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Welp, turns out more Epstein files are finally getting released!
Apparently there will be a vote coming out to release even more, but the docs released so far have been negative for Trump's claims to be innocent of the whole matter.
This, combined with the ruckus over Trump arguing we need foreign talent, has caused a massive cratering amongst online confidence in MAGA. From my perspective, confidence in MAGA at least online is the lowest it has ever been. Many feel betrayed by Trump when it comes to his America First promises.
Add in the storm over Fuentes and Israel, and I feel I'm seeing the conservative coalition fall apart in real time, extremely quickly.
Is this inevitable, the narcissism of small differences? Or is it just Trump not being a very principled man?
I've slowly come over to the view that it's a good thing Trump was restricting immigration of the best and brightest so they instead went elsewhere. As they say: Democracy is the belief that voters know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. We've seen the humiliating climbdowns against China and if this policy of being unwelcoming to high end immigrants continue I suspect we'll see plenty of self-flagellation from the US 10 years down the line when it's trying to rebuild up its attractiveness for such people.
The best and brightest aren't getting kicked out by a 100k charge. As lovers of subcontinental culture we should be thankful that the happy medium tier remains and is given opportunities to affect systemic reward. It would be a tragedy and an utter betrayal of one's fellow man to abscond to go play zero sum games in the West
A large portion of people get dissuaded from making significant purchases based on a single extra click being required (hence the huge amount of money platforms like Amazon pour into optimizing their process). This effect isn't particularly dependent on intelligence either, smart people also get put off by a significant degree due to needing one more click to buy a product.
Similarly even the fact that there's discussion of a 100k charge going around will be enough to dissuade some of the best and brightest on the margins, let alone actually implementing a policy like that.
Dissuade the best and brightest? Not the employers? It's not like the bestest and brightest are the ones paying directly.
I thihk the best pathway would be for the best and brightest to go back to places of origin and work super hard to develop their own competing paradigms. Every best and brightest who's working on product management or consulting or zero sum finance nonsense is somebody who could be making an active difference in the future. Sadly most lack the personal courage to build a future for themselves.
This is going to bite the US in the ass so hard in the next 15-20 years. It's already happening with China etc., see how good Kimi K2 Thinking is as well as GLM-4.6 etc.
Sure, sure, we'll totally regret it. Just stay out.
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