“You are dictatorial.” My dear sirs, you are right, that is just what we are. All the experience the Chinese people have accumulated through several decades teaches us to enforce the people’s democratic dictatorship, that is, to deprive the reactionaries of the right to speak and let the people alone have that right.

– Mao Zedong

Caused by the French loading up a destroyer with federal reserve notes, sailing it into New York, and demanding gold for them, as had been promised. The US had been printing money to pay for the Vietnam war and couldn’t give France the gold. Thus Nixon cancelled the gold standard and tragedy ensued for the American people.

I’ve been wanting to learn more about the French ship but details are maddeningly sparse.

Scott Adams is a troll. He’s trying to make people angry so they’ll come up with responses to his tweets. Don’t fall for it.

Just so you know, the “fire in a crowded theater” argument was used to sentence an anti-war socialist to a long prison term.

And the judge who made it later regretted doing it, bigtime.

It’s more like, those people live completely separate lives from us and feel uncomfortable when they’re required to mingle with us.

Think about it, what do they have in common with us, culturally? Nothing. Many think our culture is disgusting and must be replaced. Others have zero experience outside their carefully curated lives, which started when their parents began their c.v. at age 3. To them, we seem unknowable and unthinkable, they have no more sympathy for us than they think we have for animals in the zoo. They believe they are superior to both elites of the past and the contemporary common folk, at the same time. We are The Other to them, and why the hell would they want to live among us or have any interaction with us whatsoever?

This is what it’s like when our lives collide. “I knew I was the only poor person at my tech startup because I thought my coworker was kidding when he said he was spending the three-day weekend in Greece. When I finished laughing, four people recommended hotels.”

A house? For $100k? I don’t think they cost that much even in Montana.

I’m sure this is meant to show how out of touch they are with the working class, but actually it shows how out of touch they are with the landlord class. Landlords know exactly what property costs, it’s one of their favorite topics.

Because little kids aren’t caterpillars and can’t gorge themselves without negative consequences.

If you’re going to write a biology book for kids, don’t have the caterpillar eat cake and ice cream.

Every. Single. Time.

I remember being surprised when I found out Carrie Fisher only got into Hollywood because her mother was Debbie Reynolds. Then, time and time again, I found that famous actors didn’t get their parts because they were great actors, but because they were blood relatives of other Hollywood people. It was my first introduction to the insular world that elites create for themselves, and how they hypocritically preach the opposite of what they practice themselves.

Finland were Nazi collaborators too, and for some reason everyone loves them. They conquered Russian territory that did not belong to them, ethnically cleansed it, and had their own concentration camps.

Houston is the world’s worst example of urban sprawl. There are no zoning laws so anyone can build anything anywhere. It is magnificent. Its freeways are eighteen lanes wide. There are multiple intersections stacked five roads high into the sky. It takes 45 minutes to drive anywhere. Tanker trucks full of hazardous chemicals on the way from the refineries in Texas City are all over the roads. It takes an hour and a half to drive across the length of the urban area at highway speeds. I think if you’re going to do something, go all the way. Don’t just be a wasteland, be the Dark Land of Mordor.