Coffee With Scott Adams — Knowledge Archive July 10, 2026
Scott Adams Philosophy Archive
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saying that I'm just saying if he never done anything wrong it's hard to trust him because he's too smart. I think Elon Musk has that problem too. That if you don't like what he's doing you worry because he's too smart. Too smart is scary to most people. So you need to be too smart but also clearly empathetic. So the thing that Vivek has to do is make sure that he's communicated his empathy with…

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his empathy for regular Americans is through the roof. Would you agree? I've never seen anybody more consistently. And here's the key. Genuinely. Trump is full of it about a lot of stuff but if he doesn't genuinely have empathy for the let's say middle class of America that would be the greatest trick ever because he looks completely consistent. Everything he does in person every little act of kindness every word he picks every policy he picks they all seem to be consistent with a genuine empathy for Americans like ordinary Americans.

So I think when the Democrats pick up what they call the cult do you know what the cult is? He showed empathy. That's it. They called him a cult because he showed genuine empathy like the real kind. Like I think it's real. And believe me I'll be the first one to tell you Trump is a showman. I'll be the first person to say he uses hyperbole. The first person to tell you he doesn't pass all the fact checks. No no argument about any of that. But he has completely sold me after decades and decades of total consistency. The average American he really loves. And also the other thing he sells me on is I love his pirate ship. I call his supporters a pirate ship because it's all these you know a whole lot of narwhals and you know controversial characters people who've had brushes with the law you know just really edgy kind of out there people. He embraces all of them as long as they're on his side and America's side. He embraces all of them and I like it.

What I see with the Democrats is that they only embrace the politically popular. Oh trans are very important let's bring in some trans because they're getting a lot of publicity. Trump brings in the people who didn't get any publicity right? Yeah middle America is not getting a lot of publicity but that's the ones he caters to. So I think Vivek can take a lesson from the master. Trump actually in my opinion this it's pure opinion I believe he lowered his perceived capability by talking in a plain simple way you know. He says stuff like if the wind stops blowing your windmill won't work and you can't watch TV. Now nobody thinks that's really true I hope but it's just a simple way to say what he wants to say which is the green technology is overrated basically.

But if Vivek were to say the same thing he's going to give you the really compelling smart I understand this topic from top to bottom explanation and then you're going to say whoa his capability is way up here. Where's his empathy? His empathy is out of whack right? So he's so smart and so good his perceived capability got out of whack with his perceived empathy but the reality is they're probably the same. All he has to do is put them back in balance. So Trump low

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ers his perceived capability has a tremendous perceived empathy for regular Americans and they match. What happens when those two match? Your capability and your empathy if it's high capability charisma. That's what gets you a cult. You don't get a cult by being good at what you do. Let me say this a thousand times. You do not get a cult following for being good at what you do. Nobody does. It's n…

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