This is a fantastic interview in which Mark talks about Supernatural, 13 Reasons Why, politics and philosophy. It’s one of the best interviews I’ve heard, and well worth a listen.
- Supernatural ending hasn’t hit Mark yet. He was emotional when producers posted about the last day of filming, but he doesn’t expect it to really hit him until the final episodes air. Mark added that it’s a bit disconcerting the way actors are really close when they’re working on a show, then everyone goes their separate ways. Hopefully, conventions will help that connection to remain a little longer than it has on some of Mark’s previous shows.
- Mark is concerned about the impact of being bold and outspoken on social media on his work as an actor, but he does it anyway because it’s important to speak up, keep the ideas alive and fight for reason. At the moment, it may work in Mark’s favour that people don’t always know where to place him because his views don’t fit the binary scale most people in Hollywood use.
- Although Mark loves debating, he’s cut back on Twitter because it’s stressful being attacked mindlessly by the horde. He’s concerned about new generations of people who are debate-averse and saturated in a philosophy with premises that can’t be disproved by reason because they’re based on faith.
- Mark talked about the current culture of making decisions based on heart and feelings leading to a lack of common ground. There’s no common ground without an understanding that there’s an objective reality.
- Leonydus asked Mark about 13 Reasons Why, in particular the attempts to get it cancelled because people claimed it was glorifying suicide. Mark’s best friend killed himself shortly before the show, which was one of his motivations in getting the part. He doesn’t agree with most of the criticisms, even though Netflix had to concede to get the backing of the psychological community. In Mark’s view, the suicide scene that was removed was important for people to see, and may have convinced his friend not to do what he did. He thinks the show raised some important questions that need to be discussed. 13 Reasons Why is a great show that did a fantastic job with an important topic, and I really enjoyed hearing Mark’s thoughts on this.
- Mark talked about being an objectivist, radical capitalist and radical individualist, making it clear he’s not a centrist. In Mark’s view, the state has a place, with individual rights protected by the constitution. This makes him a classical liberal — and outside the current political spectrum — but he’s not a libertarian. Libertarians are against having any state, which Mark said comes from a lack of understanding of liberty. Mark’s on a campaign to take back liberalism and is calling himself a liberal.
- The American Capitalist Party is a platform at the moment because it’s difficult to get a political party up and running, but they wanted to get the ideas out in the world. The ACP doesn’t compromise on individual rights, which makes it an alternative to the Democratic and Republican tribalists who both compromise individual rights but disagree on who to fuck over.
- Mark thinks the government should get out of the election process. It should be separate, in the same way the church and the state are separate, which would disincentivize lobbyists.
- Currently, altruism is seen as good, and self-gain is bad, but Mark thinks it’s easy to take altruists down with one question: why? They don’t withstand the scrutiny because it’s taken as an article of faith.
- In Mark’s view, Ayn Rand is the greatest of the philosophers and he named several other people who are worth reading including Rose Wilder Lane, and the Austrian economists.
- Up next for Mark is a show that’s been pushed back to 2021. He’s not giving any info on that because he doesn’t want to give the trolls anything to attack, but he thinks it’s a good show that people will enjoy.
- The thing that Mark loves about America is the way it responds to arbitrary authority — rebellion — which sets it apart from any other culture in the world.
