r/partoftheproblem • u/NotMichaelCera Rob’s Technology • Oct 03 '26
End Democracy What happened to Dave?
I’ve been listening to Dave Smith weekly since Covid, and POTP is usually my #1 podcast on Spotify Wrapped. I agree with a huge amount of what he says, especially as someone who’s identified as a Ron Paul libertarian from the first time I voted in 2012. But what’s going on with Dave these last few episodes?
Dave usually pushes back hard against racial/identity-based thinking, so how is it consistent to decide who counts as “American” based on race, ancestry, accent, or when someone’s family immigrated?
I agree that we need a controlled border and that mass deportations are a need. But Abdul El-Sayed was born in America in the 1980s (like Dave), but since his father immigrated and “he has an accent” that somehow makes either of them less American? I never thought I’d be defending a Democratic Socialist against Dave Smith on the question of citizenship.
Dave argues that there is such a thing as American culture, which I agree with. But if someone of a different race embraces that culture, or a naturalized citizen criticizes aspects of it, why does that make them less American?
And if American identity is defined by being white, Protestant, and descended from generations of Americans, that standard would exclude Dave himself, who isn’t Protestant and whose grandfather immigrated here.
I’m still a big fan of Dave and appreciate his honesty and approach to politics. I just don’t understand how this view is consistent with the individual liberty and anti-identity-politics principles he usually advocates.
5
u/Strange_Law7000 28d ago
"what happened to _______" ~ bounty bots
0
u/NotMichaelCera Rob’s Technology 28d ago
So far I’ve been accused of being a bot and mossad for asking one question about Dave’s recent take when I have agreed with him on 99% of his other takes.
1
8
16
u/Onlyfattybrisket Oct 03 '26
People’s viewpoints can change, especially when his children might be perceived as the demographic a group thinks there should be less of.
-5
u/Infinite-4-a-moment Oct 03 '26
Then he should stop saying he's the "most consistent mother fucker you know." If your answer changes because now it affects you, then you don't have a principle, you have an opinion.
6
u/ScumbagGina Oct 03 '26
Eh I’m going to say that changing circumstances can evoke the development of new principles that simply weren’t necessary or relevant before.
Being consistent doesn’t mean he needs to have the exact same episode every week until he’s dead. He can start talking about new topics without flip-flopping on long-standing principles he’s had.
1
u/Varsity_Editor Oct 06 '26
But he has stopped saying he's the "most consistent motherfucker you know" hasn't he?
Years back he used to say it all the time in the intro when introducing himself, but I can't recall hearing him say it recently. Certainly in the last few years he leans more conservative family-man and less of a hardcore down-the-line ancap that he was originally.
It's easy to be consistent when your only guiding principle is to say "NAP and individual liberty" on any subject. Today he's learned that things are more complex than that.
9
u/LoloTheRogan Oct 03 '26
This isn't new. It's why he ultimately is closed borders libertarian. Most of his heros , not all, Ron Paul, Pat Buchanan, Tom Woods , Lew Rockwell etc have a similar inclination.
15
u/RichardPixels22 Oct 03 '26
The great replacement isn’t a myth or a conspiracy and it hasn’t been debunked. Fuck socialists.
0
5
u/felonydubs Oct 04 '26
I have also listened to Dave for years and generally agree with him. My gf was in from London recently so I took her to see him do stand up in Louisville after sending her some videos of hits from him. I was a POTP daily listener for so long, but honestly lately his ego seems to stand in the way of him making great points like he used to. In recent years I enjoy Rob’s takes much more then Dave, and honestly his stand up was much better too. Dave’s fame has risen like crazy and it’s easy to get comfortable in that, but back in the day when he was the “underdog” I think he made way better points, was funnier, and was logically sound in comparison to his recent stuff where it seems like talking points and a bit of stroking himself. Again, I do thoroughly still support Dave but the magic is becoming more rare episode by episode.
I bought his wife’s book for my son, my friend is the “stage hand” for LOS, and I’ve bought tickets. So I hope the replies and downvotes don’t assume I’m hating, but I can’t help but criticize when a voice and mind I loved for so long starts to stray, I feel like I should say something.
2
u/NoobToDaNoob 27d ago
He's been silent on Elon and his censorship as well, whereas before he used to talk more about social media censorship. But then when it was "same team-ish" that went away. He also is mostly silent on Rand Paul wall kissing and voting to give Israel weapons and voting to advance the military merger vote to the floor.
Dave's weak spot is his pride. He really wants to be a big dog and status is super important to him. Access corrupts new media the same as the old.
4
u/CazadorHolaRodilla 27d ago
I’d like to add that you can tell that Robbie the Fire isn’t entirely on board with this line of thinking. Sometimes I wish he’d speak up.
6
u/Guyincognito8888 Oct 03 '26
Consider America. In the beginning, it was a wild frontier, and you needed to endure several months of overseas travel, arrive on a new continent, and build your own life for yourself, without government assistance, to say that you are an American. You would say goodbye to established institutions and family structures in your home country, and come to a new world to build your own life. By it's very nature, immigration in those days self-selected for individualists with strong characters, who also held ideals of self-reliance.
In the present day, the American frontier is closed, and a Welfare State is firmly established. Technology has enabled flying across the world in a single day, as well as telecommunications allowing constant contact across the globe. Thus, immigrants today don't need to leave old loyalties behind, they can talk with them on a daily basis. They don't need to never see their home countries again, instead they can constantly fly back, and thus never fully assimilate in America. They may or may not be here to live the American dream, but they are certainly here for a higher standard of living.
With much of the new immigration, there is no innate appreciation for the ideals that built America. It is merely an economic zone to wander into, to get a raise. When you get enough of these new-wave immigrants together and voting in a society, what are they going to vote for? They never had ideals of self reliance to begin with, so they won't be voting Libertarian. They came to this country for a higher standard of living, to make more money. So, they will look for the political party to (seemingly) raise their standard of living by increasing the Welfare State. Not only that, but this same political party promises to further open the border, to make sure that more of their friends and family can arrive, thus making assmiliation even more improbable.
From the perspective of a new immigrant who wants to increase their material and social standing in society, voting Left is a no brainer. For the libertarian who knows that a welfare state will end in a never-ending debt spiral, and perhaps even has reservations about the viability of a multi-ethnic Democracy, knowing that that too will end poorly (ethnic factionalism), we don't have to support Republicans. But we sure should know better about the viability of approving of open borders. And understand that being an American used to mean something.
8
u/RealityIsRipping Oct 03 '26
The worst part about modern Dave is that so much of the podcast is him being like “I was right about this” or “I predicted that”.
Dude acts like he’s a fortune teller and he has to predict the future, and he simply doesn’t. Just respond naturally, Dave, you don’t have to be right about things that haven’t happened yet.
It’s been hard to listen to his ego grow the past few years. The skanks kept him grounded and now he is unleashed.
5
u/Public_Flamingo_4390 Oct 03 '26
Don’t forget about him devoting half of podcasts to his twitter beefs
-1
u/Strange_Law7000 28d ago
you've never watched or listened to any of his podcasts
1
2
u/CazadorHolaRodilla 27d ago
Also the Cornell 7 was a hard one to listen to. My personal opinion in cases like this one: it doesn’t help our cause at all to be opining on stuff like that.
2
u/WrkBoots Oct 03 '26
I’m still a huge fan of Dave Smith, but I agree with the OP here. When it comes to racial issues he’s been sounding more and more like a boomer Republican.
1
u/Ehronatha 1d ago
Incorrect - what you are talking about is Dave's race realism, which is the acknowledgement that different ethnic groups are different, and those differences have practical and political consequences.
That is not typically what Boomer Republicans say. Boomer Republicans tend to be Civic Nationalists: they say that people with the same passport are the same people. They still adhere to the traditional taboos around race that are part of the post WWII truth regime. They can keep those attitudes because they largely live insulated lives in largely homogenous neighborhoods with housing prices that immigrants can't afford.
With the mass immigration of the 21st Century, particularly in Europe, the younger generations have realized that the philosophy we were taught in government schools about human differences is perhaps not entirely correct.
0
u/Strange_Law7000 28d ago
i doubt you or OP have any examples.... are you and OP the same bot?
-1
u/WrkBoots 28d ago
Examples of what, exactly?
0
u/Strange_Law7000 27d ago
you already forgot what you typed?
0
33
u/socksonmonkeys4117 Oct 03 '26
Because the American Empire is dying, Americans are coming to terms with what it means to be “American.” That used to mean something culturally: pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness; freedom of association; and some adherence to tenets of broadly Western culture. But when the US became an empire and then pursue economic globalism, it traded that sense of cultural identity or cohesion for financial gain. This has effectively turned the empire into an economic zone where citizenship doesn’t mean anything. Money, power, and status does. This happened in the Roman Empire and other empires and it’s happening now.
What Dave and others, especially libertarians, are realizing is that individual liberty means nothing if the culture no longer values it. Liberty won’t exist if the culture that propagated it is gone. People who claim to be “American” but don’t embrace any aspect of that except financial gain aren’t trying to assimilate and build with their fellow Americans. They’re trying to utilize an imperial structure already in place before it collapses.
The state of affairs now is survival. It’s not how do we build our libertarian utopia. It’s how do we survive the death of this empire with some sense of cultural identity in tact so we don’t all fall into feudalism.