Anthony Rispo

03/01/2026

02/28/2026

The political left and the isolationist Right are opposite in so many ways, but are the same when it comes to their confusion about Iran.

02/25/2026

If you want a seat at the table, sit at the table.
Boycotting the State of the Union isn’t about principle; it’s performative, resembling adolescent politics from a party that wants to believe so hard to be the “adults in the room.”

Psychologically, this is classic expectancy violation > trait inference: people expect composure in a specific context. When you break that expectation, independents don’t just judge the moment — they judge the person (or the party). The stunt is supposed to signal virtue, but it can boomerang into “performative, immature, emotionally undisciplined.”

Resilience is staying present under pressure, not storming out to prove a point. If you can’t model self-regulation, you don’t get to claim the moral high ground.

02/24/2026

This was such a great conversation!

Luke co-authored a recently published paper that explored several hypotheses about political rigidity. The approach is called “adversarial collaboration,” in which two teams of scientists with competing hypotheses work together to get closer to the truth.

Luke is a true scientist. His book, “Liberal Bullies,” draws on extensive empirical evidence about authoritarianism on the left. Still, he sounds a clarion to the right: that there exists rising authoritarian tendencies on that side, just as well.

In this episode the boys are joined by Dr. Luke Conway. Luke is a social psychology researcher, professor, and author who has over a hundred pieces on the ps...

02/24/2026

In my last video, I talked about the controversy surrounding Gavin Newsom's low SAT score, which he discussed in front of a crowd in Georgia.

We were told that it was a Black audience. This has not been verified. It was convenient for the media to use that template to generate rage.

Here’s the psychology and neuroscience of what’s going on. More of my content will start sounding like this.

02/24/2026

Do you think what Gavin Newsom said about his SAT score was a slip — or just standard politician behavior, trying to cut space with an audience?

What stood out to me more was the reaction. A lot of conservative social media doesn’t seem to actually believe he’s racist here — it feels more like a double-standard check.

I get the impulse. But that’s the danger: when we start using the same motive-reading template the left has used for years, we stop exposing the game and start playing it.

02/21/2026

NOTE: This $12 billion budget gap didn’t shrink because of some “tax justice” policy.

It shrank because Wall Street had a great year. Bonuses increased, taxable income went up, and the city benefited from the boom. The revenue engine he criticizes is actually the same one that softened the crisis.

Such irony...

He supported expensive mandates, pushed for higher taxes on the wealthy, and now that the state won’t approve the tax policies, he’s turning to what he can control: property tax increases, raid on reserves, and pressure on the people who keep this city going.

And this is where the whole situation falls apart politically.

His appeal to young voters with promises of “tax the rich,” moralizing the economy, and saying they can have everything without tradeoffs is nothing new, but reality eventually catches up.

Now, those who voted for this are stuck:
- if he taxes them, it’s seen as betrayal.
- if he cuts programs they depend on, it’s considered cruelty.
- if he fails to tax the wealthy, it’s seen as weakness.

That’s what results from selling a moral fantasy instead of an actual plan to govern.

He’s right. The burden of fixing this crisis shouldn’t fall on working- and middle-class New Yorkers. But it also should not fall on the economic engine that keeps the city afloat and eased the crisis.

02/19/2026

About that $12billion that wasn’t accounted for, that “Mamdani’s team found…” even though he voted for certain spending as a state assemblyman that became too expensive to maintain …

Well, they managed to get the state to chip away at the 12b, and guess who else? Wall Street. Why? Because trading has been hot. Yep! Capitalism. This allowed for higher personal income, which was taxed, hence, Wall Street forked up the most— $7.3b

This money effectively helped curb the excesses of dummy socialistic economics that made spending too hard to manage.

Blithering idiocy…

But … thank you, Capitalism!

02/16/2026

Always love collaborating with The Free Press!

02/12/2026

Awwww you poooor witttle white person. You’re just a white person. A white person who “needs to sit down and shut up” and “do the work.” 🤢🤢🤢

THEY ARE BAAAAACK! The insufferable white liberal racists!

So, you really believe you’re needed, huh? Pathetic. This is just disgusting and pathetic. So, black and brown people can’t think for themselves?

White liberals who think like this are an utter disgrace, and yet, they’re so rabid with internal turmoil and struggle, always fighting their urge not to call it for what it is: they don’t know how to admit that they are the ones who actually dislike “POC.” They barely interact with people like them, and they would absolutely freak out and implode if they EVER spent a day around people who don’t look or sound like them. Unless they’re volunteering to help “the poor souls.”

I’m so tired of these people. Truly. And you are the people who call everyone racists.

Face it: you really do think you are superior.

You’ve made our lives a collective living hell for years, and YOU’RE EXHAUSTING. And you’ve received in return the level of bu****it you’ve dished out …

02/09/2026

Honestly, today's ideologies are so strong that they have developed into two collective psychologies. The problem is that both sides hate it when their behavioral tendencies are generalized, but they are very easy to generalize. It’s either “you’re a racist,” or “you’re not a proper American.”

My criticisms differ for both ends of the ideological spectrum, but the core issue with both is that they are in a state of hyper-vigilance. You can’t truly engage higher levels of thinking, even with a high IQ, if you’re constantly distracted by how much “the other side” poses a threat to you.

This really needs to stop. The solution IS SO UNCOMFORTABLE, but it’s actually simple: emotion regulation and leading with curiosity. From “I can’t believe you X,” to “I really want to understand why you believe X.” But you have to want to understand genuinely—that’s called intellectual humility.

Engage with the individual rather than the group they belong to. In other words, avoid seeing a person merely as a reflection of a group. Keep in mind that people are complex, and everyone, even those you dislike, faces similar challenges as you do.

02/07/2026

We’re living in an era of heightened threat sensitivity—when the brain’s salience systems crank up, attention narrows, and we start scanning harder for “proof” of whatever we already think is dangerous. In plain terms: when you feel threatened, your mind becomes a spotlight, not a floodlight.

That’s why the Truth Social clip that briefly included the racist primate depiction of the Obamas detonated instantly. The snippet was real, it was racist on its face, and it was removed after backlash.

But here’s what it also looked like, mechanically: careless phone editing. If you’ve ever edited on your phone, you know how this happens. People often screen-record a sequence of clips from their camera roll (or an app) and then pull the segment they want. The problem is: screen-recording captures everything in the sequence—including whatever clip is next in line—unless you go back and trim/crop it out cleanly. This looked less like a “coded message” and more like someone rushing, reposting, and not doing the basic trimming step that prevents a stray snippet from slipping in.

And this is exactly why we have to slow down and think.

When the nervous system gets activated—sympathetic arousal, adrenaline/cortisol physiology, the whole “fight-or-flight” package—your brain prioritizes speed and certainty, not nuance. It’s not that you can’t think; it’s that you’re biased toward rapid threat-labeling and away from deliberation.

So the skill we need to practice is noticing that autonomic flare-up in real time:
- the rush of heat
- the tight chest
- the instant “I knew it”
- the urge to share before you’ve processed

That’s the moment to force the harder move: generate alternative explanations before locking in a verdict. Because yes—seeing a racist image is enough to trigger moral disgust. But going from “this clip is racist” to “Trump intentionally posted this as a racist signal” is an extra step that requires evidence, not reflex—especially when the most boring explanation (sloppy editing) fits the mechanics.