The Good News about the Bad News

 

I noted yesterday how all the established institutions we used to rely on to keep those in power honest have proven themselves unreliable: the media, the civil service, the church, the academy. 

That was a gloomy meditation. Here is a more cheerful thought.

Perhaps as a direct result, we seem to see a rise of new voices.

Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, Elon Musk, Donald Trump—all have come out of nowhere to surprising prominence. What do they all have in common?

Sincerity. People can trust them to say what they think. Because we no longer hear this from the old institutions, it has become that much more valued. Listening to them is like balm.

Some might quibble at the inclusion of Musk and Trump. Trump is often accused of lying; and Musk is a businessman, not a communicator. Surely his prominence is due to his business skill?

But what is behind such spectacular business success? Why has Musk repeatedly succeeded in unrelated industries, where others have not dared venture? 

It is not because of technical expertise. There is no way Musk has sufficient technical expertise in software, hyperloops, auto manufacture, rocket science, accounting, investment, and banking, to have accomplished his business successes on the basis of technical knowledge. 

The secret is that he has been spectacularly successful at convincing investors of all kinds to fund his ideas. And the same is true, to a more modest but highly significant extent, for Trump. They are good at convincing investors. You cannot do that by slick salesmanship; that might work once, but investors will not keep coming back. You do that by keeping promises; by being relentlessly sincere.

And it is powerful when Trump or Musk use this penetrating sincerity in commenting on public affairs. Even if it is only in the odd tweet. Whatever either Musk or Trump tweets, people want to hear. They know they are getting an honest evaluation by a very bright man.

That is the same thing we see in Joe Rogan, or Jordan Peterson.

There are other names that come to mind, if names of lesser fame. Tulsi Gabbard, Jimmy Dore. Why of lesser fame? Not because they are less sincere; but because they are on the left. The left is systematically insincere and delusional now. There is no room on that side of the spectrum for a sincere voice. They will dissociate themselves from you; they will try to silence you. This forced Joe Rogan, Donald Trump, Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, Carl Benjamin, and Jordan Peterson, for example, originally all leftists, to suddenly find themselves on the right instead, at first without their willing it.

Andrew Yang took the other tack: he abandoned his sincerity to stick with the left. Bad move.

I suspect these sincere individuals will become the founders of our new institutions over time.