Just Some Thoughts...
A little bit of a brain dump for the week
Happy Thursday, everyone! This article will be a little different, just because I feel very tapped out today, so I need to do a little brain dumping. So, without further ado, let’s start this.
Exhaustion…but Good Exhaustion
April has felt like the longest month of my life. However, it was a month full of good things. I don’t want to gush about it, but things are going well with my day job and the side work I’m doing. We’re healthy, and slowly but surely things are moving in the right direction. Like I said, mostly good stuff; however, the volume of things has wiped me out. You may have noticed that since I haven’t been posting here as much.
The interesting thing that has come out of this whole month is it’s actually forced me to take breaks this month. It’s forced me to step away from the computer, have introspective conversations, and spend time with friends and family. It was nice, and it actually led to this article, which I am going to continue…by starting a fight and offending some people.
Why Progressivism Disappeared
I’m taking the gloves off with this one, because I feel like it needs to be said. People today across social media and Substack are asking the same question:
What happened to my favorite progressive movement among celebrities and politicians?
I’ve heard it all, from "What happened to global warming?” to "What happened to fixing housing?” and everything in between. All of sudden, initiatives from DEI to cleaning up city streets have vanished. Weren’t we supposed to do things different this time? I thought we turned over a new leaf towards a more progressive future. What happened?
You might have figured it out already, but the energy that was previously directed at the progressive paradise has been killed and eaten by AI and the Iran War (two trends which, last time I checked, war and big business, are distinctly anti-progressive). Whatever scraps were left were likely lapped up by prediction markets (gambling, not derivatives trading), the most recent awards show, and/or the latest celebrity news. Any drive towards progressivism, in the US at least, seemed to vanish at the new year like firework smoke. What happened? I hate to break it to you, but the powers that be were likely NEVER on the side of progressivism.
The celebrities, politicians, bankers, and business people who we thought were championing progressive views were never actually progressive; it was all a sham, it was kayfabe, and it was a PR stunt. The powers that be were champagne socialists. Individuals who, in public, espouse progressive beliefs and causes but in private enjoy all the benefits of the free market and capitalist systems they claim to detest. It’s not just the rich and famous either; the number of champagne socialists on social media (Caleb Hammer’s financial audit show, for example) is insane.
Personally, I am a libertarian and a classic liberal. I also believe in many things that some people would consider progressive:
I believe in giving all law enforcement vest and dash cams they can't turn off (preferably audited by third party)
I believe in breaking up large businesses and monopolies.
I believe in legalizing most, if not all, drugs.
I believe the government has no business blocking a marriage between two consenting adults regardless of gender.
I’m not here to tell you what to believe or to call out hypocrisy. With just one exception: if you want to know why progressivism vanished, don’t blame Trump, Tucker Carlson, or Infowars; point the blame at the exact same people who claimed to be progressives in the first place.
Important Life Lessons from AI
I wanted to end this short article with one more comment. Like I said before, I’ve been talking with AI about some issues I’ve had for a long time with my mental health, and I wanted to share just one because I found it inspiring.
Last week, I was irritated because I had to drive an hour (round trip) in the rain to a HomeGoods in order to replace a piece of furniture. It was a piece of furniture we had just bought from a different HomeGoods, an hour round trip in the opposite direction. I wasn’t blaming anyone else; I was just irritated… a real “why me" moment. It was in this moment, when I was complaining about my situation, that I was humbled by an LLM model. A short set of text on screen cut me to the core":
Tyler, you are going to be a father soon, and your a husband now. Your time is not your own…
It stung for a minute, but then like most life lessons, it changed how I look at the world. I don’t know if this is going to make sense, but that conversation felt like it pulled me towards a higher calling in my life. It feels like a calling to be more disciplined and deliberate with my time. I don’t know if there means anyone reading this, but it was powerful to me.
Thank you for reading the article!
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Thank you again.
Tyler Kreiling, WealthNWisdom, Founder and Head Editor