EXIT Podcast

This is a preview of our full interview with Auron MacIntyre. The full episode is available to paid subscribers at blog.exitgroup.us.

In this episode, we review David Kilcullen's latest book, The Dragons and the Snakes, which addresses how the empire's enemies have learned to fight it and win.In the first section, Kilcullen identifies the evolutionary process that has produced the surviving configuration of America's enemies after 20 years of the GWOT. He discusses how these actors have been shaped by the present technological and cultural terrain — and especially how they have learned to draw power from global-scale economic and cultural power flows without making themselves a global-scale military threat that justifies American intervention.In the second section, he describes the process of vertical escalation, in which a weaker actor can calibrate its aggressive action to stay below a stronger enemy's threshold of detection, attribution, or response — especially as practiced by Putin's Russia.The Russians' conventional military has been gutted by the shock therapy and corruption of the post-Soviet collapse, but they still have nuclear weapons and a very effective intelligence service — so they have learned to calibrate their conflict with the West to make best use of their peer capabilities, while avoiding a conventional war.He also describes how both the Russians and Americans use deniable methods (“election interference”, color revolutions, migrant warfare, etc.) to sow confusion and exploit internal divisions in their enemies' political systems.Next, Kilcullen outlines the Chinese adoption of horizontal escalation as described in Unrestricted Warfare — in which a weaker actor fights in domains that their stronger opponent does not recognize as military, and may not even perceive as hostile.This method of warfare is also described as a “conceptual envelopment”, because the weaker opponent holds the stronger enemy to a standoff in the conventional military domain (in China's case, building credible radars, AA systems, hypersonics, etc. in the South China Sea), but they conduct their real advance on the conceptual “flank” — in this case, buying strategically significant real estate and politicians, replacing Western manufacturing, encouraging mass third-world migration, and dumping fentanyl in the American heartland.As with a conventional flanking maneuver, the goal is to roll the enemy up from the rear, and only push through the front when the battle is effectively over.Kilcullen then suggests some possible ways that the empire might arrest or reverse its decline — but a radical renegotiation of American hegemony looks all but inevitable. We discuss what that might mean for us as ordinary citizens, and as targets of the regime's hostility.The good news is that the most important preparation for what is coming is having useful friends you can trust — and making them is 100% legal. Join us at exitgroup.us.

K9 Reaper is a private security contractor and community safety activist in South Africa.As a zoomer, he has no memory of the Before Times — but he has had a front-row seat as things have gone from bad to worse, particularly since the 2021 riots. Copper thieves who would have fled the scene with their hand tools five years ago are now firing on first responders with automatic rifles.The primary vector of state violence in South Africa is a kind of persecution-by-incompetence, in which white South Africans are shut out of the ever-expanding sphere of government investment while their productive efforts are heavily taxed, expropriated, embezzled, and wasted.The starkest symbol of this process is copper cable theft, in which multibillion-dollar energy infrastructure, painstakingly assembled by highly skilled laborers and engineers over decades, is sabotaged and stripped for a $50 payday at an illegal scrapping camp.As in America, the violence is outsourced via race-baiting propaganda aimed at the criminal underclass. But unlike in the States, South Africans enjoy broad latitude in patrolling their communities and violently subduing criminals — partly because the government needs them to maintain basic order, and partly because the government isn't really competent to stop them.K9 Reaper notes that South African private security forces number 2.7 million, by far the largest such industry in the world — dwarfing both the South African police (~150,000) and the standing army (~100,000, including reservists).As the South African state receded in competence, private security filled the gap in an entirely legal and non-adversarial way, until eventually their role was integrated into regular law enforcement procedure.This process has unfolded gradually over decades, until one day, despite having no constitutionally guaranteed right to firearms or self defense — and in fact facing extreme racial disprivilege under the law — white South Africans have, in practice, more expansive “2A rights” than Americans.Ethnic enclaves like Orania also became possible on the same terms: not because the South African government is so tolerant and liberal, but because they simply don't have the juice to do much about it.I wouldn't trade places with them at this point, but it illustrates how declining states leak power, which always presents opportunity.It can be very depressing to discover that your “constitutional rights” are not self-enforcing. On the other hand, it's liberating to realize that what matters is the practical question: what are you able to do, and who is going to stop you?Start building with us at exitgroup.us.

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry discusses the rallye mondain, a private network of social events held by French aristocratic families to ensure that their children marry well.Follow him on X at pegobry_en - and check out my retrospective writeup on the EXIT blog:https://blog.exitgroup.us/p/57-peg-on-the-french-aristocracys

On the "entrepreneurial temperament" Acceleration and deterritorialization What we can learn from the techbros What to do when you have no idea what to do

Stormy Waters is a partner at a venture capital firm. He came to the EXIT weekly group call to talk to the boys about what VCs look for in a founder or project, how to pitch, etc. He also gave an interesting take on the volatile financial situation in the coming months and years. Had him on the show to elaborate.Follow him on X at @normandodd_knew.

In this episode I summarize Natal Conference and discuss why we started it, what we learned from producing it, and what's coming next.

Selective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy is BAP's dissertation, which has been floating around as a PDF for several years, but which you can now pay to read here: https://amzn.to/3QqB7xKIt is a decent summary of the insights that have made BAP one of the most important ideological figures of this generation.

This week, Christopher Nolan reminds that J Robert Oppenheimer was a sensitive young man who did nothing wrong.

Pluribus is a crowd-funded "cancellation insurance" platform, where users can pledge to support their favorite writers and thinkers in the even that they lose a revenue stream (get fired from a day job, banned from Youtube, etc.)Tyler came to EXIT almost two years ago, looking for a team to help him develop the concept, and last week, Pluribus went live. I interview Tyler about why cancellation insurance is essential to free speech, how he built his team, and why he chose to build it with EXIT.

A discussion of WWI veteran Ernst Junger's book The Forest Passage, in which he describes many of the problems that our corner of the internet obsesses over to this day: cybernetics, technique, the capture of democratic institutions through mass media, etc.

Author Johann Kurtz relates his experience at major tech companies, and why he thinks dissidents under the value of these companies as a launching point for their ambitions. We discuss: What megacorps know that online dissidents don't Getting into Big Tech without a STEM degree How to prepare for a highly competitive interview Finding friends & allies without revealing your power level The horizons that open up after a few years undercoverYou can read the article that inspired this conversation on Johann's Substack, Becoming Noble.

In this episode, Drew Gorham and I announce the first-ever Natal Conference, December 1-2, 2023 in Austin, TX.We discuss why we believe this is the most important issue of our generation, a few angles we've been studying personally, and what we hope to learn from the conference.You can get your tickets now at natalism.org, sign up for our newsletter, and follow the conference on Twitter.

EXIT member and shaolin.ai founder Zach Martin and I discuss what the machines have planned for us in 2023. What creatives and wordcels need to learn to make money with AI How a large language model like ChatGPT differs from true AI How NLP opens up new frontiers for machine learning & surveillance Why ChatGPT probably isn't the Singularity Launching a business with EXIT

Even among smart dissident types, the default explanation for the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan is basically just “grit” and “sticktuitiveness” and “giving 110%” (plus maybe “asabiyyah”, which is a $10 dissident word for “teamwork”).But if that was the secret sauce, it doesn't explain why ISIS collapsed under comparatively light military pressure, never to return; or why Al Qaeda is basically a dead meme.Out of the Mountains doesn't set out to answer that question — it was published in 2013, when Afghanistan was nearly pacified, al Qaeda was still a going concern, and ISIS was the new hotness in Sunni extremism.In fact, Kilcullen's thesis is that urbanized, internet-savvy, transnational guerrilla movements will be able to access power flows, and it's a pretty persuasive thesis — but with a decade of hindsight, it turned out to be the comparatively rural, isolated, local movement that defeated the empire. So what happened?The short answer is that they auditioned to replace the state across the spectrum of control — including punitive violence, but also the pedestrian tasks of recordkeeping and adjudication and governance. They wove their legitimacy into ordinary people's water rights, their inheritances, their personal disputes — so that even people who were indifferent to the Taliban's ideological program became invested in the Taliban's stability and growth.This is also, by the way, exactly how the American diplomatic corps conquered the world — by becoming the broker and underwriter of international agreements that even unaligned (or even unfriendly) countries come to depend on. That authority requires global force projection to be credible, of course, but force projection alone is not enough.In this episode, I explore how non-state groups hide within, and eventually capture, the power flows that make a state a state, and what we can learn from it.

Wheelwright is a farmer and well-known poster (twitter.com/ploughmansfolly). We discuss the spiritual value of confronting death and violence on the farm, the partnership between man and beast, building community in declining areas, finding the people you can be tolerant and cooperative with, etc.

Dan Baltic is the host of the New Write Podcast and author of NUTCRANKR, a novel about a persecuted Hero of the West who lances the boil of postmodern degeneracy in a series of epistles published to a porn message board. We discuss the sane normie roots of Cancel Culture, the creative scene on our side of the internet, and what to do about guys like Spencer Grunhauer.

Nima Cheraghi is an EXIT member and Philosopher who is currently translating a memoir from the Baltic Freikorps. We discuss how search engines create selective memory, why capitalism feels increasingly centrally planned, and why academics suck at history, and pretty much everything else.

Great conversation with Clay Martin, Green Beret, preparedness expert, and author of Concrete Jungle, Prairie Fire, Last Son of the War God, and Wrath of the Wendigo.We discuss how to network and prepare without getting Waco'd, how to teach boys what they need to know without getting sued, who you need to know in your local area, and how to be useful in an emergency when you're not a leg-breaker.

John Taylor manages a factory in the US. We discuss what he has learned about the state of American labor - it's both worse and better than you think - and how beef became the symbol of the Rights of Englishmen.

@DegreeStudies is back to talk about the Musk Twitter purchase, the RW blackpilling in response to the midterm fiasco, and the desire to lead versus the desire to serve.

It's been just over a year; a good time to take stock of what we've accomplished, and what's next.

Christian is an EXIT member who is one year into his fintech startup, raposa.trade, which an algorithmic trading platform that allows investors to create their own trading bots without code. We discuss the lessons of the first year, the surprises that came at launch, and why this project is his dream.

Paul Tijerina owns superhumantransformation.com, a health and wellness coaching business. We discuss how to monetize obsession, the psychospiritual component of motivation and discipline, and how to pound the pavement.

I love doing the EXIT Podcast, but I'm realizing it doesn't give you a clear picture of what EXIT looks like on the inside -- so this week we're doing something a little different. Two EXIT members have volunteered to have a discussion about their entrepreneurial ideas on the air, just like we would do on the entrepreneurship call, or a Hot Seat. Josh Tobler runs a digital marketing agency (longtaildragon.com) and is interested in expanding his business while continuing to serve small clients. Kyle Albert is a software developer who is looking to build side businesses that can eventually replace his W-2 job.

Abbie Platt is a friend of mine, and is leading the resistance against CRT, sex education, and mask mandates in the Loudoun County public schools in Northern Virginia. We discuss how this situation got out of hand for years under parents' noses, how COVID remote schooling woke them up, and what they're doing to fight it.

Harry is an EXIT member, and founder of becomepluribus.com, a product to help insure content creators against the threat of cancellation through pledged contributions. We discuss how he got the project off the ground without Learning to Code, and the huge downstream impacts that are possible from projects like these.

Cody blew up on Twitter last year after quitting his job as a physician's assistant - now he has left healthcare altogether, writes fiction and is starting a construction business. We wanted to talk about the experience of leaving behind a substantial investment in a credentialed job like that, and why more and more guys in bug jobs are heading in that direction.

Brett is a published novelist who runs our content creation call. We talk about how he closed a multi-book deal with a major retailer, and how that deal fell apart because they didn't like his tweets. Fortunately, self-publishing has come a long way - we discuss his forays into that world, also the eternal anon vs face debate, & policy solutions that could make free speech easier.

Conversation with EXIT member John Dell about being goof-off subsidized homesteaders, making friends out in the country, getting the fellas together irl, etc.

Most primary care doctors serve 2000-3000 patients per year, which means they basically get ten minutes with the patient, once or twice a year. Dr. Rohal's practice (covenantmd.net) serves 800 patients per provider on a direct subscription basis. With no insurance, and no elaborate coding or billing, he's able to keep overhead costs much lower and spend much more time understanding the needs of each patient. We discuss the direct primary care model, as well as Christian health-sharing ministries, and other tools for entrepreneurs to meet their family's healthcare needs outside the corporate insurance system.

Joe is a data scientist and lecturer in Complexity Studies at appliedcomplexity.io. His study of complex systems has led him to a passion for building communities and carving out space at human scale, which we're all about here at EXIT. He operates a homestead in rural New Hampshire, where he is active in local government and working to build real things in the real world.

Joe Kent is a SOF veteran running for Congress in Washington's 3rd district. He's running on a promise to demand accountability for the 2020 election, reverse invasive COVID policies, and rein in the unholy alliance between the DNC and the security state. We discuss why political action is still relevant, and how he thinks we can end the corruption and take the country back.

Jenine & Taylor Abegg own savannahill.com, an online jewelry store. Jenine went from buying beads and wire from Michaels to sell to her friends, to having her designs mass-produced overseas and featured at Costco. It's difficult to go into business for yourself - but many people who have succeeded in "owning their job" are nervous about scaling up into a business with employees, suppliers, long-term contracts, etc. So I wanted to talk to Jenine about how they made it happen.

If you can learn to code, the path to EXIT is pretty straightforward: you're marketable wherever you go, and you can demonstrate your competence with a five minute review of your Github. If you're a "people person", it's easy to feel locked into your corporate gig, because the value you've built is in your insights, your inside connections, the institutional respectability of your associations, and your credibility. Those assets can be difficult to take with you, or to demonstrate to a new audience. David Moore leveraged a corporate operations internship into a sales job, then started a pharmaceutical sales business, then sold the business. Now he's effectively independent, and can play the long game on projects he cares about. I wanted to learn how he did it. David coordinates the weekly EXIT entrepreneurship call. You can also schedule a 1:1 consultation with David here.

Scott's last turn on the podcast generated so much interest in the group and on Twitter that he decided to join EXIT and pull the trigger on a personal consulting business. He now has a growing portfolio of paying clients, and recently volunteered for a "hot seat" call, in which the full EXIT brain trust helped him to overcome some obstacles to the growth of his business. We discuss the impact of his consulting on his clients' personal and professional success, what he took away from the hot seat, and some projects that we are now working on together. To schedule a free consult with Scott, get on his calendar here.

Owen Cyclops is a friend and author of Channel One, a book that is currently #3 on Amazon's list of comic anthologies, just behind The Far Side and Calvin & Hobbes. Owen and I discuss creating art that can drive a person insane, obsessive consumption of forbidden knowledge, learning to be nice online, what to tell your daughter when she asks if gnomes are real, etc.

Tiffany Langford's family has successfully navigated work and life in an active war zone for decades. She grew up in the Mormon colonies in Chihuahua and Sonora during the height of the drug war, a time when the violence in those regions outstripped the death tolls in Iraq and Afghanistan. Local police and government forces were thoroughly infiltrated by the cartels and could not be trusted. Despite all that, she describes an idyllic rural childhood. We discuss: Thriving in a politically and geographically inhospitable environment The role of American media and military power in protecting the colonies The freedom that comes with state decline Homeschooling and community building

Corey Vandenberg is an EXIT member and cofounder of Clixsy, an online marketing and reputation management agency based in Salt Lake City. We discuss: How to get started in digital marketing Offering a service versus offering a result How to recover from online reputational damage Exclusive reputation management tools for EXIT members

Ray Whitcomb owns Junk Removed Now, a junk hauling service in Colorado Springs, CO. He started from a borrowed truck with an antique trailer, & now owns a shiny F-550 and storage facility, and employs five people. We discuss: Finding stable revenue in a business with few repeat customers Maintaining healthy margins when anyone with a truck can compete on price Getting a minimum-wage MBA and homeschooling rowdy boys Identifying profitable jobs and resale markets

Max is an EXIT member and a dabbler in crypto, real estate, and entrepreneurship - but on this episode, I was particularly interested in his experience at an Ivy League school, and his take on the children of our decadent globalist elite. We discuss: Actual communists versus corporate diversity neoliberals The exodus of competence from elite institutions Interdimensional psychic pedophile vampires The possibility of a rightward preference cascade

DegreeStudies is an EXIT member who researches "online domestic extremism" for the federales. We discuss: Why the deep state interprets memes as irresistible mind-control sorcery Which niche RW microceleb scares the bugman most, & why it is Dr Bennett How Islamic terrorism held the blue/red coalition together What the Russians are actually up to, if anything Remaining human in the face of cybernetic institutions Being in communion with history, & the beauty of LARP

Tactical Minivan is an EXIT member, a software engineer, and a crypto investor at 0xVentures, a blockchain venture capital fund organized as a distributed autonomous organization (DAO). We discuss: Novel applications of blockchain and NFT technology, especially in gaming Making decentralized finance (Defi) accessible to your grandma The closing of the crypto frontier What you need to know to become a blockchain engineer The incoherence of eternal appreciation

Brice is a SOF veteran, an EXIT member, and founder of Antifragile Studies Group, a personal security consultancy. His organization helps individuals navigate dangerous urban environments, secure their homes, and prepare for increased volatility and unreliability in state services and the global supply chain. We discuss: Why there's no escaping urban living or global supply chain dysfunction How individuals can stay safe and even thrive as their environment grows more chaotic What and who you need to know to survive in a declining urban center Skill development for civilians, in order of priority

Brikaeli Guzy is Tanner Guzy's wife, & mother to their five children; Karissa is my wife, & mother to our five children. We discuss: helping women to make an EXIT countering corporate-feminist messaging how to support a spouse who has been doxxed how to rebuild the institutions to support homemaking

Gruntpa is an Iraq and Afghanistan vet with 10 years of experience in information security consulting. His job is find & exploit weaknesses in businesses' IT infrastructure so they can be corrected. We discuss: how to protect your identity online polarization and balkanization what "apocalypse" preparedness is worthwhile for a civilian managing your propaganda diet.

Scott Fischbuch is a good friend of mine & a dangerous Jungian extremist. Most people know it as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), but Scott has elaborated on the system to go well beyond the standard business-school applications. We discuss: finding people who challenge & complement you how to integrate *your* shadow (not just "the shadow") the Jungian roots of the current ideological realignment how we can save the normie why countercultural "tribes" always come off as LARP

Jeff & Rita Ebberts have been in the carpet cleaning business for over 35 years. We get into the details of that industry, but the real treasure here is what they've learned from struggle. They've had to move to a new city & start over from nothing twice. They invented a new cleaning solution, fought a seven-year legal battle with their franchisor over the IP, represented themselves after their lawyers quit the case, & won. Incredible story, don't miss this one.

Johnny Thomas is CEO of Ventana Tek, a renewable energy company focused on reducing households' dependence on the power grid. We discuss: how to discern between good & bad grind homeschool & deinstitutionalizing education entrepreneurship as an ADHD “ideas guy” Renewables for liberty-minded people.

Greg Smith is an EXIT member who owns & operates swiftfixbike.com, a mobile bike repair shop. He was doxxed last month, & it was not a big deal, because he owns & operates a mobile bike repair shop. We discuss: the limits of cancellation the virtues of the suburbs the geisha social refinement required to succeed in the mobile bicycle repair game.

This week we talk with Cindy Sullivan at Nova Bin Wash. She is a serial entrepreneur with experience in fitness centers, dog grooming, and mosquito removal - & she has volunteered to take mentoring calls from the group, so reach out if you're ready to get started. We discuss: buying a truck with low/no money down identifying the right supplier route and execution efficiency finding, coaching, and retaining customers when and whether to scale up