RadixJournal - The Physics of Politics

00:00:00.000 I don't know if we've talked about this, JF, but I can really strongly sense a major backlash coming, and it's going to be a very stupid backlash, but it is going to be a populist one. 0.93

00:00:14.760 And just to kind of see what I'm talking about, like, if we look at the abortion section of the Donald Trump town hall last night, and he was basically saying, it's very clear that Donald Trump doesn't actually want to ban abortion. 0.75

00:00:32.760 I mean, you know, and like, and he's almost, he's, he almost, it's like, how did I end up in the situation where this is my legacy? It's a very weird thing. And he also takes credit, of course, for ending abortion, although perhaps he should, in fact, because he appointed those judges. And, but he was like, I got it done. People were trying for 40 years, they just couldn't do it. And then, then I did it.

00:01:01.020 Like, it's the most, like, self-centered person ever. But anyway, he said that now we got rid of Roe v. Wade. So now we have a bargaining chip. Now, now we have leverage to negotiate. So what that's, and then he, he was asked many times, like, will you, by Caitlin Collins, will you sign an abortion ban of six weeks or something like that? And he just won't answer it.

00:01:27.800 Um, but so, so, so I think in, in this way, like Trump is almost behind the times. I, I think there's, I think if you look at these situations like January 6th or some of these abortion bans that are going through, some, some of the kind of rage that's simmering.

00:01:45.800 And also the, the inability of the liberals to actually lead, you know, like they, they just want to, one thing I noticed after this town hall to bring, to bring it back to mundane things that are happening today, is that like someone, so much of the liberal criticism is just so dumb. 0.81

00:02:08.360 You know, like, you know, like I saw a clip of AOC and she's saying, you know, by allowing Donald Trump onto CNN, you endangered a victim of sexual violence. 0.65

00:02:19.360 So she's, her argument is literally that Jean Carroll is going to be attacked or something because of a town hall debate.

00:02:32.040 Like she can't make a serious argument that isn't about some personal harm avoidance of a victim.

00:02:41.820 In this case, in this case, women, that's even how she understood J6. 0.78

00:02:45.380 I'm not even sure someone like, like, I, I think that J6 was in fact a threat to democracy, you know, as we know it, at least it was very democratic in its way, but it's a threat to the status quo democracy. 0.68

00:03:00.700 I'm not even sure AOC or these, these types of politicians really understand it, like beyond the personal level of, there were some guys outside my office and oh my God, they wanted to rate me or something.

00:03:15.840 Like she didn't, like she didn't understand the level at which it, it, it actually was a shock to the system and an, an embarrassment for the United States.

00:03:26.820 She, I, I'm not even positive.

00:03:29.080 She can actually wrap her mind around that.

00:03:32.240 And, and so when I see things like this and I, and I do think there's some hegemonic liberals who do get it, but when I see like liberals like this,

00:03:44.080 I, I tend to think that they actually are going to lose to a bombastic, vulgar right-wing backlash.

00:03:55.640 And I'm not saying this is coming from people like you or, or me or, or Mark or et cetera.

00:04:02.240 I think it's not, I think it's, it's, it's coming from people well down the IQ scale from us, well up the Christian scale from us. 0.98

00:04:13.040 And well, well up the willingness to use violence scale.

00:04:20.380 Yeah.

00:04:21.580 And I, I sometimes think they're going to win.

00:04:25.220 Well, I, I, I'm not going to necessarily cheer for it, but I almost, I, I get to points where I almost want them to win because at the very least.

00:04:36.200 Like it would kind of clean the slate and, and also like, I don't, I guess I am a bit of a moral moralist kind of like you on some level, like either you're going to be hegemonic and you're going to know what it takes to win or you're not.

00:04:53.720 And you're going to lose and you might end up dead.

00:04:55.900 Like either you're willing to do that or you're not.

00:05:00.040 And if you're just going to sit around and do all this silly, like harm avoidance talk, or like we need to protect Jean Carroll at this terrible, terrible moment she's facing.

00:05:13.040 I'm just like, well, I think you deserve to lose if this is how you think.

00:05:17.280 And that's the other side of the middle of our own disappointment, because I cannot recover the excitement for Trump that I had in 2016, but the left will not be able to recover their hate for Trump that they had when they voted Joe Biden.

00:05:35.120 So it's, it's all stems, it's all stems on whether the left is capable of frustrating themselves enough so that they want it as hard as they wanted it in 2020.

00:05:46.060 And I'm not sure they can.

00:05:48.320 Yeah, I tend to agree.

00:05:49.980 I think that there's a kind of emotional exhaustion on both sides of the spectrum.

00:05:53.700 Um, and, you know, and I think especially, uh, of course, the events of 2016 and 17 were, that was a kind of emotional crescendo, both on the right and the left.

00:06:07.060 Um, but I think that ultimately the consequences of both are frustrated and disappointed and there's a kind of exhaustion that's taken place.

00:06:15.100 Um, but what's been revealed too, is I think that they're, you know, basically I think the left is also in a kind of, um, is in a, is, was initially in a kind of denial mode and now is in a kind of acceptance mode where they understand, um, that there is a right wing now, uh, or that there is a right wing, right.

00:06:36.060 And that the right wing thinks radically different than they do.

00:06:39.900 Uh, like the cat is out of the bag, so to speak.

00:06:43.400 Um, so I think that they're, they, they're adjusting to a kind of new reality.

00:06:48.340 And I think that they're realizing as well, that they can't just sort of be shrill about everything and sort of shout at the right.

00:06:56.320 And that will sort of silence the right.

00:06:58.800 Um, so I think that there is a, a kind of, um, but I think as part of that is a kind of, uh, collective exhaustion, but also a kind of collective depression.

00:07:09.140 I think as well, I think that the society itself, whether on the right or left understands that the society on some level has failed.

00:07:17.480 Right.

00:07:18.540 Um, and I think it, yeah.

00:07:20.560 So I think I said, I think that the left also sort of accepts this or understands this, that it's, you know, that the, the future, both sides see the future in a kind of, in, in a bleak light.

00:07:32.200 Um, so I, I would agree.

00:07:35.600 And I, I think that that's sort of what JF is saying.

00:07:38.000 Maybe he's not saying exactly this.

00:07:39.920 Um, but, um, you are saying, so you're agreeing with that sentiment.

00:07:44.840 Yes.

00:07:45.720 Um, so I think that the whole, you know, in, there's this amazing word that the Germans developed, uh, zeitgeist.

00:07:52.940 Right.

00:07:53.580 And I think that term is a correct term. 0.79

00:07:55.640 We can feel a kind of collective spirit in the society, right?

00:07:59.700 It's not just, you know, uh, individuals that have feelings.

00:08:03.400 It's a whole society that has a feeling.

00:08:05.900 And I think that the feeling or tone of the society now is one that's kind of, it's, it's one of, uh, uh, depression, denial and acceptance.

00:08:16.340 It's, it's like going through these kinds of stages of grief, in other words.

00:08:20.840 And I think that the left is kind of entering into a, a stage of acceptance where they're like, okay, there's this other force now in the society and the worldview is radically different.

00:08:32.400 And they're basically every sort of like fantasy or dream that I had of the future of us all kind of holding hands and being this happy multicultural society that doesn't seem like it's going to happen because the right is basically just saying, you know what?

00:08:47.920 We don't want that.

00:08:49.900 And, and we are an important significant, like the society is not going to be whole.

00:08:55.780 The society is going to be.

00:08:57.940 Riven.

00:08:58.640 It's going to be broken effectively.

00:09:00.740 And people are not going to get along in the way that the left fantasized effectively.

00:09:06.780 So I think that they're dealing with these sort of dashed hopes or these broken dreams.

00:09:11.480 And, and on the right, I think there's a kind of similar thing going on too, because I think that the right also held onto those beliefs as well, if to a lesser extent.

00:09:21.100 So they're, they're also going through that mourning process, but they also, the right also is in a kind of mode of, um, struggling, right?

00:09:30.020 Uh, trying to like break free from a liberal system or whatever the case may be.

00:09:35.000 And, uh, so there is that, uh, angst or suffering on the right as well.

00:09:39.600 Um, and I, I do think that the right is, uh, more active or is more in, I don't think, I think moralized is a wrong time, wrong term as I'm describing.

00:09:50.200 Um, but, um, I think it is more, it, it is, uh, moving, whereas I think that the left is kind of broken, you know what I'm saying?

00:10:02.180 Um, that's just a kind of feeling, even though it remains through a kind of inertia, you know, in the real world, uh, outside of the kind of internet world, it remains the sort of, a kind of dominant force.

00:10:14.440 Uh, you know, the, you know, the taboos of the left still, uh, govern the society.

00:10:19.100 Right.

00:10:20.020 But increasingly, of course, that that's going to fall away.

00:10:23.480 Um, I mean, that's, that's my general sense of it.

00:10:26.640 Um, I, you know, as far as Elon Musk goes, I mean, I, I, I, I, I see, um, JF posting on Twitter and I kind of like the fact that he's, he seems like, uh, energized because I like Jeff, JF, he seems like he's like a good guy.

00:10:42.440 But, um, so I'm excited that he's happy about, uh, these, uh, about new developments.

00:10:48.900 Uh, Musk, I think that in probably, I'm sure Richard shares his view, Richard, I think is more skeptical of Musk than I am.

00:10:57.000 Um, I'm, I, I don't know that I would, as far as Musk is concerned, I, I just, uh, um, the jury's still out.

00:11:04.080 I mean, I think that a lot of us are kind of like, well, you know, Trump was, uh, such a kind of, uh, uh, you know, illusion or, uh, chimera, uh, that many of us are, are still, um, you know, sort of, uh, I don't know, uh, you know, once bitten, twice shy sort of thing.

00:11:25.940 Right.

00:11:26.180 So I, I think many people are afraid to kind of put too much hope, uh, into, you know, especially one figure to kind of change the society in a positive direction.

00:11:36.880 Um, you know, and if, if, uh, if Musk, for example, um, has a very kind of particular view of society that's distinct from our own, um, you know, that could end up being a kind of bad thing.

00:11:50.120 Ultimately, um, you know, and we look at Russia, for example, and we see that, uh, Putin has a very kind of particular vision for that society.

00:11:58.540 And, uh, you know, in what he, what his regime does is it basically cancels out, you know, forces or energies or voices both on the right and the left.

00:12:09.600 Right. Uh, and, and it's basically Putin's Russia and Putin's Russia is not, is, is kind of far from ideal, um, from what a lot, a lot of people on this call, you know, would want or imagine.

00:12:23.860 Um, but, you know, part of it is because he's holding together a multicultural country and, um, you know, he's, and it's, it's impossible for him ultimately to be our guy, whatever that means. 0.52

00:12:38.320 Um, and I think that, um, I think you understand my point that it's, it's, I think that there, well, I think that, you know, I think that some optimism is fine and called for.

00:12:50.200 I mean, certainly in some ways things have improved in terms of free speech.

00:12:54.320 I would agree with that.

00:12:55.960 Um, I think that there is also grounds for caution, uh, or, um, you know, sort of guarded optimism or, you know, looking at this, this situation critically and seeing really what Musk is, for example, you know, and of course he's only one, um, force out there or one development,

00:13:16.980 but I think a, a, a pretty meaningful or significant force or development anyways, end of, uh, rant.

00:13:25.420 Yeah.

00:13:25.900 Um, to, to go back a little bit to the, the zeitgeist notion, um, I think we're in a, in a very, you know, particular place because what are some of the biggest applause lines of Donald Trump?

00:13:46.980 And, you know, and getting back to, we were talking about, you know, an hour or so ago of how it's, it's almost like we're back in 2016 and we've forgotten that he was president at some point.

00:13:58.840 You know, um, his big applause lines are like our country is dead.

00:14:06.720 The American dream is dead.

00:14:09.140 Joe Biden has destroyed everything.

00:14:11.920 You have no hope now. 1.00

00:14:13.620 You're a nasty woman. 1.00

00:14:14.720 And yes, he's, yeah, you're a nasty, nasty woman. 1.00

00:14:18.040 Um, now granted he is kind of saying you have hope with me or I alone can fix it or he's, he's, he's, he's offering some kind of answer, but it's interesting that those are the applause lines. 0.97

00:14:34.600 Like that, that's how you motivate people more and the conventional Republicans who want to just talk about like, well, corporate profits are up this year.

00:14:47.720 Uh, so, uh, we're all doing better because of it.

00:14:50.380 That just doesn't work.

00:14:51.980 Um, and so there's a, there is a kind of like violent anger over and depression on the right, but I think there's, there's also an issue of like the absence of a visionary utopia on the left.

00:15:10.800 And, and, and I think, and I'll, I'll describe that in two different ways.

00:15:15.160 So I think in a, in this weird way, if anyone actually has utopian vision on the left, it's Joe Biden.

00:15:24.560 And I kind of mean that seriously.

00:15:26.420 It's not like he imagines, you know, techno future or something like that, but he basically imagines a functioning middle-class America a lot like his childhood.

00:15:40.660 And, you know, factories, production, you know, intact families, et cetera.

00:15:51.820 I think what I see from the far are progressives or something really is an absence of a vision.

00:16:00.520 And I listened to a lot of their stuff.

00:16:03.140 I'm not just stereotyping them or caricaturing them or something like that is, as you said,

00:16:10.480 it is pure harm avoidance and pure, in a weird way, reactionary qualities, like getting really worried about someone like being mean to trans kids or something.

00:16:28.620 And I, I just, you can't ultimately really win with that.

00:16:33.680 Like you've got to offer something just extremely compelling and just, just moving, emotionally moving about this destruction of the human person, which they keep pursuing.

00:16:49.080 Otherwise it's just like protect trans kids or something. 0.99

00:16:54.140 You know, it's just, it's just, it's just fucking like kindergarten teachers, effectively. 0.99

00:17:00.120 Yes. 0.97

00:17:00.840 Policing language and protecting. 0.99

00:17:03.940 It's just pathetic. 0.99

00:17:05.940 You know, like omelets, eggs. 0.99

00:17:10.840 We know this, you know, to build the, like, I'm just going to quite frankly say it.

00:17:15.840 You're going to have to tear some things down.

00:17:18.720 You're going to have to break new ground and you're going to probably have to kill some people in order to build this bright new utopian future that's promised.

00:17:27.980 Every leftist agreed with that, even if they wouldn't say it.

00:17:33.900 These leftists almost don't.

00:17:35.840 Like they're, they're, they're protecting the status quo.

00:17:38.700 They're shrieking about like, I hope we can get another lawsuit against Trump so we can prevent him from installing Nazism or something. 0.98

00:17:48.740 It's like literally the most pathetic thing I've ever experienced, actually. 0.95

00:17:56.180 Not that it's not powerful and kind of damaging to people that they, they go after. 0.98

00:18:01.800 It is damaging to Trump, all this law, you know, endless lawsuits and blah, blah, blah. 0.96

00:18:05.940 But it's, it's just fundamentally pathetic on some level. 0.93

00:18:11.740 And so that, that's my critique of the left at this point. 0.93

00:18:16.940 Well, that was the most inspiring critique of the left I've ever heard.

00:18:21.820 Like, I wish I was a leftist and I would be like, yes, Richard is my leader.

00:18:26.860 Well, yeah, I mean, like they, they've got to hear it because they're not going to hear it from their, their e-griffed class, you know? 0.97

00:18:38.480 Yeah.

00:18:39.140 And they're, they're not going to, and I'm not, there, there is more, I mean, there's no question there's an asymmetry in terms of like the academic or theoretical left and the right.

00:18:51.360 I mean, in the sense that the asymmetry is so great, like there's not even, there's not much of a right of, of like high theory to even speak of.

00:19:03.140 Much like there isn't a right in the realm of art to, to, to speak of, you know, we interest some important counter examples, but it's a tiny amount.

00:19:14.980 Um, so I guess, this is my other thing, and this is another theme that I've stressed is, and, and Twitter has something to do with it.

00:19:27.560 It's, it's the rise of sludge.

00:19:31.060 And, okay, what, what do I mean by that?

00:19:33.300 So, so Mark and I have done a lot of work, um, Mark, and Mark is obviously the, uh, innovator here.

00:19:43.000 I'm, I'm the midwife, but we have done a lot of work together, um, with analyzing.

00:19:50.380 Men can get pregnant too. 1.00

00:19:51.880 Effect.

00:19:53.760 I am pregnant.

00:19:54.920 Right.

00:19:55.240 Ben, Mark is.

00:19:58.840 Right.

00:19:59.420 Mark is pregnant.

00:20:00.560 That's a joke.

00:20:01.100 I'm delivering the baby.

00:20:02.480 Yeah.

00:20:02.640 Um, who, who, who's the father?

00:20:05.900 We don't know.

00:20:07.300 Um, he's gone.

00:20:10.060 He rode off on his motorcycle.

00:20:12.060 Um, okay.

00:20:13.440 So I, uh, we, we have done this study of basically symbolism and mythology.

00:20:21.760 And, and there's a, you know, you can see it in comic books.

00:20:25.500 You can see it in the Holy Bible.

00:20:27.000 You can see it in Plato.

00:20:29.720 You can see it in, in,

00:20:32.520 um, Hollywood films.

00:20:35.180 I mean, it's, it's kind of everywhere and it actually is a coherent language and it's

00:20:41.200 an intergenerational, uh, international symbolic language.

00:20:46.440 And it is powerful and it does derive from Judaism and even things that even pre-Judaism and Christianity.

00:20:57.600 And it is a, it is a very powerful system.

00:21:00.240 Now you, you could disagree with that or not, but I mean, that, that is the claim.

00:21:06.280 But what I see as an even more powerful force than like Genesis or Steven Spielberg or Stan Lee at this point is this like creeping nothingness in the world.

00:21:22.180 This like sludge culture, social media, live streaming, Gen Z emoting, the, the absence, like music being purely appreciated as background music for a video game. 0.77

00:21:40.360 Which is another interesting trend, Gen Z not having music.

00:21:45.020 Like, I mean, I, I, I, I, there's this, I think in some ways our whole society has kind of lost its symbolic order.

00:21:55.020 And I think that's actually a huge threat as well.

00:22:01.860 And, uh, you know, where it's, it's not even that like, oh, what's wrong with Gen Z there, they're a communist or something. 0.85

00:22:08.660 I would say they're not even communist.

00:22:11.320 Like to be a communist would make them like interest.

00:22:16.940 Or like redeemable.

00:22:19.300 You know, like it's, there's, there's nothing there.

00:22:22.480 They might say they're a communist, like, like Haas or whatever says he's a communist.

00:22:27.840 I mean, he's, you know, it's just, it's all sludge.

00:22:32.120 And so the society, a technological society can't even properly organize itself and tell you what's high and what's low and what's left and right.

00:22:43.240 And we're just kind of emerging into this, this like endless kind of fracturing.

00:22:49.680 Um, so I, I think these are, these are kind of the way that, that I would stress it.

00:22:55.160 I, I think they're, so just to reiterate real quick, there are three things. 0.99

00:22:58.320 There's this incoming right-wing backlash, which is going to be as violent as it is stupid. 0.99

00:23:05.780 It's not going to involve us for better and for worse, mostly for better, I would say. 1.00

00:23:11.640 Hopefully we won't be the victims of it.

00:23:14.200 There's the liberals who there's, they've lost their sense of utopia and they've, they're, it's all harm avoidance.

00:23:23.700 And then there's like the, the system itself, like the, the order, including a symbolic order that can manage millions upon millions of people just kind of fracturing and being dominated by sludge and anti-culture.

00:23:41.000 I, I think this is, this is my like super bird's eye view of, of the situation.

00:23:48.020 And so I would even start to ask questions real quick.

00:23:51.260 I'll just tie a bow in it.

00:23:52.140 I would even start to ask questions.

00:23:53.680 Like, I mean, I have my own views about Ukraine and NATO and so on, but I would even ask questions.

00:24:01.800 Like, are we going to be, could we even fight a cold war at this point?

00:24:08.040 Dor.

00:24:08.440 Could we fight a cold war?

00:24:10.800 Well, before we talk about this, I want to come back to what you just laid out.

00:24:15.460 It's stunning and beautiful.

00:24:17.100 What I see in what you lay out is a physics of politics.

00:24:22.720 And it makes me think so many, so much about subjects in physics, like the derivative.

00:24:30.900 You remember if, for those who don't remember their basic physics, the, you have a position.

00:24:37.300 The position, the position, if you, if you move position, then you're talking about speed.

00:24:43.660 Speed is the derivative of position and progressivism are people who live in the derivative.

00:24:50.980 They live in the, I don't really care where I am. 0.99

00:24:54.500 I don't really care where I'm headed.

00:24:55.940 I care about making the world better from my limited, harm-based perspective.

00:25:01.980 And it's, it's also one of the ingredients why they win so much in real life, why they dominate institutions.

00:25:09.560 It's because they're always there trying to make the system just one more step from A to B.

00:25:17.620 And they don't even have a conception of A to B.

00:25:20.880 And I think that's what you describe, a lack of goal.

00:25:23.720 Whereas the conservative thinking is completely antithetical because they have God and God can take many shapes.

00:25:32.740 And in an argument, it can, God can be mathematics.

00:25:35.620 And another one, it's a white man with a beard in the sky.

00:25:40.120 And it's, God is precisely this point B.

00:25:44.560 The conservatives are in a space from A to B aspiring to something, whereas the progressives are fighting the fight, the dirty fight.

00:25:54.660 And it brings us to the sludge.

00:25:57.540 The sludge is what happens when the system is oscillating too quick, trying to change direction too quick.

00:26:06.420 And it's the, it's the ultimate consequence of eternal progressivism, which is at some point, if you have progressivism, but you don't have a vector of direction, you are just popping like, like a little ball in a ping pong table, chaotically moving in all directions at the same time.

00:26:25.960 I think it's what we, from a bird's eye view, we have to see the left doing this and we have to catch them in their chaos.

00:26:33.100 We have to, to render their actions impossible to pursue any direction while we establish a wider direction for the right.

RadixJournal - May 12, 2023

The Physics of Politics

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