Yuval has a negative definition of “populist” while Thomas Frank has a positive view.
0:40 – “Trump says power is fear…what do you think power is?
Well, the question is what do you do with power? Do you use power just to gain more power, or do you try to use power to change the world for the better-?
1:15 “Democracy is a system in which you give power to somebody, on condition that after four years or so, they give it back, and the public can make another decision: did you use your power wisely and compassionately for four years? Okay, then we give it again, if not, we give it to somebody else.”
1:48 “I think the American public has made a very big gamble (taken) a very big risk, with giving so much power to Trump, who has already proved he wants to stay in power at all costs.”
3:17 “You see both on the radical right and also on the radical left, they have different ideas about many things, but one thing unites them, it is thinking that the only reality is power, and that all human interactions are power struggles. They don’t believe (populists) that humans and human institutions really care about the truth. In the populist imagination, when I am now talking with you, this is a power struggle. Everything we say is just trying to manipulate each other, or to manipulate the viewers; so, the question to ask whenever you hear somebody say something, the question to ask is not is it true, what is the evidence, the question to ask is who is winning, who is gaining power, whose interests are being served? This view of humanity, as if all humans are power-crazy demons, this erodes trust in human beings, this erodes trust in institutions, in the media, in university, in courts, people think “(these) are just conspiracies of people to gain power. And if you lose trust in all institutions, democracy collapses. Democracy functions based on trust. If there is no trust, the only system that can still function is a dictatorship. Because dictatorship is built on terror, not on trust, to frighten people, not make them trust.”
5:12 “We really want to know the truth about the world. Why? Because if you don’t know the truth about life, you will never be happy, because you don’t know what are the true sources of your misery. Even if you are the most powerful person in the world, if you don’t know about life, you will waste all your power trying to solve the wrong problem.
8:52 “And yet, Americans are so dissatisfied, so angry, so fearful. You look at the long span of history and in terms of health, nutrition, security…countries like the United States, like France, like Germany; the is the best place in history, and people are so dissatisfied.
9:36 (Regarding spirituality as the solution to this dissatisfaction) “The problem of real spirituality is that it doesn’t scale. – You go on a very deep, sometimes difficult journey, to find the answers, and you – no matter what obstacle you encounter – you go on. – (regarding religion) people, they become attached to rites and rituals, they become attached to beliefs, and they forget about the true essence of the spiritual path, and then it becomes a religion (religion does scale), and it often leads to more conflict and political strife – “
13:57 “You take a Jew today, you take a Jew a thousand years ago, two thousand years ago, they believe in different things, they dress differently, they behave differently, so religion will continue to change, to adapt to new realities, like the rise of AI will also change religion, – if it wants to survive it has to change; if you don’t change you don’t survive.”
22:20 (regarding money and also AI) “- we see the rise of new cryptocurrencies like bitcoin- based on distrust, you don’t trust the banks, you don’t trust the government, – it’s another sign that humans are losing trust in other humans and instead trying to base their trust on technology, and this is a very dangerous development.”
24:10 “This is the paradox, because we should have more trust in humans than in this completely new alien AI intelligence.”
Ice on the Moon 