YouSaid · the spoken record

Bryan Caplan

lines on the record: 162
first: 2022-10-20
most recent: 2022-10-20
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Yes, Yeah, I mean, this just goes to the definition. In order to find out whether a definition is correct, you just have to think well, how is the word commonly used? It's not to say that logically speaking, it's possible to have a different view or that two things are compatible. The whole idea of a definition is ideally you're trying to find necessary and sufficient conditions such that everybody who satisfies the conditions falls under the category and that everybody who doesn't satisfy the conditions doesn't. In ordinary language, of course, it's notoriously hard to really do that defining a table is actually quite difficult in a necessary and sufficient condition sense, but we can still say, well, a table is not, by definition, something that people sit on, right? And if someone said, well, you could sit on a table, but yeah, I suppose you could sit on a table, but that's not the definition in ordinary use in any language of which I'm aware.”
2022-10-20 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Bryan Caplan - Feminists, Billionaires, and Demagogues · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah, yes, yes. But again, if someone were to say, I think that women are treated absolutely fantastically in society way better than men who we treat like dogs. But I also want women's status to be even higher than it already is. That would be something where you could say, you could argue, well, that person may be still a feminist, but that is not what the word means because hardly anyone who calls themself a feminist believes that weird thing that you're talking about.”
2022-10-20 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Bryan Caplan - Feminists, Billionaires, and Demagogues · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, first of all, could be, but I don't think so. Here's what I think there could be a few people like that, but that's not what the word means in normal use. If someone were to say, women are treated absolutely fantastically way better than men, and I want it to get even higher, right? He's like, hmm. Well, that's not what I think again.”
2022-10-20 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Bryan Caplan - Feminists, Billionaires, and Demagogues · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Than what dictionaries say, although to be fair, every now and then there'll be a better definition. Like I think the Wikipedia definition in the second sentence adds on that it also has the view that women are treated very unfairly.”
2022-10-20 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Bryan Caplan - Feminists, Billionaires, and Demagogues · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's why feminists do believe the sky is blue, but that isn't what distinguishes feminists from other people, so what does distinguish them? And what I say is that the really distinguishing view of feminism is that society treats women less fairly than men, the view that society treats women less fairly than men or treats men more fairly than women. This definition, I think, fits actual usage. It would be very strange for someone to say, I'm a feminist, but I think that men get terrible treatment in our society and women are treated like goddesses. You say, well, then you're not really a feminist, are you? That doesn't make sense, right? Or on the other hand, for someone to say that, you know, I am not a feminist, but God, we treat women so terribly like we're awful. That again just would not fit. I'm not saying this is the one true definition, but rather that it is much closer to what people actually mean by feminism.”
2022-10-20 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Bryan Caplan - Feminists, Billionaires, and Demagogues · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Once again, I feel like we should just back up a little bit. What is feminism anyway? Because if we don't know what that is, then it's very hard to talk about whether it's becoming more true over time. In my book, I begin with some popular dictionary definitions that just say feminism is the theory that women should be the political, social, economic, cultural equals of men. I say that this is a terrible definition which just violates normal usage. Why? Well, we actually have public opinion data on, first of all, whether people are or are not feminists, and second of all, what they believe about the political, social, economic, cultural equality of women. And guess what? A overwhelming majority of people that say they are not feminists still agree with the equality of women on all those mentions, which makes you realize, well, that really can't be the definition of feminism that would be like saving feminism is the theory that the sky is blue.”
2022-10-20 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Bryan Caplan - Feminists, Billionaires, and Demagogues · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Something really does have a lot of intuitive appeal. Although, yes, I do think that skiel solutions would probably not work multi-generationally, at least unlikely to work. So to go and say this is a keel solution where you're not a citizen, your kids are not citizens, their kids after them are not citizens. That's one that I think would be hard to maintain. But again, at the same time, it also to say that the problems that people are worrying about, if they ever were severe, are also getting deluded over time. So I wouldn't worry about it so much. But yes, that is one of the very best objections to keel solutions that I know of Dorkesh. Good for you.”
2022-10-20 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Bryan Caplan - Feminists, Billionaires, and Demagogues · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sure. So I have a totally unrelated book, Open Borders, The Science and Ethics of Immigration. One of the chapters goes over ways of dealing with complaints about immigration that fall short of stopping people from actually coming or excluding or kicking out people that are already there. So just to back up a little bit further. So most of the book talks about complaints about immigration and say that they're either totally wrong or overstated. But then I have another chapter saying, all right, fine. Maybe you don't agree with that, but isn't there another way that we could deal with this? So for example, if you're worried about immigrants voting poorly, you could say, fine, we won't extend voting rights to immigrants or make them wait for a longer time period. That's one where I would just say that the focal point of citizen versus non-citizen is one of the strongest ones. So I think that it actually is one that has a lot of stability. This line of, well, you're not a citizen, therefore.”
2022-10-20 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Bryan Caplan - Feminists, Billionaires, and Demagogues · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So for there, I mean, first of all, I would say maybe. Yeah, so that is one of the best arguments to heal solutions. I mean, I'm guessing that a lot of your listeners have no idea what heal solutions are, Dorca. So maybe we want to back up and explain that.”
2022-10-20 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Bryan Caplan - Feminists, Billionaires, and Demagogues · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is not one that should be dismissed lightly. There's a lot of evidence that it really does actually fit the facts. And when you make an exception of that kind, it really does lead you to bad places.”
2022-10-20 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Bryan Caplan - Feminists, Billionaires, and Demagogues · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right mean one can imagine that I mean I think in our culture it really goes the other way and I think that people are more likely to be trying to get rid of men despite the fact that the men are delivering value. I mean, if you really push me into starting to think, well, suppose you're running a bar, when you have ladies night. Yeah, I would have ladies night in a bar because that actually works and it's good business. But if what you're doing is trying to actually get correct answers to things, if you're trying to go and make something run effectively, if you're just trying to make progress, you're trying to learn new things. The thing to focus on is what actually leads to knowledge and not focusing on just trying to get demographic representation. And really, I think what we've seen is once you go down that route, it is a slippery slope. So I would actually, besides defending meritocracy on its merits, also say the slippery slope argument.”
2022-10-20 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Bryan Caplan - Feminists, Billionaires, and Demagogues · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I believe in meritocracy. I think it is a good system. It is one that almost everyone sees the attuitive appeal of, and it works. So just looking at a group and saying, we need to get more members of group X is just the wrong way to be approaching it. Rather, you need to be focusing on let's try to figure out the best way of getting the top quality people here.”
2022-10-20 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Bryan Caplan - Feminists, Billionaires, and Demagogues · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source