Paul’s on the road, and gives an explanation of what he is up to: think Michigan and Initiative.
Also covered is the sorry state of the current political landscape and practical things to do about it:
At some point you’d think you should have to turn in your Victim Card. . . . [L]ike when you go to an Ivy League university, it’s like right then and there: you’ve got to . . . hand in [the card.] You don’t get to be oppressor and oppressed at the same time. That’s just too much.
Dr. Jordan Peterson on Joe Rogan’s podcast, talking about Cathy Newman’s infamous interview with him on BBC Channel 4.
On May 15, 1776, the Virginia Convention instructed its Continental Congress delegation to propose a resolution of independence from Great Britain, paving the way for the United States’ Declaration of Independence.
Paul Jacob provides an estimate of the current situation, a look at “where we are at.” And we have a lot to change.
But there are ways to fight the current trends, and they are quite clear and quite doable:
Defunding the police? Yes, that’s a bad idea. But so is de-policing the funds.
Bill Maher, “New Rule: American Kleptocracy,” on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, railing against the bipartisan misdistribution of COVID crisis “stimulus.”
On May 14, 1787, delegates convened a Constitutional Convention, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to write a new Constitution for the United States. George Washington presided over the convention.
On the same day a century later, jurist and pamphleteer Lysander Spooner — author of several important treatises, including “Trial by Jury” and “The Unconstitutionality of Slavery,” an infamous pamphlet entitled “No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority” — died.
“At risk of stating the obvious, unless something changes to cause the birth rate to exceed the death rate, Japan will eventually cease to exist,” Musk posted on Saturday. “This would be a great loss for the world.”
A very significant observation, at odds with so much of the Official Narrative of Approved Subjects and Opinions.
Recognizing that depopulation is the big problem for the developed nations of the world, not over-population rubs up against most of what we’ve been told for years.
But it’s true.
Japan is not alone, here, in showing a demographic collapse. It’s merely the most advanced in population decline. Russia is in a bad way, and many European countries’ native populations are in zero population growth. The United States, too, is growing only because of immigration, legal and illegal.
Behind the numbers, though, is a disturbing reality: the instability of our welfare state policies. In America, and in most advanced nations, government-run social pension programs require a growing population to properly service. Yet, Social Security, by removing the need to have children as a natural safety net (where we beget offspring to help take care of us in old age), actually disincentivizes the population growth that might make the system sustainable.
Elon Musk did not offer a fix. But by pointing to a very real problem, he’s done us a great service, speaking simple truth instead of propaganda.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Great abuses in the world are begotten, or, to speak more boldly, all the abuses of the world are begotten, by our being taught to be afraid of professing our ignorance, and that we are bound to accept all things we are not able to refute: we speak of all things by precepts and decisions. The style at Rome was that even that which a witness deposed to having seen with his own eyes, and what a judge determined with his most certain knowledge, was couched in this form of speaking: “it seems to me.” They make me hate things that are likely, when they would impose them upon me as infallible.
Michel de Montaigne, Essays (1595), Book II, Ch. 12: “Apology for Raimond Sebond.”
On May 13, 1888, Brazil abolished slavery with the passage of the Lei Áurea (“Golden Law”).
The FTC is reportedly reviewing the Tesla CEO’s takeover of the forum and will soon decide whether to conduct an anti-trust probe of the transaction.
Musk hasn’t been entirely clear about his plans for Twitter now that he is on the verge of acquiring it. But we can expect that this avowed free speech absolutist will do his best to ensure that tweet-speech is much more open than it has been. He won’t label every statement he dislikes as “hate speech” or “misinformation” and forthwith expunge it.
And this, I’m pretty sure, is the problem.
Certainly, no new “monopoly” is in the offing. It’s not as if we lack social-media alternatives to Twitter — or that Musk already owns the alternatives. His other gigs pertain to electric cars, tunnels, and space flight.
The problem must be that government officials, too, expect that Musk will be a much better friend of unfettered speech than the previous Twitter insiders.
Officials expect — but also fear — that his Twitter won’t routinely terminate the speech of persons who dispute “official” doctrines about COVID-19, elections, or what have you.
To fear the prospect of a Musk-run Twitter is to fear open debate — debates that are unavoidable and should be welcome if we value citizen control of government.
But of course, those who seek to control us worry: if the people do not agree with them about what is and is not a fact, what is and is not the highest moral and political value, they might not stay in power.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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