In this episode, we discuss the differences between Star Wars and Star Wars: Episode IV - The Rise of Skywalker. We discuss the difference between the two, and why it's important to have a conversation about it. We also talk about our own differences in Star Wars fandom and how they differ from each other.
00:00:00.000Right now, the big boogeyman is this progressive mind virus, which is taking control of our education system and using it to erase and eradicate any culture that shows any independent thinking.
00:00:12.180They are trying to homogenize society, systematically extinguish all genuine cultural diversity.
00:00:19.680One of the groups that has the longest history of fighting against that, regardless of what you think about their allegiances, they do care about their own kids.
00:00:29.900Orthodox Jewish populations. And because of that, not only are they disproportionately in positions of power across the conservative movement, why they're in these positions of power, why they're fighting so hard makes sense.
00:00:39.920It's because it's the same reason that we're fighting hard and they're not trying to convert your kids.
00:00:44.580If you try to form an ideological faction that is just your narrow cultural group in the hope that one day you can dominate the entire planet.
00:00:52.180I'm sorry. You are so delusional about how much power your cultural group has right now.
00:00:57.340All of us, all of the Orthodox groups, all of the conservative groups are on the back foot right now.
00:01:03.640And the only way we win this is through working together.
00:01:07.720That's our strengths is our difference.
00:01:10.480And it's something that progressives will never have because they lack genuine diversity.
00:01:15.380They even lack the ability to recognize the strength in genuine diversity comes from the fact that diverse groups are going to excel in different things.
00:01:26.640We need to just have this conversation where we need to have the conversation that we are different.
00:01:31.240The conservative Protestants are different from the conservative Catholics and they're different from the conservative Jews.
00:01:35.480And that's our strengths because that's not true of the progressive Catholics and the progressives Protestants and the progressive Jews.
00:01:42.860If you scratch beneath the surface, they have the same views on gender, the same views on sexuality, the same views on our relationship to the environment, the same views on morality, the same views on the future of our species.
00:02:28.460So this morning while we were dropping off the kids at daycare, I was talking with Malcolm about our difference between performative Star Wars fandom and actual Star Wars fandom.
00:02:37.100Malcolm, which, which is actually inspired by the fact that like all the cars in our daycares parking lot are really nerdy.
00:02:44.140Like they all anime and Star Wars stickers on them.
00:05:19.940I think that there is a serious misunderstanding of Jews as a cultural group.
00:05:25.820And I say this as somebody who is has no like history personally with like I have a lot of Jewish friends,
00:05:33.880but like personally, I'm not genetically Jewish.
00:05:37.020I'm none of my ancestors are Jewish, anything like that.
00:05:40.160And yet as an outsider, I can see that there is a misunderstanding of what's going on here.
00:05:45.800So here's where I think conservatives are correct when they say, oh, Hollywood is serving our kids bad values and Hollywood has a disproportionate number of Jews within it.
00:06:01.560And I'm like, okay, those two things are true.
00:06:04.420But the conservative intellectual sphere also has a disproportionate number of Jews in it.
00:06:10.040The people who are getting conservative politicians elected has a disproportionate number of Jews within it.
00:06:15.700Pretty much any position of power in our society has a disproportionate number of Jews in it.
00:06:20.500And so this is one of those things that's really offensive.
00:06:24.060And I think it's partially why when I talk about the Order 66 on the Jews, why I'm increasingly getting worried for the Jewish community.
00:06:31.400So just a quick aside here, I think the conservative movement has always had a ethno-isolationist aspect to it.
00:06:38.820I think it's getting smaller and smaller as the conservative movement shifts and it's distributing throughout the movements.
00:06:44.020But historically in the U.S., the progressive movement has been until recently the more pluralistic movement.
00:06:50.940But now part of the progressive philosophy is defined by this idea of you can tell which groups are evil by which groups who have power.
00:07:05.060And so if they've created this narrative of these groups are in power only because they have victimized other groups.
00:07:12.000And then you look around and you're like, oh, well, Jewish people do, I think, very inarguably disproportionately end up within positions of power in our society.
00:07:20.000Does that mean, like, it's very hard to maintain this narrative that they historically are a victimized group if you buy into this mindset.
00:07:29.380And worse, within different progressive groups, we're beginning to see now this idea of white people aren't the bad guys.
00:07:37.460The Jewish people are the most overrepresented group was in positions of power.
00:07:40.900You're talking about in proportion to the percentage of the population.
00:07:43.460Therefore, they must be the ultimate bad guys.
00:07:45.180And this is why you see people, what was that communist group that was burning Anne Frank's diaries for their campfires?
00:07:53.800And this is what you're seeing on the extreme left right now, which I think when you begin to see anti-Semitism rise within the extreme left and was in the extreme right, that's not good.
00:08:02.820But to my larger point here, because our politics today are so focused on your enemies, groups can ignore their allies.
00:08:13.640And they can begin to define, okay, this group is overrepresented within positions of power among my enemies.
00:08:43.100But I think that's a sign of true nerdom.
00:08:45.980You want to say, no, Star Wars, fronting about Star Wars, that's not how you become a true nerd.
00:08:50.740When Ben Shapiro, call you a nerd, then you're a true nerd.
00:08:55.920But, you know, he's done a lot to progress the conservative cause.
00:08:59.220And I think that one of the things that there was this YouTube a while ago and they're like, look at how many of Joe Rogan's guests are Jewish.
00:09:06.260And it's like, yes, because a lot of leading conservative intellectuals are Jewish.
00:09:12.280If you have a group that is disproportionately in positions of power, this is why I use a Jedi analogy, don't order 66-year-old Jews.
00:09:19.460Do not start stabbing them in the back with this whole anti-Semitic movement that is gaining steam, I think, on both the left and the right.
00:09:27.780If the right moves back from this position and becomes a safe haven from the Jews at the same time as the left is moving more and more anti-Jew, yeah, you'll never win reformed Jews.
00:09:38.200But reformed Jews, I mean, they are so, they are like the Unitarian Universalists.
00:09:42.580They are to Judaism as Unitarian Universalism is to Evangelicalism or Catholicism, right?
00:09:49.780When you see people in positions of power on the left and you see they are reformed Jews and you say, ah, this is proof that Jews can't be good conservative allies or the Jewish population at large is against us, to me, this is very much like a person looking at the leftists in positions of power and seeing Unitarian Universalists in a lot of these positions and being like, well, this is why I can't trust Protestants, right?
00:10:17.240Like, what? This is a highly mimetically infected with this progressive mind virus group.
00:10:25.600Like, you can't, that's not representative of the Jewish people more broadly.
00:10:29.460You look at the Orthodox Jewish group, these people are incredibly conservative in the way that they view everything.
00:10:36.200And they've been able to maintain their traditions with fidelity across generations in the face of highly diverse.
00:10:43.880We're dealing with a world where immigrants are posing more of a threat to us.
00:10:47.260If anything, we can learn from Orthodox Jewish populations that have for a long time been the minority in their cultural environments and been able to pass on their cultural group intergenerationally with fidelity.
00:11:02.420Something, something, gift horse mouth, etc.
00:11:05.580Well, I mean, don't look at, if you take inventory of both, who are the most competent people on both sides of the cultural battlefield right now, there are few groups as motivated and that have dealt with a situation like this historically.
00:11:21.120So, if right now, the big boogeyman is this progressive mind virus, which is taking control of our education system and using it to erase and eradicate any culture that shows any sort of independent thinking from our society.
00:11:36.160You know, everyone needs to have exactly the same views on gender.
00:11:38.940Everyone needs to have the same views on morality.
00:11:40.760Everyone has to have the same views on sexuality.
00:11:43.060Everyone has to have the same views on how we relate to the environment.
00:11:45.920Everyone has to have the same views on how we relate, like how women and men relate to each other.
00:11:49.960And they're pressing this and they're like, we support diversity, just except anywhere where there's actually like meaningful ideological diversity.
00:11:59.160Like they are trying to homogenize society, systematically extinguish all genuine cultural diversity in our society.
00:12:07.580One of the groups that has the longest history of fighting against that, regardless of what you think about like their competency today or their allegiances, they do care about their own kids.
00:12:18.660And I think because of that, they are not only are they disproportionately in positions of power across the conservative movement, why they're in these positions of power, why they're fighting so hard makes sense.
00:12:32.320It's the same reason that we're fighting hard and they're not trying to convert your kids.
00:12:37.060They don't, they don't want an all Jewish world.
00:12:40.180That's not the way their religion works.
00:12:42.120That's not the way their cultural group works.
00:12:44.640They are genuinely one of the lowest threat groups to you and one of the highest value aligned groups to you.
00:12:51.940And one of the things that really gave me heart is when Andrew Tate converted to Islam and conservatives weren't like, oh, you bastard.
00:12:58.580They're like, oh yeah, we understand now because that's what society is.
00:13:01.820So it's an alliance of conservative groups against this progressive mind virus that wants to systematically erase and homogenize every culture on the planet.
00:13:13.840Even when you're talking about other groups, like a lot of conservatives these days, they have some animosity towards Muslim cultural groups.
00:13:18.900These Muslims aren't converting your kids.
00:13:21.000They do not have any aims at erasing your cultural group through capturing educational systems and converting your kids.
00:13:31.320That's where the immediate threat is right now.
00:13:34.540Understand that they are just as threatened, a Muslim immigrant, by the progressive elite within our society as you are, as are the Orthodox Jews.
00:13:45.540And if you try to form an ideological faction that is just your narrow cultural group in the hope that one day you can dominate the entire planet, I'm sorry.
00:13:54.940You are so delusional about how much power your cultural group has right now.
00:13:59.580All of us, all of the Orthodox groups, all of the conservative groups are on the back foot right now.
00:14:05.520And the only way we win this is through working together.
00:14:34.900And it's not the state's job to come in and protect you from your own weakness.
00:14:41.000I mean, I'm all for ensuring that these groups, that no groups, get government services.
00:14:47.040I do not think government services are a good idea to begin with.
00:14:51.560But I am very against one group imposing restrictions against other group because that other group is outcompeting them.
00:14:58.980And to me, a lot of the conservative talk against Jewish populations really do feel like sour grapes.
00:15:06.620You know, you get all these ethno-supremacists who are talking about, oh, this group's genetically superior, that group's genetically superior.
00:15:14.480And then they're also really anti-Semitic, which has never made sense to me because it's like, well, I mean, clearly by the data, this group is outcompeting you guys.
00:15:23.500And they come up with all these, well, they're not playing fair or whatever.
00:15:31.680And it makes it look like you just can't deal with the fact that you're not from the group that happens to be winning.
00:15:39.000And if that's the case, don't impose restrictions on other groups.
00:15:42.500Find out how to improve your own cultural group.
00:15:44.960Because when it comes to Jews, you don't get to play the game where you go, oh, you know, what have Jews ever invented that contributed to society?
00:15:55.800What scientific discoveries have Jews ever made?
00:16:01.780They are clearly materially benefiting other cultural groups through whatever cultural adaptation it is they have that is allowing them to be competitive within the current social ecosystem.
00:16:17.560And if your concern is that one cultural group is outcompeting you, focus on how you can improve your own cultural group.
00:16:25.240Then come up with sour grape stories about how they're not really outcompeting you or how they're not really playing fair.
00:16:31.780Because, to be honest, when you go around doing that, you sound like the absolute worst parts of progressive philosophy.
00:16:40.620This victim narrative is gross, disgusting, and removes personal responsibility and personal cultural responsibility for your own failures.
00:16:50.420Well, yeah, I mean, what I think is interesting about this, and part of me thinks that this is our, like, Silicon Valley background speaking.
00:16:57.700So it could be a view that actually people strongly disagree with.
00:17:01.500But we were raised post-meeting each other, and certainly in our entrepreneurial and career lives, to believe that he who moves first and fastest and most boldly is he who wins.
00:17:12.020So a defensive strategy, like, let's trademark this, let's copyright this, let's stealth this, like, all protect, protect, protect, attack anyone who tries to copy you, like, you will not win.
00:17:23.540It is move fast and break things in Silicon Valley.
00:17:25.860And I think that we view things very similarly culturally.
00:17:31.900Like, a defensive strategy, it's not something that would ever occur to us, culturally speaking, because we come from a mindset of, I don't care about my enemies.
00:17:40.240My enemies will not even really exist because I'm going to build the future, and they won't be a part of it.
00:17:45.880Well, I mean, I think what you're missing here is our enemies are so good at erasing our cultures right now that many of the conservative cultural groups will not survive this.
00:17:53.760When you look at things like Mormons falling below repopulation rate, when you look at their bleed rate, I would have thought 10 years ago if I was like, there's an alliance of conservative cultural groups who's one of the strongest positions here.
00:18:06.300You know, that's, and I think that some conservative groups, part of their strength is their traditionalism, their unwillingness to accept new ways of doing things.
00:18:16.440You can look at a great example here, and the Amish are a great example of this, right?
00:18:20.220They don't adapt to new ways of doing things.
00:18:22.720They don't move fast and break things.
00:18:24.780What we should think of ourselves as is a multicultural and multi-front battlefield and understanding the strength in our diversity is different players on this battlefield have different strengths.
00:18:39.460And sometimes that strength is a group's traditionalism.
00:18:42.840It is their steadfastness and it is their defensiveness.
00:18:45.200But if the defensive groups say, no, no, no, we want to get rid of people like you and Malcolm, right, because you're from a highly accelerationist, a highly aggressive group, it's like, well, if you just take a defensive position, eventually the entire front loses.
00:19:02.480We need certain groups that are going to, at risk to themselves, an accelerationist position, a culturally experimental position puts our culture at more risk.
00:19:14.920It's moving more of your team into an offensive position and leaving, honestly, your defense kind of weak.
00:19:21.140Yes, but that's for our culture because we have other people on our flanks.
00:19:25.300Because we have the, whether it's the Amish or the Catholics on the flanks, holding ground where we move in and do things with the Collins Institute, try to break through the front lines and take control of an aspect of the education system
00:19:40.940so that we can protect the cultural diversity that I think makes the world strong.
00:19:45.080At the very least, do not attack the groups that are making these aggressive maneuvers because you cannot win just by holding steady.
00:19:55.260You do have to make aggressive maneuvers.
00:20:20.200They're one of the few groups that I'm like, I know they don't want my kids.
00:20:23.180It is, I think, just an incredibly dumb position that takes the perspective of a world that no longer exists.
00:20:29.740A world in which you had a country where you were the culturally dominant faction in which the world was made up of countries where your country was your ethnicity, which was your culture.
00:20:45.260And the countries that have stayed in that world are some of the weakest on the current playing field.
00:20:49.840It is the weakest strategy you can take.
00:20:52.200Right. Okay. So a good example of a culture following the strategy is Korea by staying homogenous, either through inaction or inability to bring in outsiders or an unwillingness to do so.
00:21:03.480They've done a very good job of keeping out immigrants, but eventually they will die.
00:21:07.720Just keeping yourself in a hermetic pod doesn't save you.
00:21:11.980And I think that learning to work in a multicultural ecosystem is something that the surviving cultural groups will have to do.
00:21:20.720I think coming out of this period in conservative history, one faction of conservatism will be a genuinely pluralistic cultural group that is okay with different cultural groups working together towards a common goal.
00:21:34.940We're from a Calvinist cultural group, which also isn't that interested in converting other people.
00:21:58.160And I hope that some alliance of different cultural traditions can stay together coming out of this and fight off the cultural traditions that, like the progressives want to do now, want to erase all cultural diversity in the world, want everyone to think the same, want everyone to have the same moral system.
00:22:17.480But even if you are from one of those cultural traditions, just understand that you're on a weak footing now and you need to fight with us or we all get erased.
00:22:27.340Everyone who differentiates from the mind virus and the mind virus does not lead to a prospering intergalactic human ecosystem.
00:23:29.040And therefore, they are an incredibly risky group to leave in a position of power.
00:23:34.440I don't mind if even some group that's radically different from us, Warhammer style, ends up on giant cathedral ships going to the stars, right?
00:23:44.480Obviously, that's not how they first went to the stars in Warhammer.
00:23:47.360Sorry, I'm getting nerdy about lore here.
00:23:49.140That is what the Empire of Man turned into.
00:23:51.660I'm just saying, I do like cathedral ships aesthetically.
00:23:58.720Yeah, I mean, when I think about like cool sci-fi scenarios of this, and I don't think you ever like it, but I really like Dune.
00:24:05.960You've got all these really different groups that kind of use each other, may not respect each other, sometimes respect each other, definitely mess with each other, are very ideologically different, but still create a very interesting universe.
00:24:17.200And I like that because there's a lot of interplay.
00:24:21.520I don't know how that works in the Warhammer universe, but I do love sci-fi explorations of how it could be, though I guess they're kind of just extrapolations of what is here now.
00:24:34.180You're talking about the Warhammer universe.
00:24:35.380It depends on how you would interpret it.
00:24:36.780So some people would say, well, they're all technically following the same religion, like worshiping the emperor of man, right?
00:24:43.520But if you look at the cultural differences between space marine units, for example, they are easily as big or bigger because they're also genetic cultural differences between the pretty big genetic cultural differences.
00:24:57.220Do you gain people's memories when you eat them?
00:25:24.940What I like to create is, like if I'm thinking like 3D chess, how do you play this?
00:25:29.940If you can really damper down the anti-Semitism in the conservative party, really have people attack it whenever they see it, then in an era in which the progressives are moving more and more towards anti-Semitic positions and the progressive fringes are becoming more and more virulently anti-Semitic, you allow in the same way.
00:25:47.420So a lot of people don't know this, but in the 1970s, Catholics were majority progressive.
00:25:53.540And this is when the conservative party took the position against abortion.
00:25:58.660Before this, Republicans at the 1970s conference were actually more, they were not only pro-abortion, but the conservative, your average Republican was more pro-abortion than your average Democrat.
00:27:19.980Yeah, sure, it would be great if that's possible.
00:27:22.100But I just don't, like, would major influencers, if enough major influencers in this space just decided to not be cool with it and shamed it a lot, would that make the difference?
00:27:31.760One thing we need to do is talk about it.
00:27:33.360So this whole video, the very fact that I'm talking about Jewish people as, like, a unique cultural group that is uniquely successful within certain, and it's just measurably, they're uniquely successful.
00:27:44.480Whether it's, like, getting Nobel Prizes or you look at the number of millionaires or whatever, like, just uniquely successful.
00:27:50.360But just saying that, that's considered offensive.
00:27:51.980People are like, well, that's a stereotype.
00:28:08.740And then, I love it, like, Nicholas does, well, the signs that they have positions of power is a sign that they're doing something Machiavellian together.
00:28:38.860The fact that we can recognize our differences and see that by working together, by working with people who are different than us, who are culturally optimized for different outcomes, yeah, you're going to see different long-tail distribution outcomes.
00:28:49.180That's our strengths is our difference.
00:28:52.440And it's something that progressives will never have because they lack genuine diversity.
00:28:58.040They even lack the ability to recognize the strength in genuine diversity comes from the fact that diverse groups are going to excel in different things.
00:29:10.580And we need to just have this conversation where we need to have the conversation that we are different.
00:29:16.320The conservative Protestants are different from the conservative Catholics, and they're different from the conservative Jews.
00:29:20.880And that's our strengths because that's not true of the progressive Catholics and the progressives Protestants and the progressive Jews.
00:29:27.800If you scratch beneath the surface, they have the same views on gender, the same views on sexuality, the same views on our relationship to the environment, the same views on morality, the same views on the future of our species.