Joe Rogan Experience #1630 - Dan Crenshaw

1. 0:00 – 1:45

   Studio-as-spaceship banter and the “Elon is an alien” running joke

   1. NANarrator0:00

      (drum music plays) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music plays)

   2. DCDan Crenshaw0:15

      I have a theory on this place.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:17

      This place, Austin? Go ahead. T-

   4. DCDan Crenshaw0:18

      No, your studio.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:19

      Oh, what's the theory? Tell me the theory.

   6. DCDan Crenshaw0:22

      Well, it looks like a spaceship.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:23

      Yes. So here's my theory.

   8. DCDan Crenshaw0:26

      Okay.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:26

      'Cause you had this grand master plan to get Elon Musk to admit that he's an alien.

   10. DCDan Crenshaw0:31

       He's definitely an alien. But that's not correct. This was already... This already existed. This was, uh, this-

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:36

       Oh, really? You bought it as is?

   12. DCDan Crenshaw0:37

       Yeah. Well, (coughs) it's a long story and I can't get into too m- many details, but this was a conference room and so we converted this c- the conference r- conference room was already circular. We converted it.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:49

       But you put this weird alien stuff on it.

   14. DCDan Crenshaw0:51

       Yeah, this stuff we put on. These are just, uh, sound deadening panels.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:55

       So that wasn't an attempt to get Elon to admit that he's an alien.

   16. DCDan Crenshaw0:57

       No.

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:58

       Because... Okay, so here's how I thought you were doing this.

   18. DCDan Crenshaw1:00

       Okay.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:01

       You've conditioned him over time, right? You, you, you bring him into the studio, you're drinking with him, you got him really high. Let's say-

   20. DCDan Crenshaw1:07

       I didn't get him really high. He barely got... I don't even think he inhaled.

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:11

       Oh.

   22. DCDan Crenshaw1:11

       Did he inhale?

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:11

       Wow. All right. Well, the rest of America thinks differently.

   24. DCDan Crenshaw1:14

       He took a little puff. Yeah.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:15

       (laughs)

   26. DCDan Crenshaw1:15

       He's just naturally high.

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:16

       Well- Pot probably doesn't work on aliens.

   28. DCDan Crenshaw1:18

       But you get him, you get him comfortable, right?

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:20

       Right.

   30. DCDan Crenshaw1:21

       And then you put him in a situation that looks like his home base-
2. 1:45 – 10:19

   Simulation theory: inevitability, probability, and the limits of common sense

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:45

      He believes in the simulation theory.

   2. DCDan Crenshaw1:48

      Really?

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:48

      Yeah. See, see, see-

   4. DCDan Crenshaw1:49

      I don't believe in the simulation theory.

   5. JRJoe Rogan1:50

      Well-

   6. DCDan Crenshaw1:51

      It doesn't explain anything because who's, who's running them? If they're running us, who's running them? It doesn't, it doesn't explain existence.

   7. JRJoe Rogan1:57

      You don't understand the simulation theory.

   8. DCDan Crenshaw1:58

      Maybe not.

   9. JRJoe Rogan1:58

      That's... It's not that someone's run... It's a, it, it becomes the universe itself. The i- the idea is that-

   10. DCDan Crenshaw2:05

       But somebody created it.

   11. JRJoe Rogan2:06

       Yes. But-

   12. DCDan Crenshaw2:07

       But who created them?

   13. JRJoe Rogan2:08

       Okay, us. Listen, if we are... If we exist, right?

   14. DCDan Crenshaw2:11

       Okay.

   15. JRJoe Rogan2:11

       We, we do exist. We agree to that?

   16. DCDan Crenshaw2:13

       Yes.

   17. JRJoe Rogan2:13

       Right. And we agree that we have fantastic technology that's indistinguishable from magic if you brought it to three, 400 years ago, right?

   18. DCDan Crenshaw2:21

       Okay.

   19. JRJoe Rogan2:22

       What we experience now is nothing in comparison, especially as, you know, the laws of technology and they expand at an exponential rate. If you look at what we can do now and look at what we're gonna be capable of 100 years from now or 1,000 years from now, it's gonna be impossible to distinguish between reality and simulated reality. They will, they will develop an alternative virtual reality that's impossible to distinguish from. So the question is, how do you know if that hasn't already taken place?

   20. DCDan Crenshaw2:54

       Th-

   21. JRJoe Rogan2:54

       And maybe that's how the universe works. Maybe the idea of things being concrete and physical that you can touch and things that you can weigh-

   22. DCDan Crenshaw3:02

       Mm-hmm.

   23. JRJoe Rogan3:02

       ... is just the experience that we've currently been accustomed to. Maybe that's not the whole way the universe works.

   24. DCDan Crenshaw3:09

       Yeah, I had this conversation with Scott Adams. He was on my podcast and I was kinda... I had to think about it later and, um, it still, it still fails to explain existence for me. Because i- if we're the ones who created it, then still somebody like us in a future state still created us or created the reality that we're in.

   25. JRJoe Rogan3:29

       Yes.

   26. DCDan Crenshaw3:29

       And I get that there's this kind of circular reasoning associated with it, but it still fails to explain some basic truths.

   27. JRJoe Rogan3:35

       But it doesn't. It doesn't because here's the pro- the thing. Like, you have single celled organisms, they, they turn into multi-celled organisms as they evolve and then eventually you get something that's sentient and also can alter its environment. That's human beings. That thing starts creating these virtual worlds and these virtual worlds are run by artificial intelligence-

   28. DCDan Crenshaw3:55

       Mm-hmm.

   29. JRJoe Rogan3:55

       ... that becomes sentient as well. So that artificial intelligence continues to create newer and better virtual worlds and then it's a self-sustaining system. And this self-sustaining system becomes a new version of reality. If you think about the, the-

   30. DCDan Crenshaw4:12

       Yeah.
3. 10:19 – 13:56

   From black holes to quantum weirdness: physics as awe—and as confusion

   1. GFGuest’s friend/companion10:19

      Uh, the, the, the, just this weekend I saw Neil deGrasse Tyson posted a video on his Insta. I'm trying to pull it up right now. It might have been on Twitter.

   2. DCDan Crenshaw10:25

      I thought you'd be more entertained by my theory about you-

   3. GFGuest’s friend/companion10:27

      Where he was-

   4. DCDan Crenshaw10:27

      ... trying to trick Elon into con- again (laughs) admitting he was an alien.

   5. JRJoe Rogan10:30

      I'm trying to be cool about that theory because I don't want Elon to know I'm tricking him.

   6. GFGuest’s friend/companion10:33

      He was just saying it's probable that it's not true.

   7. DCDan Crenshaw10:33

      Is it, is it the gig up? I mean, you, you-

   8. JRJoe Rogan10:35

      Hold on.

   9. DCDan Crenshaw10:36

      ... you... It's probable but not true? Okay.

   10. GFGuest’s friend/companion10:38

       Yeah, no, what you're saying. Uh, he, Neil Tyson was on your side of this.

   11. DCDan Crenshaw10:42

       Yeah.

   12. GFGuest’s friend/companion10:42

       That after all the thought into it-

   13. DCDan Crenshaw10:43

       I got Neil Tyson on my side.

   14. GFGuest’s friend/companion10:45

       Yeah.

   15. JRJoe Rogan10:45

       But hold, hold on. I'll let Neil-

   16. GFGuest’s friend/companion10:46

       That, like, uh, if the simulation theory was true, we're either, like, you could take yo- he said that you could point at any moment in the timeline and that would be like us, like we're e- like about to create this simulation, but we haven't done it yet and we don't know how to.

   17. JRJoe Rogan11:02

       What? (laughs)

   18. GFGuest’s friend/companion11:03

       That's sort of why I wanted to get him saying-

   19. JRJoe Rogan11:05

       W-T... Neil deGrasse Tyson doesn't have a fucking case on his phone.

   20. GFGuest’s friend/companion11:07

       (laughs)

   21. JRJoe Rogan11:07

       And I told him that was stupid. And last time I saw him, his phone was cracked.

   22. DCDan Crenshaw11:11

       Tha- that is proof he doesn't know what he's talking about.

   23. JRJoe Rogan11:12

       He's got some knucklehead ideas. He's like, "Ah, it's an elegant device."

   24. DCDan Crenshaw11:15

       All theoretical physicists have, have knucklehead ideas.

   25. GFGuest’s friend/companion11:18

       (laughs)

   26. JRJoe Rogan11:18

       (laughs)

   27. DCDan Crenshaw11:18

       I mean, that's the entire point of a theoretical physicist. They got too good at math, they got bored, they got bored proving theorems over and over again.

   28. JRJoe Rogan11:24

       Well, he's an astrophysicist.

   29. DCDan Crenshaw11:26

       Yeah, well, which, which require-

   30. JRJoe Rogan11:28

       I think that's-
4. 13:56 – 15:06

   Meaning-making, ‘law of attraction’ grifts, and why weird ideas can become cults

   1. JRJoe Rogan13:56

      You haven't seen that movie?

   2. DCDan Crenshaw13:57

      Uh-uh.

   3. JRJoe Rogan13:58

      It's all about... It's, it's, uh... You know about The Secret? You know about the idea of The Secret, the idea of the law of attraction?

   4. DCDan Crenshaw14:04

      Ugh, I saw that a... I saw that a long time ago too.

   5. JRJoe Rogan14:06

      There's a lot of people that believe-

   6. DCDan Crenshaw14:08

      Not doing well.

   7. JRJoe Rogan14:08

      ... that you can sort of manifest reality and that-

   8. DCDan Crenshaw14:11

      Okay.

   9. JRJoe Rogan14:11

      ... reality and the, the quantum world is somehow entangled with your consciousness and-

   10. DCDan Crenshaw14:17

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan14:18

       ... some sort of a weird, spooky way.

   12. DCDan Crenshaw14:19

       Yeah.

   13. JRJoe Rogan14:19

       My point is that a lot of people will take advantage of this weirdness and sort of, uh, apply laws and rules to this weirdness that they have, like, sort of a script for, and that you should follow. And then next thing you know, you're in a cult.

   14. DCDan Crenshaw14:34

       (laughs) And that's-

   15. JRJoe Rogan14:35

       And someone's-

   16. DCDan Crenshaw14:35

       And that's how you end up in a cult. That's, that's how-

   17. JRJoe Rogan14:36

       And someone's banging your wife-

   18. DCDan Crenshaw14:37

       ... how, how you end up in a cult. That's how.

   19. JRJoe Rogan14:37

       ... and you have to pay 10%. (laughs)

   20. DCDan Crenshaw14:39

       (laughs) That's, you're drinking weird Kool-Aid.

   21. JRJoe Rogan14:41

       Yes. That's how it works, man. It's, uh, people are strange. You know, we, we, we wanna find meaning to things that don't necessarily have meaning to them. And we wanna apply rules to things that maybe don't necessarily have rules, like life itself. You know, life itself is very bizarre.

   22. DCDan Crenshaw14:58

       Well, the search for meaning, I think, is what's behind this, what I believe is an extravagant theory of the simulation. (laughs)

   23. JRJoe Rogan15:05

       Maybe. Yeah.

   24. DCDan Crenshaw15:06

       You know?

5. 15:06 – 16:48

   Ready Player One is closer than we think: VR addiction, trade-offs, and a fragile culture

   1. JRJoe Rogan15:06

      No, maybe. Look, look, I'm not married to the, the th- the simulation theory. In, in fact, um, I think it's more likely, and this is gonna get real strange. I think it's more, more likely that it's, it's an inevitable possibility rather than it's, it's a reality. I think it's an inevitable possibility. I think if we don't blow ourselves up, there's gonna come a point in time where... Did you ever see, uh, Ready Player One?

   2. DCDan Crenshaw15:28

      Mm-hmm.

   3. JRJoe Rogan15:28

      Great movie, right?

   4. DCDan Crenshaw15:29

      Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it was pretty good.

   5. JRJoe Rogan15:30

      Fun, fun movie. I think that's gonna happen. I don't think that's far away.

   6. DCDan Crenshaw15:33

      Yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan15:33

      That's probably 50 years in the future where you, you're gonna be able to put on a haptic feedback suit and some sort of-

   8. DCDan Crenshaw15:39

      Sure.

   9. JRJoe Rogan15:39

      ... VR goggles.

   10. DCDan Crenshaw15:39

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan15:39

       And you're gonna enter into some incredibly advanced artificial reality, virtual reality that's amazing.

   12. DCDan Crenshaw15:47

       Yeah.

   13. JRJoe Rogan15:47

       That's more interesting than-

   14. DCDan Crenshaw15:49

       Th- that seems likely.

   15. JRJoe Rogan15:50

       Yeah.

   16. DCDan Crenshaw15:50

       That seems likely.

   17. JRJoe Rogan15:51

       Yeah.

   18. DCDan Crenshaw15:52

       And, and then it's gonna be a new, a new trick of, well, how do we prevent people from... I don't know if we can prevent people. Or h- how do we deal with this, with this obvious problem where the rate, the virtual reality becomes the preferred lifestyle, which is, it already is for a lot of people-

   19. JRJoe Rogan16:06

       Right.

   20. DCDan Crenshaw16:06

       ... playing the, um, playing video games or-

   21. JRJoe Rogan16:08

       Call of Duty.

   22. DCDan Crenshaw16:08

       ... on social media-

   23. JRJoe Rogan16:09

       Yeah.

   24. DCDan Crenshaw16:09

       ... or whatever it is. And, um, you know, is, is this, is this a good thing? (laughs) It does- it doesn't seem to me that it, that it is.

   25. JRJoe Rogan16:18

       My, my position is that it's a thing.

   26. DCDan Crenshaw16:20

       It's a thing.

   27. JRJoe Rogan16:20

       I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing. I don't th- I don't know if anything is a g- I don't know if agriculture's a good thing.

   28. DCDan Crenshaw16:26

       Everything's a trade-off.

   29. JRJoe Rogan16:27

       Yeah. I mean, it seems like, you know, the people that wanna, like, go back to the hunter-gatherer days, like, "You know, we, we're better off, we're hunting and gathering. Oh yeah, without all that books and medicine and all that confusing shit." Like, what are you talking about?

   30. DCDan Crenshaw16:38

       Right.
6. 16:48 – 21:06

   COVID became partisan: risk perception, urban vs rural realities, and public-health messaging

   1. DCDan Crenshaw16:48

      Yeah.

   2. JRJoe Rogan16:48

      It's, it, it exposed a lot of weird shit about a bunch of really freaked out people that are just paranoid and, and schizophrenic, and how many people that are just fragile. There's so many fragile people in our culture.

   3. DCDan Crenshaw17:03

      I was blown away by the politics of it. I'm a politician, so this is what I analyze. And I was blown away that the, the conversation about how to deal with the last year became, or, or it, it... The division, the division fell upon partisan lines, right? About whether to lock down or not to lock down, about whether people liked masks or, or didn't like masks. And at first, that seems really odd, and so I, I spent a lot of time analyzing this, 'cause it shouldn't be that way. It, it should, it, it should be mixed. You would-

   4. JRJoe Rogan17:34

      Mm-hmm.

   5. DCDan Crenshaw17:34

      You would think about...

   6. JRJoe Rogan17:35

      Yes.

   7. DCDan Crenshaw17:36

      Just 'cause it, what you're really talking about is somebody's risk assessment and, you know, how they perceive risk and how they wanna deal with that, and how they think everybody else should deal with that. And, um, it's strange. I think there's a lot of factors involved. I, I do think that there was some political opportunism. I think that if Trump says something, people reactively say the opposite.

   8. JRJoe Rogan17:55

      That's a problem, right?

   9. DCDan Crenshaw17:56

      And then that's definitely part of it. However, um, after Trump lost the election, he, it, the, that didn't stop. That, that movement aga- you know, for pro-lockdown movement never stopped. So it didn't, it was not clear to me then that that was the only reason.

   10. JRJoe Rogan18:09

       But it's, but it is. See, the problem is once people get committed to an ideology or committed to a narrative-

   11. DCDan Crenshaw18:15

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan18:15

       ... just because Trump lost and now Biden's in power, it's not like everybody just abandons this narrative and-

   13. DCDan Crenshaw18:21

       Yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan18:21

       ... s- and creates a new reality based on objective truth.

   15. DCDan Crenshaw18:24

       But they'll never even do a, do a, an after-action report on it to the point to where it's-

   16. JRJoe Rogan18:29

       What happened in June?

   17. DCDan Crenshaw18:29

       ... to where it's ridiculous.

   18. JRJoe Rogan18:30

       Oh, I thought you were showing us something.

   19. DCDan Crenshaw18:32

       (laughs)

   20. JRJoe Rogan18:32

       (laughs)

   21. DCDan Crenshaw18:32

       And, and so, so I, I, I put another, uh, I put another, a few factors in there. I, I think some of it is the fact that, uh, Democrats tend to congregate in urban areas, and it might be s- you know, the, the virus is more in your face in an urban area than in a rural area. That might be some explanation there.

   22. JRJoe Rogan18:45

       For sure, right?

   23. DCDan Crenshaw18:46

       But it, but it really boils down to, and there's, there's studies on this, where our, our brains light up differently, uh, when assessing risk. Now, it doesn't mean that the behavioral outcomes of these studies are, change. Basically, they would, they would take liberals and conservatives and they would give them a betti- what, what amounts to a betting game and see how they react differently. Now, that, now, the actual behavioral outcomes, what they choose wasn't-... di- didn't change all that much. But when they're doing the MRI scans, they see that their brains light up differently. So, that's interesting. So, we clearly assess risk differently somehow. Uh, so I'd looked at data on, uh, the kind of jobs that we choose, and it turns out, and this is intuitive, you would guess this, that the vast majority of conservative ... Or vast majority of dangerous jobs are, are mostly populated by conservatives; lumberjacking, uh, hard labor, uh, military, law enforcement. So there's, there ... It's obvious that we're choosing to engage in risk differently, just overall-

   24. JRJoe Rogan19:42

       Yeah.

   25. DCDan Crenshaw19:42

       ... in the aggregate. And so, I think that gets at why we think differently about this. I think we're truly wired differently and, uh, a- add on top of that, the, the natural disposition of a liberal to believe in some sort of collective action, whereas the natural disposition of a conservative is to believe that government can only do so much. Right? There, there's life out there and it's, sometimes it's dangerous, and it's up to you as an individual to generally assess that. And that's also the most efficient way to do things, in order to get the best outcomes in the aggregate. So these are two dispositions that are always present and they, and they manifest in policy outcomes all the time. And in this case, it's pretty obvious how they manifested into the, into the way we dealt with coronavirus. Um, and, and I think that kind of explains it 'cause, you know ... And, and think about it this way too, the ... When a, when a more left-leaning public health official talks about it, they always give you the worst case scenario, "Well, it's possible that if you're 15, you could die." Well, yeah, it's possible, but it's also far more unlikely than even if you got the flu. They don't ... They say they leave out that part. They leave out the context. They leave out the probabilities. This is why I've been so frustrated with our public health officials.

   26. JRJoe Rogan20:47

       Yeah.

   27. DCDan Crenshaw20:48

       Give us the whole truth.

   28. JRJoe Rogan20:49

       Right.

   29. DCDan Crenshaw20:50

       Don't just give us the most dangerous truth. Don't, don't tell us the tail end of the probability, uh, scale. Like, that's, that's not useful information to us. Very ... It's been very frustrating to watch how we've dealt with this over the last year, around the world, not just in America. Frankly, we've had it better than a lot of countries.

7. 21:06 – 29:20

   Gang mentality and social-media bullying: why debate collapses into slogans

   1. JRJoe Rogan21:06

      I, I think people tend to try to find a group that they can attach themselves to, and Chris Rock has a great bit about this. Chri- ... You know what? You can find ... Uh, Mick Maynard, who is, uh, one of the, uh, matchmakers for the UFC, posted this on his Instagram. Um, go to, um, Mick ... You got it? Yeah. Okay. So, Mick Maynard posted this from the great and powerful Chris Rock, and this is, uh ... We can watch this 'cause it's on his Instagram and if ... Chris will holler at me if it's, it's an issue, but I fucking love Chris Rock and this is one of the, the best points. It might not be one of his best bits, but it's one of his best points ever 'cause he's so ... It's so accurate because he's talking about-

   2. NANarrator21:50

      ... mentality, man. We all got a gang mentality. Republicans are fucking idiots and Democrats are fucking idiots and conservatives are idiots and liberals are idiots. And any- anyone that makes up their mind before they hear the issue is a fucking fool, okay?

   3. NANarrator22:08

      (cheers)

   4. NANarrator22:13

      Everybody ... Now, now, hold on. Everybody's so busy wantin' to be down with a gang. "I'm a conservative," "I'm a liberal," "I'm a conservative." It's bullshit! Be a fucking person! Listen! Let it swirl around your head, then form your opinion. No normal, decent person is one thing, okay? I got some shit I'm conservative about, I got some shit I'm liberal about. Crime? I'm conservative. Prostitution? I'm liberal.

   5. JRJoe Rogan22:44

      (laughs)

   6. NANarrator22:45

      (cheers)

   7. JRJoe Rogan22:45

      A- and it goes on, but that's where the clip ends.

   8. DCDan Crenshaw22:48

      Yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan22:48

      But that's so accurate, is that wha- what a lot of people are afraid of is being alone. They're afraid of being attacked. And one of the things about today's culture, particularly with, uh, social media, is that it's an attack culture, it's a bully culture. And a lot of these people that are doing the attacking and they're doing the bullying, they've been bullied in the real world, so they want payback, so they're trying to bully people online.

   10. DCDan Crenshaw23:10

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan23:10

       And that's what you see. There's a lot of, like, low-status males, a lot of, like, really weak people who have n- never really overcome physical adversity or they're not successful, but they found a way online to gather up a group of people that resonate with some of their opinions and they can attack people. And they do it all day long. You know? There's, there's a-

   12. DCDan Crenshaw23:33

       I, I find that to be the most (laughs) -

   13. JRJoe Rogan23:34

       It's fascinating.

   14. DCDan Crenshaw23:35

       ... the most probable ... If, if somebody's, uh, saying something ex- extremely crude and awful to me online, it's, it's probably a, a younger man-

   15. JRJoe Rogan23:44

       It doesn't have-

   16. DCDan Crenshaw23:44

       ... uh, who's unhappy.

   17. JRJoe Rogan23:44

       ... necessarily.

   18. DCDan Crenshaw23:45

       (laughs)

   19. JRJoe Rogan23:45

       Sometimes it's older men who have failed their life and they've just-

   20. DCDan Crenshaw23:49

       Same. Same, yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan23:49

       ... they've decided that this is their stand, this is their line in the sand they're gonna draw.

   22. DCDan Crenshaw23:53

       Right.

   23. JRJoe Rogan23:53

       Whether now they're gonna be anti-racist or they're gonna be, you know, uh, anti-homophobic or anti-transphobic, or whatever it is, and they're gonna attack all these people-

   24. DCDan Crenshaw24:02

       Yeah.

   25. JRJoe Rogan24:02

       ... whether, or, or anti- ... You know, there's so many different ideological pathways that you could choose, that you could get a group of people that agree with you and then you fight against anyone that opposes these ideas, and you do it in a really, uh, aggressive and nasty way, which is something that we should push back against, period. Like, uh, ideas should be something that you should be able to discuss and, and debate and analyze. You should be able to sit down and go, "Why do you believe in the simulation theory?" You know? And, and w- we shouldn't be like, "Well, you're a fucking idiot, Joe Rogan, that's why you agree."

   26. DCDan Crenshaw24:38

       Yeah. Yeah.

   27. JRJoe Rogan24:38

       It should be like, "B- b- b- b- b- yeah, I'm a fucking idiot. Yeah."

   28. DCDan Crenshaw24:41

       Yeah.

   29. JRJoe Rogan24:41

       "But that's not why I agree with this."

   30. DCDan Crenshaw24:43

       (laughs)
8. 29:20 – 37:52

   Healthcare: agreeing on the goal, clashing on Medicare for All and price controls

   1. JRJoe Rogan29:20

      Like, what do you mean by you don't take any left-wing positions? Like, what are left-wing positions that you oppose?

   2. DCDan Crenshaw29:26

      Well, what, what issue do you want to talk about? (laughs) I mean, th- um, uh, anything. Healthcare, on their energy mix, on taxation, on border, on, on just about anything, um, we disagree. This is the nature of politics. This is healthy disagreement here.

   3. JRJoe Rogan29:39

      Well, uh, let's go to healthcare.

   4. DCDan Crenshaw29:41

      Okay.

   5. JRJoe Rogan29:42

      Like, wouldn't it be nice if everybody had healthcare?

   6. DCDan Crenshaw29:45

      Yes. The left is right about that.

   7. JRJoe Rogan29:46

      Right.

   8. DCDan Crenshaw29:47

      Th- th- th- this... So... And this gets to another point I think you were kind of making earlier, which is there's good ideas on both sides.

   9. JRJoe Rogan29:53

      Yeah.

   10. DCDan Crenshaw29:53

       I do think we have to listen to what the left wants sometimes, not all the time, it depends. But on healthcare, are they wrong to say everybody should have access to good healthcare? Is that a wrong statement to make?

   11. JRJoe Rogan30:03

       No.

   12. DCDan Crenshaw30:03

       No, of course not.

   13. JRJoe Rogan30:04

       I mean, I think, I think of us as a community, I think of the United States as a community, and I think if there's someone in the community that is, uh, that's hurting co- because of bad circumstance or bad fortune-

   14. DCDan Crenshaw30:16

       Right.

   15. JRJoe Rogan30:16

       ... we should be able to take care of them.

   16. DCDan Crenshaw30:18

       But the same-

   17. JRJoe Rogan30:19

       The same way we're able to keep the power grid up, the same way we're able to fix the bridges, we should be able to provide healthcare to the-

   18. DCDan Crenshaw30:25

       Right.

   19. JRJoe Rogan30:26

       ... members of our community.

   20. DCDan Crenshaw30:27

       So the question is, how do we get there?

   21. JRJoe Rogan30:28

       But here's where I get, here's where I get conservative. I think we should also make people personally responsible for their own health.

   22. DCDan Crenshaw30:34

       Mm-hmm.

   23. JRJoe Rogan30:34

       I think you should step up and say, "Hey, y- I, I want you to have healthcare based on your current circumstances, but I also want you to do the work to get your health better." And that's where I think we need to make a division.

   24. DCDan Crenshaw30:46

       Right.

   25. JRJoe Rogan30:46

       And I'm n- I'm, I'm as left as I am right, because I'm s- I'm left on so many things, but I'm right on so many things, too. Like Chris Rock said, "I'm, I'm pretty fucking conservative on crime."You know, I get- I get angry-

   26. DCDan Crenshaw30:59

       Yeah.

   27. JRJoe Rogan30:59

       ... when- when I- I- I see lax crime or- or- or lax, uh, law enforcement. When I- when I see, like, people not supporting law enforcement or not understanding the nature of crime or not understanding what happens when criminals realize that there is no law enforcement.

   28. DCDan Crenshaw31:16

       Right.

   29. JRJoe Rogan31:16

       Like, Jesus Christ, like-

   30. DCDan Crenshaw31:17

       Incentives matter.
9. 37:52 – 54:30

   A conservative alternative: HSAs, direct primary care, transparency, and catastrophic backstops

   1. DCDan Crenshaw37:52

      Obamacare works (sighs) and the way Medicare For All would work, is it puts the money in the pockets of the insurance companies, in the case of Obamacare. Or in the case of Medicare For All, simply is a, it's a one-payer system right to the, to the doctor or hospital and then, and then they negotiate that price. Um, a better way to do this, and this starts to look a little bit like, say, Switzerland, where you put the money in the pocket of the patient. The patient then controls it. Now think about, here's something else we agree on that people need: food. Right? People need food, and so what do we do? Do we create these government-run food production facilities and distribution facilities? Do we, do we tell the grocery store, "Look, okay, this person's gonna go buy some, some cereal and then we're gonna reimburse you for that cereal on the backend"? No, we don't. We give the person a, a food stamp, a voucher, and then they go buy what they want.

   2. JRJoe Rogan38:40

      Is the issue that they're buying what they want? This is where it gets weird, right? It's like, if you give someone food stamps, should you say, "Well, you can only buy real food."

   3. DCDan Crenshaw38:51

      Maybe.

   4. JRJoe Rogan38:51

      "You can't use food stamps to buy cigarettes."

   5. DCDan Crenshaw38:52

      That's a different conversation.

   6. JRJoe Rogan38:53

      Can you buy cigarettes with food stamps?

   7. DCDan Crenshaw38:55

      No.

   8. JRJoe Rogan38:55

      No?

   9. DCDan Crenshaw38:56

      No.

   10. JRJoe Rogan38:56

       Can you buy booze?

   11. DCDan Crenshaw38:57

       I- it- it is ... No.

   12. JRJoe Rogan38:58

       No?

   13. DCDan Crenshaw38:58

       And, and, it would be the same with healthcare. We-

   14. JRJoe Rogan38:59

       Can you buy-

   15. DCDan Crenshaw39:00

       (laughs)

   16. JRJoe Rogan39:01

       Can you buy Cocoa Puffs?

   17. DCDan Crenshaw39:01

       I'm not gonna let you distract me here.

   18. JRJoe Rogan39:03

       (laughs)

   19. DCDan Crenshaw39:03

       So we would- it would be the same with healthcare. Like, it's- a lot of people have health savings accounts. Okay, so this is a tax deductible, basically a tax-free zone you can put money into, but you have to spend it on healthcare. So yeah, there's, there's qualified things that you can spend that money on. Imagine a system where you put your money into that health savings account. The gover- and if you can't afford healthcare, the government puts the money in there, and then you have a choice of insurance plans to buy. Or, one thing I'm working on is direct primary care, and this is separate from insurance. But we need to get back to this place in America where you feel like you know who your doctor is. You have a quarterback for your healthcare, and that quarterback is your primary care physician. And a lot of people don't have that. You might have that ... I h- I have a specific doctor I always go to for just basic stuff. Just really basic stuff, usually telemedicine involved, usually just a phone call. It's not- you don't go to them when you break your arm, but they're your primary care doctor. Now, direct primary care is a system that's already growing in America. It's about $75 a month on average, and you have total access to a doctor. So it's more like a gym membership than it is insurance. And there's no copays. There's no third-party insurance. That's what I want to normalize in America to get people to this point. And again, you could, you could, you could put that money on a debit card for the poor.

   20. JRJoe Rogan40:17

       Wait a minute. Explain what you're saying. Like-

   21. DCDan Crenshaw40:20

       (laughs)

   22. JRJoe Rogan40:20

       ... when, when you're talking about that money, where's this money coming from? How does it get allocated? Like, what, what are you talking about?

   23. DCDan Crenshaw40:25

       Yeah. So instead of spending all this money on, on Medicaid, for instance-

   24. JRJoe Rogan40:28

       Okay.

   25. DCDan Crenshaw40:29

       Take the people who are eligible for Medicaid and even above that, right, and you could, you could have a, a tiered program. Um, instead of wasting all that money on a Medicaid program that doesn't have, uh, improved outcomes, by the way. Every study shows this.

   26. JRJoe Rogan40:42

       What do you mean by that, doesn't have improved outcomes?

   27. DCDan Crenshaw40:44

       It, it means that-

   28. JRJoe Rogan40:44

       If they don't-

   29. DCDan Crenshaw40:44

       ... when you compare the people from the same socioeconomic status and they're in Medicaid enrolled or they have no insurance at all, their health outcomes are no different. So again-

   30. JRJoe Rogan40:54

       Is that m- malarkey? Is that fucking around with statistics?
10. 54:30 – 1:04:13

    Fortitude and the value of suffering: SEAL training, self-esteem culture, and populism

    1. JRJoe Rogan54:30

       It is fascinating what you talked about earlier, that people who are involved in dangerous occupations, whether it's soldiers or fighters or firefighters or ... Th- they genu- generally tend to be conservative-

    2. DCDan Crenshaw54:46

       Mm-hmm.

    3. JRJoe Rogan54:47

       ... because they have these occupations where they test themselves, whether they're forced to be tested, where they're forced to be tested, whether it's, uh, their will, their discipline, their ability to understand the consequences of whatever it is they- they have to engage in. And there's real life risks, real risks. And people who don't get tested and people who are, uh, maybe uncomfortable with the idea of physical risks or don't understand what the- the- the consequences of their, uh-... of, of, of physical risks are because they don't engage in them. Maybe they don't engage in anything physically.

    4. DCDan Crenshaw55:31

       Mm-hmm.

    5. JRJoe Rogan55:32

       May- maybe everything they engage in is intellectually. Maybe they, they don't, they don't blend the, the physical world with the intellectual world. They tend to be more liberal.

    6. DCDan Crenshaw55:41

       Yeah.

    7. JRJoe Rogan55:42

       It is really weird. It's r- it's really weird how there's, like, this line in the sand where you ask a person, "What do you do for a living, buddy?" And they go, "Well, I'm a Navy SEAL." You go, "Oh. (laughs) That fucking guy's gonna vote for Republican."

    8. DCDan Crenshaw55:54

       Yeah.

    9. JRJoe Rogan55:54

       "What do you do for a living?" "Well, uh, you know, I'm a social worker." "Oh, well, (sighs) for sure-"

    10. DCDan Crenshaw55:59

        Right.

    11. JRJoe Rogan56:00

        "... you're a... you voted for Biden-Harris."

    12. DCDan Crenshaw56:02

        We have dispositions that are different, you know?

    13. JRJoe Rogan56:04

        Yeah.

    14. DCDan Crenshaw56:04

        It's like, um... I mean, you should do things that are hard. They, they help you build capacity. And, and, and ever-

    15. JRJoe Rogan56:10

        You should do things that are hard. Yes.

    16. DCDan Crenshaw56:11

        It's like chapter eight of my book, Fortitude: American Resilience in the Era of Outrage. I'm not, like, plugging it or anything.

    17. JRJoe Rogan56:15

        You just did.

    18. DCDan Crenshaw56:15

        I'm just saying...

    19. JRJoe Rogan56:15

        It's okay.

    20. DCDan Crenshaw56:16

        Yeah. (laughs)

    21. JRJoe Rogan56:17

        People plug things. It's okay.

    22. DCDan Crenshaw56:19

        Yeah.

    23. JRJoe Rogan56:19

        But you're right. You should do things that are hard. That should be a quote. Should be a picture of your face and it says, "You should do things that are hard."

    24. DCDan Crenshaw56:25

        And, and you-

    25. JRJoe Rogan56:25

        It's true.

    26. DCDan Crenshaw56:26

        ... do it all the time.

    27. JRJoe Rogan56:26

        Yeah.

    28. DCDan Crenshaw56:27

        I mean, you, you, you know, you, you might choose... I mean, you probably do a lot of hard things. You're an extremely productive individual, which means, by definition, you're doing something that is challenging in order to reach the, kinda the next, the next horizon, if you will.

    29. JRJoe Rogan56:38

        That's all I do. I don't like to do things that are easy. I don't like things that are easy. I don't do a fucking single... Other than, like, love my family-

    30. DCDan Crenshaw56:46

        Yeah.
11. 1:04:13 – 1:09:08

    Stimulus checks, incentives, and ‘buying people off’ with their own money

    1. DCDan Crenshaw1:04:13

       That's n- nobody would disagree with that. We, we need a safety net. We need to help people who have truly fallen on hard times, who've lost their jobs because of COVID. But does that also mean we need to provide a $1,400 check to somebody who never lost their job and whose biggest hardship has been Zoom meetings? Of course not. But over 100 million people were getting checks that never lost their jobs.

    2. JRJoe Rogan1:04:31

       100 million?

    3. DCDan Crenshaw1:04:32

       Easily. It's, it's-

    4. JRJoe Rogan1:04:33

       Through COVID? Did-

    5. DCDan Crenshaw1:04:33

       It's way more. It's way more than that. I, I'm, I'm cutting it off at 100 million so I don't get fact checked.

    6. JRJoe Rogan1:04:37

       Hold on. Explain that to me.

    7. DCDan Crenshaw1:04:38

       W- when we, when we send out checks, the direct cash payments, I've always been against direct cash payments.

    8. JRJoe Rogan1:04:43

       So, uh, these, the COVID stimulus checks?

    9. DCDan Crenshaw1:04:46

       Yeah.

    10. JRJoe Rogan1:04:47

        So-

    11. DCDan Crenshaw1:04:47

        'Cause they go out to anybody who makes-

    12. JRJoe Rogan1:04:49

        ... people got those checks that didn't lose their jobs?

    13. DCDan Crenshaw1:04:51

        Of course.

    14. JRJoe Rogan1:04:52

        What?

    15. DCDan Crenshaw1:04:53

        Yeah, if you, the, the, the cutoff was like 75K a year, so that means-

    16. JRJoe Rogan1:04:56

        Wait a minute, wait a minute.

    17. DCDan Crenshaw1:04:56

        That means every federal r- well, not everybody-

    18. JRJoe Rogan1:04:58

        So people that didn't lose-

    19. DCDan Crenshaw1:04:58

        ... a lot of federal workers getting them too.

    20. JRJoe Rogan1:05:00

        ... any money because of the pandemic still got checks?

    21. DCDan Crenshaw1:05:03

        Yeah, these were never, these were never based on your situation.

    22. JRJoe Rogan1:05:08

        What?

    23. DCDan Crenshaw1:05:09

        Yeah.

    24. JRJoe Rogan1:05:10

        Really?

    25. DCDan Crenshaw1:05:10

        It's ridiculous.

    26. JRJoe Rogan1:05:11

        I didn't know that.

    27. DCDan Crenshaw1:05:12

        Yeah.

    28. JRJoe Rogan1:05:12

        I thought you had to lose your job.

    29. DCDan Crenshaw1:05:14

        Yeah.

    30. JRJoe Rogan1:05:14

        I thought there was a problem.

Episode duration: 2:54:21