The Risks Of Silence
What You Ignore Will GET WORSE (LL46)
Happy Monday from Las Vegas, Nevada ☀️
I have had an absolute whirlwind of a time since my last edition (Dec 27).
This week I depart a bit from the usual programming to discuss censorship, the COVID vaccine, historical analogs, and the weakness of credentials.
Since January 4th, I’ve accepted and started an exciting new job, formally exited my Nashville lease and moved out of Tennessee ✌️🤠, and slept at 8 different places while visiting friends and family in the Southeast USA.
Yes, 8 places: Nashville, Ocala, Orlando, Jupiter, Atlanta, Plantation, and two different hotels in Fort Lauderdale.
It’s been a helluva month. You might be wondering:
What’s the new job? I’ll now be working on growth marketing for Anthony Pompliano on his Job Board and Online Course. He’s someone I mentioned before in my favorite podcasts article from a few weeks ago. It was a really tough decision to leave Bitcoin Magazine. That team truly is awesome, and I remain a big fan of their work.
Why leave Nashville? The new job is remote. The team is based in Miami, and if I choose to spend parts of the year there, I won’t be double paying. Also, I didn’t do my research, and Nashville got really cold. Since I don’t need to be anywhere cold right now, I left.
A Disclaimer Before We Start
The opinions in this newsletter are solely my own. Not my employer’s, not my family’s. They are mine alone.
It’s entirely possible that I’m wrong. Wrong about everything. From the start, this newsletter has been about learning in public, sharing what I’m thinking, and workshopping ideas.
As always, if you disagree with anything you are more than welcome to
Respond with intelligent comments (which I will read and respond to).
Stop reading.
Shake your fist at the sky in violent disagreement.
Unsubscribe.
Onto the newsletter 🧐
Some Learnings/ Thoughts For Your Monday
“Most people don't understand the risks of silence. I know where corruption of speech leads, and I'm not going there” — Jordan Peterson via Akira
This is usually a newsletter about business, books, productivity, technology, self-improvement, etc. I’d love to continue discussing these topics because they are important, and I enjoy learning about them through writing.
But right now I think some current events are sufficiently important to break that flow to comment on.
Compliance is a failed strategy. Give an inch, lose a mile. I’m tired of not speaking my mind out of fear of losing followers, fear of affecting my employability at a woke company (why would I want to work there anyway?), and pissing off a few people.
I’m over it.
Censorship of ideas is becoming too widespread (and often celebrated).
Cash is disappearing and the media is attempting to normalize financial censorship.
Watch what happens when you ignore something that bothers you. It grows. You shrink.
I feel complicit for not using whatever influence I do have to speak my mind about how fucking terrifying these social developments are. Period.
What You Do Matters
Driving with a friend through an intersection, we stopped behind a car with a huge political bumper sticker.
My friend says then something along the lines of following “It’s so stupid to wear political clothes, put up yard signs, and decorate your car. None of that matters.”
I was flabbergasted. Not only is that type of thinking a shortcut to depression and nihilism, but it is demonstrably false.
Absent evidence to the contrary, it’s natural to think that our friends and neighbors share our beliefs. Why wouldn’t they?
By advertising your affiliations, you shatter people’s paradigms.
Those “crazy” people who support that “crazy/senile” candidate might actually be your neighbor. Those “uninformed unvaccinated” might just write your favorite newsletter.
When you encounter someone you know, like, and respect, and then afterward find out you disagree with them, you reconsider the point of disagreement.
If we each know 1,000 people who each know 1,000 people, your action/advocacy could reach 1,000,000 people rather quickly.
It’s impossible to know what effect my “speaking up” earlier/more loudly would have had. But it’s almost impossible to believe that things would be worse if I did. At a minimum, I’d have been spared the burden of not speaking my mind!
Your actions have consequences. Your beliefs affect the Overton window of people around you which in turn affects the Overton window of people around them.
Stop keeping quiet.
Archipelagos (paraphrasing What The Hell by Akira)
“Every man is responsible for everything that happens to him and everything that happens to everyone else” — Dostoevsky
Stuck in a Russian gulag, Alexander Solzhenitsyn decided to take complete personal responsibility for his circumstances. Not blaming Stalin. Not blaming WW2. It’s his fault.
With nothing but time, he writes a book, The Gulag Archipelago.
It’s a “Three volume book, 1900 pages long. He memorized it because there wasn't any paper and pencil available for him in prison. Then it circulated in the underground in the Soviet Union for years before it got published in the West, published in 1975.
Definitely, one of the literary events that brought down the Soviet Union. Definitely, that's kind of interesting, isn't it? To think this one guy, right?
Got numbers tattooed on his arm
He's skinny as a rail
He's three quarters dead
He's been beat to death in 15 different ways
He decides under completely unreasonable circumstances that he's gonna take personal responsibility for the position that he happens to find himself in…
The consequences of that, 25 years later is that Solzhenitsyn is still around, and that the Soviet Union isn't.”
I’m not saying today’s circumstances are remotely in the same league, but I’m one more person deciding not to apologize for my opinions, not apologizing for my choices, and speaking my mind.
Maybe it’s an inappropriate comparison. Maybe it isn’t. Everything bad started small until it wasn’t.
Censorship & Vaccines
The Founding Fathers Were More Thoughtful Than We Are
The probability that open debate on today’s topics is so exceptionally dangerous (notice the prefix, exception) that we change the 200-year-old rules (ie The Bill of Rights) is so arrogant, self-aggrandizing, and short-sighted it is utterly mind-blowing.
Joe Rogan
Let me get this straight… Joe Rogan promotes vaccine hesitancy because he interviewed one of the most published cardiologists (ever) and the inventor of mRNA vaccines? (More on them below)
Absolute nonsense.
Allow me to list the true causes of COVID vax hesitancy (fully exhaustive)
The blatantly obvious attempt to suppress any legitimate long-form debate on the subject
Okay fine, less sass. A few more.
The moving goal-posts on what vaccine efficacy and fully-vaccinated mean
The strong push against using early treatment/ prevention
The absence of any discussion of building a resilient body (abstaining from drinking, SMOKING, and processed foods. Exercising, and getting sunlight)
Unanswered questions concerning data from Israel
Virtually every MSM outlet being sponsored by Pfizer/other big pharma
The sketchy track record of big pharma for 20+ years
Do we not find it strange that the same people who openly lied to us in the first inning of this crisis are our censors? You’ve violated my trust before, but I trust you not to do it again? Got it.
Why I Haven’t Had The Covid Vaccination (yet)
Like my analysis above, my full argument can be expressed succinctly.
My risk from the virus is a rounding error. I never rush to the front of the line for non-essential medical intervention. The longer I wait, the more I know.
Like my analysis above, of course, I have more to say.
Discussion of side effects is shouted down
I see vaccinated people getting it from other vaccinated people. Any “you are irresponsibly killing grandma guilt” I could’ve had has eroded
The abandonment of informed consent
Not everyone who hasn’t taken the vax is an anti-vaxxer. I’ve had probably 20+ in my life. I’m not anti-vaccine. I’m glad this exists for people who want it. I’m anti-haste and anti-mandate. I have unanswered questions. I am wary of censorship. Maybe someday I’ll get it, maybe I won’t. The longer I wait, the more I know.
In the meantime, I’m quite happily lending myself to science as a member of the control group, rent-free.
Speaking of Credentials
I’ve had more than a few people suggest I get vaccinated and that I should trust them on the basis of their credentials. First of all, I think these people both mean well and care about me. I thank them for their love and concern. It is reciprocal.
My intention here is not to belittle credentials. Many are quite difficult to obtain and worthy of much respect. All I’m saying is that relying on credentials alone as the basis of why you are right is a laughably fragile form of argument. Why?
The moment someone *decorated* with equally *prestigious* boy scout badges publicly disagrees with you, everything you've said falls apart. Instantly.
When the argument rests solely on credentials, I can immediately dismantle it by appealing to the opinion of anyone equally credentialed. Like…
Dr. Rand Paul: Duke medical graduate and Senator or
Dr. Peter McCullough, Dr. Robert Malone, and countless others
I’m Not Overreacting
Read (or skim) the Wikipedia for Dr. Robert Malone (below).
Then read it for Dr. McCullough. Then read their Google Scholar summaries.
(What’s emphasized in red is sufficient).
Could they be any less subtle? These two are highly published and highly cited doctors and medical researchers, and we are openly celebrating their de-platforming and libel?
How is it acceptable to append to their bios that they spread “misinformation” when the contents are UNSETTLED (see Senator Ron Johnson’s hearing)?
It isn’t acceptable. This stuff is cause for alarm. This is rewriting history. This is suppression of debate. This is why we are here.
Yes, It’s Okay To Compare Things To The Holocaust
I hate when people say “you can’t compare this to the holocaust.”
Maybe you can’t compare this to the final innings of the holocaust, but you can sure as shit compare things to the beginning/preconditions.
It wasn’t zero to Auschwitz, folks. It was a series of accelerating concessions that started small until the tide was too strong to reverse.
I’m not saying that genocide is the probable outcome of the alarming events we are seeing.
Instead, I’m pointing out that WE ARE VERY CASUALLY letting very dangerous precedents be set and it is very unlikely for that to go anywhere good.
We don’t want to think bad things can happen, but our denial that they could happen is what leads to our compliance, the erosion of rights, and the establishment of precedents that increases the probability of atrocity.
Closing Thoughts
I’ll leave one final batch of lyrics from Akira The Don.
“It's failure to act often that's the most catastrophic
It's to not do the right thing when the situation presents itself
It's very specific
You know, you're constantly in situations where you could do the right thing if you were willing to take a risk
That's actually of relatively a moderate size
And you know that you can take the risk, and you know that you should take risks, and you don't…[chorus]
And that happens to people all the time
And then what happens is the thing that they didn't oppose grows a little bit
And they shrink a little bit
And that starts to loop”
It’s all fun and games until it’s
YOUR assets frozen
YOUR voice suppressed
YOUR travel banned
They might be on your side today, but eventually, the mob will come for you too.
Speak your truth or die trying. Hold the line.
Content, 2022 Goals, and Photo
On a lighter note, Some new goals for the year
Consistently train BJJ
Reduce resting heart rate < 50 bpm
Increase podcast task outsourcing to free up time. Ideally, I just handle guest curation, research, and interviews.
Contribute to the demise of MSM however I can (not that they need much more help with this)
Keep my mind right. Frequently listen to folks like Akira the Don and Andy Frisella.
Speak my mind more. Be more comfortable “upsetting people.” Don’t let the metaphorical dragons grow.
Be okay “losing followers.” Why care to please those people anyway?
Links & Recommended Content
(1) 🏡 Built to Zero: Stryker’s Sustainable Real Estate Newsletter
My friend Stryker launched a newsletter and it’s great so far. It’s about “how incorporating sustainable practices in real estate can positively impact productivity, morale, and your bottom line.”
This tool makes it UNBELIEVABLY easy to “Host, run, and code Python in the cloud!” Absolute game-changer.
(3) 🎶 Akira The Don’s New Album
17 wildly thought-provoking tracks encouraging you to live your truth and much more.
(4) The Louis and Kyle Show - Recent Content
→ Josh Rosenthal: VC & Ph.D. in Medieval History On Why Crypto Is The Next Renaissance
→ Rob Frasca: COSIMO Venture Partners Co-Founder on Crypto in 2022 (25+ Years of Investing Wisdom)
→ Akira The Don: Inventing Meaningwave, Psychotainment, Children, and Hyper-productivity
Upcoming: Shane Heath, CEO of Mud/Wtr, David Perry, Founder of Carro, Joel Hansen, Personal Branding Expert
I was fortunate enough to be invited on two podcasts recently. Both were Bitcoin-themed discussion panels. Thank you to both hosts who invited me 😄
→ WHY ARE WE BULLISH? Louis Shulman, Hodl Magoo, Nate aka BeefOrBacon
(6) What Bitcoin Did with Balaji and Glenn Greenwald
Props to Peter McCormack for connecting two brilliant writers/thinkers for a very engaging discussion on the breakdown of institutional trust.
Thanks for reading 👋
I’m optimistic that the web of lies that has prolonged our altered day-to-day lives is falling apart.
My only regret has been my hesitancy to share my opinions more loudly along the way.
Believe it or not, dissenting replies are welcomed. I’d love to hear from you.
Cheers,
Louis
Photo Of The Week — Fort Lauderdale Remote Work
Is this photo tone-deaf given the content? Perhaps, but there’s a point.
I desperately want to see us return to a reality where travel is frictionless, speech is free, and skies are sunny.
Beyond remarkable. Ignoring things is to create untreated malignant cancers. Incredible perspective.
Also I will have to share with you the idea of 'the Risk See-Saw' I'm playing with. Controlling for small risks (e.g. hiding unpopular opinion for fear of shaming) tends to magnify big risks (holocaust size). Vice versa - controlling for large risks (calling out big social problems) magnifies small risks but obviously at acceptable cost (so I lose a few followers? how does that stack up in the grand scheme of things?)
Great stories. Great update.