31 July 2025 Livestream #39

0:03 Intro

4:02 Fake Gaza images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMkrHh-d4FA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQx1Qy5Z5fA

11:24 Bible/Israel reading update

14:30 Internet connection problem starts

24:38 Israel (continued after connection problem)

29:38 What New Deal program are we happy that Reagan cut the most? (Ben Franklin)

Spending/tax cuts under Reagan

44:15 Internet connection problem again

48:34 Can you prove God doesn’t exist?

Engaging with chat - other omni qualities (Robert Nasir)

Polling chat: Should I reply to social media posts during the livestream?

1:13:23 Leftists in conflict (Destiny, Pisco, et al.)

1:22:12 I reply live to comments on X thread re: proving God doesn't exist

Polling chat: Should I switch to the Democratic Socialism Now! post

1:37:56 Democratic Socialism Now comments and a live reply by me

1:54:29 Keynesian economics; individualism and collectivism; work or die; looting/mooching; "working class" (Ben Franklin)

2:23:44 Another live reply to a Democratic Socialism Now comment: The U.S. is not capitalist (Amanda)

2:28:24 Engaging with Evocap in chat: trying to identify our fundamental disagreement (free will vs. determinism?)

Types of "should"

Compatibilism

Personifying evolution

Libertarians

Engaging with others in chat

3:02:39 My show vs. Yaron Brook's show

Summing up in a chat where I left off with Evocap

3:10:47 Immigration (RW)

Ayn Rand

Weighing the good and the bad

Assimilation, incentives under capitalism

3:23:08 Break until 3:33:45

3:37:00 Immigration (continued) (RW)

More (sub)topics and timestamps may be added later.

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29 July 2025 Livestream #38

0:11 Intro

4:24 Update on my reading about Israel and the Bible

Stream time/length; possible topic: Social media replies; engaging with Uzi and others in chat

39:38 Call with Uzi from Israel

Aliyah (bet) & Ha'apala

Air raids in Israel

He heard my superchat on Yaron Brook's show

47:30 Defining what ethics is

The principle of two definitions

Ethics as a guide for how to live vs. how to act

"Thou shalt not lie", Biblical/Kantian ethics, Samson

Trying to deduce the Objectivist view of ethics

Values and pleasure

1:24:10 Pro-natalism & Objectivism

1:59:15 Break for a few minutes

2:06:56 Freedom, progress, and child labor

2:11:01 Call with Friend Harper

Sex/gender & division of labor

Trans people, gays, lesbians and gender roles

Revisiting the pro-natalist discussion

Not all Objectivists get along

Sex/gender (continued), rationalism & empiricism

Induction, concepts, and definitions

Socializing at OCON

3:12:42 Short break

3:14:28 Outro

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19 July 2025 Livestream #37

0:00 Intro, miscellaneous

6:27 AI overview of last stream

15:00 Testing phone # masking in Zoom

26:54 First chats of the day (Cleric and Bach)

32:05 Call w/ Dr. Bach Ho about honesty, etc.

Lying on a resume

1:16:23 "White lies"

1:23:15 Polling the chat on whether lying on a resume is moral

1:35:22 Inducing principles

Engaging with chat while Bach takes a break

1:57:32 Objectivism and consequentialism

Back to the lying on a resume case and lying on a dating app

Dishonesty by therapists

Engaging with RW and EUC in chat about lying and sacrifice

3:08:27 RW joins the call for a few minutes to discuss lying on a resume

3:27:26 Jason Adams joins the call for a few minutes to discuss lying on a resume

3:44:50 Marc calls in. I discuss how I found out about Objectivism, learning inductively, and I contrast formal/deductive reasoning and informal/inductive reasoning

4:01:49 Outro

Bach Ho's channel: ​⁠​⁠ @DrBachHo

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16 July 2025 Livestream #36

0:00 Intro, OCON in Boston

21:57 Leviticus

42:19 My post re: ICE raids on Facebook

Poll re: virtual background

58:54 Break for several minutes

1:22:22 Commenting on comments on my Facebook post on ICE raids

Miscellaneous, 2:27:55 Pronouncing “Prague”

2:39:57 Justice vs. vengeance, and 9/11 (Jason)

2:48:22 Break

2:59:46 Justice/vengeance and super heroes

3:09:52 Jason Adams calls in

No Kings

Super heroes

Pronunciation of “Ayn”

3:22:00 Czech healthcare, taxes, and regulations; Jason’s tiki bar; his and my travels; Jason and Rand

3:49:51 Outro

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28 June 2025 Livestream #35

0:00 Intro, reading update

6:18 Stolen concepts, “value,” “Property is theft,” free will and knowledge, “ought implies can” (Matthew Stroud)

41:01 Commenting on the last stream’s chat (Evolutionary Capitalism-Utilitarianism, RW, Matthew Stroud). Commentary ends at 1:47:50.

Engaging with chat

1:52:03 Break for a few minutes

Engaging with chat (continued) about anarchy, censorship, etc.

Testing YouTube's polling and Q&A features with chat

Engaging with chatter ("Evolutionary Capitalism-Utilitarianism") re: what said I about self-interest, kids, etc.

4:58:24 Break for a few minutes

Do rational people's interests conflict? (RW)

Outro

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25 June 2025 Livestream #34

0:00 New background

4:28 My appearance (of sorts) on The Yaron Brook Show (via someone's Super chat)

11:18 NY Mayoral race (John), cross-promotion with Meghann?

13:59 The Objectivist definition of self-interest, etc. (Evolutionary Capitalism-Utilitarianism, Robert Nasir, RW, John)

55:07 The role of pain w/ Wade

Passage from Rand about pleasure/pain

Levels of consciousness

Pain as an instrumental value

Pleasure, pain, and debauchery (vs. rational self-interest)

Exercising and pain/discomfort/tension

Should one embrace pain?

1:38:44 Reading update: Exodus; social media posts; outro

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21 June 2025 Livestream #33

0:00 Intro, some astronomy talk

Is the universe finite?

Is the universe expanding?

Time dilation

Blocking someone (Darwin?)

Specialization & philosophy

AI's impact on humans

Time dilation

The unity of knowledge

Charles Tew

Utopia

1:01:26 Break for about six minutes

Utopia (continued) and infinity

Progress vs. Luddites

Worthiness and productivity

Time

Blocking another account

Time and space

Utopia and David Pakman's comment to me

My YouTube analytics

Plants and values

Bridging the “is-ought gap“ with pleasure

YouTube, copyright, fair use, and my calls to David Pakman‘s show

My forthcoming video with Jolah

Copyright strikes and intellectual property

Human vs. individual achievement? Reason as an attribute of the individual

Objectivism: The philosophy of Ayn Rand, The Ominous Parallels, and The Cause of Hitler’s Germany by Leonard Peikoff

2:32:22 Break for about five minutes

Does Objectivism reject subjectivism? (Wade)

TIK History

Miscellaneous, outro

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18 June 2025 Livestream #32

0:09 Intro, reading update: The Book of Genesis

5:25 Man's smallness/weakness in the Bible relative to God vs. Rand's view of yourself as the highest value, pride

8:59 Man's life as the standard of value

Virtues as evidence of how Rand understands "man's life"

14:45 Heroes in Ayn Rand's novels, standards of measurement/value

20:59 Blocked chatter from last show

22:55 What does an Objectivist look like? (Robert Nasir)

"Fact and Value," "Knowledge is power" (Francis Bacon)

Brief Israel/Iran update

29:33 Life as the standard of value: inducing from one's own experience vs. observing heroes

34:42 AI, consciousness & life (i like numbers)

Could a destructible machine be moral?

Could a machine have goals?

"Frightening" AI

46:56 How free will comes to be vs. whether it exists (Robert Nasir)

51:44 "The hard problem of consciousness" (David Chalmers)

Brute facts and invalid questions

1:00:32 Causation: Volitional and non-volitional

1:05:26 Break for a few minutes

1:12:23 Does consciousness have content? (Wade)

Ayn Rand quote

1:18:15 Engaging with "Papa" re: Israel

1:22:18 Bias and levels of consciousness (Wade)

1:24:53 More engaging with "Papa" re: Israel and "collective punishment"; he gets blocked

1:37:40 Bias and levels of consciousness (continued) (Wade)

1:47:16 Evil, good, choice, and focus (Wade, Simon Grassi)

Passage from Ayn Rand on our basic choice, focus

1:58:14 Animal urges (Wade and Jason)

Miscellaneous, outro

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14 June 2025 Livestream #31

0:00 Israel & Iran

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11 June 2025 Livestream #30

0:00 Intro, update on reading, video scripts

Engaging with chat

13:09 The Bible, who owns the land in Palestine? (Darwin)

22:10 Call w/Wade re: capitalism

The political spectrum as defined by freedom and coercion

Economic vs. political power

Respect and capitalism

Capitalism and the endless pursuit of money

Money and influence, capitalism and alienation

Helping others

Material and spiritual transactions

The "pyramid of ability" https://courses.aynrand.org/lexicon/pyramid-of-ability/

1:39:37 Break for a few minutes

Engaging with chat

1:52:14 Call w/Kirk re: ethics/politics

Man’s life as the standard of value

Inducing the standard

Pleasure and the good

An inconsistency between the Objectivist ethics and politics? Is it ever rationally self-interested to violate rights?

2:42:18 Engaging with chat

Three Ayn Rand essays I recommend:

The Objectivist Ethics https://courses.aynrand.org/works/the-objectivist-ethics/

Man's Rights https://courses.aynrand.org/works/mans-rights/

The Nature of Government https://courses.aynrand.org/works/the-nature-of-government/

Outro

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