Coffee With Scott Adams — Knowledge Archive August 24, 2026
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Episodes Episode #678 Segments
QandA Politics as Persuasion

Back to episode — Episode 678 Scott Adams - Taking Guest Calls on Any Topic. Critics Welcome

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e simultaneous sip. All right. As promised, I'm gonna take some calls. Any topic you like. The only thing you can't be is long-winded and boring. Got it? So it can be any topic, though I'd probably stop you if it's something X-rated. But it can be any topic, any criticism. It just can't be long-winded or boring. Let's see. We're looking for somebody who's looking for a fight. I'm gonna prefer pe…

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it even now?

No, because it was close enough to being obvious parody that he'd have a defense. You know, you don't really, you can't convict people on ambiguous stuff. You know, things like that would have to be really, really dry. And that wasn't even. When I listened to it, I remember listening to it the first time before I knew it was parody and even I could tell, well, if he's making stuff up. And then when he got toward the end and he explained why he was saying it, it was obvious to me it was parody. So if there's somebody who's a regular watcher who can tell it's parody, it's not a defense that maybe somebody else couldn't. So does that answer your question?

Well that's kind of the out that everybody takes though and it's pretty dishonest I would think.

Oh no, it's dishonest and it's unethical. It's very effective. But it's also what both sides are doing all the time. He did it in a particular way. Every time either side makes some wild exaggerated claim, you know they're all, even if they become falsified later, the claim is still out there. Yeah, unfortunately that you just have to look at that as persuasion. But it does fall into a protected class. He is legally allowed to do that with no penalty whatsoever except whatever penalty voters want to put on him. But there's that.

Yeah it's already bad.

All right. Thank you for the question.

Thank you.

Take another. And by the way you can come at me. Don't be shy if you got a problem with anything I've done and I'm sure you must.

All right guest, can you hear me? Thanks Ron. What's your name? Daryl. Daryl, what's your question for me?

Darryl, well I was gonna comment on the Adam Schiff thing also, just how effective it's gonna be as the persuasion. But the other caller covered that. And so the two movies thing. What can we do to try to merge the two movies? Because it looks like the country is just so completely divided and living in two different realities. How, what can we do to try to bring that more together?

You can't. It's just impossible. Yeah no you can't. You can't bring the bulk of the people anywhere. People are so locked into their team. And because it's a team sport, the people who are, let's say, the thought leaders on each side don't want you to change teams. So as long as your tea

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m is saying no no don't go to that other team, they're all bad and we will mock you and the people you love will no longer care for you if you go over there, people are locked in there. There's some few people who are in a strange situation in the middle who may, for whatever reason, haven't committed. Maybe they have a single issue that would flip them one way or another. I mean I could think of…

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