Conservatives, Liberals, and Capitalism!

Añadido: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]You open this door with the key of reason. Beyond it is another dimension.

[00:00:05]A dimension of truth.

[00:00:07]A dimension of freedom. A dimension of joy.

[00:00:10]You're moving into the land of both the ideal and the real, of the possible and the actual. You've just crossed over into the capitalist corner.

[00:00:20]>> [music] >> Where reason meets reality, welcome to the capitalist corner.

[00:00:29]Welcome to the capitalist corner. I'm your host Michael Lebowitz joined by my co-host here Persephone because Mark is otherwise occupied.

[00:00:37]Uh what do I got to tell you? Same same stuff as every day. Look, uh what are they called? Super chats, super stickers, greatly appreciated. Um not only that, but 2:15 2:30 today we've got everyday ethics and I've got an interesting topic that I'll be bringing up today.

[00:00:56]And it has to do with a ridiculous hypothetical and you know how much I like those. But it was from a movie I watched yesterday so I thought it was interesting. Uh other than that Persephone, just let them know what's what. Please don't forget to follow us on Twitch and also check out all three of the shows on Spotify and if you listen to the show on Spotify, add it to your library and leave a rating cuz it helps us in the Spotify algorithm.

[00:01:24]And please go check out the merch because it's great.

[00:01:27]>> that's it. That's all you have to say.

[00:01:30]That's all I have to say.

[00:01:31]>> Okay. So I want to tell you before we get into the actual articles that I sent you and the various things.

[00:01:37]So I'm driving today I had to drive I had to go pick up my paycheck early.

[00:01:42]Doesn't matter why. I've got barking dogs.

[00:01:44]Um but that has nothing to do with anything. Let me tell them to shut up.

[00:01:47]You just I don't have barking dogs. Mine are very quiet. So you yell shut up and they usually listen although one afterwards will frequently throw in an extra just to get the last word.

[00:02:02]But, uh anyway, so I had a drive this morning and when I drive I put on conservative talk radio. So, they're having a discussion about whether TDS, Trump Derangement Syndrome, should be an actually diagnosable mental illness.

[00:02:18]And the people are calling in and saying yes. And And one of the examples they gave is they played uh the ladies on The View who are nuts. But, here's the thing, they've always been nuts. They didn't just get nuts because of Donald Trump. They were always like that.

[00:02:35]Uh and they they were talking about people I've lost friends because of this. Now, of course, I don't know what these people are doing.

[00:02:43]Right? So, maybe they're just losing friends, whatever. I don't know, but I just found it rich because they're like people are just obsessed with Trump.

[00:02:51]They just can't let go. And I'm just thinking to myself, okay.

[00:02:54]Uh this is coming from the the party Google this information for me. I would like to know what percentage of Republicans think Barack Obama is a Muslim.

[00:03:06]What percentage of Republicans think Barack Obama was not born in the United States?

[00:03:12]And what percentage of Republicans think the 2020 election was stolen?

[00:03:20]So, um 43% believe that he was 43% believe that he was a Muslim. What was the other thing that you said? Not born in America. Not born in America.

[00:03:35]Uh 43% is way too high.

[00:03:40]Oh, it's not.

[00:03:42]23% of Republicans think he was born in another country.

[00:03:49]And what percentage of Republicans think the 2020 election was stolen?

[00:04:02]Um Oh, no.

[00:04:13]What? 69% Okay.

[00:04:16]So, let's go to the Obama situation. I remember And I couldn't stand Obama.

[00:04:21]Don't think he was a good president.

[00:04:23]Would never support his policies.

[00:04:25]I remember in the debate where the woman said that she believed he was an Arab.

[00:04:30]The current president of the United States, the one who the talk show host and all her guests are defending, pushed the narrative that this guy was born in another country, they need the birth certificate, all that [ __ ] So, I'm just curious like you're saying that other people are obsessed with Trump while 43% of your party still believes that Barack Obama was a Muslim. 23% believe he was born in another country. And what was it? 69% believe the ridiculous idea that the 2020 election was stolen. Right? So, so do me a favor Hold on. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[00:05:07]Hold on. Please hold on. So, do me a favor. Please spare me the idea that you're going to diagnose somebody else for being cracked uh because let's face it. You've got your own problems. Okay, now go ahead.

[00:05:23]Um so, the the 69% number actually has come down slightly according to the latest polls.

[00:05:32]>> All right.

[00:05:32]>> So, now it's only 63%.

[00:05:35]Thank you, Jenna, for the $2 by the way.

[00:05:37]Right. My point here mainly is just that there's enough crazy to go around.

[00:05:43]Right? And the idea And they're all calling, yes, it Oh, it is. And I've lost friends. But look, I've had family members when I criticized Trump jump all over me. And I told my cousin, "Listen, dude. Stop." Like I'm not trying to em- You're my cousin, right? I don't want to embarrass you in public. You know what I mean? Like I don't want to sit here and demonstrate that you don't know what you're talking about.

[00:06:09]I don't go to your Facebook page, so don't come to mine and do this.

[00:06:13]Rar rar rar rar rar and they go insane.

[00:06:16]So, I mean look, these people uh the this this knife cuts both ways.

[00:06:24]And it and it's not new, by the way. I mean, this goes back a long ways. Uh you know, the the going after the obsession with the Clintons, the obsession with Obama, on the other side, Bush and Che- I mean, it's nothing new. With Trump, I agree, it's exacerbated, but I also think the man is exacerbated.

[00:06:45]Right? Put When you're pushing that Barack Obama's not born here, or you're pushing that the 2020 election was stolen, or any of the other countless lies that this guy pushes, or the things that he says, the things that he's done, it's elevated. So, it's going to get elevated both in terms of the people who defend him and the people who attack him. That's my take. What is your take, lady? My take is that there has been there has been a a lot of like criticism of the other presidents, and I think there is more against Donald Trump because if you have a man standing at the edge of your driveway staring at you, right?

[00:07:31]You're like, "Oh, that's a little bit weird." If you have a man standing at the edge of your driveway dressed in like a caveman suit covered in like lime jello and like waving his arms, you're going to be slightly more concerned.

[00:07:50]Right? Trump just does so much more [ __ ] that is insane and he's so much more vocal about everything.

[00:07:59]And his his big skill is whipping people into a frenzy and being in a frenzy himself. So I think that there is more, but it's because it it's impossible to ignore him because he makes sure that you can't because if I don't know, he tweets like not tweets. What is that Truth >> Truth Social Truths. The Truth Social stuff.

[00:08:26]>> [sighs] >> The other night he made 53 posts in a row of just like some of the most unhinged things that anyone's ever seen.

[00:08:40]Yeah.

[00:08:40]>> So like what where previous presidents like did they have their negatives? Were people against them? Sure, but they weren't tweeting 55 times in a row like completely insane things.

[00:08:55]And just You froze. Persephone, you froze and it's not a pretty face. So I'm going to to remove you for a second. When I see you moving again, Persephone, I will put you back on. Um yeah, they also were talking about the people that were calling into the show.

[00:09:13]Hi Persephone. The people that were calling into the show were talking about how they were afraid to go out because the people are so mad at Trump that they will attack them in public. That these like they're afraid the anti-Trumpers Trumpers are going to physically harm them. They're afraid to wear a shirt that says freedom on it. It seems to me that this derangement again cuts both ways.

[00:09:39]I I think it does. I Googled this. Trump era polarization is measurably higher.

[00:09:45]So, the partisan gap between Republican and Democratic approval was the largest recorded since they began tracking.

[00:09:53]His approval ratings are historically unusual. And they're historically low.

[00:09:58]But anyways, I want to just throw this in there before we get to our main topics here. If I can remember now what the hell I was saying.

[00:10:05]Oh, yeah. There's also the dynamic with Trump where people are I'd imagine taken aback, some people.

[00:10:18]By the fact that for instance, if you have been a Reagan conservative or a Goldwater conservative your entire life.

[00:10:27]And this guy comes around and is so different from them, so antithetical to the things that they taught. And the people that you thought were your uh compatriots.

[00:10:42]You know, your your they were your people are loving this guy and defending him non-stop, no matter what he does.

[00:10:49]You know, Reagan conservatives, Goldwater conservatives, pro-family, strong national defense, tax cuts, deregulation.

[00:10:57]You know, uh very high moral standard type of thing. And then that that now you see these people cheering things like tariff or Trump RX.

[00:11:07]Uh you know, violating the Constitution.

[00:11:10]And it So, I that also is part of it.

[00:11:15]Because people like, "What the hell are you doing?" Like you you probably just can't believe that this is happening.

[00:11:23]So, I think that's a part of it as well.

[00:11:25]So, the the thing is as much as I don't like want to give any legitimacy to like Trump derangement syndrome. I know of at least three couples who got divorced because one of them voted Trump. Which just seems insane to me. Like >> yeah, I agree. I'm not saying that there aren't people who are twisted about Trump that take it to a far greater level than what it needs to be. What I'm saying is that if you're a conservative Republican Trump MAGA talk show host and you want to talk about how the other side is deranged, it's clean up your own house. That's all I'm saying. Yeah, that's very true. Like both sides are can be a little bit nuts about Trump. Let me also something that happened this morning. So yesterday uh on X uh Liquid Zulu posted a video that I'm well very familiar with of Jan Helfeld who I believe is still identifying as an objectivist and Jan uh Jan he's called the Socratic Assassin.

[00:12:33]And he through the Socratic method of questioning exposes flaws in the people he interviews their reasoning. So he did John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi, a lot of these people and he makes them look very stupid.

[00:12:48]So Liquid Zulu posts and he says, "Anyone remember the time that Bernie tried debating a libertarian?" Now, I know Jan Helfeld well. I used to talk to him on the phone on a regular basis.

[00:13:02]Um Jan Helfeld and I I even interviewed him. He was on my show.

[00:13:07]We ultimately had a fall falling out because I would criticize Trump and he kept wanting to defend Trump over and over and like it like obsessively and I'm like, "Dude, that's it." So I blocked him. I just didn't want to deal with it. I tried to unblock him and he came right back and did the same thing.

[00:13:22]So I just said, "Dude, I'm done." I blocked him. It's like if you want to disagree with me, disagree, but when it gets to the point that you're just repeating yourself over and over again, I I I don't know. And I was new at the time to social media. It just seemed very strange to me. Maybe I wouldn't do that today. I don't know.

[00:13:37]Anyways, um Jan Helfeld uh is no anarchist. Uh uh he as I'm saying, he's a he's a Trump supporter for one thing. Uh for two, he uh through his Socratic questioning kind of embarrassed Jeffrey Tucker, who's an anarchist. He also had a debate with Consuelo, who's an anarchist. So, I joked with um Liquid Zulu and I said to him, uh I'm pretty sure you wouldn't consider Jan a libertarian.

[00:14:06]>> [laughter] >> Because Liquid Zulu only thinks anarchists are libertarians. I said and I put a I said, I blocked him on Facebook because he kept uh wanting to argue with me about Trump. And I said, "Anyway, check this out." And I included a um post of the the debate between Jan and Stefan Consuelo.

[00:14:25]Liquid Zulu responds with this, which I find very disturbing.

[00:14:30]Very.

[00:14:31]Very disturbing.

[00:14:34]He says, "Don't care. He was making libertarian arguments. You will all fall in line eventually."

[00:14:41]Yeah. He says, "The cult of Rand is over. I will wear the skin of every sacred cow of yours."

[00:14:48]I told him uh I responded and I I I I opposed I said, "This is not how philosophers talk. This is not how individuals talk, individualists talk.

[00:14:58]This is how somebody with delusions of grandeur speaks."

[00:15:03]Remember I said about two months ago, I said, "He's really he really gives off cult leader vibes."

[00:15:14]>> Right. Now, I wanted to just say that a lot of the people that they they do that as a joke.

[00:15:20]You know what I mean? Uh Z Z and they make that stuff.

[00:15:23]I don't think he takes it as a joke, though.

[00:15:26]>> No.

[00:15:27]I also don't think that I I think that some people do it ironically, but you know, the the it's such a good way to infiltrate someone's mind. It's so It's such an easy way to acclimate someone to to that type of stuff, yeah.

[00:15:45]It's It's jokes. It's ironic to me that he says the cult of Rand is over. Yeah, he's trying to stop He's trying to stop the cult of Zizek.

[00:15:54]>> meanwhile, um he takes the name of her philosophy, although he's not practicing it or preaching it.

[00:16:01]Uh and wants to make a cult of his own.

[00:16:05]Uh He He can say no, that's not what he's doing. I'm sorry. You speak like that, like I was just kidding, really. I mean, this is not someone you'd think is a libertarian.

[00:16:15]And to respond in that way, the cult of Rand is over. Dude, I'm pretty sure there's more Objectivists than you have followers in in your little thing. And you have a bunch of [ __ ] teenagers.

[00:16:27]Right? Uh you know, so I I would just slow down a little bit about how powerful you are and how you're, you know, wielding the sort of a sacred wand in this this situation.

[00:16:41]>> to wear the skin of your sacred cows is like >> genuinely cult leader speak.

[00:16:48]Yeah.

[00:16:50]I don't I don't like that.

[00:16:53]Yeah, I don't either. You know, look, I've debated him like five times, and I think I've won every one.

[00:16:58]Um and I'm not I know I'm not, you know, I'm biased, obvi it's me. I'm just saying, when I have debates that I get the sense that I lost, I'm very good at picking up on where I think I went wrong or didn't go wrong. I've never had that sense in a debate with him, ever. So, you know, I'll just put that out there.

[00:17:19]You can ask a question about it on EE if you want Akira. Anyway, so this morning as I was I woke up at this is this is what happens a lot of time. I probably told you guys this a million times. I woke up at 4:00 this morning.

[00:17:32]So, I decided to get to work and and I worked until about 7:00 and then I went back to bed till 9:00.

[00:17:38]By the way, Persephone, I looked up the magnesium and it seems the magnesium is the thing for me. Given my symptoms, it seems that the melatonin is not right.

[00:17:46]The magnesium may very well do it.

[00:17:49]But anyways, back to this. So, I come across a post on X from Capitalist Magazine which is kind of, you know, it's they're objectivist, I guess, but then they're kind of they're Trumpy.

[00:18:04]Let me put it that way. They're they're they're Trumpy. So, they quote Leonard Peikoff with this. After the Democrats are through with America, America will be through. We will end like ancient Rome. The post-American era will be the dark ages.

[00:18:19]So, I said, all right. You know, then I shared a quote from Leonard Peikoff from OPAR Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, and it says, Precisely because of their pretense, the conservatives are morally lower than the liberals. They are farther removed from reality and therefore they are more harmful in practice. Since they purport to be fighting big government, they're the main source of confusion in the public mind. They give people the illusion of an electoral alternative without the fact. Thus, the statist drift proceeds unchecked and unchallenged. Also, Leonard Peikoff in The Ominous Parallels was comparing America to Nazi Germany in in in its trajectory.

[00:19:05]And then finally, in in his book The Dim Hypothesis, he had M1 and M2. So, he said there's three types of integration.

[00:19:13]There's there's integration, there's disintegration, and there's misintegration.

[00:19:19]Meaning it's an integrated philosophy, but done poorly or it's not, you know, based on facts of reality. Excuse me if I'm getting this a little wrong. It's been about 15 years since I read the book. Either way, um and he breaks down to M1 and M2. M1 is more of a secular misintegration, and uh M2 is based on for you know, basically religion. Um and Leonard predicted then that an M2 society was most likely to take hold in America. So, basically you know, religious nationalist, that type of thing. So, I I was thinking I would I would like to ask the you know, people who like to quote Leonard's article from last year, what do they think is closer right now?

[00:20:06]The Democrats taking over or the M2 type of society? And I would highly suggest looking at the statements from J.D.

[00:20:15]Vance, Patrick Deneen, or any of the post-liberals that are seeking to take power in this country. And one of them is the vice president right now.

[00:20:26]And you know, so when I was going through that Persephone, I decided to go out and uh reread Ayn Rand's awesome awesome uh essay Conservatism and an Obituary, written I believe I want to say 1960.

[00:20:43]First of all, you read that this morning, right? When I sent it to you?

[00:20:50]Uh possibly.

[00:20:54]When did you send it to me?

[00:20:55]>> I sent it to you this morning at 5:00.

[00:20:58]Okay, even if you didn't read it, it's fine.

[00:21:01]So, she Ayn Rand opens up and says both the conservatives and the liberals stress a fact with which everybody seems to agree, that the world is facing a deadly conflict and that we must fight to save civilization.

[00:21:15]She then asks, "But what is the nature of the conflict?"

[00:21:20]And both groups answer, "It is a conflict between communism and" and then she says, "And what?" And her point is that the conservatives are not actually advocating capitalism.

[00:21:32]This is in the '60s.

[00:21:33]And she already put her thumb on the problem or her finger on the problem of conservatives not actually advocating for capitalism. Uh she says, "Both sides say they stand for freedom and then proceed to the proceed to declare what kind of controls, regulations, coercions, taxes, and sacrifices they would impose, what arbitrary powers they would demand." That's also true. She talks about a mixed economy uh being nothing but a little bit of socialism.

[00:22:04]She says, "Freedom in a political context means freedom from government coercion. It does not mean freedom from the landlord or freedom from the employer or freedom from the laws of nature, which do not provide men with automatic prosperity. It means freedom from the coercive power of the state and nothing else."

[00:22:21]Um and she talks about that if one must must wants to uphold freedom, somebody has to uphold individual rights.

[00:22:28]Uh I would say you actually need to uphold egoism as well.

[00:22:33]And she says that um basically the the the liberals have a viewpoint but they you know that they're advocating their uh you know views from. But then when the case of the she says I'll let me just get it right. She says, "If the liberals are afraid to identify their program by its proper name" because she says she the liberals don't want to basically admit what they're trying to do.

[00:22:56]But she says uh they advocate every specific measure, policy, and principle of statism, but squirm and twist themselves into semantic pretzels with euphemisms such as the welfare state, the New Deal, the New Frontier, but they still preserve a semblance of logic, if not of morality. It's the logic of a con man who cannot afford to let his victim discover his purpose.

[00:23:22]But then when she gets to the conservatives, she says, and I want to make sure that I get this correct.

[00:23:30]That the conservatives try to advocate capitalism based on three three ways.

[00:23:36]And she talks about how they feel guilty because ultimately they're religious altruists, and altruism is not conducive or consistent with capitalism.

[00:23:45]>> [snorts] >> And if she talks about how men would join a a movement to fight slavery.

[00:23:53]Let me find this. Talk for a second. Let me see if I can find it. Do an advertisement.

[00:23:58]I've done the advertisements already.

[00:24:01]Uh Twitch, Spotify.

[00:24:04]Um I'm going to talk about the merch some more. I think everybody should go check out the merch.

[00:24:09]There's um there's some really good stuff.

[00:24:12]I'm thinking of getting um a live laugh Lucifer hoodie.

[00:24:19]Cuz I think that'll be cool.

[00:24:21]Okay. So, she talks about there's three ways that conservatives argue for capitalism. One is based on faith.

[00:24:30]The other tradition and one depravity.

[00:24:33]So, the first is based on faith in terms of, you know, religious faith. We still see that today.

[00:24:39]Uh with, you know, America was founded on Christian principles, we need the Bible, days of prayer, all that nonsense that we still see.

[00:24:49]When it comes to tradition, we of course had Phil Magnus on talking about this.

[00:24:53]We've talked to others, you know, we've got this whole idea of heritage Americans now uh coming on the right. And she says, this is what she says, "Consider the attempt to justify capitalism on the ground of tradition. Certain groups are trying to switch the word conservative into the exact opposite of its American usage. To switch it back to its 19th century meaning and to put this over on the public." "These groups declare that to be a conservative means to uphold the status quo, the given, the established, regardless of what it might be, regardless of whether it is good or bad, right or wrong, uh defensible or indefensible. They declare that we must defend the American political system not because it is right, but because our ancestors chose it. Not because it is good, but because it's old." Again, echoes of Heritage Americans.

[00:25:43]And she says this, and I think it's absolutely awesome. She says, "America was created by men who broke with all political traditions and who originated a system unprecedented in history, relying on nothing but the unaided power of their own intellect. But the neoconservatives are now trying to tell us that America was the product of faith and revealed truths, of an uncritical respect for the traditions of the past."

[00:26:06]Spot-freaking-on.

[00:26:08]Uh the other thing that she talks about basically is that we they argue that uh because men are depraved.

[00:26:20]So, because men are depraved, we can't trust men to rule over other men. You know, this is basically the best we can do.

[00:26:27]Um yeah, not very inspiring arguments, not um even good arguments.

[00:26:34]But it's anybody that think I mean it was true then in 1960. And let me just tell you, if you compare Barry Goldwater conservatism to the uh MAGA movement, I would take that right now.

[00:26:51]Let's implement what Goldwater wanted right now. Let's just implement that and I would be so happy to do so. Not because I I think he was, you know, correct in all his arguments. I think he was bad. I think Rand was correct in her critique of conservatives. I just think it's gotten a lot worse.

[00:27:08]Seffie.

[00:27:11]I just Um I didn't read that this morning, but I have read it before.

[00:27:17]Um but I didn't read it this morning.

[00:27:21]Um It's all just depressing. That's all I have to say. I actually want to I I want to search something. You talk. Give me a second.

[00:27:29]>> to search? Can you tell me?

[00:27:33]No, because now I've forgotten.

[00:27:35]Cuz you distracted me.

[00:27:37]Okay, so don't worry about it. Did you read the stuff on poverty and crime?

[00:27:41]Yes, I did read the stuff on poverty and crime. There was a lot of it.

[00:27:45]>> anybody that does any studying of criminal justice or criminology is sure to come across the view that poverty calls causes crime. There's the idea of God, now I can't remember it.

[00:27:59]A strain theory where, you know, people they they see other people in the society prospering and they want what they have and can't get it, so they go to illegal means to try to get it.

[00:28:12]There's, you know, Marxist nonsense about oppression.

[00:28:18]You know, standard fare about people that are poor need to commit crimes.

[00:28:22]Now, I've looked into this issue quite a bit actually and there are correlations between poverty and crime, but correlation is not causation. And most people that grow up in poor neighborhoods are not criminals. And there's people that aren't poor that are criminals.

[00:28:41]Uh in fact, if you look at groups like Asians and Jews that live in poverty, they have low crime rates.

[00:28:49]So, if you're just going to say that, well, poverty causes crime, you're going to have to look at that. Well, why? Why would that be the case? Now, some of the mechanisms are, you know, um crime leads to There's other arguments that crime, you know, once you're a criminal, then you can't get a job. So, that's an argument that committing crimes actually leads to being poor because people don't want to hire you.

[00:29:11]Uh And leads to multi-generation poverty.

[00:29:14]>> Multi-generational poverty. There's There's things like that. Um but I I, you know, cultures matter, too, right? And I've had this argument a million times in prison with the black black guys in prison. Is the hip-hop culture uh the the gangster rap element of the black culture is bad.

[00:29:39]Right? And And you want to You can say that's cuz of poverty, but then again, I would point that the Asians and the the Jews.

[00:29:46]Now, obviously, most black people are not criminals, either.

[00:29:50]So, you you can't just attribute it to race.

[00:29:53]Uh I think there's a lot of factors that lead to to crime, but I think just blaming it on poverty and then the next jump, of course, is to try to go to the government to alleviate the poverty. But it's interesting because when the war on poverty kicked off in the '60s until the mid-'90s, poverty initially dropped um with the war on poverty and then leveled out.

[00:30:17]So, you don't have an increase in poverty. If anything, you had a slight drop, but you did have a massive increase in crime.

[00:30:24]Um Poverty is also more associated with property crimes than it is with violent crimes.

[00:30:31]Uh if you go and you look up the criminogenic needs identified as, you know, the the factors associated uh with crime, poverty is not one of them named by the risk responsibility model.

[00:30:44]Um of of crime. And as a criminal myself, uh I can tell you that I was never saying I you know, it never occurred to me to commit crimes because I was poor. I never looked and I grew up in a project that was embedded in a rich town and I never thought, "Oh, all these other guys have so much money. I want that." It normally just does not work like that.

[00:31:06]Seffie, what do you think?

[00:31:09]I mean, it's something that we have talked about quite a bit on the other show, Crime, Corrections, and Culture.

[00:31:19]Um what actually causes crime. So, it was actually interesting reading this having read the other books.

[00:31:29]Um because I can see how it might be tempting to say, "Well, obviously if you have nothing, you're more likely to steal."

[00:31:39]But then, you know, if you if you look at the statistics, and I like that they bring up Zimbabwe and Jamaica in one of them. I can't remember which one it was.

[00:31:51]Um but they talked about the the amount of murders in Zim versus in Jamaica. And I know a lot of people from Zimbabwe. So, there's a cuz there's a lot of them here in Cape Town. And they're very poor in Zimbabwe.

[00:32:08]Yes. But they don't have they don't commit a lot of crimes. They're better off It's It's weird. So, a lot of them come here for work because the the economy in Zim isn't great and there's not a lot of work in Zim, whereas there's a lot in Cape Town.

[00:32:23]Um So, they have better lives in Zim.

[00:32:27]They've got better houses, better stuff, more more. But they've got less opportunities. So, a lot of them come to to to South Africa um and usually to the Western Cape, which is where I live.

[00:32:42]They come here to work and then they go back once a year, but their lives in Cape Town are significantly worse. They live in poverty here, whereas back in Zim, they have houses and cars, but here they've got nothing. But the opportunities here are much better. But yes, the people from Zim, if you're if you're hiring anybody and you have like options, you hire a person from Zim because they're amazing.

[00:33:08]They work they've got really great work ethic. They're usually extremely friendly.

[00:33:15]Um But yeah, the the the the poverty is much they live in more poverty here, but they're not as um They're much less likely to commit crime than the people who are born here.

[00:33:30]Oh, wow.

[00:33:31]Um yeah, for anybody that really is interested in the the subject of crime, criminals, why criminals commit crimes, I highly suggest you check out our show Crime, Corrections, and Culture. It's on this channel, The Rational Alternative, three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, 3:15 p.m. Eastern Time. I think we do a good job with it. Uh so, I really do think that you should be checking it out. I just had something that I wanted to say, Persephone, and now I don't remember what the hell it was, and I hate when that happens. So, can I tell you what I wanted to search?

[00:34:04]Yes. Which I did search. So, I wanted to know if the tribalism in America has gotten like markedly worse in the past 10 years.

[00:34:15]Okay.

[00:34:16]So, it has. So, the numbers are in 1994, 17% of Republicans had a very unfavorable view of the Democrats and 16% of the Democrats likewise.

[00:34:30]And by 2014, the number had jumped to 43% for the Republicans and 38% for the Democrats.

[00:34:39]Um 63% 62 um And in 2022, it has jumped to 62% for the Republicans and 54% for the Democrats.

[00:34:51]So and that's like not um policy disagreements and it's more like identity warfare, right? They don't even most of the time disagree on policy.

[00:35:04]It's just you're a Democrat, [ __ ] you.

[00:35:07]You're a Republican, you suck.

[00:35:09]But the the the number jump is huge.

[00:35:14]From 17% up to 62. Wow.

[00:35:17]>> people people wonder why everything feels so much more aggressive nowadays and it's because there's there's been a huge jump in how in how much people hate you just based on whether you're a Republican or a Democrat.

[00:35:38]Well, you could just join the American Capitalist Party if you're looking for a party of principle and reason that actually promotes freedom and capitalism. What I was going to say before is I forgot to mention at the beginning of the show that of course this is open question Friday.

[00:35:52]Uh so we're looking for your questions as well folks. So please bring them. Ask whatever you wish. Uh if I don't know the answer, Persephone will make something up. So it'll be great.

[00:36:03]So Americans with unfavorable views of both parties has risen from 7% to 28%.

[00:36:16]Well, that's a good sign.

[00:36:19]It is a good sign.

[00:36:22]So there was an article uh today there was an article in Reason magazine about why does Trump keep bringing up decades-old foreign grievances? And it talked about Iran and and that, but the the thing that struck my attention or caught my attention was about Cuba.

[00:36:40]Because they seem to be building up to now ent- entering into some type of mi- type of military conflict with Cuba. Um and it's like, you know, it's like this idea that uh Iran's an imminent threat. We have to go to war right now. We can't wait for uh congressional authorization. It's an emergency. We've been at war with them for 47 years.

[00:37:02]Uh if you've been at war for them for 47 years and they've never uh uh succeeded in attacking the mainland United States, you then have time to go to Congress. I'm sorry. That's just silliness. You know what I mean? It's ridiculous.

[00:37:18]But um Marco Rubio Marco Rubio says that uh Cuba poses a national security threat.

[00:37:26]Um and and he also says the likelihood of a peaceful agreement is not high.

[00:37:32]Uh so it seems like um that, you know, we're perhaps headed in that direction. Trump says that uh what what Let me see here. Trump threatens new uh Cuba crackdown.

[00:37:46]Uh President Trump dramatically turned up the heat on Cuba Thursday, openly floating the possibility of US military action against the communist island. Uh Trump hinted that uh he he could be the president who finally takes direct action against Cuba. He says other presidents have looked at this for 50, 60 years. It looks like I'll be the one that does it.

[00:38:08]Uh so we're just went into Venezuela.

[00:38:13]We're threatening Greenland. Trump took 5,000 troops out of Germany, but I guess he's putting 5,000 in Poland, and our allies seem confused about that.

[00:38:22]Uh we're at war with Iran, we're running out of missiles, but we're also going to go take uh take on Cuba for I I don't know. I mean, they're they're designated a terrorist state and Rubio says that they're a threat, but I don't remember ever feeling threatened by this little island.

[00:38:43]He says that they well, they're allies, you know, they helped the the Russians and the Chinese.

[00:38:48]Uh but we we're not going to war with the Russians and the Chinese, we're kissing their asses. So, I I don't know. It's It's bizarre to me.

[00:39:00]You know, I looked up the history. I've I've read a lot about this, but I wanted to just get a a quick sketch uh you know, that we have here. So, the Cuban Revolution uh was in 1959.

[00:39:12]Then, of course, you had the the Cuban Missile Crisis, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion where we we wanted to oust them. There I guess there have been several attempts by the CIA to kill Castro.

[00:39:23]Uh a lot of Cold War hostility that was involved.

[00:39:27]Obama, you know, normalized relations with them and then Trump undid that in 2016.

[00:39:34]Um so, I don't know. I don't I mean, Phil says, let's see, "UK politically is a constitutional monarchy." Thank you, Phil, for the 20 lbs. He said, "New MPs must wear an oath of allegiance to the monarch." Which says a lot about the illusion of democracy, right? He says, "I see Donald Trump trying to make that fly if he could." Uh yeah, I think he would. Um I think that he is still somewhat restrained by what's left of the Constitution and the the Supreme Court. Uh it looks like there's some Republican pushback, too, against his uh slush fund for his supporters.

[00:40:10]But I just don't see how anybody is buying this, that all of the sudden we need a war with Cuba? I I I From the the president who said you know, no new wars. It just seems ridiculous to me, Persephone. That kind of I I think that that kind of bloodlust is not new.

[00:40:33]Um I think that there has historically been a lot of people that believe that America should be, you know, bombing the [ __ ] out of all of their enemies. The thing is that that sentiment has stayed in like relatively fringe groups.

[00:40:50]But now what you have is a guy with a lot of power who seems to have that same kind of bloodlust um building on ideas that have stayed on the fringe.

[00:41:03]That's what I think is happening because I've seen that kind of I've seen that kind of thing for years and years and years, but it's always been like a fringe sentiment.

[00:41:14]But it's existed.

[00:41:15]And now Trump's just making their dreams a reality.

[00:41:22]You know? There's a lot of There's a lot of people who think that anything that could potentially pose a threat even if it took them 100 years, if there's any hint of a threat, that America is powerful enough to just put them down and that they have the authority to just put them down.

[00:41:47]Um I'm going to send something to you. I want I want to see if you are able to uh post this cuz it's hilarious, Persephone.

[00:41:58]I just sent it to you.

[00:41:59]So, that's what I That's what I think.

[00:42:04]Oh god.

[00:42:05]What? What's wrong? Because I sent you something that I want you to post, it becomes an issue, it's hilarious. I could repeat it I could repeat it myself, but if I do, it's just not going to be as funny. It's a Tik Tok video of Trump.

[00:42:18]>> to look at his stupid [ __ ] face and I have to listen to >> have to really. Just close your eyes and stop being difficult to me.

[00:42:26]Please. I don't I There's a lot of problems in this world right now.

[00:42:30]>> I feel like that sentence has been used in in other contexts.

[00:42:35]What?

[00:42:36]Don't make this a problem for me. Just close your eyes and don't make it a problem for me.

[00:42:42]Oh, that's sick. I know. You have a sick sick mind. Okay.

[00:42:47]>> I want everybody to watch this. Let me put this up here.

[00:42:51]this weekend by the way? Uh he'd like me to go, but it's going to be just a small little private Just to set in case the question isn't in here. A reporter asked him if he's going to his son's wedding. Are you attending your son's wedding this weekend by the way? Uh he'd like me to go, but it's going to be just a small little private affair and I'm going to try and make it. I'm I'm in the midst I said, you know, this is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran and other things.

[00:43:19]Uh that's one I can't win on.

[00:43:21]If I do attend, I get killed. If I don't attend, I get killed by the fake news, of course, I'm talking about. No, but he's uh got a very uh person I've known for a long time and hopefully they're going to have a great marriage.

[00:43:37]>> [music] >> So, uh his son is a person he's known known for a long time.

[00:43:47]I you know, I I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. I think he's referring to the wife or or to the fiance, but it's not really clear. You know, he's got this thing called Iran. Uh he can golf very frequently during the Iranian war.

[00:44:01]That's not a problem, but going to his son's wedding, even though his son is a person he's known for a long time.

[00:44:09]You know, I saw I saw a video the other day and it was one of these one of these podcasters that debates people like they just invite people to debate them like on Discord and stuff. Yeah. And he had someone call in and this guy was obviously like a big Trump supporter and he said that like but Biden took far more vacation days than Trump.

[00:44:35]And they were like, "No, he didn't." And he was like, "Yeah, no, they did. Like he did."

[00:44:41]And they looked it up and they Googled it and they sourced and they were like, "No, Trump took x amount of days and Biden took like half." And he goes, "No, you can't use that as a source. Like what source are you using? Ask ChatGPT."

[00:44:59]So, they were like, "Okay, we'll ask ChatGPT." And they asked ChatGPT and it gave the same answer. And you know what this guy did?

[00:45:07]Said ask something else. Oh, okay. I believe that.

[00:45:10]>> he just left. He was like, "Well, if you're going to prove my if you're going to prove my opinions wrong and you're going to say my my facts are wrong, I'm just not even going to But he didn't He didn't even say anything. Just as soon as he was proved wrong by the source that he recommended, he just went and he left.

[00:45:28]And that's what that's what these people are like. It doesn't matter if you smack them in the face with reality.

[00:45:35]They They just go I can't see it if I if I choose not to pay attention, it's not real.

[00:45:43]That's what they do. They're like, "I just refuse to see that he's insane.

[00:45:49]I just refuse to acknowledge when he does insane things.

[00:45:55]Stick my fingers in my ear and go >> It just No, no, no.

[00:45:58]If there is a single thread that goes through all of this, through both parties. It's just a lack of reason and a lack of concern for evidence. It's like the lady the other day who told me it's morally wrong that billionaires make so much money, but couldn't tell me why it's morally wrong. They couldn't tell me the moral theory that she was operating under. That was just a lady on the street, but then the two people who were, you know, paid to debate the subject couldn't answer the question either or didn't answer it anyways.

[00:46:30]And it's very scary to me. Um I don't know if scary is the right word. I'm probably a little bit of hyperbole cuz it's not like I'm running around in fear.

[00:46:38]But it it is bothersome that people make moral pronouncements all the time that they can't justify. They believe things without evidence.

[00:46:49]And ultimately they have power over me.

[00:46:52]That's bothersome because they vote and the politicians cater to them and, you know, we get what we get. And as we've seen of late, uh people that I would have thought would have been better haven't been.

[00:47:06]Uh and I just don't uh I don't know what, you know, what's going to come of it all.

[00:47:11]But I do know one thing, I'm happy.

[00:47:14]And I'm going to keep being happy and I'm going to keep coming here every day and I'm going to keep making the arguments. And by the way, tomorrow we've got the great Megan Ribbons on uh Capitalist Corner Saturday, 12:00 noon Eastern Time to continue our discussion on education.

[00:47:30]That's going to be a lot of fun.

[00:47:32]You know what I think people need to do?

[00:47:34]I mean, look, you're you're talking about being able to watch a show that's hosted by somebody that's very, very pretty and Megan Ribbons. So.

[00:47:44]Very true.

[00:47:45]Very true. Someone who's much more handsome than Jiminy Cricket.

[00:47:49]Hey.

[00:47:53]So anyway, you know what I think people need to do?

[00:47:56]Buy merch.

[00:47:58]>> Yes. No, but seriously, I think people need to learn to detach from their tribal identities because people need to remember that they're an individual first.

[00:48:12]You're not You're not a Republican and then a person.

[00:48:16]You're not an American and then a person. You're an individual.

[00:48:21]And if you let go of that If you let go of that tribal animosity, then you'll probably find that you and a person you would otherwise have hated probably have a lot more in common than you think you do.

[00:48:40]Uh that's Persephone's advice.

[00:48:43]You know what I just did and I This happens to me all the time. I sent myself an email because I have to send the email I don't have to do it this way, but it's quicker if I do it this way from race uh I take the thumbnail and I email it to myself and then I forget I do it and I see I get the notification that I have an email and I'm happy cuz I'm waiting for some and then I go and look at it and it's for me and I get pissed.

[00:49:04]Yeah, I do that all the time.

[00:49:07]It's really stupid. What I want to know is does the audience have any questions?

[00:49:10]Cuz if not, we're going to wrap this up a little bit early on Friday. And Monday uh I haven't decided yet if we're going to do a show. I'll let you know.

[00:49:18]Monday's Memorial Day.

[00:49:20]Um so in America, they celebrate Memorial Day.

[00:49:24]It's It's to you know, remember the people who have died in war. Uh and you know, there's going to have nobody's going to work, so everybody's going to be here. It's going to be noisy. Plus, I don't know if the audience is going to be there. You know what? Memorial Day off. I've just made the decision.

[00:49:39]No show for you.

[00:49:41]But if you ask some questions now, I'd be happy to answer them.

[00:49:45]If not, 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time, we're going to be doing Everyday Ethics. Uh we're going to be discussing this movie that I watched last night called the Nick of Time or Nick of Time with Johnny Depp, Christopher Walken. You ever seen it, Persephone?

[00:49:57]I think so.

[00:50:00]Possibly.

[00:50:02]You know, it's so funny because I had such a good topic as well, but it's fine. We'll discuss it on Tuesday.

[00:50:07]Okay.

[00:50:08]Uh what am I going to do? Do I want to get Oh, why don't we go over the question and answers yesterday's question?

[00:50:13]>> them I have them next to me, but uh Rena wants to know, do you have barbecues on Memorial Day? Uh I don't, but some folks do, yes.

[00:50:22]So, here's the answers from yesterday.

[00:50:24]So, the question was what would the consequences be of banning billionaires?

[00:50:29]So, Akira says, "I think it would be similar to a wealth tax. Billionaires would just leave and disaster would follow. Just imagine all the corporations owned by billionaires closing down, like the Great Depression 2.0, no food for tomorrow."

[00:50:43]Um and then Greg Doherty says, "It would drive wealth underground, further concentrate power in Washington, increase corruption in government, reduce innovation and productivity, and lower the standard of living for most people. Example of hidden wealth, Stalin owned nothing, but he had exclusive use of vast owned estates."

[00:51:03]Um Acadian claim says, "Who is going to ban billionaires and how?" And then she says, "Like $1 under a billion is okay?"

[00:51:13]Stay mindful.

[00:51:19]That that was it?

[00:51:20]That was the That was the three answers that we got to the question. All right.

[00:51:24]So, what do I want to do for a capitalist thought of the day? What I want to do is say this.

[00:51:28]Uh I saw a quote this morning from Leonard Peikoff about how bad the Democrats are. I've seen quotes from Leonard Peikoff about how bad the Republicans are.

[00:51:37]I've lived now through a lot of administrations.

[00:51:41]Uh I absolutely hated Obama and never thought I I hate a president worse, and then Trump came along. It's clear to me that the answers that I'm looking for are not to be found with Republicans or Democrats.

[00:51:56]Probably not to be found with any mainstream politician out there.

[00:52:01]Um none of them are advocating for freedom. None of them are advocating for capitalism.

[00:52:08]Advocating for capitalism is what I try to do every day that I'm here in different ways from different angles.

[00:52:15]And I would just like everybody to remember what capitalism actually is.

[00:52:20]It's freedom.

[00:52:22]It means the freedom to use your mind, freedom to make your own choices, freedom to not be coerced.

[00:52:32]Uh and with a Memorial Day approaching, I think that it it's important to remember that although not always in practice, the way or or the the slogans and the purposes for all the wars were taught or or spread to be that they were fighting for freedom.

[00:52:55]A lot of people have died for freedom.

[00:52:59]Um whether we've actually achieved it, uh you know my answer we have not, but we certainly have more freedom than a lot of people in the history of the world have.

[00:53:09]So, let's be appreciative for the freedom that we have, for the the men and women who have died uh to protect it and to give it to us, and let's honor them and honor ourselves by promoting, advocating, arguing for freedom, aka capitalism.

[00:53:27]Now, Persephone, you can ask today's question.

[00:53:33]Uh what are you going to be doing on Memorial Day if you don't have have go to if you don't have to go to work.

[00:53:42]Half the Half the Half the audience are Americans. Well, if you are if you are American, tell me that. If you're not American, what's a public holiday that you have in your country that Americans don't have?

[00:53:57]Or bank holiday.

[00:53:59]Uh or I don't know what you call it in your country. In the UK, it's a bank holiday.

[00:54:05]In South Africa, it's a public holiday.

[00:54:08]Whatever. Your holiday >> holidays Yeah, what holidays do you have? So, Americans, what are you doing for Memorial Day?

[00:54:14]And then everyone else, what's a holiday that you have that Americans don't?

[00:54:19]Awesome. Okay, we're going to be out of here, but we'll be back 2:30 p.m.

[00:54:23]Eastern Time on this channel. The Rational Alternative is the YouTube channel. We have Everyday Ethics 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time today and 12:00 noon Eastern Time tomorrow, Capitalist Corner Saturday. Until then, remember to check your premises and peace.