Laeserin

I don't even know, but I am aware that there might be nutzap, lightning, and now Bitcoin wallets based upon my npub, that I never look at and don't really know anything about.

2026-05-06 21:18:25 CEST

Is it possible that people are zapping me on wallets that have been automatically assigned to me, but that I am not aware of?
Or do I have to purposefully claim the wallet, for it to be activated? How does this work?

2026-05-06 18:43:21 CEST

I couldn't find any reliable calendar software for web, so I expanded mine and posted an entry for @npub1pur…zkzp at Bitcoin Prague in June. 💜
https://jumble.imwald.eu/calendar

2026-05-06 17:03:13 CEST

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It isn't medieval because it is old or a complicated term. It is medieval because it was commonly said in the medieval ages and then fell into general disuse.

2026-05-06 14:05:05 CEST

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Twitter is full of pictures and videos.

2026-05-06 13:57:32 CEST

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Mother of God is much clearer. Co-Redemtrix is a medieval hobby horse that should be retired to wherever we put saying "thee" and "thou".

2026-05-06 13:55:00 CEST

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She was required for Jesus to become the fullness of man, of course, so her obedience was necessary for our salvation. But Co-Redemtrix sounds to their ears like she's up in Heaven, ironing His shirts, packing His lunchbox, and determining whom to invite to the Feast. I consider the term unclear and misleading. You have to be steeped in the writings of the saints of old to even really truly comprehend what it even means, and the resulting concept you glean from that study is underwhelming.
Perhaps SSPX should see Mary as an example of Obedience to the King filling a person with Grace, and go and do likewise.

2026-05-06 13:43:12 CEST

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Fine, I'll grant that they are not in schism. But they have separated and remained so for nearly 40 years. I was a young child, when this circus began, and my children are now at college.

2026-05-06 13:11:13 CEST

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Their Co-Redemtrix fit just shows how they have alienated themselves from the rest of us. We are in active discussions with prospective converts and Protestant and Orthodox leaders and that antiquated, overly-poetic rhetoric is constantly a bone of contention that we are left to chew on. Clarity on that issue was necessary.

2026-05-06 12:48:09 CEST

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They left, in protest, in 1988 and are not in full communion with Rome. That much is clear, otherwise they would be getting their bishops consecrated in the proper manner, with papal validation. Most of their Sacraments are still valid, but the same applies to the Eastern Orthodox or even the Anglicans. They keep claiming emergency, but they've been in a state of emergency for decades and we're all bored of their shenanigans and most of us have simply moved on.
By leaving, they made themselves irrelevant. I literally forgot that they even exist, until I saw this news tidbit, and it took me a minute to even remember what they are on about. If they wanted to influence the Church to return to tradition, as other people have been doing while they were flouncing off to have a pout, then they should have stayed in the Church and worked on convincing other Catholics of their opinion. If their opinion is correct, then God would lead them to success. Otherwise, not. The Holy Spirit guides the Church, not SSPX.
The Church is finally and slowly becoming more conservative and traditional, and that has an awful lot to do with people like me, and pitifully little do with the people like them. They should stop grandstanding, eat some humble pie, and reduce themselves to fighting the good fight _within the Church and in full communion with the Church_ with the rest of us.

2026-05-06 09:22:24 CEST

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You are mistaking what defines a Protestant. It's not a set of beliefs or rituals, that makes someone a Protestant. It's splitting off from the main body of the Church to do your own thing, out of protest.
It's hubris.
If someone thinks that the main body of the Church and its teachings are incorrect, then they are obliged to work within the Church to correct it or to accept that they might simply be wrong. All people within the Church are unhappy with some aspect or other of the Church. 18% of the world's population will never agree on everything. We all just deal with it, like adults, and remind ourselves that obedience is an underrated virtue.
(I am convinced that SSPX is not wrong on everything, but that they are trying to make the most extreme interpretation of their pet topics the norm, and that we are right to reject that.)

2026-05-06 08:22:39 CEST

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We need some mood music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thJgU9jkdU4

2026-05-06 08:14:24 CEST

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Ah, okay.

2026-05-06 08:05:08 CEST

# Gelebte Willkommenskultur
https://images.tagesschau.de/image/05c3da5b-cba8-4a92-8d5a-575befbca861/AAABnd2yFfU/AAABnSSvrFg/16x9-big/frau-tshirt-merz-screenshot-ki-x-100.webp?width=768
Ihr ganz harten Jungs sind anscheinend geil ohne Ende. 🤣 Gleiche Masche wie die angebliche MAGA‑Puppe aus Indien, aber auf Deutsch.
Influencerin (angeblich eine Migrantin aus dem Senegal), die unbedingt von deutschen Männern getröstet werden will und ständig mit berühmten Politikern Selfies macht, entpuppt sich als KI‑Barbie.
> Schaut man sich die Accounts von "Zola.grm" auf den sozialen Netzwerken an, welche die Bilder gepostet hat, bestätigt sich der Eindruck des Einsatzes von künstlicher Intelligenz. Zu sehen ist "Zola" häufig leicht bekleidet oder stark körperbetont mit auffallend großen Brüsten. Zudem trägt sie auf verschiedenen Bildern AfD-Utensilien, postet ein Selfie mit Alice Weidel und verbreitet politische Aussagen sowie Wahlaufrufe für die AfD. Das Selfie von ihr und Weidel hat alleine bei TikTok über eine Million Aufrufe.
Und sie ist nur der erfolgreichste von einer ganzen Kollektion. Für jeden Geschmack das Passende. Hauptsache Titten und der passende OnlyFans.
Männer. 🙄 😏 🤦‍♀
https://www.tagesschau.de/faktenfinder/merz-selfie-ki-100.html
#politik #scam #AfD

2026-05-05 23:00:16 CEST

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Oh, just ignore.

2026-05-05 22:56:13 CEST

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Oh, maybe my client has a bug. wss://nostrelites.org seemed to be working, again. It was completely offline.

2026-05-05 22:54:47 CEST

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https://www.osvnews.com/why-is-it-a-problem-for-the-sspx-to-ordain-new-bishops/

2026-05-05 17:40:38 CEST

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@npub18am…p424 did you just restart this relay, or something?

2026-05-05 17:39:41 CEST

test

2026-05-05 17:35:11 CEST

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This is about what it is like to be a tourist, in the USA.

2026-05-05 17:03:34 CEST

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Hmm. Okay, but they get to have their own opinion, not their own bishops.

2026-05-05 17:00:23 CEST

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We were there in mid-March and were surprised how few tourists were there. And that was before the war. 🤷‍♀

2026-05-05 16:58:44 CEST

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😂 Yup, Betongold.

2026-05-05 16:57:50 CEST

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They've been protesting Novus Ordo Missae so loudly, for so long, that they're basically Protestants, now. 🤷‍♀

2026-05-05 16:55:19 CEST

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Excommunication is something a person does to themselves. It's not a punishment.

2026-05-05 16:46:54 CEST

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test reply

2026-05-05 16:46:34 CEST

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test reply

2026-05-05 16:19:00 CEST

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Illicit consecrations and schism are worse than blessing some people like they're a housepet or a new car.

2026-05-05 11:47:06 CEST

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That's also why people around here build gigantic castles and then there is only one or two people living in it. Or nobody. You turn all of your saved-up money into cement gold, so you try to make the cement as much as possible.

2026-05-05 11:44:53 CEST

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They literally call it "cement gold", in Germany, as houses are just a savings vehicle.

2026-05-05 11:22:20 CEST

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Yeah, Airbnb is basically free money.

2026-05-05 11:16:11 CEST

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Ah, nice. That is clever!
Also like that I can get the URL from the ...more menu on the article. Getting from URL bar doesn't work well on mobile.
If the logged-in person is the magazine npub, maybe render an edit-icon button and give it a prominent border, or something. Idiot-proof it some more.
If I am looking at my own magazine, it's primarily to edit, not read.

2026-05-05 10:53:49 CEST

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Yeah, I've been thinking about maybe hiding the latest articles feed and just showing the manually-curated category articles. But I am finding articles for the curation in the feed, so I've left it, so far.
I added a magazine-tree editor, by the way, that handles categories, subcategories, and article editing. You have to create the top-level magazine index someplace else, but you can add to it and edit it, from there.
https://i.nostr.build/8e55bUllSyGVgkHU.webp
After I made it, I saw that you already had one. 😂 Oh, well. Mine is more compact, so that's sort of nice, for editing a magazine I've already made because I can just scroll down to the category I want to change, enter the naddr, and press a button.

2026-05-05 10:34:57 CEST

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On my blog, I just pull articles from a preset set of relays, so if you want the search to cover it, publish there (such as wss://theforest.nostr1.com).
Search is always a subset of relays and there is no way for a search to have the full set (as not all relays are public and discoverable).

2026-05-05 10:28:46 CEST

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Cowards. LOL
_Actually, Grok says..._

2026-05-05 08:21:14 CEST

If you have ever wondered why European vacation rentals are now so weirdly cheap: it's wealth inequality.
#nevent1q…ccv8

2026-05-05 08:19:54 CEST

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I don't think many people have made the connection, but there are so many Airbnbs, and they are so weirdly inexpensive, because property taxes are low. That means lots of people own property they have no use for.
If they can manage to rent the apartment out for a few weeks per year, in the summer or whatever, that covers their tax burden and running costs without them needing to deal with a full rental apartment. Then they also never sell.
That is why we paid very little for our Athens apartment, downtown. The area was quite nice, but the buildings had few lights on at night, and the shops were surprisingly devoid of customers. Nobody was home. It's mostly empty apartments and some Airbnb (same difference, really, outside of peak travel season).
Athens Disneyland.

2026-05-05 07:39:38 CEST

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When the Greek debt crisis happened, there was a town near here where all available homes and apartments were bought up within months. It's years later, and they are all still empty. The owners don't live in it, as they live someplace else already. And they don't rent it out, as renters are a lot of work and bother. So, it just sits empty or becomes an Airbnb (so, mostly empty).
We have some like that in our village as well: these mysterious ghost house eyesores, dotted all over. They just park the money in German housing and leave the buildings to rot. People complain about paying an average of €400/year in property taxes, but their houses are worth like €500k-€750k and go up by 10% per year. And some municipalities have no property tax, at all.
It is only natural that people who don't have any use for residential housing will buy it anyway, with such low taxes. They treat it like a bond: just buy and hold. Same, if they inherit or they have multiple homes and stop renting them out. Just leave it empty and let it rot. They don't need the money, it costs nothing to hold and carries no risk. People with such a mentality should be buying gold or bonds, not land. Land is a communal resource. One person leaving it fallow hurts another person directly.
Meanwhile, homelessness rises, and laborers are driving 2 hours to work... in the building next to a ghost house. The poorer, younger people don't understand the dynamic, but they can see that everything is empty and nothing is for sale or for rent, or the prices are exorbitant.
I have never heard anyone in Germany explain this dynamic to the public, but I don't have a car and walk around a lot, and I talk to the many older, wealthy people I know, who own property, and they explained how it is.

2026-05-05 07:06:44 CEST

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Oh, thanks. 😊

2026-05-05 06:08:17 CEST

Vatican reiterates _No_ to the official blessing of divorced or homosexual couples, so that such ceremonies aren't confused with weddings.
#nevent1q…2p34
#catholic #christian

2026-05-04 21:58:32 CEST

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I thought the Austin rental decline was due to deportations.

2026-05-04 21:51:26 CEST

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What are you talking about?

2026-05-04 21:48:33 CEST

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It tends to be a problem in places with low property taxes (such as Germany).

2026-05-04 21:46:53 CEST

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Yes, that would help, if the owners went along.

2026-05-04 21:05:14 CEST

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It says "homeownership", not "houseownership". That includes condominiums.
Homeownership tends to follow marriage, yes, so wider cultural decline will end up depressing home ownership. Even if homes don't become less affordable. But homes are also becoming less affordable.

2026-05-04 20:40:26 CEST

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No, health care is a service. It can scale up and down in response to increased or decreased demand.
Land simply _is_. It doesn't get produced at higher rates, merely because more people want some. (Except through dykes and such, on the margin.) It doesn't disappear, if nobody wants to live on it or the price of it goes down. It is finite, like Bitcoin, and all that can happen is that the price and the distribution of the ownership changes. The sum total doesn't change.

2026-05-04 20:34:31 CEST

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Policy-produced housing shortages aren't true housing shortages. They're market inefficiencies. _Housing shortages_ makes it sound like there aren't enough square feet of living space to go around.
We have never had as many square feet per person, as we have today. Even ostensibly crowded urban areas are beginning to resemble ghost towns, dotted with Airbnbs. But the housing remains expensive, because the housing is owned by people who don't live in it and have no real use to it.

2026-05-04 20:20:13 CEST

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I think the thing that is confusing you is that you think of housing as a consumption good, in line with "much of the things in our daily life". But housing is real estate, i.e. land, and therefore a hard asset more akin to gold, Bitcoin, shares, or a factory.
The difference is that it's the only hard asset that humans cannot live without, as we are physical beings who have to occupy some geographic space. We are compelled to occupy land, so it is a cost we can't escape.

2026-05-04 20:07:34 CEST

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Well, they will soon won't have to drive, as there will be no jobs for them. So, I suppose that solves the problem. If they live further out, they can then switch to subsistence farming and starve to death, slowly, on potatoes. Then we can buy up their property even faster. Winning.
At any rate, there is no acute housing shortage, anywhere in the West. Even Berlin has decided to keep an entire airfield smack dab in the middle of the city, so that the housing-lucky can skateboard on it and grow organic tomatoes, while others sleep in cardboard boxes nearby.
Germany also has the absolutely daft law, capping the amount of rent charged for existing renters, but allowing new rentals to float. So that you might pay €500 for a large apartment, but if you move to a smaller apartment in the same building, you might pay €2000. So, nobody ever moves, housing is never adjusted to the present number of occupants, and the job market is sclerotic. That is one major reason why the number of square feet per person goes up during a housing affordability crisis.
House prices are simply inflated and the market is a shambles, same as all other asset classes. As houses are considered financial assets, now, instead of homes, due to their heavy debt loads and the securitization of mortgages. Putting the precariously poor into tiny houses that cost €500k and carry a 40-year mortgage won't improve their standard of living or help them truly acquire property.

2026-05-04 19:20:30 CEST

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If you build more houses, faster, without solving for overall inequality, you end up with slums.

2026-05-04 18:44:26 CEST

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My general impression is that people who own quite a bit of property are welcoming the transition to oligarchy (or, best case, aristocracy), as they are effectively lords of the manor.
Everyone else hates it. The class system will become entrenched, as property again trumps labor. Pun intended. Even if you own property, your children might not and your grandchildren probably won't, as you need to own _enough_ property, to keep it.
But this is a choice our society is making. It isn't inevitable.

2026-05-04 18:30:49 CEST

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Yeah, I might do that instead of reposting. In a couple of days.

2026-05-04 18:28:35 CEST

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Thank you proving my point.

2026-05-04 16:48:11 CEST

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I got no traction, posting divine kinds. More responses with the normal media events.

2026-05-04 16:46:54 CEST

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I was also weirded out by all of the people/bots? filling the mentions with questions to grok. I didn't realize people are that intellectually lazy.
They ask things they could be expected to reason out within 5 seconds, or that simply make no sense to even ask.
Grok, is it healthier to be morbidly obese or thin and athletic?
Grok, is the weather report 100% accurate?
Grok, is this satire true?
Grok, why is the sky blue?
Grok, what is the meaning of life?

2026-05-04 15:55:57 CEST

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😂🤷‍♀
Total non sequitur, but I love you, too! 😘

2026-05-04 15:50:03 CEST

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Oh, that's a shame. You probably would have liked it.

2026-05-04 15:48:33 CEST

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Yes, it has been reclassified as an industrial metal, away from a store of value.

2026-05-04 15:47:22 CEST

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Well, Bitcoin mining seems the better battery because you can raise your base energy usage and then turn off the mines, if you have a spike in consumption. That is how Texas does it, to stabilize their grid.

2026-05-04 15:45:50 CEST

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Yeah, they shut down Bavaria's nuclear power plants, so they're trying to switch to fusion. I think that is also why the CSU hasn't been that eager to invest in restoring nuclear, as they then might end up with a white elephant nuclear power plant if the fusion actually worked. And if it doesn't work and the fusion plant is the white elephant, all the neighbors are building nuclear, and we can just buy from them. If it does work, the neighbors will be stuck with the white elephants and we'll have the best energy source.
They seem to be trying to game this. We'll see.

2026-05-04 15:42:25 CEST

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And sales tax is an ownership-transfer tax, rather than something determined by where the Bitcoin is held once owned.

2026-05-04 15:41:22 CEST

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Germany has no taxes on bitcoin or gold, if you don't trade them within a year.
I do think it could be argued that there should be a sales tax on them, tho, like they just added to silver. Silver used to also be tax-free. So, that hints that they are going toward a sales tax for such inert wealth.

2026-05-04 15:32:40 CEST

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I wish Germany would do more Bitcoin mining. We have so much excess renewable electricity. It is so silly, that we pay other countries to take it off our hands, instead of using it to run generators, like Norway does.
I think Iran also does a lot of mining.

2026-05-04 15:31:00 CEST

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I think they also use hot springs to mine it, if I am not mistaken.

2026-05-04 15:29:59 CEST

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Yes, I am from Texas and we incorporated in Texas, and the unusually high property taxes (and non-existent state income and corporate taxes) are why it is still one of the best places to live and do business, in the USA. Property taxes are the least regressive tax because everyone pays them (through higher rent or directly as tax), and the more property you occupy, the more you pay.
And it's incredibly uncomplicated, as the land is there and can simply be measured with a yardstick. You can't "hide" land from the tax man.

2026-05-04 15:23:11 CEST

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Most of the Bitcoin in El Salvador is owned by the state and its sovereign-wealth fund.

2026-05-04 15:21:01 CEST

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To be honest, a common national defense and land-title management are basically what make a functioning state function. Without it, societies have to revert to incest and other tribalism, which the nation-state freed us from. We no longer have to marry our direct neighbors and have 20 sons or simply travel away from home in terror of losing our home while we are away because the state helps us defend our land rights and keeps a highly accurate survey ledger.
This is the core legal innovation underpinning all physical safety, peace, and private enterprise. As soon as land title is disputed or undefended, all hell breaks loose and nothing can flourish.

2026-05-04 15:10:46 CEST

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I have the opposite view. Property taxes seem like the least bullshit to me, as they make buying up all the land and turning the population into serfs less attractive.
Land is strictly limited, and it existed before you arrived on it, after all. You didn't go out there and create the grains of dirt you built the house on. Only the house is from you, and houses aren't actually all that valuable. Land is the apex national property, as it is the one that determines the territory of the nation.
I don't think land within a nation-state can be directly and wholly owned by an individual, by very definition. If the individual owned it, that would mean that the nation would have no claim on it, despite it being within its own borders. The whole point of a nation-state is that the territory within its borders is owned, collectively, by the sovereign (the citizenry). You can only purchase the title on it from the state. The title is what you pay taxes on in exchange for the state defending your title. The more valuable that title is, the harder the state would have to defend it, and the more you should pay.
Of course, you could start your own state on land not yet owned by a nation and attempt to directly own that. Well, until someone takes it from you, which would be easy. Or you could build a state on the moon, or something. I think that might actually be some people's plan. But the nation states are already on the moon...

2026-05-04 14:52:58 CEST

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He is the first to say that any involvement in politics automatically corrupts people, as does personal wealth. It takes heroic virtue to reject the corruption that clings to power and riches, and he isn't the Virgin Mary, so we can all assume that he isn't immune.

2026-05-04 14:46:59 CEST

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I think earned income taxes for most people are too high in Germany and that this actively discourages labour and encourages the black market. I pay high income taxes, and always have, and I find it a bit irritating. But I am also aware that the government needs to be financed by _someone_ or _something_. The very wealthy effectively fight all attempts at taxation, and the poor have nothing to tax.
The same people who complain loudest about taxation also complain loudest about the state owning stakes in income-generating enterprises (such as computer farms, utilities, harbors, factories, hospitals, and Bitcoin mining operations), so it is not clear to me where the money for the government would come from. I 💖 the _idea_ of shrinking the state, but when most of the state is interest payments on the national debt, medical care, and pension promises, I am not exactly sure what we can cut that would be more than homeopathic. (Although, I think we should be cutting off anything excessive or wasteful on principle.) We could cut defense, but I am convinced that defense is the only thing that a state _should_ be doing, so it should be the last thing cut, not the first thing. (Although the defense budget of the USA could probably be significantly smaller.)
They keep telling us to just cut taxes on the wealthiest and the economy will grow, but we do that and it doesn't grow, and then they say we just have to cut harder next time. Over and over, since the 1990s. It isn't growing because the population is aging and shrinking. Cutting taxes for millionaires and billionaires doesn't change that dynamic. It just means more of the shrinking economy goes to them. People like to claim that Germany's economy is shrinking because of energy costs, but the USA, China, and France have comparatively cheap energy, and that hasn't led to any economic boom. Everyone is sliding into recession together.
I don't even think robot factories will change this dynamic, as the robots aren't building more land or mining more gold. They're producing more sneakers and laptops, but how many sneakers and laptops does your average 50 year-old need? Because that is what the consumer looks like, now. And he has a collection of shoes and a stack of laptops, but can't afford rent. Consumer goods are not scarce; hard assets are. He doesn't need the shoes that the robot makes; he needs to own the factory.
I am ambivalent about a wealth or inheritance tax. I do see the argument that it is simply _unfair_ to tax work rather than wealth. _Unfairness_ is what people say when they feel a vague sense of injustice, and I think their senses are right. I don't know if it would make much of a dent in the national budget, or even be an own goal, but demoralizing and mocking a nation's populace should simply not be tolerated. You can't remain the sovereign if you let people rob you and then jet off to the Cayman Islands and claim poverty from their new superyacht.

2026-05-04 12:40:37 CEST

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This is the decline of the democratic republic and the rise of oligarchy at work on the mentality of the populace: removing their sense of agency and making them fatalistic and therefore compliant.
The oligarchs aren't the only parasites, but they are the proto-parasites. As long as there are oligarchs, the people will be economically beaten down into slavery, and their minds will change to make that inevitability more tolerable. Humans cannot stand the cognitive dissonance of _unrequited hope_ for long and sink into resignation.
The right is so morally bankrupt that it has been reduced to telling us that we just need to lick the toes of the _better oligarchs_, and that will improve it all.

2026-05-04 11:33:07 CEST

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No, but you are strengthening my argument rather than countering it.
You also know of no solution to the problems.

2026-05-04 11:30:27 CEST

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I agree that there are parasites (the oligarchs), and that they tend to fund the right or the left, depending upon which one they think will help them stay wealthy enough to remain impervious to public opinion. They merely prefer the right at the moment, as the right is offering the voters plausible scapegoats (the immigrants), who are an alternative to themselves.
We have seen, however, the same inequality beginning to rise in countries without high levels of immigration, so that can't be the primary cause (although it might exacerbate the situation, which is why it is plausible).
I am against mass immigration, especially on the scale we have recently witnessed in the EU. But I am not so simple-minded as to think simply throwing out all of the naughty tanned people will heal the economy. And I think I am not alone in that dichotomy.

2026-05-04 11:22:01 CEST

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This was supposed to be a long-form article, but oh well. Fat-finger kind selection strikes again. 😂

2026-05-04 11:19:55 CEST

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Fatalism is also not a viable solution. Neither is anarchy. Try harder.

2026-05-04 11:18:30 CEST

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The voters are ambidextrous. Politics comes more from one side or the other, or from some combination of the two, and the voters select which one they prefer.
The left was previously in power, intellectually degraded, and preoccupied with incredibly unpopular, bizarre things like transgender preschoolers. They are now in the opposition and have rediscovered that they have topics voters might care about. It's their election to lose.

2026-05-04 11:13:04 CEST

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Simply saying that their promoted solutions are inadequate or even counterproductive is not the same as presenting a superior solution.

2026-05-04 10:46:25 CEST

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The only thing predictable about me is that I am unpredictable.

2026-05-04 10:43:52 CEST

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Well, they don't necessarily have anything better to do.

2026-05-04 10:34:48 CEST

## The left has changed the channel
For a while, alternative media was entirely dominated by the right, as the left was in power and had taken control of the legacy media channels. Then Americans upended the government, and the left began escaping to the same alternative media. And now, the economic debate is getting played out on a more level playing field.
And the left is winning.
Economic normies, such as I, are increasingly exposed to their economic arguments, which are often surprisingly logical and sensible. And—even more surprisingly and alarmingly—the right has _absolutely no viable counterarguments_. There is a gaping hole where right-wing economic arguments should be.
https://c.tenor.com/GxujnpVRVdIAAAAC/tenor.gif
If you call down into that intellectual hole, it will only echo back their tired, pseudo-religious rhetoric about
* taxes are theft (as opposed to the rampant grift, graft, bailouts, and corruption we have witnessed for decades, which was "private enterprise"),
* everyone poor is stupid and lazy,
* anarchy will lead to equality... on a long enough timeline,
* divine right of the rich,
* kicking out foreigners fixes this,
* buy crypto and wait for the moon,
* just work harder and save better,
* pull yourself up by your bootstraps,
* bomb other countries and take their stuff,
* it's too hard to tax the rich, so why try,
* etc., etc., etc.
Which just makes them sound a bit irrational and out of touch. And incredibly passive and lacking in actionable ideas. They are proving to be incapable of adjusting to their environment and changing their solutions to solve the problems _currently at hand_. Which is another way of saying they are not very intelligent.
I am worried. This is not an economic debate; it's a rout.
But, in a more general way, we can see that only a group under intense (political) pressure has the energy and motivation required to adapt. Everyone else will quickly become lazy, indifferent, and lethargic. And the speed at which this happens is shockingly rapid.
## Let the misanthropy be with you
The loudest call, presently, is for wealth taxes. These are taxes that are extremely popular among the sovereign (the voters, remember them?), but unpopular with elected politicians (as they are all rich and would personally pay such taxes).
Whenever right-wing (or even centrist) intellectuals think about wealth taxes, they cringe. But they are also generally reluctant to admit that economic inequality is a real problem that is destroying democracy and fertility and grinding the real economy (as opposed to the stock market, which is completely dominated by a few high-tech companies) into the ground. And that same inequality is **destroying the potential hope, happiness, personal freedom, and economic security for our progeny**.
https://media.tenor.com/nwoJ4BS0XHYAAAAC/oh-no-anyway.gif
An economy with high wealth inequality is one in which the cost of living will skyrocket and eventually become completely detached from earned income. It will also crush demand, as a tiny handful of the very wealthy consume fewer services and material goods than the remaining 99.9% combined. Inequality undermines democracy, as we have become a passive viewership to the spectacle of the very rich determining what will happen next. And there is the teeny, tiny, almost insignificant issue of central planning: giving all resources to a small subset of the population and letting them decide their allocation was supposed to be something the right rejected, but nevermind that.
We are rapidly nearing an economic state where oligarchs happily exchange stock market and crypto trading cards on a sinking economic Titanic. Some countries are already halfway sunk.
They have no solutions. More so, they pretend that there is no problem.
They either claim that this is not happening because of statistics and more statistics and some numbers mumble mumble…, or they are more honest and wax ecstatic about their favorite form of economic Armageddon and voice their sincere prayers that this End comes quickly. They know that might kill most people off, but they are very sure they will personally profit and can finally LARP as the hero from a Western novel. So, it sounds pretty cool to them, and they have their private arsenal, woodpile, Bitcoin wallet, and canned pickles all ready to go.
https://media.tenor.com/VDghtldcMbsAAAAC/cowboy.gif
And then there are the idiotic people telling the young that they just need to work harder and they can also be rich. And then they would also need to pay wealth taxes! Oh, the horror. These people apparently aren't aware that all workers are already paying debilitating taxes on their earned income. We aren't the ones for whom “paying taxes” is a new, terrifying concept. Talk about projection…
Besides, the young and poor cannot become rich, and they know it. Maybe you should stop lying to them and admit that they're going to stay poor and that you think they should just get over that.
Because that is where the right is currently at. It's palpable. The right knows it. The young know it. The right knows they know it. The young know the right knows it… and the young have changed the channel.
https://media.tenor.com/2X4tNYoIZIEAAAAC/remote-black-guy-turning-off-tv.gif

2026-05-04 08:16:16 CEST

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Sucks to be you, doesn't it?

2026-05-04 08:15:14 CEST

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I appreciate that he is irreligious and irreverent in his reasoning, even against his former self and his friends and colleagues. Also, that he can distill highly complex models down to very simple description of the underlying mechanism, so that everyone can understand the concept. That is the highest level of genius. Literally Einsteinian.
And that he's scrappy. I like scrappy.

2026-05-04 07:52:11 CEST

This one is psychological, not economic, but was very interesting. You can see this dynamic at work on Nostr and I've seen it, constantly, everywhere, my whole life.
https://youtu.be/Nm_L9VCBJ_E

2026-05-03 23:25:23 CEST

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Okay, but he's kinda hot, tho. That means I should believe 99% of what he says. Or maybe 98%. I don't know the going rate. +/- 5%, or so.

2026-05-03 23:02:25 CEST

Yanis. That is all. I see Yanis, I click ▶
https://youtu.be/QEgpcMSf56g

2026-05-03 22:02:17 CEST

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@npub10np…tl5h There's some confusion.

2026-05-03 21:58:47 CEST

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I don't know: 🤔
this event, from you, was posted to theforest. It seems to be working. Maybe it took a moment to update.

2026-05-03 20:49:44 CEST

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Sorry, for everyone I cut off by deleting the previous version. I accidentally pressed send, halfway done. 😆

2026-05-03 20:47:53 CEST

Feminism ran out of things to complain about and went full queer and a bit satanic in a desperate attempt to stay relevant and edgy. And now everyone is bored with the topic, and there's a war on the telly, and have you seen the price of eggs?
We're done fighting against our own men. It's over. Stop. Go away. Move on. Get a hobby. Take up fishing.
#politics #feminism

2026-05-03 20:23:29 CEST

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https://media.tenor.com/pvtIsibJmTgAAAAC/not-trynna-flex-conner-bobay.gif

2026-05-03 20:17:27 CEST

When an elegant, graceful woman steps out of your crappy, old car.

2026-05-03 20:13:27 CEST

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All information is biased. Even simply selecting which information to report, and when, reveals a bias.

2026-05-03 19:35:09 CEST

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What you said about Taiwan makes sense.
And about oversized, standing armies and practicing. As we can see, defenders can be a relatively unprepared, but quickly scale up and emotionally harden. Attackers need such a huge advantage, and such a aggressive mindset, that they have to try to stay much further ahead and constantly desensitize their troops.
And, even if they are further ahead, they have to win within a few days, or they'll end up in a quagmire.

2026-05-03 19:30:09 CEST

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He's a good watch. Completely partial to USA and Ukraine, of course, but he does wider-view commentary, rather than just chasing the current news item, and spends a lot of effort on researching.

2026-05-03 19:15:11 CEST

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Nostr.band

2026-05-03 19:06:33 CEST

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I 💖 the little old Italian lady cooking rice with peas, tho. And it's so good, fr...

2026-05-03 19:03:56 CEST

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Nee, Vaterland. 🇩🇪
Oder, mindestens, Ehemannland. :flag-bavaria:
Dafür wohne ich am großen Mutterfluss. 🏞

2026-05-03 18:37:09 CEST

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The USA and Russia have the same number of active military and Russia has slightly more reserves. And I think it's not really a secret that the USA has much higher-quality soldiers, including a strong NCO class and highly-trained reserves. And it has the world's best kit.
(Well, Russia had the same number. Before.)
At any rate, the US military is _much_ more powerful than Russia (it's not even close) and of similar size, but it still can't control the Straight of Hormuz. And a ground war in Iran would be madness. Even worse than Afghanistan.
Simply having a bunch of bombs and soldiers and kit is no longer enough. Warfare has become more asymmetric, with defensive positions taking more of the advantage, regardless of comparative size, because robotics creates a sort of high-tech, moving, fortification that create Dead Man's Lands relatively devoid of human adversaries. Once you combine it with the geographic advantages, that the defenders have, the goal goes to the home team because they don't have to move.
We don't have to guess about this, now. We have seen it, live, twice.

2026-05-03 18:10:39 CEST

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I know where babies come from. I've produced two of them.
People are mostly simulating out there, in increasingly unnatural and bizarre formats. And a large part of the population has given up even bothering to pretend to have sex.