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Admin: A non-additive post has been removed here that simply sought to promote the author’s general distaste for this site and to sow discord.
Chris Martenson: I have decided to block Agitating Prop from this community for consistently taking potshots at myself, this website, and this larger community. A.P. had declared that if Adam left, they would no longer return here and took some Parthian shots then. So to have Ap come back and simply seek to be disruptive and rude to this community was the last straw. Blocking AP was my sole decision and it’s final. Like all enterprises and endeavors, this place does better with people who seek to add constructively.
The interviewee couldn’t have ruined Chris worse if he tried. Maybe he did try.
The statistics (FBI crime and otherwise) do not support the contention that any particular race is treated unfairly by the police. New thresholds for prosecution in some places like CA (theft>$950) are no doubt desiged to muddy the stats now too.
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Your comment is explicit cancel culture. Agree with me or I (we) will make you suffer economically.
My first-hand impression is that race is a secondary factor, much less important than character.
As a small-business owner, I hired people for their ability, intelligence and work ethic. This resulted in the unforeseen outcome that half of my employees were minorities, mostly Vietnamese and Cambodian but also Blacks, Hispanics and one Irish guy.
Most interestingly, if one of my managers or I made a mistake and hired someone who was of bad character, a shirker or otherwise morally challenged, that person never lasted long. We had no need to fire him/her. The culture was such that the bad apple was quickly identified by his/her peer group and quietly made to understand they didn’t fit in. Most quit within a month or less.
Based on this experience, I firmly believe that in present-day America (or anywhere else for that matter) equal opportunity does not result in equal outcome. Honest, hard-working people can and will be accepted as peers if they are nothing more than pleasant, clean and industrious. Anyone who is work-shy, dishonest or has a bad attitude will not succeed - regardless of their race.
One curiosity I came across when I was in Zanzibar, walking through the slave trade castles (which were active longer than in west Africa). Whities were considered the good guys, (and historically were responsible for bringing the slave trade to an end there), and the Arabs were the bad guys, and the racial group that ran the slave trade there (and apparently still do); an unexpected contrast to North America where there is expectation of white man’s guilt.
While I believe there are lots of potentially fruitful conversations to be had around race, those are difficult to have online.
Further, this site is now under a microscope and I have a legitimate concern about people showing up to flop down the cancel culture cards in hopes of tripping up this site, if not getting it canceled.
Especially we’re going to have to exercise good judgment and discernement over what we discuss publicly, out here in the full view of the world, and what we reserve to discuss in the relative privacy of the member’s area.
In my personal experience, Jim H Kunstler is not a racist; he’s a social critique and a public curmudgeon, but also one of the nicest and most thoughtful people you’ll ever meet.
Perhaps I have somehow failed to divine or detect Jim’s inner racist after spending many hours driving to talks with him, sitting around campfires, and playing endless folk tunes (his singing is admirably bad, and I mean that in the best possible way because mine is worse), but I don’t believe that’s the case.
But there’s a larger issue here to relay. I don’t demand that I agree with someone 100% on all matters in order to engage with them or listen to them. I do expect them to have thoughtful ideas and considered views. What that means is that I will listen to and interview anybody. And I will hear them out, whether I agree with them or not. Heck, I had Angie Rasmussen on and I find her views quite distasteful.
I somehow manage to learn something from everyone and that rests primarily upon my ability to listen without the need to inject my putatively superior thinking or morals into the conversation. That’s not the job of an interviewer, at least not a good one.
I shouldn’t have to say this, but apparently, I need to: the views expressed by guests are not necessarily my own, nor does anyone’s appearance as a guest on my show constitute an endorsement of their views by myself or Peak Prosperity.
If you want to hear a podcaster who only espouses your morals or views, then my interviews will surely disappoint you sooner or later, and I won’t be the right one.
All of that said, and to set the record straight, racism is very real, classism is very real, religious superiority beliefs are real, as are hundred other expressions of how humans divide self from other. Those are all expressions of rigid belief systems, none of which I hold. I treat everyone according to how they conduct themselves in life. Period.
However, as worthy as they are, those topics aren’t what this site is about or core to its mission and worse they risk attracting the cancel-culture hordes who I especially dislike for their strong-arm bullying tactics and weak ability to unpack and defend their many opinions and beliefs. Their approach seeks to stomp out any hope of learning and growing while demanding conformity to their views (which they often cannot even articulate or defend properly, nor even explain how they came by them).
I have no interest in any of that taking root here.
In closing, a recent personality test I took (called a “NEO”) scored me along many dimensions. The one dimension I scored the highest at - way above average (3 std devs above) - was in the dimension of “diversity.”
This isn’t your faux diversity promoted by the cancel culture. This is the sort of diversity that’s many levels deep. Diversity of thought and openness to new ideas are quite literally my highest personal traits and values.
Those are what I’m going to foster and defend here at Peak Prosperity every single day that I am here as the leader of this site.
Bottom line: No more comments or discussions about race here please.
Thank you for reading this.
I was group leader of a health related forum for over half a decade (killed by google MEDIC algorithm update). Freedom of Speech has always been sacred in my book, but I was amazed at how damaging to the entire forum angry back & forth posting was.
Once the entire “recent posts” menu filled with back & forth ranting on any given topic, the entire forum would go dead for a week or more. Other members simply didn’t care to have to dig through the back & forth to find content that interested them.
Censoring members & content was the most difficult job I had as group leader, as I actually enjoy good debate myself; but every time I would let debate run wild, the forum would suffer badly.
I actually have strong feelings about the current racial & political environments, but learned long ago, truly contentious issues are never resolved in cyberspace. Please forgive Chris if he has to do a bit of moderating now & again. It really is for the good of the forum. Turn off too many members, & all that is left is anger & derision. Eventually everyone simply wanders off, & you’ve got to rebuild the forum from scratch.
I often find two individuals can argue for hours before they realize they are saying the same thing and are the same page.
That is all.
We shouldn’t fight amongst ourselves. If we destroy ourselves as a nation, who benefits the most? That is probably who you will find is pulling the strings. When I was deployed it didn’t matter the color or religion of the person working next to me. We were one team and depended on each other to get the job done. We had a shared experience. It seems we have lost that as a nation right now. We are letting stupid things like demographics divide us when we really need each other to get through this. Our fight is not with each other but with the people pulling the strings. Let’s put a big wrench in their plans and give them the big middle finger just by getting along, treating others decently and not letting petty differences divide us.
Thank you, Chris. Your point is well taken. Race discussions have nothing to do with this site. I was so repulsed that I considered not talking to anyone here again. I change my mind.
I dont know if AP is willing to continue with this community. I felt that her views were generally well thought out and worthwhile, despite not being comfortable for most here. PP has very few left people that are willing to state an opinion and take the beat down by this primarily right audience. Maybe INTJ minds are mostly right leaning for some reason.
If you block one of the few who are willing to stand up for the contrapoint, I feel you are driving this sight into a further back patting echo chamber, which it is much of the time.
APs comments generally dont explode the forums, even if she can be sarcastic from time to time.
Id like to hope that you will reconsider your position. It does no good to dismiss the few lefts that are willing to post here.
Thanks
“Maybe INTJ minds are mostly right leaning for some reason.”
INTJ here…nope and nope. I used to be Liberal, that is until I saw the man behind the curtain. It’s been an interesting journey since. I have successfully broken out of the dogma and find truth on both sides. The anger that was trying to control me and divide me from family and friends is gone. My visits to social media echo chambers are scarce, as once the veil has been lifted, such visits bring sadness, witnessing what we have become. The Left and the Right are two heads of the same monster; bought and paid for by the same oligarchs. We are all being played…divide and conqueror is step #1 in reaching the goal.
What initially drew me to this site is the ability of Dr. Chris to address and analysis complex topics without the political theatre. What currently keeps me here are the intelligent and challenging posters that feed my INTJ brain. However, the amount of “liberal” slamming on this site detracts from otherwise thoughtful posts. The majority of such posts would have greater impact by checking the bias at the door. I have grown weary of dragging around my salt shaker; I didn’t think I would need it here. Thank you for your consideration.
Well I have learned a lot here. I’m dismayed (now) that I chose to stick my toe into the PP waters after more than 6 years of faithful readership in such a way (the loud and proud comment) that would make people think I’m here to discredit the site. I have half a filing drawer full of printed out PP posts (including comments) from all those years that I wanted to revisit because of so much thoughtful discussion happening. And I was a paying supporter for a couple of years until I couldn’t afford it anymore.
My post was prompted exactly by my concern that JKH is a guest who will alienate people who otherwise would be super interested in what PP has to offer. And I want more people to find this site. But I’ll have to think long and hard about the comments on who one chooses to interview - mixed feelings there. Anyhow it was a clumsy way to engage especially since I’m super aware that the site is “under a microscope.”
Obviously from the evidence of the last couple of days, you’re correct that discussions about race won’t be fruitful here. Nothing that’s been said here has yet changed my views but has changed my understanding of the pitfalls of social media. I rarely do engage on social media beyond encouraging people exactly because the nature of it so often leads to these I’m right/you’re wrong type conversations that don’t get us anywhere. Yet I hope that doesn’t mean that the dynamics of racism in our society are off limits because otherwise I don’t see how there can be an honest discussion about our world.
I do not believe that peak oil is imminent. Peak cheap conventional oil occurred in 2004, but somehow we keep meeting our oil needs while leaving several million barrels per day from Venezuela and Iran. Part of this is sleight of hand - counting natural gas liquids as oil, etc.
The Saudi-Russian game of chicken with prices drove the oil price low enough to knock out our uneconomical shale production. U.S. oil production dropped from 13 million barrels per day to 11 million, but it seems stable there. This is consistent with what I see in the oil and gas reserve studies that I do for part of my living. I see a lot of new wells with 2 to 1 payouts at $65 per barrel and I see a very large resource base that can still be developed. If demand finally does overrun supply in a few years, that can probably be handled with price increases that bring new supply to market. We are likely to remain well below the equivalent of $100 per barrel that we had in 2008 for a good while. That was inconvenient but a long way from disastrous. On a finite planet, there must come a day when we reach peak oil, but in my opinion that is some decades ahead. If economic catastrophe occurs sooner, it will probably be because we have done something politically stupid like leaving the wokesters in charge.
I should have posted this first to compliment Chris and JHKunstler - my favorite scientist and my favorite author in a new studio. It is a rare treat to have such intelligence and knowledge on display for over an hour!
You poor baby. Enjoying your victimhood, I hope.