Trump, Elon, and Embracing the Future | Richard Hanania & Noah Smith

I did a livestream today with Noah Smith, someone whose writing I have admired for a long time and who I was happy to finally get to meet.

We start out by talking about what’s going on with the Trump administration, and all the recent craziness, including the president’s supposed plan for the US to take over Gaza. This blends into discussions about China and Russia, and their memetic relationships with the American left and right respectively. Noah explains why he believes that Putin will not make a deal in the current conflict, and why that means we should keep supporting Ukraine. He also goes into why the current war in Ukraine reminds him of the Russo-Finnish War (1939-1940), and whether Elon Musk is destined to play the role of Franco and eventually take over the Republican Party once Trump is gone. If that’s not enough in the way of historical analogies, Noah presents his theory that Elon Musk sees himself as a Metternich-like figure, perhaps trying to form a global triumvirate with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping against the US foreign policy establishment and the forces of woke.

We also talk about American domestic politics, including the GOP as a cult of personality and how quickly the Democrats can reform. In the process, Noah names his ideal Republican presidential candidate and talks about why he is a fan of Texas as a civilization.

Near the end, going off his recent article on too many Americans being afraid of the future, I ask Noah what his elevator pitch is for embracing change. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I present a novel theory of “horny posting,” which sees it as a way to defeat both inceldom and racism, the two great evils of the right.

Relevant articles

Noah Smith, “Too many Americans still fear the future.”

Noah Smith, “The chaos has arrived.”

Richard Hanania, “Trump’s executive branch revolution”

Betting market I created on Trump’s tariffs

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