The 1843 Magazine article The curse of genius, went viral. Every smart person regardless of politics can relate to feeling lonely, failing to live up to society’s inflated expectations for smart people, and having to deal with normies, who have average IQs, which could explain why it was so viral. However, the article presents a… Continue reading The curse of genius

The Mel Magazine article Blue-collar workers who become white-collar later in life, went viral. The article gives three examples of blue collar workers who acquired high paying skills, such as engineering, predictably leading to higher pay, nicer working conditions, improved self-confidence, and new opportunities. “I aced both classes. I did the same the next semester,… Continue reading No, teaching blue collar workers to be engineers is not a practical solution

A solution that commonly is proposed regarding social media censorship and de-platforming is to “treat social media as a public utility.” This suggestion has become so commonplace that there is even a Wikipedia article about it. But just by thinking it through, it becomes obvious why this is a terrible suggestion. First, social media companies… Continue reading Treating social media as a public utility is not the answer

Tyler Cowen has some interesting insights from time to time, but in a recent article Roissy has been deplatformed is out of touch regarding social media censorship and de-platforming. As many are aware, Roissy, the author of the popular blog Chateau Heartiste had his WordPress account terminated for supposed TOS violations, which meant that his… Continue reading Tyler wrong about social media censorship

Donald upped the tariffs on China, and China responded in kind. S&P 500 has fallen 4% from its all-time highs on concerns over a trade war.   On Friday, Trump raised tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion of Chinese goods after Washington and Beijing failed to reach a long-sought trade deal… Continue reading Trump Tariffs Update: Not Worried

He attributes the success of small, ethnically homogeneous Northern European countries such as Ireland and Sweden on the fact that such countries spend more money on social programs and less on defense spending. Norway’s defense budget is only 1.5% of GDP. However, Argentina, which is much poorer, only spends 1%. So that argument fails. Same… Continue reading The problem is not a lack of competition

I was thinking about the differences between the ‘left and the ‘right’. Beyond object-level issues (such as gun control, abortion, immigration, etc.), this proved surprisingly hard to do. It’s hard to believe that after so many years and so much ink spilled, that there’s still no good definition or consensus of ‘left’ versus ‘right’ that… Continue reading Differences between the ‘left and the ‘right’

I was wondering what all this recent clown stuff is about. Someone explains: Clown Pepe: What Does the Honk Honk Meme Really Mean? Honkler EXPLAINED | Peak Clown World The clown symbolizes a world that has gone insane. From Reddit: What is going on with this “clown world” thing? Answer: a variation of the pepe… Continue reading Clown world meme

The viralness of the aforementioned articles is also congruent with the recent backlash and cynicism about the idealization of the so-called ‘American dream’, democracy, and the ‘Protestant work ethic’, all of which are predicated on an increasingly flawed and obsolete premise that one’s position in society and success at life is isomorphic to ‘effort’, ‘grit’,… Continue reading The ’90s and now, part 5

Not much going on in the news. Things have been pretty slow given that the left’s witch-hunt failed and that any attempts at impeachment are off the table, and also I don’t foresee Trump doing much in terms of immigration or anything else. Today is reminiscent of 1995-1996, in which the the economy was strong… Continue reading No coming collapse of America, and the difficulty of using history to predict the future