Yannis Pappas Hour - Why Left-Wing Populism Fails Long-Term | YP Hour

Episode Date: July 3, 2026

A data-driven look at the rise of left-wing populism and why policies that feel good in the short term can create very different results over time. Yannis breaks down socialism, wealth taxes, immigrat...ion, crime, and the growing divide between political ideals and real-world outcomes. Support our sponsors: To get simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, Hair Loss, Weight Loss, and more, visit https://Hims.com/YANNIS. Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/yannis! #squarepod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you. It's everything you want denim to feel like for summer. Easy, breathable, and effortlessly cool. With a fit that creates natural movement and a wide leg that feels modern, not overwhelming. Plus, that signature, wait, for this price, moment. Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg. What's up, everybody.
Starting point is 00:00:27 Welcome to another episode of Janus Pappas. You know what that means. That means we have some sponsor coming up at some point where I'm going to pitch you some. It could be worth your while or it could not be worth you while depending on what your needs are, each according to his need according to his ability or ability. I can never remember it because there's something in my gut that told me it's not important information. Do you know that's what your brain does? your brain goes, if you find yourself going like,
Starting point is 00:01:00 how come I remember some things and how come I don't remember other things? How come I'm good at some things and how come I'm not good at other things? It's because we all have different interests. We're all wired differently. We all have different passions and the things that we deem important, we just remember easier, right? So it's like that's why I remember, you know, I remember the flavors is in that I like.
Starting point is 00:01:21 I know what they're called, right? I like peach. I just know these things that are important. to me, but I can't quite remember what the exact Marxist saying is, because even before I really understand or understood the historical implications of both, or, you know, what the roles were, what a mixed economy was, before I knew who Keynes was, before I knew, you know, I knew how to sound smarter at a party by saying Keynesian. Before any of that, there was just something that just seemed a little off about it, meaning utopian, meaning like just some instinct so I can never
Starting point is 00:02:01 quite really remember it. But I need to learn it. You need to learn it to do a little tequila if it takes over. Nobody's above a little tequila. Tequia's brilliant, right? Tequia, you just, if you're outnumbered or if something goes against what you really believe or whatever, just go with the flow. If you can't beat them, join them. I think that was in the Bible. And no, I'm not wearing these sunglasses for any other reason except for the fact that the only prescription glasses that I have because I drove here and I forgot to bring ones that weren't. And I was stupid enough when this was, I bought these a while ago, where I didn't really understand what transitions were. So like, would you like to make them
Starting point is 00:02:48 transition? And I was like, no, I want some shades. I want some prescription shades. I wish these were transition because these are fucking cute. But they're just shades. So when I put these on since their prescription, I sometimes forget my regular glasses. So these are on glasses, but they are prescriptions so I can see the screen, which by the way, the Samsung's doing very well.
Starting point is 00:03:09 It's doing very well. That Samsung is three girlfriends old. I got, that thing is 2010 or 11? Hold it on that thing. So, you know, Tequia is something we all have to do at some certain point. And I got very curious, right? It's mom-dami madness. You know how Ling sanity?
Starting point is 00:03:39 It was properly known as Ling sanity. Or if you were in the Chinese community and you were a little excited about it because you were watching a Chinese guy be good at something that usually only black people are going to. Um, there's one Chinese guy that had any impact at that level. And his name was Yao Ming and he was made by the Chinese government. But Ling, Ling, so if you were from New York and you were original, you called them, I was here for Ling sanity and you put a G on it. I remember Ling sanity. We all like, I'm a big fan of Link sanity.
Starting point is 00:04:14 But if you're Chinese, you probably went, Ling sanity, Ling, I'm sure there's like a lean to it. but he's an Asian like Bible thumper. A kid loves the Bible. He's very Christian. He was also, for him intellectually, for his people, he was intellectually inferior because he played basketball, even though I think he went to Harvard, right? Didn't he graduate from Harvard? I think he was a Harvard kid, and he played for Harvard.
Starting point is 00:04:40 So nobody, you know, which for him, basketball player at Harvard, it's like he probably was like a social studies A plus major, while he played basketball. But for the Chinese community expectation, that's moron. They look at that kid and he goes, moron. He's not a chemical engineer. He's not a fucking engineer. He's not a physicist.
Starting point is 00:05:01 He's not a doctor. So I remember Link Sandy. So I think Mamdami madness is what I call it, right? And we just don't know, you know, what we do. Well, here's the thing. Here's the thing. Here's the thing that I'm interested in as I've gotten a little older, is I've realized younger people tend to be more short-sighted than older people.
Starting point is 00:05:31 Not a knock on older people, not a strength or a weakness, because I think with short-term thinking comes a certain idealism that you need for progress, which is good. And I think older people, since they were once young, and things don't usually work out or you don't have the experience base to know how things are going to work out tend to have a little bit more longer thinking.
Starting point is 00:05:57 And it's ironic like most things, right? It's ironic because you would think if it was perfect. Just as ironic as when, you know, Samuel Clements, otherwise known as Mark Twain, said, life is understood backwards but live forwards. It's like, damn, it's just the way it works, right? So it's a little ironic
Starting point is 00:06:16 because you would think that a younger person would, they'd be better off if they had better long-term planning because it got longer to go. But that's not the way it's set up here in this simulation. For some reason, when you're older, you got better long-term planning when you need it less, right? So it's opposite of the way it would ideally be. And that's how you know we don't live in an ideal place.
Starting point is 00:06:41 Because younger people, they're just more short-term in their thinking and older people are more long-term in their thinking because of their experience from being young and being wrong from their short-term thinking. So neither one of them is bad. I think it's just a consequence of the way things are. You know, lack of experience brings short-term thinking. And experience brings long-term thinking. And you try to say to young people, hey, I was, I know where you're at, but, you know, this is what's happened.
Starting point is 00:07:11 And then young people, you know, should say to old people like, you know, you, did. How do you think change happened? Like you got to, and both of them have merits, right? So my point is, since I'm a little bit of an older person, you know, compared to the younger people, I'm young compared to some 90-year-old, which means I'm not young anymore. If a young man is only coming from people who can barely walk to me now, that's who's calling me young man. Otherwise, I'm Mr. Pappas or sir.
Starting point is 00:07:42 I'm in that category. I'm gray-bearded. I do look young for my age, but I'm a sir now or mister. No longer, hey young man's coming from a fucking 90 year old. I do tend to get a little interested in historical patterns, right? So,
Starting point is 00:08:03 Mom Dami, he's not the first Democratic socialist or progressive to run a city. And what we tend to see in the erstwhile examples of this in big significant and notable cities, which we've had, is what we call short-term populism, short-term populism, right? And what does that mean? That means that the similar pattern,
Starting point is 00:08:39 it's a pattern that kind of has the same anatomy right so Portland Seattle Portland Seattle and San Francisco are the three examples that you can use as parallels in that cities that got really hot a lot of business float in there very progressive to begin with because you have educated people educated people want to look at themselves as good people they don't live around poor people. So to compensate for that, they support policies that support them that way, right? It's this sort of subconscious or sometimes conscious balancing act that people do to resolve that conflict. Right.
Starting point is 00:09:33 It's the reason why sometimes you'll often find privileged people become socialists. It's guilt about their unearned wealth. You know, it's a Hassan Piker type. My dad's a high-level engaged capitalist. I'm an international kid. I grew up in the highest society of both countries. I went to private school. I wrote a horse at some point.
Starting point is 00:10:00 If there's a picture of you on a horse, you know, and it's not like a rural picture. Like you didn't grow up on a family farm in Mississippi. If you're on there with a hat, If you're on there with one of those polo hat, if you're on there with a rider hat, it means you got next level money compared to wherever you live. Doesn't mean you're a Rockefeller.
Starting point is 00:10:23 You get what I'm saying. And the socialism, I think there's some sort of, it sort of resolves that conflict a little bit, right? And you see that a lot with people who have inherited wealth, privilege, whatever you want to call it, okay? Whatever you learned, whatever school you went to, privilege, wealth, inheritance. It resolves that conflict a little bit.
Starting point is 00:10:46 So you see that a lot in these already progressive cities. So progressive people, educated people come work for Nike or they work for Starbucks. Costco. I think Costco's out there in Seattle or Portland or one of those. You know, there's a lot of business going on. So that means the place starts popping. You know, by the way, that's what makes cities. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:11:08 I don't know what you thought makes cities, but it's not the punk rock scene that comes first, right? The punk rock scene has to rebel against something. It doesn't come in a vacuum. So the city gets good because of business is the reason why Rome or any port city becomes huge, right? Aleppo at some point, there's some trade route or port or Silk Road that's on the way. New York, Port, Los Angeles Port.
Starting point is 00:11:40 So business gets hot. And the people who flock to those cities, who emigrated those cities, did it for work. And they lived and they drove up the prices with each other. A gold rush. That's how it works. The demand outweighs the supply a little bit. The demand gets high. And so prices skyrocket.
Starting point is 00:12:01 And everyone's got progressive politics because they're all, they start out as good people. I'm good people. We're going out. It's all whites. It's all rich people. We're at the, we work at the Nike headquarters, which is a little outside Portland, right? It's a little outside, but it's like, you know, we'll go downtown for brunch or whatever. And like, I won't, I'll like be, you know, secretly like this guy smells, get him away. But I will support the policies, right, that would make him, give him money, right? Because I got a heart. I'm a good. people. We're all virtue signaling to each other, but we're good people, even though we live nowhere near, nowhere near the consequences of our policy decisions. Defund the police sounds
Starting point is 00:12:48 great when you live in Carroll Gardens and a $4 million brownstone and your name is David Cross in the most exclusive neighborhood in New York City. It's probably the most exclusive residential brownstone area in all of New York City. So that's what you do. That's how you resolve. it, right? You don't live in the neighborhood with high crime who wants more police because then when you go talk to those people, they go, we need more police. So you're going, that's the disconnect and that's how you resolve it. That's the conflict. That's how you resolve. Right. So these cities are similar in that way. They became like New York. They're already liberal, very liberal. But then things get unaffordable because everyone moves there and not everyone succeeds. So people go
Starting point is 00:13:33 there for opportunity. And then you got a whole bunch of people who didn't make it. Right? But they got a taste of the Ethiopian food. They got a taste of the German beer garden. They got a taste of the Puerto Rican flavor. They got a taste of the salsa of the multiculturalism. They got a taste of the hit vibe.
Starting point is 00:13:55 I'm where it's happening. I don't have to hold a buzzeret panera bread anymore. I don't got to get in my car to go to a fucking solar strip. mall. And so there's this, they don't want to leave, right? They still, they're in this holding pattern where it's like, you didn't make it, you didn't get that top job at Nike, you did it, you know, but you're in the hot place. And now you're at risk of going homeless, right? You could go back to where your parents live in that suburb that you came from or wherever, where they were treated to to raise you, it would be much more affordable.
Starting point is 00:14:34 You'd be able to get on your feet and get a job at some company, right? Unemployment's what, 10% less than 10%. There's jobs out there. But that's not what you want. You want to stay there. So what we got to do at that point is we got to get more money for our, we got to get more money somehow, right? And somebody comes along and says, I got to.
Starting point is 00:15:01 planned to fix this inequality happening in this place. And you're going, yonest, inequality is countrywide. Yeah, yeah, some places more than others, obviously, you know, especially since COVID, the chokehold has seemed to remain a little bit on prices rising and incomes, not matching it, happening a little before, but then COVID really ramped that up because of supply chain problems or just companies like raising prices, saying it was. supply chains and then like saying, all right,
Starting point is 00:15:34 let's keep it here. We're not going to lower prices now, right? Whatever the reasons are we're in this situation. Or in and capitalism. Or that too. Final state's capitalism. What's it called? What do they call it?
Starting point is 00:15:48 They call it final state. Huh? Late stage. Late stage. Late stage capitalism. Whatever you think it is, we're here. But I'm just saying the cities are similar in that way. And then they elect a far left or a pure socialist or as pure as you can get.
Starting point is 00:16:09 And it's the socialism is this thing, right? It's this funny thing where you go, what really are you? Because sometimes they'll say things like capitalism is an irredeemable system. And you go, what was that? What did you just say? And they go, well, you know, you're calling me a communist. What the fuck is wrong? Who would, who would dare?
Starting point is 00:16:31 call AOC a fucking communist where you're going, she said capitalism is an irredeemable system. So you're going, I'm, is she? And she's not. So it's this kind of shape-shifty, what is socialism, right? Because we have it. We have a mixed economy. Everywhere does.
Starting point is 00:16:51 By the way, Sweden has taken a turn for the right. Fiscally, financially, economically, and also definitely on immigration. You see that all over Europe, right? So that's not the shiny. Sweden is not the, if you've noticed,
Starting point is 00:17:09 and nobody really does notice, except for the Yanipu, Sweden isn't really the shiny hill, isn't the shiny city on the hill anymore. You notice that? Bernie doesn't mention it that much anymore. The younger protegees or whatever, right? But I don't know, like,
Starting point is 00:17:27 because you know they, you know Hassan Piker's like, I like Bernie, He's Jewish. You know, there's a little bit of that, right? We can see that for the way they kind of yelled at that state senator in San Francisco. It's a little bit of that. It's a human nature, right?
Starting point is 00:17:42 It's like, you know, it's like the Israeli government is, I'm telling you, a lot of people work for the Israeli government. In their eyes, right? So, Zionist, Zionist, it's just, it's become that blanket. Are you Zionist? Are you not? You're going, what exactly even does that mean? What does that mean now? Does that mean people who want to expand the far right over there?
Starting point is 00:18:08 There's not a lot of rule for nuance. Does it mean the far right religious people who want the whole thing? Does it mean the people who took the Jews out of Gaza and gave, what, and what does it mean? They're there. Zionism was the thing to go there, but now they're there. So are they still the people there? Are they Zionists? I don't know because I know that there's.
Starting point is 00:18:29 various opinions within Israel. So, and then they go, Natan Yahoo, just Natan Yahoo, but also all of them. So it's just this shape-shifting thing, much like socialism, where it's like, and then Mamdami,
Starting point is 00:18:45 you hear him go, you know, when we reached the stage of seizing the modes of production, you're going, what did you say? What was that? Who was that?
Starting point is 00:18:55 What did you say? Are you communists? They go, why would, you stupid? How stupid are you? And then they yell at you, the people, the kids, they yell at you. They go, how stupid do you have to be to think AOC's communist?
Starting point is 00:19:08 How stupid do you got to be to think that Mom Dami's commerce? He said, well, and listen to what he said. And what he said is the end goal of seizing the modes of production from the Communist Manifesto. Seizing the modes, seizing, seizing, taking them for the president. proletariat, right? And she said capitalism is an irredeemable system. So you go, what was that? You know that, you know that meme where he's at the TV?
Starting point is 00:19:41 Where Leonardo Cabral? Right there, right there, right there. So you go, what is that, right? So I bring that up to say, like, I don't really know, right? Like what they, you know, because we do have the most progressive tax system in the world as it is. So, and I don't think most young progressives even know that, right? I think it's just the slogan, the emotion, tax the rich. You're like, we're taxing.
Starting point is 00:20:08 I mean, we're, I mean, the top 10% pay fucking 70% of it, whatever the, it's an overwhelming majority of the taxes that get redistributed to the poor come from the top overwhelmingly. There's an argument to be made. The middle class is getting squeezes. There's an argument to be made that these loopholes, the billionaires take advantage of. don't allow them to pay their fair share because they hide their wealth in the fucking in the stocks and then they borrow against that wealth because they know it'll be able to pay back. And it's this nifty little loophole that you could probably do something with.
Starting point is 00:20:40 Right. But that aside, you look at those cities as examples and what you've seen is what is called short-term populism. What does that mean? That means the consequences actually didn't take long to manifest. it was a nice boost and it's usually like a year or two in a year or two you you tend you have some spending problems because you're constantly asking for taxes the tax base starts leaving a little bit but it's not just that it's that you're wanting more benefits than people are willing to pay right so the people like we want all this stuff and then you go okay we got to raise taxes and then the rich you're going like, fuck that.
Starting point is 00:21:28 And the middle's going like, no, no, no, don't touch us, touch them. And then they're going, we're out. Right. So it becomes a spending problem. And you, I think, I think Seattle's got a $500 million
Starting point is 00:21:44 deficit, which isn't, you know, all big cities struggle to a certain extent, but she's got some problems. I know Portland, the homelessness and the crime rate is bad. I know, see, everyone's going, look at the crime rates. Well, that's nationwide.
Starting point is 00:22:01 The thing that worries me, like people say, oh, it's the lowest crime rate mom, that already was historic lows before he got elected. But the thing that worries me as a New Yorker, which there's not many of us left who are from here or remember times that were not that great was that subway crime is on the rise, which is for me a bad indication. But yeah, so they're about 500 mil, right? She's got a deficit of 500 mil. Over the next three years, which with a $175 million shortfall projected for 2027 alone.
Starting point is 00:22:42 So the city's fund is strained. Rising public safety, homelessness, service costs, of course, a little bit inflation. and lower than expected property and real estate transfer. They have a real problem in downtown, right? So what's going on there again in downtown for Katie Wilson? Who said bye. Remember she was the one who went like, bang to the businesses we're leaving?
Starting point is 00:23:11 They have like a commercial real estate crisis in Seattle. So these are real problems. that manifest. Yeah, what is that? City struggling with a 32 to 35% office vacancy rate and 48% drop in downtown building value. Roughly 30 to 40,000 downtown jobs have been lost since 2020. There's a lot of tax revenue that has been lost, right? I think one of them has gone to Nashville.
Starting point is 00:23:55 Starbucks has taken a lot of the jobs to Nashville. You know, so these policies have consequences, and it seems to be a real short-term game. And that's the honeymoon phase, baby. It's the honeymoon phase. The thing is people just, they wrapped up in emotion, right? And it's funny because all this information is at everyone's fingertips.
Starting point is 00:24:23 But the problem with truth and data is really as close to truth as you can get is it's not that people don't want truth. People do want truth. What people don't like is changing their identity. Change is disorienting, right? learning something new that might threaten your identity. And once your identity is formed as something you hate in opposition to something, that makes nuance disappear. And it also opens a door for extreme behavior.
Starting point is 00:25:02 That's just the way the anatomy works. So when your identity is against the rich or again, nuance is gone. And that's your identity now. So if I bring up some data of past examples, it's not that you don't like truth. It's like it's that you're not even listening because that would threaten your identity. And the thing about human nature the most
Starting point is 00:25:26 is they don't, people do not want to change their identity. For some reason, it's disorienting. And it's very uncomfortable. And people just don't like to do change, right? For whatever reason. So that's where we are, you know? Howard Shultz of Starbucks and, Jeff Bezos have relocated their residences and wealth at a state to zero income tax regions
Starting point is 00:25:54 like Florida, which if you had their business responsibility and wealth would do too. So don't act like he who's without sin cast the first town. You'd be the same, right? I know you have this position that nobody earns a billion dollars. tell that to LeBron James, who's a billionaire. It's never about LeBron James. If something's been off in the bedroom, you're not the only one, guys. Hymns connects you with licensed healthcare providers online,
Starting point is 00:26:28 giving you simple access to legitimate ED treatment options for home. No awkward appointments, no pharmacy lines. Just complete the simple online intake and a provider will review your information to determine if treatment is right for you, have prescribed. Your treatment ships directly to you. you at your door in discrete packaging. It's very nice. That includes Sinatofil, and that's also known as the generic for Viagra, available through Hymns at up to 95% less than the brand name version. It's the way to go. Everything's easy to get simple online access to personalize affordable care
Starting point is 00:27:07 for ED, hair loss, weight loss, and more. Visit Hymns.com slash Janus. That's Hymns.com slash Janus for your free online visit Hymns.com slash Janus. Prescription required. See website for details and important safety information. Sanadafil is a generic version of Viagra. Viagra is a registered trademark of Viatris Specialty LLC. Hymns is not affiliated with or endorsed by Viatris. Ooh, my friends, let me tell you about Square. You know what I like about Square?
Starting point is 00:27:39 It makes running a business feel a little less like. putting out fires. Square simplifies the messy stuff. It works for one location shops and businesses with multiple teams or service areas. You don't need an IT team anymore, an IT team or a degree in accounting. It scales for you. Whether you're selling from a stall or expanding the storefronts, get real seller stats. Okay? Businesses using Square online earned 36% more revenue because you make it easy for everybody. On average. Square helps us, here's a quote. Square helps us keep everything under control even during the lunch rush. And that was from Blue Bottle Coffee.
Starting point is 00:28:15 Square is great. It's the best system powering like half the places I go to, to be honest with you. If you ever tap to pay at a place and thought, well, that was fast. It was probably Square. Whether you're selling lattes, cutting hair, detailing cars are running a design studio. Square helps you run your business without running yourself into the ground. Right now, listeners. can get up to $200 of Square hardware when you sign up at square.com slash go slash Janus.
Starting point is 00:28:48 That's S-Q-U-A-R-E dot com slash go slash Janus. Visit Square to get started because the right tools make all the difference. But that's funny to me that, because I got sidetracked, that Sweden was like, that's all you heard about, just like Sweden. And now you don't hear that anymore. because Sweden's not like Sweden. Sweden has taken a hard turn to the right, privatizing health care in a lot of ways,
Starting point is 00:29:19 a lot of options. They still, of course, got their universal benefits and their maternity leave, but it's taken a hard turn to the right, economically and with its immigration policy. So the new shining city on a hill is a strange one that I hear. It's China.
Starting point is 00:29:41 It's become China, which is also this sort of amorphous, shape-shifting ideal, where it's like a person broadcasts from there and goes, this place is great. And doesn't mention that he's not allowed to say anything different by law. Right? also doesn't mention that China is a state-directed capitalist country, right? Is an authoritarian country that runs surveillance on all its citizens souped nuts. And this has been revealed, as well as many other problems. So it's you just, when you're an idealist, when you're an idealist, you highlight the things, It's like why we remember the things that, you know, like it's the reason why I remember the
Starting point is 00:30:43 peaches in. It's relevant. We remember the things that support our identity and we sort of just overlook the things that we don't, right? That's just how it goes. It's like with the shrouded turen, right? This one scientist who's obviously, you know, wants to make a name for himself, goes, and then the headlines go, shrouded to Turen is debunked, right? because he did a 3D modeling or the Bass Relief, they've tried it.
Starting point is 00:31:13 And what they really achieved was visual similarity, but none of the microscopic. I'm not smart enough to remember all the Trostochiatric properties. The point is they actually proved the opposite because they couldn't recreate the unexplainable qualities, but they caught visual similarity. and the headline runs with, and it's like, but it's not true
Starting point is 00:31:42 because there's a lot of people who want it to bunk, and there's a lot of people who want to believe it, right? And then there's the truth of it. And very few people are going to dig through all that for the truth of it, right? Because we're just wired that way, like to be in a group, right?
Starting point is 00:32:01 To feel safe in a group. So China's become this, weird new Sweden where they go china's gray China's fucking gray China's communist is great and then the kid starts dressing like Mao I mean it's it's funny it's funny on a level that you know it's just funny it's like a it's like a Christopher guest movie when I see that kid having his producer his friend take a picture of him
Starting point is 00:32:31 reading Trotsky on the train like it in the mouth thing I mean, it's just very funny. The kid's father is a VP of some multinational. His brother's some engineer, Western. It's just very funny in a $2 million house and fucking Echo Park or wherever. It's the thing is funny. And you go, that's not relevant. You're going, is it not relevant?
Starting point is 00:32:55 If Jesus was a military dictator who had slaves, would that change his message a little bit? Your lifestyle is kind of relevant. No? Practice what you preach is a little relevant. sometimes it takes an analogy to point it out. So it's very funny because what I see when I see that Trotsky, whatever Lenin or the Lenin Balkan, he's sitting there, you know,
Starting point is 00:33:18 his little lights in the train. What I see is like, oh, these are kids who are really in a centralized power because that's an aspect of it that's never mentioned, right? It's like all these countries, all these intellectuals who came up, you know, who supported Marxism, whatever, or tried to employ it or did employ it. One thing that came with it was centralized power. So it's really funny.
Starting point is 00:33:45 Centralized power. So you're going like, but they ignore that part, right? So you ignore that part. Because if I asked him, it would trip him up. I'd be like, so are you in a centralized power? And what does centralized power mean? You know what it means. It means the communists, the party, have control.
Starting point is 00:34:05 right you're are there any are there any capitalist streamers in in in uh cuba are there any capitalist dreamers in you know Venezuela or are there communist dreamers of capitalist yeah it's capitalism is so decentralized and free and and and walks hand in hand with freedom so much that you can actually become rich talking about how bad it is to be rich right But you can't do that because of centralized power. And why does it need centralized power? Because you're taking money. You're taking it, right?
Starting point is 00:34:44 It's theirs. Despite what you think, they earned it one way or the other, right? The value of them. So people go, we've got to confiscate Elon Wealth's a trillion. He's not a trillionaire on paper. If the stock price drops, he's down hundreds of billions of dollars. So how do you confiscate value? How do you confiscate Jalen?
Starting point is 00:35:05 what Jalen Brunson, what people perceive Jalen Brunson to do for a team now. How do you confiscate that? People are going to go, the Knicks are going to go, we're throwing this at you. Other teams are going to go, we're throwing this at you because of what they deem to be the value. It's subjective. It's not paper. It's not on paper.
Starting point is 00:35:27 So investors are throwing this money at Musk because they believe in what he's doing and his track record. And so it's in stock prices. which means it's also in other people's wealth. People are investing their money in him, which are making him worth a trillion dollars. But he doesn't have a trillion dollars to take. Am I wrong?
Starting point is 00:35:48 Absolutely right. So these are the nuances that come with the real grown-up world that I understand why these things are ignored from young people because young people have what they call short-term thinking, short-term planning. They don't, a lot of them don't have a five-year plan. A lot of them don't look into some of these inconvenient facts or realistic examples or data. Data is soul-crushing, dude.
Starting point is 00:36:16 Data is soul-crushing, right? It's soul-crushing. It forces you to chain. Nobody likes that. Nobody likes that for whatever reason. So you're going to see what you want to see, right? What you're bringing in is what you're going to see. What your identity was, the moment.
Starting point is 00:36:32 you saw the new information, the new information is not automatically going to be absorbed. It's going to meet the resistance of who you were before you had the new information because you want to remain that person because it's just disorienting where you go, who am I now? What? So things are different. I look at this different. Am I still friends with this? Now I'm looking at this person thinking they're stupid?
Starting point is 00:37:01 Who am I? Who are they? Who's everything? It's disorienting. Everything I brought up is 100% fucking true. There's nothing you can do about it. Okay? In one to two years in those examples,
Starting point is 00:37:17 things tended to go a little south. It had bad consequences in Seattle, Portland, or at best, even if you're a fanatic, mixed results. We'll say mixed results. The fascinating thing to me, me was it only took about a year or two. So we're going to wait. Now, that doesn't go to say that I don't think maybe Mom Dami was a necessary short-term correction that maybe needed to have. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:37:44 Only time will tell. But this whole thing that he has come in and did like a water and a wine. I mean, what he did was he put off people's pensions. He took a loan from the state. He took tax money from the state. He's doing a lot of stuff. He's, he's, he's, You know, he's got the rent freezes sign. Now the consequences come, right? Four things that have been done. Unless he's got some magic touch we don't know about, we can expect because of the data for it to go similarly mixed results or bad,
Starting point is 00:38:24 depending on how honest you want to be about it, right? Landlords now cannot adjust for increasing places, and they bail. that's his goal to get him out so the city takes it. I don't know how devious this kid is or how much of a communist is. All I know is that he said he wants to seize the modes of production. At some point he said that. I saw him say it. So I don't know.
Starting point is 00:38:47 But I don't think he's that smart. Maybe he is the kid is fucking good. Right. Now, when you look at those cities, you just see this stuff happen, right? Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco. San Francisco is now doing well. What happened in San Francisco? Do you want to take a peek?
Starting point is 00:39:11 And while we pull it up, I just want to say, I'm an optimist in the sense that if you want to know what my position is, beyond a professional notice or an observer who likes to convey what I notice and bring it to you and making you feel all whatever you're feeling, my position is I actually think. the combination of natural law, natural rights from the Renaissance, Roman law, Hellenic ideas, Judeo-Christian values. That combination has created a nice little society
Starting point is 00:39:54 that resulted in a checks and balance system, a Democratic republic. And I think, why is my voice going higher? I think that as long as the system said, I think it's a good idea that you change leaders. I think power corrupts. I think when the American founders made this country, they did it on a data set. They look back in history and said, okay,
Starting point is 00:40:24 just no king, it doesn't work. Kings, dictators, it don't work. It always turns bad. No matter how good you are, power corrupts. You got to change that diaper for the same reason. You change it on a kid because the person in power starts to stink after a couple years. So can we put some fucking term limits on these fucking Congress members? And maybe even on a fucking Supreme Court.
Starting point is 00:40:49 You know, it's a living document. They even did that. You can amend it. It ain't the Quran. It ain't the principles of Sharia law. It can be amended. So they left room. They were humble enough, they had enough humility to leave room for this document can change based on region logic coming along.
Starting point is 00:41:12 So as long, I'm an optimist in that way. As long as this system's good, things tend to provide short-term solutions, course corrections, and the pendulum swings as it should and needs to, right? The problem is when you get these utopian beliefs that it's going to be all good, no bad, which some of these people seem to have, right? It's like, just do this and we're good. It's like, well, you're ignoring the inconvenient data for your point. And I understand why, because you're popular for these reasons, but what you're accusing
Starting point is 00:41:48 other people of, you're guilty of. Your greed, your ego, right, is going to do harm to society because you're being a little dishonest. You're not given the full picture. because if you did, you lose a little bit of your fan base. Believe me, I do it all the time. Right? Being honest comes with a cost.
Starting point is 00:42:13 And you lose some of the, you know, the do the job people. Most of the people in the world are due to job people, right? They do the job. Most people are well-adjusted due to job people. They know not what they do, right? You hire them to be sanitation, they clean the train. You hire them to flog Jesus,
Starting point is 00:42:29 flock Jesus. They didn't mean nothing personal. If you say you follow Jesus now because it's a state religion, they follow Jesus. If you say change now because you get a tax break, if you go Muslim, they change Muslim, right? Most people are that way. I don't want to say sheep or followers, but I want to say stupid or have a lack of courage or back, whatever you want to call it. But not even that, because they just want to survive. They just want to get along or they're just programmed in a way. You know, the Roman Empress says, go build that aqueduct. They go build it. They pick up an ancient fucking hammer and they move the stone and they get a paycheck and they do it right the emperor goes we're now a christian empire and everyone goes okay i guess i'm christian they don't go wait a second i want
Starting point is 00:43:09 to talk this out what about my fucking greek uh what about the pantheon of those gods they don't do that they go okay constancy said it it's what it is right and then the turkic tribe comes down all empowered and militaristic because the arabs were fucking using them as protection then they take over the empire and you go now we're doing my honda i don't know D. And then that's what we do. Because we're going, we do the job. We're due to job people. Whatever the job is, we do the job.
Starting point is 00:43:37 So you don't want to lose those. They're not going to, they're going to be like, listen, that's really great that, uh, this particular streamer has really grown and seen some weaknesses in his own argument. They're not going to do that. They're going to go, fuck that. You had me believe in this shit. I don't have enough time and I don't have enough fucking brain cells to know that this is right.
Starting point is 00:43:57 You had me over here. Stay here. I don't like change for the reasons I said. San Francisco's politics have shifted, right? From the DSA progressive to electing a center, a left center guy who has been tough on crime. He's an entrepreneur, which means a few of those. He's a few of those. He's got a few of those.
Starting point is 00:44:30 So he is technically the enemy of the previous left-wing administration that make no mistake was a disaster in San Francisco. It's what it is. Maybe you haven't been there or you weren't been there or maybe you hadn't been there in 2008 or 10 and then 2016. I mean, it just, what I went there and I went, where's all the store? I mean, it happened so fast.
Starting point is 00:45:01 It happened as fast as Mama went to shit in Sweden. I mean, dude, I was in Mama in 2000. It took 10 years. It happened within a decade. Mama went like, Mama Sweden. It's a city in Sweden. It was like this nice Swedish city. I was there in 2000, what would that be six, seven, eight,
Starting point is 00:45:27 whenever I was going there. right? So it was like right before there was a little bit of that and there was some concerns I remember like I remember my friend was like there was a starving
Starting point is 00:45:34 there was like a starving on the street and thing but it's rare you know starving yeah the person was you know from a Nazi country but you know
Starting point is 00:45:42 they're trying to figure it out and it's just these right-wing Nazis journalism you just got to come and now they're going how do you elect the Nazi because everyone
Starting point is 00:45:54 has this hubris right I'm thinking of some of these people I knew in Sweden, right, who used to give me a hard time about my nuanced positions. This is just true, right? They were so far left. And now I know if I call them, I've been like, how's it been over there in Malma? How's it been over there?
Starting point is 00:46:15 Have you been in the vicinity of a grenade attack? Because that's what's happening in Malma. And it happened within 10 years, happened very fast. Same thing in San Francisco. go, it happened very fast that it went to shit. You're talking about the hottest fucking city in America, went to shit quick, and you go, why did it go to shit? Of course, there'll be a lot of, you see the people who can't empower,
Starting point is 00:46:39 and then you go, they got what they wanted. And it went a certain way. And now what's happening? We'll bring up Poland a second. But, right? Like, I understand, like I said, I understand why people hate capitalism, because it usually works. And that sucks, right?
Starting point is 00:46:59 It's the same reason why most people hate the patriots. I get it, right? Just once, I'd like to see a country just fucking just cruise upward with, you know, I just want the leader just fucking be glued to Sam Piker's live stream for 17 hours and just go, we're doing all that and have it just take off. But we don't tend to see that. We don't tend to see the theocracies. take off. I mean, there's proof of this. We tend to see that the biggest takeoff progress,
Starting point is 00:47:33 medical technology, happiness indexes, you know, wealth for all people, even the poor. It tended to happen with this combination of Greek thought, Roman law, natural rights, common law. I mean, it just seemed to be Judeo Christian. But that whole package just seemed to create a juggernaut that the world's ever seen. And then you go, well, look at what's happening in Asia. You go, where do you think the Asians? Who do you think built the Asians? What do you think happened in Japan after World War II?
Starting point is 00:48:09 You think it was just a baseball mitt we had at them? You think we just said, here, do it the way you were doing it? Were your stupid samurai culture where you cut each other's heads off? You think we did it that way? We think we said, you know, yeah, that's suicide attack's going to work. You don't want your emperor or whatever the fuck. Look at their political system. Look at their economic system.
Starting point is 00:48:27 It became us. How do you think China got to where it was? China before the United States made a deal with it, Nixon was not doing good. It didn't work. That's why they had to change. That's why they made a course correction, and then it worked.
Starting point is 00:48:45 There's no, I'm not coming at you with an ideology. I'm just telling you the facts of how it happened. They're indisputable. The capitalist reforms of Ding-dong-Ping, look up the name for yourself, changed it, and then China became a juggernaut. It's just what happened. It's what's happening now in Vietnam,
Starting point is 00:49:08 you know, how many purely communist countries left? I'll tell you what they are. Two, purely communist, Cuba, Cuba, and North Korea. That's it. That's it, my friend. The rest of them have some sort of, sort of market-driven economy, state-directed. They say they're communist for ideological reasons.
Starting point is 00:49:33 But that's more for the authority. It's more for they could keep a watch. And listen, you're probably decently safe in China. I don't know. I'm not saying it maybe it's better. I don't know. But it definitely ain't a rose garden of freedom. I'll tell you that.
Starting point is 00:49:51 Anyway. So we go back to San Francisco and, things have taken a turn for the better in San Francisco. We've had an entrepreneur elected who focused on fiscal reform. You can guess what kind of fiscal reform that was. Additionally, a new moderate majority controls the board of supervisors. How did that happen? People said, fuck this.
Starting point is 00:50:20 And they changed it. And they elected people. So that's what I like. So maybe these course corrections are. are inevitable because things get so out of hand the prices. I get it. But I also think people don't want to leave. I also think the dream train is a little clog. There's no more room. You know, you try to get on the morning rush and the dream train's just packed with a bunch of people. And, you know, I think those people aren't paying attention to reality either. When you came here,
Starting point is 00:50:52 part of the thrill was that you were trying to make it. What does that mean? That means make it. Not everyone makes it. The sad realities, that's the point. The majority don't make it. For whatever reason, I know Tony Hinchcliff did something. I know what the reasons are, Tony Hinchcliff, Nazis, right-wing propaganda. I get it, right?
Starting point is 00:51:18 I get it. Shane Gillis, whatever it is, I know that is exactly why you're not being paid attention to. That is the reason. why you haven't taken off. It's all these forces outside that have nothing to do with you, in your mind have everything to do with you. And I get that. And that's a real, that's a position I would have too.
Starting point is 00:51:40 If I didn't get on the internet in the right time, or if I just didn't have whatever is not fair in reality. Right? Because it's not. There's no such thing as biological or physical, or there's no such thing as that type of equality. There's equality under the law. Guess what?
Starting point is 00:52:03 We do have that. Better than anywhere. Anyway. But really, if everyone wasn't paying so much fucking attention to this Nazi Tony Hinchcliff, more people will be listening to this fucking podcast. I'm not saying you've got to like Tony Hinchcliff, but can you look at yourself in the mirror with a straight face and say to yourself that I'm struggling?
Starting point is 00:52:32 to pay my rent. I'm still a comedian after 20 years. I'm struggling to pay my rent. And it's because of Tony Hinchcliffe. Can you do that with a straight fit? I understand that it's easier to do than just going like maybe I'm not going to make it. Maybe I don't have that extra thing. You know, I don't know. I'm not in charge of it. Here's another one people never want to think about. And I've been around some of these people that they hate or other people on the other side that they hate, the left-wing people. heard the right wing people say the same things, but the left wing people. I know both. I know very successful ones in both worlds. And here's something that's very uncomfortable for you to hear. I've made peace with it. They work harder than I do. The amount of work that I see,
Starting point is 00:53:22 an obsession and sometimes, I just had to have a moment where I go, yeah, yeah, I like to kind of stare at a tree. I like to lay down a little bit. bit they you don't understand like you don't everyone's gone ah it's just you're pandering to the right wing it's going like you don't know this person and you are you have no it's it's easier thing i i know it keeps your ego intact but i'm telling you it's not the truth i know you and i know them and i know also them i'm not going to say names all of them they differ in their ideologies or whatever but the thing that they do have in common is, God damn it,
Starting point is 00:54:07 they work a lot harder than I do. The truth is just kind of uncomfortable in that way, right? And I understand why that's the last thing people would want to see. Not only do they work harder, I don't think the people who think that it happened for another reason. I don't think that they have accepted the fact that they couldn't work harder because they're just not built that way.
Starting point is 00:54:32 I'm not saying it's a good thing. that I don't know. I can tell you what, they're definitely not the happiest. So whatever. But you wouldn't even be able to do it. I've witnessed it. And like,
Starting point is 00:54:46 I don't even know if you're capable of it. I think some of you are lying to yourselves. Right? Like, all we see is Jalen Brunson succeeded. We don't see that. Nobody sees that. Nobody sees when the cameras are off the type of work Jalen Brunson.
Starting point is 00:55:06 They're just probably going to see. He's got socialist valleys. He took a pay cut for a championship ring. And then he says, I miss Texas taxes. And people go, nobody heard it. Nobody heard it. Mom Dommie didn't hear it. They don't hear it.
Starting point is 00:55:20 I heard it because I'm interested in that type of stuff because I find it fun. I like humility. I like not knowing what it is or having solutions. I think the best way to get solutions is to admit that there's, I don't know if there is one. Just keep trying. You know, switch around. So maybe, like I said, this is a short-term correction, course correction that was needed.
Starting point is 00:55:43 And he's definitely a talented politician. That's great. Maybe he'll do good. Maybe he's different from San Francisco Portland. Maybe he's not Katie Wilson. Maybe she'll do good. I don't think so. But I'm, you know, like science is like that.
Starting point is 00:55:56 Science can't prove to you what is true. Science can prove to you what definitely isn't true, right? Because science leaves it open. This is what we thought we were true. And they go, this is what we think is true because all this other stuff doesn't make sense because of the experiments and the scientific method we threw at it. And that's how we have all this shit, right? They don't go, this is definitely true.
Starting point is 00:56:18 They can't say definitely that the universe is just rant. They don't know, right? And they admit, and that's what science is. So I can't tell you, but they can give you a pretty good guess. So if you go, hey, if I throw this apple out the window, It's going to flow. Science would go, I'm going to put my money that it doesn't. I'm going to put my money on that because of Newton's laws that it falls, right?
Starting point is 00:56:43 But science is doing that through the experimentation, through the research, and guess what? That's usually what going to happen. But if the person who's saying that happens to be a guy who has supernatural abilities and the fucking thing floats, then science will go, we need to learn something new, right? I know this is a far-fetched example, but that's science, right? So I'm doing the same thing. I'm going, okay, I'm looking at Portland, I'm looking at Seattle. I'm looking at even some of the previous attempts of some of these policies in New York City by Wilhelm. And I'm saying they came with bad consequences.
Starting point is 00:57:18 They came with bad consequences in Seattle. They came with bad consequences in Portland. It came with bad consequences in San Francisco. And the thing that surprised me is that it took two years max for those kinds of. of financial strange crime upticks because of the soft on crime posture, sort of the overly empathetic, the defunding. They go, we need that. So what happens is, if you don't know, is you go, we're going to cut here.
Starting point is 00:57:48 Our priorities are here. And this is because of an ideology. So they go, we believe policing, we believe policing doesn't solve crime because of this intellectual that I read and it aligns with who I think I am. Right. And so they go, we're going to cut. We're going to cut. budget here and take that money and put it over here.
Starting point is 00:58:08 So then there's less comics or comics or a different, you know, and that's how it works. That's just an example. I'm not saying that's what Memdami does because he still kept the Jew for now. Right? What's her name? Jennifer Tisch. And they're doing the, what are they doing the, they're doing the specific policing, it's called, or the, it's a, it's a, it's, they're not doing the broken windows, which worked for
Starting point is 00:58:29 the stats, but also a few people's rights. I sure got violated. But I don't know if that's baby with the bathroom. water? I don't know. Maybe it is. But it's called something specific policing or the strategies where they target targeted policing, I think it's called. No, it's called something. It's not, it has, she didn't invent it. It was invented by another guy. Well, it's not his. You probably go with Tish is doing it. Yeah, it's called something like that.
Starting point is 00:59:10 So they're still doing that because it seems to be working. It has good data. It has good data. Precision policing is what it's called. It's called precision policing. So what they do is they target youth violence safety zone. It's focused on commuter corridors and schools to reduce youth-related crime. And so her Q-Tube.
Starting point is 00:59:33 teams. So they use technology, surveillance, a lot of stuff that if people looked at it the details, ideologically, they might go mom, dummy, what are you doing? But he seems to be a little smarter than that because he kept her because he doesn't want to rock that crime boat. That may be a good thing. He may speak the good game, but no, like, hey, we got to be a little hard on crime. We'll see.
Starting point is 00:59:55 You know, Vegas isn't right all the time. It just, you know, when you know a lot, Vegas is usually, it's astoundingly. correct because they do a little bit of what I'm doing here, but more. They're not stupid like I am, and they do all this data crunching and research, you know, because things are not that unique. It repeats. Human nature's no different, you know, they take a lot of things because there's actually real money on the line and they want to make it.
Starting point is 01:00:21 So they create the lines with as much data as they can. Data's tough, dude. Data's boring. Data is disorienting. Data challenges you. Data is tough. So they rely on real-time data integration. Data integration.
Starting point is 01:00:44 It's a real data-driven. It's sort of like the money ball of policing is the way that I, the insight I had when I read about it. Sort of like the money ball. And it works. And just so the people know, so we give them a little something that they don't have to. Who created it again?
Starting point is 01:00:58 Because I read it and I can't remember. It wasn't her. But it's being utilized. throughout the country, and it seems to be bearing good results, and it was an alternative to broken windows because everyone had these, you know, uh, uh, issues with broken windows, uh, because it, uh, was violating people's civil rights.
Starting point is 01:01:16 And what was it? It was, it was broken windows and also called stop and fresque, which were the one and the same, which was more like, hey, we're just gonna fucking pull you over. And also, if you jump to turnstile, we know who you are, we make a data set of you and we catch you. So it was precision policing was created by a previous New York police commissioner, William Bradden.
Starting point is 01:01:41 And he created it during his second term as NYPD commissioner from 2014-2016. So I guess it's been that since the Giuliani broken windows. And it seems to be bearing good results. They use surveillance. They use cameras. They do a lot of shit that the Chinese do. So whatever. If you're libertarian, you're probably.
Starting point is 01:02:03 not crazy of it, but you're also probably not crazy about broken windows because you're a libertarian and you belong on a fucking island where, has any libertarian ever read Lord of Flies? Is there any libertarians who've read Lord of the Flies? You know? Just let it happen. Go for it. Have you met a person? That's run through a lot of episodes.
Starting point is 01:02:32 Have you met a person? Yeah, they don't like any intervention. Just protect my money and my property and my money. My money and my property. Private security. We only need 10 cops. No governments. Imagine there was no government here.
Starting point is 01:02:52 And the libertarian tried to found America with this little, they'd have a little convention and go, hey, Indians, we want you to believe these things. We don't need a strong central federal government. We just need a couple guys and just spread these beliefs. Just let it happen naturally. Just let the free market, who is our God, we worship the free market here on Earth. Let it do its thing only. The data on that's not good.
Starting point is 01:03:24 The date on communism's not good. The date on unfettered capitalism is no good. It's no good. The two of them capitalism without socialism seems to be a predator who overhunts. and socialism without communism, without socialism, without capitalism, seems to be
Starting point is 01:03:45 a virus that kills. Seems to be a parasite that kills its host. That's the Janus original. They need each other, but this is how they need each other. Capitalism seems,
Starting point is 01:04:06 the data would seem to say capitalism as the pilot, And socialism, as the staff of the plane, seem to work very well. When you put the, when you put the stewardess in the cockpit, she doesn't really know how to fly the plane. And when you put the pilot to serve the drinks, his potential is not what, he's just, you're doing a wrong thing to him. He should be flying the plane.
Starting point is 01:04:33 Because flying the plane takes skill, courage, and, you know, a meritocracy. you know? So you get paid the most, the better pilot you are. The better your rating is that the referee in a sport, the more games you get to ref, the more money you make, the more bonuses you get based on what they have a little thing where they review the referees. And that is all kind of in line theoretically
Starting point is 01:05:01 with what capitalism kind of provides a framework for. So yeah, wealth inequality is inevitable. but yeah, it's kind of like, kind of closest to like what it is. I think, I mean, Margaret Thatcher had something to say about that. It's pretty profound too. I mean, I don't know. I don't like people suffering. I don't.
Starting point is 01:05:27 But I think ideals are for personal reflection. In dealing with each other on this hellhole, I think you need vacillated. ever-changing problem-solving. And that keeps everybody employed. And it kind of works in an imperfect way, right? It keeps things moving. You need to move.
Starting point is 01:05:55 You need to evolve. You need to change. Can't just go. Communism and that's it. It just doesn't seem like that's the thing. It seems like communism might want to, and then lo and behold, that's what happened, and it kind of worked,
Starting point is 01:06:06 and then they go back a little. You kind of need that two-step. So maybe this is the necessary step. the only thing that makes it surprising is that New York was already doing that step so now we're doing we're putting two feet now we're over here
Starting point is 01:06:22 now we're a white guy trying to salsa dance and we got two feet on the left side where it's supposed to be left right left right because it's been left left left left but some will say Adams was a Republican in wolf's clothing a wolf in sheep's clothing a wolf in sheep's clothing possible
Starting point is 01:06:38 you know but still a Democrat still kind of left wing but you know was the centrist in that, you know, he didn't scare off business or whatever they claim. So we're going to see what I wanted to do this episode is just bring up some of the inconvenient data. Data's boring. I get it. And thank you for being idealist. And I hope like that coach, that female coach who said Brunson can't be the A1 guy.
Starting point is 01:07:03 And then he, I hope you proved me wrong, Mr. Mamdami. Want to give a shout out as always to for the free. art music and Hawaii, go take a peek at that website. Thank you, as always, Nate Linder, indigo labs agency.com. If you need marketing, digital marketing, hit up Nate Linder. Think marketing. Think Nate Linder. Also would like to say what's up to rebels dash raiders.com. One of my favorite sites to peruse. They got plate carriers, rapid response, medical bags, two point rifle slings all in stock. They come with reinforced stitching and lifetime warranty. All come standard, baby.
Starting point is 01:07:41 Rebels dash raiders.com. Grab your kit before it's gone. PCB tech art. Go get yourself the car phone charger. It's very good. I have one in my car. Yana's 15 for 15% off. Fix your wireless charging issues today. Also, you can find them on Amazon.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.