Entrepreneur, investor, and well-known smartypants Naval Ravikant recently made the following post on Twitter(X):
The quote is rather famous. It was originally said by Oscar R. Benavides, general turned president of Peru in the 1930s. It is a perfect and succinct encapsulation of political cronyism and tyranny.
And Naval is quite correct to point out how relevant that quote is — always, really, but especially today.
Joe Biden’s casual vote-buying scheme with the student debt cancellation is clumsy and obvious. Even worse, billions more dollars are funneled towards projects and people (and foreign governments) that are “friendly” with the Biden regime.
And of course, enemies of the regime receive “the law”.
The desperate and flimsy and preposterous examples of lawfare against Donald Trump are a perfect example of what Naval means when he quotes Benavides.
And there is much much more.
Look at the wildly disparate application of “the law” towards the trespassers on January 6, 2021 versus the destructive hooliganism witnessed by BLM and Antifa activists during the “Summer of Love” in 2020.
Friends of the regime receive slaps on the wrist, if that. Burn down a neighborhood? Attack a federal courthouse for weeks on end? Meh. These things happen. What can you do?
But for enemies? The full weight of the law. The January 6 “insurrectionists” were pursued to the ends of the earth. No amount of time and effort was too much to expend on catching these “criminals”. For them, prison time, solitary confinement, ruination.
After all, “No one is above the law”.
Well, except so very many people do seem to be “above the law” — just not political opponents.
I hope you’ve discarded any myths you may have once held about the blindness of American justice and the impartial application of the law in this country. I’m doubtful that was ever the case, but it certainly isn’t now.
Alvin Bragg, the New York District Attorney who waged successful lawfare against Donald Trump invented out of whole cloth a novel legal theory never before used. Using this theory, he elevated an irrelevant paperwork misdemeanor into a felony — or 34 of them if you are a propagandist. He did all this to try to take down a political opponent of Joe Biden.
This is the same DA who is famous for downgrading felonies to misdemeanors in crime-riddled New York City. He’s also the DA who famously charged a bodega clerk with murder and set a $500,000 bail when 61-year-old Jose Alba was violently attacked by a lunatic over a bag of potato chips and successfully defended his life, killing his attacker.
“For my friends, everything. For my enemies, the law”
We live in dangerous and confusing times, my friends. I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen next. But I am glad that smart and influential people like Naval Ravikant see what’s going on and are speaking out about it.
I can’t guarantee it’ll turn you into a super-smartypants like Naval, but if you want to upgrade your understanding if history, economics, logic, and political philosophy, I highly recommend looking into Liberty Classroom.
Much wisdom can be found there by eager and receptive minds such as yours.
Naturally,
Adam