Really excellent episode. I agree with like 95% of @balajis‘s analysis. Agreed on the insight about longitudinal versus latitudinal coordination and about the unique situation of Australia and New Zealand. I also agree that multi-polarity is inevitable and that in the long run, China’s rise is likely to continue (with or without the CCP). Short term, however, I think China has a whole host of domestic issues to deal with including overproduction/deflation/involution (really it’s all the same thing), real estate market collapse, local government debt, and population collapse/flight and many other issues. I think we still have some time here. Completely agree that the US became an empire after WW2 and benefited greatly from having reserve currency status that came from hegemony. We were able to live beyond our means by partially exporting inflation to the rest of the world. However, different demographic beneficiaries of this exorbitant privilege received very uneven slices of the pie. Red America and the youth were left in the dust. The Cantillon effect benefited the investment class over the working class which fomented resentment. Moreover, there were other invisible costs at the national level like the march toward the Triffin Dilemma and the loss of national self-sufficiency. I agree with Balaji and @curtis_yarvin on the Red Empire (DoD) vs Blue Empire (DoS + other soft power) analysis. Over the past few years, we saw the Reds and the Internet (Yellow/Orange Empire) subsume the power centers of the former Blue Empire. The Internet took over media while the Reds are systematically dismantling and coopting everything else. Surely today the Department of State is much more aligned with the Department of Defense than it has been in the recent past pre-Obama. I say pre-Obama because Hillary ran the DoS like the DoD if you know what I mean. I thought it was a wonderful insight that the Blues are loyal to state but not nation while the Reds are loyal to nation but not state. Very true that the Blues just care about scale. They want total order/control in opposition to chaos/freedom. I also agree that the Blues and China are natural allies. And I think the Reds and the Internet are natural allies. Maybe Balaji partially disagrees with this second statement because of the influential blood and soil minority faction in the Red Tribe but I don’t think this is a big deal. Will also return to this later. I also hesitate to say that the Internet has taken over money. I think there are many branching paths here. Some cases of the world lead us to 1933. As a side note, I 200% agree that master-apprentice style learning is excellent and should be brought back. This brings us to a final point of contention. Perhaps the most fundamental and only real disagreement I have with Balaji. But first I want to say that as a member of the Yellow/Orange team that is closely allied with the Reds, I have to be a bit careful on what I say, since words on the internet matter and stuff. At the end of the day, if the blackpillers are right, then fuck it; big bro Balaji, I’m cutting and running with you 😆. We are on the same page that orange pill comes after black pill. But let me respectfully propose two reasons why, for now, we should stay and fight alongside the Reds.(Galois Kevin)