Coffee With Scott Adams — Knowledge Archive October 9, 2026
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MainContent Cognitive Reframing

Back to episode — Episode 2402 CWSA 03/03/24

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se of the brainwashing. All right. And it has the odd political quality of being true. But the reframing of it would be amazing. You could lose and win, right? You could lose the court case but you would win by simply making it a thing that people have to talk about. That there is a difference between persuading and brainwashing. You know the difference when you see it. TDS is a result of brainwas…

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ported. They didn't come here for crime and they actually I believe have a lower crime rate than population in general. I think I can use a fact check on that but I think historically people really want to stay off of law enforcement's radar and just work so they actually did have a lower crime rate.

Yeah so that could be true but it could also be true that any extra deaths are too much. That's just a different way of looking at the same data. Now are we bringing in the same kind of immigrants that we used to? It looks like no. There is certainly a suggestion that the Venezuelan criminals got out of jail and ran up here. You know the very thing that Trump said might happen actually happened it looks like. Now if they're entering the jails I would imagine that there would be some locations where the crime goes up maybe. So be careful of all the assumptions about data. You can prove anything you want with the data.

But I do want to give the immigrants who are already here a little bit of respect if you don't mind. A little bit of respect for the immigrants who are here and just want to work and just want to be Americans. I'm seeing some of you saying no, no respect really. No respect for somebody who loves their God and their family and they're in a bad situation and they're willing to do what they need to make it right. And even though it's illegal to come here what they want is to just make a good legal life and contribute to the country. You don't respect that because they broke a law to do it? Interesting. I would argue that you've been deeply brainwashed for that opinion. That's not a natural opinion. That's a brainwashed opinion.

I hate to tell my own. You know we're all brainwashed by the way including me. We're all brainwashed maybe in slightly different ways. But if you can't find it in yourself to respect someone who came from another country, wanted to be American, wanted to work, wanted to obey all the laws after coming in illegally, perhaps you can't find a way to respect that. Really you don't have to like it by the way. It's a different argument if you think we should close the border. That's separate. I'm just saying that if you're just looking at the people, the human beings, they're human beings just trying to get along.

Now I'm for very strong borders and very tough vetting so we're only letting in people who can help us. All right. But that's a separate conversation. You can still respect the people, right? You're tough graders. You're very tough graders. Yeah I don't know. Well so part of it is I put myself in their situation and I say to myself if I were in some country and I knew that if I took a risk I could get here and I could make something of myself and I just want to follow the law, there's just this one law I'm going to violate to get here, would I feel bad about myself? I don't think I would. I think I would respect my choice if it worked out and my second generation was completely legal and had a good life and went to school.

So is there anybody here who would think it would be more respectable to stay in your native country and starve versus breaking a law to try to get to a new place? How many of you think it's more respectable to stay there and let your family starve? I don't know. I think you can consider that we're all brainwashed by the way. That's a really good mental experiment. Don't assume it's the other people. The other people are definitely brainwashed no doubt about that. But if your level of awareness is only the other people are getting brainwashed I'm here to help you up to the next level. I'm here to help. I'm not from the government. I'm actually here to help. I would actually like you to understand when it happens to you. If you only see it when it's happening to somebody else that's grade school. That's easy. I'm trying to take you up to at least junior college level where you can see it's happening to you as well. If you can't see it happening to you you're really going to be lost. You have to know it's happening to you. It's very very important.

All right. I know it's uncomfortable to have that thought in your head. Biden saying the border is insecure because of Trump. Let's just talk about the theme. I was getting to that the level of gaslighting during the election season is so off the chart and I don't know if it's worse than ever. It feels like it is but maybe we think that all the time. I don't know. So how much of a gaslight is it to say that Trump's the reason that the border is open? That's just insane. It's insane. And the story that they've sold to at least half of their own people is that if that bill had passed the border would be closed. How little would you have to know about this situation to think that that's true? You would have to know almost nothing about the situation to buy that. And the fact that Biden says it and you know it's the standard line now really does suggest that they know how dumb their voters are. They're really playing their voters for idiots right? Because there's lots you could say that would be not exactly what Trump says. There's a whole bunch of things you could say which is Trump honestly says this, we honestly say this, we think our thing is better. They can't do that. All they can do is make up the most absurd lie that Trump's responsible for it.

Now I do believe that Trump said it would be better for my election results if they don't pass the bill. Do you believe that part? Do you believe that Trump ever did say you know it'd be better off if we don't pass it? I believe he said that but not the way they're interpreting it. It doesn't make sense to do a bad bill if it's also politically bad. That's what I heard. The bill's bad but passing it would be twice as bad. It's two bad things. The bill itself and then the politics of passing it if they could claim it worked or that it's going to work any day now. So yeah I think Trump is completely, it's completely normal thing to say this would be bad to pass this politically but it's also just a bad bill which we observe all right because it didn't really address the core problems.

Here's the funniest thing. I really don't think that Democrats understand that replacement theory that they keep complaining about. You know a lot of people on the right keep saying hey they're trying to replace us. They're going to try to replace us. And they're usually thinking I guess white Republicans or something. They're trying to replace us. Well you know how the future is impossible to predict. Ain't that anything? Yeah we just, most things are just unpredictable. Here's what I think might be happening. The migrants might be replacing us but only the Democrats. I think the migrants are replacing the Democrats. And because what are, how many of the migrants have blue hair? Has anybody seen, have you seen the thousands and thousands of migrants? I look for the blue-haired ones and I also I'm wondering how many of them are trans. Have you seen the numbers? Are you saying that no trans people are coming across the border? I feel like that group should be carved out for special protection. No trans, no blue hair, no trans. And are they rejecting religion the people coming in or are they embracing it? Just guessing probably most of them at least from Central Latin America are certainly religious in nature. Do they like families? Yes. Do they expect and want to work hard to succeed? Yes.

Yeah you, I don't think we've quite grasped the degree to which we've refreshed the country and we don't know it. Now again let me say I'm completely against open immigration. We got to close the freaking border and vet people. But within the vetting I'm very much a Musk perspective. We probably need 50 million migrants just to survive. Not a preference. It might be requirement, an actual existential requirement that we need 50 million. Now I know you don't like it and I'm not crazy about it myself unless they're vetted. If we vet them 50

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million is going to be really really good for the country if we get the best people from other countries etc. But I don't think we can do that with DEI. I think as long as DEI is in place you're not going to get the best people coming to this country. It's definitely going to be a little bit of a gating factor I would think. All right so just keep an eye on it. And if I were the Republicans here'…

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