On today’s episode of Walt Right Perspectives I speak with
, who writes about politics, history, and the philosophy of technology at .Topics include:
How Dr. Monzo came into this space through libertarian Politigram and the Dark Enlightenment / NRx
Substack rewards substantive content in a way other platforms don’t
Hot takes can actually change someone’s mind
Marshall McLuhan’s idea of “hot media” vs. “cool media”
See Dr. Monzo’s article on the topic and on audiobooks
Is it socially acceptable among Zoomers to scroll your phone during a movie?
Netflix is made to watch with another person (or while using your phone) while Youtube is algorithmically hyper-optimized for individual consumption
Wagner’s operas were considered overstimulating at the time
Industrialism temporarily killed oral culture and the electric age brought it back
Millennials and Zoomers have developed a lot of distinctive communicative heuristics due to rapidly shifting communication / media tech
Is the mass adoption of smartphones in adolescence responsible for Zoomers being more neurotic / safetyist / puritanical?
Porn addiction is such a social problem that researchers can’t even establish a control group
Jordan Peterson was the first modern figure to sell responsible behavior to young men in a way that appealed directly to their self-interest
How Jordan Peterson made religion intellectually palatable to secular young guys
The importance of religion / myth as a narrative heuristic for structuring behavior
Monzo’s article on Plato’s Euthyphro — Socrates was being an obnoxious fedora
The Sapient Paradox
The Secret of Our Success, Chesterton’s Fence, and the Manioc Root
Does understanding religion as social technology degrade it?
Walt’s infamous article defending slutty women, which suggested that piety often comes from a place of sanctimony / status-seeking and that slutty women are necessary to absorb the excess libidinal energy of high status men
The advantages and disadvantages of being high in trait openness
Does it make sense to divorce morality from relational proximity?
The appeal of metamodernism—one can accept the intractable performativity of life and operate earnestly within that context
Walt stole Dr. Monzo’s election prediction
The liberal tears weren’t as delicious this year because Trump’s victory was somewhat expected, but his much cleaner victory is also forcing liberals to reckon with their cultural overreach
It’s much safer to resist politically correct orthodoxy than a lot of people realize
Trump has been unifying insofar as he racially depolarized America compared to the Before Times under the Romney-era GOP
Second and third generation Hispanics (esp. in TX/FL) don’t identify with or feel racial loyalty toward Guatemalan and Honduran new arrivals
French indirect colonialism in West Africa—is this sustainable if they need to also become the new defender of Europe?
How the Dutch took over global trade networks by exploiting inefficiencies
The autistic utilitarian impulse to deny the existence of special obligations to one’s family / friends / countrymen
r vs k selection in politics
Liberals have shrunken amygdalas, which makes them less wary of outsiders and better at creating sophisticated art
WALL-E is by far the scariest dystopia because nobody will ever vote to restrict their own dopamines
In some sense we already live in WALL-E
JD Vance has definitely been exposed to Dark Enlightenment / NRx - style ideas
Was Vance’s pivot on MAGA genuine or calculated?
Vance has advanced through so many different circles in his life that it’s inevitable he’ll come across as a little “weird”
Gavin Newsom could easily take back masculinity for the Left in the same way Clinton was able to in the 1990s
Conservatives in the 90s hated Clinton so much and freaked out about his blowjob because he got their wives to vote for him out of thirst
Vance has to play up being a softboi to not alienate women whereas Gavin can lean into his predator nature because he’s coming from the Left
Can Trump get anything interesting done without 60 senators?
Is civil service reform on the table? Can Elon help Trump clean up the deep state?
Elon has experience outmaneuvering an obstructive bureaucracy
Mythmaking, Dopamine Traps, and Marshall McLuhan