# 375 – David Pakman — Politics of Trump, Biden, Bernie, AOC, Socialism & Wokeism  ## About - Author: Lex Fridman Podcast - Title: 375 – David Pakman — Politics of Trump, Biden, Bernie, AOC, Socialism & Wokeism - Tags: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/15c034b1-ecf8-483b-b83f-f7c7e395d9ec ## Highlights > Twitter and journalism machine working to divide people Transcript: Speaker 2 Well, it just feels like there's an entire machine by Twitter and journalism that wants to divide people and the drama of that division highlighting the partisan division. The drama of that division feels like it's attention with objective, clear thinking sometimes. Speaker 1 And so that's the, I worry that there's a drug to it. ([Time 0:26:54](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f33d88ae-5f0d-4e74-9f3d-3864cba1d484)) --- > The Importance of Critical Thinking and Consuming Primary Source Reporting Transcript: Speaker 1 And I tell people very openly, I don't consume a lot of the type of content I produce. And I think it's really important to as a base be doing critical thinking, epistemology. How do we believe the things we believe? Basics about the world. After that, reading history, economics, philosophy, et cetera. After that, now we're getting into current events, I would mostly be looking at consuming primary source reporting, things like associated press, whatever. ([Time 0:27:59](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8f4582b4-10a6-4018-8998-a3754d368e7a)) --- > Trump's mix of entrepreneurship and scapegoating under populism Transcript: Speaker 1 Trump rightly identified like we have an issue here. We don't have enough entrepreneurship, etc. But there was also a lot of scapegoating that was China and people coming through the US-Mexico border were popular scapegoats for a lot of those problems. This gets us kind of to populism. Populism is a rhetoric and populism as a rhetoric doesn't necessarily come with particular policies. ([Time 1:53:04](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c3fd3f21-5f91-42ba-86c3-51c4050e12e4)) --- > Enlightened Centrism Transcript: Speaker 1 The idea that I am not going to fall for being a Democrat or a Republican, I can see that these are just two sides of the same coin equally bad lying to every. Okay, so that's one, it's sort of like it's popular at dinner parties in some circles to go, I'm, but with all these politicians left and right. So that's one side of it. The other side of it is that it's often used when, when your side has really stepped in it, it's a popular way to acknowledge that your side has done something wrong. ([Time 2:20:10](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f3a0e2fe-3142-49ca-a225-04459f5ac333)) --- > Self-Censorship in Academia Transcript: Speaker 1 I think they would say it to me, these are just personal contacts. It's not like I'm going to go blabbing. Speaker 2 To push back, I kind of agree with you, but at the same time, most, I mean, I'm deeply connected and academia have a huge number of colleagues. Most people self-sensor by not thinking about it at all. They're like, screw it. Speaker 1 That's deeper. Whatever. Speaker 2 I'm just going to focus on the thing I love doing, which is the work. ([Time 2:34:52](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e464ceea-7f2c-4592-bee5-c81fb4203051)) --- > Chad GPT's ability to teach critical thinking skills Transcript: Speaker 1 You know, Chad GPT can do so many things, but I've not yet seen good examples of how it can teach you to think. Maybe you have a different view on how Chad GPT can teach a user to think. But those skills seem to be so lacking in so many of the people I interact with. If there's any positive change to come from a changing dynamic with higher education, I wish it would be to go in that direction. Speaker 2 Well, no, Chad GPT is actually much better helping me think than any ([Time 2:39:26](https://share.snipd.com/snip/cb72f868-06dd-4ae0-bfbb-4b966d52df22)) --- > Teaching AI to Offload Memory Effects and Equations Will Improve Critical Thinking Transcript: Speaker 2 So yeah, I think I think it will do exactly that, which is teach you how to think because you will offload the memory effects and equations and whatever else school teaches you, you'll offload that to AI. And instead you'll be using your human mind, which is what it for now, at least uniquely good at, which is asking good questions, thinking through the complexities of issues when there's multiple perspectives on it, all of that. ([Time 2:41:04](https://share.snipd.com/snip/72e136f9-0fcc-48b1-af73-4e8f4843656e)) --- > The Inspiration of Space Exploration and Re-Reading History Transcript: Speaker 2 It kind of inspires you to think of space exploration and taking on similar kinds of risky and dangerous journeys. In narrative nonfiction, I grew with you very much. I've been reading a lot of 20th century history about Stalin and about Hitler. Rise and fall of the third Reich. I've read twice now. Speaker 1 What did you get out of reading at the second time? Speaker 2 So what I ([Time 3:19:29](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c1d22d54-fb32-47cd-bac9-664532dd764b)) --- > Finding Meaning in the History of Evil Transcript: Speaker 2 So what I second time I listened to the audio book as I ran. I get the same thing from it as I get maybe reading Man Search for Meaning, which is all the troubles of day to day in the modern world kind of fade away and dissipate when I'm thinking about the, you know, basically the embodiment of evil at scale at that recent time in human history. ([Time 3:19:55](https://share.snipd.com/snip/2e17828e-292d-4e42-8e8e-000bef78d5bd)) --- > Why Iteration is Key for Success Transcript: Speaker 1 Data right away about what's working, what's not working, and whether you even like this approach that you're taking is so valuable. And it will allow you to iterate. And the sooner you do it, the cost to a change of direction will also be lower. If there's any I don't do like self help or generic advice type stuff. But the one thing that applies in so many situations is situations is just try it right away and iterate from there. Speaker 2 Yeah, start today and then do it every day. ([Time 3:31:26](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6bf01440-e674-4513-8c89-585721090d41)) ---