Eric Weinstein’s Proposal for Recreating a Moderate Left

Eric Weinstein's proposal for a moderate left:

Make markets somewhat fairer for working families."

"Protect nature! Up to a point!"

"Welcome, to a managable number of actual refugees."

"Make Trans accepted and EXCEEDINGLY rare."

"Manage M1 but do not print your way out of debt."

"Accept Gays and Lesbians...but don't promote kink. Also...after LG the whole alphabet thing can change into something else entirely if you go out far enough."

"A little Spanish can be useful! But learn English."

"Vaccines are a great idea, but need to be watched like a hawk."

"Let's be more empathic without sticking it to men, the rich, Christians or people of European descent."

"Let's acknowledge our problematic history and also take pride in how awesome we became in so many ways."

"Let's be tolerant as a rule of thumb, but not of the intolerant."

"Let's house the homeless, and not confuse them for the drug-addicted and souls suffering from mental illness"

"Love who you want! But for god sakes, have kids and raise them to be normalish."

"Racism *remains* a problem...but much much less than it used to be!! Let's take our wins people. Great job!"

"White Christian European men did a lot of bad things...just like everyone else. The problem was that they were so good at doing things that they did bad things at scale. And MAN did they pull off miracle after miracle. Hats off to our founding fathers. Warts and all!!"

"Let's acknowledge that markets do not work perfectly people as their zealous supporters claim!! But damn...what an amazing idea for lifting people out of squalor!!"

"Worship almost however you wish to worship. But don't be a murderous or intolerant lunatic about it. Just chill bro."

"Don't use mean language when you can avoid it. But don't be a pussy or go around being a killjoy-nanny-policeman either when you can avoid it. Use judgement."

"Your identity deserves to be celebrated! Briefly. Because it is interesting...but not that interesting. Everyone has one."

https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1940000994500518350

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Child Car Seats as Birth Control?

Car seats cause fewer children to exist.

From the Journal of Law and Economics:

We show that laws mandating use of child car safety seats significantly reduce birth rates, as many cars cannot fit three child seats in the back seat. Women with two children younger than their state’s age mandate have a lower annual birth probability of .73 percentage points. This effect is limited to births of third children, households with access to a car, and households with a male present, where both front seats are likely to be occupied. We estimate that these laws prevented fatalities of 57 children in car crashes in 2017 but reduced total births by 8,000 that year and have decreased the total by 145,000 since 1980.

 

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AI: Exciting and Terrifying

I have personal knowledge that many lawyers and academics are in severe denial about how much AI is turning their professions upside down and inside out. Soon, everyone will be constantly using AI. It's going to quickly get quantum leaps better than it already is and, frankly, a lot of us don't add much value above and beyond the things AI can already do. This is exciting and terrifying.

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The Disastrous Effect of US Trade Policy on the US Middle Class

I agree with David Sacks here. To see the disastrous effects of US trade policy on the US middle class, take a road trip through America's many decimated town and small cities.

BTW, a lot of the people who worked these middle class jobs were men. How are men doing in education and the job market now that many of these jobs no longer exist? Steve Stewart-Williams tells us in his article, "The Other Half: Six gender gaps we rarely talk about" Here are his conclusions:

  • Young Women Now Often Out-Earn Young Men

  • Boys Are Falling Behind at School

  • Fewer Men Are Finishing College

  • More Men Die on the Job

  • Men’s Health Gets Less Funding

  • Men Are More Likely to Take Their Own Lives

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Discusses Trump’s Tariffs and the U.S. Economy

There's a big difference between longer form interviews and the 20 second hit jobs you see on legacy media. In this interview, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discusses Trump's tariff plan. He makes two main points. This is an effort to bring back the middle class. Second, his main concern is that the US no longer manufactures physical things and this constitutes a major security risk. I agree with both of these points. I don't claim to know all of the risks and benefits of jacking up tariffs, but I do know that the countries who are most complaining are the ones who have been nailing the US with tariffs for years. Bessent also discusses the effect of tariffs on the US stock market, making the argument that the market is lagging in reaction to far more than the tariffs. Further, in recent times, the fact that the market has generally been rising has not reflected the true state of the US economy, especially on Main Street. I also agree with Batya Ungar-Sargon, who has made a strong case that the biggest divide today in the US is between the long-suffering middle class and the wealthier elites, who have become the main concern of Democrats.

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