In a social environment in which what one *should* think is considered obvious, most people don’t know what they *actually* think because the cost of knowing what you think becomes ostracization or silence.

Show Notes:
1:08 - ChatGPT
7:20 - Technological impact
11:45 - Information bubbles
14:39 - Shaping A.I.
17:45 - First-hand perception
20:39 - Social contract
23:47 - Twitter files
27:14 - Information suppression
30:38 - Incentivized ignorance
36:56 - Self-censorship
42:13 - Societal renewal
47:42 - Knowledge repeating
54:30 - Honest ideas
1:02:02 - Disagreeability

Resources:
ChatGPT openapi.com
HER | Movie https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/
Hunter Biden’s Laptop | NY Post https://nypost.com/2022/11/21/cbs-confirms-hunter-biden-laptop-is-real-769-days-after-post-broke-story/
Power of the Powerless | Vaclav Havel https://www.amazon.com/Power-Powerless-Citizens-Against-Central/dp/0873327616

Ep 141: Artificial intelligence, and incentivized ignorance

There is only one self-justifying thing, and without it, claims of good and bad, right and wrong, are simply the expressions of personal preference.

Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A


Ep 253: Hollowing Morality

Identity is relational, to love is to will the good of the other, relationship requires submission, and the loss of humility and forgiveness in modern culture.

Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A


Ep 254: Love is not transactional

We compare ourselves both to other people, and to the “inner possibilities” of the life we’re meant to live. In this episode we draw wisdom from Carl Jung and Theodore Roosevelt, and discuss social media, identity, AI, and Cain and Able.

"The world is full of people suffering from the effects of their own unlived life. They become bitter, critical, or rigid, not because the world is cruel to them, but because they have betrayed their own inner possibilities. The artist who never makes art becomes cynical about those who do. The lover who never risks loving mocks romance. The thinker who never commits to a philosophy sneers at belief itself. And yet, all of them suffer, because deep down they know: the life they mock is the life they were meant to live.”
—  Carl Jung

“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil.”
— Theodore Roosevelt, 1899


Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A


Ep 255: The Conundrum of Cain

This week on SOI:
The brokenness of the world
Finding hope after you’ve lost it
Asking your real questions
Falling short of the law
Remembering to play
You are not Christ
You are called to participate in the mystery of God

Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A


Ep 256: On brokenness and falling short

We discuss Chase Hughes’ concept of frames and scripts, using personas in design, and beauty in art and the concept of Deathworks developed by Philip Rieff.

Chase Hughes - https://www.instagram.com/chasehughesofficial/?hl=en
Frames, scripts, and personas
Intent is required for beauty to exist
Philip glass, Tacit (Matt got it wrong, it’s John Cage and the piece is called 4’33”) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4′33″
Can art be malicious?
Deathworks - art as mockery
Seeing the ugly is is sometimes necessary
Lord of the rings - “Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them?”

Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A


Ep 257: Beauty and Mockery

It’s easy to see when something holy or sacred is violated, it’s harder to say what holiness and the sacred are. An AI representation of dead relatives leads to a conversation about specifying and naming that which is ultimately sacred and good.

The AI video and tweet referenced in the conversation - https://x.com/BretWeinstein/status/1989413085753577593?s=20

Darkhorse episode about AI facsimiles - https://www.youtube.com/live/rwchVSW4B9g?si=PaZ3zMx1Px-rhnX_

Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A


Ep 258: Specifying What is Holy

Alison Vaclav joins us to discuss: 
Language as a parasite
Language is the barrier to all knowledge 
Naming things
How do we learn to trust someone?
Empathy management 
Trauma tourism
First thoughts
Breaking expectations
Pain is mostly fear
What is fear?
How do you let go of fear?
Death
Where do ideas, questions, and answers come from?


Find us here:
Alison Vaclav - https://www.pagemageworkshops.com
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A


Ep 259: What shall we do (with Alison Vaclav)?

The internet often makes us feel like non-player characters in the world. We explore this phenomenon and what correctives might look like. Things as simple as a compliment or an acknowledgment can transform an NPC into a main character, like the black and white changes to color in the Wizard of Oz.

References:
Michael at Bitcoin Park - https://youtu.be/JjVazsu0RCw?si=GNkX8ugE3wUfupBW
55 things at 55 - https://x.com/Camp4/status/1992958445885198805?s=46
Drinking out of hoses - https://www.instagram.com/reel/CsXhIgQsTUw/?hl=en

Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A

Ep 260: The Fake Internet vs. The Real World

We close out 2025 examining regret, success, and service—why failure is human, death is the cost of life, and how serving others reveals who we truly are.

The Abolition of Man - https://a.co/d/j7kjtIK
Steve Jobs on Failure - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkTf0LmDqKI

Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A

Ep 261: Shores of 2025

We kick off 2026 with a discussion about reality, tribalism, and the vibe shifts post 2020.

Find us here:
x.com/mattmccloskey
x.com/michaelvaclav
All Matt’s Links - https://solo.to/mattmccloskey
All Michael’s Links - https://solo.to/michaelvaclav
Sovereign Goods - www.etsy.com/shop/SovereignThreadGoods
Cafe Medici - mediciroasting.com/?srsltid=AfmBOo…9eDe2OliQmjTc2A

Ep 262: 2026 is a Blank Canvas

A podcast by Matt McCloskey and Michael Vaclav

Ep 141: Artificial intelligence, and incentivized ignorance

Shores of Ignorance