David Hurwitz

Inventor of patented solution to existential problem that traditional debates are ineffective. Seeking partners to create world-event re-imagined debates.

[David Hurwitz @davidWonderland]

Debates, noun. 1. An arena for not getting needed words in edgewise writ large. 2. Pretender to the throne of Big Lie Killer. 3. Underpowered vehicle for logical cross-examination not meeting requirement to interrupt and challenge falsehood without interrupting truth.

[David Hurwitz @davidWonderland]

@SarahLongwell25 I wonder how Trump supporting, endtimes-believing, "Christian Nationalists" fall on that divide.

[The Daily Show @TheDailyShow]

Sean Hannity squirms as he tries to cover Trump's election fraud claims without triggering another $787 million lawsuit

[David Hurwitz @davidWonderland]

Paine did write of "the adulterous connection of church and state."!!! 3/3

https://t.co/tJk7hzxAUC

[David Hurwitz @davidWonderland]

@Ada_Palmer
I was thoroughly enjoying your conversation about Machiavelli on the @dwarkesh_sp podcast until Thomas Paine came up at 1:37:05. Shocking academic malpractice! Paine did not say "religion is vital to citizenship,"... 1/3

[Dwarkesh Patel @dwarkesh_sp]

Had @Ada_Palmer back on – this time to talk about Machiavelli, perhaps the most misunderstood thinker of all time.

Machiavelli cut his teeth as a high-level diplomat for Florence, a position from which he got to closely observe the most important rulers in Europe at the time, including the ones who were on the path to destroying his dearly beloved Florence.

In 1513 the Medici retook control of Florence and, wrongly suspecting Machiavelli of participating in a coup attempt, fired, tortured, and exiled him.

Machiavelli could have fled his exile and worked for any number of different principalities that would have been eager to make use of his talents.

Instead, he decided to rot in the countryside and compile his career's lessons about power, politics, and human nature into a book he dedicated to the very man whose new regime had tortured and exiled him, Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici.

But at least the Medici were in a position to use his insights to defend Florence. Machiavelli the patriot did not want any other hands to touch this book, because those hands, armed with these lessons, might pose an existential danger to Florence.

The closest modern analogy, at least as Machiavelli would have seen it, would be Szilard's letter warning FDR about the possibility of a nuclear fission bomb.

What were those insights? And how were they inspired by Machiavelli's dangerous diplomatic missions all across Europe, and his extensive reading of antiquity? Watch this episode with Ada Palmer to find out!

00:00:00 – How Florence bargained with Cesare Borgia for survival
00:15:08 – Machiavelli’s analytical innovations
00:23:58 – Why popes became warlords
00:36:13 – Why the common people demanded nepotism
00:47:57 – Cesare Borgia brought terror to rulers and justice to the people
00:57:55 – Art as a proxy for war
01:06:41 – Florence, a city famous in hell
01:15:57 – The Prince was a job application to Machiavelli’s torturers
01:41:39 – During the Renaissance, original ideas had to be couched in antiquity
01:50:44 – Why copyright began with the Inquisition
02:02:12 – Machiavelli wasn’t Machiavellian

Look up Dwarkesh Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, etc.

[David Hurwitz @davidWonderland]

...did not say "religious education must be mandatory in schools," and did not say "fearing God and posthumous punishment is necessary to make a citizen in a practical sense willing to obey law." Did you not read Paine's "Age of Reason"? 2/3

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Watch the incredible moment as Wounda, a rescued chimp, thanked Jane Goodall in a way no one expected, when he was released in the wild.

[David Hurwitz @davidWonderland]

@MTabarrok @ATabarrok I thought in capitalism there is supposed to be a connection between value provided and compensation. So Tesla, whose alternating current system vastly raised our standard of living should have been poor because an entrepreneur could have monetized his invention better than him?

[David Hurwitz @davidWonderland]

@MTabarrok @ATabarrok Furthermore, you are ignoring what isn't seen. Imagine what else Tesla could've done if he had the funding he needed for other projects.

[David Hurwitz @davidWonderland]

@MTabarrok @ATabarrok Furthermore, you are ignoring what isn't seen. Imagine what else Tesla could've done if he had the funding he needed for other projects.

[David Hurwitz @davidWonderland]

@MTabarrok @ATabarrok I thought in capitalism there is supposed to be a connection between value provided and compensation. So Tesla, whose alternating current system vastly raised our standard of living should have been poor because an entrepreneur could have monetized his invention better than him?

[David Hurwitz @davidWonderland]

@readswithravi This quote doesn't seem to be in Leonardo's Notebooks. Google Books advanced search suggests it first appeared in non-authoritative sources at the end of the 20th century. Since so many bogus Leonardo quotes are floating around, it helps to provide a source.

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

🚨BREAKING: Trump’s voter fraud speech is BACKFIRING as Americans flood social media with the recording of Trump demanding Georgia “find 11,780 votes” after he lost the 2020 election.

Trump is the last person on Earth who should be talking about election fraud.

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

"It's actually a 'Russia, are you listening' moment where it's saying, 'hey guys, if you want to do this, our defenses are down.'"

@SarahLongwell25 reacts as @AWeissmann_ warns Trump may be tearing down election safeguards to invite interference and manufacture a crisis.

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

WOW. The Trump admin just barred the FBI from investigating cases where DHS officers get into confrontations with immigrants or citizens.

ICE HSI will lead all investigations, yet HSI has no jurisdiction to investigate civil rights violations.

The fox is guarding the henhouse.

[Kim Zetter @KimZetter]

Wow. Quite an exchange.

[Snezana Lawrence @snezanalawrence]

John Dee was botd in 1527 (d. 1609); his spirit still strongly influences our view of mathematics. His famous "Mathematical Preface" to the first English translation of Euclid's Elements contains this sentence: "Many other arts also there are which beautify the mind of man: but of all other none do more garnish and beautify it than those arts which are called Mathematicall."

[David Hurwitz @davidWonderland]

@CharlesCMann @KathleenADuVal https://t.co/RuUEGMLsdn

[David Hurwitz @davidWonderland]

@KathleenADuVal Mercy Warren wrote out Thomas Paine's role in the American Revolution in her 1805 history, except in the Vol 2 Appendix. She wrote that "the writings of infidels of talent [referring to Paine and Edward Gibbon] and ingenuity" would be sunk into oblivion." 1/

[David Hurwitz @davidWonderland]

Here is a quote from Samuel Adams expressing a more honest appraisal.
"Your Common Sense, and your Crisis unquestionably awakened the public mind, and led the people loudly to call for a declaration of our national independence." --Samuel Adams, from 1802 letter to Paine 7/

[David Hurwitz @davidWonderland]

@KathleenADuVal Mercy Warren wrote out Thomas Paine's role in the American Revolution in her 1805 history, except in the Vol 2 Appendix. She wrote that "the writings of infidels of talent [referring to Paine and Edward Gibbon] and ingenuity" would be sunk into oblivion." 1/

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

Hey, this NY Times piece by the excellent @KathleenADuVal on Mercy Warren, who helped ignite the idea of liberty in pre-revolutionary Boston, is quite terrific. I knew zip about her and am now delighted to know a bit. https://t.co/bHpjXCjCzI

[David Hurwitz @davidWonderland]

At that moment Paine was hard at word making the concept of kingship anathema to Americans and delivering the "Spirit of '76" with his Jan. 10, 1776 Common Sense. 6/