The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 1,958 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Chamath: Donald Trump did not incite much on January 6th
“In that moment, I thought what happened was really terrible. And then since then, I've got to know the person and I don't think that he actually incited much of anything. That's my belief.”
Sacks: Federal agencies are executing political reprisals against opponents
“They're using the agencies of the federal government to exact reprisals against their political opponents.”
Sacks: President Biden provoked the proxy war in Ukraine
“Well, I would argue that Biden provoked the proxy war in Ukraine.”
Sachs: A bipartisan 'deep state' includes Cheney, Harris, Biden, and Nuland
“I think it's obvious there's basically one deep state party, and that is the party of Cheney, Harris, Biden, Victoria Nuland, my colleague at Columbia University now.”
Sachs: Ukraine war is driven by U.S. power projection, not Putin
“This is not a conflict about Putin invading Ukraine. This is something a lot different that has to do with American power projection into the former Soviet Union, so it's completely different.”
Sachs: China poses no security threat; nuclear war is sole threat
“I deeply believe that China is not a threat to the United States, and I deeply believe the only threat to the United States period in the world, given the oceans, given our size, and given the military, is nuclear war.”
Benioff calls Microsoft Copilot a universal failure and a complete disaster
“I think in the last few years, what we've kind of heard, and you know, some of it has come from OpenAI, but especially from Microsoft, that we're in this co-pilot world, and these co-pilots have universally failed. The level of accuracy, the spillage of inform…”
Thiel: Supports broad student debt forgiveness because students were ripped off
“I do think a lot of the students got ripped off. And so I think there should be some kind of broad student debt forgiveness at this point.”
Megyn Kelly argues biological males do not belong in women's spaces
“Men cannot become women. Period. Women can't become men either. And men and boys do not belong in women's spaces, whether it's a bathroom, a locker room, or a sports event. They don't.”
Megyn Kelly: Kamala Harris is not smart or a deep thinker
“I really think the problem for Kamala Harris is she's not smart, she's not a deep thinker, She's very surface level.”
Haidt: Immigrants from non-English speaking countries have better work ethic
“Immigrants who are from non-English speaking countries. That's right. They have a better work ethic.”
Trump says talk of Ukraine joining NATO caused the Russia-Ukraine war
“So for 20 years, I heard that NATO if Ukraine goes into NATO, it's a real problem for Russia. I've heard that for a long time. And I think that's really why this war started.”
Khosla: Preventing MAGA extremists from destroying democracy is our most important issue
“I would say there's a bunch of MAGA extremists in every part of society, and I hope we can prevent them from destroying democracy, which is probably the most important issue we face.”
Sacks: Gemini's flaws accurately reflect the political biases of its creators
“This idea that Gemini turned out this way by accident or because they didn't, because they rushed it out. I don't really believe that. I believe that what happened is Gemini accurately reflects the biases of the people who created it.”
Sacks: Vladimir Putin is a rational actor, not a madman
“Whether or not you believe everything that Putin said, my takeaway is that this was a rational actor. This was not a madman. This is somebody who we could have negotiated with.”
Sacks names Volodymyr Zelenskyy as biggest political loser of 2023
“My biggest loser in politics for this year is Vladimir Zelensky, the president of Ukraine.”
Sacks: Mainstream media conspiracy theories can be as dangerous as Alex Jones'
“The mainstream media promotes a lot of conspiracy theories, and some of those theories, if acted upon by crazy people, would be just as dangerous as the things that Alex Jones has said.”
Tucker Carlson argues that the United States is not a democracy
“This is not a democracy. It's not even a sort of decent facsimile of a democracy. It's, to call it a democracy is, like, It was ridiculous, actually.”
Tucker Carlson: Affluent middle-aged women disproportionately control American public debate
“Our politics, and not just our politics, but our public conversation, reflects the very specific and parochial concerns of a tiny, tiny group of people, which is middle-aged, affluent women, who tend to be very angry, and tend to mostly with their husbands, bu…”
Tucker Carlson: Rhetoric inspiring racial hatred originates from the political left
“On the race stuff, which is what matters over time, if you convince people to hate others on the basis of their race, you've committed a massive sin, and you've done a lot to wreck our country, that's coming from the left.”
Tucker Carlson: Humans invent climate crises to reduce their prosperity
“We're not designed to be prosperous, and the second we are, we invent climate crises to make us less prosperous. I mean, that's really what that is, right?”
Tucker Carlson calls global warming and climate crisis narrative propaganda
“I think the global warming bullshit is bullshit, okay? I mean, obviously it is. Climate crisis. It's propaganda”
Tucker Carlson: Donald Trump's prosecution is a political prosecution
“That's a political prosecution.”
Tucker Carlson calls Gavin Newsom the most evil person in Democratic Party
“He's by far the most evil person in the Democratic Party, and in the end, they just sort of rise to the peak, you know, oil and water, man.”
Kushner: Palestinian leadership, not Israel, holds back Palestinian economic progress
“The thing that's been holding back the Palestinian people has not been Israel. It's been their bad leadership.”
Chamath calls elite American universities "woke madrasas" teaching "virulent poison"
“Our leading educational institutions have really become woke madrasas. They are inculcating kids with just some virulent poison.”
Sacks: US failure to respect spheres of influence caused Ukraine war
“Our foreign policy establishment cannot comprehend that other great powers want a similar Monroe Doctrine. I think that was a huge contributor to the war we have in Ukraine right now.”
Christie: Donald Trump does not actually believe the 2020 election was stolen
“I believe, given what I know, that Donald Trump does not believe that the election was stolen. That's what I believe from knowing him for 22 years and from being with him in much of the pre-election period and him expressing his very genuine concerns about the…”
Ramaswamy: Gender dysphoria is a mental health disorder
“Gender dysphoria is what I've said is a mental health disorder.”
Calacanis: FTC Chair Lina Khan is punishing tech for being successful
“I think she is absolutely doing Biden's bidding. With an anti-tech, anti-wealth creation, anti-capitalism, frankly, pro-union punishment. I think this is punishment for tech being too successful.”
Chamath: COVID-19 vaccine push was a Big Pharma revenue grab
“It was a revenue grab by big pharma plastered with non-scientific thinking from a bunch of people who should have known better.”
RFK Jr.: CIA ultimately serves corporate interests in oil, coal, and defense
“The CIA is ultimately working for a, for industry like the oil industry, the coal industry, and the military contract.”
Palihapitiya: Software developers no longer exercise good judgment
“I'm going to say something controversial. I don't think developers anymore have good judgment. Developers get to the answer or they don't get to the answer.”
Sacks: Hersh report alleging U.S. Nord Stream sabotage is plausible
“I lean towards thinking it's more plausible than not.”
Sacks: Twitter's undisclosed moderation is an FTX-level free speech fraud
“This is an FTX level fraud, except that what was stolen here was not customer funds, it was their free speech rights.”
Armstrong: Sam Bankman-Fried likely committed fraud and lied to FTX investors
“I mean, that that's the moment in my mind where he crossed the line into probably committing fraud. And I think he probably lied to users lied to investors.”
Sacks: US State Department failed to avoid war by refusing NATO guarantees
“The question is, did the US State Department do everything they could to avoid this war? And my point is, absolutely not. They should have taken this Ukraine issue off the table in writing before the invasion.”
Calacanis: Andreessen Horowitz engaged most in VC token sale flips
“That seems like the firm that did this the most is Andreessen Horowitz.”
Tech firms use anti-military employees as cover for Chinese market access
“There's a lot of companies in Silicon Valley and elsewhere who look at those employees who are ideologically opposed to working with the military and they use them as a smokescreen Pretending that it's principled opposition that drives their decision. When in …”
Sacks: The New York Times acts as the woke mob's enforcement wing
“They are the enforcement wing of the woke mob.”
Elon Musk: Twitter has a very far-left political bias
“The reality is that, that Twitter at this point, you know, has a very far left bias.”
Musk: Democratic Party is overly controlled by unions and trial lawyers
“The Democrat party is overly, overly controlled by the unions and by the trial lawyers, particularly the class action lawyers.”
Musk calls Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard his worst colleague ever
“There's still this guy, Mark Eberhard, who's the worst guy I've ever worked with, who tries to claim like sold credit essentially for creating a Tesla.”
Elon Musk: Declining birth rates are the single biggest threat to civilization
“This, by the way, is I think the biggest single threat to civilization right now is the.”
Sacks: Big Tech committed massive 2020 election interference censoring Hunter Biden
“The scale interference in the election was committed by big tech. I mean, they censored the Hunter Biden story two weeks before the election.”
Chamath: Dangerous authoritarianism tends to come from the political left
“The scary authoritarianism, as we talked about in previous pods, tends to come from the left.”
Friedberg: Putin's behavior is rational and he seeks to avoid conflict
“His behavior is very rational in response to what's gone on for 30 years. And his requests are that he is feeling threatened and he is trying to avoid military conflict as much as he can.”
Palihapitiya: Advocating foreign human rights while ignoring domestic issues is deplorable
“I think it's a luxury belief. And the reason I think it's a luxury belief is we don't do enough domestically to actually express that view in real tangible ways. So until we actually clean up our own house, The idea that we step outside of our borders with, yo…”