“Honestly, have you ever seen a fat ninety-year-old?”
― What This Comedian Said Will Shock You
― What This Comedian Said Will Shock You
“Support for democracy is the province of ideologists and propagandists. In the real world, elite dislike of democracy is the norm. The evidence is overwhelming that democracy is supported only insofar as it contributes to social and economic objectives, a conclusion reluctantly conceded by the more serious scholarship.”
― Who Rules the World?
― Who Rules the World?
“The tendency to create powerful things with unintended consequences started not with the invention of the steam engine or AI but with the invention of religion. Prophets and theologians have summoned powerful spirits that were supposed to bring love and joy but occasionally ended up flooding the world with blood.”
― Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
― Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
“There’s our nation with its cult of meritocracy that judges your worth by your IQ and your number of degrees. A nation that spews bilge about equal economic potential while, as of 2021, the top 1 percent has 32 percent of the wealth, and the bottom half less than 3 percent, where you can find an advice column headlined “It’s Not Your Fault if You Are Born Poor, but It’s Your Fault if You Die Poor,” which goes on to say that if that was your lamentable outcome, “I’ll say you’re a wasted sperm.”[18”
― Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will
― Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will
“The real-world experiments of comparing socialist-communist countries and capitalist ones have been repeated on countless occasions, and the data could not be any clearer that socialist-communist societies produce poverty and misery and capitalist societies produce prosperity and happiness.”
― The Saad Truth about Happiness: 8 Secrets for Leading the Good Life
― The Saad Truth about Happiness: 8 Secrets for Leading the Good Life
Ismael’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Ismael’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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