Bret Weinstein said something that won’t leave my head: For the first time in 300,000 years of human evolution, we removed the cost from the single biggest reward nature ever invented — sex and pair-bonding.

X ^ | 07.15.26 | Bret Weinstein

[Chickensoup]

Bret Weinstein said something that won’t leave my head: For the first time in 300,000 years of human evolution, we removed the cost from the single biggest reward nature ever invented — sex and pair-bonding.

Reliable birth control + abortion = you can now cash the evolutionary lottery ticket without paying the 20-year mortgage of pregnancy, diapers, sleepless nights, and college funds.

Result? An entire generation of 18–35-year-olds walking around with the energy, libido, hormones, and protective instincts that evolution spent millions of years calibrating for child-rearing… but with zero actual children. That energy didn’t disappear. It got redirected.

Heather Heying’s observation is brutal: young women especially began treating ideologies the exact way evolution wired them to treat babies. Climate change, social justice, whatever the cause of the month is — it gets defended with literal mama-bear ferocity, the same neurochemistry that once guarded a toddler from predators now guards an abstract idea from wrong think.

And now Elon is promising the second shoe is about to drop: AI-driven abundance will make money as “free” as sex became in the 1970s. Both of evolution’s primary carrots — mating and resource acquisition suddenly cost almost nothing.

Weinstein’s ice-cold question: When producing and protecting actual children is no longer the central organizing principle of adult life… and when creating wealth is no longer required for status, security, or attracting a mate…What is left to give a human life direction, meaning, and structure?

Are we about to become a species that invents bigger and bigger dragons to slay just to feel alive? Or do we drift into total listlessness? This 3:52 clip is genuinely haunting.

Watch it all the way through, then tell me — honestly — does this explain the absolute intensity we’re seeing in culture right now, or is Bret completely missing something?

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TOPICS: History; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: culture; learnhowtopost; men; women

[Chickensoup]

Bret Weinstein said something that won’t leave my head: For the first time in 300,000 years of human evolution, we removed the cost from the single biggest reward nature ever invented — sex and pair-bonding.

Reliable birth control + abortion = you can now cash the evolutionary lottery ticket without paying the 20-year mortgage of pregnancy, diapers, sleepless nights, and college funds.

Result? An entire generation of 18–35-year-olds walking around with the energy, libido, hormones, and protective instincts that evolution spent millions of years calibrating for child-rearing… but with zero actual children. That energy didn’t disappear. It got redirected.

Heather Heying’s observation is brutal: young women especially began treating ideologies the exact way evolution wired them to treat babies. Climate change, social justice, whatever the cause of the month is — it gets defended with literal mama-bear ferocity, the same neurochemistry that once guarded a toddler from predators now guards an abstract idea from wrong think.

And now Elon is promising the second shoe is about to drop: AI-driven abundance will make money as “free” as sex became in the 1970s. Both of evolution’s primary carrots — mating and resource acquisition suddenly cost almost nothing.

Weinstein’s ice-cold question: When producing and protecting actual children is no longer the central organizing principle of adult life… and when creating wealth is no longer required for status, security, or attracting a mate…What is left to give a human life direction, meaning, and structure?

Are we about to become a species that invents bigger and bigger dragons to slay just to feel alive? Or do we drift into total listlessness? This 3:52 clip is genuinely haunting.

Watch it all the way through, then tell me — honestly — does this explain the absolute intensity we’re seeing in culture right now, or is Bret completely missing something?

[ClearCase_guy]

I think he’s on to something here.

Plenty of people scoff at AI — “It’s not going to be sentient”, “It won’t take my job”, “New jobs will appear and humans will just do new jobs”, etc.

I think AI (fancy logic processing) is going to be transformative. I think that at a minimum, 50% of the people in this country will not be contributing any labor to the national economy. What does that mean? What will they do? How will they pay bills? Who will be shopping and buying products if so many people no longer earn wages?

It’s not a joke. Society will have to come up with answers on this topic.

And I think Weinstein does well to point out the previous Big Change. Contraception and abortion changed society and specifically changed women. That seems undeniable. Has society been able to adjust to the sexual changes of the past 65 years? I would say “not well”.

We were not really prepared for the sexual revolution which is ongoing and I see no real preparation for the social changes which will come when “work” becomes a very different thing.

[21twelve]

The cable company is going to drill underground to get to our house. Got an email saying “Your existing utilities have been marked! We’ll let you know within 24 hours when we will install the new cable.”

I’m pretty sure nobody was marking our utilities but my wife made me look. “Nope no marks.” Called the cable people. “Oh - they are marked digitally. Our crews are very professional, you have nothing to worry about.”

Anybody that does this type of work knows that the utility plans don’t show where the stuff actually was installed.

[SPDSHDW]

I bet you half this country doesn’t meaningfully contribute to the economy allready and the solution is the same, handouts, now with a slice of population control

[DoodleBob]

I didn’t inow who Bret Weinstein was/is or why I should care.

I looked him up. Now I know who he is.

I’m still wondering why I should care.

More importantly, this post on X has the tell-tale signs that it was written by Generative AI. https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4387361/posts

Bottom line, when a troll trying to brandish Authority Bias can’t even bother to write his own copy about an unknown former professor, nobody will remember you or the point of your GenAI slop.

[Paladin2]

Yep.

Theory and practice....

“Field routing”.....

[Paladin2]

Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying are worth some attention.

They are former woksters who have been smacked around by cancel culture.

Refugees from Portland, Ore. and Academia.

[cpdiii]

Reliable birth control + abortion = you can now cash the evolutionary lottery ticket without paying the 20-year mortgage of pregnancy, diapers, sleepless nights, and college funds. Result? An entire generation of 18–35-year-olds walking around with the energy, libido, hormones, and protective instincts that evolution spent millions of years calibrating for child-rearing… but with zero actual children. That energy didn’t disappear. It got redirected.

Does that idiot actually think this is reality. He is advocating oblivion of modern society. Many 40-50 year old women and men regret trying the above and desperately want a child now. They know their life has been fun and free but unfulfilled in reality. They became empty vessels and a mere footnote of history. They chose poorly.

[lee martell]

I don’t quite get any “Aha-Moment” of realization reading the headline from Bret Weinstein. Most societal changes he eludes to have been known for several decades.

I was trying to figure out why his name rung a far away bell in my Memory Files? Where have I heard that name?
Then it came to me.

In 2017, Bret Weinstein made national headlines while serving as an evolutionary biology professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.
The controversy began when he opposed a campus “Day of Absence” event that asked white students and faculty to voluntarily leave the campus.

Weinstein argued this request amounted to racial segregation. In response, student activists interrupted his classes, demanded his firing, and, of course, accused him of racism. Weinstein and his wife Heather Heying (also a professor at that college) ultimately resigned after receiving a $500K settlement from the college in a tort claim regarding the administration’s
failure to maintain a safe campus.

**I recall hearing about this fight. This was back when I often read the website “Twitchy”, back when you could leave comments. Not like now. I recall being impressed by the Weinsteins, who did not bend, or apologize for being white.

[Equine1952]

I was pulling sprinkler pipe in a friend’s yard with my small ford tractor. He had the cable, electrical, and water marked. I was 10’ from the tv cable when I dragged it up. I killed Oprah, The View, and everything else for three blocks of houses. Guess who wasn’t very popular until the cable guy showed to repair the break and admitted he marked it wrong. Those ladies were pissed off. Another reason I carry a gun. 🥴

[cpdiii]

I forgot to add this about children. Raise them well and you will have unconditional love for life. My parents did not. My grandparents did for my brother and I. They had our unconditional love. They saved us when young. We took care of them when they were old. You can not buy that kind love.

[Steve Van Doorn]

Musk makes a major misconception. IMO he believes
More abundance which is true but he implies we will all be wealthier.
Without a middle class(working class) system this simply can not be true.
This will further divide extremely wealthy from the people.

For those on the low income level in this new system they will likely have better things. But land and property will be out of reach.

Those that adapt(working class) into the system will do well.

Remember the movie: Idiocracy.
That is my concern. If we rely on the tool(AI computer) rather then using them to learn.
We will devolve

[Steve Van Doorn]

" small ford tractor "

We just got a ford 3600 brand new(to me) 1982.
Wife calls it the "blue Dragon"

[Petrosius]

Children are not the cost of sex and pair-bonding, they are the purpose. Those who engage in it and seek to prevent child birth, or worse kill the resultant children, and acting extremely selfish and are rebelling against God. Good luck with that in eternity.

[dfwgator]

Been saying it for years, The Pill was the beginning of the end for our civilization.

[Organic Panic]

“50% of the people in this country will not be contributing any labor to the national economy”

I would say at least 50% of all the jobs now contribute absolutely nothing to the economy and even more cost the economy.

[Equine1952]

Nice. My old 1720 has a loader and does everything an old 74 yr old should do. I started out eight years old on an 8N ford. Some are still around. Be safe Pard.

[SaveFerris]

(I killed Oprah, The View)

May you be blessed in your Most
Fine Quest to Eliminate Stupidity

[Right_Wing_Madman]

I think AI (fancy logic processing) is going to be transformative. I think that at a minimum, 50% of the people in this country will not be contributing any labor to the national economy. What does that mean? What will they do? How will they pay bills? Who will be shopping and buying products if so many people no longer earn wages?

People had these exact questions during the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s. What will people do when machines replace the farm hands? The United States' population went from 95% farmers in 1790 to 5% farmers in 1910, but the country became overall much wealthier.

[The Duke]

"I forgot to add this about children. Raise them well and you will have unconditional love for life. My parents did not. My grandparents did for my brother and I. They had our unconditional love. They saved us when young. We took care of them when they were old. You can not buy that kind love."

When I was unemployed from the defense industry at the end of the Reagan administration my mother was the only family member that offered us support while I transitioned between industries. I remember her saying ... "I don't have much, but I'll share it with you."

Shortly thereafter, when I obtained employment in the commercial sector and her second husband had passed away, we told her to pack her bags because we were swinging by Memphis to pick her up as we traveled to my new job in Tampa.

For 35 years I provided her with a home, three grandchildren to raise, employment in what was now my own company, and a nice retirement income afterwards.