my basic view is that the future will look much more like the past than the present. we are at the end of a great historical abnormality: this level of cultural stability and homogeneity, and relative secularism is over. we’re going back to the basics of violence and divine faith

the “abundance” view of a post scarcity, post religious, open boarders and open trade westernized world feels like late soviet stuff. when you run out of ways to stop popular violence your only trade is to say everything is about to be different, they just need to hang on

it’s impossible to look at the amount of people turning themselves over to false prosperity gospels (sports betting, crypto, options), to false oracles (llms) and false martyrdom (terror, radicalism) and not see what’s going on. any hope of a secular future is long dead