you’ve come a long way

Pigs walking on their hind legs, they may not be people, but they are doing their utmost to act the same way.

Yes

After WW2, people condemned the so-called far right while leaving the far left mostly untouched. They're both meant to enslave, but somehow, the latter gets embraced and nobody talks about its crimes.

Yep. In Australia you can make quite a good living so long as you have a cuck job in a highly regulated monopoly corporation.

We call it the "golden handcuffs"

In my opinion it has totally destroyed creativity and innovation. Small businesses have no hope of complying with regulatory standards.

As you say, the same outcome as socialism.

Hmm wealth distribution. Where’s that? It would appear that capital accumulation is a one way street up.

A side point I know but half the reason socialist principles are so popular is non business owning people have zero capital and barely own enough to cover base.

If bitcoin fixes this why does Saylor only accumulate and never distribute capital?

We are all slaves to government. Business owner or wage slave. The only way out is to become a politically connected cantilionaire and leech off the state.

Caveat that I’m in the US, so my exposure to your government is through what I read….

I tend to a see Socialism at or even below the level of state control/intervention where the UK is. The ‘state owns everything’ definition is more strictly Communism in my view.

Now, to stir the pot, here in the US, I don’t think we have anything near socialism, but rather fascism, no matter which side of the uniparty coin lands up every four years.

Its called Fascism.

Corporate interests + Government interests, acting in cooperation with each other.

Both are forms of organized groups capable of tremendous violence. One more socially acceptable than the other.

Its a spectrum between organized violence that gives you something in return for your "cooperation" and organized violence that gives you nothing and takes by force.

Different nations and cultures have different flavors of Fascism.

Take your pick.

I dont see the drama.

These perspectives appear legit.

Sometimes it feels like we’re all drowning in a sea of word salad because nobody can agree on definitions anymore. It’s almost as if language itself is breaking down. That’s all I’ve got, sorry. I love your work Peter.

Do you truly believe that your vote counts? Do you think that the colour of the cloth makes the coat less or more effective in keeping you dry.

If voting was a means to change things, it would be forbidden. You are correct in referencing slavery. We are all property of the state. Therefore anything we own or create is theirs too, unless you pay them so you can hold it

the USA is hardly better at this point

46% of gdp goes to state federal or local government

so it's 46% communist

I'm not saying the government is useless but they could probably do all that for 5% if they were run like a business

Yes, it is a version of socialism for sure. It's not as absolute as what we had here in socialist Czechoslovakia, when you couldn't own a business and working for the state was mandatory (if you were in a pub or cafe during the work hours, the police would check you and escort you to work).

What the UK/EU etc does now is a growing control of everything through regs and bureaucracy, it's not half as bad as the soviet type (yet), but many things are getting pretty close in the background.

Covid has shown us how much freedom we really have, the bars of the invisible cage were very visible for that moment in time. And while it's not as explicit now, you can still feel them and in some cases the state didn't bother hiding them again.

Not sure if the system can be reformed from the inside. There was some attemps of reforms in socialist Czechoslovakia as well. One has ended up with soviet tanks in the streets of Prague in 1968. Only after the system become really weak in Russia (or whatever happened in 1989) it was possible to make a big reform. It looked to us as if it was dismantled completely back then, but we never realized that the virus had spread westwards and we are sleepwalking into a familiar territory once again.

That said (at least here in Prague) it's still very very very much preferable to pre 1989 Czechoslovakia, it's not even close. Just the alarm bells are ringing louder than ever.

State become superfluous in "true" socialism

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withering_away_of_the_state

Not sure about GB but the EU is definitely on its path to Fascism. The distances between Socialism, Communism and Fascism are just the steps you go down to reach Authoritarianism. The Leviathan has become loose again.

You can call it a million different names. It’s all the same shit.

Unproductive people taking things from productive people.

You move into a new neighbourhood and get a card through the door…

Bureaucratic Socialism

Welcome! The local boys will be round soon to take most of your money for local infrastructure and charitable causes with which you might or might not align.

Capitalism

Welcome! The local boys will be round soon to take some of your money for local infrastructure.

Austrian Economy

Welcome!

My 2 sats:

Any govt that enforces its civil/statutory (often convoluted manmade laws) thru violence or threat of violence is facism…this would describe every govt of developed nations and most govts on the planet.

Socialism is a populist movement based on platitudes and promises of a better life at the expense of others and enabled by more centralization of govt powers. I think of it as a movement to communism via use of carrots… “a nanny state” still living off the largess of the prosperity of the system it’s replacing.

Communism is the maturation of socialism…it’s the endgame of socialism once “the carrots” have run out. It now requires the tyranny of “the stick” for continued compliance of the citizenry…the rose is off the bloom of the populist movement of socialism and as Madge Thatcher once said “you run out of other people’s money”.

Imho there is no perfect govt and they all devolve into facism at some point… thru nepotism or sociopathy, weak and or corrupt leaders will come to power…it’s as inevitable as a sunrise or sunset🤷🏽‍♂️

Govt is tolerated to the extent that its value to the citizenry outweighs its onerous burden…once that is no longer the case “bad things happen”…spoiler alert: govts are aware of this and don’t give up power willingly😳

Full disclosure: I am retarded and almost always wrong

Ps: NSA I’m just kidding and u guys are great😊

It's the Social Welfare State, bruh.

Not 100% pure socialism, but certainly somewhat socialist.

I think you are 100% correct here.

I’m the US they don’t even hide it, they call themselves democratic socialists.

I like bureaucratic socialism!

You might find this interesting https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Left-turn-ahead.pdf . It's not looking good for business/citizens in the UK for the foreseeable.

I suggest reading F. A. Hayek's 'Road to Serfdom'.

It will be very informative and provide you with a lot of clarity about this.

The Regulatory State is entirely intended to control the means of production. Just because it is more hands off than direct control, doesn’t make it less socialist.

When industry isn't owned by the state; but is subjugated to the state, that is an aspect of fascism - which refers to itself as a form of socialism.

There is a name for a brand of socialism where the owners of corporations are all government lackeys. There is a name for this kind of socialism, where the government is actually forcing the consolidation of small privately owned businesses into large bureaucratic corporations.

We call this brand of socialism fascism, and you can deny it all you want, but the economies of the western world are becoming more and more fascistic, which is also reflected in social policy. More censorship and government crackdowns on dissenting opinions come to mind.

Fascism is also what happens when the communists run out of money, like they did in China and decide that *some* elements of free markets should be allowed to exist, provided they are overseen by the party members.

Just got out of Thr Museum of Communism 😂 100% agree

well said

some will never get it

i wonder why

Having a fire department is a socialist policy. Not everything is black or white. There are many greys.

I think it's more accurately described as a corporatocracy.

Basically communism, for businesses not individuals.

Where the state are basically in control of the businesses and it makes more sense to lobby the state than spend money developing and marketing your products.

the real head fuck is how many people seem to think govt is going to help out with all their percieved problems

The US Dollar is histories most powerful and influential form of socialist wealth redistribution ever invented.

Same in Germany: And it's even funny how so many people recognize bureaucracy as the problem. But they're missing the Point there. It's bureaucracy with socialism

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow

Beaurutocracy perhaps

All government is parasitic. A bloated tick sucking the productive energy out of the population.

Chris Hedges calls it 'inverted totalitarianism', and i think his view is pretty accurate.

price controls, licensure and regulation are literally fascism

national socialism did not entail government owning production either

and it should be pointed out that government granted monopolies and price controls were first pioneered by the british empire between 1200-1600, the era of "mercantilism" which is really just the same as fascism

these policies are still socialist by all formal definitions of socialism, they just are not communist socialism

Onya, Peter. :) Love your work and commitment. Thank you for everything you do. Yes, our governments are now evil and have gradually become “rulers” rather than “representatives”.

It’s amazing how we’ve been slowly poisoned by this anti-human movement …

Been loving to watch your perspective broaden as you've had to deal with your local government. Keep leaning into that. In regards to I think it was Odell discouraging you from running for Mayor - I totally disagree. You will be exposed to many of the festering issues that plague all local Democratic governments and can use that first hand experience to occasionally explore explanations / solutions on your new show. It's poorly understood and would be a worthy pursuit.

Why give the pig a new name? Mises long ago called it interventionism.

We get the Gov't we deserve

Why not just post it here first?

Feedback here beats twitter every day of the week no?

Feel true to me.

Just adding to all the comments (on Damus)

What a smooth looking reply thread!👍🏻👊🏻

Go Pete!

Spot on, Peter. Socialism by any other name still smells like tyranny. 👏

This is often used elitist trick that is fundamental problem with communication. Two people communicating, you got huge information and computational storages sending messages through narrow lossy channel. It is impossible to send the true meaning of the message, if the recipient doesn't want to understand. Instead of trying to understand the issue, people steer the conversation to word definition games. At this point only reasonable thing to do is to not play their games.

Completely agree Pete. I’m an avid listener of your podcasts. Really worried about the direction of things on the UK- there’s a very unhealthy attitude (culturally) towards wealth in the UK- too much politics of envy. We need constructive, long term investment and as free and open markets as possible to attract talent make the UK competitive globally again. Higher and higher taxes will have the opposite impact- just makes the hard left happier that wealth is being redistributed/ more handouts in the short term, making people more and more reliant on the State.

Pete, I'd recommend re-reading Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell.

"4 legs Good. Two legs Bad" changes to "4 legs good. Two legs better" after the pigs start walking around on two legs. Here's a quick read that explains it: https://interestingliterature.com/2021/02/orwell-four-legs-good-two-legs-bad-meaning-analysis/

Verbal gymnastics is a strength of the marxists so don't give them an opportunity tonplay to their strength with your politeness or your willingness to "be understanding of others viewpoints". Get comfortable drawing a line in the sand of what you're willing and not willing to consider or try to understand. We don't give cannibals any thought or creedence and the marxists have killed far more people in the last 200 hundred years than them. The marxist political philosophy and its adherents belong to the dustbin of history in the section marked: Terrible/Murderous Ideas.

I am old enough to remember England winning the World Cup, been in Bitcoin 2010, I have seen multiple governments of all flavours, voting for any is like changing deck chairs on the Titanic, as long as we have Governments controlling money we have an issue (but we do need government). We do however have a chance to change the future for our descendants, but as long as “Bitcoin” includes the existing fiscal structure & rails in its adoption you are planting your yield crops on rented ground, ground you can be excluded from, you empower the present system to keep control, from 1971 when Nixon announced the change from the Gold standard to Dollar liquidity they created the fiscal slavery baseline. Everyone in crypto is building tools to make it easier to spend crypto, their are building race cars but there are no race tracks to race them on in simple terms, I’ve been in sales and marketing all my life, Bitcoin needs to learn KISS, why should people use Bitcoin when they have a Fiat system that has them as slaves🤔 if someone try’s to sell you something that replaces something that works, all be it floored, that also seems complicated people don’t want it, they don’t want to learn to use a new system, think about when they update your OS, things move in the service, it pisses you off.

What Bitcoin needs is a spend service that is as easy to use as Visa or Mastercard and in the service outlets they use, that uses Sat’s to pay, as it’s adopted and dual pricing is shown they will see the cost of items go down in Sats and up in their Fiat, that’s when you get adoption! Once you create an alternative store of wealth that appeals to others then you rug pull the government, we don’t want to destroy government or banks, just use a different store of wealth that doesn’t have QE that we can transact with freely, (now my shill, I am building what I believe will empower & reward people to hold & spend Bitcoin, I won’t shill it here, if you want to know please ask it’s in Beta now) but the simplest way to rid politics of corruption is to remove the power they have over money and its debasement. Think of countries you visit that have official and man on a bike exchange rate, that’s when we win!