Locals AMA 27 Feb 2023!

Any suggestions for dealing with overthinking and performance anxiety?

In 5120 you mention men talking women out of their neuroses. Do you have any advice for how I can be more effective at this?

Hi Stef, My prisoner pen pal in CA, who is 33 years old, got released from prison four months ago having served his seven year sentence for burglary (baloney theft) and abruptly went off the radar. He doesn't know anybody except me and his sister. I'm pretty sure he has a touch of autism, he's not socially outgoing. He is still alive; I found his arrest warrant for vandalism last week. Also, he decided he was a girl and went on transgender hormones last year and I believe he is shooting meth daily now too. I miss him. I have no idea / can't imagine what is going on in his head. What do you think is going on with him? Where is he going with this?

Hey Stef, when’s the Nietzsche and Schopenhauer philosophy episodes coming? I hope you don’t have some sort of prejudice towards old German guys with moustaches, I hope it’s because your preparing to deliver the richest and deepest insight into the philosophy of these two guys ever and that is the reason your taking so long to get around to them. If so I understand Stef, take your time. Make sure to include Nietzche’s idea of ‘eternal recurrence’. Imagine being born in the same life in the exact same circumstances over and over again forever!

In general how much do you think a woman cares about the prestige/social value of a man’s job versus his earnings? For example a plumber making a few hundred k a year versus a more white collar job making far less but with a more “impressive” title.
Although I do feel the blue collar man is due for a big comeback in the years ahead.

Hi Stef, I'm current listening to the UPB audiobook and I have a question.

If two universally preferable behaviors contradict one another, which one do we default to? Take this example discussed at the 2:25:40 time stamp. https://odysee.com/@freedomain:b/universally-preferable-behaviour-a-2:a?src=embed

1. Everyone would rather steal an apple than starve to death.
2. Thus everyone universally prefers stealing apples to death by starvation.
3. Thus it is universally preferable to steal apples rather than starve to death.
4. Thus survival is universally preferable to property rights.
5. Thus what is good for the individual is the ultimate moral standard.

Here the contradiction is between survival and property rights. You've used biological mutations not disproving biological classifications as a rebuttal, but usually biological mutations don't contradict the essence of a biological classification.

You have also said, that a survival based morality doesn't offer answers to questions such as "If it is morally permissible to steal food when you are starving, how much food can you steal? How hungry do you have to be? Are you allowed to steal meals rather than look for work or appeal to charity?"

However, if according to UPB self defense is justified, surely there are also similar questions such as " How do you know whether or not a threat is eliminated? Can you preemptively defend yourself or is self defense only reactive?" So surely the complexity or potential for abuse exists in both cases.

You have also said, survival based behaviors use "mere biological drives as justifications for behaviour... It is an explanation of a behavior rather than a proposed moral theory."

UPB however, is also driven by the biological drive to live and it is also an explanation of behaviors so I don't understand how on a technical level the desire to survive as a UPB, is less valid than other UPBs.

If the desire to survive isn't a UPB, can you talk more about why? If it is a UPB, how do we organise it into a hierarchy with all the other UPBs?

Thank you in advance

Do you follow much politics and just not talk about it on the show or have you cut out most of it from your life?

Just a "humble" request: never speak about or answer questions about (boomer 😉) music again. Simply ignore the time-wasting weirdos that ask them! Not a big deal.
It's irrelevant & useless... (yeah, yeah, I know you'll probably say that useless for me doesn't mean useless for everyone... bla bla bla 😉 ... but a sequence of words won't change the fact it's gonna be worthless and, thus, probably irritating for 98% of people here, who have no interest in others' [often unheard] favorite bands, singers, songs, and lyrics, esp. from the times before they were born)

The amount of evil and deciet, and wars going on.... people in our society just supporting it and rabbidly attacking people who question it. We are at the verge of a nuclear war with Russia ... and people still cheering on Zelensky ...WTF is going on !!! its absolute insanity.

what is your opinion of “confession” that churches tend to promote? I believe there’s some value to this, but, at the same time, can be a problem if you come from an abusive environment where morality is subjective.

I confessed to a priest on Ash Wednesday last week before your live q & a about my choice to be too comfortable in my living situation. I confessed that it has brought me further away from God and has a compounding effect regarding sin.

In what ways do you consider behavioral addictions like television watching different from substance addictions? How are the antecedents different (or similar)? Should different methods be used for breaking the substance vs. behavioral addiction?

Do you think there is a benefit in taking a dedicated day off each week like a sabbath? Or do you prefer to strike whenever the iron is hot no matter what the day?

"Morality is always higher than law and we cannot forget this ever." -- Solzhenitsyn

Hi Stef, what are your thoughts on children having different last names? My wife and I have a son with my last name and made an agreement prior to marriage that we would alternate. We are expecting our second now, who will be getting hers. I have been having second thoughts about this, due to societal pressure but wanted to know if there's something we're missing. Thanks again for everything you do.

Why is "wage slave" a term reserved for people who do jobs a leftist wouldn't? Wouldn't it be a label better suited to people who compromise their values for fear of getting fired (i.e. parrot woke ideology, buckling to vax mandates, etc)? Feel like the right is missing a golden rhetorical opportunity here...

Any philosophical thoughts or practical tips on raising kids at noticeably different IQ levels? My daughter is on the average side, started to read around age 6 - typical. My son (4) already reads, can add and subtract (without us pushing, he just absorbs it) and in general shows signs of above average intelligence. What we do, is to instill in our kids the joy of achieving stuff (like my daughter was practicing balance on a pedal-less bike deliberately to later switch to a normal bike - she's in general very good with physical/balancy things) and we try to focus on stuff like: "remember how it was difficult before, and then you tried more and learned?". I'd appreciate if you shared your thoughts 🙇‍♂️

Thoughts on dating apps? Stats show that the odds are against most men. My experience has been that many women use the apps for attention and validation and have little intention of meeting up, or they are paralyzed by too many choices. Much like when I'm trying to decide what to watch on streaming services. It can be demoralizing at times.

Despite being called a cult leader, do you think you won the battle culturally on the issue of family relations? From what I have been seeing, while its still not the dominate opinion, its not as taboo that it once was to say you don't have to have abusive or dysfunctional family in your life. I think progress is being made.

What do you think of video game sports? Is it even worse then regular physical sports or better? Feel like it’s just pure entertainment. No value.