April 2025 Links
Tesla reactions, the Alamo, why Google search sucks, and more. 7 links.
Metaphor of the month: “The fingers didn’t feel anything. They might just as well have been a bunch of bananas.” - Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler.
What happens when you buy a Tesla these days? Some strange reactions and the decline of rationality.
A particularly odd reaction was the attempt at ‘status shaming’ over buying an EV. It used to be owning an electric vehicle got you mocked as ‘less manly.’ Now, a different group is attacking it from a different direction. The message seems to be, “save the planet - but not like that.” This is honestly why we’re never going to save the planet.
Why the Alamo still matters. And a good summary of Davy Crockett’s life.
The revisionists also ignore the widespread opposition throughout Mexico to Santa Anna’s dictatorship and scrapping of the 1824 Constitution. In addition to Texas, both Yucatan and the Mexican states immediately across the Rio Grande from Texas formed republics and seceded from Mexico, albeit unsuccessfully.
Why tariffs are good. Trump is not the only modern leader proposing and implementing tariffs (look at Biden), despite the histrionics of the mainstream news who suddenly care about the topic.
Governments are resorting to tariffs and industrial policy, not because their prime ministers and presidents flunked Econ 101, but because they do not want their economies deindustrialized by a flood of low-priced, state-subsidized Chinese imports.