My goal is to help people realize that when someone does something that consistently benefits them and harms you, it's 100% deliberate. They'll give you all sorts of excuses, tell you that they don't know what they're doing, but they know exactly what they're doing.

"Robbing a train" is a great thought experiment and exploratory teaching device for this lesson. If you're confronted by bandits on a train and they rob you, with a gun pointed in your face, for you to give up your valuables, it's pretty easy to see the deliberate act of theft.

However, let's say the bandits are a bit more sneaky, and disguise themselves as trusted members of the train staff. All of a sudden, there's: - New luggage storage policy. - A rumor of bandits. - Collecting valuables to store in a safe for safekeeping. - Complimentary dessert!

Using these policies to "protect" and "help" you, the bandits collect your luggage in the backmost luggage car. Have you voluntarily store your valuables in their safe. And then distract you with free dessert. Unbeknownst to you, you're ingesting a sedative that knocks you out!

What happens next? Well, there's a bridge with the support beams cut in a few miles, so it's time for the bandits to make their getaway. First, they speed up the train and sabotage the break lines. Then, they make their way to the back and decouple the cars with stolen goods.

At this point, the passengers are in a deep slumber and headed towards disaster. The bandits separate their car and split with the valuables. The next day, the headlines read - "Tragic train accident claims lives of 80+ passengers." The bandits get away scott-free!

So here's the question at the end of the day - "Was the train crash an accident or deliberate?" This is the most challenging part of the lesson. The realization is that if you weren't told the full story, then you would have thought it was an accident too.

The only reason we know that it wasn't an accident, that the bandits engineered the crash on purpose is because we were told explicitly. In the real world, you'd get excuses like: - Brake lines fail all the time. - The conductor was going too fast, an honest mistake.

- The wooden beams were rotted, I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did. - Food poisoning is one of the most common causes of illness. - The currents were strong, they washed the valuables away. - It was a freak accident, there's no way we could have predicted such a thing.

Let's review. Simple robbery - an obvious act of theft. Complex robbery scheme with 5 moving parts - just an accident? The lesson here is that no matter how complex the bad things being done are, with 5 or even 100 parts, that doesn't mean it's not deliberate.

Just because something is complex, we aren't smart enough to understand the details, we don't have access to the information, or there's secrets or confidentiality blocking our way, DOESN'T MEAN a crime isn't happening. More complexity != More honesty. In fact, it's the opposite

Where do we go from here? First, if someone is hurting you, you don't need to understand the excuses. The motivations of the person hurting you or reasons why you deserve to be hurt are irrelevant. In the example, the bandits would just have lied to the passengers.

They just need to stop. Stop whatever they're doing that is hurting people. If they won't stop, that's how you know for a fact that there's a crime and it's being done deliberately. If someone doesn't stop hurting you, that gives you all the clarity you need, 100% of the time.

They're your enemy. That's Lesson 2. Let's say you come across a bandit disguised as the crew cutting the break lines. They tell you they're just "fixing" the break lines. You ask them to stop, they reply that it's their job.

There's no outcome here where you can convince them to stop with words. They'll say whatever it take to set your mind at ease so they can continue cutting the break lines. You have to stop them. Ignore their protests of innocence, "I'm just doing my job". They have to stop.

When you try to stop the saboteur, they pull out a knife and stab you through the rib cage. Then they roll your body into the garbage disposal to hide evidence of their crime. Lesson 3 is the most brutal one of all. If words don't work, they'll get violent to protect the crime.

What this means is that we have to prepare ourselves. To go all the way, to do whatever it takes. If they won't stop, we have to make them. There's no other way. Our survival depends on it.