Editor’s Break 107 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: the value in granting birthright citizenship in order to reduce the amount of coercion leveled at people by governments; the challenge in tailoring your rhetoric, written or spoken, for a broader audience, what libertarianism has to say about bigotry, such as racism and sexism; and more.
Day: November 7, 2018
Why I Didn’t Vote
How does one become a principled non-voter? It was an evolution that occurred alongside my journey toward voluntaryism. I know plenty of libertarians and voluntaryists that still vote, however, so I don’t believe it’s inevitable that this journey will result as it has for me. So here it is, the step-by-step guide to explain exactly why I didn’t vote this November.
When Anarchists Get Scared
Imagine how happy the control freaks have to be when they see that: people who know that statism is evil, being scared into enabling and legitimizing it anyway.
Propping Up State Violence
Libertarian anarchy, which grew out of classical liberalism and pushed it to its logical conclusion in favor of the complete privatization of economic life and the phasing out of the state, continued for a long time to be as cosmopolitan as its antecedent doctrine. But in recent years some anarchists have been misled by twisted and fantastical constructs to suppose that so long as states persist, they ought to employ their powers to keep migrants out and preserve some sort of imagined national cultural purity.
Freedom Has Unlimited Potential
While we can speculate endlessly about what private entities might arise in the aftermath of the state’s abolition, such speculation has little chance of accurately capturing the diversity and depth of an unbridled free market.
Train Your Mind Using the Puppy Method
The mind can be trained to do almost anything. It can be trained, for example, to get used to any situation, like sitting in silence for a long time, or concentrating on a task. However, usually we’re training our minds to do what we don’t want: be distracted, give in to cravings and urges, complain, avoid discomfort, procrastinate.
Keep Some Self-Sufficiency In Your Life
I used to dream about becoming “self-sufficient” – growing and making most everything myself. And I put in a good amount of daydreaming time and real work toward that, raising all kinds of poultry, growing a garden, reading books on farm skills. Then I learned economics.
The Trap of Niceness
Many libertarians try to err on the side of niceness. I think that’s praiseworthy. It’s nice to be nice. But, what worries me is that misplaced niceness makes the bad guys believe that they really aren’t doing anything all that bad. If no one is willing to call you out on what you’re doing, then it must not really…