I recently went with my family to a meet and greet with a family that does YouTube videos. My kids have watched their videos for a couple of years, so they had the pleasure of getting to meet the family and take a picture with them.

The family we saw has over 3 million subscribers on YouTube.  It is geared towards kids.  If most of the subscribers are from the U.S., that would be about 1% of the total population.

There are some YouTube celebrities with many millions of followers.  There are a few who are in the tens of millions.  And I am talking about people who are famous because of their YouTube videos.  I am not talking about people who were already celebrities and then posted videos.

It’s interesting that we still consider someone more famous if they are on television.  But you could appear on a YouTube video for someone who has a million subscribers, and you would get more people watching you than the total viewership for many cable news shows.  Even measuring against the major networks, many videos on YouTube are seen more than the average television show.

One difference is that a celebrity from Hollywood may be more widely known.  I know of many actors in which I may not be able to name a movie or tv show that they have been in.  With YouTube celebrities, they are quite well known amongst their fans, but the average guy on the street may have no idea who they are.

After the meet and greet, we were talking at dinner about meeting celebrities.  The question was posed: if you could meet one person, who would it be?

I didn’t have an obvious answer.  I have been fortunate enough to meet many famous people.  I have met Eli Manning and many other famous athletes.  I’m not saying everyone would know them, but anyone who follows sports would know them.

In my libertarian world, I have met many stars.  I met Harry Browne before he passed away.  I have met Lew Rockwell, Tom Woods, Dave Smith, Bob Murphy, Ron Paul, and many others.  I don’t know any of them well, but I have had conversations with all of them, regardless of whether they remember me.

This has really been my greatest thrill in meeting people.  They are only celebrities in a limited circle of like-minded people.  Ron Paul is the only one outside of libertarian circles who is a common name.  I enjoy a good discussion with any libertarian, so it is especially fun getting to talk to people whom I have read and listened to, and have also been an influence.

Outside of political circles, my comment was that I would like to do an activity that a particular person is famous for.  For example, I would like to shoot hoops with Michael Jordan.  I would like to sing a song with Billy Joel or the Backstreet Boys.  I would like to play a round of golf with Tiger Woods.  It is best to do the activity for which you look up to the person.

It would also be great fun talking to anyone that I listen to on a regular basis.  That could include YouTube videos or podcasts. Again, I would want to talk about the subject that is the general topic of the podcast.

Making a Difference

When I thought about someone I would like to meet, at first I was thinking that I have little interest in meeting any political figures outside of libertarian circles. But then I thought again.

If I could meet one person right now, I might pick Donald Trump.  It wouldn’t be for a picture, although I would certainly take one if given the chance.  I would love the chance to have a conversation with him.

Trump is not overly impressive to me.  I think it is impressive that he has been able to accomplish a life in business and his road to the presidency.  He has some great instincts when it comes to marketing.  But the purpose of meeting him wouldn’t be for me to learn something, although I am always open to learning something.

My hope is that I could spend a few minutes with him to give him some unsolicited advice.  I would have to try not to be overbearing. I would be very complimentary of his original campaign and his ability to fight the establishment.  This would be sincere.

I would tell him that he is still surrounded by the establishment.  He should already know this, but I am not sure that he does fully understand it.  I would warn him about Pompeo.  I would warn him about Pence.  I would warn him that none of the intelligence agencies are on his side. The CIA, the FBI, and the NSA will all take him down in a heartbeat if given the chance.  The same goes for people like Lindsey Graham, who sometimes pretends to be Trump’s ally.

I don’t know if the insiders have explicitly threatened Trump, but I would tell him to go down swinging.  They are either going to get you to adopt their agenda, or they are going to destroy you.  Either way, you lose and the American people lose.  Why not just order all troops to be withdrawn from the Middle East immediately?  Why not start cutting budgets everywhere? They will blame you for the recession once it starts anyway.

I don’t know if Trump fully understands the threats from the deep state.  Maybe he does, but I am really not sure.  He knows there are bad people on the inside, but I don’t think he realizes how systematic it is.  I don’t think he realizes that Pence would shove him out the door if the time were right.

I would encourage Trump to pardon Assange and Manning and Snowden.   I would strongly encourage him to stop all sanctions against other countries.  I would encourage him to pardon all people convicted of federal drug charges, if that is their only offense.  I don’t think I would get too deep into economics unless he wanted to talk about it.  That is a much harder subject to tackle.  It isn’t easy to overturn someone’s worldview in economics in a relatively short conversation.

I doubt any of it would make a difference, but you never know.  Trump is a different kind of being.  While he has largely governed like a swamp creature, there is still something different about him.  His rhetoric is obviously different.

I wouldn’t bother talking to someone like Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush or Joe Biden if any of them were president.  They are too corrupt to the bone.  Trump may be corrupt, but it is on a different level.  He has an element of honesty about him, and maybe he would be open-minded enough to consider doing something against the deep state and for the people suffering under the thumb of the state.

Maybe my conversation would make no difference, but it would be worth a try.