We Need To Take a Sledgehammer To “The System” - Peter Boghossian

0:01 We need to burn the system down because the people who are in these positions have betrayed the public trust. I would personally, again, this is just me, but I would imprison all of them after a fair trial. Okay, let's actually talk about this for a little bit. This is actually something that's really interesting and difficult. Yeah. Um, so you are someone who came you're not like a classical conservative. You're not like some Edmond Burke guy. I don't consider I don't consider myself a conservative at all. Right. And and yet I mean I know everybody calls me like, you know, a Nazi alt-right. Like I'm just somebody who who looks at evidence and makes reasonable inferences based upon the evidence I have to to public policies.

0:44 Like I don't I honestly do not consider myself a conservative, but I'm just inured. I'm I'm immune at this point to people saying, "Oh, go a conservative." It's just not true. But I bring that if you can selfidentify as a woman, why can't I selfident? I mean, that's the whole crazy thing about it. Like, yeah. Yeah, I can selfidentify. Politics is certainly more immutable than uh than the size of your gamts. Um, so there is the there's some threads that's that are happening here. One of them is that so the saves America part, why why do I want to save America? Why do I think it needs saving? Yeah. Why do you want to save America? I I think that there's first of all, I live here and I have I have a son and I have a wife and I want a future that's good. I do think fundamentally that America for all its problems and I I should say specifically the United States of America has was really the peak of a of the enlightenment. Agreed.

1:51 made manifest as government as as governance as a place as a set of rules as a set of understandings that were shared. Let me let me summarize for you and you tell me if you agree. We should be and we were the shining city upon a hill. 100%. I completely agree with that. I I think one of the things that's been happening for me personally is the only ism aside from Catholicism, which I want to come back to later in our conversation. So, you can beat up on my or you could beat up on my atheism. We can we can we can spar on religion, which is important for us to talk about together. But, um I I don't think I'm a conservative. I don't think I'm a liberal. I don't think I'm a classical liberal anymore. I think the closest I have in my political worldview is I'm I'm I'm an Americanist.

2:43 Like the And and why why do I say that? Yeah. What is that? First of all, I I to me it's a vision for a kind of living in a political environment, you know, because we can't escape politics. It's the rules of the road for the place you live that says this government exists to protect your right to be a free person first and foremost and really singularly. Number one. Number two, that kind of vision of of of um limited government. You know, the Bill of Rights is all Congress shall pass no law X or like my favorites are like the ninth and tenth Amendments, which are basically like anything we haven't listed, just in case you weren't clear, if we didn't list it, it goes back to the states or to the people.

3:36 Just to be sure, just in case you thought maybe that we left something out and therefore we can do it, you can't. That kind of limited government, even when it's written down on paper must be for and by and preserved by essentially something like a moral people, a people who believe that in their heart. Like the economist James Buchanan talks about this as the constitution in us. It's not on paper. Yeah. It's in us. And so that sentiment, all men are created equal and therefore we need to have a limited government that that sets these equal men and women up to thrive. That's Americanism. And I'm that all of that. And I think I think that's worth fighting for. And so now we're at this moment.

4:32 And I know I'm monologuing for those of you that wish I would shut up. No. I'm sorry. I'm um I'm processing. But I think what what is interesting to me is I'm I am I like where we are so far with the Trump administration. I'm not hesitant about that. Yeah. I'm actually shocked by how much I like it. But well, and I want to I so I want to hear that. And but also when you when we get to a zone that's like burn the system down the the system smash it all to pieces. I would like a strip it down to the studs but keep the studs. I want I want a sledgehammer, not a wrecking ball, but I want a sledgehammer. Yeah, it's still going to it's going to be a lot of dust. We're going to bust through the plaster. We're going to rip it all out. And there's those beautiful studs.

5:20 and then we're gonna start to dare I say build back better. But but that's what I want. I don't know if we can have that. I don't know if that's a path that like is possible. But when it's just like when you said smash it all down, burn it all down. Burn it all down. That gets to a that's a different revolution that was tried in France and it sucked. That's the jackabins. That's the off with all their heads. That's that's the yay revolution. Oops. Napoleon back to dictatorship like that. And I think that we [Music] are we're we're gonna fly close to that sun. Maybe that that French Revolution sun if we're and and I don't know how close we should fly to it. We can't be that far. We need to be closer to that than we were. So So I'm going to tell you and I really be sincere. I'm going to tell you. I'm going to give you my reflections on what you just said. And if they're not direct enough, tell me.

6:25 No, but but but really because I'm trying to I I try to increasingly as I get older, I try to use these conversations. I try to think in real time. So, I'm not like memorizing any script here. I'm just trying to think think out loud. I think it just makes it more interesting, too. Um You're like Jordan Peterson giving a speech. Yeah. Well, that's what that's where I got that from. I've been doing that. Well, I've been doing that for 5 years. He said, "People don't want to go to to, you know, see what you've already worked out. They want to see you work out things in real time." So, when you talked about what an Americanism is, like for me, what an American is is there's something about cognitive liberty that's so important to me. Like, we need to allow people to believe, to be to be free in their thoughts, in their spirit. We need to allow people to lead any kind of lives they want to lead and that includes things that we might really disagree upon. Now there there are caveats in that pro provided there it's with a consenting adult and provided they're over 18. I mean there are some some I think those are the only two basics I can or maybe they have to be have basic cognitive wherewithal you know they can't be suffering from some like extreme cognitive full adult agency. Yeah. Yeah. So, so I I think we need that. And I think my concern increasingly, well, the left is a complete disgrace, right? They tell you exactly what to think and they they capture the academic. They offer no value. Yeah. They're they're worse than worthless. They're actually harm to the way I view America and I think the way you view America. My concern is it wasn't always that way. No, it's in fact quite the opposite. I saw a wonderful photo. It was like Trump wonderful tweet Trump Musk um Tulsi Gabbard RFK and the caption was the Democrats won the election because the other people went to crazy town. Um, but true, but but I but I think that to me cognitive liberty is vital like freedom of association, freedom of press, basic basic freedoms.

8:29 And I'm now worried on the Republican side of the slide to Christian nationalism. I'm worried that they're constructing echo chambers in which they use the tactics of many of the left at the kind of cancellation the viciousness. I mean I'll I won't make any secret of it. I just had an event cancelled of mine a nice two two events now paid events because they're upset with my my writing partner James Lindsay and so they just canceled the event. So they're using the kind of the same tactics instead of saying okay well you know let's because he's been a critic of the woke right. Yeah. So so you know what I would have done and say okay you know we don't like this I'm getting a lot of heat but you know what we're going to have you debate. We don't like the fact that you you're hanging out with this guy or you published a book with them. Our our collaboration has been hyper prolific.

9:21 We're going to have you debate to justify it. I'm like okay no problem I'll debate anything like you know as my rule for debating just by the way is as long as you haven't harassed me I will debate you. I just debated all the UATX kids today for like literally two hours um about God. You'd like that. But but so that was the first thing you said. And the second thing you said is I think that there's something and this is one of the lessons I've learned in the last year and I've been thinking a lot about when you talked about the construction of societies. You didn't use those words.

9:50 But when you talked about America, when you talked about, as I reflect on the conversation, I think I think one of the most important principles upon which we can build an entire society is are the means of error correction preserved? Is it possible to make critique? Yeah. political correctness, blasphemy laws, particularly in Islamic countries, the means of error correction have been disabled.

10:21 Oh, right. Right. Yeah. So, so that's actually really that's a good way to think about it. Yeah. So, so this like you could construct a whole civilization based upon this. If you like this clip, we've got so much more where that came from. So, be sure to hit that like button, subscribe to the channel, and ring the bell so you won't miss our new videos as they come out each week.