 All right, yeah, so we're going to dive in right so I've got the big question for today. It's big Big big question, which is big tech or big government whom do you trust and This is the question that we have to ask Increasingly more and more because there's this Government clampdown on the big tech companies from two angles, right the privacy angle and We'll talk some about that. It was that FTC order from last week and then Also the so-called censorship angle, right? That's Looming that's the antitrust angle, although I don't have that in the program knows but what I do have in the program notes You get a chance. You said that you were eager to do this. We have the Missouri senator a Republican senator who is deciding that it is time to Clampdown on social media for being too addictive. This is Josh Hawley. So today's your chance Republican from Missouri. I mean Josh Rawley has not become my favorite Republican senator and he's he's competing with like Elizabeth Warren and Who else on the on the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders who's a senator? He's competing with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren as most hated senator in the US Senate And now here he put out this thing where he he wants to ban This is a bill literally proposing a bill. This is what your senators. This is what your politicians are doing This is what you are paying them to do. He's putting out a bill that would ban They would ban addiction Addiction addictive technology, so it's called social media addiction reduction technology act Social media addiction technology say that fast social media technology act. It's hard. Um, right Basically wants to ban Things that increase of viewership like auto play, you know how you scroll down Facebook and the video auto place. That's no good because you have no choice Right, it's the play. What what choice do you have? You're a mere Human with no real free will and no meaningful free will and therefore you're just gonna watch it and I'm sure You know, he probably wants to ban nice graphics and nice use a interfaces and any notifications, right? Notifications notifications Anything that might cause you to engage now He really wants and he says this really wants to ban social media I think the world would be a much better place without social media But but that's a little radical for him So he just wants to do this now. There's already a bill by Mark Warner Democrat of Virginia and Deb Fischer Republican of Nebraska I love these Bob bipartisan bills whenever you there's a bipartisan bill I think oh my god both the Democrats and Republicans have agreed About the ways in which they want to screw our lives So they have a bill that they want to prohibit the largest online platforms from using dark patents By giving the FTC more jurisdiction over the issue dark patents are all these things all these little gimmicks that technology company have To engage you to get you to stay engaged to get you to stay on the platform because again We know because we're addicted to everything. I mean, I'm addicted to chocolate. You're addicted I don't know. What are you addicted to Amy a coffee or something, you know Yeah, so I've got my buttered coffee addiction going basically Of course, I'll call and all that that's genetically addicted in which it's genetically I think now You know about 15 years has passed since we've had 20 years of the internet I think we've genetically evolved now to be addicted to the internet So we have no free will in this regard. So there was bipartisan coalitions to do this, but that that that is just Like the the icing on the cake when it comes To our friend Joshua Wally the senator from the great state of Missouri because By chance a few weeks ago. I was doing some research about stuff and came across this guy and He is a leader in the Senate in what we'll call what I've called what they call themselves conservative nationalists he is a born-again evangelical complete and utter nutcase and Okay, so any any wrote he gave a commencement address college New York's you have time to hear this thing. Oh, certainly Kings College in New York City, which is a religious university in New York City and He gave the commencement address and I'm gonna skim. I'm not gonna read it all, but I'm gonna skim here For decades now our politics and culture have been dominated by a particular philosophy of freedom It is a philosophy of liberation from family and tradition of escape from God and community a philosophy of self-creation and unrestricted unfettered Wait for it Free choice. Oh wow Hmm as a philosophy that is defined our age Though this far from new and then he goes back and he and he links this to some guy who I've never heard of Pella Pelagius Pelagius I guess was was a Christian thinker In 50 AD during the last days of the Roman Empire a contemporary of Augustine Right, and he says Pelagius who's this really bad guy held that individuals possessed a powerful capacity for Achievement in fact believed individuals could achieve their own salvation It was just a matter of their living up to the perfection of which they were inherently capable as As this pleasure has put it since perfection is possible for man. It is obligatory Sounds a little objectivist Perfection is possible all the virtues again, you know, we the virtue of pride is the virtue of perfection So he put it The key was will and effort if individuals worked hard enough and deployed their talented wisely enough They could indeed be perfect. I'd like this Pelag, Pelagius guy. Anyway, he's the devil according to this Of course, this drew the oh of Augustine of Hippo Augustine said that human nature was a permanent thing That it was it was dependent on God. We were all fallible. We suffered weakness and need We remember Augustine is the one who used to whip himself after wailing in the snow Thought in pure thoughts So this guy beg, you know, so he's riling against this in this commencement tree. He says And this is towards the end. He says because if freedom means choice among options, then the people with the most choices are the most free Really, that's a confusion about what freedom means, of course And that means the rich now you think maybe now think if this could be Bernie Sanders Elizabeth Warren talking, right? And that means the rich and if salvation is about achievement then those with the most accolades are righteous And that means the elite and the strong But if you don't have family wealth and you don't have a four-year degree and that's 70% of Americans Well, the future as far as glowing these Americans haven't seen a real wage increase in 30 years Not true But put aside these Americans are fighting to hold their families together as divorce rates surge for these Americans health care is Unaffordable drug addiction is growing and too many of their local communities Especially rural ones have been gutted as industry consolidates and ships jobs away a Society divided by class class He's a semi-moxist theologian where one class enjoy all enjoys all the advantages It's a society gripped by hierarchy and hierarchy, of course is awful when identity When when industry ships jobs overseas, they say workers would they say workers should find another trade Capital must be allocated to most efficient use like that's what I say when workers without college degrees can't get a good job They say that's their fault. They should have gone to college Now I gather now that is suspected if globalization threatened America's tech industry or banking sector our elites Would sing a very different tune we would hear how those industries are the lifeblood of the American economy and must be protected at all cost This is a Republican he sounds I mean first of all it sounds like he got in the wrong party, but second of all I don't think so. This is the Republican Party. Let's be well, right? So this is I bet Tucker loves him, right? I bet just loves him This is the Republican Party in the era of Donald Trump. This is it You know, he goes on and he goes on to what the cross represents and he says the cross announces the weakness and need of every person And that means it excludes the boasting and the pride of the few the cross says the talented the well-born the well-educated Do not deserve special privileges. Well, nobody deserves special privileges of government They're not more valuable than anyone else Well by what standard the call of God comes to every person and the power of God is poured out on all who believe This says spiritual ramifications But cultural and political ones as well Paul says it is the humble the everyday Those without social status whom God chooses to exercise to whom God chooses to exercise his power The meek shall inherit the earth right so by extension It is not the privilege but the common man or woman not the elite But the everyday person who moves the destinies of the world Really isn't it the Galileo's or the Michelangelo's and the Newtons and their the geniuses who move He's standing in a country that anyway We must rebuild a culture that affirms the dignity of the working man and women This is bony Sanders that protects the way of life and honors the central wall in the life of this country We of course working man and women implies that you know if you have a PhD you don't work If you're in a tech company, you don't work, you know working means working means means Marxist BS We must rebuild an economy that will offer opportunity for every American worker whether a degree Whatever degree she may have whether he may live Wherever they may live an economy that rewards hard productive work for that after all is the work that built this country We must build the democracy Run now by the elites, but by the great middle of America. I don't know what he has against the poor But why the middle of America? What happened to the meek children have at the earth and and the poor should do it, right? Maybe he doesn't think the poor can understand his message as much as the middle where the middle strives to Be higher and so they're frustrated like you were talking about in your show yesterday that they've been fed all this stuff For so long that they're the ones who are receptive to this sort of message. Yeah a Democracy that allows the working man and women to realize that God given ability to govern themselves and help manage The life of this nation so that's all govern themselves, but no choice Yeah, the chat the problem the problem with the world today is we have a philosophy of self-creation self, you know, you can create yourself a Self-made soul. I in Rand would say Unrestricted unfettered free choice. That's the problem that we have today I'd say With the problem we have today is our unrestricted unfettered free choice is being hampered by government regulations Government control and philosophies that keep telling us don't use your free choice. Don't exercise your free choice Don't use your reason. Don't use your mind. They just you don't have one anyway. You don't have free will anyway or You know do what God tells you and shut up and so this is that this is conservatism This is a party which many of you support. This is the alternative to Bernie Sanders I don't see it as an alternate to Bernie Sanders No, and and clamping down on social media and the so-called addictive part of social media is exactly along those lines It's reducing choice to a certain extent. So what it says is they want to Automatically limit the amount of time a user may spend on platforms across all devices To 30 minutes a day Unless the user elects to adjust or remove the time limit and if the user elects to increase or remove it Resets the time limit to 30 minutes a day on the first day of every month So basically it's like, you know, we're big brother big sister trying to help you get a better habit Now if a person wants to choose a mechanism like this for himself or herself You can buy there's you know software and stuff that will help you do this But this is not a proper function of government and you know, it's interesting because I was talking with Steve Simpson yesterday who is just so brilliant and He Expanded some of my thinking on privacy in the following way, which is that Even if there's something that government is doing where you say, okay Well, you know, how is government exactly infringing your rights here? You could say okay that you we can point to how they are infringing the social media companies rights because it would be forcing the Companies to install a feature into their platform that they've never had before that they would not offer of their own free choice Say right So it is infringing on their rights. It's forcing them to do something But suppose, you know, it's just well, they took a collection up a voluntary Collection, you know, suppose how he decided to do this You know, he's gonna do a go fund me and the go fund me is gonna Result in a petition and a big campaign to get the social media companies to voluntarily Put this feature as opposed. He's gonna do it that way, right? There are certain things that government just shouldn't be doing even if you can't point to a particular right violation You know, government is something whose function is supposed to be inherently limited To enumerated powers, right? It's positive Everything the government does should have as its goal the protection of individual rights. Yes. So it's not just the stuff that violates rights It's anything that is not focused on protecting rights is none of the government's business. Yes Yes, an active that the purpose of government is positive not a negative. Yes It's to act to protect our rights. Yeah, this is what I ran remember I ran used to say, you know Democrats want to regulate our boardroom and the Republicans want to regulate our bedroom now today Both parties want to regulate both But in this case, this is an example of the bedroom type thing, right? They want to regulate our behavior See Republicans don't think the material world is important. This is I ran's observation They don't think the material world is important. What's important is the spiritual world how you spend your time How you entertain yourself? What you do in your bedroom? What you know, how you live the material stuff How you make money? That's dirty. Who cares let the market deal with that. This is luther. This is calvin It's too dirty for us to deal with in in in the utopia of the afterlife We have communism. There's no we don't deal with this capitalism stuff So so Republicans are capitalist not because they appreciate the morality of capitalism capitalist because The material world is not a world that they think is worthy of regulation But the spiritual world. Oh here It's really important that we impose on your morality. We impose on your way of life We impose on your values because you might go really wrong and then land up in hell instead of in heaven And our job is paternalistic governance to make sure and of course the left Views the material world as important a marxist the materialists So they want to regulate the material world. They want to regulate capitalism They want to regulate economy economics the spiritual that doesn't even exist who cares It's all mumbo jumbo go do whatever the hell you want. Nobody cares. Well, we don't want to regulate that And it's amazing to me how her identification of that which is genius, right just that Just plays out over and over and over again And you can see that here even when republicans talk about regulating capitalism They claim it's from it for spiritual reasons. They claim It's for reasons of morality and reasons of Of virtue so so expanding on that you could see why the big tech companies would be the enemy of both of those because They are fabulously wealthy. They're a tremendous engine of production Of course, you know, they're very rich the individuals who start the successful companies themselves And then at the same time it is a company that Has a lot to do with offering spiritual values and having an effect on the culture So they are going to be targeted by both the enemies of wealth and success and the enemies of Anyone who is going to provide cultural influence at all because that what you know, what do the republicans want to do they want to Root everything in traditional religious values. How dare you explore Any sort of alternative lifestyle or new choices or things like that? I want to give a shout out if I could I just want to reinforce that point. I think you're absolutely right And that's why the focus is on social media because social media combines those two It combines both material production wealth and so on and it combines the spiritual values It's a place where people go to seek values And and that the republicans want to control that the right wants to control Yeah, so I'll give a shout out and then I guess also a comment building on what you know, you started here To taylor millard over at hot air and he has a great headline when he's covering this story I put both in the blog program notes at don't let it go calm by the way the story you sent me and then this version as well His headline was Missouri senator social media is too addictive. So let's censor it And he's very careful that you know, he's saying look what howly is Proposing to do here is actually censorship. It's not so yeah, it's not social media that's doing the censorship It is the actual, you know Senators like howly here But the thing that I wanted to give him a shout out for and then also maybe A comment is, you know, he's trying to answer, you know How can howly address a certain concern that he has and he says one has to wonder how howly would treat All those who use social media as their primary source of income. So there's that right, you know He's gonna cut off a lot of income people are not going to be seeing the ads and stuff that all everyone else is paying for Social media is a huge way to get exposure for your product or service these days So continuing with malard's article he says this type of move to give the great god of government more power over big tech Would severely harm streamers who seek to entertain via youtube or twitch by preventing them from even getting to understand their audience Now I would go broader and I'd say, you know The mom and pop shop around the corner is also advertising on facebook And if you limited 30 minutes a day those people as well It's not just the people who stream on the internet who are going to be hampered by this He says what about those who seek to educate the populist through video He says for every social media influencer trying to assist a company through product placement There are gobs of videos introducing people to f.a. Hayek or herbert spencer or frederick boss yet or inrand Right i'll add in right you call how to change a tile You know anything now that I want to do that any instead of opening a manual I go to youtube And search how do you do this and there's a video somebody has on how to do it and it's Jim you know, there's this thing going around on facebook and I did not partake But it's a you know state your age and something you can't do and jim puts his age and he says And I can't poach an egg and then somebody puts up a youtube video about here. Here's how you poach an egg No, the video isn't everything. I think they accept sex. There's pretty much videos on everything Well, there's videos on that too. It's just you are looking for them, but maybe on the oh on youtube there aren't okay That's right. Yeah, maybe some place else On other channels. I'm sure yes Um, yeah, they don't even allow you talking about sex. So, you know, they don't monetize it. No, um I've got a good question here when you're ready. It's a little off topic, but it's generally in the in the direction So tell me okay. So well, so this is of course yet another attack on the social media platforms And probably how Lee is encouraged by the fact that last week the f tc did its own Clampdown and I've got links in the blog. I don't know when you want to talk about that Do you want to talk about your question first and then what we need today? What I called a new intellectual would be any man or woman who is willing to think Meaning any man or woman who knows that man's life must be guided by reason By the intellect not by feelings wishes women's or mystic revelations Any man or woman who values his life and who does not want to give in to today's scout of the spare cynicism and impotence and does not intend to give up the world To the dark ages and to the role of the collectivist road