Ep. 1771 - The Worst People Imaginable are Building the Future

April 30, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The Curly Effect: How Leftist Governance and Corporate DEI Drive Away the Competent

The episode opens with a historical curiosity: James Michael Curley, the four-term mayor of Boston who governed from a prison cell while the city's population stagnated, manufacturing fled, and finances collapsed. Yet he kept winning elections. Harvard economists identified the mechanism: Curley raised taxes to hire poor Irishmen for fake government jobs, driving wealthy residents out of Boston. As the rich left, the share of low-income voters who supported Curley grew. Economists call this the "Curly effect"—a strategy of consolidating power by driving away your political opponents.

The Strategy in Action

Matt Walsh argues this is precisely how Democrats plan to govern American cities for the next fifty years. He points to Seattle's socialist Mayor Katie Wilson, who was asked about Washington State's new ten percent tax on millionaires. Her response: "If the ones that leave, like, bye." Walsh notes Wilson is a forty-something woman who never held a real job and admits her parents pay her bills. For every millionaire who flees Seattle, she gains one net vote. The more the city decays, the more job security she has.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Sponsor: Stamps.com** - Ad for shipping and mailing service.
2 (00:30) **The Curly Effect Explained** - Introduction to the political strategy named after Boston mayor James Michael Curley.
3 (02:48) **The Curly Effect in Modern Politics** - How Democrats apply this strategy to govern major cities.
4 (03:17) **Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson** - Video of the mayor celebrating millionaires leaving the city.
5 (04:34) **New York Mayor Eric Adams (Mamdani)** - The city is already out of money after less than five months in office.
6 (06:42) **The Death Spiral in Tech Companies** - The same dynamic is happening in major technology companies.
7 (07:59) **Anthropic and the Pentagon** - The tech company's falling out with the Trump administration over AI use in military operations.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

What do incompetent migrants and feminist girl bosses have in common? They are in charge of building our country's future, and that isn't a good thing.

Ep. 1771

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