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Know your rights, and don’t get played.

A man from Las Vegas, in Denver for one night, is asked what question Denver should be answering and instead works his way through what AI is actually for, why he thinks the country is short of leadership, and the thing he keeps returning to: that most of what happens to people happens because they did not know their rights.

He starts on AI, and his objection is not technical. It is that you cannot tell what you are talking to. “you can’t trust it, you don’t know if it’s real, if that’s really your girlfriend.” But he is not dismissive of it either, and the distinction he draws is sharp: it is a tool for getting started, not for thinking. “People sometimes that aren’t really active thinking” need something to lead their first thought, and AI can be that, the way a spider diagram is.

Asked for the most impactful person he knows, he lands on Michael Jordan and then immediately complicates it. The influence is everywhere and it is mostly commercial, “Fake, real, everything.” What he actually wants to talk about is who is influencing the economy, and his answer is nobody. “our society just right now is just really a lack of leadership.” He dates the last time it felt otherwise to around 2004, when he was in high school.

On Trump he is more careful than the internet is. He grants that people believed in him because they wanted change, and that some of what was promised was addressed. He also says the attention went to the wrong place, “he just thinks about the Mexican border”, and that the balance has shifted: “more people are kind of still thinking bad about him instead of some of the good things that he was doing.”

The middle of the piece is Maceo explaining crypto to somebody with no reason to be impressed, and being pushed back on properly. The pitch is that money can move without a third party and without permission. The reply is the most common and most reasonable objection there is: “So that’s why I’m not really into it, because it’s more of a speculative thing.” It takes a while to separate the speculation from the mechanism, and it is worth watching because that argument almost never gets made this plainly to somebody who is not already sold.

What lands is not the technology. It is the part about not being able to be shut off: an account frozen without charge is a thing that happens to people, and that they have to come and arrest you rather than simply take it.

That is where he brings it home, and it is the reason the piece is on the site. “it’s a matter of knowing or not knowing or not let the government play you.” Then, twice more, in his own words: “It’s a matter of enlightening folks and being knowledgeable,” and “knowing your rights to survive in our system.”

He is talking about Vegas rather than Denver by the end, and about people being too frightened to say anything: “people can’t be scared to come out and protest about those things that are wrong.” And he finishes somewhere more hopeful than the rest of it earns, which is left exactly as he said it, that if you put the right thing in front of Trump, “when you bring those things across to him, what he needs to do, he’ll do it.” Then, after a beat: “I hope.”

He is not named here. Two names pass on the tape and neither can be attached to him with any confidence, and a guessed name is worse than none.

What is in it

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Transcript

Transcribed with Whisper from the original audio, so nothing is masked. Names corrected. Published in full, as spoken, so it can be read, searched and quoted. Search every transcript →

0:00You want to be on film? Just shouting people out? We’re not shouting people out, we’re asking people questions. You just keep saying stuff. Yeah, we’re asking people questions. I’ve been doing this thing where I’ve been using a podcast style. And I’m trying to get more into doing man on the street content now. And I’m like, okay, going out and trying to do journalism, trying to get the story. What are the stories? I feel like we don’t have as much of the journalism there. And so we’re trying to figure out what is the question we should be asking people. Yeah, essentially. Okay, so what are the questions that you should ask people?

0:34What’s the question you have about Denver right now? A question that I have about Denver? I’m from Las Vegas. I’m not from Denver. But I’m in Denver for the night. I’m trying to see what’s up with the ladies. I’m trying to find these nice fucking girls, get them interviewing, saying things. We were asking about AI, too. Do you like AI? Imagine, he said he’d make some ghosts and scare him away, talking about AI, what’s going on? They were here though, they- AI seems, AI seems as if it could be tapped, you know what I’m saying, like you don’t know, you know what I’m saying, if you really talk to even another person or, you know, artificial, you know, some artificial intelligence, yeah, you can’t trust it, you don’t know if it’s real, if that’s really your girlfriend, if it’s not, you know what I’m saying, but, so, yeah, he’s right, yeah, you know, it’s just based on that person,

1:31Some people use it for school and stuff so like do you have business or anything you know like what do you do for like a living like does that help you AI help you at all in your life you know organizing thoughts AI really doesn’t a lot of people just use the chat box It’s not telling people about AI It’s not me because it’s not I’m just asking I’m not dependent on, you know what I’m saying I’m not slow People sometimes that aren’t really active thinking They need to kind of be led The AI will help lead their You know, their first thought And then, you know, like

2:09Like a web, spider web You know, brainstorming So when you don’t know, it’s like selling somebody Something, Maceo It’s like, oh, you like a girl right? Pick which one, you know what I’m saying? Black, white, Mexican, shit like that So, it’s something that’s interesting, it’s something that, as far as designers, it’s something that’s profitable, that’s gonna sell, something that people’s gonna be interested in So, I have another question, I have another question Who is the most impactful person that I know? The most impactful person that I know? I don’t want to say, like, Michael Jordan I mean, you can. Everybody has Michael George, you know?

2:49Well, for different reasons, right? I mean, for different reasons, but everybody does. I mean, like, almost everybody. You know, you wouldn’t say it’s a sterile, typical kind of shoe for a person or clothing or redline, but you see it everywhere. You know what I’m saying? Fake, real, everything, you know?

3:07He’s indirectly influential, but something that’s kind of influential that somebody that’s influential that’s helping our economy right now, there’s people trying, but there’s anyone that’s really, our economy is so hurt right now that it’s still coming out that depression, that recession, that it’s still not, you know what I’m saying? The people still are still trying to be motivated by our leaders that are in office right now, like Trump. Some people might have believed in him, but as, you know, his stay in office, Because, you know, as teen year in office continues, more people are kind of still thinking bad about him instead of some of the good things that he was doing.

3:50Okay, man. You know, because sometimes there’s folk that want to see change. So with the current economy and some of the things that was going on, and those things that aren’t changing, they believe in Trump and things like that. And he still, he just thinks about the Mexican border and some of the things that, you know, So he did address some of the things that people are concerned about, but there’s still a lot of things that, you know, he’s still doing that people are kind of still, you know, what’s going on with Trump That they’re missing out on? Yeah, that they’re missing out on, yeah, totally, but just our society just right now is just really a lack of leadership

4:28Like there used to be, say, when we were in high school or something like that, 2004 or something like that When there’s more leadership, the economy is more better, people, you know, were more happier, things like that, you know, inflation wasn’t hard, gas prices, home, like, home purchases and things. You know, it’s funny you bring up inflation that you’re talking about, inflation. Well, like, yeah, Craig, you heard about crypto at all? I’ve heard about it, but I really don’t know too much about it or what’s the benefit of it. The big benefit of crypto to me is that I can send money and receive money and store money without anybody even the government being able to take it from me. Even if it’s not a lot of money I could store five dollars in a crypto wallet and even the cops they think I’m a criminal. Do it double? Like if you have five dollars is it really like fifteen? That’s like speculative so it might or it might not but the important thing is you can actually keep just dollars like US dollars in a wallet.

5:25So that’s why I’m not really into it, because it’s more of a speculative thing, it’s not a matter of fact, you don’t really know if it’s going to double up, you know what I’m saying? So if it was just using money to pay for the concert or pay for stuff, and it just stayed a dollar, would you use it if it cut the government out? If it processed in my pocket, yeah. Well no, it doesn’t hurt your pocket at all, it just stays a dollar. You pay me a dollar, I pay you a dollar. But it cuts out credit card companies, no taxes, no anything else.

5:54No government intervention. I can give you money, you can give me money. We’re saying Vegas, right? There is a tax. We don’t have sales sales. Yeah. Oh, shit. So, Bitcoin wouldn’t really make a difference. Yeah, I don’t know why you’re talking about sales tax, peer-to-peer stuff. He’s talking about inflation. Inflation is the opportunity. I hear you talking about sales. I’m talking about the ability to send money and receive money without a third party. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then USDC doesn’t change in value. But you have to... What? USDC. I know, it doesn’t matter, ignore USDC. The premise of Bitcoin is that inflation is they’re printing more money, but they can’t print more Bitcoin. That’s the whole premise of Bitcoin. It’s supposed to be like, like you’re saying, there’s no government intervention. As opposed to every year, your dollar can be worth less. The Bitcoin might stay the same, but the dollar’s getting worth less, so Bitcoin looks like it’s getting more expensive. But it’s just like the eggs, it’s just going up in price because the dollar’s going down. And so that’s kind of where crypto came from. But I’m like, oh, you can talk about that. And he’s like, no, I’m going to pay that.

6:49So our value is going down, the value of the U.S. dollar is going down. Yeah, only faster by the year. And the Bitcoin only... Only faster by the year because of the economy and shit.

7:02So no, all I was saying, you know, you don’t see my side, is that people can send each other money. Yeah. And instead of them freezing the assets, if I sell my friend weed and it’s legal here in Colorado, say, right, they can’t just shut my bank account down. They have to come and arrest me and do something. They can’t fuck with my money. We have more probable cause and shit like that. It’s just like they can’t seize your asses, that’s all you can. Yeah, so it’s a matter of knowing or not knowing or not let the government play you, it’s a shame, you know what I’m saying?

7:28Because they will. If you don’t know that, they can’t do that. Yeah. You know what I’m saying? But if you don’t know that and they try to push that and you just let them do it, you know what I’m saying? It’s a matter of enlightening folks and being knowledgeable, you know what I’m saying?

7:46And knowing your rights to survive in our system because our government is fucked up, I don’t know about Denver, but Vegas, man, there’s so many political fucked up shit that people can’t be scared to come out and protest about those things that are wrong because those people are in office will change. You have to believe that. Trump will, when you bring those things across to him, what he needs to do, he’ll do it. You know what I’m saying? I hope. Fuck yeah. All right. Well, thank you, bro. I appreciate it. What’s your name? That’s free, alright, nice to meet you, homie

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