Chris Langan Interview

By Leo Gura - March 25, 2023

Here’s a great interview:

Chris Langan’s politics are problematic (he is a Trump supporter), but his understanding of metaphysics is really good. This guy understands reality better than any MIT scientist, and he didn’t even go to university. Really puts scientists and academics to shame.

Regarding his politics, I will say this: He’s not wrong in his critiques of our current system. What he’s describing is basically the problems with late-stage capitalism. However, he’s wrong on three key points:

1) The so-called “elites” are actually hardworking people in many cases. Of course some of them are parasites on the system and don’t do hard work. But the idea that anyone working in management or at a computer doesn’t do hard work is absurd. And these positions are highly necessary to civilization. Moreover, Langan’s claim that billionaires don’t work hard and don’t generate genuine value is absurd. Most billionaires work very hard and generate enormous value. Of course there are some exceptions. But all the CEOs of multi-national corporations like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Tesla, Exxon Mobile, Disney, Walmart, Amazon, etc. are very hardworking people. You can criticize Elon Musk for many things, but you cannot say he doesn’t work hard or doesn’t generate massive value for the world. It is true that these CEOs and billionaire are over-compensated. But that will not be fixed by voting for right-wingers. And seriously, who are you gonna replace these CEOs with? You can’t put some New Age hippie in charge of running Microsoft. That would be disastrous. I promise you that the CEO of Microsoft is an extremely competent person, not some lazy fat-cat who just collects money, drives fast cars, and has orgies. Should we tax him more and reduce his salary? Yes! But is he some evil, lazy, corrupt elite? No. This is a cartoon level of understanding of how society operates.

2) Just increasing individualism and personal freedom is not a solution to our social problems. Decentralization plays a role, but our society needs strong top-down Federal controls and regulations in order to prevent individual capitalists from dominating and exploiting the rest of the people. If you reduce Federal control then you will create an anarcho-capitalist dystopia. So this will actually make the problems Langan gripes about worse. Wall Street capitalist types would love nothing more than the gutting of Federal power and regulations. Then they could run hog-wild and amass way more money and power.

3) Trump is fundamentally incapable of solving any of these problems. Trump is the epitome of a guy who doesn’t work hard and is a parasite on the system. It’s amazing how much Langan complains about “elites” and Wall Street fat-cat types who don’t work hard for their wealth, when in fact Trump is the posterboy parasite fat-cat who has not done a single day of serious work in his life. The idea that Trump will somehow equalize wealth inequality, help working people, and limit the power of elite capitalists is utterly absurd. By any objective metrics Joe Biden and the Democrat party have done way more for working-class people than the Republicans. What Chris Langan is basically talking about is wealth inequality. But the right-wing in America have no interest in serious reforms that would equalize wealth inequality. Nor are they interested in removing money from politics. They want unlimited private money in political campaigns, which is the very mechanism by which elite capitalists corrupt and undermine representative democracy. So if you agree with Langan’s critique — and I mostly do — you should not vote for right-wingers because they are not serious about solving those problems. If Langan was serious, he would be a Bernie Sanders supporter. So while he diagnoses the problems of our government mostly correctly, his solutions are exactly wrong. There is no way that electing a Republican will correct the problems of excessive capitalism.

The real solutions are things like:

  • Raising the minimum wage
  • Regulating banks and Wall Street speculators
  • Raising capital gains taxes
  • Taxing the rich. Higher income taxes on top earners, and a wealth tax on millionaires & billionaires.
  • Taxing corporations
  • Removing all private money from political campaigns
  • Placing more regulations on large corporations
  • Breaking up monopolies with strong anti-trust enforcement
  • Increasing consumer protections
  • Cracking down on fraud and white-collar crime
  • Protecting worker’s rights to unionize
  • Better legal protections for minorities and LGBTQ people
  • Limiting aggressive foreign policy and wars
  • A well-funded education system
  • A public healthcare system that cuts out the parasitic insurance middlemen
  • Better paid time off, maternity and paternity leave, and free access to childcare
  • More investment in scientific research
  • More investment in pandemic prevention (Trump cut the pandemic prevention budget)
  • More investment FEMA and disaster relief
  • Housing for the homeless
  • Food for children in poverty
  • Addressing pollution and climate change. More investment in green energy
  • A government job guarantee, like during the Depression era
  • Huge investments in improving national infrastructure

Right-wingers are not for any of these things. Yet all of the above policies would most benefit working-class people, not elites. How can Langan be so smart on metaphysics but so backwards on basic public policy? It doesn’t take a genius to see that right-wingers do not support policy that actually helps the working class economically. Trump does not give a damn about helping the working class, he’s just a demagogue, con-artist, and criminal who used a veneer of populism to gain power and act out his ego. What Langan completely fails to recognize is that solving these problems requires a leader with serious integrity and maturity. But Trump is one of the most low-integrity, low-maturity leaders on this planet.

The fundamental issue Langan identifies is corruption. But you cannot solve the issue of corruption by electing a leader who is utterly corrupt in spirit and mind. Trump’s narcissism and sociopathy is exactly the corruption that these so-called bad “elites” have. Except Trump has an even more severe case of it. Trump is more corrupt than any CEO of any Fortune 500 company. And on top of all that he’s utterly incompetent. Trump hasn’t read a single serious book in his life! The notion that Trump can solve any deep social problems is laughable. His ignorance and egotism creates more problems than it solves. Corruption comes from ego, and Trump has one of the biggest, most toxic egos on the planet. How does Langan not understand this?

Click Here to see ALL of Leo's juicy insights.