Michael Malice is a political thinker, podcaster, and author. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Michael's Twitter: https://twitter.com/michaelmalice
Michael's Community: https://malice.locals.com/
Michael's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5tj5QCpJKIl-KIa4Gib5Xw
Michael's Website: http://michaelmalice.com/about/
Your Welcome podcast: https://bit.ly/30q8oz1
The New Right (book): https://amzn.to/34gxLo3
Dear Reader (book): https://amzn.to/2HPPlHS
Podcast (Round 1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIk1zUy8ehU

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4
Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41

OUTLINE:
0:00 - Introduction
3:25 - Conversation with Alex Jones and Tim Pool
12:10 - Michael's outfit
20:31 - Self-publishing a book
30:19 - The white pill
41:43 - What did the volcano say to his true love?
43:06 - Myth of Sisyphus
46:47 - Journalism failed to stop Stalin and Hitler
54:31 - Good Germans
58:27 - Richard Wolff
1:01:58 - Could United States have stayed out of World War II
1:04:50 - Trump Derangement Syndrome
1:06:36 - Nazism and Antisemitism
1:09:18 - Knock knock
1:15:58 - Putin
1:23:38 - The evil of Kim Jong-il and North Korea
1:32:10 - Dark humor
1:36:56 - Comedy is tragedy plus timing
1:44:12 - Interviewing difficult guests
1:53:44 - Curtis Yarvin (Mencius Moldbug)
2:10:02 - Violence under anarchism
2:25:36 - Ayn Rand
2:28:45 - Secession in United States
2:38:24 - Politics over next 4 years
2:45:52 - Mars
2:49:55 - UFOs
2:52:50 - Psychedelics
2:56:46 - What is love?

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The following is a conversation with Michael Malice, his second time on

He's an anarchist, political thinker, podcaster and author.

He wrote Dear Reader, which is a book on North Korea, and The New Right, a book on the various ideological movements at the fringe of American politics.

He hosts a podcast called You're Welcome, spelled Y-O-U-R, and in general does a lot of live shows on YouTube that are at times profoundly absurd and at other times absurdly profound and always full of humor and wisdom.

He is the Joker to my Batman and the caviar to my vodka.

His masterful dance between dark humor and difficult, even dangerous ideas, challenges me to think deeply about this world.

And when that fails, at least smile and have a good laugh at the absurdity of it all.

His outfit, for example, the exact inverse of mine with a white suit and a black shirt is just 1 example of that, of the humor, trolling, and brilliance that is Michael Malice.

Quick mention of our sponsors, NetSuite Business Management Software, Athletic Greens All-in-One Nutrition Drink, Sun Basket Meal Delivery Service, and Cash App.

So the choice is success, health, food, or money.

And if you wish, click the sponsor links below to get a discount and to support this podcast.

As a side note, let me say that Michael is, in many ways, a man of radical ideas, but also a man with kindness in his heart.

Those 2 things are great ingredients for a fascinating conversation.

I hope to have several such people on this podcast this upcoming year who also have radical ideas about politics, science, technology, and life.

At times, often perhaps, I might fail at asking the challenging questions that should be asked, but I will try my best to do so, and hope to keep improving every time.

Mostly, I come to these conversations with an open mind and with love.

Unfortunately, that kind of approach can be taken advantage of in many ways.

It can be used by reporters or just people online later to highlight how or why I'm ignorant or worse.

In the context of this, I have 2 options.

I could either be cautious and afraid or Second, be kind, thoughtful, and fearless.

I choose the latter, hopefully while still being open, fragile, and empathetic.

Again, I strive to be like the main character of The Idiot by Dostoevsky.

Difficult conversations, difficult research projects, and difficult entrepreneurial adventures.

If you enjoy this thing, subscribe on YouTube, review it on Apple Podcasts, follow on Spotify, support it on Patreon, or connect with me on Twitter at Lex Friedman.

And now, here's my conversation with Michael Malice.

You don't do knock-knock jokes with Russians.

Because if we have to knock at the door, shh, turn down the TV.

I stole elegantly, eloquently that joke from you.

Yeah you cross that on a sheet of paper that means it's real.

The reason I bring it up is because you had the guts, the brilliance to do a knock-knock joke, not once, but 3 times with Alex Jones.

Okay, maybe they started to sort of meld together in this beautiful art form that you've created, which is like these kind, loving knock-knock jokes with Alex Jones.

So you got a chance to meet him, talk to him twice with Tim Pool in a long-form conversation.

What was it like talking to Alex Jones, both on the deep philosophical intellectual level and staring the man in his eyes and doing a knock knock joke about Olive, knock knock, who's there, Olive, I love you, Alex.

I've been on his show, InfoWars, a few times when I was researching my book, Then You Write, So I had had conversations with him before.

1 of the things that I appreciate about Alex is he is a lot more self-aware than people think and has a good sense of humor.

So if you set people up and all these jokes are these kind of vapid, you know, all of you jokes and the last one's about building 7, they're not going to see that 1 coming, nor will he see that 1 coming.

I even had another 1 about Sandy Hook, which I didn't do on the air because he was being like a good sport.

So I didn't, but that was the dagger that was kind of behind my back if necessary.

But it was a good mechanism toward, I like it when things work on several levels.

It was also a good mechanism to keep kind of the conversation guarded.

And this every so often, this is kind of hitting the control, delete, and bringing it down to a certain point of calmness.

I mean, you're saying that that was a buildup to the dagger, but it was also somehow really refreshing to get that little jolt, like that pause.

You don't get that in conversations often.

Like I'm a huge fan of Rogan, and he'll have a 3 hour conversation, but at some point just pause and be like, I love you, man.

It's in the cheesiest way possible because that seems to be, it somehow hits the hardest then.

I don't know, I don't know you didn't intend it that way, but with Alex Jones to sit there and to say, I love you.

That was like, I just haven't never heard that before.

And so it struck me as like, not just funny for what you're doing, but just like, whoa.

We just took, because conversations are all about like this ranting, especially with Alex Jones.

Just like ranting about this or that, this part of the world, like, can you believe this shit?

But like to pause and be like, this is awesome.

I'll give you the backstory of how that happened.

It was silly, because Tim calls me up and there's this expression in marketing, don't go past the sale, right?

So if you're trying to sell someone a car and you're like, it's got this feature, this feature and that feature, And they're like, you know what, I'm gonna buy the car.

If you keep talking, you can only make them lose the sale.

You just get them to sign and get out of Dodge.

So Tim calls me up and he goes, okay, here's what we're thinking.

And I've never said yes to anything as quickly in my life.

And then he keeps talking and I'm like, Tim, you don't have to sell it.

I think because I am kind of an agent of chaos and Alex is in his own way an agent of chaos.

And what is, provides an opportunity in this kind of news media space that you and I travel in, it's the kind of things where none of us 3, as we said on the show, knew what it would be like.

If you know within certain parameters what Megan Kelly or Wolf Blitzer or any of these corporate figures are gonna be like in a conversation to some extent.

Now I knew they didn't know I was bringing knock-knock jokes.

So that was kind of what was so, I said at 1 point I'm kind of envious of the audience because there's so many exciting things that are happening and that the internet and podcasting provides people an opportunity to do that it was great.

Yeah, that was the greatest pairing with Alex Jones that I've ever seen by far.

So like, so I immediately knew, now this isn't a knock on Tim, but I don't even know if Tim was prepared.

Well, so I mean, I don't know if Tim is used to that.

I think Joe Rogan is more equipped, prepared for the chaos, just the years he's been in it.

Like I immediately thought this is the right pairing for Joe Rogan, because Alex Jones has been on Joe Rogan a few times, 3 times.

But Tim was clearly, Tim Dillon was also kind of a genius in his own right, but he was kind of a fan and he was stepping away.

He was almost like in awe of Alex Jones, where you were both, you were in awe of the experience that's being created, and at the same time, fearlessly just trolling the situation.

I mean, to do a knock-knock joke, to stop me, that just shows that you're in control of the experience, no, you're like riding the experience.

That immediately was like, this needs to be on Rogan.

You're on your own, of course, on Rogan, but just you, that's an experience.

That's the, whatever, this gotta be a good name for it.

Well, I don't know how many years you can you can restart the the experience

I feel a very big responsibility especially in 2020 to provide fun and something cool and something unique that hasn't been done before for the audience.

I think this has been a very rough year on our audiences psychologically and in other aspects of their lives.

So I feel if I'm going to be there, I'm going to put on a show.

And it's also gonna be great because it also alienates the people you don't want, right?

So there's a lot of people who sit there and be like, oh, he's telling, people who are too cool for school, where they're like, oh, he's telling knock-knock jokes, this is stupid.

If you have an issue with having eaten cotton candy or doing a puzzle with a kid or without it by yourself, that's on you.

And it's something very, something I think is the enemy of cynicism and this idea that like, oh, this is too silly and amethyst.

Like we need that kind of childlike aspect in our lives.

I think it's something we could use more of.

It's very much an aspect of our media culture that to kind of have be condemnatory about that or to do it in a certain very corporate fake way.

So it is something I encourage a lot, something I enjoy doing.

And again, like the first time I was on Tim, I had a propeller beanie on, you know, with the motorized.

And a lot of people were like, I can't take anyone seriously who dresses like this.

If you judge someone's ideas by how they appear instead of the ideas themselves, you're not someone I want on my team.

Are we gonna address the outfit you're wearing?

You know, for those who are colorblind, Michael's wearing the, or just listening to this, Michael's wearing the exact opposite, the inverse from another dimension outfit, which is a white suit and black shirt.

You should see the next 2 looks I've planned.

Well, obviously this relationship's gonna end today.

Okay, Is there some deep philosophy to the humor?

Is there some, is there like chapters to this genius or is this just what makes you smile in the morning?

Well, I mean, I think you're honestly, in this case, using the word genius a little loosely.

I don't think this is particularly genius, but I do think it is fun, it is exuberant, it is joyous.

I think the bigger my audience has gotten and the more I actually communicate with fans, I do feel it kind of kicks in these paternal maternal instincts, which is very, very odd.

I remember, and it may have been similar for you, I'm curious to hear it.

For young, smart, ambitious men, like 24 to 27 for me was a very rough period because that's the window where a lot of people get married and they kind of check out.

And if you're very much kind of finding your own road, you don't know what's happening.

No one's in a position to really guide you or help you.

And what I'm finding now is having these kids who are in that position, but now instead of them stumbling along, for some of them, I'm the 1 who could be like, no, no, no, no, it's not you, it's everybody else.

And to be able to give them that semblance of feeling seen, to use a cliched expression, to feel normal and that, no, no, you're the heroes here, they're the background noise.

It's just really very flattering and humbling to be in that position.

Michael, there's like, I'm gonna burn down the powerful.

And then there's like, I'm going to have this just lighthearted trolling of the world.

Which, and Which of those are most important to the 27 demographic?

You know, it's like if you're making a meal, you know, chicken Kiev, you need the chicken, you need the ham, you need the butter sauce.

Because I think people, when you're young, you need to see someone who's fought the fight for you and who's won.

This is most assuredly what winning does not look like.

But in my normal clothes, a little bit more.

This is a good time to mention that clothes wise, you're wearing sheath underwear and people should buy sheath underwear.

If you go to sheathunderwear.com, use promo code MALICE20.

What I love about, why I'm glad to promote the product and wear it, It's the most comfortable underwear I've ever worn.

And you have a separate pouch for both parts of your genitals.

That's what you, I thought there was like a punchline coming.

No, it's a very nice aspect of the product.

Yeah, but I think what, here's something else, just as it goes back to what we were just talking about.

There are so many, and this is gonna segue into this.

There are so many small companies who have been devastated this year.

We have not seen a sustained attack on mom and pop shops like we've seen in

who are innovators and making something happen.

And when you're just like 1 dude who's producing a product, they're a sponsor of mine, I'm happy to, first of all, it's funny that I'm pitching underwear, but haha pitching, but it's also something I enjoy.

Yeah, Yeah, it's microscopic like a thimble.

So this isn't a sponsor of mine, but this is a good segue.

So this is Russians, we celebrate New Year's.

He comes down, puts a present under your pillow.

And he said, can I give you something to give to Lex?

This is not, I'm not getting paid for this.

So what a worry coin is I carry around in my butt.

So you carry it around with you all the time.

It says worrying, it's like paying a debt you don't owe.

And I carry this around and for now it's been like a year.

Next time you're worrying, and this is good advice if you don't have a worry coin, Go think about 10 years ago and what you were worried about then.

And then think about, did any of those things pan out?

And some of them did, but you were able to handle it.

And that's a good way to maintain perspective.

And I said, make something mathematical for Lex.

Make sure you unwrap it close to the mic because it drives people crazy.

Or is this what unboxing video looks like?

I need to have an excited look on my face to make sure that the reaction video is be an unboxing and a reaction video.

Lex, big fan since hearing you on Rogan months ago.

Most of your guests are over my head, but still enjoyable.

Michael was kind enough to want to share my work with you.

Show it to the camera and then make sure you look excited.

This is a worry coin like I was showing you.

See all Lex Fridman transcripts on Youtube

Michael Malice: Freedom, Hope, and Happiness Amidst Chaos | Lex Fridman Podcast #150