Goldtent TA Paradise

Democracy as a threat to Democracy

1. pedro_deleon says:

   September 3, 2024 - 12:49 pm at 12:49 pm

   00:00 Will Trump be Allowed to Become President?
   12:02 MSNBC’s Editing of Joe Rogan to Support Kamala
   16:48 The Media’s Gaslighting of Modern Politics
   31:07 Is Google Influencing the Election?
   43:03 How Physics Became Boring & Safe
   52:40 Is String Theory Just a Shiny Distraction?
   1:03:44 Why String Theory Still Gets Funded
   1:07:41 Science’s Big Problems
   1:13:45 The Danger of Criticism Capture
   1:26:19 Eric’s Antidote for Cancelling People
   1:36:15 Why Having Public Opinions is so Exhausting
   1:53:21 What Chris Gets Criticised for Most
   2:06:10 The Dynamics of Interviewing & Conversation
   2:16:18 Trying to Become a High Agency Person
   2:25:53 Eric’s Advice for People Who Don’t Fit in
   2:33:38 Overcoming Impossible Situations
   2:38:17 4D Complex Shapes, Geometry & Dimensions
   2:49:09 The Internet is Destroying the Sacred
   3:02:44 Reacting to “What Can Be, Unburdened By What Has Been”
   3:19:06 Eric’s Thoughts on JD Vance

   @sarakaran6689
   1 hour ago

   The first 12 minutes of this podcast blew my mind. I had to stop it after an hour to digest what was being said.
   This morning I started it again and the first 12 minutes hit harder than the first time I listened to it, so I stopped and listened to the first 12 minutes again.
   What I think of it comes down to this quote:

   “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”
   Benjamin Franklin

   I could write a 1000 word article on this, but Eric Weinstein says it more concisely, eloquently and brilliantly than I ever could.

   Suffice to say, the rules based international order structures that were put in place to keep the world from war and keep the markets open (post WW2) have hit a wall. It’s also obvious to all, that trying to push through that wall is causing the status quo to collapse through the implementation of population control tactics. Though they’ve kept them more or less in place through the illusion of democracy, the deep state is fearful that you can’t keep international alliances and agreements stable with someone at the helm (a populist candidate) willing to risk changing the status quo.

   The problem of course now is the rot eating at the core of these institutions tasked with keeping the status quo, is only growing and has been for decades.

   The warmongering, the money laundering, the criminal activities are so blatant at this point that the American public have become the human shields (and victims) of the deep state.
   These international agreements and interests are giving license to these players to feel justified in abominable behaviors, operations, crimes, and thefts, while hiding them behind claims of national security and the democratic process.

   Slowly over decades they’ve managed to turn over the safeguards of the constitution to maintain their illusionary visions of keeping the world safe.

   @Scott_Buchanan
   41 minutes ago
   That’s what I was pondering too. Are they trying to maintain the status quo because that’s the only thing propping our system up? Or are they doing it to keep themselves in power? Some of both maybe? I’m going to listen to the beginning again myself.

2. pedro_deleon says:

   September 3, 2024 - 1:03 pm at 1:03 pm

   A partial summation

   @jtrealfunny
   1 day ago (edited)
   Feels like this guest has the highest understanding and clearest perception of our present time. He understands nuance and how things are ‘not this and not that’, something good for me may be bad for you and maybe that can’t be reconciled, winners and losers. But things can be understood and revealed and right now it’s really murky at the top and the people at the top are eating more and more of the pie. Take it from the man.
   12:00 (jesus this is long) and I believe our democracy has been on a steady decline since Reagan and that powerful people got together and agreed it was better to win than represent something and guide something complicated, namely the country. Privileged people used to have a sense of responsibility for their success and comfort, their position in society, they used to feel part of the whole. Now I don’t think their feet ever touch the ground and our country is guided by people in giant towers or nice gated properties. Very depressing if you let it get to you; I don’t.
   25:00 I heard q non was based on scandal island and the lizard people guy doesn’t seem so far fetched when you see so much shadowy control coming from the top. These days a new mental ‘disorder’ is imagining you are a character in a reality tv show or being recorded by people who are out to get you, which isn’t all that far-fetched, it doesn’t come from nowhere.
   Host says our best mathematicians and physics people are scared to speak publicly on all sorts of issues. Feels like my life (58) has been watching the country unravel to the benefit of our elites. I grew up in the 70s and a lot of ordinary people felt truly optimistic and not in a cheerleader political way, in a I can have a good ordinary life and my kids will be better off than me kind of way. Divide and conquer, bait and switch, re-election rates vs. approval ratings, sham democracy, private prisons, mercenaries, see legal realism, high cost healthcare with an unhealthy population, 90% of people leading financially precarious lives… it fucking doesn’t stop if I think into it. Be careful out there.
   Host can learn more ability to understand his perspective is limited, all our perspectives are limited, and that what he sees or thinks won’t even make sense for someone else. People where I live are on social media all the time, and it’s fine, better if they’re reading novels and playing music for me but there’s not much talk of toxic online culture because they are connected in the real world, live in small tight knit communities, no everything about everyone around them, and have a good sense of security in their living situations, though very poor.
   41:00 The ‘independent’ media not covering scandal island has been both telling and disturbing. That’s an important, salacious story with lots of powerful people acting badly; so I guess the people aren’t interested. Seems strange.
   54:00 What has me wondering is why Mr. Weinstein is laying this stuff out for the public, on youtube. I find the material fascinating and his thought process very compelling but if he is correct in his reasoning one imagines him being in some kind of danger by the powerful people who would prefer that people not think about this stuff; which he would be well aware of; and he comes across less as an agent of change than as an agent of good thinking. I’ll be sad if I learn he committed suicide in his car in some parking lot (what is it about whistle blowers and environmental activists that makes them so prone to unexplained suicide?).
   So much thinking about thinking, exhausting. You need to know that it’s not this and it’s not that. If you are trying to pin things down, figure out right and wrong, decide who’s good and bad, it’s going to be tough sledding. All is illusion, what looks one way to you looks completely different to someone else. never mind an ant or an eagle. Reality is only that which does not change, in the temporal world think everything is possible, everything you can imagine happening between people has already happened, and if times are hard and you need to ask good for his help, she’ll tell you don’t worry, to do your best, she’s seen it all before and what’s important is what YOU can make of it. At least, that’s what I heard coming down from the mountain.
   1:38:00 (not even halfway; really) host deserves credit for his willingness and ability to look into his own thought processes as he is developing and refining them. I see everything through a yogic philosophy lens but yoga teaches us that it doesn’t have a monopoly on anything, it’s only offering you understanding and ways of attaining it. The paths are many but the destination is the same; seek and you shall find. CW, especially with this guest, seems to really work at understanding complicated stuff in a nuanced way, which is impressive to me.
   1:44:35 Host talking about online negativity: “I can’t afford to have that person in my head”. In yoga there’s a lot of emphasis on controlling your thoughts and the analogy given is that “a thought is like a seed. Just as a seed can only grow into a certain kind of plant or tree, a thought can only produce a certain kind of action or manifestation, and EVERYTHING has consequences.
   ProChoice/ProLife seems so stupid. I have fond memories of a girl in high school (early 80’s) who wore a t-shirt which said ‘US Out of My Uterus’. When I think of all the indignity people have to put up with in our society, the shit that gets pushed down from the top, especially poor women with bills and kids and life problems, and then I think of the ways our government wants to stick itself into peoples personal lives for it’s own filthy success, divide and conquer, bait and switch in this instance, well, it can be upsetting.
   1:47:00 Host on people like Zeihan speaking with great certainty. As someone who’s words seem to impact people differently than what I wish to communicate I do think some people use words in way that feels confining, heavy, limiting, I think of sledge hammer or mule kick, it doesn’t necessarily reflect that in their thought processes, empathy or sympathy. When I have problems with people words it’s usually because I feel like they are more for (or against) building things like unity, shared identity, bonding, safety…stuff I think shouldn’t be cultivated or sought after with words: by their works you shall know them. I’m sharing ideas that interest me or information that connects to something and someone disagreeing or feeling differently is totally fine. Usually when people find it objectionable we are having an emotional argument, not a logical one. I watch Zeihan regularly because he’s got a unique perspective and adds a lot to think about for me. But I have no idea about how solid he is; time will tell, jaja, and he does seem able to change his views and analysis as circumstances change without seeming like some phony huckster.
   Seeing life in the US after living with local people in another country for several years is kind of sad and alarming. So little well being; so little human connection. In the US, if you are using your screens to understand the world, you are one of the people in the crowd when the kid says the emperor has no clothes, telling him to shut up and behave. On screen you see very little, hear very little, celebrating the juicy parts of life: when the family is happy together and feels really connected, when the sex is good and nobody is upset or damaged, when someone helps someone else just because they can and why not, or people with hard circumstances doing the best for their children; why are single mothers seen as less in our society? It is our society that produced them, they are our future, perhaps better to build them up and make them feel supported and valued? Fuck that. We’re about winners and those sluts aren’t winners. They deserve to work at Target and do sex work online, that’s what they earned in our meritocracy. I have no time for losers, go to some other country with more people like you.
   1:52:30 “We haven’t yet invented the concepts that will make modern life tolerable”. I think that’s very well said and as I consider it the implications unfold like a flower, and don’t smell very nice. For me, making sense of life and hypocrisy in the US was about acceptance and seeing things through a longer lens (tell it to the rocks) and lots of self development but the words quoted are shocking: modern life is not tolerable to live nor do we know how to make it so. No wonder things seem to be falling apart.