There is an inertia embedded in American policymaking that prevents addressing deeper social ills and building a new social contract once the old one is broken, trapping society in crisis cycles.

The 'Free Speech Bros' claim that Twitter represents free speech, but this is a lie—there is no free speech on Twitter because content enters a database and comes out as whatever the algorithm determines, and more critically, AI algorithms are increasingly determining the scope and nature of reality for people.

The Iraq War was Peak American Empire—a blatant abuse of power on a scale unprecedented in the speaker's lifetime, after which America moved into a multipolar world and is now in a quasi-bipolar state with unclear future order outcomes.

Market shocks come unexpectedly from outside normal economic models; the Deep Seek announcement demonstrates shocks can occur suddenly and markets will either stabilize or cascade, making the next shock could be the trigger point.

The president of the United States launched his own cryptocurrency meme coin, which people can use to prove they've given the president money by posting the transaction on the blockchain, and the president's wife has done the same, representing a slow evolution towards a more corrupt society and not an anomaly.

The two seminal events of the 21st century that have shaped financial nihilism are: (1) the illegal invasion of Iraq under international law, which was important because it was illegal and hypocritical, undermining arguments for unipolarity and the rules-based liberal order; and (2) the 2008 financial crisis, which showed that elites were willing to change the rules when convenient.

We are past the point where the ruling class controls the narrative; they've lost control, as evidenced by Hillary Clinton 2016 and Biden 2024 being obviously unsuitable choices that most Americans could see plainly, yet the establishment didn't understand it could no longer control the narrative.

Crypto began as an ideological movement based on a view of bettering the world as a solution to corruption after the great financial crisis, but what now drives prices in crypto is solely the potential for financial returns, with this shift representing a broader transformation visible in other parts of the economy.

A new set of elites (Silicon Valley tech moguls and 'Tech Bros') are forming a new power structure in America with no conversation about the public interest, only about using government to strengthen their own companies' centralized power and pad their balance sheets, as evidenced by Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and others aligning with the Trump administration.

The Biden Administration used lawfare to go after its political enemies, most notably Donald Trump, as part of a pattern of various forms of corruption that contribute to financial nihilism in society.

Exit liquidity as a concept has elevated itself from financial concept (exiting positions) to existential concept—people believe they can use Bitcoin, crypto, or meme coins to 'exit the rat race', exit the 'feudal manner' they're assigned to, and achieve 'Escape velocity', assuming they can live and exist outside systems that support life on this planet.

There is an opportunistic form of Christianity that has recently emerged where figures like Elon Musk signal Christian identity as a status move to align with new power structures, which represents spiritual emptiness and is 'truly disgusting'.

People who haven't lived in low-trust societies don't realize that once you lose trust in institutions and hand over power to populist demagogues, you can't get that institutional trust back—Argentina is an example where a coup in the 1930s led to institutional breakdown from which the country never recovered, and even now Argentina requires a charismatic figure like Milei to undo bureaucratic red tape because no one believes in the state.

The organs of propaganda (traditional news media and official narrative-makers) no longer work and have lost all credibility without realizing they lost that credibility, exemplified by the Soviet Union's practice of placing (or claiming to place) leaders' remains on the Kremlin wall while newscast said one thing and reality was something totally different.

There is no one with credibility and a platform stepping up to speak on behalf of the public interest; instead what people see is individuals aligning themselves with either old or new power structures, representing a complete abandonment of public interest advocacy.

We have lost our way and experienced moral decline in America; the target has become money and not progress, growth, moral excellence, or the betterment of society, which is deeply alarming.

The United States is no longer a unipolar power and therefore relying on financial tools in the absence of hard power coercion; it's unclear how long the US can continue to sanction countries without consequence to the dollar's value.

While the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a moral failure, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was also morally incorrect and unjustifiable based on NATO enlargement, and Russia is now closer to China as a result, which is bad for Russia long-term despite possible future US-Russia reconciliation.

When money becomes free (zero interest rates, monetary expansion), the economy and financial markets come to resemble a casino, as evidenced by brokerage apps gamifying investing with notifications like 'there's still a chance to enter a trade for a chance to win'.

World War III will look dramatically different from previous world wars because everything is connected and everything is vulnerable—all devices, cities, and infrastructure are vulnerable to disruption, making the entire world a battlefield.