Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
when you strip away the everything bagel, you may find you are left with white bread.
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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
sure. not everybody is the same, the ones who become Bloomberg are less likely to burn down the world. (although even the Bloombergs tend to elevate systems that elevate them that those of us otherwise situated can see need reform. Bloomberg is good on the environment, not so good on wealth taxes.)
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
i think it’s (1) wealth doesn’t lead to contentment, the very rich are people who started with a burning grievance and desire and now that they are rich, they still have it; 1/
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
(2) rich people adopt theories of the world that flatter themselves. even the ones who made their fortunes directly from government contracts and subsidies, or from medicare coding innovations, flatter themselves Randian/Niezchean ubermenschen, gravitate towards false self-aggrandizing theories. 2/
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
(3) rich people finance whole ecosystems of intellectual workers who dignify and flatter these preconceptions. these come to rival in prestige and (tendentiously applied) technical quality work by more neutrally situated thinkers. the best people tell them they are right. 3/
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
(4) at an interpersonal level, they claim to value independent thought but it’s in fact too painful to be told that they are wrong about these things. they select for sycophants who are willing to reinforce their preconceptions for access. 4/
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
so, in the end, they remain as a matter of permanent character full of grievance and passionate desire, desperate to act in the world to validate themselves and express their grievance, guided by persuasive but false ideas, stuck in an intellectual cage of their own construction. /fin
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
one thing i’d not have guessed is it’s the rich who’ve decided to burn it all down. recruiting the discontent and fanning the cynicism of the not so rich, sure. but the rich are in drivers’ seat of uprooting the foundations of their own extraordinary lives. great wealth turns people stupid.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
this by @jamellebouie.net on the not merely unconstitutional but anti-constitutional nature of the Trump administration is excellent. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/o...
Opinion | Trump Has Gone From Unconstitutional to Anti-Constitutional (Gift Article)
Link Preview: Opinion | Trump Has Gone From Unconstitutional to Anti-Constitutional (Gift Article): Where all this goes is still up to us.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
NOAA and FEMA “are being unlawfully defunded in a bid to justify privatization. Before Musk and other rentiers seize public assets, they’re deliberately breaking them to ‘prove’ the right-wing myth of public-sector ineptitude.” @kennystancil.bsky.social prospect.org/environment/...
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
do most American workers live “paycheck to paycheck”? maybe. it depends what that means. see @mattbruenig.bsky.social www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2025/03/19/h...
How Many People Live Paycheck to Paycheck?
Link Preview: How Many People Live Paycheck to Paycheck?: A thrillingly ambiguous debate.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
i’d be glad to sell you 10% if you want to get in at the current valuation.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
my cat has obtained $44B valuation in sharp turnaround. (i don’t have a cat.)
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
“The reason you should care about this is not that it could happen to you but that it is already happening to others. It is happening to people who, we claim, have rights just because we are human. It is happening to me, personally.” @mashagessen.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/o...
Opinion | There’s a Name for What Trump Is Doing to Trans People: Denationalizing
Link Preview: Opinion | There’s a Name for What Trump Is Doing to Trans People: Denationalizing: The message is that we are a threat to the nation. The subtext is that we are not of this nation.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
“free speech means i am free to control the speech.”
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
we can’t even solve the alignment problem between massively insured humans and the rest of us. ht @chrislay.bsky.social
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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
the really bold move is to attach a BYD logo.
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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
On the cornering of Columbia and the fate of US academia in general, @rajivsethi.bsky.social rajivsethi.substack.com/p/tightening...
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
i guess when we see the defectors tomorrow, it’ll be interesting to see how well defection correlates with closeness to crypto.
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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
this is what i’ve found. it’s not so good, i think. it doesn’t for example mention the language stripping Congress of tariff oversight. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/u...
House GOP Passes Spending Bill to Avert Government Shutdown
Link Preview: House GOP Passes Spending Bill to Avert Government Shutdown: Approval of the bill sent it to the Senate, where Republicans need the cooperation of several Democrats to move it past a filibuster and to passage before a midnight deadline on Friday.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
can institutions go on strike?
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
can Senate Democrats change their leader at will?
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
calling Thomas Frank: What's Wrong With New York?
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