320: Look in the Mirror

0:00Hello Liberty lovers and welcome to the Liberty Mike podcast broadcasting from an undisclosed location in the heart of Dixie. I am Michael and I am here with Liberty Larry. How's it going? Doing alright. How are you? Pretty good. Alright. That was a great intro. Yeah. I thought so. Really nailed it. Happy 25th anniversary. Happy 25th anniversary? We say. I don't know. I don't know if happy is really the word. No, probably not. Well, it was 25 years ago. Yeah. I feel like we could recover it a little bit by now. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. It was such a big deal at the time. There's a whole lot of adults that have no memory of this though at this point. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've been, I've came to that realization a few times now talking to just people.

1:01And for those people, we're talking about the 25th anniversary of the 9-11 World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's, so I've lived through two of these events now. 9-11 was the first where everybody has like a story of where they were at and like where, what happened. Yeah. And the first COVID is the more recent that anybody you talk to has got a COVID story. Not, it's a little different. It's not like where you were when the years. Yeah, but yeah, exactly. Well, in it, it adversely affected so many people. Like there's no, I shouldn't say nobody. I haven't really talked to anybody that said they came out of the other end. The COVID better than they came in. Yeah. I mean, it was just retactic on our economy. And when I say economy, I mean like people's lives, you know, yeah. Well, I remember, so 9-11, I was working night. So I was actually asleep when it happened. Yeah.

2:01And I was woken up by the phone ringing over and over and over and over and over. Don't you hate it when people do that? I really hate it when people do that. And so finally I got up and was like, what? You know, and it was a guy I worked with. And I was like, I was like, no, I was in bed, of course. He was like, turn on the news. Yeah. It was before the second tower was hit actually. Actually, I think I turned on like just before the second tower was hit. So that's kind of how my story goes. I was in bed asleep, said the work that night. And my dad, so the first plane hit and my, and this is unusual. Well, no, I know it's my dad, but well, somebody less than mine. Yeah. And my dad didn't just come wake me up for any brother. Listen to this. I bet you those videos. Yeah. But anyway, like my dad just didn't come wake me up for nothing, you know. But he did. He came and got me out of bed. It's like, you need to come in here and see this. There's stuff going on. And so I literally walked in the living room.

3:01And they were talking about the plane hit and then like, I got the watch. The second one. Yeah. Go in and was like, and it was one of those moments. Because you know, at first you're like, well, wow, like how does this happen? Like how did they not see the building or how, you know, what caused this? And then as soon as the second one hit, like you knew, like, oh, this is happening. Yeah. And that was such a horrific, because I remember watching the second plane hit too. Yeah. And it was like such a horrific image. Yeah. So. And then like the, by the end of the day, one of my roommates and I were packing a car to go up there to go up there. Because like I wasn't still actually, I might have still been licensed to that time. It would have been close. But I'd been a licensed EMT before. And so yeah, he and I were packing the car. Like, but then they started announcing everywhere. Like don't come to New York. Yeah. Well, we have too many people already.

4:02We don't need your help. There's just nothing you can do. Yeah. So then we had to unpack the car. But the say there was nothing you could do. I do very, very vividly remember them asking for blood donations. Yeah. But I don't do that. I don't do that either. And that's one of the few times in my life I've considered it. It turned out they didn't really need it. But that was, that's something that I feel like's forgotten in all, in the story is that like, like the blood banks were like doing like, they have put in blood. Well, I want to say good business. That's not really what I mean, obviously. But the blood banks are always low. They're always struggling to have enough. And that was like a time period where they actually were good for a while. Yeah. And you would think that that might have been something that would become a legacy in 9-11. And it's like, hey, you know, there's something you can do to help. And you never know what's going to happen. Yeah, exactly.

5:02So I don't guess that it has is what you're suggesting. Yeah, I mean, no, but anytime I mention that everybody is like, oh, yeah, I forgot about that. So anyway, yeah. It was a pretty significant like formative event for my generation and the older people in yours. Oh, absolutely. And then like the aftermath was totally insane. And where can I say, yeah, people shouldn't get assumptive. I still think of people having private life. Which is, I don't know, the market has justquirky at the same time. All these negotiations were a little too expensive. I've already noodles out. It's 23 weeks ago. That was 20 years ago, my grandmother had to eat Sinai records. This prettier self doesn't work that much. And I, the Senior New Yorker hasn't put it in that aggregate. Okay, so I think somebody could just buy a penny. New York sense and to me, like it's a, the gap there isn't enough for me to look at this

6:04guy line and be like, oh, wow, there's really something missing. It's different. Yeah. Of course, for a lot of people, that was there every day. Yeah. And then people who just spent more time there, that it was like really noticeable to him to them that there was something missing. But there were people that were, you know, all worked up about it that have never, had never before or even since been to New York. Yeah. I mean, I had only seen it in movies or whatever. Yeah. And on, this friends in New York, friends was in New York, right? I think so. Don't quote me on that. I'm not a, I've never really was a big fan. Oh, no. Probably a lot of people that was their knowledge of the city. Sign fell. That's my eye. Oh, yeah. Okay. I love something. Well, if you look at the memes on the page, you'll catch that every now and then. Gary's responsible for the memes, everyone.

7:05So you know, I don't do that. It's good to put that out because you get blamed for him a lot. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I felt that a little bit. People who actually know me like, I can't believe you put that meme up. I was like, what are you talking about? Yeah. But it does prompt a little discussion about patriotism. It's one of those things that I am often criticized on this podcast for like blaming America for everything. I don't blame America for everything. No. It's not my fault that they are. But actually, the problem is that people see blame as an absolute. Either the one sides to blame or the other sides to blame. Yeah. And that's not how actual cause works in most cases. So and I think that it's important that you accept some part of the blame for things

8:08that go wrong that you contributed to. Yeah. You know, you can't deny that that the US was bombing Iraq that whole time that they set up military bases that were greatly resented in Saudi Arabia that they were managing the the autocratic government in Egypt and Saudi Arabia for that matter. And the the I don't know, donations. That's not the word that I mean. The foreign aid to Israel also that a lot of people in that part of the world resented. Yeah. Because Israel was using that money to kill Palestinians. Yeah. And you can't pretend that none of that is true. That doesn't justify obviously the the acts. But it does show that the that there were actions of the US that contributed to the environment that led to those acts.

9:08And you have to be able to admit part of the blame if you're ever going to like negotiate. This is one of the problems that we have as a nation at this point is that we don't feel like we need to negotiate with anybody. And negotiation to the United States of America is we tell you how it's going to be. Yeah. It's it's an ultimatum, not a negotiation. Yeah. I mean, you have to if you're ever going to learn from from mistakes, you've got to recognize that the mistake was made in the first place. Yeah. And if you're ever going to settle in negotiation with another nation about something, you have to be able to say, okay, look, we could have done this differently. You could have done this differently. All right. Now, let's take now, let's figure out where we go. Yeah. Let's say like we've admitted that we are part of the reason that this happened. You've admitted that you are part of the reason that this happened. Now, how do we find some common ground and move forward? If you never accept any blame for anything, then it's hard to find common ground and negotiate

10:09from. Yeah. Your whole attitude in negotiations is this is entirely your fault. Yeah. I don't know how you expect to arrive at any kind of reasonable conclusion. You never will. And I and I guess the big thing is that like I absolutely consider myself a patriot. I have a lot of respect and love for what this country stands for in terms of the historical ideology. The fact that this nation is the first on a large scale to implement the kind of freedom and self-government that that we advocate for on this podcast. Yeah. That said, patriotism does not require that I agree with or even like my government. Yeah. I resent the fact that I don't like my government. I mean, I want to have a government that I'm proud of and the country that I'm proud

11:11of. And as it stands, I have one but not the other. Yeah. You know, I mean, I love our country, but the government needs a lot of work to say the least. It's like for, I think probably for a lot of libertarians and probably a lot of like liberal-minded people around. I mean, liberal in the old sense, not liberal the way we use it today to mean progressive left. Yeah. But liberal-minded people around the country, like you love your country in spite of the government. Exactly. Right? Exactly. But the thing that's important to remember in that formula, I guess, is that what we love about this country is the people. Yeah. People that make up this country are what makes this country lovable and respectable. Unfortunately, exactly the wrong ones are in government, but the majority of people in this country are good people that are just like good-hearted, willing to help empathetic,

12:17sympathetic people. Absolutely. And we saw a lot of that with the World Cup. That was the best thing about the World Cup. And it's impressive to see how that shifted a lot of people's perspective because the way the United States is presented around the world is not the reality that they came into here. No, I mean, we're presented kind of like what our government represents. Yeah. Bullies. Yeah, exactly. But it starts driving around and talking to people and you realize, well, that's not the reality at all. And that's been my experience traveling abroad too, is that it's very easy. Like people don't hate Americans. Yeah. If they hate at all, it's the way the government acts are on the national stage or international stage. And it's very easy to find common ground with people almost anywhere, even if they dislike

13:22what your government's doing, at least for me, because I mostly dislike it too. Yeah. Right. But people tend to treat Americans differently than it's usually like a curiosity. Like are you on board with this? Yeah. Right. And you're like, no, absolutely not. I have absolutely no say in this government whatsoever. The vote is BS. Right. Exactly. They never ask me about the things that they do that I really care about. Yeah. Nobody has asked me about any of the wars that we've started. I keep telling people anyway, but they're not asking you to then the president that ran on new, no new wars. Yeah. Look at where we're at. Like, I mean, it just goes to show it doesn't matter who you vote for. You get John McKinley. Exactly. Yeah. So, and I think that that's true generally kind of no matter what the beef is between, you know, some foreign government and the United States government, the people of those countries they don't hate each other. Yeah. Exactly.

14:22Yeah. And anyway, I think that that's important to remember. And probably most importantly is to remember that ideally, the government of this country is those people that we love and respect and feel really represent our nation. Yeah. Not the members of the government. You know, as Malcolm Reynolds was quoted as saying, you know, government as a body of people, usually notably ungoverned. Exactly. But the people of this country are good. And, you know, it does, our constitution does start we the people. Yeah. Yeah. It is supposed to be, you know, a government by the people, by oven for the people, you know? Yeah. It's turned into something else though. Yeah. By far. That's all I have on patriotism. Do you want to add to that? No. I mean, I think that pretty well sums it out pretty well.

15:25We're patriots. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And it's one of those things, you know, I get into discussions with people about like a truly volunteer society and, you know, the comments generally come down to, well, you know, it's really easy to say that and on like big things, it's easy to come to agreements. Like the problems with a volunteerist or really any kind of government or a system of law or, you know, social structure is like what happens on the edges. Yeah. The edges is where the arguments are. Yeah. Right. And that's always going to be the case. And I generally have answers. Yeah. They're not always perfectly clean. And that's kind of the thing. And I recognize that a like a truly purely volunteerist society is a utopian ideal. Yeah. But I also think that just because a utopia may not be achievable, that doesn't mean that you don't try and work in that direction. Well, and the conclusion I've came to is when it comes to government, bigger is not always

16:30better. And I don't just mean that as far as like big government, I just mean as far as like real estate. But you just, you don't want a big government governing a big area. The bigger the area, the more problems you're going to end up with. And I think that's what we see here in the United States. Yeah. Well, the bigger the area, the more disconnected they are from the people that they're actually governing. Exactly. And the system was built to deal with that problem by being a representative government. Yeah. We've just abandoned that completely. Well, I think the real problem is that we inverted the power structure. Yeah. So it was supposed to be local government feeding up into county government, into state government, into federal government. But it's the other way around at this point. The federal government pushes everything down from the top instead of it coming up from the bottom. Yeah.

17:31So the people that are farthest removed from the, from the governed are the people that are actually making the decisions. Exactly. And if we could reverse that, that would go a long way. I mean, you could, you could still be a large nation like this and still be well governed. Yeah. You just need to focus the power at the local level. Yeah. Because what's good for Alabama isn't necessarily good for New York. Yeah. And we just need to accept that. Well, even what's good for upstate New York isn't the same as what's good for New York city. Yeah. Well, exactly. Like that's, and like, like you laid out, like there's, we, the system was set up to deal with this. It's just not, and use that way. Yeah. It shifted around the Civil War. Yeah. Exactly. It seems like we fall the war over that. Yeah. And lost. Yeah. One side, our side lost. Yeah. So that's it. And of course, we're not pro slavery. Obviously.

18:32That's not the gimmick here. Yeah. Just a federalist system kind of fell apart. Yeah. They lost the war. Yeah. They established a strong national government that could push all the local governments into line instead of the other way around. Yeah. So what did Trump do? Yeah. So speaking of government for the people, that's great introduction. Our great president has announced that if the Republicans are able to pull out and win the midterms, that he's going to give every adult a $5,000 check. Cool. Yeah. Which is, I mean, the left is up and armistice about this. This is an open bribe for votes. What about that? That is exact. It's kind of ironic that that's coming from the left side that this is an open bribe because

19:33it's so funny because they want to act like that this has never been done before. Nobody's ever done this. Trying to buy votes. Who would do that? It's wild to me. The people I was discussing with the other day at work because this came up a lot while I was at the store was that the big thing is, well, this is going to push over Democrats. We're going to have a bunch of Democrats start flipping votes. And I was like, for one, I just don't think that's the case. I don't think that this gambit is going to win. Yeah. I don't think that it's just not going to happen. For one, for two, he's made this promise every since he came in the office, they was going to start cutting checks and he ain't done it. So there's that. He's got everything right now. And that was the final one was that, look, if he truly was intent on doing this, there's nothing stopping him right now.

20:33He's got all chambers. It's just the thing that irritates me about it though is that it is a clear open bribe. No, that's what I love about it. Yeah. I think one of us predicted this a while back. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. This is before the midterms there's going to be money offered. Yeah. Look for the bribe. I think is what I said. Yeah. So I didn't think it would be quite this blatant, but I did think it was coming. This is one of the things that I really appreciate about this president. This is not an unusual act. There are bribes for votes in every single election. And only speaking, it's the Republican saying they're going to cut taxes and it's the Democrat saying that they're going to give more money away through programs. Yep. That's always the gambit. Both of those things are monetary bribes for votes. Yep. What I love about this is that it's so blatant.

21:34That's just out there in the open. There's no way that you can deny that this is a bribe for votes. Yeah. It's just what it is. And the truth is that you really shouldn't be able to deny that the other ways are bribes for votes. They're absolutely. The substance is exactly the same. Yeah. Yeah. And this is one of the things that this president does over and over again that I appreciate is that he's not hiding the corruption. He's exposing the corruption that's always been there. He's just so he's so like oblivious to the issue. Politically illiterate. Yeah. Although he's not bad. He's so oblivious to the idea that he should be hiding the corruption. Yeah. That he just does the same things that everybody at everybody else does, but with no disguise. Yeah. Exactly. It's just all out there in open. He did say he was going to expose corruption. Yeah. I get this is a way of doing it. Absolutely. I don't think this is what he meant by it, but it is working. Well, and the particularly funny thing is that all they're doing is giving your

22:39money back to you. And they're going to have to get it back out of you one way or another because it's not like we're functioning with a big budget surplus that he can just give back to the people. Yeah. We're still in a budget deficit. We're still running up debt constantly. So if he gives every American $5,000, where does that money come from? Yeah. Well, I mean, it's coming right out of the system. Why is it going to, and this will absolutely create more inflation. Yes. I mean, we've, and we've already seen it. I mean, I know some of Biden's after the midterms, he doesn't care about inflation anymore. He'll care about it now. Well, that does seem to be the case, doesn't it? Yeah. So, I don't know. I just, I thought that story was interesting that that's, this is where we're at. Well, I'm, like I said, I'm, I'm happy that it's just out there in the open. Yeah. Everybody to see what happens at every election, but in just like this absolutely blatant manner. Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's, it is wild because nothing's going to change here.

23:43Like the Democrats are up in arms about it right now, but the truth is, is it's not like all the parties are going to get together and decide that we shouldn't give money away anymore to certain groups, you know, to get votes. Yeah. Like that's not changing. Yeah. And that mean, this one's a very broad, this is definitely mass appeal. Every adult's going to get $5,000. Exactly. Yeah. Oh. Not like if you're poor or if you pay high taxes, if you're a business owner, you're like, it's just everybody. Yeah. And I had people making the argument to me that this is the game changer, that this is going to, because right now, I mean, the poll numbers are showing that there's just no way that the Republicans are going to maintain. So I mean, who knows this and election and anything can happen, but the polls aren't representing that. Yeah. And so, in terms of the, in-convent side loses. Yeah. And so, and this one will be no different because the coalition has fell apart.

24:43And something else I was kind of trying to explain the people at work the other day is the coalition that brought Trump in is not there anymore. And it's Trump's own fault. Like he completely holds the blame here. It's not even a situation where he can try to make some excuse that he inherited some kind of problem or something. Like this is purely in his ballpark. Yeah. So, but yeah, the whole, the people making the argument to me that this is going to flip things and change things. I just don't buy it. I just, I don't think that's going to happen. No, probably not. I don't think that that's enough of an incentive to people, especially anybody who's like remotely economically literate this, like, well, they're going to cut me a $5,000 check that's, that immediately has the purchasing power of only like maybe $3,000 because everybody got this $5,000 check. Yeah. You know, $180 million people got a $5,000 check. That's a whole lot of money flooding into the market all of a sudden.

25:44Into the system, yeah. By the end of the year, it'll be $1,000 worth of purchasing power. And in the end, they have to get it back out of you one way or another. Well, and we've seen this happen during COVID. I mean, they were cutting checks left and right during COVID. Yep. And look at where we're at and that. Like, I mean, just, it'll be different this time. It always is. It'll be different this time. Yeah. Man, I heard Bridget Fettici today talking about 9-11 and how they, they urged us all to just party like mad after 9-11. You know, so the terrorists wouldn't win. So the terrorists wouldn't win? I do remember that. They hate us for our freedom. Get out there and get drunk. You know. Right. And that was back in the time where people really did that too. Yeah. Like, it was people still do that. Just not young people. Well, you're right. I posted something about house parties on the page this week because house parties really

26:45aren't a thing anymore. I mean, they're not like they were back. Well, before COVID, yeah. Yeah. I mean, house parties have really kind of died off, I would say. As a single person, I'll tell you, meeting people out is almost impossible now. Yeah. I've heard that. And it was never particularly easy for me anyway, just because I'm not a, like despite what it might seem on this podcast, I'm actually like a really strong introvert. Yeah. So for me, like, walking across a room and talking to somebody I know is difficult to begin with. So like, I always had trouble with this anyway. But since COVID, it's nearly impossible to meet somebody out. You're just like everybody's suspect. Yeah. Yeah. It's a shame. Actually, I want to talk really quick to flash back to the last podcast about your coworker with the Lindsay Clancy stuff.

27:45Oh, do you mind? No, I'm talking about that. Okay. Talk about that. So I have a coworker who's, she's been interested in this case for, since it's really kind of blew up. And she came to me yesterday and was like, like, I keep hearing all this stuff on the internet and I just don't know what to believe. So she's like, I'm going to, I'm going to listen to the, I'm just going to put it in my earbud and I'm going to listen to the whole case, like just the actual testimony and the whole thing. And man, she came to me all night last night with little bits. Like, she's just like, like, where are these people coming up with this? I just don't get it. Like, it's just, it's crazy. Like, you know that they, that her defense wasn't even claimant, she didn't do it, like, just all the stuff coming out. And yeah. And you said, yeah, you didn't know that a week ago if you listened to her part again. Well, she knew, but it was one of those things that it was like, like, where is the information even coming from? I'm like, it's crazy people on the internet. Like, it's just what it is. It is, it is such a strange moment.

28:48I don't understand why this is another example of that, like, everything becomes political. Yeah. And I think that that's a huge part of it. But I don't understand how people can't accept that, that you can have empathy for this person. You can understand that she was struggling and, uh, and have sympathy for her as well. Yeah. And have something of an understanding of how, like, that trigger was reached. Yeah. But still hold her accountable for her actions. Yeah. And remember that she did kill three children. Yeah. Including her daughter who would also grow up someday to maybe have hormonal issues. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, uh, you, you put it really well there. Like, I just, I, that mindset, I just don't understand. And in the, like, a lot of it on the internet is just like blatant, like, just trying to

29:53shift the blame. Yeah. Like, a lot of it's based on her astrological chart. Well, there's that. Like, well, I'll go back to a lot of crazy folks on the internet. Yeah. I'm not saying I ain't one of them, but like, I feel like I'm a little more grounded. I have to wonder about astrology. I just don't understand people's devotion. No. Their sad devotion to this ancient religion just doesn't make any sense to me. I, uh, well, it is that in itself is an argument for it, though. The fact that it has survived this long. Like, I'm not, I'm not obviously not in the estral. I'm not. There's gullible people in every age. So that, that's what that's what this proves. Yeah. Exactly. I, I, uh, passed the test the time. No, it hasn't. It hasn't passed any test. It's still there. I'm, it has in the fact that it still exists. We haven't gotten rid of it. Um, yeah, it's, it's so absurd.

30:54I, uh, like, I understand it is kind of an entertainment, like talking to a chatter bot. Right. Yeah. Like, okay, you know, it's kind of funny. It's, you know, what if this was true? Oh, that's silly. Uh, you know, but to, like, we're involved in your life around it. Well, yeah, to a belief in this thing is just kind of insane to me. I, I don't understand. So I do have to ask you. So we know, but the moon affects things. Sure. But like, they're talking about, um, stars and planets that are, that are so far away from, like that we're only seeing the light from that we can't even see. Yeah. They were only seeing the light from it. What if you're on the other side of the earth from it when you're born? Uh, but I think most importantly, like a lot of this stuff, you're more, um, more affected by the gravity of the doctor than, than a lot of these planets. That's funny. When you come out, I, I, it's just, uh, it's, uh, yeah.

31:57There's no basis to it. And, you know, it's all, a lot of it's like, you know, believing what you want to believe. I think it's really fair to compare it to chatbots actually in a lot of ways. Yeah. Um, it's, it's, you're like projecting what you want to think. Yeah. Um, onto the system that doesn't actually provide you with any information. Yeah. Um, I guess chatbots to some degree provide you with some information, but, I mean, so there's a strong analogy. The truth is that like a chatbot is a mirror. Yeah. Like that's really, I mean, you're not the first person I've heard. I don't really use them. So, and I, I need to try to at least spend a little time with them. So I'm like, ain't like, understand them a little better. Yeah. But I've heard a lot of people say exactly what you're saying that it's, it's, it's trying to satisfy you that it wants to, to, it's going to tell you what you want to hear. What it, what it thinks you want to hear. Yeah. And it doesn't even think it's just trying to like the way a lot of solving a problem.

32:57If you have spent a lot of time talking with chatbots, especially about one particular thing, and this is kind of what I've been doing recently is that, um, I had a short story that I, that I like mocked up a kind of a general, um, like prose description of us, of a character years ago. And over the last couple of months, I have turned that into like a real story. Yeah. Um, and so what I have been doing is, uh, throw it into the chatbot, um, and use it to like bounce ideas. Yeah. It doesn't actually give me much of anything. Yeah. And this is why I say it's a mirror. And also, in a lot of cases, like if you do that, so I don't, I don't pay for any of this. Yeah. So every time I go into, every time I close the window, essentially, I go back and it's like it's starting all over. Yeah. Right. Like it doesn't remember anything we've talked about before. Yeah. Um, how we've progressed with this at all. Uh, so, uh, yeah, every time it starts fresh.

34:00And the funny thing is that it'll do stuff like, uh, you know, one time when I plug it in, I'll say, this is your strongest passage. And then the next time it'll say, this is your weakest passage. It'll be the same passage. Like it has no idea what it's talking about. And the worst thing you could do, anybody who does creative stuff, yeah, and uses AI at all, like, don't take any of its advice. I mean, like think about it. I don't mean it did tell you that passage is pivotal. It's just doesn't know how it's pivotal. I suppose. Um, and what I would say is that like what I have started doing just right from the start is like, don't suggest scenes. Don't suggest rewrites. Like don't even bother. Yeah. Because it, if, when I forget, it'll say, oh, I, you know, this is, this could be more effective if you do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and write it like this. And then I read what it wrote. And it's like, this is terrible. Yeah. Right. Like, no, there's no way. This reads like AI wrote. Exactly. Um, but it is, it is value.

35:01Okay. Let me finish my thought. Yeah. A lot of times I feel like the AI is really like a madlib. Yeah. Like, you're talking, yeah, you're talking to a madlib. You just don't realize where it's just very, like, which noun or whatever it's going to pull. Yeah. So it's, it's got the script that's like a madlib and it pulls bits of information out of what you gave it and fills in the blanks. Yeah. This is how it operates. It seems to me. Yeah. Um, so it really is mostly useless. It, in a sense, it's better than talking to a wall. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's where the value comes in. It's not so much that it gives me anything, but it gives me an opportunity to express my thoughts and develop them as I express them. Yeah. Um, and it comes back with like a way too long-winded response that I mostly just kind of skim through. And, and the really funny thing in terms of it being a mirror is that it'll say, uh,

36:03I think it's really important that you do this, you know, make this change, make it, um, function like this because of whatever reason. Yeah. And I say, but I think it works better the way I have it because of blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And it, in every single time it comes back with, no, you know, you're right. I think I judged that too harshly. I didn't understand the significance when I read through it the first time. Your way is better. Yeah. No kidding. Of course it is, right? That's funny. So astrology kind of functions in the same way. She's in the same way. Well, fair enough. Uh, um, there's no astrology for you. Okay. We got like 15 or so minutes left. Let's talk about, uh, what do you call them? Data centers. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was the other topic. What are your thoughts on data centers? So, and I'm not really hard. I don't have a really hard position here, but I just haven't had a good argument made to

37:05me as far as why people on their own property that they purchased on their own can't put what they want on it. I mean, I've heard the argument, well, they're sucking all the power and they're sucking all the water. And if that's true, and I don't know one way or the other, but if it is, that's one area. I mean, the government controls those things anyway. Yeah. So, I mean, if that's really the case, then you're a government because it's all, this is we're talking local here now. Um, your local government needs to be like, look, you build the data center all you want. This is how much you get from us. Yeah. Because this is how much we can give you without affecting the local population. And if that's enough for you to do what you want to do, then build. If not, you better find somewhere else. Yeah. Pretty much every problem can be solved through contracts. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what that's basically what I'm laying out here is that, you know, but I just have a problem with the people that are like, all the data centers come in.

38:06We got a like make signs and go to the do blah blah. It's like as long as they're doing it on their own property, I just don't get it. Yeah. Okay. And so the things like, oh, well, this just serves the surveillance state. Yeah. Um, the vast majority of data is your Netflix movies and your YouTube videos and like, uh, you know, all this other stuff that you have on like that make the argument, well, this is where all the flock camera information is going. I mean, they need somewhere to store it. And I'm like, if that's true, I'd have a problem with it, but I'm not buying it. Yeah. But the truth is that, um, if the government has data that it wants to store, there's nothing you can do to stop it. Well, they're doing it. They're doing it anyway. Exactly. And they're doing that through pocket private companies. So, sure. You know, but like no complaints are going to prevent it from going up somewhere. I mean, I guess it could not go up in your neck of the woods. But the truth is that and, um, and Adam Curry's been on to this for a little bit. Yeah. On the no agenda show is that like, man, this is a tremendous amount of money for a

39:09community. Yeah. There were a bunch of communities. Okay. Actually, here's a really good concrete example. All right. Um, I can never remember his name. The the racist governor of Alabama who ran for president and got shot. Um, oh, God. So it punched that into your phone real quick or whatever. Yeah. Um, I can never. It's like right there on the tip of my tongue and I cannot. Yeah. I can't ever remember his name. But anyway, while he was the the governor of Alabama, uh, there were, um, is when they were building the international airports in the southeast. Yeah. Uh, which went to Hart's field at the time. Yeah. Um, but Birmingham was the the top, um, the top city in the running because it's so centrally located in the southeast. Yeah. Um, I'm trying to talk about this and run a search on my phone at the same time. Um, I could probably just put racist governor of Alabama in the city.

40:10That will definitely bring it up. I feel like, oh, George Wallace. Oh, George Wallace. That's right. Yeah. And in fact, what it prompted me to once I got racist governor in, yeah, was racist governor who ran for president. Oh, nice. Yeah. So yeah, George Wallace. Yeah. Um, so while they were trying to select which city would get the the international airport in the southeast, Birmingham was in the top of the running because of its central location. Yeah. Um, but George Wallace would not allow interstate 20 to run through Birmingham. Okay. And so literally at the time, it stopped like 10 or 20 miles short of the city on one side and picked up at 10 or 20 miles. So this seems like a no brainer like and because he wouldn't allow the interstate to run through Birmingham. Yeah. And they gave the international airport to Atlanta at Hartzfield. Wow. That had a huge, that set us back. Huge economic impact.

41:11Yeah. I would say so. Um, and you know, there's a bunch of other historical examples about people that wouldn't allow the railroads run through their city and that kind of thing. Yeah. And that is like the railroads a good example because like if you think, think about just like the economic impact of having the railroad there and I can definitely like sympathize with people at the time being like, oh, we don't want that railroad here. We're going to have all these people coming through. We don't want that. But at the same time, a lot of money attached to those people coming through. Exactly. You know, so, um, um, that's an interesting example to me. Cities have grown up around new technologies that they allowed to come in. Yeah. New technology means a whole lot of capital investment. Yeah. And so, uh, this is what I would say is that, uh, if you're worried about electricity, now the water concern, I don't think is so much of a concern. Most of those systems are closed systems. They don't actually use, I mean, they use the water at the outset, but then they recycle

42:15it. Exactly. Yeah. Um, so that's not really a concern. Yeah. Uh, the electricity issue could be. Yeah. But I think that you, you handle it through contracts. And the thing that I would do is to just allow them to construct their own, um, electric generation. Yeah. Yeah. Like, okay, you build a power plant. Well, and what you don't use, you can feed into the, to the grid and get a discount on, you know, everything else. Like, okay, let's do it that way. And then the worst thing that happens is that the, this, this enterprise fails completely. Yeah. You still have the power generation. Yeah. And the infrastructure. Yeah. And that, and you got a, uh, a climate control, a large climate controlled space that you can do all kinds of things with. Think about storage spaces that are just all over the place. There's never seems to be enough storage space. Yeah. You say that people have less and less goods. We're all getting poorer.

43:16Yeah. Um, and that you have to downsize your home and then you got to find some place to put the stuff you can't fit into your new home. There there is that, that, yeah, exactly. So storage space, we could convert those in the little cubicles people could live in. Yeah. Shut up. Yeah, right. I'm just saying, hey, these things are going to be available at some point. Yeah. They're, they're wired for electricity. They're wired for water. Like you're, you're good to go. Yeah. Um, so this is a huge space that could be pot bought for pennies on the dollar if the enterprise fails. Yeah. And then you can convert it into something more productive and you still have the power generation. Yeah. And, and if you have the power generation and you don't have the power suck of the data center, then that just makes everybody's power. Yeah. I was going to say that helps the power, which is a problem right now. I don't, I, in my little local town, the Facebook, the local community Facebook page is all above over power bills right now. Oh, yeah.

44:16In fact, I really wanted to like go to the city council meeting just to see the spectacle. I mean, my power bill is high, but that's because we just finished August in Alabama. And so my AC runs nonstop. So the, the buzz on the Facebook page is that because we all experience that I experienced that every year, I expect the higher power bill this time of year and have got it in then some and the, in then some is kind of what everybody is up in arms about. And we have a new, it's a whole thing because like we have, we have our, we have our own power company where we're at. It's not Riviera, whoever. So there's that. And then there's a new city council and a new mayor. And so there's, it's a lot of drama. And I was actually interested to go to the city council meeting just to see the spectacle. And did you? I didn't. I just probably more the come. I may have my opportunity. Yeah. So and I might take advantage of it because I'll be, I do love a good spectacle. Yeah. In the end, like my advice is like if somebody wants to build a data center in your town,

45:20try and get your government to, to create some responsibilities of the, whoever wants to build the data center. Yeah. But don't just turn it away. Yeah. That could be a huge amount of money and growth for your town. Yeah. And I mean, the railroad example actually still stands tall because even that, like when the railroad was coming to your little town, like you would want there to be the infrastructure for these extra people coming through anyway. So you'd still want to hold your government accountable for the railroad coming in. Yeah. But you want it to come in is the point. Yeah. You know, exactly. I mean, we don't want people to come here, but. Well, no, we've got people here. We're full. Find somewhere else. But I think that the, I think that this is something that if it really turns into a successful enterprise, then you can't go wrong taking the data center. And even if it fails, it provides some benefits in the aftermath. Yeah.

46:20I agree. I think that the, any kind of new technology that, that, you know, provides a big boom in terms of economic activity, you should never turn away. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I tend to agree. But you think about it, like historically, anytime these things come up, there's always a strong set, strong group opposing it. Yeah. And I think that's what we're looking at here with the people against the data centers. Is that, is that historic group of people that's just opposed to progress. And I think that they're generally under informed and generally don't understand economics. Well, and I understand the concern. Like I know that like one of the beer, big, fear mongering things is, you know, it's going to destroy jobs. Yeah. It's going to destroy jobs in some sectors. There's no doubt about that. I mean, but every new technology does. Yeah. It will probably, historically speaking, this is how it works. It will probably create a whole lot more jobs than it destroys.

47:22Yeah. And it's hard to predict what those jobs are going to be and what they're going to be. I mean, it's with every technology. That's always the case. Yeah. But it is almost certain to create more jobs than it destroys. And the most important thing is that it generates wealth in the long term because it frees people up from jobs that can be done easier with fewer resources and allows them to, if frees up their labor to put them into jobs that are more productive. Yeah. And technology always does this. I mean, throughout history, you know, more manual labor jobs go away and technology takes their place and we move forward and become a more productive society because of it. Well, this is another one of those interesting things is that those manual labor jobs is probably what it's going to create more of. It may. I'm sure if you study that there's a cycle of that type of thing.

48:23Yeah. John, see the Vorak would make an argument for some sort of 100 year cycle. Oh, yeah, probably. There's, this is a different kind of technology in that sense though. Yeah. Is that it is not, it doesn't eliminate manual labor at all. It eliminates some intellectual labor. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Like, okay, so I've got a friend who does code. Yeah. He doesn't use AI. Now, I am not a coder by any means, but I have used AI to develop scripts and code for me. And I say develop them. It's like, I tell it what I want it to do. And it says, here's your script and I copy and paste. Yeah. That's incredible. It makes me more productive. Yeah. And this is, I'll get back to that in a second. Um, but this friend of mine who is an extremely talented software developer, he doesn't use

49:26AI at all. Yeah. Now, my cousin is also an extremely talented software developer and he uses AI constantly. Yeah. Now, his system is essentially, I have the AI create code for things that are simple. Yeah. And that way I can concentrate my time on complicated tasks. Yeah. Yeah. And so it makes him a lot more productive. My friend who doesn't use AI at all, he's just so good at this stuff that he can just sit down at the computer and just bang out all of it. Yeah. Yeah. And, and he's just highly suspicious of what it produces. Yeah. His job is not going to be eliminated. No, Hannah, how good this thing gets because he's just so good at his job. He's such an exceptional talent at what he does. Yeah. That the AI is not going to replace him. Yeah. His, his, his, his skill is too high level. Yeah. Um, and the same is probably true for my cousin, even though he's using AI on the side for like easy stuff. Yeah. Now, he's building stuff from the ground.

50:27I actually, I guess they both are building the stuff from the ground up. They have different methods, I guess. In the end, um, the kind of job is just going to eliminate is like mine. Yeah. Uh, where it's like an intellectual job, actually, probably not mine specifically, but especially your type. Yeah. Um, you know, kind of, uh, management, bookkeeping, low level coding, like these kind of things are probably going to disappear for the most part. Yeah. Um, because of AI, like a lot of these jobs are probably going to be eliminated. Uh, but they're going to open up new opportunities in other areas. The interesting thing about this shift is, first off, it's going to happen fast, but everything always happens faster the more time progresses. Yeah. It just seems to be the case. Like it used to be, uh, very long spans of time between major developments. Now it's not. And those times between major developments in, um, in technology, you're getting shorter and shorter and shorter and shorter. Yeah. So a lot's going to happen really fast and it's going to create some disruption, definitely.

51:29Yeah. But I think on the other end of it, if it works, um, then we will be a wealthier, more productive society. Yeah. And the jobs will just shift into different areas. Yeah. Um, and even if it fails, I still think in the end, we'll have a wealthier, more productive society, although there's going to be like a real problem if, if AI fails. And I kind of expect this time that it will because I just don't think that the define fail, like how do you, how do you think it's going to fail? I mean, how do you think it could fail? I think that the, um, the, a lot of the investments are going to be, um, going to be lost. Okay. I mean, I think that has to happen in the companies go belly up. They don't produce what they say. They were going to produce and things go unfinished and incomplete. Yeah. Well, I mean, my, my guess would be is that that's going to happen. And then through the ashes of that, one of maybe existing company or a company that

52:30doesn't exist will rise and be the, the hallmark. Well, and that may be in the long term, I just think that the, the, the large language model to try and create a general AI. Yeah. Isn't the right approach. Yeah. That's just what I think. I, I could be wrong. I'm not that technically savvy. I mean, like I'm a pretty bright guy, but I'm not embedded in this stuff. I don't, yeah. I don't know. It just seems to me that this is not the way to achieve what they think they're going to achieve. Yeah. And that this, this attempt at creating a general AI is going to fail. Yeah. It's going to fall apart. There's going to be a lot of lost investments. But here's the upside is that the people that are investing in this stuff, they'll lose, but just in the construction of all the things that they're trying to do right now, you're, you're going to move money from big investments into blue

53:34color businesses. And I think that that's positive. That's a win. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, I mean, we'll see how it plays out. Like I said, I just don't think large language model is the way there's going to be, they're going to have to develop some other model to get to the kind of general AI that they're trying to create. Yeah. And maybe I'm wrong. Yeah. I like, say I have no clue. I mean, I don't really know. It's just, it just doesn't seem like it doesn't seem. It's certainly the way it exists now. It doesn't look real promising to me when I use it. Yeah. I guess there are things that it does really well. But the idea that you're going to create a general artificial intelligence from this doesn't seem likely to me. It's still a mirror. Yeah. And I don't see how it could not be. Yeah. Like this, this approach, I don't think it's that. Yeah. I don't think could not be a mirror. Yeah. Just has no understanding.

54:35And that's what you really need is for it to be able to understand. It's not learning. It's just, it's just like a really advanced algorithm to, it's a really advanced predictive algorithm. Yeah. I mean, I think the technology's got to make another massive step before it's learning. Yeah. Yeah. And that's essentially the point that I'm making. Yeah. And I don't think that this approach is going to get there. Yeah. So it's not there yet. No, no, definitely not there yet. Yeah. All right. Well, that was that. Yeah. Let's, let's wrap it up. Very close up. Don't make any investments based on my. This is not, yeah. It's not financial advice. This is, yeah, this is not financial advice. It's just, just my thoughts on the matter as an outsider looking in. Absolutely. Um, do we have anything getting in the way next week? I don't think so. All right. Well, cool. So we will, uh, we'll be here next week.

55:39Um, in the meantime, you can follow us on Facebook. You can subscribe on iTunes, YouTube, podbean. You can probably ask chat GPT where you can find us. I don't know. It might know. It might not. I'm not really sure. I haven't tried that. I really, we've been shadow band on. On open AI. Yeah. Well, Groc will get us then. Oh, yeah. There you go. Uh, so yeah, we'll, we'll be back then and, um, and you can follow us in all the places. And we appreciate comments and, uh, you can always email me, Michael at the LibertyMic.com. Um, if you think that I'm just a complete idiot about AI and you got something to say, I'm happy to read it. Yeah. And, uh, I guess that's all the things more or less. So we'll be back next week when we finally get this right. And in the meantime, try to stay free. Life short, lip free. Ciao. Later.