maybe play this a little differently."

And I think what bothers me about it is I'm such a big fan. I'm a huge fan of Madonna, always have been, and I think that she does have a second act, if you'd call it that. Cher maybe. Cher went the same way. I think Cher did it better. But I feel like she could be as substantial as ever, just play it differently. You know, maybe play a little more to her substance, if you know what I mean.

Well, you know we've all been making fun of TikTok and how it's destroying the world, but I feel like there's a positive to it. It turns out that one of the things that TikTok does — and you could substitute Instagram and Snapchat for the same conversation — one of the things that TikTok does is it keeps all the narcissists busy.

Now you think I'm gonna make a joke, but watch this. I'm not joking at all. If you've studied narcissism — and by the way I have a history of saying first of all it doesn't exist and then becoming a complete convert. It wasn't exactly a change of opinion but there was a change of understanding that there's more than one thing called narcissism. So the ones I was saying don't exist still don't exist. So I was never wrong about what I was talking about. What I didn't know, and this is an error on my part, is that the word narcissist is used in different senses. And there's a grandiose narcissist and there's a vulnerable narcissist and there's some other kinds I guess.

But one of the characteristics of narcissists is that they damage other people. They damage other people. The more time you spend with a narcissist, the more chance you're going to get damaged because they do that. That's sort of built into the vulnerable narcissist, not the grandiose. And to the degree that TikTok absorbs all of their time so that the narcissist who would be out destroying other people ends up glued to a screen interacting with other narcissists to a large extent, I'm wondering if it actually is helping in some way because it takes them out of the conversation. Every moment that a vulnerable narcissist is on a device is a moment that they're not bothering you in person.

There's a big sick-out at the FAA, I'm not sure where that is. So I'm not so sure that this is a bad thing. Maybe we've identified and isolated all the most dangerous people and we'll have them just talking to each other. And the other great thing is that if you understand narcissists — somebody paid fifty dollars to criticize me, so I'm going to read the criticism in full. You paid $49.99 just to have this comment be prominent. It says, "Simulation theory could only ever occur to a white upper class boomer living in a McMansion. But please tell us all about the vax and tell us again about that one time you didn't get the promotion because a Black existed."

Does that sound like anything? So let me do some fact checking. I don't live in a McMansion. I live in an actual mansion, so at least get that part right anyway. I guess that's a definitional thing. Please tell us all about the vax. Have I ever done that? Have I ever told you to get a vaccination? No, this person is hallucinating. It's an actual hallucination. They imagine me telling them to get a vaccination I guess.

And tell us again about that one time you didn't get the promotion because a Black existed. It was two careers, not one time. It was two careers in which I invested a tremendous number of years and time, and really it was more of three. It wasn't two because I lost two corporate jobs for being white and male. And just for your information, my bosses told me that directly. So I'm not reading between the lines. They told me. They called me into their offices with an actual meeting, a specific meeting, just to tell me that I would never be promoted as far as I could predict because I was white and male and they needed to get some more diversity.

So do you think I'm imagining it? Do you think I'm making up that conversation? Seriously, whoever asked the question for $49, do you think I just made that up? I've been saying it for years and I worked with hundreds of people, hundreds and hundreds of people knew me. If you take the years I worked at both corporations, hundreds. You don't think any one of those hundreds of people by now would have come forth and said that never happened, there was nothing like that happening in these companies during those days? Do you know why nobody has come forward to say that that didn't happen? Because they all experienced it. It was universal. It wasn't even rare. It was the very texture of life in those days in San Francisco anyway where I was.

Now I also lost a TV career for being a white guy on UPN. The Dilbert comic was running, had a successful first season and was renewed, but it was renewed in the season that UPN decided to primarily cater to a Black audience, which was a pretty good marketing idea I thought because it seemed like it was an underserved population and they weren't doing so well in general. So I thought, well, target a specific audience and that'll be good.

Hey, wow, okay. That was the weirdest text message I ever got while I'm live streaming. So you paid $49 for the answer. There's your answer. It's a percent real that white people of my generation were discriminated against and directly we were told to our faces we couldn't be promoted. Did you know that?

And by the way, that's why I identify as Black. Number one, because I can identify as Black because those are the rules, right? You can identify with whatever you feel the most connection to. And because I've been massively racially discriminated in my life. Massively. I mean those are really big examples: two careers and a TV show. That's a lot of discrimination, right? And it's not in my mind. These are very direct, obvious discriminations.

And so when I talk about maybe there is a way we can think of reparations, when I talk about improving education for the Black community, when I talk about all the things Trump did for enterprise zones and other things that were good for the Black community, I actually mean it because I do have legitimately a connection to that community now. A million differences obviously, but in the most critical part — I want to swear really badly but I'm not going to do it — the most critical part of life, can you get a job? We had the same experience. We, meaning anybody who was discriminated against, especially the Black population, same experience: couldn't get a job or keep a career or get promoted in my case for your race in America. So yeah, that's a real connection and I'm really mad about it because nobody should have to experience that.

Now at the same time I also think society had to do something about diversity, probably had to do something. It was just bad for me. Happened to be bad for me personally. All right, enough about that. Thanks for the question anyway.

And by the way, if you're imagining that I'm promoting that you should get vaccinated, that's never happened. So just check your assumptions. This never happened.

I'm wondering if there will ever be a free minds movement, you know, the way there are body hackers. You know there are a lot of people, let's say health hackers or whatever, who are sort of organized, semi-organized, and they're testing all different things for their physical health. You know, trying to fast, trying to take this supplement and that. And I'm wondering if there will be a similar thing for people trying to avoid brainwashing and persuasion. Will there ever be a movement of free minds people just trying to figure out techniques, little hacks to keep them from being brainwashed? I think maybe so. T