Joe Rogan Experience #1800 - Gavin de Becker

De Becker’s research shows that public figures who are attacked almost never receive prior explicit threats from their attackers, while direct threat‑makers almost never carry out attacks—so fixation, intrusive pursuit, and “targeted travel” are more meaningful warning signs.

He argues that intuition is an evolved protective system (a ‘pre‑incident indicator’ engine) that integrates subtle cues before the conscious mind; overriding it for social politeness—like a woman entering an elevator with someone who scares her—is often how people participate in their own victimization.

By studying hundreds of thousands of threatening communications, his firm has identified behavioral patterns—obsession, entitlement, escalation, boundary‑crossing—allowing practitioners to triage which cases are most likely to lead to approaches or attacks.

Tools like Pegasus 2 can infect phones without any user action, then silently access microphones, cameras, messages, and files; de Becker notes that if a well‑resourced government wants into your device, standard consumer security measures and even encrypted apps are often insufficient.

With pharma funding a huge share of TV news advertising, and initiatives like the BBC‑led Trusted News Initiative, coverage tends to converge on a single line (e.g., ‘horse dewormer’ for ivermectin) and to suppress or delay stories that might undermine pharmaceutical or political interests.