Regulating Platforms and Online Reach

Join Malcolm and Simone Collins as they dive deep into the recent political upheaval in Nepal, exploring the Gen Z-led protests, government crackdowns, and the broader implications for global politics. Discover how social media bans, corruption, and generational divides are shaping the future—not just in Nepal, but around the world. The conversation also touches on the concept of "Nepo babies," the role of social media in activism, and what these events might signal for other countries facing similar challenges. Stay tuned for insightful analysis, personal stories, and a touch of humor as Malcolm and Simone break down complex issues in an accessible way.

Malcolm Collins: Hello Simone. I'm excited to be here with you today. Today we're gonna be discussing going on of Nepal because with all of the political stuff that's happening in the United States right now, I think we've sort of been like broadly aware, like they had like a revolution or something in Nepal, right?

Speaker 2: Nepal is seeing an uprising led not by political veterans, but by Gen Z.

Malcolm Collins: Like what happened with that and what you're gonna be surprised about. Is how relevant what happened in Nepal is to, what's going to happen in most of the developed world as things continued on the pathway they're going now.

Speaker 2: Teenagers and young adults are flooding the streets, furious over us. Sweeping government ban on their digital lifelines

Last week. Authorities abruptly cut access to major platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Simone Collins: Well, and this is after what was happening in Indonesia, and this is also like, as there are huge protests in the uk we're seeing there's unrest is the thing now.

Malcolm Collins: Well, yeah. Unrest is the thing and in many cases it's for similar reasons. Mm-hmm. And so let's, let's go in what get, get your butt educated people. Why don't you know about what, maybe you do know about what's going on in the fall, but it's, it's interesting nonetheless. So, police crack down on September 8th, security forces fired.

Live ammunition. Live ammunition. So we're talking about like how bad things are getting firing live ammunition, tear gas and water cannons and rubber billets into crowds in your parliament. So. Opening fire into a crowd. Okay. They killed 19 people and injured 200 people.

Simone Collins: And this was largely young students, wasn't it?

I think it was also a lot of young people, students like who were

Malcolm Collins: killed. Yeah. And there's videos of graphic scenes, including children who were shot in the head. Sparking nationwide outrage and curfews. So this was extreme, and if you're like, well, when do we get this in the us when does the uk You saw this Million Man March on London that mm-hmm.

That, you know, anyone who watched the videos can tell was giant. Like they're trying to report it like a hundred thousand people, and it's clearly. Oh. The UK is pissed. It's gotten way more pissed since, since you know, we talk about it being under occupation 'cause we're like, you know, what kind of country bans the flying of their own flags.

A country that's currently under occupation. That's the only time you would do that. Yeah. A government would never be afraid of their own flag unless that wasn't who was represented by it anymore.

Simone Collins: Exactly. So

Malcolm Collins: when do they open fire on a crowd in London or Germany or Berlin, you know? Or, or, or France.

I think it'll happen eventually.

Simone Collins: I mean, it helps that police officers in the UK don't have guns. They just have their little batons.

Malcolm Collins: Yes. Be beaten Was their fabulous batons. The

Simone Collins: fabulous batons.

. Aren't you afraid the fashion police will come and beat you with their fabulous batons? No.

Malcolm Collins: Anyway so, protestors, this is September and ninth stormed and set fire to the Parliament, the Supreme Court, which burnt down the Prime Minister's office.

Cigna Debar administrative complex and politicians private homes. Private properties like the Hilton and Hyatt hotels along with media houses. EG Kenton per publications were torched. Oh goodness. One tragic incident. It evolved The burning alive of the former P'S wife.

Simone Collins: Oh my gosh.

Malcolm Collins: So we're talking quite a bit of violence here.

Simone Collins: Carnage on both sides.

Malcolm Collins: Jail breaks and further clashes. September 9th and 10th mobs broke into prisons in the Western districts, freeing over 12,500 inmates, including politician, rabbi Lament mentioned. I mean,

Simone Collins: one imagines the prisons just cracked open from the inside being that over stuffed. My God.

Malcolm Collins: The Army was deployed with shoot on site. Instructions assaults on officials, and there's a video of this that I saw. It was just wild. The deputy PM and finance minister was beaten by protestors and you see him like trying to walk, run away and being like attacked by people as he tries to run.

Speaker: In the video that has gone viral Minister POAL 65 is seen running through the streets in Cat Mandu with the crowd of people chasing him. One of the protestors is seen kicking Poal, who is also the country's deputy prime minister. Other protestors get hold of him as he seeks to escape through the river.

Malcolm Collins: Other politicians, residents were vandalized, heightening chaos before the army restored order. So what instigated this? Are you aware of what instigated this Simone?

Simone Collins: I thought it was anger about widespread corruption, but I

Malcolm Collins: No, no, no. That is what they moved to afterwards, but what actually instigated it was.

The government tried to heavily regulate social media to prevent anything negative about the government from being shown on social media.

Simone Collins: Oh, boy.

Malcolm Collins: Everybody now the uk

Simone Collins: UK did it. Right? You know, they did a whole like, boil the frog. Where it sounds like Nepal just, you, you, you can't, you can't just crack down all at once.

Well,

Malcolm Collins: no, they, they've been doing this for a while. They had under the former king just complete control by the state of of. Media. So this is more like they had a period of more liberal media a lot of, oh, but you can't close

Simone Collins: Pandora's Box. The, the internet is. If anything ever was a lot

Malcolm Collins: of corruption in the media, a lot of hiding stuff, which we'll go over.

But the internet made it impossible. And so the government was trying to find a way to take control of that. And this is why you know, I always say anyone on the right who says we should be banning pornography. I, I really look at them with skepticism as a left wing infiltrator because

you can't ban pornography without banning VPNs. And when you ban VPNs, you ban, you give the government total control of what people can see within your co country. Mm-hmm. Because then the government gets to decide, de decide what's vulgar. Right. You don't get to decide what's vulgar. Totally. The government gets to decide what's vulgar and when the government changes, you lose control.

Right. They'll say. Well, you know, okay,

Simone Collins: not vol, vulgar is a bad word. Forbidden. Because vulgar is basically just saying common or low class.

Malcolm Collins: Well, that's what I mean, because they'll say, well, you know, you, you banned this stuff because it could lead to, they'll say, well, you banned this type of pornography because it could lead to violence.

Or because it could lead to like social ills. Mm-hmm. Why shouldn't we ban racism? We define racism, by the way, why shouldn't we ban transphobia? We define transphobia, by the way, because those things also lead to social ills. And are vulgar and bad.

Simone Collins: No, no, no. V the vulgar is not the word that violent or damaging or dangerous, those words,

Malcolm Collins: whatever.

This is what we've seen in every country that goes down this pathway.

Simone Collins: Okay?

Malcolm Collins: It's, it's a very bad thing to, to play around with, okay? Mm-hmm. Not, not, not a fun potato there, let.

Simone Collins: I'm just sorry, the, the word vulgar. Like it's vulgar to eat a roll by just taking a bite out of it instead of taking a piece and putting it in your mouth after buttering it.

Right? Like vulgar is a word about class. It's not about government control and safety. Okay, Mike,

Malcolm Collins: you are a Nazi, a grammar Nazi.

Simone Collins: I am. Deal with it.

Malcolm Collins: Social media use in Nepal is widespread analysis from digital advisory form. Kops found that there were 14.3 million active social media identities in Nepal at the start of 2025.

If each user were a distinct person, that would account for about half of the country's population. But many social media platforms have reportedly repeatedly rejected directives from DePaul government to register with the country's ministry of communication and information. Hmm. On September 29th, last year, the Nepalese Supreme Court ordered all social media platforms in Nepal to register before operating so authorities could monitor undesirable content, which is.

Woo. You know, you're, you're getting into some problems when they're using those sorts of broad words. Seriously. With the text of the court verdict made public last month to comply with the order. The ministry issued public notice to social media platforms on August 28th. Giving them seven days to register.

If they didn't, they would be deactivated in the country. Hmm. Some companies like TikTok and Message Platform, Viber did register before the deadline. TikTok had previously been banned to quote unquote protect social harmony, but the ban was lifted after the company agreed to coordinate with law enforcement to address crimes related to the platform.

Hmm. But others repeatedly continued to ignore the order. So when the deadline passed, the government banned 26 social media platforms, including. Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Google owned platforms like YouTube. Yeah, not great. The sweeping band threatened to upend Facebook's recent content monetization launch in Nepal, which could help Nepali creators earn money.

So this is also about earning money for the, the people who are, you know, big career these days. Yeah,

Simone Collins: our

Malcolm Collins: career, right? Yeah.

Simone Collins: Patreon, please. Yeah. Our career if we are very lucky and we continue to work hard. Yeah,

Malcolm Collins: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And also threaten to impact other NLI businesses that depend on social media platforms.

It also raised concerns about media freedom in the country. Recent attempts 2023 to 2025. The government increasingly targeted social media for political control. In November, 2023, Nepal briefly banned TikTok citing its role in spreading quote unquote social disharmony amid videos exposing political corruption and inequality.

So this is why they have banned things in the past when things have started to spread, showing. Political corruption inequality. Mm-hmm. Especially with the political clause. The 2025 ban itself is a, a prime example as it followed a Supreme Court ruling in August two five mandating the platform registered to monitor misinformation, but it presided was a surging online criticism of Prime Minister KP Shama Oilies administration over nepotism and economic failures.

This led to violent protests highlighting how such measures backfire. Underscore intent to curb anti regime messaging. Companies like Facebook, meta, YouTube, Google, and Ex, formerly Twitter and others did not comply for a few reasons. 'cause I'm interested in why they didn't just comply. I was like, you can just get the, you don't care about the people of Nepal, you turd.

So the first reason was re resistance to local presence and data sharing. Establishing a local office could expose them to greater government oversight, including demands for user data, content, takedowns or backdoor access, raising privacy and free speech concerns. Big tech firms often avoid this super prevent setting precedents in other markets where similar laws could lead to authoritarian control.

Simone Collins: Hmm.

Malcolm Collins: Basically they can never back down unless it's China and the market's big enough.

Simone Collins: Mm-hmm.

Malcolm Collins: That's the way it works, is these companies, you know what's up? It's

Simone Collins: though it totally is

Malcolm Collins: operational cost burdens. Compliance might involve significant resources for smaller markets like depal with around 30 million people, including hiring staff and attempting.

Local regulations without clear benefits for meta, the ban disrupted recent initiatives like content monetization for nip creators principled stance and free expression. We all know that's not true. So no, I don't, I don't, I don't buy that. From Facebook. Come on, buddy. Okay. So, let's talk about the nepo kids and the corruption thing because the, the corruption complaints really come from the Nepo kids thing.

Simone Collins: So apparently

Malcolm Collins: there's like this,

Simone Collins: so the thing, it's just the same issue with Indonesia, wasn't it? This was

Malcolm Collins: all, I guess I didn't look at Indonesia in preparation for this.

Simone Collins: Okay. My understanding was that another big issue also in Indonesia was that the nepo babies of politicians who were ingratiating themselves were basically flaunting their extravagant lives on social media, causing a lot of resentment and anger.

Justified. Yeah. This is also happening in Nepal.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah, apparently they're having a problem. And you, you, you can look at the videos they post. I mean, they'd make me a lot mad if I was an average citizen not earning much and, and, you know, the government was taking my tax dollars and using it so that their kids could live like kings and get, you know, unique access to government positions.

Yeah. Which, which is what you're seeing here.

Simone Collins: Yeah. What I'm reading is like there in, in some of these countries that are going through now corruption related unrest. They are, for example, setting guaranteed incomes for their politicians that are like five x the average income in the country. And they, they don't just own one house and live comfortably.

They own like five houses. And, you know, during these protests, there are politicians fleeing to their home in Singapore just to kind of let it blow over. And it's just making people increasingly angry.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. So, these posts were shared using hashtags. Hashtag politicians, Nepo baby Nepal and hashtag Nepo kids and hashtag nepo babies.

One such post on TikTok has ranked more than 1.3 million views. It follows a similar trend in the Philippines where the Nepo baby children of public works contractors and of. Officials have been shamed online for flaunting wealth and luxury, amid concerns of corruption and growing scrutiny on unfinished flood control projects.

In Nepal, one, protestor told the BBC that the social media ban served as a reason for the demonstrators to gather. But it wasn't the true quote unquote focus, which was on broader corruption. Quote, we want our country back. We came to stop the corruption end quote.

Simone Collins: Huh?

Malcolm Collins: Thoughts? I mean, I think this is the way we feel, right?

Like, when I, the reporter who we've been complaining about, who came to do a documentary at our house for like a hi, and we, we just had to discuss a little documentary project, just be like, I can't work with you. One of the reasons that always got to me is not only was she like a far left racist extremist, you regularly talking like bad things about white people and men and stuff like this.

But she had this whole narrative where she was this hugely disadvantaged individual who had overcome so much. And I believed it at first because she painted her picture, like she grew up like a borderline homeless, was like crack addicted parents. And then I look up. It was like, no, her parents were very successful.

New York socialite, her mom ran an art gallery and her dad was a New York Times writer. And a, and a very accomplished, well famous

Simone Collins: writer for some really like highbrow New York publication.

Malcolm Collins: No, it was a New York Times. It wasn't, it wasn't New York. Yeah. I think he did a few publications, few highbrow publications.

Yeah. And them being crack addicts was more just like, my parents did drugs in the eighties. Girl, like, what are you talking about? That's not. All the socialites in New York were doing drugs on in the eighties. Like,

Simone Collins: oh, who's boomer? Parents didn't do a ton of drugs. Yeah. Your parents were hippies. Of course.

They were doing drugs. Like, yeah. My, my, I mean, the reason why I probably don't have fetal alcohol syndrome, 'cause my mom didn't know she was pregnant until her second trimester was because she had gotten really, really, really, really, really sick from drinking too much one night and then just kind of was like, I'm gonna take a break.

So, and she didn't drink that much.

Malcolm Collins: That could have been you making her sick, by the way.

Simone Collins: No. No. I mean, it could have been me, but I mean, what, the way she put it was that like they were out for a night, they got a little outta hand and I. She was like, I'm gonna step back my drinking girl. Okay. Well, the,

Malcolm Collins: the, the, the wider point here being that she's like a, an influential person on the left.

So, so you see this within the left is the most disgusting type of nepo baby in American politics, which is the nepo baby that doesn't believe that they're a Nepo baby and believes that, believes they're a victim. Yeah. And a victim. Mm-hmm. There is nothing worse than somebody. Who has been given every advantage in life over other people and plays the card of a victim.

Simone Collins: Do you think these nepo babies and like Nepal, Indonesia are doing that though? Because my, the impression I get is that they're not, they're just flaunting it.

Malcolm Collins: I, I, I mean they're the, that would make rich

Simone Collins: kids of Instagram

Malcolm Collins: more insufferable. So to me they're, I mean, look, we got like a nepo baby. Ga Gavin Newsom in the United States who's like, I'm disabled, I have dyslexia.

And we point out our episode of Stop Being Retarded About Disability. I've got dyslexia and I don't even like, consider it a disability. It's like irrelevant in terms of my life story. Mm. When contrasted with like 12 other more serious disabilities I have. Yeah. And

Simone Collins: it, it does make people angry when like they deal with these things and much worse things all the time.

And.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Well this is the thing, whenever you come out there playing this victim card, like this reporter who's like, oh, you know, my childhood, all this, and it's like, you don't know our background with our parents, and, and maybe we don't talk about that because I don't wanna cast my parents in a bad light.

Like I could, I could talk much more detailed about that if I wanted to, but I actively choose not to because I don't. I, I believe I have a strong relationship, relationship with my parents. I like them as people and it's what people like that were doing in the eighties. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Culturally normative.

And, and the reason I was so upset with her about it is she doesn't even have like a terrible relation with her, her dad, right. Like, she's got a really strong relat, which is her surviving parent, a really strong relation. And I think the only reason I don't hold it against her that much is her dad has also written about this, you know, playing the.

I'm a victim card.

Simone Collins: Hmm.

Malcolm Collins: So he, I don't think she was the one who outed him for this, but you know, again, she was

Simone Collins: trained to also maybe do things that way. So

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Trained to do things that way instead of, so

Simone Collins: people are getting mad. And I think a bigger dynamic here is you've talked in other episodes when you talk about dependency ratio cascades, how a really big undermining democracy issue that it will arise as demographic labs plays out as older populations.

Balloon and younger pop populations relatively dwindle that people. Who become the majority of society and our net tax drains are going to only vote themselves more money or at least the same amount of money. They're not gonna scale things back for themselves, and they're going to be able to have that hold because they have more votes.

I think this is showing a magnified version of the problem where government bureaucrats and policymakers are that, but worse as, as the world falls apart and as the world burns and as dependency ratio cascades play out, even as, for example, maybe say the US government is going to just start. An inflationary spiral by saying, oh, no, no, no.

We're, we're keeping social security, we're not scaling it back. We're keeping Medicaid, but then just printing a ton of money and kind of devaluating, devaluing the dollar. So you are receiving what you were supposed to receive, but you can't, you don't have purchasing power anymore at, at that point though, I still think that government employees, and certainly to a greater extent, policy makers are going to make sure that they somehow.

Are receiving inflation adjusted dollars. You know, and I think it's already happening even before for fertility or dependency ratio. Cascades play out in countries like Indonesia, in, in countries like Nepal where maybe things are falling apart. But people who have policy control are making sure that they get theirs because they can.

And that's, this is just a problem. It's a tragedy of the commons problem, like the people who have the ability to steal the resources. When the resources become increasingly limited, they're gonna do it, and then people are gonna get mad and then social order's gonna fall apart. Yeah. And we're gonna see more of this, right?

Like this is just, this is just the warmup.

Malcolm Collins: But I, I think the, the reason why I mentioned this is, is one of the things that I find most disgusting, and I see this increasingly on the left. Is the worst kind of nepo baby institutional system is Individuals who are nepo babies pretend that they are discriminated either minorities or discriminated.

Like if you are a Nepo baby. That trumps minority status in terms of who you, that's a survival

Simone Collins: tactic because they, they want to protect themselves. And if they, they think that if they frame themselves as victims, they won't be attacked for their privilege. Because I think there's an understanding that as, as this unfair game is played out, people will want blood, they're gonna wanna, they're gonna wanna eat the rich yeah.

And own the name of victims. And so if you can masquerade as a victim. While also unfairly appropriating resources, you can survive. And this is, you know, people, morality's gonna fly out the window when people are starving and dying. Yeah. People care a whole lot less about holy optics don't look good here.

Like, hey, maybe it's not that cool that I'm taking resources that I didn't earn. You know? Right. I mean, people already seem to have no qualms about that, but. It's only gonna get worse. And so of course people are going to do anything they can to make it look like they're innocent and to shield themselves from being targeted.

How the, this shouldn't surprise you. And it's, it's inevitable and it's going to happen and it's a survival tactic because we've evolved to do things to help us. Right. Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: So to continue here, what's the Nepo Kid movement? Hmm. So the specter of social media going dark in Nepal. Also, coincided was a growing online movement calling out Nepal Nepo kids.

Nepo kids appears to have been borrowed from the Hollywood popularized term, Nepo baby who. Which refers to the nepotistic practice of children of celebrities getting opportunities because of their familial connections. In recent days, Nepali citizens took to platforms like TikTok and Reddit to post images and videos of children, of political leaders, including those, the former prime ministers and ministers, according to the KADO Post, who they accused of using taxpayer money to fund lavish lifestyles in foreign trips.

And I would note here this, this for me. Is really important because a lot of people know I was born to a very wealthy family that very publicly lost all their money. Mm-hmm. But I was always told I was never gonna inherit any of the family's money. And I could have gone to, like, my family had a, like a gazebo that, that has our name at Harvard.

And so I thought, you know, when I was playing to Harvard Business School, 'cause once you get into the interview I'm like, oh, you know, 50% chance of getting in and my family's ever gonna help me. Now's the time, right? To call in a favor. Yeah. This

Simone Collins: is, this is when you get to cash in your Nepo baby token.

Malcolm Collins: I was like, I really proved myself and my dad's like, I'm gonna send them a letter telling them not to accept you. No, I don't know if he did that, but he's like, it's really disgusting to attempt to get in through family connections to anything. And I ended up getting into Stanford where I didn't have the same family connections.

Now I will note my dad did go to Stanford undergrad. If you're not aware of how Stanford works, the graduate school of business is actually a separate institution than the undergrad. So being an undergrad legacy is completely irrelevant to being a graduate school legacy. This is,

Simone Collins: you're still gonna catch so, so much s**t for this because at the same time you're like, Hmm, university system is corrupt.

And then, you know, you keep mentioning that you went to Stanford.

Malcolm Collins: Well, it matters because I beat their ga like I was an nepo baby in, in regards to having the educational background to even get into that. Like would I have been able to get into that if I had a side job like you did while I was in my undergrad?

Almost certainly not. Certainly not. I mean, Simone is much more diligent than I am, so she was able to have a side job and graduate top of her classroom, gw, and get into Cambridge for graduate school. Malcolm, you had

Simone Collins: ran like all the clubs at St. Andrew's, you had job. Well, that's part of why I got into Stanford

Malcolm Collins: is because I ran all the cl I did run a number, like all the science clubs.

I like ran the Neuroscience Society and the Psychology Society and the Biology Society. You were just as, as busy as I was.

Simone Collins: Yeah. No, no. You were just as busy as I was.

Malcolm Collins: I guess I was, but I was able to use all that for resume padding, Simone, that's like, come on.

Simone Collins: And so was I,

Malcolm Collins: I suppose. But the point here being is I try to take ownership even when I don't get the full advantages.

Like even if I don't get the money or anything like that, and I've had to make my own money I still recognize the advantages I get from code switching. And most importantly, I recognize the genetic advantages my family gave me.

Simone Collins: Yeah, that's that's key.

Malcolm Collins: You know, and I, I, that was the thing that really bothered me about the reporter because, you know, obviously they're in this position of genetics don't matter 'cause she's taking this far left position.

I'm like, oh really? Really magnanimous of you famous you know, documentarian who has famous creative parents to, to pretend like you weren't born was a deck astronomically stacked in your favor. And, and I, I admit that about myself as well. The deck was astronomically stacked in my favor, but the biggest advantage I was born was with a genetic one.

Mm-hmm. And I can, like, even though my family lost all the money, right? Like the central family where everyone, because parts of the money had been distributed before this, but then it was stolen because one person was managing all of the, the pools. $45 million by the way. If you're wondering how much

Simone Collins: this is what people get for outsourcing their services, I just like, don't

Malcolm Collins: what we didn't want to it had to do with.

Anyway, family, politics, f it was

Simone Collins: required like what? Per trusts or something? No, it

Malcolm Collins: had to do with old people in the family, being old people and not listening to what all the young people were telling them. Oh,

Simone Collins: yeah, yeah. No, no, no. Yeah. No. But they, yeah, I'm still make saying that they made the mistake of but the,

Malcolm Collins: the point I was gonna make here was, even though they lost everything, so nobody in my family had cash transfers to the next generation. I find out, like one of my cousins created the technology behind the here movie. The really cool like AI technology that can fully create actors. Another one is running the company in Texas that does automated trucks self-driving

Simone Collins: trucks.

Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: Self, no, admittedly she married into the family so called Aurora. Yeah. Yeah. So she, not genetically related, but I mean her husband was genetically related and shows that, you know, women like her are choosing people like that. And then, I forgot this last time I mentioned this, but three other members of, of, of my cousins or siblings run, well, I know one runs a fund that's over a billion dollars, and I think the two other run funds that are probably at least half a billion. Yeah, they're all really successful, wildly successful. I am the, the big failure of the family. I am, I am nobody failure, but this is what I mean. You don't get that kind of success over and over and over and over again, even though they didn't have.

You know, the cards in their hands to start, right? Mm-hmm. So how did that happen over and over and over again? It's likely genetics. Whatever, you know, that's, that's just

Simone Collins: ignoring that is, is deeply insensitive. Well, it is

Malcolm Collins: deeply insensitive because it's not saying, people are like, oh, are you saying they're genetically superior?

No, I'm saying that for one of them, to pretend that other people had an equal chance in life that they did is deeply insensitive because you are ignoring. An advantage that you had that other people didn't have. Ignoring a systemic bias in your favor is not magnanimous. Mm-hmm. It's psychotic and evil, and it allows you to act in a psychotic and evil fashion.

But what was the result of all of this, right? Like, what, what happened as a result of all the protests and everything like that, right?

Simone Collins: Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: There was a reverse of the social media ban. The primary trigger. The government's September 4th ban on 26 platforms was lifted on September 9th, amid escalating unrest.

The direct. This directly addressed one of the protestors core demands, restoring access, allowing for your communication. No other major laws were reversed, but the Ban's rollback was framed as a regulatory concession. Under new registration requirements, leadership changes. The Prime Minister KP Shama Oley resigned on September 9th.

Marking the end of his fourth term and a significant win against perceived corruption of administration. Several cabinet members followed suit, including the home minister who stepped down over the band and others, including Deputy PM finance minister, who was reportedly beaten, beaten during the chaos On September 12th, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Shami Kki was sworn in as Prime Minister.

And Nepal's first, female PM gaining support from Gen Z leaders. For, yeah, apparently it was like on Discord

Simone Collins: servers where the, the groundswell of support first emerged for her, which I think just also goes to show how on social media the younger generation in Nepal is and how influential things like discord now are.

Malcolm Collins: Yep. The the president Ram Chad Polli refused to resign, but the interim government is tasked with stabilizing the country and preparing for potential elections in March, 2026. Other gains, the government announced compensation of 1 million Nepalese rupees for the victims. I, I think this is for the death victims.

Just, you know how that is per death, that's $7,000. Really big spenders there. Nepal's National Day, September 19th was canceled due to unrest. Brought our commitment include dialogue reforms, though critics argue that these are superficial without addressing the root causes. Yeah, like unemployment being 20.8% for age of 15 to 24.

Simone Collins: Oh, good Lord.

Malcolm Collins: Personally, highlight Gen Z's influence with some use participating in post. Unrest cleanups to restore normalcy and boost tourism.

Simone Collins: Yeah. It's not gonna, the, the problem is still there. It's gonna get worse. Although, let's, what's Nepal's? Two L, fertility route. Nepal. TFR. How are they doing?

1.76. So they're better than the United States. That's good.

Malcolm Collins: Well, they're also a lot poorer. Look at the average yearly income.

Simone Collins: Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: So, you know, not great. Yeah.

Simone Collins: Acknowledged. Acknowledged, fully acknowledged.

Malcolm Collins: Nepal was where we were running that organization was a USAID or whatever that was trying to grow atheist groups, right?

Like convert people to atheism. What. Yeah. If I remember correctly, it was in Nepal. Oh, okay. The US A was funding that. Surely that made them like us more. Yay. Yay. No, but we're going to see this more and more. We're gonna see this. And, and it's interesting to me because I think a lot of people predicted as the use generation got smaller, we'd see less protests.

And I think what we're actually seeing is they're more angry. That they're being increasingly disenfranchised and the older generations are just don't care about them, and they're more agentic. So we'll see. Do they, do they become more agentic or do they become AI's loss? I, I don't know. Right. What, what, what's your, what's your read on this?

Simone Collins: I, I think it's gonna be really hard to tell. I think we're, we're, we are going to see in countries that demand control. We'll, we will see violence and pushback case in point here with Nepal trying to control social media. I think countries that basically resign control and allow for the creation of charter cities and basically sovereign territories because they'll acknowledge I can no longer afford a police force here.

I can no longer do this. I can no longer do that. But I am going to allow. Basically sovereign states that are kind of like technically members of my country to just step in and now provide those services under their own governance with a great degree of freedom. I think that those countries will remain fairly stable.

Kind of going to a milit system like you saw in the, the Persian Empire. Yeah. Countries that devolve or evolve into a millet system or a city state or charter city system will see stability. And a transition to that that's more or less as peaceful as possible. And I think that countries that attempt to centrally control their population and exploit them to maintain.

Like to get resources, et cetera, are going to see increasing levels of violence. 'cause people aren't gonna stand for that. What are you, I mean, I, and I also feel like culturally and based on historical precedent, the United States is well positioned to enter a millet system, era a, a techno futile era.

I don't know if that's actually gonna happen, but I feel like that's kind of our best shot. What are your thoughts?

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, what were you saying? I, I, I zoned out there.

Simone Collins: I think our best shot at having a viable future is if the United States evolves into a millet system or techno futile. Oh, a milit system.

Empire or techno feal. Yeah. I mean, the techno

Malcolm Collins: futile empires are gonna be the ones that survive.

Simone Collins: Yeah. And I mean, you can also see like the EU is failing because they are trying to do the opposite of that. They're trying to use a centralized, bureaucratic body to control things, to regulate things. And that's not working.

Nepal was trying to centrally control its people. China, to a great extent. China's actually an interesting case because it has set up some kind of charter city, like tech cities. Yeah. But they're like, you do, you and I. That makes me think maybe you guys are gonna figure this out like this. Could China could figure it out through, through those pathways.

Who knows? So I, but yeah, that's, that's what I think the meeting indicator is gonna be.

Malcolm Collins: Focus on ai, which is really important if you're thinking about the future. Yeah. So we'll see. Anyway, I love you to death, Simone. I love you too. That's how we saved the world. You just figured it out. You solved it.

Simone Collins: You're welcome.

Malcolm Collins: For dinner tonight, we are reheating the cocky, the bullock

Simone Collins: cock, the

Malcolm Collins: dish you made yesterday. It's Korean and I, the,

Simone Collins: the horrible thing is I wanna keep saying cocky and I, I don't

Malcolm Collins: rice noodles.

Simone Collins: Bullock Bullock, it means fire chicken, U-L-D-A-K. Chicken and,

Malcolm Collins: and, and they put mozzarella on top and it's just spectacular.

Simone Collins: Yeah,

Malcolm Collins: it's like a, yeah. Very sweet, spicy dish with a lot of cheese. Mm-hmm. And just like a beverage. Yeah. It's

Simone Collins: basically marinated tiny chicken chunks, which to which you can also add onion and other things, but we didn't marinated in chili flakes, goch sauce, brown sugar, honey pepper like some other seasonings, and then sauteed, and then broiled.

Under mozzarella cheese. It's such fusion, right? Because it's not like ozella boil.

Malcolm Collins: Are you gonna put it in like a new bowl to broil it? Because I don't think those are, I know,

Simone Collins: I, I refrigerated it in a ramekin. And I'm going to put it in the air fryer to melt the cheese on top after. Ah,

Malcolm Collins: that'll work really well, I think.

Simone Collins: Yeah. I'm gonna, I'm, I'm gonna pop it in the microwave for like one minute to get it warm from the inside because I don't want just like a burned top and then a cold inside. Yeah. Well,

Malcolm Collins: I also, I also think that, the will it melt the cheese, right? I mean, it should. We're doing wet cheese a time and, and so the goals,

Simone Collins: yeah, I'm, I'm gonna do a low, I'm gonna do a low air fryer setting

Malcolm Collins: and I wouldn't mind it dehydrating a little bit.

Yeah, I think that'd, so it's mostly

Simone Collins: gonna just warm and dehydrate and melt, slowly melt the cheese. But yeah, I mean, as you know, when you have what's it called? Pizza margarita. That's the same kind of high moisture mozzarella cheese circles that you see on that. I prefer grated mozzarella.

That's low moisture, but like, I think this will work perfect, especially for the ramekins in which I,

Malcolm Collins: I a hundred percent agree. Yeah, the

Simone Collins: leftovers,

Malcolm Collins: and people who are helping with the development of our like AI chat adventure engine on our fab.ai. I really appreciate it. I know it's very buggy right now.

All the feedback you give when you run into bugs or run into issues or features that you want is incredibly helpful on Musk making this type of project that we can then pay to advertise one day like a real product. But I feel like we're close to that, you know? I'm so exciting, and people are like, why don't, why don't you pay to advertise the school because it works much better?

And it's like, well, because the school is good and I want you guys to have access to that, and I want your kids to have access to that this.io, but it's very hard to make money off of educational products. So we're just Yeah, you just don't,

Simone Collins: you don't. We learned after like doing a lot of venture capital outreach and networking with other people who are working on schools and trying to sell them to school districts and private schools and homeschooling groups.

That basically you don't, you don't make money in this space. No one makes money in this space unless you're like one of the really big players that has spent, you know, five years in huge amounts of capital in a sales team and basically just juicing the system and using weird arbitrage opportunities like schools have all these weird funds that various laws have appropriated and you don't necessarily know where these existed.

Like there are some underperforming schools that have through various bits of legislation and policy been basically given like slush funds of like spend this money on this kind of tutoring to fix your underperforming schools. And then, so there are these secret schools that you have to know how to look for that just have money to burn.

On products that you can be like, this product is for that money thing that we, you need to burn and then you can sell to them. It's not based on merit, it's not based on you actually, like, I mean, you should have case studies showing that you can solve the problem, but it's more based on finding these arbitrage opportunities.

And I hate industries like that. We, we, we just want a product that people find useful that they can use. So at least your NSFW AI will. Well give the people what they want.

Malcolm Collins: It's not, the adventure mode is more fleshed out than the not safer for work section, by the way. I know. But I'm

Simone Collins: much more interested in exploring more of the, the not safer work.

Malcolm Collins: I, I fixed a not safer work engine creator, by the way, for people who were using it before. It wasn't working very well because it still had safer work language in, and that's all been fixed and updated. Mm. And I'm, and I'm continuing to work on improving that. Like, this is gonna improve something.

'cause I work on this every day. I wanna, I want this to be good. And I want people to see it and be like, that's a really. Solid product right there. I enjoy going on Zaki Adventures in AI worlds.

Simone Collins: I'm excited for it. Eventually, maybe you'll have a version that like literally creates the manga. Like the illustrated panels as you go.

Malcolm Collins: I would love that. And I we're looking at doing art creation. Next is, is the next feature we're gonna add. And well, not, not the very next, the very next one is we're gonna do streaming responses. 'cause right now it outputs the entire response in a block. So it'll just feel like it's responding much quicker to people.

I

Simone Collins: don't mind the wait times, honestly. But anyway, I'm gonna look for a missing plug and then get the kids. And make your dinner. And I love you so much.

Malcolm Collins: You are an amazing wife. I am so excited for dinner. Oh, and you is about 20% more cheese than you did last time.

Simone Collins: I'll happily do that

Malcolm Collins: because the cheese is amazing.

And we've got some fresh chives. Chop up some chives and put them. Yes. I forgot

Simone Collins: to do that last night. It was, it was a little chaotic downstairs.

Malcolm Collins: Another thing I'd put on as an extra ingredient is poppy seeds.

Simone Collins: You mean sesame seeds?

Malcolm Collins: Sesame seeds, yeah.

Simone Collins: Words.

Malcolm Collins: Shut up.

Simone Collins: I love you own words. I love when you use pronouncing.

I don't

Malcolm Collins: love you. I actually think you're a disgusting monster and Well, that's

Simone Collins: accurate. That's, that's just the truth on,

Malcolm Collins: on the video we did today. You, you loved it so much. I've gotta do this on multiple videos. It's so good. The Torsten being like,

Simone Collins: I just tear the beat and I have today. I can't stop dancing the beach in my body.

Oh God, Stan.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. You must have heard that somewhere is all I can think.

Simone Collins: I don't know man. The kid has, he loves to dance. He loves EDM. I don't know where that came from. He loves Electros winging too though. And Glitch hop. I

Malcolm Collins: just hear the beat. It's taken off from my body. It's great.

Simone Collins: I should play more music for him.

Malcolm Collins: By the way,

Simone Collins: we weren't playing music. No. It was just in his head. Nico Nicole on, he, he's, he's the originator of Do, do, do in our House. Like he's always like, got a tune in his head and he, he makes little sound effects for everything he does. Even chew. He

Malcolm Collins: does hitting.

Simone Collins: Yeah. Yeah. We know when he's hitting someone e, even if he's in another room, 'cause he goes, oh, oh, he's this like little cartoon voice.

He's like a little cartoon human. None of our other kids are cartoon humans, but he definitely a hundred percent.

Malcolm Collins: Anyway, love you to

Simone Collins: I love you too. Thanks for giving birth to a cartoon. You're the one who gave birth to him, you nutter. Oh, I mean, he's both of us. You know what I mean? He hatched out of the Malmo egg.

Malcolm Collins: Oh, by the way, are you ready for revolution in the United States?

Simone Collins: Everyone says we're already in a civil war. I. We are killing each other. Be fair. The Lamees

Malcolm Collins: war ever

Simone Collins: there. Well, there are flags. I was gonna say, well, there are no flags, right? But no, there are flags. There are leaders, there are battalions.

Maybe they're right. Well, I saw

Malcolm Collins: another video of somebody who tore down a Trump flag. No, this school

Simone Collins: bus is,

Malcolm Collins: I gotta

Simone Collins: go. Bye bye. Ah.

Why can't you stop dancing? I, I just hear a beat and my body is hearing the beats. Wait, no, I can't stop dancing. You can't stop dancing 'cause my, because I, because my body can't still hear the beats, but there's no music playing. My friend there is, I'm pretending that there's. Oh, it's like in your head.

Yeah. Um, so I can't stop dancing. But you're a really good dancer. Why? What does the music sound like? It sounds like, oh, yeah, I, I'm dancing. I'm dancing to the beat. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. I'm dancing to the beat. I'm dancing. I'm dancing. I'm dancing to the beat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that the song outside? There's zombie.

Whoa, whoa. I'm gonna go,

oh, did you dance to so much you passed out? I'll tell you that somehow. Like the beat, like the pants. Okay. I lost all my hands was sanding in my hand. There's, then I, then I just dropped the dancing. Oh, the beat broke in your head. Yes. I just always, I just always, I just.

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