Conspiracy Theories Explained: How Power Really Works

the conspiracy theory stuff that we talk about maybe not as much on the pod is it's not one like group sitting at a table deciding everything, but it's like a lot of small tables having negotiations, giving each other what they want, and brokering with higher-up tables where everyone's kind of getting what they want in an extractive manipulative way. So, it's not like one dark wizard ruling the whole world. So, even like Trump, for example, it's like I don't believe he's the mastermind or Netanyahu or any of these guys, but they

are getting what they want along on a darker narrative where everyone kind of gets what they want. >> Well, yeah, there there's power structures and there's incentives, and each individual has their own motivations. And I do think in something like government, as you're you're climbing up that ladder, you need to play that game. There's existing people with power. You need to kind of get their favor. You might need to do favors for different people. There is a whole dynamic that I think most of us don't fully understand what's happening behind

the scenes. >> Yeah, and I don't pretend to, either. I just remember hearing like every man has a price, but the surprising point is how low most men's price really is. Like how easily most people will sell out. >> So, yeah, where where I would agree with you here is I think we understand human nature enough to know that human nature is corruptible, right? So, you should always have a suspicion of people in in power. >> Yeah, actually. >> That doesn't mean you should be convinced that they're they're doing something

malicious or nefarious, but there should always be a suspicion and an ability to see that perspective because once people put someone on the pedestal, um this happens with like spiritual gurus as well, where some of these spiritual gurus who were supposedly enlightened ended up having allegations of sexual abuse against their followers, right? >> Well, not most of them, but a lot of them. Like don't drink the Kool-Aid and don't sleep with the guru. >> Right, right. It happens with a pretty high like surprisingly high rate. And yeah, I think it's

really important to not hold anyone on that level of authority where you think they're infallible, they're incapable of of being corrupted or having like bad influences or ulterior motives. Except Ron Paul. >> [laughter] >> But but yeah, and I think you here's where you would probably agree with me. You and you've kind of influenced me on this where if you look I think if you look at the dynamics of power structures, it's actually the people should hold people in power with a degree of suspicion. >> Of course. >> Cuz if

you don't do that, then it's like it's almost like a game theory argument. There's some percentage chance that this person is like fully altruistic and just fully in in favor of doing good for the people. And there's some percentage chance that they have some ulterior motives that they're going to benefit themselves or their in-group. We don't know what those percentages are, but it's not zero. >> Yeah. >> And because it's not zero, you actually have to take that possibility seriously and and consider it's like the inversion with we were talking

about. Like consider the possibility that's unconsidered. >> Definitely, I agree with that. >> Because then you can see okay, is the pattern matching lining up more with that with this, but and this is where I think the interesting part of this podcast is when there's so much information and you can find evidence to support any belief, how do you choose what to believe? >> 100%. Actually bro, just one thing on like trusting public officials is I have like a libertarian wager. We haven't brought up wagers yet, which is every every

one Every episode needs a wager. My libertarian wager is everyone is a libertarian. They just haven't found the issue that government's encroaching on yet. And once they do discover that, it's like who makes better decisions for your money, you or the government? Who makes better decisions for your body, you or a public official again? Or who makes, you know, better business decisions of which state you can register your business in, you or the government again. So, I would always kn air on the side of >> [laughter] >> myself over like

public officials because I trust my own incentives, what's best for me as opposed to trusting a public official cuz usually once you see the public official, you're like, "Oh, he doesn't really have my best interests at heart. He owns 5% of this company or was gifted it to him when he got into office." >> Well, yeah, and here's the interesting thing with the kind of power dynamic is once people start trusting their authority to an authority figure and maybe that person has fully good intentions and they're they're high integrity, well,

that person might get corrupted over time cuz no one's perfect. Everyone's human. Someone offers them a hundred million dollars, right? Or that person gets replaced by someone else who doesn't have the same integrity and the population has been trained to just defer their their thinking to an authority figure and that's where it gets dangerous because humans are not perfect. We're not like these these angelic beings that have no no self-interest, right? >> No, we have to know our blind spots or where where where our biases are. >> And and we

have to I think hold that suspicion of people in power to hold them accountable. >> Definitely. Bro, it reminds me of this one. Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he then be trusted with the government of others or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history be the answer to this question. That's Thomas Jefferson. >> I love that quote. Yeah. >> Me too. It's so good and I think the founding fathers were very libertarian.