Steven Pinker

And you want to avoid that flip, but you still want to do business.

That's why they're reasonable.

There was a scandal.

Because I'm from Philly, and it was, of course, Philadelphia politicians.

But I forget the name of the scandal, but it was very famous because they caught it on tape.

And only one politician didn't go for it.

But these people, these feds, dressed up as, like, Saudi businessmen.

Oh, Abscam.

Abscam, that's exactly right.

Abscam, 1980.

And they had, like...

piles of money like in sitting out that's been done a number of times around the world as they were discussing what they wanted oh and then only one of the politicians was just like yeah i'm not worried about that let's talk about okay and everybody else went down because they it was it was the financial seduction yes but they never said this money is yours they just put a pile of money in front of them and they were like so let's talk about the new rail line

Yes, veiled bribes.

Veiled, okay.

Veiled threats.

Veiled threats.

Like, I quote an episode from The Sopranos in which a member of the family approaches a high school acquaintance and says, hey, great to see you, Danny.

I hear you're on the jury for the Soprano trial.

It's an important civic responsibility that we should all take part in.

You've got a wife and kids.