What do you think of the role of people like Chris Rufo & Alex Epstein in the current environment ? I think they are similar in the sense that they are still in MAGA’s good graces but do not have complete right wing brain worms yet.
I have the sense that compared to you they seem to be more focused on their specific issues (universities/wokeness & energy respectively) so they are still trying get something out of the MAGA movement & are much friendlier to it. At the same time this focus on the details of specific issues makes them seem more grounded & sane than someone like Musk. Do you think these people are right to act this way based on their more activist profile or do you think it is the duty of any person with brains & dignity to be more explicitly critical ?
Sure, but he still gets invited on podcasts with Don Jr. where he gives some soft pushback on things like tariffs while displaying overall friendliness to MAGA and my question to Richard is if it is right in his opinion for some people to be taking this approach rather than being more aggressively critical.
Just look at his interactions with Don Jr. here, he is clearly humoring him and not coming out clearly saying that the tariffs are stupid. Instead he is pivoting to his preferred solutions & doing the standard Republican wishful thinking on this situation eventually leading to lower tariffs. This might be wise as a persuasion technique but I don’t think you can say that he is being perfectly candid about what he actually thinks in this exchange.
Also his criticisms of the Republican bill were mainly from the right i.e. the fact that they were not aggressive enough in repealing Biden policies, hard to argue that this is a case of him standing up to MAGA.
I’ve seen that already. I thought he did a fine job explaining it. Of course he wasn’t hostile, but as you say, that wouldn’t be persuasive to a group he’s trying to stay in good graces with to have influence. I think you’re overanalyzing.
So I don’t really think we’re disagreeing about anything then, he is trying to stay in their good graces in order to influence policy. Richard could have done this as well considering the influence his book had on policy but he has clearly taken a different path. Evaluating these different attitudes towards MAGA was the point of my original question.
Do you think the Democratic party under Andrew Jackson is a good historical analogue for the Republican party under Trump? I know a number of historians have made the parallel -- a relatively LHC party / culture oriented around a populist leader with little regard for elite institutions or tradition. And if so, is that potentially reason for hope about America's political future?
What did you think of Arctotherium's recent piece in Aporia about nonlinear ethnic niches? I don't consider myself an immigration restrictionist, but this well sourced and argued piece made me wonder if the ethnic niches it describes may indeed evince an interesting edge case where consanguineous immigration patterns can erode WEIRD norms of impersonal cooperation in the host economy, or at least undermine competition and thereby slow innovation in the affected industries/niches.
Do you think if Candace Owens were a white male that the NYT would criticize her much more?
In general I'm surprised by how little the NYT talks about the rise of online antisemitism. They seem focused on the Charlottesville (which center-left people like Sam Harris acknowledged was a misrepresentation) and the Elon heart thing. See https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/opinion/trump-jews-college.html .
How do you decide which opposing ideas and policies are worth steelmanning versus dismissing as fundamentally flawed? For issues like euthanasia, school choice, or merit-based college and job applications, I often struggle to determine whether there is a genuine counterargument worth engaging with.
A couple questions (no need to answer them all, pick and choose what you like):
1) How do you think the Trump cult ends? My current vibes are that Trump will ascend to basically godhood for a good section of the country (~30%) when his term ends. Do you think we'll have Republicans trying to be even more authoritarian by running on his legacy, or does his brand of buffoonishness and authoritarianism destined to slowly wither away and the US to revert to its longrunning mean?
2) Do you think the abundance agenda by Democrats has legs, or is it doomed to fail?
3) Do you think the Democrats are presenting a credible opposition to the Republicans? There will always be one party that's the greater evil at any given point in time, but do you think the parties are both sufficiently loony right now that it says bad things about the future of the American experiment?
4) Any thoughts on ChatGPT rotting kids' brains more than usual? Are colleges doomed if they can't get the cheating under control?
5) Do you think Dems are doomed in the Senate unless something major changes? (like another realignment).
Do you have any predictions (specific or general) for the 2 SCOTUS nominees Trump will presumably select this term?
To elaborate a bit: Last time around we got fairly standard nominees who have proven themselves to be more principled and less radical than 2/3 of the pre-Trump conservative justices. Does the Senate GOP demand more of the same? Or, like every other decision made by second-term Trump, will this be a more loyalist and less conventional choice? What percentage chance do you assign to a truly out there nominee (a relative, a TV personality, one of his own attorneys, etc)? What are the odds of a pick being rejected by the Senate, and how might Trump respond? Just some examples of things to consider; I don’t expect you’ll address all of the above.
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on how people might talk about social issues that go outside of the typical Woke vs. Anti-Woke framing. For example, a lot of what Trump is doing
on social issues (trans sports/bathroom bans, attacks on universities) could be attacked on the grounds of free speech or fighting government repression. Could this provide a path out for dems stuck in the double-bind of wanting to defend minorities but not wanting to come across as toxically woke?
Did you read any novels growing up–or in your adult life–that you especially enjoyed? Also, I hope you can be a guest on the Red Scare podcast at some point in the future. That would be cool.
In your opinion, can any amount of political cronyism with respect to (publicly funded) university admissions and university teaching jobs ever rise to level of criminal corruption or theft of taxpayers? It seems, by analogy, mayors and governors have gotten in trouble for far less than what happens at Harvard and even the average college.
What advice do you have for growing a blog? For instance, how much would you recommend niching down and marketing it? Really, any wisdom you have would be great, because I've been writing for a bit and haven't found much success yet. Thank you!
How do you navigate the Israel/Palestine conflict in terms of epistemology? I have noticed I have shifted from “IDF statements can basically be trusted” to “the IDF nearly always lies” over the course of the conflict.
Related - what would the Israel government have to say or do to lose your support?
What do you think of the role of people like Chris Rufo & Alex Epstein in the current environment ? I think they are similar in the sense that they are still in MAGA’s good graces but do not have complete right wing brain worms yet.
I have the sense that compared to you they seem to be more focused on their specific issues (universities/wokeness & energy respectively) so they are still trying get something out of the MAGA movement & are much friendlier to it. At the same time this focus on the details of specific issues makes them seem more grounded & sane than someone like Musk. Do you think these people are right to act this way based on their more activist profile or do you think it is the duty of any person with brains & dignity to be more explicitly critical ?
Alex Epstein is a libertarian, so he’s not MAGA. He’s just focused on winning at his one issue.
Sure, but he still gets invited on podcasts with Don Jr. where he gives some soft pushback on things like tariffs while displaying overall friendliness to MAGA and my question to Richard is if it is right in his opinion for some people to be taking this approach rather than being more aggressively critical.
He posted an entire thread criticizing the Big Beautiful Bill on Twitter recently. I also didn’t see his criticisms as particularly soft.
https://open.substack.com/pub/alexepstein/p/making-the-case-for-industrial-freedominstead?r=854p0&utm_medium=ios
Just look at his interactions with Don Jr. here, he is clearly humoring him and not coming out clearly saying that the tariffs are stupid. Instead he is pivoting to his preferred solutions & doing the standard Republican wishful thinking on this situation eventually leading to lower tariffs. This might be wise as a persuasion technique but I don’t think you can say that he is being perfectly candid about what he actually thinks in this exchange.
Also his criticisms of the Republican bill were mainly from the right i.e. the fact that they were not aggressive enough in repealing Biden policies, hard to argue that this is a case of him standing up to MAGA.
I’ve seen that already. I thought he did a fine job explaining it. Of course he wasn’t hostile, but as you say, that wouldn’t be persuasive to a group he’s trying to stay in good graces with to have influence. I think you’re overanalyzing.
So I don’t really think we’re disagreeing about anything then, he is trying to stay in their good graces in order to influence policy. Richard could have done this as well considering the influence his book had on policy but he has clearly taken a different path. Evaluating these different attitudes towards MAGA was the point of my original question.
Do you think the Democratic party under Andrew Jackson is a good historical analogue for the Republican party under Trump? I know a number of historians have made the parallel -- a relatively LHC party / culture oriented around a populist leader with little regard for elite institutions or tradition. And if so, is that potentially reason for hope about America's political future?
What did you think of Arctotherium's recent piece in Aporia about nonlinear ethnic niches? I don't consider myself an immigration restrictionist, but this well sourced and argued piece made me wonder if the ethnic niches it describes may indeed evince an interesting edge case where consanguineous immigration patterns can erode WEIRD norms of impersonal cooperation in the host economy, or at least undermine competition and thereby slow innovation in the affected industries/niches.
Yeah that was great stuff!
Do you think if Candace Owens were a white male that the NYT would criticize her much more?
In general I'm surprised by how little the NYT talks about the rise of online antisemitism. They seem focused on the Charlottesville (which center-left people like Sam Harris acknowledged was a misrepresentation) and the Elon heart thing. See https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/opinion/trump-jews-college.html .
How do you decide which opposing ideas and policies are worth steelmanning versus dismissing as fundamentally flawed? For issues like euthanasia, school choice, or merit-based college and job applications, I often struggle to determine whether there is a genuine counterargument worth engaging with.
A couple questions (no need to answer them all, pick and choose what you like):
1) How do you think the Trump cult ends? My current vibes are that Trump will ascend to basically godhood for a good section of the country (~30%) when his term ends. Do you think we'll have Republicans trying to be even more authoritarian by running on his legacy, or does his brand of buffoonishness and authoritarianism destined to slowly wither away and the US to revert to its longrunning mean?
2) Do you think the abundance agenda by Democrats has legs, or is it doomed to fail?
3) Do you think the Democrats are presenting a credible opposition to the Republicans? There will always be one party that's the greater evil at any given point in time, but do you think the parties are both sufficiently loony right now that it says bad things about the future of the American experiment?
4) Any thoughts on ChatGPT rotting kids' brains more than usual? Are colleges doomed if they can't get the cheating under control?
5) Do you think Dems are doomed in the Senate unless something major changes? (like another realignment).
Do you have any predictions (specific or general) for the 2 SCOTUS nominees Trump will presumably select this term?
To elaborate a bit: Last time around we got fairly standard nominees who have proven themselves to be more principled and less radical than 2/3 of the pre-Trump conservative justices. Does the Senate GOP demand more of the same? Or, like every other decision made by second-term Trump, will this be a more loyalist and less conventional choice? What percentage chance do you assign to a truly out there nominee (a relative, a TV personality, one of his own attorneys, etc)? What are the odds of a pick being rejected by the Senate, and how might Trump respond? Just some examples of things to consider; I don’t expect you’ll address all of the above.
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on how people might talk about social issues that go outside of the typical Woke vs. Anti-Woke framing. For example, a lot of what Trump is doing
on social issues (trans sports/bathroom bans, attacks on universities) could be attacked on the grounds of free speech or fighting government repression. Could this provide a path out for dems stuck in the double-bind of wanting to defend minorities but not wanting to come across as toxically woke?
Did you read any novels growing up–or in your adult life–that you especially enjoyed? Also, I hope you can be a guest on the Red Scare podcast at some point in the future. That would be cool.
Oh wow. Looks like I’m getting on the Amtrak straight from the city after work for this! See you there.
In your opinion, can any amount of political cronyism with respect to (publicly funded) university admissions and university teaching jobs ever rise to level of criminal corruption or theft of taxpayers? It seems, by analogy, mayors and governors have gotten in trouble for far less than what happens at Harvard and even the average college.
What advice do you have for growing a blog? For instance, how much would you recommend niching down and marketing it? Really, any wisdom you have would be great, because I've been writing for a bit and haven't found much success yet. Thank you!
Does explicit elitism do a good job of attracting cognitive elites?
See you in DC
Update on your views on Israel, Gaza, middle east
How do you navigate the Israel/Palestine conflict in terms of epistemology? I have noticed I have shifted from “IDF statements can basically be trusted” to “the IDF nearly always lies” over the course of the conflict.
Related - what would the Israel government have to say or do to lose your support?