Coffee With Scott Adams — Knowledge Archive July 10, 2026
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Episodes Episode #2517 Segments
MainContent Media & Fake News

Back to episode — Episode 2517 A Conversation With Michael Ian Black

Context —

more than once that is a fantastical story which the Scott Alexander rule would say you can't know for sure but there's a 19 out of 20 it's fake. Let me give you that example. So here's an article from The Insider from March 31st 2024. A year-long investigation by The Insider in collaboration with 60 Minutes and Der Spiegel has uncovered evidence suggesting that unexplained anomalous health incid…

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oes not say they had an office at Twitter. And it says the FBI social media specializing task force born after the 2016 election expanded to 80 agents and collaborated with Twitter to hunt down election meddling by foreign actors. Now I don't have a problem with any of that and I'm not sure why you do.

Well let me give you an example. There were a lot of things that were censored through that process and it was other entities. It wasn't just the FBI. Other government entities that turned out to be true. So medical things from highly qualified medical doctors but it didn't fit the narrative so it was suppressed. By the way I'm not saying that they didn't but I'm just saying this article seems to suggest that it was about election interference and election misinformation. I don't see anything in here about covid. Maybe that's a different article that I will find but keep going.

Well there's there we could talk about election disinformation. That's a fun topic too.

All right let me keep going. One of the ways you know something's true is if the opposition fact checkers say it's true. In other words if there's an entity that does fact checking that's very Republican and they've always been very Republican but they fact check something that's bad for Republicans that's more credible. Likewise there are some fact checkers like Snopes is famously pro-Democrat or at least that's the image they present. Recently Snopes debunked the fine people hoax. Were you aware of that? None of your news carried it that Snopes debunked the very fine people hoax.

The fine people hoax. Can you define what the very fine people hoax is?

So the hoax was that Trump once called neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville fine people.

And who reported that?

The entire press consistently. And it became it was actually the centerpiece of Biden's entire 2020 campaign.

So again let me just go back for a second. Your claim is that the news reported that Trump said, and I think you're putting this in quotes, "Nazis are very fine people." Is that what you're saying?

Yeah. The exact quote was they said that he called the neo-Nazis and the racists fine people. That's what they said. Now it's not a quote because the quote doesn't exist. What he actually said was I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the racists. They should be condemned totally.

But Joe Biden never said that Trump said that he called Nazis very fine people. What I can play you his election ad right here. This is from his announcement.

Well hold on. Are you saying that the centerpiece of Biden's entire campaign which was that Trump did say that. Are you saying that Biden did not have that as a centerpiece? Seriously?

No. What I'm saying is Biden used the Charlottesville incident and the violence that occurred there as the launching pad for his election. Biden never said that Trump said that he called Nazis very fine people. In fact he goes out of his way to say and I'll play it for you.

Oh my God. I mean I've got his words right here. Do you want to hear them?

Uh huh.

Okay. So I don't. I'm assuming you can hear this. I should tell you that I've been listening to compilations of him, of Democrats and him saying it all day.

Wait I'm sorry what?

I've been listening to compilations of him saying it, Biden and the news, for the last 24 hours saying that Trump said Nazis are very fine people. It's the single biggest story in the country. I don't know how you could not be aware of it. This is amazing. It's currently not the single biggest story in the country any stretch of the imagination.

Hold on. It was the centerpiece of Biden's campaign. Yes. He's going into a debate that will be hosted by two of the people who have reported it as true for years and it's the most important thing because it's the thing that made people think that Trump's a racist. You're talking about a very specific claim and I just want to be clear. Your claim is that Biden said that Trump said that Nazis are very fine people.

Yes he did not say that.

No you said it every time he gave a speech. But I'm telling you I had I tried to play the audio for you and you interrupted. So let me play the audio.

Hold on if you have one audio that's not going to tell anything. So I need to show you one where he does say it right.

After I do yes absolutely.

Okay hold on. So the claim is that Biden launched his entire campaign on the incident in Charlottesville. You and I agree on that by the way. That's absolutely correct. Further claim is that Biden said that Trump said that Nazis are very fine people. And what I'm telling you is in his original campaign video which launched his campaign he does not say that. So I would like to prove my claim by playing the audio. Is that cool or no?

Yeah go ahead.

Okay that's good. All right. So somebody's probably going to send me a link in. Are you playing it? That's pretty much the quote from Biden. So he does not in that. I didn't have any. Oh well I'll just read it to you. Hold on a second. He says the words of the president of the United States that stunned the world and shocked the conscience of this nation. He said they were quote, this is Biden talking, there were some very fine people on both sides unquote. Very fine people on both sides. With those words the president of the United States assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it. Nowhere does he say Trump said Nazis are very fine people.

Wait but he said that the people marching in Charlottesville were very fine people. Is that what you're saying?

No. He's saying the quote. He's quoting Trump and the quote that he uses is so this is Biden talking. He said there were and then Biden quotes there were some very fine people on both sides unquote. With those words the president of the United States assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it. So your interpretation of that is that he called some of the people who are marching and we would both consider racists that he called them fine people. Is that what you take from the quote?

I'm saying what I take from the quote is and I'll just quote back what Biden said. With those words the president of the United States assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it. That's what I take away from it. The moral equivalence argument.

So the moral equivalent between whom? So that would suggest that he said difference between the opposing sides at the Charlottesville rally. Right. So that's not what happened. What's happened. I'm quoting Biden so you should quote Trump. If you quote Trump what he said was I'm not talking about the racists and the neo-Nazis. They should be condemned totally. Now condemned totally is the opposite of a moral equivalence. And that's what he said at the same time he brought up the comment. It wasn't later or revised days later. He wanted to make sure that you knew he was not making a moral equivalence. But they cut that part out and you probably only saw the part where they left that out. So Biden le

Context —

aves it out too. Do you notice that it's not in his quote? Don't you think it would be relevant for Biden to have said at the same time he said that he said I condemn totally the racists because that would mean not a moral equivalence? Yes. However what I think you're ignoring is the larger context in which all of this took place and it goes back to the beginning of his campaign which I think you…

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