This category is for posts that include/focus on a video link to a video I made.
(Also available on Bitchute.)
There is a tendency for thinkers to use metaphor and allegory to reframe a problem or issue in a way that clarifies or simplifies it. The problem with metaphor and allegory is that they necessarily change or obscure details. Therefore, the solutions you propose from looking at a metaphor might be way off.
Even worse, the retreat into metaphor can be so deep that no concrete solutions even appear, and you end up with long periods of idle musing.
The idea of “effective altruism” is that you do the most good by making as much money as possible, and then living frugally and using the rest of that money for charity.
Of course, nowadays, with the state having the stranglehold on the economy that it does, it turns out that the easiest way to make a bunch of money is to have a bunch of government connections that will help you win a contract or two. Actual entrepreneurship is hard.
Then, it gets worse! The fact you’ve spent so much time hanging around politicians and bureaucrats warps your sense of charity. Instead of serving the people, you serve the state.
More in the video above, also available on Bitchute.
After reading a few reactions to my review of George Orwell’s Road to Wigan Pier, it looked like I was a little bit unclear about Orwell’s position on socialism. I’m aware that he never denounced socialism as an ideology. However, the issue that becomes painfully clear when reading Wigan Pier is that he really had no clear idea of what socialism was or what it meant. With that in mind, I thought I’d make a quick video explaining this point a bit more clearly, so I hope this helps.
You can read my review here.
A bunch of topics all together this time. What is the Macro Trick? It’s the combination of things that are fundamentally different under one name. It’s a tool that many tyrants and would-be tyrants use to take control of politics, economics, and culture.
It feeds the demand for administrators, technocrats, and other “experts.” In this video, I have a breakdown of some egregious examples of this trick, as well as what we can do to fight it.
Also available on Bitchute.
A video version of part 1 (of 3) of my short essay series on money.
For the text version with links and citations, visit here.
I saw a new ad from the awful-as-usual Brady Campaign (to Outlaw Handguns) and they’re pushing “Safe Storage” laws. Of course, this isn’t about safety, it’s about tyranny, so I thought I’d peel back some of the layers here and give it some light.
Video also available on Bitchute.
It seems like everyone is talking about secession these days. Whether they call it that, or national divorce, or some other euphemism, they all have opinions about it and most of them are woefully misinformed. Setting aside the ideologues who only want to tighten their grip on their fellow man for their own benefit, there are plenty of people who argue against secession from a practical perspective, but even these people often argue from a position of ignorance, and in this case, their ignorance is definitely not our bliss.
James Lindsay’s recent episode of his New Discourses podcast (ep. 108) talks about Gnosticism, related doctrines, and how they relate to modern neo-Marxist thought. By his own admission, he’s having trouble organizing his thoughts on the topic and he wants others to start thinking about them, so I made a summary with some commentary as an exercise.
Reductionism is an incredibly useful tool. You can get rid of meaningless or poorly-supported fluff and tighten up your argument or a system you’re thinking about.
Problem is, it can be overused or used for the wrong reasons, and if you do that, you can make quite a mess for yourself.
Here’s a short video about the dangers of misusing reductionism, with a bunch of definitions and examples!
Also available on Bitchute.
The Russian Revolution is one of the darkest moments in recent history. It led to millions and millions of deaths, and even more impoverished and horribly oppressed by communist governments in the twentieth century. Richard Pipes is one of the most renowned scholars of the Russian Revolution, with two long books, The Russian Revolution and Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, that describe in gory detail the monstrosities of Russia around the time of its red revolution.