Illegitimate Scholar

This episode is a little bit different and will have to be split up into two parts. This week, I discuss the Concept of Institutional and socio-economic cycles. These are cycles identified by geopolitical analyst George Friedman in his book, "Storm Before the Calm". The United States, in his opinion, goes through stages of Institutions (every 80 years) and socio-economics (every 50 years...

In this episode I discuss myths and stories of different cultures, such as origin stories and heroic tales. I discuss how the traits that are encouraged and traits that are discouraged reflect the values of that story's society. Formats of stories are compared, including cave paintings, oral traditions, Roman plays, and modern American movies. These differing formats are also reflective of te...

What is the nature and origin of taxation? How has taxation differed over time and place? How does our conception of what taxation is normalize it and what other perceptions of taxation are possible? I discuss ancient tax systems and how taxes differ from tribute. I discuss how taxes are framed in a modern society and the difference between a regressive and progressive tax system.  Audio Podcast:...

Why do people really get arrested? There is more going on than just someone committing a crime. Individuals and organizations have been targeted for prosecution because of their political views by the IRS. Laws and justifications have been created for thousands of years to arrest people for essentially nothing. The US legal code today is so vast that no single person could possibly know all laws....

Our culture is in crisis and I don’t trust woke universities and authoritarian governments to give us the solution. I examine modern culture through history and anthropology, as well as other sources like indigenous knowledge and common sense. This is a show for those who love academics but hate academia, and want to learn about social studies without the constraining limits of woke universities....

Public Education in 2023 in America is in crisis. The schools are increasingly not teaching. Teachers are increasingly overworked, staff shortages are at an all time high. Teachers quitting is at an all time high. Administrators increasingly do not provide teachers with tools or support to effectively discipline students to even create a reasonably safe environment. This is reflected in statistics...

The current main model of public education in the United States is based on ideologies that were pushed by organizations created by and for the richest Americans of the early 20th century. Rockefeller, Ford, Carnegie. They say themselves what they did to do this, and they describe it in no uncertain terms in quotes. Today we discuss the effect that these organizations had on education, and discuss...

How do we decide what genocides to care about? What genocides/atrocities get the most attention, why? Some genocides are ignored, and others are featured prominently. The Rwandan, Armenian, and other genocides are ignored largely, at least compared to the Holocaust. The prominence of the Holocaust above other genocides is harmful to perceptions of future and current human rights abuses, as it allo...

In the world there are many countries, regions, territories, etc. that have overlapping land claims. Where one group claims territory that another claims. This can be two countries, such as border regions between India/China, Japan/Russia, Indonesia/Papua New Guineau, Israel/Palestine. It can be separatist nations like Chechnya, Catalan, Kurdistan. It can be new states attempting to rise like ISIS...

The Rage Against the War Machine rally that occurred this weekend that I attended has been under attack for weeks. The critics have been numerous, with some valid attacks, but ultimately the the movement is about being against the war. I contextualize the anti-war movement in this episode and discuss the critics and the what the event was like, and why I think it is important. Apologies on being a...

I rehash the main ideas of the last twenty episodes. New format AGAIN, along with plans to expand youtube. Let me know what you’d like to see, and please  JOIN THE DISCORD As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases Audible AUDIOBOOKS, free trial: https://amzn.to/3TJOARA  Reach me on Discord, https://discord.gg/KhJgpMj6Jj Join my discord to discuss: https://discord.gg/KhJgpMj6Jj #cultu...

How did Native American ideas influence the founding fathers and the ideas of the enlightenment? Academics have overlooked and ignored evidence of obvious influence including first person accounts from our founding fathers. Listen to this episode to hear some of that evidence and learn about how these ideas influenced freedom As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases Audible AUDIOBOO...

This one was hard to title. Content Warning: May be considered transphobic. In this episode I discuss children being taken from their parents in relation to public schools, references to the Native American boarding schools. Underlying value differences between different groups of people and why children should not be taken from their parents.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchas...

Who does wokism benefit? Why does it benefit them? Who does it harm? Is this all an illuminati conspiracy to turn the average population back to serfs and peasants. How does the framing of wokism silence other discussions about inequality and prevent real change and social mobility? How else can we break down the elite population besides by race? What do these other identities and details of peopl...

I discuss how corporations affect our country, and how they work. I discuss the implications of the structure of corporations and how to best interact with them in your daily life and evaluate the effect of a corporation. Corporations are a specific type of organization, but they are  a social construct and can compare to other social constructs.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purc...

In this episode I challenge conventional ideas about what metrics are important for deciding success. I discuss what traits are often discussed like gender, chromosones, race, country of origin, etc. but I mostly discuss other traits that are heavily correlated with success and important metrics like if someone will go to prison, income, etc. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases...

Does voting work? How would we know? What is the result of voting? Who benefits? Who gets their policies put in place? What is the purpose of voting and what other metrics besides some loser politician getting elected can we use to tell if it is working?  I use math (statistics)  to prove that only what the rich want is put into place as policy. This happens as the rich take hold of social institu...

In my second episode with Matt, real estate agent, we discuss counter culture. Counter cultures being cultures based on opposition to the mainstream, like the hippies in the 60s. We discuss how counterculture can become the mainstream and how Communism did this in some places while addressing the new problems of the industrial revolution. We then go in to discussing the aspects of counterculture i...

Matt and I discuss culture of the workplace. How workplaces change based on who is who joins them, and how certain jobs attract certain types of people. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases Audible AUDIOBOOKS, free trial: https://amzn.to/3TJOARA  Reach me on Discord, https://discord.gg/KhJgpMj6Jj Audio Podcast: https://pod.link/1650280020 #podcast #culture #videopodcast #history...

I sit down with the other Ben to discuss the culture behind lawyering and inequalities within the justice system, amongst a few other topics.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases Audible AUDIOBOOKS, free trial: https://amzn.to/3TJOARA  Reach me on Discord, https://discord.gg/KhJgpMj6Jj Audio Podcast: https://pod.link/1650280020 Discord: https://discord.gg/KhJgpMj6Jj Patreon: ht...

I ramble about the history of Holidays, the difficult history of interaction between Native Americans and Euro-Americans, and discuss what Thanksgiving means. Holiday where Indigenous Americans and English settlers ate a meal together, a fall harvest festival, familiar in both their cultures in different forms.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases Audible AUDIOBOOKS, free trial...

I sit down with Ben for a second time for my tenth episode. We discuss a few things, lost civilizations, academic narratives, how information is shared, and what people care about and prioritize.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases Audible AUDIOBOOKS, free trial: https://amzn.to/3TJOARA  Reach me on Discord, https://discord.gg/KhJgpMj6Jj Audio Podcast: https://pod.link/1650280...

I discuss how ethics and culture are related. I talk about culture's role in creating the ideas of what is okay and what is not okay on a societal level and how this plays out in history. I discuss different cultures and how they promote certain traits based on how they make their living. I end with discussing implications for modern day western countries and specifically the United States. A...

In this episode I discuss titles like Doctor, lord, etc. and how they fit into our culture and what purpose do they serve? I ramble off on many tangents, but try to stick to the point of how titles affect our culture.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases Audible AUDIOBOOKS, free trial: https://amzn.to/3TJOARA  Reach me on Discord, https://discord.gg/KhJgpMj6Jj Audio Podcast: ht...

I do a second episode with a guest. Still working out the kinks of a two-person podcast. I am joined by my friend Ben.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases Audible AUDIOBOOKS, free trial: https://amzn.to/3TJOARA  Reach me on Discord, https://discord.gg/KhJgpMj6Jj Audio Podcast: https://pod.link/1650280020 Discord: https://discord.gg/KhJgpMj6Jj Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/I...