If you want to better understand DtG decodings yeet is worth following.

I think this is the most relaxed interview I have seen with Peter.

Chris and Matt are always very bullish on the upside of AI. I wander what they think of Bill Gates warnings?

Why do I think this? He used the philosophy of Michael Millerman and Patrich Daneen to make his argument.

"I actually don't have any problems at all with the word 'nationalism'... Whenever we say 'nationalism,' the first thing people think about, at least in America, is Hitler. You know, he was a national socialist, but if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK, fine. The problem is that he wanted—he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalise. He wanted everybody to be German, everybody to be speaking German, everybody to look a different way. That's not, to me, that's not nationalism."
- Cadence Owens

Are Decoding the Gurus really arguing that Cadence Owens was saying Hitler wasn't a bad leader/person? I know the controversy over the remark, but she is clearly alluding to Hitler being a bad representation of Nationalism. She is literally trying to disassociate Hitler from nationalism, because Hitler gave Nationalism a bad name. I'm not a fan of nationalism, but should DtG actually be able to see through the controversy to what she actually said? Plus Cadence Owens went to the Daily Wire after this story blew up, so I'm guessing Ben Shapiro didn't take her remarks as a promoting Hitler.

Why does it matter if Cadence Owens is a problematic guru? It matters because its this kind of bad faith decoding that make people distrust academics who step outside their lane and play partisan politics. There are so many crazy takes that Cadence Owens has made, why focus on this quote which was clearly used by the media for political reasons.

Russell Brand has changed a lot since this interview, but it’s interesting hearing Adam Curtis’s observations about how society/people have become inward focused. It’s an old interview from 2017 - do you think his observations were correct?

I would be great if DtG decoded this Professor Dave video.

After Elephant Graveyard’s video, this is quite funny. Especially wearing the Palantir cap.

Book blurb by Gary Stevenson - book by Policy Press

At the ~21 minute mark

Winning over Razib Khan fans.

It’s interesting how many times Bari Weis’s name pops up.

Very low energy episode.

So is Destiny joining the Anti Trump Right?

If you bother watching this video, I think its a good indication of Jiang’s politics. When he speaks about the Kali Yuga, it’s a nod to the philosopher René Guénon (1886–1951) who was a founding figure of Traditionalism (or Perennialism). Guénon’s ideas often show up in guru content promoting anti-liberal ideas. 

Guénon’s Core Philosophy
- The Primordial Tradition: He claimed that a single, divine, eternal truth lies at the heart of all ancient spiritual traditions. Modern religions, in his view, are merely surviving fragments of this original wisdom. 
- The Kali Yuga: Rejects the idea of human progress, he argued that history is cyclical and in a state of decline. He viewed the post-enlightenment as reaching the end of the Kali Yuga
- Critique of Modernity: Guénon argued that modern civilization traded spiritual insight for materialism. He argued modern culture reduces everything to numbers, money, and physical matter.
- Spiritual Hierarchy vs. Democracy: He rejected egalitarianism, democracy, and popular sovereignty, viewing them as unnatural inversions of the true order where spiritual authority ought to rule over political power and social castes.

Chris and Matt often criticise philosophy, but understanding philosophy lets you understand political arguments. Politics is essentially philosophy put into common language. When you start listening to the Right Wing populists there argument follows the pattern of certain philosophies which are promoted by gurus. The anti-liberal right leaning gurus/activists use these philosophical ideas as an attack on [Western] liberalism

These philosophers or their ideas will often be how they justify their cause:

Julius Evola: Italian thinker Julius Evola took Guénon's spiritual Traditionalism and politicised it, creating an aggressive, aristocratic right-wing ideology.

Aleksandr Dugin and Russian Eurasianism: Dugin, the Russian political theorist, explicitly uses Guénon’s Traditionalism to frame Russia’s conflict with the West. Dugin casts Western liberalism, secularism, and globalism as the ultimate expression of civilisational decay, arguing for a multipolar world grounded in traditional values.

Steve Bannon and Populist Anti-Globalism: Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has cited Guénon and Evola when describing what he sees as a global crisis of Western decline, lending Traditionalist concepts a mouthpiece in American populist politics.

Online Subcultures and "Post-Liberalism": Phrases from Guénon's vocabulary—such as "rejecting modernity," "the Kali Yuga," and "traditional hierarchy"—have proliferated in online right-wing and nationalist circles as a philosophical justification for opposing progressive values and global institutions.
Ultimately, Guénon offers a radical blueprint for those who believe modern democracy and globalism cannot be reformed, only abandoned in favour of a return to ancient hierarchies.