 All right, about that. Chapo asks, do states get their power by conquest? If so, why is that OK? Well, most states have gotten their power through conquest. And it's not OK. It's just the way it's happened, right? The fact is that in almost all of human history, the way to resolve disputes has been through force. I would say that the one exception to that, at least in its founding, was the United States of America. So this country was founded not through conquest, but through revolution based on a moral ideal, a revolution based on the idea of individual liberty, of freedom, of limiting state power. Now granted, the founders were obviously inconsistent, and the project was an inconsistent project. And a lot of bad stuff was done, slavery, for example, post the founding of America. And even some conquest was done post the founding of America. But essentially, America was founded as a country based on an idea, not based on conquest of land. There are probably other countries, states, that were founded in similar ways, but only because at some point in history, empires, which were established through conquest, broke up and broke up into smaller countries. And those countries were created not as a consequence of conquest, but just as a consequence of luck, culture, geography, and so on. I mean, who exactly did the Swiss conquer Switzerland from? I mean, at some point, that land was occupied by the Roman Empire. At some point, the Roman Empire disintegrated. At some point, the various tribes that were in Switzerland united under some kind of federation and created Switzerland. That's not exactly conquered land. So it's true that many countries are a consequence of one people conquering and other people. But that's been kind of the history of the human race, conquest and violence. And the great achievement, I think, of liberalism post enlightenment, liberalism in the classic sense, liberalism in the original sense, is that we don't use wars and we don't use conquest as the criteria for really anything. And indeed, we view conquest and we do violence negatively, not positively. I mean, if you're interested in kind of political questions, there's a great book that came out about a year ago, maybe two years ago, called The Textbook of Americanism, which is about America and its founding and the principles behind what America stands for and why it's unique in history. With an elite essay by Ein Rand, that was never published anywhere else, and a bunch of essays by the people including myself. It's called The Textbook of Americanism, where it was edited by Jonathan Honing. What we need today, what I call the 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, whims, or mystic revelations. Any man or woman who values his life and who does not want to give in to today's cult of despair, cynicism, and impotence and does not intend to give up the world to the dark ages and to the role of the collectivist broads. All right, before we go on, reminder, please like the show. We've got 163 live listeners right now, 30 likes, that should be at least 100. I figure at least 100 of you actually like the show. Maybe they're like 60 of the Matthews out there who hate it, but at least the people who are liking it, you know, I wanna see a thumbs up, there you go. Start liking it, I wanna see that go to 100. All it takes is a click of a thing, whether you're looking at this. And you know the likes matter. It's not an issue of my ego. It's an issue of the algorithm. The more you like something, the more the algorithm likes it. So, you know, and if you don't like the show, give it a thumbs down. Let's see your actual views being reflected in the likes, but if you like it, don't just sit there, help get the show promoted. Of course, you should also share and you can support the show at youronbrookshow.com slash support on Patreon or subscribe star or locals and show you support for the work, for the value, hopefully you're receiving from this. And of course, don't forget, if you're not a subscriber, even if you just come here to troll, or even if you're here like Matthew to defend Marx, then you should subscribe because that way you'll know when to show up. You'll know what shows are on, when they're on. You're good notified, right? So, yes. Like, share, subscribe, support. Like, share, subscribe, support. There you go. Easy. Do one or all of those, please.