Coffee With Scott Adams — Knowledge Archive May 24, 2026
Scott Adams Philosophy Archive
Search ideas
Episodes Episode #116 Segments
MainContent Politics as Persuasion

Back to episode — Episode 116 - Facts are not Influencing the Immigration Debate

Context —

General Hayden said this morning — let me find General Hayden's tweet which I've also retweeted. You'd find both of these in my Twitter feed. General Michael Hayden said, "So exactly when do we send up the warning flare?" He's talking about Nazi stuff. He says, "After the torchlight parade chanting blood and soil? After the White House press office becomes a Ministry of Propaganda? After we punish…

← Previous segment →

Now here's a thought that I've been having that's growing stronger in me. Most of you who have been following me for a while know that I'm not a Republican and that I don't vote. And I don't vote because I don't like to be influenced into team politics even though at this point I am. But because I've been labeled as a Trump supporter and I've already told you that I stopped — I've got one exception coming up — but I stopped appearing in public and I'm quite serious about not appearing in public because of the physical danger where I live, especially in Northern California. I just don't think it would be safe.

And I was thinking to myself what would happen if Trump got, you know, let's say there was a blue wave and Trump got impeached. I think it would be a dangerous situation for Trump supporters, wouldn't you? And I'm feeling like the best reason for Republicans to vote is that they're coming for you next and they're not hiding it. They're coming for Trump right now but they're making it pretty clear they're coming for Trump supporters next. The one and only way to protect yourself is just to make sure they lose the election.

So they've somehow made the only situation — it's amazing the bad strategy you see on the left. The big way that anybody wins in midterms is by turnout, right? So whoever gets the best turnout wins because the sides are roughly even. The races that are even are the ones that matter. So turnout is the tiebreaker. Who's going to get more turnout?

I have a feeling the Republicans are going to be physically frightened because it's real now. The left has been clear that this is personal now and this is citizen to citizen. And probably the safest thing you could do if you're a Republican is to help get out the vote because it's gonna be a dangerous place around here if the president gets impeached. I'm not wrong about that, right? The impeachment is the point where the risk of something snapping is pretty high right now. We're at a lot of bend. We have a system that allows things to get pretty excited and still just bends a little bit and it just goes back.

At the moment I'm not worried about a revolution if President Trump gets impeached while his performance is similar to what it is now. You know, ninety percent support on his side. That's a dangerous situation. And I'm actually considering voting for the first time. And I wouldn't even be voting for candidates. I would just be voting for a side. I would just say Republican. I'm not a Republican. It's not even about policies. I think it would be just pure self-defense because I would want the safest situation for the country.

So here's the get-out-the-vote slogan that I think is the strongest for Republicans: They're coming for you next. You know it's true. They are coming for you next. And if you want to be safe you probably want to keep the system intact as long as possible.

Context —

All right, let's talk about immigration. So I think many of you heard me as recently as yesterday say that immigrants have a lower crime rate than citizens and that that fact is influencing part of the discussion. And when you look into it, it turns out that there had not been any studies about illegal immigrants, which are really the point. Illegal immigrants had not been studied until just recen…

Next segment → →