't buy into that philosophy, but think about how far we've gone from something like a consensus about reality to we don't even agree what we all experienced in real time. I mean, if you're doubting that we've pandered to this, that's nuts.
Starting point is 00:06:21 Yeah, it's not. Yeah, it's crazy. But you know, when I hear you say that, my mind immediately trails back to a time, a simpler time, when we all heard Yanni Laurel and the yellow-blue dress and looked at that and thought, what? How can people see two things so differently? And you at the time, as I recall, were going, oh, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. This is a tiny little example of what is happening right now. Yeah, these are a little bit of clues that seem to be adding up. It's like the frequency with which we're being told that our reality is completely subjective, at least in terms of how we experience it. There's something under there somewhere that's real. And I think that's the biggest change is that people's understanding of reality itself,
Starting point is 00:07:12 just base reality is going to take a really big turn. Well, you said something this morning that caught my attention and I want to follow up if you don't mind. And I think I know what you're going to say. But you said essentially that right now the highest level of consciousness, I'm not sure what words to use, but awareness. Awareness? Awareness? All right. Awareness would be a basic understanding, starting from the place that you know nothing.
Starting point is 00:07:44 You really know nothing. And you can't rely on a lot of things you thought you could rely on. But what's next? What's the next level of awareness? Well, I guess we'll have to find out because, you know, you'd have to be there to answer that question. I feel like the people who think only the other side are wrong are probably learning that that's not true. If we get to the point where we all realize the high degree of subjectivity in everything we're doing, one could imagine, and I'll just speculate for fun, that maybe after that is the authoring stage where you can start to manipulate the situation, maybe not even knowing how. I mean, there's plenty of science that says, for example, that if you have a positive attitude
Starting point is 00:08:34 and you convince yourself over time that good things are going to happen to you, even if you don't really believe it, you just go through the routine of telling yourself good things will happen. really believe it. You just go through the routine of telling yourself good things will happen. It turns out that your field of perception increases and you notice opportunities. So there's a real mechanism where simply putting your intentions into the universe seems to kick up possibilities for you that you wouldn't have seen before. So there may be some completely natural intentionality yeah intentions may be the next level it occurs to me and but talk a little more about that because
Starting point is 00:09:12 that intentionality i don't think people intuitively are common it's not common for people understand what you're talking about by setting an attention deciding to do something as a it's a very it's it's it's a it's from your hypnotic training that that all comes, comes in. Yeah. And it's based on really a part of partly psychology, but partly the, you know, the field of how to succeed. And people don't make enough of a distinction between wanting something, you know, wanting to be rich and successful and deciding, because deciding is when you say, I don't care how much this is going to cost. wanting something, wanting to be rich and successful, and deciding. Because deciding
Starting point is 00:09:46 is when you say, I don't care how much this is going to cost. It's just going to happen. So you could argue that leaving Afghanistan was not wanting. That was a decision because we did it at great cost. I mean, I don't want to bring that politics into it. But there is a big distinction between deciding and wanting. And once you realize that, you start noticing that the things you decide are the things that come in. They're the ones that happen. And it's going to look like luck. And it's going to look like, well, I just noticed that thing, or this person had that contact, or I made this big sale and it all worked out. So if you start noticing how often a clear intention gets you what you want, it's almost magical. I'll tell you the first place that I heard this was Salesforce's CEO and
Starting point is 00:10:35 founder, whose name I'm blanking on right now, Benioff. I got to chat with him a little bit a few years ago. And he talked about the importance of intention and how, especially as a leader, I think if your intention is really clear, then people can gather around it and you can get what you need. So ever since then, I've been thinking about it because obviously it's hugely successful. So you listen to people who have done it, not the people who want to do it. You want to listen to the people who actually have done it. And I became a convert over time because you have to, you have to observe it over time. But I don't know, maybe it's confirmation bias, but it certainly looks like that intention thing is a steering device to get you what you want. Well, well interestingly you have a story back
Starting point is 00:11:26 with the the test result that you wrote down before getting into berkeley that was an intention wasn't it i mean that's you tell them that story it's an uncanny story but i've had weird experiences like that in my life particularly younger when you when your intentions are very intense you know but tell them that story so i I'll tell this story, but you have to understand is one of a set of stories that are equally unlikely. Now they're true, but the unlikeliness of it is the point of it. So I wanted to take the, the GMATs, the test you take to get into a business school. And I had taken the,
Starting point is 00:12:01 taken one of them before and I got something, I think the 77th percentile, which doesn't get you into a top school. But I had a bet with a coworker that I could beat her new score that she was studying to take. And for some crazy reason, I thought I could beat her new score, even though she was taking a prep course and I wasn't. And so I did my affirmations, which I'd been practicing and had some success with. And I imagined and visualized, instead of getting a 77th percentile, which every time I took a practice test, I got about that same response, same answer.
Starting point is 00:12:39 I imagined 94th percentile, because I figured that would be high enough to get into a good school given business experience and everything that I had at that point. And so I would just imagine opening the thing, because I'd seen it before, what the test result would look like, because I'd taken it once before, a few years ago. And I just imagined seeing a 94 there. And every day I would visualize and do an affirmation that it would be a 94, it would be a 94. So I take the test. It didn't feel any different than the practice tests I'd taken, in which I'd never scored higher than, I don't think I broke into the 80s, actually.
Starting point is 00:13:15 But I'm pretty good under pressure. And I took the test and went home. And a few weeks later, I got the result. And I opened it up. I remember sitting in the chair and in my room and my little, uh, you know, mold filled apartment in San Francisco. Those were, uh, interesting times. And I remember looking at it and in the little box with the result, it said 94. And I looked at it and I thought, well, I must be reading like a code or something.
Starting point is 00:13:45 It couldn't actually be 94. And for hours that night, I would pick it up and look at it. And then I would put it down to see if it changed when I looked at it again. Everything I thought of realities just became in question. Now, of course, it could be coincidence. Maybe I had a good idea. But the big punchline is it's part of several things I did that all had that same, oh, my God, this would be a big coincidence if there were only one of them. But it was a repeatable experience.
Starting point is 00:14:24 It's interesting. That's what got me on the path to question reality as we experience it. Yeah. And maybe we ought to sort of frame for people, you know, sort of how our cognitive systems work. They're full of glitches. Our cognitive systems are not perfect i i worry about subjectivity being the next uh level of awareness because subjectivity then you start to you you have the potential of starting to demean rationality and demean logic and rationality logic are very
Starting point is 00:14:58 useful they just have glitches and they serve uh uh what uh ian called the what did he call it the the master and his emissary he called it and the master is the emotional systems and the bodily based systems and you said the other day I thought was really interesting you were talking talking you were talking about motivations and people don't talk about motivations very often different than intentions motivations you know what are these biological urges in us and you said really all motivations distill down to fear and reproduction and i thought yeah because fear is sort of part of the survival phenomenon right your fear of dying fear of fill in the blank and uh and then push the push the genes forward which is from an evolutionary biological standpoint that is the priority that's what we're here for as far as
Starting point is 00:15:50 biology is concerned but it leaves a system that is sort of uh you know at the whim of some pretty powerful forces that that most people aren't aware are really driving the ship. Yeah, the beauty of our existence, civilization, as well as your life is it's really pretty self-correcting. So we have the advantage that we can think, well, I think this is right. Let's try it. And if somebody doesn't die, then other people try it. So you can sort of feel your way through reality with like, you know, like braille. And we rarely have the comfort
Starting point is 00:16:30 of a randomized controlled trial that's been reproduced three times to make our decisions. So you have to make decisions, because you can't do nothing. Doing nothing is making a decision. But it helps a lot to realize that other people's motivation and yours too, are being driven by survival, let's call it a fear, and reproduction, even when you're I thinking that it's part of the reproductive signaling process, but I don't think of it that way. I just think, oh, I wear a nice shirt because I'm going to be seen by a lot of people. But what, but what, what's the real reason? Couldn't I have worn a
Starting point is 00:17:14 t-shirt? I mean, I do for my own podcast. So of course I, of course I could. So why, why did I make this decision? Don't know. It's why one of the many reasons I love working with addicts, because that's the only time you get to see all the cognitive systems and the motivational, well, and all the brain systems serving a new motivation that is distorted and broken. In other words, the desire, the drive to use takes over from fear and reproduction and all those things subside. And this one priority emerges, which is used no matter what. And it's not a thought, it's not a thinking, and it's not a craving. It's a motivational priority. So all they're thinking, they start thinking about the people they need to be around
Starting point is 00:18:03 or where they need to go. And they don't realize there's this broken motivation pushing them to to get near the drugs so they will use again because that's all the brain is interested when they have a full-blown addiction yeah and they're not always aware of it when you say it's just they'll they'll find a reason that that their hobby will put them in a position where there's drugs. That's right. Exactly. That's exactly right. And when they have, there's a lot of preoccupation in addiction medicine today about cravings. I have always said cravings are a good thing.
Starting point is 00:18:36 Cravings let the patient know the disease is alive and well. It's like they can feel it. Okay, I got to do something or I'm going to succumb to these cravings. The more pernicious part of the illness is when they feel great. They got it together. Everything's fine. And yet that motivational disturbance is there and they're not aware of it. And it operates on everything for years until it settles down. And that's the frightening part about the illness.
Starting point is 00:19:03 And it enlists everything. It enlists reason. It enlists everything. It enlists reason. It enlists emotions. It enlists relationships. Whatever talents the person has, it enlists all of that. Yeah, I almost wonder if we're hurting ourselves by imagining that an addict is, I want to say it in a non-insulting way because I'm trying to be productive about it. But almost a separate creature. Almost it's like a human with a change.
Starting point is 00:19:31 Because the drug plus the human is a different biological entity. It's a different thing. It's a different thing. I agree with you, but that they are different in a specific and unique way. But I will just leave it at that. Excuse me. Speaking of those sorts of things, you had some doctor questions you wanted to ask me. I heard that, I think it was on a Joe Rogan podcast recently,
Starting point is 00:19:58 there was some kind of a nasal spray, maybe an iodine-based thing for your baby's mouth or nose. And the question was, I know there were some other mouthwashes that people thought were good, but the question was, how quickly would your mouth repopulate if, let's say those things worked and just took it to zero? I doubt they could do that. Let's say they took it to zero. Are we talking about an hour later, you're back to where you were or or does it make a difference it seems to be several hours later so i actually was talked to one of the inventors that came up with one of these beta solutions guys an ophthalmologist a super bright guy and he had all this data showing that you could dislodge the virus essentially a hundred percent from the back
Starting point is 00:20:42 of your throat and from the nasal pharynx with these dilute poviadine solutions. And another guy, he has a product called X-Clear that has shown the same thing with just saline. There's other data out there that show that Listerine can do this. So there's three different products that seem to be able to do this. I don't understand why no one has promoted it. It seems to be fairly efficacious. You have to do it three, four times a day. And I heard you said you take mouthwash four times a day or something. Maybe that's why you haven't had COVID. It really dislodges the virus. The virus has to bind and then get in. And it takes a little time for it
Starting point is 00:21:20 to get in. And if you can dislodge it before it gets in. I use it before vodka vodka doesn't do it i'm sorry yes it does no that's just your your your genes your superhuman genes all right red wine there's a theoretical amount of vodka will make you feel that you don't have coke so i think i think she's testing that too not right right now. I will after the show. But to your point, it is something that has shown to be useful. And they put the iodine solution guys out of business. They got censored for making claims that weren't substantiated, yet they were. They just weren't part of the narrative that was sort of out there from the public health community. I was one of the many shocks of this entire pandemic.
Starting point is 00:22:09 That was one of them. Well, but look at the pattern of these surprises. How surprised are we that we didn't have rapid testing faster? How surprised are we about this mouthwash thing? How surprised are we that they weren't pushing we were pushing we were we were pushing halodyne right it was halodyne yeah it was they went bankrupt no i just told them that and uh it we were actually i was actually supporting them trying to encourage people to get it and use it particularly when they flew on planes
Starting point is 00:22:42 and traveled and stuff was a great adjunct to traveling but it wasn't very tasty though yeah it was pretty nasty but but i am surprised i this is not the medical system i lived in all these decades it is it's been adulterated it's something it's sick something has happened it's very different have you watched uh dope Sick, the series about- And I've interviewed, yeah, and I've interviewed the woman that did all the investigation, the journalist and stuff. And look, you got to read Sam Quinonez's book, Dreamland, if you want to know really what happened with the opioid epidemic. Look, the drug companies, they were duplicitous. I remember kicking the, what was the company that those guys had that made the OxyContin?
Starting point is 00:23:30 Purdue? I'm forgetting the name of the company, but Purdue. I kicked them out of my office when they first came in talking about non-addictive opiates. I went, just get out of here. And by the way, not the first time or the last time I kicked drug reps out back when we used to see them. We don't even see them at all now. Upjohn came in with telling me that the reason my patients coming off Xanax was having seizure was because it was just an underlying seizure condition. And it was their previous anxiety that had been so well treated by the Xanax. And I should put them back on the Xanax.
Starting point is 00:24:00 It's not addictive. Also out. This was not an uncommon. It was not an uncommon practice back then. Look, whenever you see anybody, they're on a search for a non-addictive opiate and a non-addictive benzodiazepine. And they're not alone as drug companies. There are massive academic infrastructure that's going after the same thing. They don't understand addiction. They don't get it. And that's going after the same thing. They don't understand addiction. They don't get it. And that's where the real problem is, what my profession has done.
Starting point is 00:24:30 That's the part that I have found inexcusable. And so that was that epidemic, the opioid epidemic. Now we have this epidemic and a whole new set of weaknesses has emerged in my profession, not the least of which is that I found out everyone is now employed by a hospital or a large group. So they're forbidden from thinking for themselves and practicing medicine. They have to follow pathways and standards and things. And then they're told what to think and what to say, and they get scared. What I learned from the Dope Sick series, and I'm assuming this is accurate, is that it's really easy to buy an expert. And then once the one expert has said X is true, if nobody else is saying anything else,
Starting point is 00:25:12 it's just true. It's the one thing people know. So it was so easy to move lots and lots of people with just an expert or two. Usually though, those experts, I mean mean they're obviously swayed by money and whatever they're putting but but they are usually evangelical they're usually believers in my experience it's it's not that they are lying or that they are doing it just because the money the money keeps them keeps them in the game and keeps them going with enthusiasm but they're evangelical that the drug companies go and find people like that. They're evangelical about their products and they push them out to the
Starting point is 00:25:49 world. That that's, that's what they do. So it's not a look, whenever there's a religious overtone to anything in science, it's, it's a catastrophe. It's just,
Starting point is 00:26:00 it just is the words belief should not enter into the, the lexicon of discussion about scientific process. It's not a belief. It's, you know, what does the evidence suggest? That's it. And what's your experience been? Move forward until we have more evidence. That's it. But we're learning in camps. Yeah, I mean, we're learning that anybody is interpreting the science, you didn't really hear any science. And that's the only way that the public hears it. I've never done a scientific randomized controlled trial.
Starting point is 00:26:35 I just hear somebody talking about it. I don't know if they're talking about it correctly. And when we see as many situations where they're not talking about it correctly, how do you believe anything? It's sort of like the stock market. We used to think it'd be smart to get an expert because there are 10,000 stocks. So how could you know which one's good? So you get an expert. And then someday you learn there are 100,000 experts. How'd you get the good one? You can't pick a star. What makes you think you can pick a financial expert? You can't. So a lot of what we do is absurdity and we're paying extra for it.
Starting point is 00:27:13 So to your point about the experts, I want to talk a little bit about Anthony Fauci for a second. I think I've told you I was a great admirer of his. He's the reason I got involved in radio in 1983 and 84 he was just championing us young physicians to go out in the media and change attitudes about hiv and a we didn't have hiv yet we were calling it htlv3 and uh we didn't have a term safe sex yet but i i took it very seriously that's why i got involved in radio motivated me to get involved in radio that we needed to and we learned a ton about shaping health behavior and how to do it, particularly around extremely powerful motivations like reproductive health.
Starting point is 00:27:53 It was a minefield back then, but we learned how to navigate it and how to shape behavior. We abandoned all of that during this pandemic, but that's not my point. My point is that I went through four subsequent well three subsequent four total pandemics with fauci we had hiv mers one sars one uh h1n1 and then now this one so five pandemics four of them his his guidance was beyond it was exceptional i'm telling you the man was a leader and led us at least in my profession beautifully i mean masterfully something happened this time something went very wrong he became adulterated in some way what's that well but let me ask you this so i need a fact check on this so you're because you were closer to it. My understanding is that the part of the solution for the AIDS situation was making sure that hetero people were also scared because that's where the money was.
Starting point is 00:28:54 Yes, that was part of his. That was his directive to scare. Because I'll tell you why. Because it was a self-conscious move that I participated in. And people have called me out on it in recent years. They're mad at me about it because their high school years were ruined because of it. And I'm sorry. But at the time, at the time, we could see what was happening in Africa.
Starting point is 00:29:19 And in Africa, it was a heterosexual illness. And we were scared to death that that was going to happen here. It just no reason it wouldn't, as far as we could tell at the time. So, yes, it was an overreach, but we really thought the risk was real. But you're right. That same mindset is what got Fauci this time, the sort of panic-mongering. But even with that, I want to just tell you today, I saw him interviewed today and he was totally different than he's been in the last two years. I mean, I'm like, you, you go listen to some of his interviews right now. Maybe it was just one I caught that where he was different,
Starting point is 00:29:55 but this was the, the Dr. Fauci. I knew this is the guy I loved. And, and by the way, you got to remember, I, how did I get into trouble during this pandemic? Here's how I got into trouble. First of all, by people editing what I said, and what I said was a little hubristic. But what I was saying was, and you know how that goes. It's always somebody saying what you said rather than what you said. What I was saying was, we just went through H1N1. There were 300,000 deaths from that one. And you didn't even know it happened. And now we're going to have a million deaths.
Starting point is 00:30:28 Do we need to, it's three times. Do we need to shut it? Just listen. I kept saying, listen to Fauci, listen to the CDC. They'll get us through this. We don't have to panic. Don't panic. Nothing is better in a panic.
Starting point is 00:30:40 Well, that's what I was crucified for, for daring to say that we shouldn't panic. You know, what are your thoughts on that? i i just i meant to ask you that too then we'll go back to fauci well you know i didn't see fauci but um there's something happening like right now that uh that i wanted to talk about so we heard um that from south af, the Omicron will actually produce antibodies that will neutralize Delta. Now, that is really the sort of the best case scenario. We're also seeing that the news just sort of suddenly stopped talking about death. You know, the biggest problem with the pandemic. They just stopped talking about it. And the other thing is that if we don't get a killer wave, and I haven't heard about it yet, but it's too early, from the holidays, the government is now going to have to explain how to get past this. But here's the best part. As soon as you hear this this is going to change i think this is
Starting point is 00:31:45 going to change how you feel about everything um we have probably we're going to have something like i'll just throw out a number for discussion something like in the next week there are going to be 30 million americans who have some kind of a cold or maybe omicron covid symptoms just because it's that time of season. We have zero available tests. Wait, hold on. Yeah. Just connect the dots. 30 million people with something like a sniffle might be Omicron,
Starting point is 00:32:15 might be a cold. No way to know. What do 30 million people do? Do they stay home? Did you notice? Hold on. Here's the other tip. CDC just withdrew from 10 day quarantine to five.
Starting point is 00:32:31 Why? Yeah. Nobody's going to stay home for 10 days if they don't have a test. They're trying to, they're trying to maintain as long as they can. But the, the dam is about just a few days away from bursting because um i already know people who have said i have a sniffle i'm not even going to check it's over for me right so people are
Starting point is 00:32:54 basically saying colder on crime it's all the same i think it's over i think february first let me pile on well we'll talk about february one we're done in a second but but let me let me pile on well we'll talk about february 1 we're done in a second but but let me let me pile on and say there's even a more sort of difficult problem with omicron the testing is very nefarious it's all over the place some people stay positive for weeks some people are positive for hours and so you have to catch it right when they're positive it's very weird i've got a patient right this minute. I was just talking to you before we went on the air who had had rapid antigen test at home yesterday. Positive today.
Starting point is 00:33:32 Positive PCR today. Negative. That's Omicron. That's Omicron. It's all over the place. So testing almost becomes unnecessary. Vaccinated. Yeah. Right. And I think. I mean, it's so. And that's. all over the place so testing almost becomes unnecessary vaccinated yeah right and i think i mean it's so and and there there is a world where we just go go forth go forth this is a this
Starting point is 00:33:56 is it there's there's an article out there it says 50 of all colds in this next six week period is going to be omicron 50 all cold and no way to tell so as i've been saying for a long time the government is a great tool if you're if you're in a war right you need to just focus all your energy and somebody's got to be in charge and get it done but the government was wholly inadequate for deciding who lived and died in the civilian world. You know, I'm going to let you young guys go back to work. Grandma's going to die.
Starting point is 00:34:30 So it's not a decision you can make without a war. And so the public always had to make this decision. But the lack of testing, interestingly, will be what ends the lockdowns. The fact that they completely screwed up the testing they the thing they botched the most the the thing that was most scandalous about the whole thing is what gets us out of it yeah i i provided that here's of course there's always the one wrinkle which is if some other variant comes around that that's the part that's scary right now is something if something else but but notice this variant emerged in somebody who is chronically infected it tends not to mutate as much in people that are you know sick for a few
Starting point is 00:35:12 days only so this this is hopeful as far as i'm concerned but talk to me about february one we're done so i was uh i was trying to get going the idea that the government needs to give us a date. Because if you don't manage to expectation, you know, if you don't manage to some kind of a target, you're not managing. You're just going on every day. So even though we know that, you know, data could change and, you know, deadlines change, we are adults at this point. And if the government could just say, you know, we're going to shoot for February 1, we all want to get rid of these restrictions. If the data keeps going the way it looks like it's going, we have a good chance of just being free on February 1, just as a way to focus our energy. If you've ever had any home improvements done, you know that it'll never be
Starting point is 00:36:01 done unless you tell them you're planning a holiday party or there's some artificial reason that it's got to be done in six weeks. So there's a wedding. You can hold a wedding in your house. It's got to be done. You know, artificial deadlines are the only thing that focus people. You know, it's just human nature. And the government's no different. They could just sort of drag it on forever unless the public rises as one and says, all right, now, you know, thank you for the help, but we'll take it from here. And I think the lack of the positive tests plus Omicron is the signal for the public.
Starting point is 00:36:39 And I think it's happening. It's not even theoretical. I think at this moment, people are saying, I got a cold, I'm going to work, I'm done. And that's all. In a weird way, it's back to the topic of intentions. Yes, yes. The public, I've always said that you don't have to be worried about the pandemic, giving the government all this control and trying to do weird things with you. Because the problem was with the restrictions is the public had not decided by a large enough majority that they were done with the restrictions because
Starting point is 00:37:16 plenty of people liked them or at least felt comfortable with them. So it's not until the public decides something like 75% of the public needs to be on the same side, and then the public is just in charge. That's just the way it works. There's so much about this experience, just exposed things about people that I just shake my head about. And liking a lockdown and liking directives or liking to give directives. I spent a lot of my career fighting the right, who used to tell me what I couldn't say and not say on the radio. And I'd like some apologies from some of the things that they came down to me about. Things like safe sex and the HPV vaccine and morning after contraception, which vilified me for those three things. There'll be no apologies, Scott.
Starting point is 00:38:04 Don't worry. You won't get an apology. And now on the left, they're telling you how to live, how to talk, what you can and can't say. It's just weird to me. I tell people I'm so centrist. I'm so moderate in the middle that I'm in a purple haze. I live in purple haze. That's where I live.
Starting point is 00:38:22 But because I'm there, the extremes just get very confusing to me, including a topic that I know you sort of criticize. And let's get into a little bit. The idea of collective delusion. This kind of was elucidated by a psychiatrist. I'm blanking on his name right now. Hold on a second. I'm going to look it up for you but i'll let you comment i think what you've been saying is we're already always in a collective
Starting point is 00:38:50 delusion so why make much of it now am i getting that right yeah yeah the the idea is that uh we're in some kind of a dream state and easily uh easily manipulated because of everything with the pandemic and you know we have uncertainty. And when there's great uncertainty, people will go to whatever message seems strong. So they act somewhat irrationally. But what my complaint is, we're always in that situation. We didn't need a pandemic. We just needed somebody persuasive because life's pretty confusing.
Starting point is 00:39:25 I mean, the fact that there are two sides of everything that, you know, I made a prediction that in 2021 that Republicans would be hunted. Politico listed it as one of the worst predictions of 2021. Whereas I did a poll and said, do you think I was right that Republicans are hunted? And thousands of people said, oh yeah, that's right. And gave five examples from the January six people being hunted to social media, kicking people off to Roger Stone getting raided by the FBI. And the list gets pretty long. So we don't even know if Republicans were hunted. I mean, that's a pretty basic thing not to know. So do we really need a mass formation explanation that the society was just right to make us
Starting point is 00:40:19 this way? Or were we always this way? Are we always on the edge of such a rationality that it doesn't take much but a gifted speaker to push you over? By the way, speaking of that, I always talk about Trump is so persuasive. I heard an idea today that so well explains it, which is that your brain is programmed by stories. And that's pretty much it. So everything you think is based on the story you heard that took root and became your program. And I thought how Trump always talks in stories.
Starting point is 00:40:54 You know, it's not border security is good. It's people are coming across the border. And, you know, you could imagine the criminals and, you know, as he adds the hyperbole to it. But and then even how he dealt with climate change. You know, he had a whole story about it being a Chinese hoax. Had lots of details with it about what they were doing to get an advantage economically for decades or whatever. And every time you see somebody who talks of a story, they're off the chart in persuasiveness. So what does this pandemic- Not metaphor.
Starting point is 00:41:36 Yeah. Metaphor is not so good. It has to be based on something that people think is a real story or it could be a real story. Got it. Got it. But the stories don't actually have another story right and the pandemic gave us a whole bunch of new stories that we now have to process or our programming has been really upset by all these new stories and ways to look at the world and so but the way i would think of it though is like even a even a delusional patient somebody who's frankly psychotic has states where the delusions settle down and states where they escalate and to me we have been in an escalated state of delusional thinking whether we're always
Starting point is 00:42:18 there or not where do we've in when people first start talking about nazis everywhere and russian in the white house and that's like you, I would have hospitalized you five years ago if you'd said that. Literally. Categorically. And now all of a sudden, everybody's thinking that way. And same thing around the pandemic. Do you see a source for all this? And again, back to Fauci and the Fauci I saw today speaking.
Starting point is 00:42:46 He was reasonable. He was quiet. He didn't look like a cat on a hot tin roof anymore. He wasn't shifting. He was just being a doctor and answering questions. It was totally different, dude. Why was he in that state before? What's that? But he has to explain why very soon he's going to say all the restrictions are done now that in other words he has to show you a slow transition so i feel like yeah that's that's on the roof he's giving you a little hint of what's to come foreshadowing maybe maybe i could be could be but it seemed emotional to me he seemed like like like oh there he is like oh but they welcome back tony but my question is is this all trumped arrangement is did that guy trigger some sort of weird collective weird emotional state and everybody only indirectly if that was what goosed the
Starting point is 00:43:40 news models to be so polarized and and polarized not just taking sides, but taking sides crazily, like extreme taking sides that doesn't make any sense in some occasions. So I think it was the business model of social media and the business model of the news that's driving all of this. So those business models amp up your emotions. Trump was a perfect topic that they could use. But if it hadn't been Trump, I think they would have picked somebody else. There's always somebody. Oh, interesting. There's always a focus.
Starting point is 00:44:15 There's a personality. Because we like to put a person to our problems. That gets the clicks. Yeah, I've had a lot of, uh, uh, pushback because I don't criticize Fauci as much as let's say on percent of my, my audience does. And part of that reason is I can't be sure what he's thinking or what's right or what's not. Well, someday we'll know, but, um yeah it felt like it was they were it felt like they were going after him on a personal level that was a little bit out of sync
Starting point is 00:44:50 with the facts and i just didn't want to be part of a yeah the pitchfork crowd yeah i i do think when the day is done he'll look okay he was adulterated for some reason his his low point was when jim j Jordan was asking him about gathering outside for demonstrations versus gathering outside for football games or church services. And he feigned misunderstanding. I don't know what you're talking about. That's not him. I didn't recognize that guy.
Starting point is 00:45:22 That was bizarre to me. And that was when I stopped. I got very, very, very concerned about him. And I'm telling you, let's all pay careful attention. He may be a little bit better in terms of his decision making. How old is he? 81, I think. I think he's 81.
Starting point is 00:45:42 I think we just have to get over this 80 year old leader thing. Like there's nobody in the world who thinks that the 80 year old has the same mental capacity as a, as a 50 year old. I mean, there, there's no medical person. Nobody. I'm in my sixties. I feel I can tell the difference. I got news for you. It's not, I'm not. my sixties. I feel I can tell the difference. I got news for you. It's not, I'm not December 24th. Yeah. We're, we're, we're close enough. I'm older, but yeah, I was wondering,
Starting point is 00:46:14 I look at my own mental processes and I would say that my effectiveness is higher than it has ever been because of the combinations of experiences that work well together. But I can definitely feel I don't learn as quickly. I mean, that's pretty obvious. But I also wonder if it's easier to learn when you're young because there's nothing else in your head. I mean, my head has a lot of stuff going on. If I try to put a new thing in there, it's got a lot of traffic to contend with. Yeah. I think memory is not as good. Memory is the one function that we're, if you're like me, I was used to relying
Starting point is 00:46:51 on heavily and it's not as efficient. What's really gone down is what's called working memory. The ability to hold things in mind while you work on something else, right? I used to be able to do two or three tasks in my head while I was focusing on something else. right? I used to be able to do two or three tasks in my head while I was focusing on something else. That is gone. That is gone. And then initiation. I was out. I couldn't stop doing things. I was always initiated, initiated, initiating. Now it's like, not as much, not so much. I'll meet you in Santorini, Scott. That sounds a little better to me right now. But so that's a change. But I agree with you in terms of efficacy and communication and process.
Starting point is 00:47:34 It feels like process. And maybe it's the storytelling too. The process feels very effective as compared to, say, when I was 35. Very different. Yeah, everything is. effective as compared to say when I was 35. Very different. I also enjoy, I mean, this is off topic, but I enjoy being my age because people treat me seriously. Like I walk into a store and everybody thinks, Oh, we better,
Starting point is 00:47:58 we better make this guy happy. Yeah. He's just interesting. That's right. She's laughing back there. Yeah. By the way, while Susan's dropping in. I'm old too, I know. No chance we're going to get a Christina sighting or hear from her today.
Starting point is 00:48:15 We miss her. How is she? Yeah, how is she? She's not old. She's good. She was flying today. So anytime she gets to fly, she's happy. Oh, good.
Starting point is 00:48:28 Good for her. Amazing. It's not raining up there? It is raining. She's actually IFR trained now. So she can fly in cloudy conditions. Yeah, she's like a stunt pilot. They may need her at some of these airlines next week. Everybody's dropping like flies.
Starting point is 00:48:44 I think they've shortened the days off because they don't want the airlines to go out of business. Great. Let's do this. So I can cough a little bit. Let's take a quick break. Don't worry. He doesn't have COVID. No.
Starting point is 00:48:57 Well, I've been tested multiple, multiple, multiple times. But it's still possible the way Omicron works. No, I'm just saying the way Omicron works is just you can miss the the testing, but, but, uh, I've been tested every day for five days. I didn't get sick either. And I slept next to you. That's true. Uh, but we'll take, we have to do a couple of quick ad breaks and we'll be back with more Scott Adams just right after this. I want to give a shout out to our good friends at blue mics.
Starting point is 00:49:19 If you've heard my voice on this show anytime over the past year, including right now, you've been listening to blue microphones.. And let me tell you, after more than 30 years in broadcasting, I don't think I have ever sounded better. But you don't need to be a pro or have a fancy studio to benefit from a quality mic. You may not realize it, but if you've been working from home or using Zoom to chat with friends, you probably spend a lot of time in front of a microphone. So why not sound your best? Whether you're doing video conferencing, podcasting, recording music, or hosting a talk show, Blue has you covered. From the USB series that plugs right into your computer to XLR professional mics like the mouse or the blueberry we use in the studio right now, bottom line, there's a Blue microphone to fit your
Starting point is 00:50:01 budget and need. I can't say enough about Blue mics. And once you try one, you will never go back. Trust me. To take your audio to the next level, go to drdrew.com slash blue. That is drdrew.com slash B-L-U-E. We are back with the great Scott Adams. And I was just noting, Scott, I don't know if you noticed, there was some headlines about Santorini today, about the Atlantis under the rubble, that they'd made some breakthroughs into the various tsunamis that had hit that ancient Bronze Age society. You guys went and visited that, didn't you? Yeah, it was great.
Starting point is 00:50:34 It's one of the rumored places that could have been the fabled Atlantis. And I'm not sure if I buy that. It was definitely an advanced society that will blow your mind about what they had and what they could do. They had a toilet in one of these ancient ruins. You know, they figured out it wasn't a flushable one, but they figured out a sewer system from like the second floor. It's like amazing. Wow. Crazy.
Starting point is 00:51:02 So I want to swing back around to February 1, we are done. What is that going to look like? What do people do if they want to support that? Is that just a slogan or is there going to be some activities associated with helping that happen? You know, I like it to be a cooperative thing as opposed to a combative thing. You know, I don't want it to be the citizens against the government. This is a case where the government simply needs a hand because they can't make the decision of ending things without a huge amount of public support because otherwise people are going to die. We know if we end early, somebody's going to die and it's going to be blood on the
Starting point is 00:51:43 hands of whoever made that decision. So they need tons of support. It shouldn't be seen as some kind of us versus them, you know, people versus the government. They need our help. And I'm pretty sure they want to end the restrictions as soon as possible so they can get busy on the election for 2022 and not have that to worry about. You mentioned something else, I believe, this morning about overwokenness as a formal diagnosis. It's certainly a symptom complex with other things, for sure. But as its own freestanding diagnosis, I'm not so sure. But you predicted it.
Starting point is 00:52:25 Yeah, I said the overwokenness because that sounds more provocative, but here's a better way to say it. Do you think that people are suffering from something that could be called oversensitivity to social criticism, for example? So it may not be, this is the exact right term, but certainly people are getting more upset than is healthy for them based on things that maybe are important, but maybe you
Starting point is 00:52:54 shouldn't feel so upset about them. They're more like the texture of life. And I suspect that people are probably already being diagnosed with something like that and given some kind of Xanax or antidepressant or something. So I think we're going to start seeing that the, you know, maybe the extreme Karens or the, you know, the people who see racism under every, you know, piece of bread and under every blanket, that maybe the doctors will start medicating them. I'm not saying they should. I'm just saying that the logical consequence of people having a specific worldview that bothers them in a specific way, somebody's going to say, I think I can treat that with a pill. I think it's going to happen. It makes me think about the notion that mental health has always been predicated on the ability to manage and see reality on its own terms.
Starting point is 00:53:56 In other words, as much as our little brains can handle, seeing reality, managing reality, being present for reality reality not distorting it in some way and so much of today's stories and narratives are are running contrary to what reality is reality will step back in and some people will not be able to handle that i think is what you're saying and they'll continue to have this sensitivity syndrome which will be interesting yeah i think social media has ramped up our sensitivity too because imagine being well And they'll continue to have this sensitivity syndrome, which will be interesting. Yeah, I think social media has ramped up our sensitivity, too. Because imagine being, well, I don't have to imagine. Imagine what I was like as a kid, and all I had to worry about is what people said to me in person. And now imagine that apparently you will be mocked for literally anything you post.
Starting point is 00:54:42 It doesn't even have to be embarrassing. You will be mocked for it because that's just what everybody does. So I can't even imagine having lived through that. And there gotta be people that that pushes to the edge. And I think, unfortunately, I think I think that's right. And back to, you know, you being tagged for giving a bad prediction is usual. It's never what you said in that gets viral or gets media attention or spills ink. It's always what somebody said you said. That's the extraordinary thing about virality in my world is that it's not.
Starting point is 00:55:17 I've happened so many times, so many shit storms where I look at and I go, that has nothing to do with my intention or what I was saying, or you've just turned it into something else. And that is what becomes the news. That's the fake news piece. That's where it comes from. There's a new guardrail that fell off, though. It used to be that if you thought somebody said something outrageous, the reasonable assumption was, oh, I probably heard that wrong or it's out of context, but so many actual outrageous things have happened with even from experts that you could hear. So even this week, true story, there was somebody tweeting about the fact that he thought I had predicted that there would be a mass extermination of Republicans under Biden.
Starting point is 00:56:03 Oh, right. Yes. In a more sane time, wouldn't you have just read that and said, okay, I think that's what he's saying, but obviously not. The part, the guardrail that fell off is the, well, obviously not. There must be something else. I don't know about the story. But everybody who saw that should have said, no, obviously that's not what he's saying. But there's so much craziness you're absolutely right you're absolutely right you're you're right that that it's possible that you did say something like that because there's so much craziness but
Starting point is 00:56:34 back in you know the day meaning three four years ago um people would go again banning particularly when we have access to each other through social media, you'd go, did you mean that? Did you say that? Did you mean that? We do the opposite now. It's like, oh, he's saying, I'm going to tell you what he meant. And they created something else out of it. I'll tell you what blew my mind a few years ago. Scott Alexander, which is I think his pen name for blogging, wrote about why the stories that get most of our attention are false almost all the time. And it's not a coincidence.
Starting point is 00:57:12 There's a causal element, which is if something is something you can imagine would happen in the real world, well, the news reports it. And you go, oh, there's something that could happen in the real world. It's only the things that are literally impossible that become the big stories. Is it possible that a president of the United States went on live TV and praised neo-Nazis as fine people? There was a time when people would have said, well, obviously that didn't happen. They must have clipped off part of the video, which is exactly what happened. That's how that was created, that hoax. You just clip off the part where he clarifies, I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis.
Starting point is 00:57:53 If you take that out, it looks like he was. So, you know, just anything is possible. The people, literally half the country, I think, maybe more, maybe 65% of the country, at one point, believed the President of the United States actually said those words. They also believe that he suggested drinking bleach. They actually believe that. Now, just think about it. This is the Scott Alexander theory, that the reason those two things became such big things is almost a guarantee that they weren't true. Because true things like that don't happen.
Starting point is 00:58:27 They just don't happen. I mean, when they do it. And you would think after the Covington Catholic kids, I'm going to sneeze too now. Well, let me say that in the Covington kids. At least the Covington kids was in the realm of possible you're saying yeah if it yeah the possibility that a teenage kid was acting like a jerk totally possible yeah now as i was one of the many people who immediately had to apologize for being duped by
Starting point is 00:58:59 that video i mean i thought it looked like that and it wasn't, it was out, but at least it was feasible, right? A kid acting like a jerk. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, uh, just, uh, again, that, that we aren't learning. That's the part that troubles me. You would think, Oh yeah, I think, I don't know. I feel like things are settling a little bit. I, again, I, I, you know, I'm focusing on Fauci. I remember the day he said, well, maybe this thing did come from a Chinese lab. I thought this is a day things are changing. I think today things are changing a little bit. And it's just that people are,
Starting point is 00:59:33 the delusional intensity is settling, even though we may be always delusional. I would argue that the intensity of the delusional preoccupations are settling a little bit. And so there is the possibility of reason the possibility of learning when people aren't spinning like tops 2022 is going to be an election year it's going to spin out of control it's going to go 2022 is going to be lit you think things are going to be a lot of new babies really oh no Once they all start coming out of their houses. I hate to hear you say that. So let's talk about predictions. Do you have any predictions
Starting point is 01:00:09 for 2022? What do you mean, in a bad way? Yeah, what do you mean by lit? Oh, lit in terms of the craziness will reach new levels. Because this is a major, major power shift. If things go the way it looks, it's going to be... Like craziness in what?
Starting point is 01:00:26 I think it's going to be like a roaring 20s. Yeah, I don't think the Democrats can live with a world in which it's guaranteed that Republicans will take control of everything in 2022 plus 2024. I just don't know that they can handle that. So imagine, you know, if you know that they came up with the Russia collusion hoax and all the other hoaxes, what the heck are they going to do when it looks like they're going to lose everything? I mean, you would imagine that they would crank it up a little bit. All right, let me give you some predictions. I think COVID restrictions will be over February 1-ish. It may not be that date, but around there, because of Omicron mostly.
Starting point is 01:01:08 The funniest tweet I heard was, you know the story about the World Health Organization didn't want to call the virus XI, because it looked like a Xi vagina. Somebody tweeted today when they heard the Omicron was going to be the vaccination that fixed everything. They wonder if President Xi wishes it was called the Xi variant. Oh my God, that's funny.
Starting point is 01:01:39 I'll give you some wild predictions. That the United States and Russia will start talking about a security agreement in which we become more like allies or at least a path toward that. Because in the long run, we're going to have to be allies in space because China is going to be just too big. And I don't think China has Russia's interest in mind and nor do we. So China is going to have to find a partner and it's either going to be us or China. And I think it's going to be us. So I would look for some Russia, US security movement, small movement, maybe.
Starting point is 01:02:14 Well, you'll see that direction starting to take form. Um, I think that as I said, we're going to reach a higher level of awareness about what's real. Our skepticism will be through the roof. And I want to tell you one of my predictions I was proud of, which is I said that Trump would look better every day he's out of office. And I think that was one of my most accurate predictions, is if you look at Biden's approval, it's in the dumps. And most of the things that he's been criticized for, it would be easy to imagine, whether it's true or not, but it's easy to imagine that Trump's
Starting point is 01:02:52 personality would have done better, you know, such as border security and, you know, maybe kicking some butts on rapid tests, although he didn't do anything on rapid tests that i'm aware of when he was in the office so um i'm also going to predict uh trump is not the nominee for the republicans um so that would make desantis yeah yep yeah that would make desantis the heir And I think DeSantis is unbeatable because I don't know who's advising him, but, or if, or if it's just his own instincts, I've never seen anybody cue up a ball and hit it so accurately so many times in a row. So he's got this little routine going where there'll be something in the news
Starting point is 01:03:42 that's bothering mostly his base. And the next thing you know, he's got an executive order that's right on the money for that exact problem that was on Twitter yesterday. And he just keeps doing that thing where every time Republicans get worked up, he's like, okay, here's my new legislation. It's very effective for making him look like he gets stuff done because he's actually getting stuff done. So I think he's unbeatable. And I think there could be Trump fatigue. And it's hard to imagine that Trump would be, I hate to say it, but completely healthy
Starting point is 01:04:18 for the next three years without something that makes you question continuing to elect people that age. It's just not going to make sense. Especially if you have... When Trump ran, I think he was so clearly the right choice for the mood of the Republicans, plus the ones he moved to his side. But if you have an alternative, DeSantis, and you can get the policies without the provocation, that's going to look really attractive to people. And Trump, that's true. Trump can win two different ways. He could do
Starting point is 01:04:54 his media empire thing, which it looks like he's queuing up. He can look like he's running for president to attract all that energy, launch a platform that if it gets some traction, he can actually affect the policies as much as if you were in office. In the same way that say, people imagine Fox News changes government decisions when there's Republicans in charge. I think that a big Trump network in some kind of social media kind of way could actually be dominant in terms of Republican opinion for a long time. Somebody on my chat stream here said that DeSantis had said no to running for president recently. Is that just nonsense or is that rumor? Have you heard anything about that?
Starting point is 01:05:49 Well, that just sounds like a politician talking because they always say, no, I'm concentrating on my current job. But I also think that he's, it's a delicate situation because he and Trump are both in Florida at the moment. They probably run into each other a lot. And I don't think that DeSantis would, I don't think that DeSantis would kneecap Trump. I think he would need his blessing to make it work. Interesting. So I think there'll be a time that Trump might decide that running a media empire is just a better job. Although he's so competitive, he just might be. Do you think it'll be TV?
Starting point is 01:06:25 Do you think it'll be TV or Rumble? He's got platforms. He's working with Rumble right now. He's got some platforms going. Yeah, I think he's going to have his own thing going. Yeah, we'll see. Would it be accurate to describe you as a libertarian? No.
Starting point is 01:06:44 I used to say I'm a libertarian without the crazy parts. That was just so people didn't know what I was. Now I say I'm left at Bernie, but better at math. So all of my strategy is to make sure people can identify, you know, or label me because then you get bound by that and it starts to affect your own psychology as well. As soon as you're on a team, you want your team to win, even if they're not playing well that day. All right. Interesting. And I'm trying to catch up with questions I'm seeing on my streams and things. And people are asking about the Ukrainian-Russia border tension. Do you think that's part of Russia trying to get our attention for negotiation purposes,
Starting point is 01:07:24 or is there really something going on there probably both i mean putin could win either way you know i would imagine he would get some boost for getting more control of some area there but um i would imagine it's at least 50 about negotiating and putting pressure on us because he's the the thing is he has a completely legitimate concern which is stuff happening right on your border if if anything like that was happening on our border can you imagine so on one hand that's the way i try to think about it yeah we don't want russia to get everything they want just because they want it right we don't want to live in that world either. But we have to deal with the fact that he's asking for something reasonable.
Starting point is 01:08:09 So are we. It seems like there's something to... Yeah. And they still have, in addition to it being right on their doorstep, they still have the psychology of the siege of St. Petersburg hanging over their head, or what was it called, Stalingrad back then or whatever. Their trauma from World War II was profound, and we sometimes don't really appreciate that. Yeah, there's no way you could.
Starting point is 01:08:36 I mean, how could you imagine even that? It's beyond imagination. Yeah, yeah. Well, Scott, I always love talking to you, spending time with you. Where should people go? You want them, where would you like them to show up? Dilbert.com. If you want to see the comic and if you want to follow me, go to, uh, Scott Adams says, uh, all together, Scott Adams says, uh, on Twitter. And, and, And what about YouTube? YouTube, just Google or go to YouTube and search for Real Coffee with Scott Adams.
Starting point is 01:09:15 Or if you're a member of Locals, you already know how to find me. Subscription service. He's on, right. He's on Locals and he gives some special lectures there at Locals. Otherwise, you can find him at 7 a.m. Pacific time on YouTube, and he will hypnotize you with a coffee. It's interesting that I really do think you're doing something modest with that because I have yet to talk to you or interview you that I haven't had a cup of coffee in my hand when we talk. That's not normal. That's you, i suspect so i i know i have a weak instrument that's swayed by social discourse of all types so uh have at it so uh appreciate we love you yeah
Starting point is 01:09:55 appreciate it so much that you come on here and i hear you in drew's bathroom every morning there's a little love affair going on in there your your voice not you actually in there but your your voice on his phone yeah my phone has a routine and you're part of it yeah you're part of my routine um but we really if i'm if i'm not lucky i'll be in bed and uh we do want to see christina again too so let's make an effort to do that it'd be nice to spend time with her again. So please send her. What time is your show? It's like seven o'clock in the morning, right?
Starting point is 01:10:27 Seven o'clock. Yeah. So she's usually up and showering. You can watch it even if it's not live. It's not, you don't have to watch live. So check it out. See if you like it. Thank you guys.
Starting point is 01:10:39 It's really good. It's really good. Thank you. Well, for me, I've told Scott this many times. When I was trying to make sense of what was happening in the Trump world, first of all, I didn't understand the enthusiasm for Trump. I talked to lots of people like, what are you seeing here? What is this? And then when he came to office, it seemed even more confusing to me.
Starting point is 01:10:57 And Scott kind of made sense of what he was doing and how to understand it. And it calmed me down. So I felt better so he he slowly became one of my new sources and uh and i i rarely i find myself rarely disagreeing with things you were saying again maybe it's the coffee hypnosis but uh it it usually it it helps me understand uh the world through that prism of persuasion and the collective delusion that we all live in that's often not symptomatic, but we're always there. I do agree with that.
Starting point is 01:11:33 So thank you so much. I'm trying to help. So thanks for having me. All right, buddy. Talk to you soon. And again, best of Christina. Happy New Year. Happy New Year.
Starting point is 01:11:41 And we'll see you on the other side. And for everyone else who's out out on youtube thank you for spending a little time with us i appreciate it very much that made your year it made our year we appreciate you i appreciate it so much hope that was interesting to you on youtube i'm gonna nice audience today too thank you everybody for listening i'm gonna end the youtube room thank you for being with us no not youtube i mean clubhouse i beg your pardon. Those poor people. They had to hear you cough during the break.
Starting point is 01:12:07 I know. It's been really unpleasant. I'm sorry. Let's see. Still haven't caught anything. How come I haven't caught anything? Doctor still has his drug recovery hospital in Passy. No, I do not.
Starting point is 01:12:22 I never had one. I was the medical director of a freestanding psychiatric hospital of chemical dependency service um but i never had a hospital and when we filmed celebrity rehab i inserted my clinical team in somebody else's facility i've never had a facility that's just never happened uh it was never i never made a living treating addicts and alcoholics it's just not something that it's not a good business and i never tried to make it a business uh let's see uh let's see anything else here i believe in jabs yeah i believe in yes i do i believe for us definitely yeah i've had all my family vaccinated make your own choice i'm not in favor of mandates
Starting point is 01:13:03 at all and i have a lot of concerns about children getting vaccinated, but pediatricians need to create the guidance there. We've had a few friends get COVID this month. Oh, I've had so many people get COVID. And they're like, yeah, no symptoms. I feel fine. And they get better. I will tell you, having now seen many, many cases of vaccinated COVID and unvaccinated
Starting point is 01:13:23 COVID, it's way worse if you havenvaccinated COVID. It's way worse if you haven't been vaccinated. It's way worse. The ones that aren't vaccinated are scaring me right now. I hope that it comes out well. I hope it's not as strong as the Delta. I hope they're getting the lesser virus. Yeah. Even the Delta after, I've seen some of that too, and even the Delta after vaccine it did pretty well. No, before, like if you don't have the vaccine, will the Omicron be as hardcore as the Delta if it will the Omicron be as hardcore as the Delta?
Starting point is 01:13:45 No, no, no. Oh no, it's very mild. In fact, most people, I'd say the majority of the people I've seen with Omicron didn't even know they had an illness. So like the Delta's just gone, right? Or is the Delta still there? Delta's being out-competed by the Omicron.
Starting point is 01:13:58 Yes, it's going away. Didn't you say something about the Omicron like kills the Delta or something? The antibodies from Omicron will adequately protect you against Delta. So you're good against everything if you've had Omicron, just like if you're good against Delta. No, but what I'm saying is you said that
Starting point is 01:14:14 it's sort of like viruses take over each other. You were kind of talking about that at the beginning. That's my little pet theory. I'm prepared to go public with that. Yeah, that's different than what Omicron is doing, which is giving you immunity to things. Sorry, I'm leaking the good stuff. That's my little pet theory. I'm prepared to go public with that. Yeah, that's different than what Omicron is doing, which is giving you immunity to things. Sorry, I'm leaking the good stuff. That's all right.
Starting point is 01:14:29 We didn't really talk about brainwashing with Scott. That's the other thing he talks about. But all the stuff we were talking about is really his topic of brainwashing. He's good. Listen to his show. He's awesome. Yeah, it's interesting. You know, he just said he's not a Republican.
Starting point is 01:14:41 So that makes you good. Jim is asking, do you think Frouch will get back to the credibility he once had i do it won't be it's been shaken trust me but i think he's on the road his his attitude today in an interview was completely different like a different guy well he said don't go to any new year's parties if you haven't been vaccinated or you don't think other people have been vaccinated so ts is saying can I conclusively say Omicron is mild? Be careful. Oh, we can't say. I have seen 80 cases of Omicron in the last week. In vaccinated people and in natural immunity people, it was mild in all the cases.
Starting point is 01:15:17 And in the majority of the cases, they didn't know they were sick. I've seen some Delta. I've seen some Omicron in unvaccinated. They get sick. They get sick. So I can't say. I've seen some Omicron in unvaccinated. They get sick. They get sick. So I can't say Omicron is, oh, it's just milder. It's milder in the vaccinated and natural immunity. I'm wondering if you have it, but you're not turning it into something that's sheddable.
Starting point is 01:15:36 Correct. That's possible. That's what I was telling you, that the vaccine, the testing on Omicron is really difficult. It's not testing the way the other variants test it. They're shedding virus very short periods of time, particularly people with lots of immunity like me. You should probably get the Adatex score again. I know, I was thinking about that.
Starting point is 01:15:55 So if my Adatex score is way up, you know, there you go. So you catch it, you don't like turn it into something that you can shed? It is, it's all over the place. Some people are shedding for a long period of time and some people are shedding for a very, very short period of time and only testing positive. Like I told you, I had a patient an hour ago,
Starting point is 01:16:15 two home, two rapid antigen test positive, negative PCR on the same day. How's that possible? How's that possible? It's very difficult to say what's going on. Well, I feel fine. I don't think you're that sick. All right.
Starting point is 01:16:28 You've been coughing on me for a week. Okay. Patrick says, Scott is lying about not being a Republican. No, he is believing not a Republican. He is not a Republican. He was a liberal. Yeah. He just likes to talk about trumpets.
Starting point is 01:16:46 It brings good numbers. He's more rational about it than emotional, you know? Yeah. What do I do for drug recovery practice today? Really just case by case, you know, sort of evaluations.
Starting point is 01:16:59 I'm not running a program presently. I, a day doesn't go by that. I'm not getting called about people with these conditions, but it's, it's not that I'm running a program presently. A day doesn't go by that I'm not getting called about people with these conditions but it's it's not that I'm running a program presently. And Bob and Shelly are out there in the trenches a bit and I work with them so they are they're doing the day-and-day out stuff. All right excuse me and my voice is given out finally and I keep coughing. I have to go pack. Yeah we're gonna go to we're gonna leave the state. Get me out
Starting point is 01:17:25 of here as I keep saying. Did I mention how accurate the Dope Stick series is? We did. We talked about it and it is accurate, but it's not the whole story. Read, please read Dream, Dream, Dreamland by Sam Kunonius and The Least of Us. The Least of Us. He's got a new book about meth that piles on the opioid story. Sam is uncanny in his ability to get the facts exactly right and tell the story of how these things happen. The drug companies were absolutely duplicitous, but it was my profession that really perpetrated this thing. All right, everybody. Thank you so much. So we're going to see people.
Starting point is 01:18:03 I'm sorry. I'm just going to be coughing a lot right now. Just getting ready to go. We are going to see people next week. I don't know. We haven't booked anybody yet. We're working on it. You're not going to be here, though.
Starting point is 01:18:12 Next week, we'll be with you. Oh, in New York. You want to do something in New York? We have our travel kit. We're going to put it together on Wednesday when you're doing Gutfeld. You're going to be on Gutfeld on Wednesday night. So maybe on Thursday, we'll do something. And then Thursday and Friday, we're going to do something. All on Wednesday night. So maybe on Thursday we'll do something. And then we're going to Thursday and Friday.
Starting point is 01:18:26 We're going to do something. All right. Thursday, Friday, Caleb's ready to roll. All right, guys. Caleb,
Starting point is 01:18:31 thank you. Well done. Thank you for producing. This is all. Thank you, Michelle Poe. Thank you for booking this. And Scott,
Starting point is 01:18:37 thank you for spending a little time with us. And we will see everyone on the tour just before the new year, right? Yes. Just before the new year. We'll see you then. Ask Dr. Drew is produced by Caleb Nation and Susan Pinsky. As a reminder, the discussions here are not a substitute for medical care, diagnosis,
Starting point is 01:18:53 or treatment. This show is intended for educational and informational purposes only. I am a licensed physician, but I am not a replacement for your personal doctor, and I am not practicing medicine here. Always remember that our understanding of medicine and science is constantly evolving. Though my opinion is based on the information that is available to me today, some of the contents of this show could be outdated in the future. Be sure to check with trusted resources in case any of the information has been updated
Starting point is 01:19:18 since this was published. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, don't call me. Call 911. If you're feeling hopeless or suicidal, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255. You can find more of my recommended organizations and helpful resources at drdrew.com slash help.

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