Despite being a huge prole (low IQ physique, U.S. flag behind prominently displayed in his screen shots), Joe Rogan is a good interviewer, although I question why almost all his guests are men. If I had the #1 podcast in the World, I’d be using it to meet some beautiful women.

“Give me a break he’s probably queer” would say the disgustingly homophobic step-dad in Rob Zombie’s Halloween. “He’s gona cut off his dick and change his name to Joanne.”

Commenters like RR believe that the physical laws of the universe can not explain mental properties like the mind. More broadly, many people have long believed in ghosts or the idea of a soul; the notion that our essence can transcend our physical selves however, Brian Cox argues this is nonsense (see video below).

Joe Rogan probably has an IQ of 125 which is extremely high for a prole, and helps explain why he came from nothing to become a centimillionaire in the verbally loaded field of podcasting. But Cox is probably above 150. He has a large cranial capacity, high IQ physique and the calm quiet demeanor of the upper class.

In 2001, the Harris poll asked a representative sample of American adults who they admired enough to consider a hero (maximum 3 names). Because Americans were free to name literally anyone who had ever lived (or not have lived in the case of fictional characters or religious myths) being named by even 1% of Americans is a huge honor and means millions of people in the World’s powerful country, rank you above 99.9999999% of all humanity! Not surprisingly then, the list tends to be dominated by near deities, with Jesus coming in first.

However in January 2009, the country went into such a state of delirious euphoria over a “black” man being elected President, that the unthinkable happened: Barack Obama overtook Jesus as the most admired person of all time.

Forty years ago it was unthinkable that a black could be the most worshiped person in the World but to be the most admired person to ever live; more admired than even Jesus, the putative son of God was considered blasphemy. The evangelical community went absolutely ballistic, and Michael Jackson (who himself dreamed of being the first black messiah only to instead become a huge pariah forced to live out his final years in exile) must have been so jealous he could have died; and sadly he did die six month after the poll was released.

As far as I can tell, Harris conducted the poll only one more time (Sept 2014). Barack Obama was once again named a hero more than any other living human, however he was no longer ahead of Jesus.

As the years past I kept waiting for Harris to do the poll again and finally decided that if Harris could not be bothered to continue their poll, I’d be forced to keep the tradition alive myself, so at the end of each year I started using Survey Monkey to ask a representative sample of U.S. adults who they admire enough to consider a hero. Like the Harris poll, there is no pre-selected list to choose from so many people just name their parents or personal friends. Nonetheless on the last day of 2023, 9% of Americans named Jesus, 4% each named God and Barack Obama. Abraham Lincoln and Superman were each named by 3% and Donald Trump and Joe Biden were each named by 2%.

Not a single woman made the list for 2023!

However every other year the poll has been conducted, Mother Teresa was the highest ranking woman, and probably still would be had my sample size been large enough to confidentially include names listed by only 1% of Americans. Teresa sadly passed away before the poll was ever conducted. 

Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama each ranked as the most worshiped LIVING woman in 2001, 2009, and 2022 respectively.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without Tracy Chapman’s haunting rendition of O Holy Night.

Just discovered episodes of Degrassi junior high on on Amazon Prime and decided to watch them. I hadn’t watched this show in thirty years and seeing it again was like being transported back to such an innocent time. A time when no one had cell phones, social media or the internet, guys donned fedora hats, girls wore long scarves, everyone’s hair was caked in hair spray, music was played on record players, and you literally had to dial phone numbers.

This show was such a huge part of my childhood. I remembered counting down the years until I got to seventh grade so I could be the same age as the characters and the same age as my older cousins who watched the show religiously, some of them even living not far from the legendary gentrifying Toronto inner-city where the show took place. 

I remember a sissified close friend who wanted to buy a fedora hat and sleeveless jean jacket because he wanted to look just like Joey Jeremiah.

Although the show seems corny by today’s standards, that’s part of it’s charm. Each episode centered around some coming of age dilemma like a girl discovering she’s pregnant, or a beloved teacher suspected of being lesbian, or a mulatto girl getting caught shop-lifting, or an Asian student suspecting he’s been stereotyped, or a supply teacher seducing said mulatto girl, or the school secretary phoning children’s aid because a boy is being being beat by his dad. The show is so pre-internet that she literally looks up Children’s Aid in a deck of alphabetized cards on her desk.

And there’s an authenticity about the characters. They all looked like real kids and real teachers from that era.

And of course the theme song. I remember literally dancing to this as a kid at the start of each episode: 

Ashkenazi Americans tend to be intelligent because of selection for high IQ genes during the Middle Ages. Pro-Palestinian Americans also tend to be intelligent because they have the ability to question the elite narrative while also showing empathy for a group that has suffered for decades. Thus if you find a person who is both Ashkenazi Jewish AND pro-Palestinian, they’ll tend to be very intelligent, because not only do they belong to two intelligent groups, but the two intelligent groups they belong to are almost diametrically opposed, so the odds of being both are slim.

The two men who host the show Due Dissidence belong to this unique demographic and they often have insightful things to say about the issues of the day. Below are their thoughts about Elon Musk.