Love Joseph Wang’s observations and I recognise myself in the being fooled by various ‘high brow’ credentials (even though my father had shared with me when I was a child that he met many Harvard Med grads and was unimpressed - said without arrogance). I should have known better, but sometimes we have to learn the ‘hard way’ as I say to my own kids. For me, I gave Rachel Maddow unquestioning credibility because she was a ‘Rhodes scholar’. I am now where Wang is.
But I disagree with with Wang on the role of Twitter. Yes it is destabilising and yes there are many peddling garbage. But, pending more extreme censorship, it is one of the few places we CAN get a glimpse behind the curtain. But not just to see the clowns and the phonies: we can also find voices of objectivity and truth - enough of a glimpse to encourage us to question what we thought we knew - and eventually we find ‘light’, like your work Rudy, which lead to other sources of ‘light’. We don’t have to agree with everything, but we are least given the privilege of hearing/reading another point of view and/or examining facts ourselves. So rather than a threat to society, I think sources like twitter are one of our few hopes of getting access to truth left. But we do have to swim with the sharks.
And it is for this reason, IMO, vested interests are so interested in scaring people off social media with the constant drum beat of ‘mis-information’.
Both excellent tweets and can’t be retweeted enough. What’s interesting in the horrible events in the Middle East a lot more people are seeing through the US BS. Any sane person wants the killing on both sides to stop and negations/diplomacy - its got to be clear now to the diehards that the US abdicated its role as the moralising master. The Native Americans nailed it when they observed, ‘white man speaks with forked tongue’. Boy do we ever.
100%. Putin sought a diplomatic resolution more than once. As usual our ‘wise’ US leaders thought they knew better and now brag what great value this war is since no US lives are being lost. I don’t fancy our chances if this Mid East crisis escalates. Russia is now a fine tuned military force and Iran is no push over - meanwhile we rely on China for spare parts. And reading Matt Stoller’s latest on pentagon purchasing . . . Seriously?
Thanks for the heads-up RE The Prairie Traveller. As a student of/former participant of COIN, and a grizzled old trapper, surprised I had not heard of it. As an old mentor frequently cackled at me, "You don't even know what you don't know yet!" I have proven him correct time and again!
Well said Kristi. 🔥 I walk the neighborhood every morning and I find fewer and fewer newspapers on the driveways. My mom religiously read the newspaper for decades and at 80 years old she finally ended her subscription recently. I asked why and she said it was because it’s too expensive, there’s less to read every year, and they just repeat the same the headlines. She finally tired of the propaganda. For my own curiosity I asked her about inflation and what caused it to see what she’d say. She admitted she didn’t know except that she would have to save even harder than before. Decades of reading the “news” and she didn’t know. This essentially sums up my frustration with people’s understanding of money. I was fortunate to unlearn all the Keynesian BS thanks to Ron Paul’s presidential run in 2007, Austrian economics, and yes Twittter. Grateful for the truth about how money (and the world) really works and that we all still have access to it if we just do a little digging... or get lucky enough to stumble upon Rudy.
That works. Thank you 🙏. I’m almost halfway through this post and the way you’ve curated and threaded all the different quotes, visuals, and podcasts to create an interlocking theme feels like discovering new medium. All the pertinent receipts you’ve collected and share are gifts to people like me who love history and are tired of the lies and endless grift. So much gratitude for what you do. Thank you again.
Love Joseph Wang’s observations and I recognise myself in the being fooled by various ‘high brow’ credentials (even though my father had shared with me when I was a child that he met many Harvard Med grads and was unimpressed - said without arrogance). I should have known better, but sometimes we have to learn the ‘hard way’ as I say to my own kids. For me, I gave Rachel Maddow unquestioning credibility because she was a ‘Rhodes scholar’. I am now where Wang is.
But I disagree with with Wang on the role of Twitter. Yes it is destabilising and yes there are many peddling garbage. But, pending more extreme censorship, it is one of the few places we CAN get a glimpse behind the curtain. But not just to see the clowns and the phonies: we can also find voices of objectivity and truth - enough of a glimpse to encourage us to question what we thought we knew - and eventually we find ‘light’, like your work Rudy, which lead to other sources of ‘light’. We don’t have to agree with everything, but we are least given the privilege of hearing/reading another point of view and/or examining facts ourselves. So rather than a threat to society, I think sources like twitter are one of our few hopes of getting access to truth left. But we do have to swim with the sharks.
And it is for this reason, IMO, vested interests are so interested in scaring people off social media with the constant drum beat of ‘mis-information’.
https://twitter.com/RudyHavenstein/status/1448015657002360835
also
https://twitter.com/RudyHavenstein/status/1255963055130923009
Both excellent tweets and can’t be retweeted enough. What’s interesting in the horrible events in the Middle East a lot more people are seeing through the US BS. Any sane person wants the killing on both sides to stop and negations/diplomacy - its got to be clear now to the diehards that the US abdicated its role as the moralising master. The Native Americans nailed it when they observed, ‘white man speaks with forked tongue’. Boy do we ever.
They need to get to the negotiating table in Ukraine too.
100%. Putin sought a diplomatic resolution more than once. As usual our ‘wise’ US leaders thought they knew better and now brag what great value this war is since no US lives are being lost. I don’t fancy our chances if this Mid East crisis escalates. Russia is now a fine tuned military force and Iran is no push over - meanwhile we rely on China for spare parts. And reading Matt Stoller’s latest on pentagon purchasing . . . Seriously?
Thanks for the heads-up RE The Prairie Traveller. As a student of/former participant of COIN, and a grizzled old trapper, surprised I had not heard of it. As an old mentor frequently cackled at me, "You don't even know what you don't know yet!" I have proven him correct time and again!
Well said Kristi. 🔥 I walk the neighborhood every morning and I find fewer and fewer newspapers on the driveways. My mom religiously read the newspaper for decades and at 80 years old she finally ended her subscription recently. I asked why and she said it was because it’s too expensive, there’s less to read every year, and they just repeat the same the headlines. She finally tired of the propaganda. For my own curiosity I asked her about inflation and what caused it to see what she’d say. She admitted she didn’t know except that she would have to save even harder than before. Decades of reading the “news” and she didn’t know. This essentially sums up my frustration with people’s understanding of money. I was fortunate to unlearn all the Keynesian BS thanks to Ron Paul’s presidential run in 2007, Austrian economics, and yes Twittter. Grateful for the truth about how money (and the world) really works and that we all still have access to it if we just do a little digging... or get lucky enough to stumble upon Rudy.
G.K. Chesterton quote from All Things Considered (2nd link from top) is broken. I enjoyed the quote and was hoping to read more.
Weird. I will try to find a better link to the 1908 book. Should be public domain.
Let me know if this works https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11505
That works. Thank you 🙏. I’m almost halfway through this post and the way you’ve curated and threaded all the different quotes, visuals, and podcasts to create an interlocking theme feels like discovering new medium. All the pertinent receipts you’ve collected and share are gifts to people like me who love history and are tired of the lies and endless grift. So much gratitude for what you do. Thank you again.
Thank you!
🎶Where do I go from here to a better state than this?