American leaders and their loyal media pundits love to sit in judgment of other countries’ election, declaring them fair or rigged according to their seemingly meticulous standards. In fact, the real standard is that the regimes “we” like hold free and fair (enough) elections, while the regimes “we” dislike don’t. What about regimes “we” like that hold no elections at all, like Saudi Arabia? They are forgotten whenever the loveliness of democracy is the topic of discussion.
Tag: knowledge
How We Shut Down What We Want
By Leo Babauta One thing I’ve learned about myself in the last year or so is how much I shut down what I want. Somehow the world taught me that what I want is not acceptable, that I should only want what seems reasonable, doable, or won’t inconvenience others. So I rarely even acknowledge that […]
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About that “Real Estate Dispute” in Sheikh Jarrah
When the Israeli government describes the conflict over the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem as just a “real-estate dispute,” it has a point.
Two Grown-Up Homeschoolers Explain How Alternative Education Helped Them Get Ahead
Why homeschoolers often stand out on the job market.
Why I am excited about Mars
In recent years I have been becoming increasingly interested in and excited about the prospect of people exploring and colonizing the planet Mars. A friend asked me recently about what I find so compelling about this idea, and I thought that I’d elaborate some on it here.
Canceling Student Debt Would Be an Insult to Trade Workers
“The push for college came at the expense of every other form of education,” says Mike Rowe.
States Are Moving to Ban Toxic ‘Critical Race Theory’ in Schools—But Their Efforts Could Backfire
No matter how good our intentions are, government involvement in education is bound to create political struggles and choose winners and losers.
Bust the Conservative “Trust Busters”
When right-wing leader Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) recently declared that “liberty and monopoly do not go together,” I fantasized that he had become a free-market anarchist. When I hear monopoly, I think government because what’s the most literal of monopolies (or source of monopoly power) than the state?
Does Nearly Everyone Favor Industrial Policy?
When you walk around, you see no economy. It is not a thing like a machine, a building, or a vehicle. When we say economy, we mean individual persons acting in a series of continuing and more or less regular relationships that involve money in transformation of stuff from less-useful to more-useful forms, as consumers view things. Government officials don’t regulate an economy; they regulate individuals–us!–thereby interfering with our lives, liberties, purposes, and pursuit of happiness.
Biden Administration Prioritizes “Woke-ism” and Critical Race Theory In Schools
The Biden administration is taking new steps to promote Critical Race Theory and The New York Times’s controversial 1619 Project in US education programs. In a proposed federal rule issued on Monday, the US Department of Education indicated that it will be using taxpayer funds to award millions of dollars in American history and civics education grants that prioritize the belief that America is systemically racist.