Oddbean

GM & PV #nostr 🌞☕️ The amount of people that have said “wow, I’m surprised you had @HODL and @erikcason on @TPBPod" is exactly the problem I’m trying to fix. I want to run a show where a wide variety of guests, topics, and ideologies are covered! Whether people assume they know me because I’m “from the left” or whether they want what I do to be some sort of echo-chamber in its own way, I reject that. I will not be a part of perpetuating that problem. We are all just people hoping and fighting for a better tomorrow 🫂💜 The left/right paradigm and polarization is dead. Those in power just want you to think it still exists. No nuance, no focus on truth, rationality, or mutual respect and human dignity. This doesn’t mean we all agree on everything, but that we should have an ability to see the humanity in one another and live in harmony. There is but one philosophy I try to live by and that’s Ubuntu: I am because we are. My humanity is inextricably wrapped up in yours, so let’s promote harmony and peace for all humanity and life on earth. The way you do that is a starting with yourself, each and every day.

I think it was your recent interview w Mike Brock... y'all were discussing dignity as a non-zero sum game, where dignity grows instead of simply being redistributed. great moment. looking forward to your next pursuit ✊

No because I don’t find him interesting or a good guest when he goes on shows. It’s boring mumbo jumbo. Has nothing to do with his politics or views. Now, if I could get a real person and not the campaigner, then sure!

ever interview a Georgist bitcoiner? I'm sure they're out there. tend to cross the political spectrum. it'd be interesting to get their perspective. as most taxes are on human effort, they tend to be regressive. yet a single tax on land only, as proposed by Henry George in 1879, is not. it reduces land speculation and landlord profits. it'd also likely make local politicians more accountable and aligned with their constituents. many modern YIMBYs are its spiritual successors. it occurs to me, it's also the one tax that cannot be easily avoided one way or another with Bitcoin, which is pretty unique. sooner or later this'll occur to our politicians too. probably after doubling down on all the shit they've tried before that we know doesn't work.

Making my way through the episode and enjoying it immensely. I, for one, am very glad you had them on. Lots of resonance with my own journey from the left to whatever I am now. And I feel like there are so many people out there on a journey OUT OF the two-party system. If my friends are any indication, lots of people don’t feel comfortable talking about that journey publicly, due to various social pressures and the lord-of-the-flies world of virtue signaling we live in now. It’s exceedingly important that we meet those people. Because that’s where the real frontier is, in my opinion. These conversations are part of that.

This is where we all end up eventually, and why you get along with supposedly (far-) right-wingers -- or, in my case, I get along with woke anarcho-syndicate type anti-capitalists. It's almost as if The Progressive Bitcoiner podcast needs a rebrand...

Without the “kum-bah-yah”, here’s my take: The US is too large of a country both geographically and by population to be a monoculture that agrees on everything. People of California should have a different culture than people of Alabama or Montana. This should be celebrated. The 10th amendment addresses this by letting the state government have the bulk of the say in your life. An ideal situation would be a broad interpretation of 10A. Then Vivek’s plan to abolish most of the federal government would be implemented. Then when California thinks reparations are a neat idea, it only affects California taxpayers, they vote with their feet and the state implodes. (Hypothetically, of course) But right now there’s a federal backstop and a large federal umbrella that makes the “vote with your feet” less impactful. If the states had to stand on their own for everything *not* given to the federal government in the constitution, the 50 competing democratic experiments would work best for everyone.