#1600 - Lex Fridman

Joe Rogan (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience. I had a suit and a tie, and I was gonna come in dressed like you.

Lex Fridman (0:21)

Exactly.

Joe Rogan (0:21)

Yes, full on white shirt, suit, tie.

Lex Fridman (0:24)

Fitted?

Joe Rogan (0:25)

Yes, fitted, but the problem is my fucking shirt was at the cleaners. So then I tried to have some other white shirts that are like these really stretchy shirts that you can wear them if they're open, but if I'm trying to put a tie on, they literally don't fit around my neck. So I'm doing this, and I'm killing myself, and then I'm like, well, maybe I'll leave it open. They're just...

Lex Fridman (0:46)

Dressing up like first day of school.

Damn, I appreciate it. I'm honored.

Joe Rogan (0:50)

I was gonna mimic you.

Lex Fridman (0:52)

Yeah. Do you remember Michael Miles?

Joe Rogan (0:55)

Yes.

Lex Fridman (0:55)

He actually... I did a podcast with him, and he wore the opposite, which is a white suit and a white tie and a black shirt. I mean, he is sort of the epitome of the loving kind of troll. That's the ultimate troll. He wore the exact opposite. He got the exact same haircut as me, which I don't even know what that means exactly.

It's your hair short.

Joe Rogan (1:18)

Yeah, that's all it means.

Lex Fridman (1:19)

But it was a magical moment. That's what trolling at its best does. He's like, you feel loved.

Joe Rogan (1:27)

That's funny. He's an interesting guy. Michael Mouse is a very interesting guy, because he's got some wacky beliefs that I don't believe. I don't subscribe to at all. Yeah, complete anarchy. No police. I don't think we should have police. I'm like, what world do you live in? You weigh three pounds, and you don't even have a gun.

What are you talking about? But he's a brilliant guy.

It's interesting. I don't subscribe to a lot of his ideas, but I think he's also always had a half smile when he's saying things.

Lex Fridman (1:58)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (1:58)

So you kind of never know.

Lex Fridman (2:00)

I don't think he means half the things he says. Really?

So I don't know. He's underneath it all, which is why I talk to him, which is why I consider him a friend. There's a really kind person in there.

Joe Rogan (2:13)

Yes.

Lex Fridman (2:14)

But he says things like, yeah, like police is the enemy. It's like, wait a minute.

And you live in New York. So he plays with ideas. It feels like he's just somebody who's juggling with different ideas and having fun with it, not taking anything seriously. And that's really refreshing, because in the best light, that's a fearless way to see the world. And also, he's working on this concept of, I think he calls it the white pill, you know, like red pill and blue pill. The white pill is basically, you know, I think he's highlighting that for red-pilled folks, that there's sometimes a cynicism about the future of the world, and the white pill is seeing the truth of the world, but being optimistic about it, and thinking like we can actually make things better. So not becoming cynical, not saying like, you know, globalists, the government is ultimately like, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, it's always going to be a bureaucracy, it's always going to be greedy people who take power and take control.

So that's like the cynical, the negative view. But the positive, the white pill view, is that, you know, we can actually build a better world. I mean, he has ideas about how to build that better world that I don't agree with.

Joe Rogan (3:33)

What is his ideas?

Lex Fridman (3:34)

I'm not sure I've quite understood them, but because ultimately he's a counter puncher, which is, you know, government, all government is bad. So the idea of anarchism is that you're supposed to, in this emergent way, form groups and agree together how those groups should operate.

Joe Rogan (3:59)

Isn't that like a local government?

Lex Fridman (4:01)

It's a local government. So his biggest problem is that we're born in this geographical space and are assigned to a particular government without having chosen it.

So he wants to do exactly what we're doing now, but choose our government.

Joe Rogan (4:15)

Well, isn't that what happens when you move to a different state?

Lex Fridman (4:18)

I think so. Different state. That's the whole idea.

Joe Rogan (4:20)

That's one of the reasons why I'm here.

Lex Fridman (4:22)

You're an anarchist, bro.

Joe Rogan (4:23)