Benjamin, this is probably the best Curtis Yarvin interview I've seen! Yarvin has a tendency to go off on extremely obscure tangents, and you did an excellent job of gently getting him to clarify his terms and explain his historical references. Your interview game is getting very strong! If you keep this up you're going to become the Charlie Rose of our generation.
Btw Benjamin, one mark of a truly great interviewer/podcaster is how well one can handle Curtis Yarvin, and both times I think you've done an amazing job. A lot of people have tried interviewing Yarvin and just let him ramble too much but you know just when to interject, ask questions, etc. 11/10 will watch more.
Your first interview with Moldbug was my first serious introduction to his ideas, and I've been feasting on them voraciously ever since. Glad to see him return
Positive take. Encouraging. For a working class man like myself who often feels disregarded. My country of Canada is going to implode and I'd like to say so to my fellows
@Mystery Man but I would say, The rising interest rates, the coming wave of bankruptcy and foreclosures, the gun grab, and the disenfranchisement of many canadians, added to the severe harms the vax caused. We are imploding. But you are not wrong. It is meant to be a slow controlled destruction so that they have a way to build back with digital ID and currency
Unless you manage to find a place to squat you will be subject to property tax and never off grid or independent from the machine. Even then your freedom is contingent on the grid not swallowing whatever remote location you are existing in. We need people to unplug from the limbic pull of tech and create offline community and culture that allows people to harden and raise harder more capable children. At this point we should be looking at emancipation from the global machine as a multigenerational project. Simply passing on the wisdom and values our ancestors developed that we can still access is a miracle in itself at this point.
For years I thought progressivism was extremely creepy and i secretly loathed it for reasons I couldn’t put into words until I read Dawkins got Pwned. It connected all the dots for me. It’s a brilliant essay
Interesting. It's so helpful to get things defined that you feel instinctively (which is how most people work psychologically, despite people claiming they base their opinions on rational thinking, facts, science etc). But what is Dawkins got Pwned?
@@gulanhem9495 It’s basically an essay where Yarvin dissects progressivism. He bases around his thesis around Richard Dawkins (a progressive) and his atheism. His target is chosen for strategic reasons which become apparent on reading. I think it’s the best entry into Moldbug! It was a massive red pill for me.
Worlds collide- I’ve been following Benjamin since his Evergreen days, but have been slacking on my YT watching for a little while. Meanwhile, my husband watches any Curtis interviews that he can find. I was in the other room when he put this on, but recognized BB from the other room. Can’t wait to see who else you talk to that appeals to all the adults in my house.
The discussion about process and bosses as exception handlers is spot on. It is one of the reasons corporate jobs nowadays are so mindnumbing. You follow the process endlessly and scrape and hiss for any bit of autonomy or accomplishment. And nobody knows what's going on or for what reasons things are being done. It is awful. Here is a poem I wrote about corporate process and longings for freedom: Leaning in he peers the display gleams into retina his chair creaks as the monotone voices explicate lays out a ritual humility yet another day of focused gratitude then his boredom slams as a baseball bat crashes upside the head he is thankful for the leather cushioned chair for the conditioned mild air a mug of steaming cocoa beans his reason is now attacking shredding at his will it mocks his entitlement he triggers a reset a mental flash blank dissociation feels the leather on his thighs a grating continuous cycle needling crowd of trivialities the meetings, greetings, tedious needing his practice failed attempts at disabling his apparent entitlement perhaps this a superficial truth for in reality he drowns yet these intuitions nag clawing at the emptied mind looks through the window screens a wall of artificial snow capped terraces the new frosty development a construction tearing at the land yet he harbors no animosity this earth no longer pristine he watches the hard men at work the biting cold ignoring allocating deft actions only a glass door separates their labors he commiserates feelings of guilt misplaced who are they to pity it is he who is enslaved within this comfortable tomb the building thunderstorm within his chest drifts upward despite his relaxation what contrast this virtual reality a tug of war what is reality? that which demands reproach inside it all else is coached the creations of the mind floating imagination symbols etched in silicon now they grate his nerves there is a surge a collective thought emerges congress of warring emotion the cacophony quiets an advocate steps forth within this mental pantheon whimpers for freedom of action shattering the bonds of process a little choice today for a body animate appendages in motion her voice is silenced droned out by shrieking knaves a sudden wail of fear projections of worry his walls each brick shewn of pristine stone perched above stand his noble battlements standards fluttering in the frigid wind defending against all threats perceived serenity holds sway within a liquid bath of dismay he sits in tranquility each day.
Hearing someone say that the fall of New Spain was a disaster is awesome. I have a documented Greatx4 Grandpa who fought against the liberal revolutionaries - finally someone is giving voice to his fight!
I just adore this channel. Benjamin's range of guests, topics, and master class level interviewer skills are always a worthy investment of my time and attention. Thank you, Benjamin.
@@BenjaminABoyce if only another hour or 2. I have to say you get the best out of him having listened to every interview he has done. Your first one was one of the best too
Benjamin does the best intros, I'm referring to the talking portions while the guest doesn't know they're talking to the audience. The Charles in charge thing was cute but absolutely can't be used again
Very quotable phrase by Curtis at the end, there. "Everything about the underdog mentality is meretricious and will lead you only to disaster. Simply create greatness as if your enemies do not exist at all, and they will not dare to even approach you." Not sure that it's very true, though. Looking at the history of Israel, seems like the dudes had their badly defended accomplishments constantly burned down by other powers until they got good at playing the underdog and being hyper-aware of enemies.
The problem with the modern monarchies as Yarvin outlines is they're all aligned and basically part of one hive mind - with very few notable exceptions like Musk. At least in medieval Europe for example the different monarchies despised each other and were constantly at war so no single one could successfully impress his world view on the entirety of Europe.
Were medieval monarchies not more or less ideologically homogenous? More or less all Christian, more or less all feudal societies etc. Not being definitive, just a though.
1:07:00 That's basically what made Lenin and Stalin so cynically clever. Not only were they smart enough to leverage the cultural power of the intellectual elites in Russia against the Tsar, they were also smart enough to know that as soon as they took power, those elites needed to be thoroughly liquidated and replaced by an artificial elite of their own making.
Regarding the Manhattan & Apollo projects, they merely brought together more or less "settled science," as it were, so to speak, and applied it to particular problems to be solved after the manner of military applicators of technology. They were not creative in the sense of being imaginative, in a broad sense. It's significant that the ability to create such things as atom bombs and moon rockets arose within free-ish civilizations, but that doesn't mean that once the technology is established and the creative part is done that totalitarian forces can't take advantage of it and even improve upon it.
They had unlimited confiscated budgets to do destructive/nearly pointless things. That's not a success. A success is something that pays for itself in definable benefits.
@@friendlyfire7861 Well, sure, the ultimate value might often be much less than the apparent success in technical achievement by comparison. Like, if I set my mind to create a balm that destroys the universe, and I "succeed." That would be an example of bad success.
Forcing a compromise where The Boyce of Reason gets a time slot on NPR in exchange for continued funding is the next move. The transition to Charlie Rose’s old set for the PBS simulcast would be seamless lol
Curtis is dead on when talks about liberals/Americans supporting the underdogs. I’ve been thinking about how the world lives in an American neurotic episode and how the war in Ukraine is basically the liberal reaction to the election “hacking” and the Taliban “bounty” story. The Libyan intervention was a classic revolutionary underdog story that completely disregarded any historical nuance. It’s like a young Marvel fan sitting on the floor with scissors and a newspaper and cutting out the letters to create a simple black-and-white good vs. evil narrative.
Government success in engineering is well explained by Hayek IMO - the government can direct more resources to an immediate and apparent end than any private company The weakness of government engineering is apparent only over time, as they fail to discover new goals worth pursuing
The best explanation I ever heard was from an economist I otherwise can't stand, Brad Delong: he said that the government can do two kinds of things better than anyone else: those in which there are no goals (basic research) and those where there is one, big, obvious goal (Manhattan project, Moon Landing) In the former, all you have to do is get smart people and give them resources. In the second, all you need is someone to organize resources - and even if there is more than one possible path, you can just fund everything and then figure out later what works (like gas duffusion to enrich uranium vs. create plutonium in reactors) Where it falls down is when there are multiple paths and it isn't obvious which one is the best until much later - and in many cases you don't even know what the goal should be. So politics start taking over, and every group defends it turf and there no way to cancel a project that isn't working because there often isn't an obvious indication that it has failed. That's where you need competed entities that have skin in the game that can actually go bankrupt.
The foundational problem with hhh & his dtgtf is it’s inherently elitist, theres a lot of helpful insights but it’s biased against the lower. Class and those in poverty , it’s the same with most right wing thought really, it doesn’t acknowledge that “ pull yourself up by your bootstraps” is only relevant to those squandering their potential, it’s not helpful for those caught in the trap of poverty and are working much harder than those above them - usually against much greater odds, particularly when they have health problems they didn’t contribute to, but conservatives & hhh think it’s as simple as a lack of effort , will or poor choices, which is weird bevaise if they really wanted a meritocracy they’d remove barriers and make the marketplace of meritocratic ideas as accessible to as many as possible, especially when many are being kept out for being born into the wrong situation, it’s an inherent contradiction in their logic thats usually a consequence of being born into the privileged position they’re in - or because they won the cognitive lottery, in this sense Marx was right, much of the worlds worldview is a result of their class or situation. But instead of contending with or developing some self awareness - they hand wave the problem and attack anyone that points it out with “ vIcTiMhOoD - why don’t you go and cry to momma” or “ I was born into poverty and now I’m on top of the world - so if I did it everyone can” And it’s like lol my critique is not completely solipsistic like theirs is, but no matter what you cannot get them to see this, it’s like their whole identity is propped up by this contradiction and seeing it would cause a total collapse of their psyche!! and before someone calls me a libtard let me inform you I am not, I’m a former conservative/ libertarian/ monarchist whose unfortunately developed these annoying critiques of their own world view, which is just incomprehensible to all these maga normies, every time you bring it up you just get pigeon holed as a libtard.
Moldbug is so insufferable. He constantly circumlocutes and uses obscure references to make basic points. Neoreactionary ideas are a great way to not engage with reality, it’s just cowardice. The best interview of Yarvin was Hyperpodcastism, and Borzoi handled Yarvin better than anyone else I’ve seen
@@donniedewitt9878 I have read a lot of obscure bullshit you missed the second part of that statement. He uses the obscure references to make really banal points. Everything he says is either common sense or an elaborate way of avoiding really simple and on the nose truths about power.
I wish someone would really push back on or dig more into Yarvin's Monarchy concept. He seems to be confusing hierarchy within a company with monarchy. Monarchy is a system whose income comes from theft (taxation) and nobody can supplant a monarch by merit. The only way to supplant a monarch is through revolution, whereas in a company, people are promoted and selected to lead based on their ability.
Moldbug also seems to be unfamiliar with basic governance structures of corporations. Corporations are not monarchies. Corporations are distributed systems of power wherein there are oftentimes complex movements between owners, board members, and company leadership (CEO, but also the entire suite/managing directors). Corporations are like the Republic of Venice, with a Doge, but also a Great Council, a Senate, and an assembly. Moldbug's points around the Overton window are great and hold water, but he runs into trouble when he draws conclusions that narrow the picture. Moldbug correctly identifies a coalition shift that is currently happening, but fails to realize that this "Cathedral" that he refers to is something that is in constant flux. The players, the ideology, it shifts, hardens for a generation, then breaks, changes quickly, and hardens again. The economic advances made by non-traditional players in the media space have only showcased the flexibility of the overall system. Legacy media drifts leftward following the outrage dollars, and scores of non-traditional media spring up to fill in the reporting gap and the outrage dollars on the right. Legacy media fights for its market position, which means also fighting politically. Legacy media is happy to be centrist when the economics support it. None of this is new. Media has swayed politics in the USA at the very least since the election of Jefferson. Overall, Moldbug is great in identifying bias, and parts of how bias flows through the system, but is not so great at seeing the full system in its entirety. The system is not closed, is never closed, and Moldbug is a natural part of the system as a voice of discontent.
I am a libertarian. I think the most successful engineering project of all time was the Wright Brothers' airplane. It had nothing to do with the state. The lightbulb was also not bad.
There’s just something that bugs me about Yarvin. Something is not quite right, inauthentic. Like he’s spewing a bunch of garbage he really doesn’t believe and feeding it to the plebs. Sorry, don’t trust this guy at all!
Florida seems free on the surface but DeSantis still wields power in vindictive ways. You don't use the power of the state to punish companies for acting with the "wrong" politics. That is tyrannical and you would absolutely call it out if it was the Newsom against current Warner-Discovery with their new executive.
Isn't it a contradiction in Curtis worldview when he says the New York times is a monarchy, but then later says that the New York times is the Ministry of Truth for the US Govt?
Wow, how convoluted can a description of the yield curve get? How about, normally the longer you agree to lock your money up, the higher interest rate you get. This is a normal yield curve. The curve is ‘inverted’ when you get a higher interest rate for shorter terms, signaling near term pain.
Curtis first says that the key feature of monarchy is that the king cares because it is his family, then he tries to define corporations as monarchies. The confusion goes deep. Corporations are not monarchies and the board of directors not only can, but often do, kick the king out by a vote, and then replace them with someone else. Corporations are more like democracies, where the shareholders vote for the board members, and the board members vote for the CEO (king). So this libertarian has made a much better point than the false claim that libertarians claim that government can never get anything done. The claim is, along the lines of Mises, that the price signals of a free market will usually do a _better job_ of efficiently getting things done than structures that break this signal such as large state bureaucracy . Having said this and as a fan of Mises, the term Curtis may be looking for is a hierarchy rather than any kind of flat democracy is what makes things work. In turn, read the founding fathers who knew all of this and used federalism and separation of powers as ONE possible try at solving these very real problems (who watches the watchers). Then they said that they had no real confidence it would last. What they know didn't last was the monarchy that they didn't want anymore. In sum, yes, hierarchies of competence are necessary to get things done. Collectivism can never be efficient. And the basic notion of having a sort of CEO running a country is not unreasonable as no org works well trying to be run by committee. But, in any case Curtis, monarchy is not the right notion to even make your own, generally excellent, points.
Of course chaebols, Walmart, Walton, Chanel, and several other similar orgs prove that a family-run/monarchic approach can indeed work. But not true that most products that are purchased are here due to family-run monarchic corps.
@@del46_60 Nope. There are 8 people on Facebook's board of directors. This notion of weak and strong monarch is not consist with Curtis' own definition, which is absolute power. A sole proprietorship can have absolute power, but partnerships and corporations can't and so don't fit his definition. He is just wrong here. He fell in love with Hoppe thinking he is somehow the end of the chain of Austrian Economics while forgetting that Mises was a minarchist... and for good reason.
@@del46_60 It is true that if, and only if, a person owns over 50% of the voting shares that they would be equivalent to a sole proprietor. In any case, Curtis was wrong about the vast majority of corporations as the entire point of them is to split power among many people and allow for both silent and direct participation in the entity.
@@del46_60 So your response to the fact that the vast majority of corporations work more like a representative democracy than a monarchy, while Curtis routinely uses corporations (as did Hoppe) to point out the power of monarchy and the weakness of democracy is for me to do the legwork... If Curtis means what you say above he should say what you say above rather than keeping promoting his confused and false narrative.
If you saw the "Tom Hanks is a grouchy old man who falls in love with a cat" trailer before this video, do yourself a favor and just watch "About Schmidt"
Manhattan and Apollo Projects were completed with success, but who says those projects couldn't be done more efficiently with less funds (or were needed at all.). How does that mess up libertarians' minds?
''Create greatness as if your enemies do not exist at all'' - Curtis Yarvin
This is probably Yarvin's best interview. Boyce is really good here at asking smart questions and keeping Yarvin on the rails.
Benjamin, this is probably the best Curtis Yarvin interview I've seen! Yarvin has a tendency to go off on extremely obscure tangents, and you did an excellent job of gently getting him to clarify his terms and explain his historical references. Your interview game is getting very strong! If you keep this up you're going to become the Charlie Rose of our generation.
Minus the creepy factor and felony sexual assault(s).
Already as good as Charlie Rose, if not better
Not sure why people are against yarvins tangents, they’re extremely informative.
And fun!
@@BenjaminABoyce I live for the tangents.... I'd like to be a history/poli-sci philosopher.
Btw Benjamin, one mark of a truly great interviewer/podcaster is how well one can handle Curtis Yarvin, and both times I think you've done an amazing job. A lot of people have tried interviewing Yarvin and just let him ramble too much but you know just when to interject, ask questions, etc. 11/10 will watch more.
Is this a bot post. Lol.
@@anonlllllll .... I completely agree with @fauxhowyo and I am most certainly not a... not a... not a... bot-t-t 🦾🐱🤳
I completely agree. Excellent job.
The only way to handle Yarvin is a mute button and a historian studied enough to call him on his parade of bullsh!t.
Your first interview with Moldbug was my first serious introduction to his ideas, and I've been feasting on them voraciously ever since. Glad to see him return
Positive take. Encouraging. For a working class man like myself who often feels disregarded.
My country of Canada is going to implode and I'd like to say so to my fellows
Unfortunately my friend you missed a key point. Implosion is not going to happen to any of us, it will be a long and slow decline
@Mystery Man nobody really knows
I'm going off grid anyway
@@LordBlk self sufficiency is always wise
@Mystery Man but I would say,
The rising interest rates, the coming wave of bankruptcy and foreclosures, the gun grab, and the disenfranchisement of many canadians, added to the severe harms the vax caused.
We are imploding.
But you are not wrong.
It is meant to be a slow controlled destruction so that they have a way to build back with digital ID and currency
Unless you manage to find a place to squat you will be subject to property tax and never off grid or independent from the machine. Even then your freedom is contingent on the grid not swallowing whatever remote location you are existing in. We need people to unplug from the limbic pull of tech and create offline community and culture that allows people to harden and raise harder more capable children. At this point we should be looking at emancipation from the global machine as a multigenerational project. Simply passing on the wisdom and values our ancestors developed that we can still access is a miracle in itself at this point.
The intro cracked me up, thanks for the laughs and the thoughtful discussion. Another success!
Curtis is notoriously difficult to interview and you did a fantastic job, Benjamin.
🤜🍻🤛
For years I thought progressivism was extremely creepy and i secretly loathed it for reasons I couldn’t put into words until I read Dawkins got Pwned. It connected all the dots for me. It’s a brilliant essay
Interesting. It's so helpful to get things defined that you feel instinctively (which is how most people work psychologically, despite people claiming they base their opinions on rational thinking, facts, science etc). But what is Dawkins got Pwned?
@@gulanhem9495 It’s basically an essay where Yarvin dissects progressivism. He bases around his thesis around Richard Dawkins (a progressive) and his atheism. His target is chosen for strategic reasons which become apparent on reading. I think it’s the best entry into Moldbug! It was a massive red pill for me.
Here’s the text (audio version is linked in the description): www.unqualified-reservations.org/2007/09/how-dawkins-got-pwned-part-1/
@@BenjaminABoyce
Thank you Ben, but omg that is hard to read. Yarvin's writing style is really cumbersome.
What is the short version? 😚
@@gulanhem9495 The audio version might be easier to ingest, linked in the description
Worlds collide- I’ve been following Benjamin since his Evergreen days, but have been slacking on my YT watching for a little while. Meanwhile, my husband watches any Curtis interviews that he can find. I was in the other room when he put this on, but recognized BB from the other room. Can’t wait to see who else you talk to that appeals to all the adults in my house.
The discussion about process and bosses as exception handlers is spot on. It is one of the reasons corporate jobs nowadays are so mindnumbing. You follow the process endlessly and scrape and hiss for any bit of autonomy or accomplishment. And nobody knows what's going on or for what reasons things are being done. It is awful. Here is a poem I wrote about corporate process and longings for freedom:
Leaning in he peers
the display gleams into retina
his chair creaks
as the monotone voices explicate
lays out a ritual humility
yet another day of focused gratitude
then his boredom slams
as a baseball bat crashes
upside the head
he is thankful
for the leather cushioned chair
for the conditioned mild air
a mug of steaming cocoa beans
his reason is now attacking
shredding at his will
it mocks his entitlement
he triggers a reset
a mental flash
blank dissociation
feels the leather on his thighs
a grating continuous cycle
needling crowd of trivialities
the meetings, greetings, tedious needing
his practice
failed attempts at disabling
his apparent entitlement
perhaps this a superficial truth
for in reality he drowns
yet these intuitions nag
clawing at the emptied mind
looks through the window screens
a wall of artificial snow capped terraces
the new frosty development
a construction tearing at the land
yet he harbors no animosity
this earth no longer pristine
he watches the hard men at work
the biting cold ignoring
allocating deft actions
only a glass door separates
their labors he commiserates
feelings of guilt misplaced
who are they to pity
it is he who is enslaved
within this comfortable tomb
the building thunderstorm
within his chest
drifts upward
despite his relaxation
what contrast this
virtual reality
a tug of war
what is reality?
that which demands reproach
inside it all else is coached
the creations of the mind
floating imagination
symbols etched in silicon
now they grate his nerves
there is a surge
a collective thought emerges
congress of warring emotion
the cacophony quiets
an advocate steps forth
within this mental pantheon
whimpers for freedom of action
shattering the bonds of process
a little choice today
for a body animate
appendages in motion
her voice is silenced
droned out by shrieking knaves
a sudden wail of fear
projections of worry
his walls each brick shewn
of pristine stone
perched above
stand his noble battlements
standards fluttering in the frigid wind
defending against all threats perceived
serenity holds sway
within a liquid bath of dismay
he sits in tranquility
each day.
💚💚💚
Funny, it looks like a song that could be performed by Cake...
@@jimbarino2 Cool, I'll have to check them out.
BB… that was excellent and expertly curated which doesn’t happen very often with a Yarvin interview; well done!
Glad to oblige, Patrick!
BB? I am for some reason compelled to Grab my net, throw on a designer BDSM hood and Berate a Yoohoo.
Hearing someone say that the fall of New Spain was a disaster is awesome. I have a documented Greatx4 Grandpa who fought against the liberal revolutionaries - finally someone is giving voice to his fight!
You have other info on this?
A gem: "whenever you're looking for power look for tolerated illegality and you'll find it"
Mencius Moldbug looks like my neighbor growing up who would always come over to borrow cigarettes from my mom.
😂
Looks like 'Alice' from Dilbert cartoon
I just adore this channel. Benjamin's range of guests, topics, and master class level interviewer skills are always a worthy investment of my time and attention. Thank you, Benjamin.
Great interview, new ground covered, old ground retreaded, like a refresher course. Also enjoyed your interview with Good ol’ boys, Ben.
Lol I like how he is legit just holding a mic.... 🎤 drop 😆😅🤣
Like Oprah in the 80s.
And YOU get a red pill! And YOU get a red pill! And YOU get a red pill! PIIILLLLLSSSS!!!
@@BenjaminABoyce if only another hour or 2. I have to say you get the best out of him having listened to every interview he has done. Your first one was one of the best too
It's so niche.
Mises gave his library to my alma mater, Hillsdale. He is considered a minor deity in the economics department there.
Always interesting to hear Curtis think out loud.
Aubrey, may I trouble you for the salt?
@@aristocraticrebel I read that as a compliment. But I see your point.
@@duncefunce1513 It's a reference to a movie.
@@aristocraticrebel oh
@@duncefunce1513 It's from Master and Commander.
I never think, "annoying question" or "stupid question" and I never think, "that was a cringe comment". That's rare for me. Good interviewer.
The only person on the internet for whom I don't have to increase my listening speed. Thanks for the complexity
I once saw a comment which was visualizing Curtis in a guitar center asking for a "normal microphone". It was one of my favorite comments ever
very interesting convo! thanks both of you
Lmao I had the same thought about Overton Window 😂 it’s about justifying socialized shaming.
Such a good chat that I never clicked on a different tab a single time.
Elon Musk by charging for Blue Check Marks turned them into the Twitter version of Established Titles.
👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽💚💚💚💚
31:09 "The whole Overton window is just a filter bubble?" - "Always has been."
Yes! Another Yarvin episode!
Great interview. Hope to see more with Yarvin.
Yes, with Boyce guiding him into new exciting directions.
Commenting to feed the algorithm. Nice conversation
This was THE most hilarious episode of BOR I’ve seen yet! I loved it.
Benjamin does the best intros, I'm referring to the talking portions while the guest doesn't know they're talking to the audience.
The Charles in charge thing was cute but absolutely can't be used again
Very quotable phrase by Curtis at the end, there. "Everything about the underdog mentality is meretricious and will lead you only to disaster. Simply create greatness as if your enemies do not exist at all, and they will not dare to even approach you."
Not sure that it's very true, though. Looking at the history of Israel, seems like the dudes had their badly defended accomplishments constantly burned down by other powers until they got good at playing the underdog and being hyper-aware of enemies.
This blog post of his fleshes out the idea specifically regards to Israel:
www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/09/america-vampire-of-world-part-2/
Lol, the connecting land acknowledgements with "Bood and Soil" nationalism was funny 🤣
Isn't it?
@Tryst Dodge yeah, there is truth there, and it's also an amusing observation.
The problem with the modern monarchies as Yarvin outlines is they're all aligned and basically part of one hive mind - with very few notable exceptions like Musk. At least in medieval Europe for example the different monarchies despised each other and were constantly at war so no single one could successfully impress his world view on the entirety of Europe.
The problem with Yarvins outline of a modern monarchy is we already have it and its not working.
Were medieval monarchies not more or less ideologically homogenous? More or less all Christian, more or less all feudal societies etc. Not being definitive, just a though.
This was so effing good. Thank you.
1:07:00 That's basically what made Lenin and Stalin so cynically clever. Not only were they smart enough to leverage the cultural power of the intellectual elites in Russia against the Tsar, they were also smart enough to know that as soon as they took power, those elites needed to be thoroughly liquidated and replaced by an artificial elite of their own making.
Regarding the Manhattan & Apollo projects, they merely brought together more or less "settled science," as it were, so to speak, and applied it to particular problems to be solved after the manner of military applicators of technology. They were not creative in the sense of being imaginative, in a broad sense. It's significant that the ability to create such things as atom bombs and moon rockets arose within free-ish civilizations, but that doesn't mean that once the technology is established and the creative part is done that totalitarian forces can't take advantage of it and even improve upon it.
They had unlimited confiscated budgets to do destructive/nearly pointless things. That's not a success. A success is something that pays for itself in definable benefits.
@@friendlyfire7861 Well, sure, the ultimate value might often be much less than the apparent success in technical achievement by comparison. Like, if I set my mind to create a balm that destroys the universe, and I "succeed." That would be an example of bad success.
great job interviewing, sub'd
🤜🍻🤛
Full disclosure: I interview all sorts of people.
Great talk. Lydia has tweeted to the world; "I am no longer engaged to Curtis Yarvin." I read her article about their relationship. Interesting.
Name of article?
Interested. Link?
Mormon face: a very healthy well bred fed! Nice!
I use the Ron Paul Curriculum and we use a lot of pre 1922 books because they’re free. Lol
Not going to blow any smoke (though it's a fine interview) but I'm impressed with the choice of picture-in-picture, that's the way to do it.
Imagine if Elon read all of Unqualified Reservations
❤me some sarcasm, so this looks fun 🐈⬛
Forcing a compromise where The Boyce of Reason gets a time slot on NPR in exchange for continued funding is the next move. The transition to Charlie Rose’s old set for the PBS simulcast would be seamless lol
Tote bag liberals don’t have built in defenses to NPR voice like conservatives do with something like Joe’s folksy diner talk.
Monkey's paw: Benjamin gets the 3am slot
Curtis is dead on when talks about liberals/Americans supporting the underdogs. I’ve been thinking about how the world lives in an American neurotic episode and how the war in Ukraine is basically the liberal reaction to the election “hacking” and the Taliban “bounty” story. The Libyan intervention was a classic revolutionary underdog story that completely disregarded any historical nuance. It’s like a young Marvel fan sitting on the floor with scissors and a newspaper and cutting out the letters to create a simple black-and-white good vs. evil narrative.
what 🥴
Good shit, man - keep'em coming
That quality that people will notice Curtis meantions at 52:00 is probably what happened at Wikileaks .
Premiere may be choppy, but the video once uploaded tends to be okay.
"Who sets interest rates?"
O boy....
This guy is terrific.
"A reliable source is a source that is reliable."
It’s true though
That intro song was funny as fuck haha
Government success in engineering is well explained by Hayek IMO - the government can direct more resources to an immediate and apparent end than any private company
The weakness of government engineering is apparent only over time, as they fail to discover new goals worth pursuing
The best explanation I ever heard was from an economist I otherwise can't stand, Brad Delong: he said that the government can do two kinds of things better than anyone else: those in which there are no goals (basic research) and those where there is one, big, obvious goal (Manhattan project, Moon Landing) In the former, all you have to do is get smart people and give them resources. In the second, all you need is someone to organize resources - and even if there is more than one possible path, you can just fund everything and then figure out later what works (like gas duffusion to enrich uranium vs. create plutonium in reactors)
Where it falls down is when there are multiple paths and it isn't obvious which one is the best until much later - and in many cases you don't even know what the goal should be. So politics start taking over, and every group defends it turf and there no way to cancel a project that isn't working because there often isn't an obvious indication that it has failed. That's where you need competed entities that have skin in the game that can actually go bankrupt.
Everyones favorite Hogwarts Teacher
I never knew Yarvin was so funny. "3rd cousin gay-face" haha
I thought the thumbnail portrayed Vin Diesel in a wig.
Wow, thats pure gold
Hey Benjamin, weren't you on Bob Murphy's show? He's an Austrian School economist. Might be fun for him to return the favor and appear on your show?
Yeah he’s a cool guy
The foundational problem with hhh & his dtgtf is it’s inherently elitist, theres a lot of helpful insights but it’s biased against the lower. Class and those in poverty , it’s the same with most right wing thought really, it doesn’t acknowledge that “ pull yourself up by your bootstraps” is only relevant to those squandering their potential, it’s not helpful for those caught in the trap of poverty and are working much harder than those above them - usually against much greater odds, particularly when they have health problems they didn’t contribute to, but conservatives & hhh think it’s as simple as a lack of effort , will or poor choices, which is weird bevaise if they really wanted a meritocracy they’d remove barriers and make the marketplace of meritocratic ideas as accessible to as many as possible, especially when many are being kept out for being born into the wrong situation, it’s an inherent contradiction in their logic thats usually a consequence of being born into the privileged position they’re in - or because they won the cognitive lottery, in this sense Marx was right, much of the worlds worldview is a result of their class or situation.
But instead of contending with or developing some self awareness - they hand wave the problem and attack anyone that points it out with “ vIcTiMhOoD - why don’t you go and cry to momma” or “ I was born into poverty and now I’m on top of the world - so if I did it everyone can”
And it’s like lol my critique is not completely solipsistic like theirs is, but no matter what you cannot get them to see this, it’s like their whole identity is propped up by this contradiction and seeing it would cause a total collapse of their psyche!!
and before someone calls me a libtard let me inform you I am not, I’m a former conservative/ libertarian/ monarchist whose unfortunately developed these annoying critiques of their own world view, which is just incomprehensible to all these maga normies, every time you bring it up you just get pigeon holed as a libtard.
That intro was great
awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome
Wtf that Charles in Charge intro, LMAO 🤣
Its so funny to hear yarvin talk economics
Curtis strikes me as the type of guy to be on his 3rd or 4th copy of _Trout Mask Replica_ by now.
Moldbug is so insufferable. He constantly circumlocutes and uses obscure references to make basic points. Neoreactionary ideas are a great way to not engage with reality, it’s just cowardice. The best interview of Yarvin was Hyperpodcastism, and Borzoi handled Yarvin better than anyone else I’ve seen
You can’t blame him for your lack of references. Use this opportunity to read up on said references
@@donniedewitt9878 I have read a lot of obscure bullshit you missed the second part of that statement. He uses the obscure references to make really banal points. Everything he says is either common sense or an elaborate way of avoiding really simple and on the nose truths about power.
I wish someone would really push back on or dig more into Yarvin's Monarchy concept. He seems to be confusing hierarchy within a company with monarchy. Monarchy is a system whose income comes from theft (taxation) and nobody can supplant a monarch by merit. The only way to supplant a monarch is through revolution, whereas in a company, people are promoted and selected to lead based on their ability.
Yes, I've watched lots of Yarvin's interviews, and, frustratingly, never heard anyone push back on this. And it seems so obvious.
Kind of ironic that Switzerland invented LSD as well....
Moldbug also seems to be unfamiliar with basic governance structures of corporations. Corporations are not monarchies. Corporations are distributed systems of power wherein there are oftentimes complex movements between owners, board members, and company leadership (CEO, but also the entire suite/managing directors). Corporations are like the Republic of Venice, with a Doge, but also a Great Council, a Senate, and an assembly.
Moldbug's points around the Overton window are great and hold water, but he runs into trouble when he draws conclusions that narrow the picture.
Moldbug correctly identifies a coalition shift that is currently happening, but fails to realize that this "Cathedral" that he refers to is something that is in constant flux. The players, the ideology, it shifts, hardens for a generation, then breaks, changes quickly, and hardens again.
The economic advances made by non-traditional players in the media space have only showcased the flexibility of the overall system. Legacy media drifts leftward following the outrage dollars, and scores of non-traditional media spring up to fill in the reporting gap and the outrage dollars on the right. Legacy media fights for its market position, which means also fighting politically. Legacy media is happy to be centrist when the economics support it. None of this is new. Media has swayed politics in the USA at the very least since the election of Jefferson.
Overall, Moldbug is great in identifying bias, and parts of how bias flows through the system, but is not so great at seeing the full system in its entirety. The system is not closed, is never closed, and Moldbug is a natural part of the system as a voice of discontent.
Yes, re his take on corporations, I think he ran a small company at some point, and bases his take rather simplistically on that.
Finally Boyce and the pvk crowd are discovering Curtis yarvin, tried to tell them 2 years ago
And now I'm thinking about the Pinky and the Brain parody of the Third Man.
I am a libertarian. I think the most successful engineering project of all time was the Wright Brothers' airplane. It had nothing to do with the state. The lightbulb was also not bad.
Nothing for the printing press?
Quality has a quality of its own
Moldbug never dissapoints!
ben your a legend always producing the best content on youtube thank you for your great stuff much love
55:45 those who have only experienced the dismal service culture of the US can't imagine how good customer service is in Japan.
How is a corporation a monarchy? The CEO can be forced out and replaced at a moment's notice, with no family connection at all to the successor.
There’s just something that bugs me about Yarvin. Something is not quite right, inauthentic. Like he’s spewing a bunch of garbage he really doesn’t believe and feeding it to the plebs. Sorry, don’t trust this guy at all!
I concur
Yup, he's feeding fish to the dolphins but he himself is a shark.
It that's the case then what do you think he's trying to achieve with that?
It would be interesting if Yarvin would write an economics book.
Or on anything. His blog is amazing but I'd love to see him write a book
Just read Mises.
This guy is nuts
I agree with everything he said
Smartest guy on the internet, but he misses the fact that we can point to Florida. The bell of freedom is ringing in some states.
Lol, you are trolling!
Florida seems free on the surface but DeSantis still wields power in vindictive ways. You don't use the power of the state to punish companies for acting with the "wrong" politics. That is tyrannical and you would absolutely call it out if it was the Newsom against current Warner-Discovery with their new executive.
"with the blue pill, you can really do your best." :)
Great stuff :)
Isn't it a contradiction in Curtis worldview when he says the New York times is a monarchy, but then later says that the New York times is the Ministry of Truth for the US Govt?
its the most powerful organ, as the ministry of truth is. I dont think he says its a monarchy. It can still be acting on behalf of another party.
@@distributistsshrekvideo he did say it was effectively a hereditary monarchy
@@haraldwolte3745 in the sense that it is transmitted, more than in the sense of being the one ruling
No, think of it like a European monarch that is still a vassal of the Pope.
@@distributistsshrekvideo yo when you getting uploaded to Dave's channel?
Big Brother was watching this one. Lol.
Always is
Wow, how convoluted can a description of the yield curve get? How about, normally the longer you agree to lock your money up, the higher interest rate you get. This is a normal yield curve. The curve is ‘inverted’ when you get a higher interest rate for shorter terms, signaling near term pain.
I love how Mencius Moldbug rips on the Conservatives who are so convinced they are these brilliant rebels of The State.
Hands up who else was wiping their laptop screen whe watching this?
Curtis first says that the key feature of monarchy is that the king cares because it is his family, then he tries to define corporations as monarchies. The confusion goes deep. Corporations are not monarchies and the board of directors not only can, but often do, kick the king out by a vote, and then replace them with someone else. Corporations are more like democracies, where the shareholders vote for the board members, and the board members vote for the CEO (king). So this libertarian has made a much better point than the false claim that libertarians claim that government can never get anything done. The claim is, along the lines of Mises, that the price signals of a free market will usually do a _better job_ of efficiently getting things done than structures that break this signal such as large state bureaucracy .
Having said this and as a fan of Mises, the term Curtis may be looking for is a hierarchy rather than any kind of flat democracy is what makes things work. In turn, read the founding fathers who knew all of this and used federalism and separation of powers as ONE possible try at solving these very real problems (who watches the watchers). Then they said that they had no real confidence it would last. What they know didn't last was the monarchy that they didn't want anymore.
In sum, yes, hierarchies of competence are necessary to get things done. Collectivism can never be efficient. And the basic notion of having a sort of CEO running a country is not unreasonable as no org works well trying to be run by committee. But, in any case Curtis, monarchy is not the right notion to even make your own, generally excellent, points.
Of course chaebols, Walmart, Walton, Chanel, and several other similar orgs prove that a family-run/monarchic approach can indeed work. But not true that most products that are purchased are here due to family-run monarchic corps.
@@del46_60 Nope. There are 8 people on Facebook's board of directors. This notion of weak and strong monarch is not consist with Curtis' own definition, which is absolute power. A sole proprietorship can have absolute power, but partnerships and corporations can't and so don't fit his definition. He is just wrong here. He fell in love with Hoppe thinking he is somehow the end of the chain of Austrian Economics while forgetting that Mises was a minarchist... and for good reason.
@@del46_60 It is true that if, and only if, a person owns over 50% of the voting shares that they would be equivalent to a sole proprietor. In any case, Curtis was wrong about the vast majority of corporations as the entire point of them is to split power among many people and allow for both silent and direct participation in the entity.
@@del46_60 He said a monarch must have absolute power in this very upload. Listen again.
@@del46_60 So your response to the fact that the vast majority of corporations work more like a representative democracy than a monarchy, while Curtis routinely uses corporations (as did Hoppe) to point out the power of monarchy and the weakness of democracy is for me to do the legwork... If Curtis means what you say above he should say what you say above rather than keeping promoting his confused and false narrative.
When’s the Dregs of Humanity reunion?
brilliant intro
Rad Session. 😎
If you saw the "Tom Hanks is a grouchy old man who falls in love with a cat" trailer before this video, do yourself a favor and just watch "About Schmidt"
This is Curtis Yarvin’s best ever interview
Manhattan and Apollo Projects were completed with success, but who says those projects couldn't be done more efficiently with less funds (or were needed at all.). How does that mess up libertarians' minds?
Gosh it’s hard to watch interviews in this channel because the guy on the right creeps me out
I really enjoyed that - found myself laughing along with you guys a bunch of times :D
Why am I reminded of Peter Thiel?