Decoding the Gurus - Supplementary Material 43: Red-Blooded Americans, Real Life Alan Partridge, and Rationalist Eulogies

Episode Date: January 24, 2026

We crawl around the dark crevices of the internet so you don't have to. And what wonders we have to show you...The full episode is available to Patreon subscribers (1 hour, 34 minutes).Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurusSupplementary Material 4300:00 Introduction and Banter Allotment01:23 The Hypocrisy of the Defenders of Western Civilisation10:07 An Optimistic Take?17:02 Scott Adams' Controversial Legacy18:43 Scott Alexander's Rationalist Eulogy for Scott Adams32:31 A Final Tribute to Scott Adams33:43 Andrew Gold's Interview with a Racist39:02 Fair Play for being a Racist41:17 Comparing Follower Counts and Audience Makeup44:40 Racism and Xenophobia Discussion49:07 Securing the Future of Our People...01:00:01 LawTubers and Grifting01:00:48 Legal Mindset01:06:02 Antifa Woke Women are Hunting Legal Mindset01:07:41 A man of Christ01:09:16 A Red-Blooded American01:12:35 Woke White Women and Antifa Paranoia01:13:55 Electro Gym Work and Pygmy Hippo Love01:18:47 Antifa Paranoia01:26:36 The True Masculine Renegade YouTuber01:32:32 Concluding Thoughts and FarewellLinksPeter Boghossian complaining about public attention to the Greenland situationMike Cernovich’s tribute: “Scott is loved because he’s devoted his life to service to humanity”In full: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum (Davos)Scott Alexander’s eulogy to Scott AdamsColeman Hughes on Scott Adams at The Free PressAndrew Gold – Heretics: “I Confront Britain’s Biggest Racist”Liam Tufts: “Would You Let Your Kid Date a Black Person?” | Steve Laws sparks a heated debateLegal Mindset: “Free Kaya, Punish Hasan” (Fast Facts)Rob’s Media: Idiot Influencers – Legal Mindset (Go East channel background)

Hello and welcome to Decoding the Guru's supplementary material, the spin-off to the world extravagance that is the main decoding series. And on here, the psychologist, Matthew Brown, together with the scholar of indeterminate discipline, Christopher Kavana. Get together. We talk about the discourse. We kick back. We relax. We're allowed to We're allowed to do whatever the hell we want. And that's what we do here, Matt. I was woken up from a nap to have this conversation.

I didn't want to, but Chris, he begged. He begged. He begged me. He begged me. He said, Matt, Matt, we, the West's discourse, Matt. Western civilization itself depends. Are people hearing this very important conversation? And I went, oh, all right, then.

All right. Now, since you invoked Western civilization, Ma, I'm going to tell you a little bug bear that's been getting on me. Getting on my goat. Okay? Because, as you've noticed, Donald Trump and Maga are currently torching the international order in terms of targeting, you know, the real villains of geopolitics, Greenland, NATO, these kind of things. Now, granted, there are legitimate complaints. can have about various Western countries and democracies and all these kind of things. However, what struck me is that Donald Trump has been saber rattling about taking over Greenland

after this successful military campaign to capture Maduro. And there's been responses. He's now, I believe, I don't know if he said it or he's actually applied them, but he's threatening tariffs on the UK in several countries because they're not. being differential enough, and there was a leaked letter which he purportedly wrote to the Norwegian ambassador in which he basically threatens them in various forms, but says, you know, you haven't even given Nobel Prize, so this is part of the reason that I might invade Greenland. I'm not going to be a man to piece anymore. Yeah, absolutely absurd. Yeah, oddly absurd.

Anyone who ever thought he was playing five-dimensional chess, rather than flailing madly in a pool of his own narcissism has been proven wrong definitively at this point. Well, yes. And it did make me think, Matt, that you can find people still defending, still offering apologetics and takes to try to interpret things in either five-dimensional chess or, you know, just straight out, well, why shouldn't we have Greenland, right? Yes, people defending this. And you were probably referring not just to the Diet and the Wall cultists in the diehard magosphere, but amongst the

guru and the guru adjacent as well. Is that right? Yes. Yes. No, it's not all of them. It's not universal. Some of them, this has been a little bit of a extreme tick even there. But I mean, you still see plenty of them, even when they're being critical, saying, right, but we have to acknowledge all the good things. Total jump has done. We've got to wait up.

Is it such a big deal? Is it really such a big way? Isn't this just like chumped around syndrome? People are just getting all, you know. Yes, and illustrative of this would be like just today, for example, Peter Bogossian tweeting out, I presume that he's in France or visiting, utterly mind-blowing to speak with French people who believe their biggest problem now is Greenland. And this is him saying, isn't it insane? You know, we're all too online, Matt.

We're all worried about, you know, French people worrying about Greenland. What's it got to do with them? It's not like they're in a defensive alliance where if there was an incursion, they would be technically bound to defend that country. Like, it's not like there's anything like that going on. It's not as if there's a superpower that is itself a member of this alliance that is threatening military actually against another one.

What are they, what's the big deal? What's the big deal? I know, why aren't they focused on the culture war like Peter Burgosian? Why aren't they, you know, in Hungary, tidying the rule of law and the freedom of the press? You know, there's no issues there either, Matt. I didn't see anything. So Peter Burgosian, giant fool, as usual,

but indicative of that kind of trend within the guru sphere. And it made me think, Matt, that, you know, we have endured, you and I more than most, these blow-hard gurus, Jordan Peterson, chief amongst them, But there are allows, endless allows, playing classical music, telling us that they are the lying in the sand, protecting Western civilization from inevitable claps. There are podcasts, the final watchers on the wall, right, that are holding back the hordes, the barbarians, the immigrants, the trans people. They're all coming to destroy Western civilization, mostly liberals and mocha types, right? They hate our freedom, Chris.

They do hate our freedom. They hate everything about us. And yet the biggest threat to, you know, if you want to call it Western civilization or rules-based order, or whatever you want to call it, you know, European unity, the clubs that a lot of Western countries are in where they talk about democracy and international cooperation and liberal values, the biggest threat to those continuing by that. conglomeration, right? That alliance is coming from America. And it's not even subtle. It's directly the dissolution of NATO. It's things that Trump is tweeting out directly in a deranged way. So it's not that you have to read between the lines. He's directly saying it. He's budding up to regimes that are long considered the enemies of Western and liberal democratic societies. So where are these watchers on the wall, these final

nights on the battlefield, they're all lining up the sycophantically agree with him or at least minimize it. And I think it's just worth noting how the one thing that they never shut up about was how much

they love Western liberal values and classical liberalism and democracy and all these kind of things. And when there's a genuine threat, they are lined up behind it sycophantically grisiness. So the one thing that they pretended to caravite, they don't really caravite. No, no, exactly. I mean, you know, who knows what they meant really when they're talking

about Western civilization, but the most charitable view, right? Most charitable interpretation of what they meant by that would be the post-World War II liberal order led by the United States, you know, the rules-based geopolitical system, which as the Canadian Prime Minister said very well in a speech in the last couple of days at Davos, the World Economic Forum, said, you know, there was always a lot of fiction in that, some, you know, some truth of that. Yeah, there were hypocrisy. A lot of hypocrisies.

It wasn't exactly what it said on the tin, but to a large degree, it worked pretty nicely, at least for a large number of, you know, relatively well. wealthy, wealthy, democratic members. You could say that. So, whenever you think about that, Trump is absolutely burning it down, absolutely torching America's reputation and standing with all of its friends and allies and trading partners.

And yeah, like it's, it is an absolute retreat from all of those ideals, you know, though they may well have only been implemented in half measures and only unevenly and imperfectly. You know, it was something. It was something. And yeah, Trump is putting a torch to it.

And they are either pretending not to notice or cheering it on, saying it's fine. It's a good thing. Yeah. And, you know, the thing is, well or not, it was acknowledged, right? Most of those multinational and, you know, the UN and the needle and so on, they were very much reliant on America, having this dominating. role, right? The European powers and whatnot. Of course, they're all there and they like to, you know, imagine that they're behaving in somewhat, you know, like a multipolar way. But the reality was that

they were in large part differential the U.S. And now that's having to change, right, because the U.S. is belligerent and threatening and can't be relied on as a partner. So it is a genuine threat to liberal democratic systems and rules-based orders, the international order as it existed. Now, you might do that, well, that needed to shake up, it needed to change. But it was very clear that the gurus regarded that as something that, you know, we trifle with at our own expense.

And yet, here they are, right? So I just want to note that. And I will also say, Matt, as a potential silver lining, I don't feel there's much silver lining when I looked at geopolitics in general or what the latest thing that Trump has tweeted out is. But one thing which does seem to be occurring, and which is kind of amazing, it's a bit like the way Brexit in a way rejuvenated the possibility of Irish reunification, right? A thing which was essentially dead got a kick in the hours because of Brexit. and the fact that so many people in Northern Ireland didn't want to leave the EU

and they were kind of forced to by England, right? And then the result being that for the first time, in my lifetime, make reunification an actual possible political possibility in Ireland. I don't think it's going to happen, but I was just saying, you know, it was an unintended consequence. Now, in the same way, I think that everything that Trump is doing,

what it does seem to be creating is unprecedented levels of, collaboration, cooperation, and re-energized national sentiment in the EU and European countries and Canada and so on and like an impetus for international collaboration. So what might be the legacy? It might be, you know, in the long term, we don't know now, but it could be that this Trumpian era of right-wing populism actually led to the semi-destruction of like right-wing populist

parties, popularity in a lot of other countries, and created a multipolar world by accident, right? Like, I'm not saying that's intentionally what's going to happen. I'm not saying there's not going to be tons of suffering as a result of it. I'm just saying,

I've never seen France and England sound so cooperative in my life. So it's something to see. And you said, you know, the Canadian Prime Minister, giving that speech. Genuinely, again, that was a surprisingly, what's the way to put it, like surprisingly moving and rather motivational speech about, you know, the values of international cooperation

and liberal democracies and smaller countries banding together to like ward off the threats post from large bullies. It's just, it's just surprising. I wouldn't have imagined that. It's not like that particular Canadian Prime Minister struck me as somebody that would be giving that kind of speech. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a little bit envious, actually.

I struggle to imagine an Australian Prime Minister giving a speech like that. But yeah, I mean, you know, it's an incredibly optimistic spin to put on it, right? Yeah, I know. Silver lining. But, yeah, you know, like the system that's persisted since 941, persisted for so long and worked out pretty well, I think, because I think to America's credit, starting with Roosevelt, was to somehow square that circle of being both the single strongest nation state, but also like a non-oppressive leader of a coalition of states, right?

So sort of combining that power and legitimacy. And it's like a change from the era of empires and colonies and so on and just blatant rule by the powerful doing whatever they can and the weak accepting it. But of course, an ideal situation is a true multipolar one where there is pragmatic but sort of values-based policy where, you know, ideally, this is, I know this is people will criticize this for me, roast tinted glasses and all. of that. But this is what you would ideally like to see, which is democratic nations who believe in like a true rules-based order. And what people mean by that phrase is that you can't just invade another country like Ukraine, right? Yeah. And start a war for no reason, right? You can't just commit acts of aggression. There'll be consequences. So an ideal situation is one in which you don't actually have a hegemon and a bunch of satellites.

states like Australia is a satellite state to the Hedged ones, the USA. What you would ideally have is a real kind of United Nations of equals with shared principles and shared values. And it sounds all very idealistic and so on. But, you know, there is at least the potential for something good growing out of this phenomena where America is seemingly just abrogating its former role, acting erratically and somewhat like, basically, a tin pot dictator like Vladimir Putin. I mean, you know, it's just a wake-up call. And, you know, hopefully touch wood, you know, America will get better.

You know, it was kind of a passing phase. And, you know, look at these. It was just some wobbles that got out of control and that things will be good again. But, yeah, hopefully we'll instigate, you know, a bit more active multilateral. and a bit less like real politic. You know, in Australia I think is very guilty of this in terms of, you know, to a large degree in acting foreign policy very much through the prism of narrow national interests rather than as part of a much wider group of nations with shared values.

So that would be nice to see. Well, I will just add, don't mind, because I'll voice the emails that you'll receive, which will say that your description of. The post-World War II world order being one where America democratically ruled over a group of collaborating nations without doing things like staging coups or economically bullying, practicing neo-colonialism. They might object to that presentation. But I know that what you're saying is, it's relevant.

And it's on my caveats at the beginning. I'm basically to a large degree revoicing what the connection. and Prime Minister said in that speech where he had all of those caveats and he emphasized that what existed since the 1940s was not some rosy, you know, idealistic, perfect system, right? I'm saying it worked pretty well for countries like Canada or Australia or the Western European countries. It's not working or it seems like it's not going to work so well anymore. Yeah, less well for the global self, but the global side was hardly faring better when with the destruction of USAID, for example, just as one illustration, right?

So, so yes. Now, speaking of that, Matt, the arch magdialapologist and our decoding target, Scott Adams, dead, popped his clogs. He was struggling with cancer for a long time and he died. And the tributes, they rolled in. And as we said, we don't take great joy in people dying or suffering from diseases or whatever, you know, personal tragedy for Scott Adams and his friends and family. But he was still like a malignant force on the discourse.

So it's not like I'm going to miss his contributions. But the reaction in the discourse sphere was fairly reminiscent of the reaction to Charlie Kirk's processing, no, not as extreme because he wasn't violently assassinated. But there was a lot of heartfelt tributes, a lot of prayers going out. Even before he died, Mike Sernovich tweeted out this thing, which presented him as like a walking saint on Earth, perhaps only second to Jesus in terms of his care for mankind and stuff. And I'm not over-egging it. That is literally the way it presented. So his he geographic reimagination was occurring even before he passed.

But after he passed, you know, as you would imagine, the tributes rolled in. Did you see this, Matt? I did see that. I did see that. It's almost like they hadn't really listened to the kinds of stuff that had been saying and writing for the last five or ten years, right? Yeah, it is. It's almost like that, right?

And actually, Scott Alexander of Slate Star Codex and now Astral 10 or whatever it's called, the psychiatrist blogger, he wrote a over 10,000 word retrospective about Scott Adams and what his relationship with and his thoughts about it. And to broadly summarize, I can do it in much less than 10,000 words. Scott Adams liked his comics and thought, you know, the Dilbert comics about office life were quite clever and a nice end up. And then he thinks that Scott Adams moved into self-help and stuff because he fought himself kind of insightful in smart in a way that he perhaps wasn't recognized properly for. So he leaned into, you know, pseudoscientific claims and overestimated

his general intelligence. He had, you know, issues with narcissism and stuff. But he continued to do crazy things, Matt. You know, he tried to make a new kind of tortilla. And he did all this stuff that normal people wouldn't because he was just such a force to be reckoned with. And yes, that came with like narcissism, but it also came with these moments of insight and genius. And then the kind of final twist is when you look at the following, he attracted and how

much he motivated people. And, you know, all of the things that he contributed, like he was good at making these little words that caught on clown genius or whatever that, you know, you have to admire Scott Adams and the impact that he had on our culture. So you didn't always agree with him,

but you know, the world is a different place for Scott Adams being in it. And for that reason, I salute him. That is basically the contours of that piece. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did he go into detail about, you know, one of one of Adams' favorite topics was about how the 2020 election was rigged?

by the Democrats. And basically American democracy is completely corrupted. You're a fool for even bothering to vote because the, if you'd like to continue listening to this conversation, you'll need to subscribe at patreon.com slash decoding the gurus. Once you do, you'll get access to full-length episodes of the Decoding the Gurus podcast,

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