On this, our 311th Evolutionary Lens livestream, we discuss what is happening in Minneapolis. First: research finds that on average, men and women experience empathy differently: men do not have empathy for people who have done wrong; women have empathy for people regardless of context. Then: Was the Alex Pretti shooting by ICE officers in Minneapolis a cold-blooded murder, or a justified homicide? How would we know? Few of us were actual eye-witnesses to the scene, but our modern media environment tricks us into believing, unconsciously, that we know more than we do. This feels like Portland in 2020. We are being manipulated into disjunct narratives, taught to distrust and fear one another, at ever greater distance from simply being good neighbors and fellow citizens. Finally: an invitation to submit Covid Era Stories.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Singer et al 2006. Empathic neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others. Nature, 439(7075): 466-469. Draft pdf: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2636868/pdf/ukmss-3669.pdf
Tucker Carlson and Tim Walz: https://x.com/tcnetwork/status/2016539262230184357
Fox on Pretti: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX9y3612Rlo
CNN on Pretti: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FR-fz57PEU
Covid Era Stories: https://naturalselections.substack.com/p/covid-era-stories
Timestamps:
00:05:45 Permutable Prime!
00:09:36 Sponsor: Xlear
00:13:25 Sponsor: Caraway
00:16:49 Sponsor: Masa Chips
00:19:56 Sex Differences in Empathy Minnesota (Context for Minnesota Discussion)
00:30:44 The Feminization of Civilization and the Role of Empathy and Justice
00:40:46 What is Happening in Minnesota?
00:49:25 Media Narratives from Portland to Minneapolis
01:01:45 How Media Creates a Rorschach Trap
01:10:19 The Sig Sauer P320 & Gun Safety
01:29:33 Political Division Beyond the Incident
01:43:09 Why Eyewitness Testimony Often Misleads
01:52:48 Send in Your Covid Era Stories
We have "cartesian blinders being put on us so that we are trying to make sense out of scraps of information and hints." - @bretweinstein
WEINSTEIN: I mean, even if you have your villains who are engaged in the behavior that motivated this war in Iran, even if that's the story, presumably most of the people in the path of these ferocious bombings that he is describing are not deserving of going back to the Stone Age.
In fact, I distinctly remember him telling us that part of what we were up to was liberating the people of Iran from their tyrannical regime.
So if it's the tyrannical regime that justifies the ferocious bombing, then it's a tragedy that other people are going to be sent back to the Stone Ages with them. Right?
HEYING: It's it's not a narrative. It's an incoherent set of talking points.
WEINSTEIN: Yeah, it's a kind of cheerleading that is completely inappropriate from the perspective of the president.
Bret Weinstein discusses the Trump administrations "back to the stone age" recent remarks in the latest episode of The Evolutionary Lens, Episode 320 "Are we back in the stone age?" on DarkHorse.
Bret Weinstein explains, "If you stop businesses from starting here, and if you drive people so that they move elsewhere—even though it's difficult to do—then the point is the tax base dries up, which then forces you to become even more predatory for the people who stayed.
And that's really the thing, right? They're setting themselves up so that they have to go after more and more people, because the people who are starting new businesses are not going to do it here."
Bret speaks with John Cullen on the subject of the unanswered questions surrounding the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.
Youtube: https://youtu.be/7m31LcCTf10
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LEGBkh2yXDTl3QqU38Qid?si=KtxnJF0IT3i4XGhE_Sm0cg
Locals: https://darkhorse.locals.com/post/8227721/the-drone-hypothesis-john-cullen-on-darkhorse
Rumble: https://rumble.com/v7g2ny2-the-drone-hypothesis-john-cullen-on-darkhorse.html
Bret and Heather discuss new cats, fat bears, and overwhelmed frogs. The tilcayo, a newly named species of cat from Bolivia, is part of a group of New World “tiger cats” that live on the outskirts of the Amazon basin. We discuss Carnivoran relationships, cats more specifically, and what is known about the history and ecology of the tilcayo in particular.
Then: it’s fat bear week at Katmai National Park in Alaska, where grizzlies are fattening themselves on salmon for the Winter ahead; we discuss hibernation, reproductive diapause, and general chonkiness in bears.
Finally: female Cope’s gray treefrogs have a harder time choosing good mates when there’s a lot of noise, and when there are too many suitors—kind of like how women often make bad choices when confronted with chaos and wingmen.
Rumble: ...