Meta Politics
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Why is politics irrational? Why are there blatantly deranged ideas in every level of media? Greater forces: psychology, mathematics, and economics, hold the answers. Join the adventure with Cactus Chu and discover the way out.
54 Episodes
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The Republican Party has learned how to pass state laws in the past few months. This time, it's not only on taxes and deregulation, but also social positions on education, sports, and abortion. What does this mean for future elections? For internal media and political power? How will narratives adapt?
Cactus returns to writing and podcasting with his thoughts on Afghanistan, Iraq, 2008, and COVID - and how they play into the narrative of an era. Follow Cactus on twitter: https://twitter.com/meta_pol.Callin: @cactusRead bonus on substack: cactus.substack.com.
There are two ways to come to a conclusion: through evidence and through social trust. The former is slow and the latter is easily abused. In what ways are social proofs responsible for the problems that we face? And is blockchain a true solution?Follow Cactus on twitter: https://twitter.com/meta_pol.Callin: @cactusRead bonus on substack: cactus.substack.com.
Over time, even in circles dedicated to nuance and compromise, one absolute seems to rise: the distrust in institutions. The self-reinforcing mechanism that binds other political groups also binds these new ones; with the uniting goal heading ever closer to a universal cynicism. This is the most dangerous force facing outsider movements.Most of you don't need to hear this, but there have been overzealous, bad-faith critiques on some of the individuals or groups critiqued in this episode. I sign on to none of the critiques other than my own.Follow Cactus on twitter: https://twitter.com/meta_pol.Join us on clubhouse @metapol.Read bonus on substack: cactus.substack.com.
In the past few decades, ideologies have become increasingly centered around oversimplified metrics. What does this mean for the world and the show? Follow Cactus on twitter: https://twitter.com/meta_pol.Join us on clubhouse @metapol.Read bonus on substack: cactus.substack.com.
Cactus dispels past ideals of liberalism that cannot stand in the current information environment. Familiar topics arise, such as exponential network effects, insularization, the hierarchy of power-centralization and optimism. Follow Cactus on twitter: https://twitter.com/meta_pol.Join us on clubhouse @metapol.Read bonus on substack: cactus.substack.com.
A very important episode. Follow Cactus on twitter: https://twitter.com/meta_pol.Join us on clubhouse @metapol.Read bonus on substack: cactus.substack.com.
Why do partisans believe their representatives hold starkly different views? Is superficial media playing a role? Follow Cactus on twitter: https://twitter.com/meta_pol.Join us on clubhouse @metapol.Read bonus on substack: cactus.substack.com.
Enron created shell corporations to hide a ponzi scheme. Media companies are doing the same with their trust and attention. Cactus debunks these tactics, and the actual racist conspiracy theory about the lab leak hypothesis, in this week's episode.Follow Cactus on twitter: https://twitter.com/meta_pol.Join us on clubhouse @metapol.Read bonus on substack: cactus.substack.com.
Liz Cheney's ouster shows the extent of insular activism in the Republican party - it isn't a Democratic Party - exclusive phenomenon. But it's much harder to remove this incentive from a party than a company, as the former requires activism to exist and gain influence. Across history, political parties have stabilized and kept these insular, cult-like factions out. How have they done it? Follow Cactus on twitter: https://twitter.com/meta_pol.Join us on clubhouse @metapol.Read bonus on substack: cactus.substack.com.
Israel-Palestine is a conflict that has hungered to turn hot for decades. However, foreign influence leads to the PR and lobbying war becoming even more important than the military one. In an increasingly common occurrence, differing sides see different realities and information is more about the social network and the actual facts. Superficial centrism only adds to the problem, and true pragmatism seeks to fight back.
A cancer cell performs it's function, with one core exception: it doesn't know when to stop. Insular activism replicates this chaos, creating the confluence of uncontrolled radicalization, self-destructive incentives, and institutional sclerosis. Follow Cactus on twitter: https://twitter.com/meta_pol.Join us on clubhouse @metapol.Read bonus on substack: cactus.substack.com.
Cactus brings a positive update as political strategies evolve to combat disingenuous caricatures. As it turns out, preconditioning and prediction are useful tools for dealing with a static strategy of smears. Follow Cactus on twitter: https://twitter.com/meta_pol.Join us on clubhouse @metapol.Read bonus on substack: cactus.substack.com.
Almost a year ago, I made a prediction that the moderate policies and ideas of the Black Lives Matter movement, such as de-escalation training, body cameras, community policing and drug decriminalization, would become dominant despite extremist attempts to misdirect the movement. This, in large part, came true in public opinion, but not in institutions. Why is that? One answer is reinforcement distance, the time it takes to receive feedback on the actual value of an idea, which has created an increasing gap between branding and reality.Follow Cactus on twitter: https://twitter.com/meta_pol.Join us on clubhouse @metapol.Read bonus on substack: cactus.substack.com.
This week's episode is a collection of small gems that I couldn't fit into any other episode. Plus, at the end, an apology/correction. All of these points are related to polarization in some degree or another and help to better understand the incentive games leading to polarization. Follow Cactus on twitter: https://twitter.com/meta_pol.Join us on clubhouse @metapol.Read bonus on substack: cactus.substack.com.
This is a combined reading of Balaji's "How to Start a New Country" (1729.com/how-to-start-a-new-country/), with some commentary, and my response essay, "Towards An Anti-Adversarial Cloud State" (available at cactus.substack.com). In it I describe the game-theoretic principles at play in building a country over an online community. It is not as thoroughly rigourous as my typical content, but hopefully, is an interesting piece of your day.My essay is at 23:31.
Polarization has dramatically increased in recent decades. Selection mechanisms - the incentives and mechanisms in which information is noticed - are one culprit, that bring to the top the long tail of irrationality in the form of personal stories. At the same time, the decline of localized groups, a naturally occurring parallelization, has stripped communities of their immune response.Follow Cactus on twitter: https://twitter.com/meta_pol.Join us on clubhouse @metapol.Read bonus on substack: cactus.substack.com.
Wow, that's a long title.Cactus finds himself in a perfect storm of long tails and uses it to document how extreme, emotionally compelling and viral cases - the long tail of irrationality - undermine legal and financial systems, and how discretion and inconsistency are necessary to avoid collapse.Follow Cactus on twitter: https://twitter.com/meta_pol.Join us on clubhouse @metapol.Read bonus on substack: cactus.substack.com.Fun fact: This used to be literally the longest written draft before I split up the episode into two. Check in next week for possibly an even longer title...
Authoritarian regimes tend to be the breeding ground for those who understand the value of liberty. Those core values can only hold if their protectors understand the incentive games at play. Otherwise, corruption, "cancel culture", deception and emotional manipulation will leave those values tattered.Follow Cactus on twitter: https://twitter.com/meta_pol.Join us on clubhouse @metapol.Read bonus on substack: cactus.substack.com.
What is journalism? How do we go forward when journalism is self-terminating in a country? How about if that country is supposed to be the world's leading democracy?Benjamin Boyce is the host of the Boyce of Reason podcast. You can find his channel on any podcast site, or on youtube: https://youtu.be/kJTzUQOld0Q.
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