Eric Weinstein on Rebel Wisdom

Finally got around to listening to this interview. It’s a good one that covers a number of topics. Being a celebrity even though you don’t think you’re one, the danger of audience capture as a podcaster, covid, ivermectin, the vaccine, the current leadership vacuum. Eric has nuanced takes on all of this. He generally trusts institutions but not the people running them.

Audio only version here

9 Replies to “Eric Weinstein on Rebel Wisdom”

  1. « In a world of lies, speaking the truth becomes an act of rebellion
    so be loud and clear for what meets no resistance never stops. »

    That what my Chevy HHR panel decals say…

  2. Edward T. Hall on Bureaucracy: “no soul, no memory, and no conscience….” Edward Hall was the pioneer who wrote “Beyond Culture”, published in the 70s, I believe.
    “By their very nature bureaucracies have no conscience, no memory and no mind. They are self-serving, amoral and live forever. What could be more irrational? Changing them is almost impossible, because they function according to their own rules and bow to no man, not even the President of the United States. Custom, human frailties, and the will to power keep our bureaucracies going. … Paradoxically, most bureaucracies are staffed largely with conscientious, committed people who are trying to do the right thing, but they are powerless (or feel powerless) to change things. None of which would be so serious if it weren’t that these are the very institutions on which we depend to solve all our major problems. Some answer must be found to bureaucracy.”
    “Bureaucratic and institutional irrationality occur because, of all man’s institutions, bureaucracy in all cultures has a tremendous potential to be counterproductive. This drive toward inefficiency may be a direct consequence of blind adherence to procedure, but it also stems from bureaucratic needs for self-preservation and a vulnerability to pressure groups. The combination is unbeatable.”
    “Bureaucracy on the life-destroying scale described by Edward T. Hall is an industrial era phenomenon. Only a bureaucracy can turn ordinary, decent people into participants in gigantic atrocities that go on and on, and absolve the people who operate the government machine from personal responsibility for the consequences.”

    “Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.” HONORE DE BALZAC

    1. Eric Weinstein makes some valid points. The authorities do seem to have given themselves permission to deceive, deflect, obfuscate, conflate, contradict themselves and sometimes even lie. Maybe it was well intentioned and it is justified in order to present a clear unambiguous message. Why couldn’t they just admit that they were making it up as they went along based on past experience, and that as new evidence and facts emerged, they would adjust their recommendations. They did blow whatever credibility they had by not operating on good faith, re: the masks. At this point, even liberals know they have been deceived. In a recent podcast, a prominent liberal, mentioned overhearing three older, very liberal white women, in Portland, discuss this and agree that the authorities were just making stuff up.
      I would say to Eric, whatever the problem with US institutions and leadership, it seems to be almost universal. We all tend to be Ameri-centic about the covid effort, but we need to consider who did significantly better and what did they do differently?

  3. What the CDC is currently doing reminds me of how the EU started putting currency into the German banks without authority and forced it to be accepted. Now it’s too late to change it back into the authorized currency, the German marks at that time.
    Forcing everyone to accept this poison or else.

  4. The suspicion as soon as I see a YouTube link? If it’s so good, why hasn’t YouTube removed it. If it contained any truth, why had YouTube allowed it to stay.

    So you are recommending something the leviathan approves of? Something their algorithms have allowed to stay?

    This is how you get your “factual” information?

  5. I’m just a simple bumpkin from the prairies. After the 6th or 7th time they said “heterodoxy”, I had to look it up.

    heterodoxy
    n. The condition or quality of being heterodox.
    n. A heterodox opinion or doctrine.
    n. The quality or state of being heterodox: as, the heterodoxy of a doctrine, book, or person.

    heterodox
    adj. Not in agreement with accepted beliefs, especially in church doctrine or dogma.
    adj. Holding unorthodox opinions.
    In theology, holding opinions not in accord with some generally recognized standard of doctrine, such as the creed of a church or the decrees of councils; not orthodox; heretical.

    1. I found him boring actually.
      And yes…he loved to throw out the heterodoxy term to impress us.
      Yawn…
      Bret and Heather put me to sleep a few times with the circular pschobabble, but Bret is doing the right thing now with ivermectin…even tho his brother is worried about him…whatever that means.

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