Coffee With Scott Adams — Knowledge Archive July 10, 2026
Scott Adams Philosophy Archive
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he macro stuff like the big country-level economics. And you would probably teach them about capitalism. You'd probably teach them about free markets. You'd probably teach them the difference between capitalism and socialism. A little bit of history. You don't have to go too far. And you'd say, well, you know, a system that's built on incentives will work. A system that's built on poor incentives…

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nk 100%, would look at it and say, uh, maybe you shouldn't have done that. I don't think there's anybody on his team who would say that worked. Nobody. It might be the worst ad I've ever seen. Would you agree? Have you ever seen a worse, more damaging sell for all time? I think it's the king. I don't think you can do more than that.

All right, here's something that really happened that is so mind-boggling that we can't wrap our heads around it, which is why you can't act on it. Have you ever had those situations where there's something that's true and it's important but it's so big you just can't, you don't know what to do, you can't deal with it? So apparently Biden gives this big speech. Was it yesterday or the other day? In which instead of talking about all of his accomplishments and all the good things that Democrats have done and why you should vote for them in the midterm, he focused on how MAGA will destroy democracy and also said we might have to wait days for the ballots to be counted. All the while knowing that other countries don't need to do that. Israel would be a perfect example. Other countries don't need to do that. And we should unquestionably accept the results. Of course, yeah, of course. When the results are as commanded, we should. He's telling us in advance we should accept it.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong. Is he not telling you that they plan to rig the election? Now let me be clear. I don't have proof of that, so I don't have any proof. But that's what I heard. That's what I heard. Now that this is how communication works, right? The way communication works is that the speaker must make some assumptions about the listener. Like what does the listener already know? What is their context? Because you always organize your talk, your communication, by what the person already knows. So you don't have to tell them what they already know. You add the new thing.

Am I wrong to interpret this as he just told us that they're going to cheat and we better not complain? Now I'm not saying that that's going to happen. That's a different statement. I'm not saying it's going to happen. I'm saying he told us it's going to happen. That part, which is different than it's going to happen, right? I'm only talking about what he's talking about. I'm not talking about what might or might not happen in the real world. I'm saying that the president of the United States just told us that they're going to rig the election and he doesn't want you complaining about it. That's what I heard. That's what I heard. Did you hear anything different?

And I don't think it's because I'm all suspicious, is it? I think this is just the way words work. It's the way communication is designed to work. Just like this. I don't know how. I can't even think of another way to interpret it. Can you? I see no other way to interpret that. And if it's telling us exactly what it looks like, there are two possibilities. Am I right? Possibility number one is that they're actually going to rig the election and they're priming us for it. That would be terrible. But option number two is worse. Option number two is that we have a sitting president who doesn't know he just told the country that he

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's signaling the election will be rigged. Which one of those do you choose? Do you choose the one where things are so bad he just told you they're going to rig the election and you better not complain? That would be awful but not as awful as having a sitting president who doesn't know he just told the country that the election is going to be rigged and they better not complain about it if it's not…

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