brockm
Mike Brock

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Last Notes

2026-09-03 21:40:38 UTC

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If you are still with Trump at this point — or after the deaths of Alex Pretty and Rene Good, for instance — you are moral lost cause. Our job is to tar and feather you for the rest of your life.

2026-09-03 18:13:02 UTC

The people who spend all day manufacturing moral panics about pronouns and library books are disallowed from lecturing anyone about "moral panics" over data centers. You do not get to invent the genre and then police its application. You are also bad, stupid people.

2026-09-03 14:01:53 UTC

Say his name. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/a-twenty-year-old-is-dead-because

2026-07-12 12:43:38 UTC

I have no eulogy for Lindsey Graham, who has departed us. But I do have some things to say. They are not kind things. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/no-eulogy

2026-07-07 13:28:52 UTC

On Platner and the right's fake morality. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-great-gaslighting-of-america

2026-07-05 16:02:25 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/a-more-powerful-president-over-a

2026-07-03 18:36:58 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-room-at-aspen

2026-06-29 18:11:09 UTC

John Yoo is very happy today. The rest of us should not be. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-spoils-system-returns

2026-06-18 15:22:34 UTC

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We can raise taxes to close the fiscal gap! I know you might say we can't because "taxation is theft" or some nonsense. But, we CAN raise taxes.

2026-06-18 15:15:48 UTC

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It doesn't have to collapse. That's a choice.

2026-06-18 15:10:10 UTC

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I cannot be friends with someone who thinks mass suffering is necessary to purify the money.

2026-06-18 15:05:32 UTC

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It really wasn't.

2026-06-18 15:03:38 UTC

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You're insane and a bad person.

2026-06-18 14:45:02 UTC

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Why do you want billions of people to suffer through the catastrophe of it's collapse? Because you are a selfish asshole who imagines being a rich feudal lord with your bitcoin?

2026-06-17 18:40:30 UTC

My condolences to the anarchocapitalist accelerationists praying for collapse of the US Dollar.

2026-06-11 02:05:22 UTC

This is my theory of history. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-longest-relay

2026-06-11 01:55:21 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/more-perfect

2026-06-02 18:57:08 UTC

I believe Donald Trump is dead and it is being covered up by the White House, and there is a whole series of negotiation happening between the Vance and Rubio camp. I believe he died yesterday. I believe AI voice technology may have been used to "make calls".

2026-06-02 15:33:09 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-economic-royalists

2026-06-01 14:06:43 UTC

You can't always get what you want.

2026-05-31 17:51:05 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-sovereign-individual-was-the

2026-05-31 16:11:41 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/towards-a-more-perfect-union

2026-05-31 14:56:14 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-anti-imperialism-of-fools

2026-05-30 17:42:58 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-last-serious-contrarian

2026-05-30 14:29:14 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/i-endorse-tom-steyer-for-governor

2026-05-30 13:01:34 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-longest-relay

2026-05-27 18:21:52 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/there-is-no-ai-apocalypse

2026-05-19 20:03:31 UTC

TL;DR? I see. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-engineers-who-would-be-philosophers

2026-05-16 19:30:48 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-simulation-has-collapsed

2026-05-15 19:16:32 UTC

This is honestly more interesting than Bitcoin. https://www.taler.net/en/

2026-05-14 18:42:19 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/on-what-a-moral-concept-is

2026-05-14 01:43:54 UTC

This piece I wrote in April of 2025, aged like fine wine. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-time-of-monsters

2026-05-12 18:05:28 UTC

You only need a compass — a way to orient through the storm.
On guilt, love, the work of release, and the music underneath all of it. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/on-the-dance

2026-05-12 18:04:49 UTC

You only need a compass — a way to orient through the storm.
On guilt, love, the work of release, and the music underneath all of it. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/on-the-dance

2026-05-08 22:30:51 UTC

It's kind of crazy that Satoshi Nakamoto knew Jeffrey Epstein.

2026-05-05 22:22:58 UTC

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It must be hard having to pretend like you know what you're talking about all the time.

2026-05-02 16:06:14 UTC

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You seem like a very stupid person.
#nevent1q…82g8

2026-04-30 20:48:20 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-bell

2026-04-24 19:05:50 UTC

The question isn't what you should do — it's who you should be. Every minute of every day.
Resistance isn't the flower against the tank. It's the refusal to complicit yourself in a thousand small ways, every hour. The cognitive revolution is a habit, not a heroism. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-manifesto-of-the-cognitive-revolution-cce

2026-04-24 17:35:20 UTC

Trust is not a currency that can be traded. It is not something that can be abstracted away. Trust is, and will always be, an act of faith. Based on love.

2026-04-23 00:20:21 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/a-republican-judge-just-voided-23

2026-04-22 19:49:41 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/we-were-paying-attention

2026-04-22 08:16:07 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/how-elon-musk-thinks-and-why-it-is

2026-04-21 17:02:10 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/apology-not-accepted-mr-carlson

2026-04-21 14:52:50 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-man-who-cannot-stop-talking-about

2026-04-20 15:42:36 UTC

I was called a "conspiracy theorist" by former friends for thinking that people like Thiel and Karp were plotting a fascist takeover of America over a year ago. It's been something of journey to see the rest of the world come to the conclusion I privately arrived at, before this all started. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-plot-against-america

2026-04-19 23:29:46 UTC

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What are your politics, if I might ask?

2026-04-18 21:07:03 UTC

I want to be clear: I am not anti-Bitcoin. I am a critic of Bitcoin. I am anti-Bitcoin-as-politics. I think this is madness. I have always thought it was madness. Even when I worked on Bitcoin-related things.
I have observed that fascists like Bitcoin. They promote it. Fascists of all kinds. American fascists. The IRGC in Iran. Bukele in El Salvador. And I think to myself: wow. Look at all these very bad people doing very bad things and branding themselves with Bitcoin. And I don't think Bitcoin advocates have passed a moral smell test.
I see them go up on stage with actual fascists, who are actively pushing — among other things, and I'm debating one of these fascists on stage in Las Vegas at the Bitcoin Conference — for ending democracy and returning to a feudalistic world. And they are calling it freedom or "libertarianism."
The notion that people just look past this and say "well, we can disagree on politics and work on Bitcoin together" think they are performing some principled compartmentalization. But that is not a reasonable argument for tolerating this. It is, in fact, quite suspicious that the fascists are very excited about ending democratic control over money.
Now, you might think democratic control over money is a bad idea because of perverse incentives, public-choice problems, the time-inconsistency of political monetary policy, and we can have amazingly interesting philosophical debates about all of that late into the night. But what is it, exactly, that these "liberal" or "progressive" Bitcoin advocates think is going to happen in a world where the government is completely unable to constrain private finance? They think some magical fairy dust of bottom-up enlightenment will push back against those whose goal is to rule you and turn you into a serf? Forever?
I think these are serious observations. I have not heard an answer yet. I am still waiting.

2026-04-18 17:48:29 UTC

If the market rallies after every fake declaration from Trump are not proof that the market is irrational, and challenge your faith in efficient market hypothesis, then I am prepared to characterize you as a very foolish, painfully deluded person.

2026-04-18 17:34:23 UTC

It's fun to think about how I became unemployable in Silicon Valley because I insisted on saying bad things about Donald Trump on the internet. And now I get to narrate their comeuppance. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-capital-is-misaligned-and-the

2026-04-18 00:04:18 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-capital-is-misaligned-and-the

2026-04-17 04:28:06 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/i-hate-the-internet

2026-04-16 17:28:20 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-neo-confederate-party

2026-04-14 18:52:04 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-boiling-point

2026-04-13 18:29:07 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/nobody-manages-the-economy

2026-04-13 03:47:37 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/he-has-never-been-playing-chess

2026-04-12 19:20:16 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-first-domino

2026-04-12 17:39:05 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/21-hours

2026-04-11 21:05:41 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-fire-next-time

2026-04-10 15:50:52 UTC

It’s still incredible to think back to last April when I wrote this piece and most of my friends and family saw me as a little bit unhinged and overly alarmist. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-time-of-monsters

2026-04-09 02:34:27 UTC

My critique of the cypherpunks. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/show-your-face

2026-04-08 19:35:27 UTC

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You are very stupid person.

2026-04-08 18:27:04 UTC

For what it's worth, my best guess, using my most disciplined guestimation, that it is 70-80% likely that Adam BAck is indeed Satoshi Nakamoto. This includes my sense derived from personal interactions with him, strong buttressed by Mr. Carreyrou's reporting.

2026-04-08 18:04:16 UTC

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Ah, yes. Your superior intellect has better things to do than to explain to me all the perfectly obvious ways in which I'm wrong. Carry on, my cognitive superior.

2026-04-08 17:53:00 UTC

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Throw your stones at my glass house, "Meyer"!

2026-04-08 17:38:39 UTC

✅ Supposed human rights activist celebrates IGRC collecting extortionate toll payments in an international waterway that will be used to fund its brutal repression.
#nevent1q…eh42

2026-04-08 17:17:51 UTC

Ah, yes, see... the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is now adopting Bitcoin! This is it guys! The world will now see the beauty and potential of Bitcoin! A murderous regime that massacred 35,000 protesters in the streets in January has been orange-pilled! (corrected)

2026-04-08 17:12:27 UTC

Seeing some former friends literally giddy with excitement that Iran will be using Bitcoin for paying tolls for the Straight of Hormuz as some kind of validation of the goodness of Bitcoin is very special. It confirms my worries about their fascist sympathies.

2026-04-08 15:54:07 UTC

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That you are pleased by this in any way completely discounts the idea that you are a serious person.

2026-04-07 18:43:37 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-window

2026-03-25 17:45:58 UTC

On what I would do if I had the power. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/on-moral-imagination

2026-03-25 15:58:25 UTC

I wrote this back in April. Back when my TDS was at its worst. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-time-of-monsters

2026-03-24 18:34:20 UTC

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I'm emotionally weak? Tell me more of this theory of emotional fortitude of yours.

2026-03-24 17:31:13 UTC

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Does it? Is that how it sounds, you foolish fool?

2026-03-24 17:08:46 UTC

I understand people may think lowly of me for the unrelenting humiliation against my former friends which is on the spoke, but they betrayed me, you see. And I was made to suffer for insisting on truth. So now you must be made to suffer for insisting on lies.

2026-03-24 17:03:21 UTC

The people who turned their backs on me, said I had TDS, said I was too toxic with my public disapprobation of Mr. Trump. Boy, am I now going to make their lives hell.

2026-03-24 16:34:37 UTC

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And the ballad of selfish fraud plays on to the stupid people who would believe him benevolent.
#nevent1q…dfl3

2026-03-24 15:53:20 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-plaque

2026-03-24 14:55:24 UTC

Yes, I have earned the right to rub shit in your face if you have—at any point—said to me that I have TDS. I have a long memory of such things. And if the world is to burn, I shall at least, get to humiliate you.

2026-03-24 05:18:27 UTC

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I am using the terms completely correctly. You are speaking foolishly about schools of thought for which you have poor understanding.

2026-03-24 04:53:43 UTC

See you stupid former friends who called me a neocon for supporting Ukraine. I’m opposing this illegal fascist war, while supporting Ukraine fighting fascists. I’m consistent. That’s how it works. It’s called not being a stupid coward. And have discernment.

2026-03-24 00:10:31 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/into-the-abyss-we-go

2026-03-23 01:18:33 UTC

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I just want someone who can calmly explain this supposed mental disorder I have to me. Surely there’s some good-natured former friend who can help me out!

2026-03-23 00:26:31 UTC

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Can you help, Evan?

2026-03-22 22:28:24 UTC

I am looking for an expert on "Trump Derangement Syndrome" for a piece I'm working on. I wonder if any of my former moron friends who diagnosed me with it, could break down some of the features of the pathology, so that I may accurately describe it to my readers.

2026-03-22 17:48:40 UTC

I think most reasonable people can agree that participation is the price one must pay to be taken seriously. Advertising that one has taken the black pill is therefore, an admission of unseriousness. Of cowardice. Of selfishness. You are not wise. You are aloof! https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-ballad-of-the-black-pill

2026-03-22 17:25:27 UTC

To the "black-pilled" among us. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-ballad-of-the-black-pill

2026-03-21 16:03:50 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/a-discussion-about-the-unserious

2026-03-19 00:23:51 UTC

If you want to understand the world you are living in right now, you should read this. I promise it's worth your time. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-world-blinks

2026-03-17 21:14:07 UTC

We're coming for you! https://joycemstrong.substack.com/p/were-coming-for-you-a-song

2026-03-17 16:44:24 UTC

There should be public hangings. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/what-should-come-after

2026-03-17 05:00:18 UTC

Must be pretty uncomfortable to be one of those executives who took a knee to this White House. Must be particularly worrying if you're a general counsel who oversaw what amounts to political bribes in exchange for favorable regulatory treatment.
You thought this was the new order. You had to go along to get along.
But now you sense it isn't so firm. And you should be afraid. When the public comes to fully understand the nature of what you did — when the word sedition stops sounding hyperbolic and starts sounding like a charge — you will have no one to blame but yourself.
You betrayed your country for profit. That bill comes due.

2026-03-15 20:09:41 UTC

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Their respective confusions explains why Marxists mistake liberals for fascists and fascists mistake liberals for Marxists. They are both respectively stupid in this way.

2026-03-15 20:06:37 UTC

The truth is that classical liberalism doesn’t have a materialist metaphysics. Like say right-libertarianism and Marxism. The socialist-capitalist argument is about placing material conditions as primary in a political order. Collective versus individual ownership of stuff. I think this is very confused. Marxists and libertarians therefore, both have more in common than they do with classical liberalism.

2026-03-15 16:16:01 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-philosopher-kings

2026-03-09 00:43:00 UTC

Libertarians who voted for Trump as the lesser evil might be the most politically stupid (and selfish) people on the planet.

2026-03-08 23:36:30 UTC

How are the "at least Trump isn't a necon/warmonger" folks doing these days?

2026-03-04 12:06:28 UTC

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I condescend on selfishness and cowardice, yes.

2026-03-04 12:06:13 UTC

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/on-the-measure-of-a-man

2026-03-04 00:22:18 UTC

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What did I say that is wrong?