Do You Have the Right to Feel Safe?

Greetings from lovely Northern Italy.

I hope all’s well. Thank you for last week’s fantastic stories and feedback about the IRS piece.

I may publish that part of the mailbag later. But right now, I’m unsure if any readers who wrote in would want me to divulge their cases. Again, thanks for writing (and the kind words as well)!

Today, I’ll talk about the citizenry rather than the government screwing things up. The rich citizenry.

Louis CK is a comedian, but I’ve never watched his stuff. He became famous from 2000-2018 when I didn’t care much about America besides its movies.

When I settled in the Philippines in 2019 and bought a TV with YouTube automatically uploaded, I caught up on much of American culture of the past two decades.

I learned about Louis CK and Joe Rogan, whom I had never heard of.

I saw why people thought Tom Brady was better than Joe Montana. LeBron, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin…. I had lots of catching up to do.

I also saw when Louis CK was caught with his pants down (really) and was canceled. By then, most people with a modicum of gray matter knew what a degenerate hive Hollywood was. So, it surprised no one.

Whatever.

But about seven months ago, Louis CK was on the Joe Rogan Experience. I missed it because I have no idea how anyone has two hours a day to listen to podcasts.

Yesterday, writer Ryan James Girdusky, author of the National Populist Newsletter and They’re Not Listening: How The Elites Created the National Populist Revolution, posted this on X.com, which I retweeted with a comment:

Credit and follow me at@seaniechaos

Welp, I’ve given my opinion away. But to be fair, here is the transcript of the drivel Louis CK spouted:

I think that the most, I don’t know, there’s a form of life. It’s a weird thing because you’re not supposed to be happy, and you’re not supposed to be safe.

I think that that’s the problem is that people expect that, and it’s not a good way to… you’re not happy when you’re safe. You’re not happy when you’re happy. When you’re secure.

…I was really listening to something about the border, these people just trying to come into America, and some people are like, “Well, if we let just a few in, it’s a mess.”

There’s no good answer.

What if we just let the ones in who are really upset? Yeah, but we can’t let ’em all in.

When liberals try to say, it’s like the dumbest position they get into, it’s like, “Well, we can, no, we can’t keep let ’em in here. Got to keep ’em out. But we really like ’em and it’s great that they’re brown and sorry, but there’s an impossible…”

And then the right takes over, and they sound racist.

And then the left takes over. They just sound stupid.

But my feeling is they should open it, the border. And just let ’em pour in, let everybody pour in. And then the answer, which is, “Well, then there’ll be all these problems.”

Yes, there should be. It shouldn’t be so great here. 

It shouldn’t be so great here is what I’m saying. In America, it shouldn’t be.

It’s a weird thing to sequester a certain group of people and try to keep upping their lifespan and their lifestyle and just keep trying to increase that for this group of people and then this pressure of people trying to come in so they can enjoy it.

There’s something wrong with that.

That’s not a system that’s working, and it forces people to do cruel things to other people. 

There are a lot of people that die so Americans can be safe. They’re just dying… Weddings that are drone bombed in Yemen because the guy said something that might have resulted in American insecurity. Not even definite American deaths, but just so we can breathe a little easier.

Folks die, and folks do labor in unsafe places so that we can keep the prices where we like ’em. 

There’s so much about American life that other people pay for it. That’s part of it.

But also it’s not good for us either. It’s not a good way to live in a gated community.

If you let folks pour in any other wave, it’ll kind of slosh, and then just things will be different. I don’t know what’ll really happen.

A bunch of people will they just come with knives and start killing everybody? I don’t think so. I don’t know what’ll happen, but it’s just weird to me.

I mean, I lived in Mexico when I was a kid. My dad’s Mexican and I remember my first cogent thoughts were in Mexico, and then I came to America.

I mean it was Mexico City. It was beautiful. Also, it was a city before America had anything. It’s this very old European kind of place.

Mexico, it’s a beautiful country, and it’s got a lot more depth to it than anybody knows here. And we’re not really sharing with them because they’re kind of like the other guys because we’re afraid of how many of them are dying to come here to work for us for very little.

Like this thing. I don’t know. I don’t know. This is shit I don’t know about.

But the feeling I get is that the more American security, this feeling of more oxygen in the air. It’s not good in the end for everybody.

I could write a book unpacking this nonsensical crap. Instead, I’ll pick apart the stuff I bolded above.

“…you’re not happy when you’re safe. You’re not happy when you’re happy. When you’re secure.”

I genuinely believe people feel this way, and it’s part of the reason they move to big cities. I loved the dangerous grittiness of London… in my 20s. I proudly showed off my scar from that barroom brawl that left a titanium plate in my head. But as a father and husband? I wouldn’t move to London right now for all the tea in China. It’s just too dangerous.

“It shouldn’t be so great here is what I’m saying. In America, it shouldn’t be.”

When you have no conception of history, of what the men and women who first settled in America went through, it’s easy not to understand what made America great.

And that’s a massive part of the problem. You live in the “city on the hill.” And you have no idea why it became that way.

As libertarian economist Per Bylund once brilliantly tweeted:

Too many Americans don’t have a damn clue because they’ve been riding on the economic momentum better men and women created.

“It’s a weird thing to sequester a certain group of people and try to keep upping their lifespan and their lifestyle and just keep trying to increase that for this group of people…”

What if we called this group of people “family?”

Is it weird to keep your family in your house as healthy, safe, and long-lived as possible?

And let’s extend this to like-minded people who traveled across the world with you and settled in this magnificent new country.

And what about the descendants of those settlers who love their country, inherited their ancestors’ property, and want to enjoy and improve it as much as possible?

If you think about it, Louis CK’s statement is an indictment of private property. The most important thing you own is yourself. And if like-minded people enter into voluntary contracts with each other to do such nefarious things as “upping their lifespan and their lifestyle,” then it’s no one else’s business.

“That’s not a system that’s working, and it forces people to do cruel things to other people.” 

Yes, Louis CK, the system is working. And no, keeping out those who don’t share the same values isn’t cruel. It’s the right of those owners (citizens).

“There’s so much about American life that other people pay for it. That’s part of it. But also it’s not good for us either. It’s not a good way to live in a gated community.”

Then why do all of your LA friends live in a gated community?

As for countries that act like gated communities, I give you Singapore, the UAE, and Monaco. All of those places are fabulous, rich, and safe.

“A bunch of people will they just come with knives and start killing everybody? I don’t think so. I don’t know what’ll happen, but it’s just weird to me.”

No, Louis CK. Of course, a “bunch of people” aren’t going to come with knives and start killing everybody. This is called the fallacy of composition. Just because most people aren’t killers doesn’t mean they’re all not killers. The question is, “How many of those would you tolerate to let the ‘good people’ in?”

“Mexico, it’s a beautiful country, and it’s got a lot more depth to it than anybody knows here. And we’re not really sharing with them because they’re kind of like the other guys because we’re afraid of how many of them are dying to come here to work for us for very little.”

For one, you can go back there. I thought Italy would be better for my family and me than America. There’s no shame in upping sticks and moving.

Second, we’re under zero obligation to “share” with anyone. How about sharing with those Americans who live below the poverty line?

Third, mass immigration kills wage growth. So, the “very little” part is accidentally poor salesmanship. Does Switzerland let in people who’ll do work for nothing? Of course not. That’s part of the reason their country looks like heaven.

Wrap Up

I know I’m not an American citizen anymore, and I haven’t lived there for nearly a quarter century. But my goodness, has the collective IQ of America dropped that much since I left?

Do people inside the country want to sabotage the place?

I hope not. The British think the US is the last, best hope for the world. I’m not sure about that.

But I certainly don’t want America to sink because of its citizens’ staggering ignorance.