Everywhere power structures are disrupted, the ensuing vacuum seems to result in massive unintended consequences. Is it better the devil you know? Or the lack of accountability allowing even greater degeneracy?

English allows a degree of precision and granularity unrivalled in other languages I’ve studied, and actually has a fairly high rate of compression in comparison too. There’s a reason it became the most popular language globally and it’s not just “muh colonialism”; it’s the most useful tool for the job that the most people can agree on.

Anyone remember the letsrollforums? #asknostr

My latest review for #bookstr is Desmet’s “The Psychology of Totalitarianism”. This has been on my list since Covid when it was frequently referenced by those trying to explain the collective insanity societies were seemingly going through, it’s where Robert Malone got “Mass Formation Psychosis” from. It starts off interesting with some psychological analysis of what Desmet calls “mechanical ideology” in which humans degenerated into dogma and blind belief through the enlightenment, which led to social isolation as people were disconnected from community and meaning through work, and how science became ideology despite enormous evidence of incorrectness. And then once he’s set things up through the first 5 chapters and begins his explanations in chapter 6 “The Rise of the Masses”, things fall apart. Everything Desmet is describing is statism but he is never able to put his finger on that. He constantly refers to “Nazism and Stalinism” as his examples of the masses being overcome with this totalitarian streak which anyone with an interest in history will just see as weak. Lenin isn’t mentioned once, nor Mao. China’s only mention is in the context of Covid. There’s nothing on pretty much any other totalitarianism other than examples from Nazi Germany and the Soviets under Stalin. He goes from dismissing scientism and making a strong case for not trusting peer reviewed studies due to the amount of inaccuracies, underproduceability, and outright fraud, to invoking points like “the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that one in five people worldwide has been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder” when he wants to support his own arguments (like how TF can you rely on that kind of point, how would the WHO possibly know?). I found myself constantly waiting for the crescendo, for the examinations of other regimes and deeper insights into how they bought out the worst in people. Instead I had to slog my way through a heavy reliance on Hannah Arendt quotes, and other than some random facts unrelated to the title theme, came away with very little from this book. The worst book I’ve read this year, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. You’d get more value out of listening to Dan Carlin or Darryl Cooper putting themselves in other people’s shoes than this third hand account which basically explains nothing.

Estimated expected value of each #poker hand when open-raising to 2.5 big blinds from the Cutoff. I play way too many Kings 😂

Do Kookaburras like pasta?

The day before 2 Israeli diplomats were killed in New York, the IDF fired upon a diplomatic delegation visiting the West Bank with representatives from Egypt, Jordan, Spain, Turkey, France, Ireland and the UK. This is how media news cycles get whitewashed to control the narrative, and yes Israel is absolutely psychotic enough to do this to their own people.

Israel fires 'warning shots' near diplomats in West Bank

Many nations have condemned the Israel military, which says a delegation visiting Jenin deviated from an agreed route.

Ask yourself, why would Saylor tell you to pay with dollars? Why is Medium of Exchange a distraction? What would motivate him to consistently take this line for more than a year now? View quoted note →

TIL

There were a lot of reasons I left Aus, but a major one was the front row seat I had to what was happening in the energy sector. #AUStriches are heading over a cliff says former Snowy Hydro 2.0 CEO, Paul Broad. Another 8X Snowy Hydro’s worth of capacity is needed to firm up the renewables grid. At the individual level there’s nothing you can do about this, the course is already set and now it’s just a matter of time as electricity bills rise and demand begins to outstrip supply. Quality of Life and energy abundance are highly correlated - it’s on a downwards trajectory now and the pain will have to be eaten.

Looks like #Vietnam will be getting a good trade deal with Trump. View quoted note →

A podcaster was canceled and lost his 9-5 job already for posting a ukulele cover which went viral. Just the beginning. View quoted note →

Throw some money printer fuel on the fire and we’ve got the catalyst for the bubble. The back of this might be Bitcoin’s “6102”, but rather than a seizure, a “bailout” where the US Government steps in to cover and shifts the coins from these public companies to Treasury because the risk is too systemic to let them fail. Perfect way to destroy the Bitcoiners narrative by making it look like they’re no better than the wreckless bankers of 2008, and now the US Gov controls 10-20% of the supply + regulated ETFs + regulated Exchanges - perfect setup to reset the US dollar system. View quoted note →