I support free speech for statists, Nazis, ISIS, racists, everyone. Let them speak… and then use their words against them. Their words are the best argument against their beliefs. Shutting them up helps them hide. It lets them look like victims. Let them speak.
Author: Kent McManigal
We Still Haven’t Learned Voltaire’s Lesson
It’s fascinating how easily people accept something they would otherwise know is wrong when someone they view as an authority figure tells them it’s right. Voltaire observed, in 1765, “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” This truth has led to many of the worst horrors in history. People still haven’t learned the lesson.
No One Should Control Others’ Choices
You have the right to not gamble and the right to defend against crime (even though government tries to ration this right). What you don’t have is the right to threaten to use the violence of government to force your opinions on others. Even when politics is normalized to the point it seems this is a legitimate right, it isn’t.
Schools or Bars?
Someone was showing me a satellite photo of a place where I used to live. A place where I honed a lot of my outdoor skills. Now the entire area behind my former house, which used to be wooded, has been replaced by a gigantic high school. Yes, I get that nothing stays the same. But there are good changes and bad changes. This is a bad one.
Laws Are Creating Immigration Issue
Imagine you have an antique car in your back yard behind a privacy fence. A neighbor climbs your fence, sees the car, and decides something must be done about it. How he decided your property is his concern is a mystery. Clearly, he’s a bad neighbor who doesn’t mind his own business. Then it gets worse. He doesn’t ask about the car, offer to buy it or to help you get it running. Instead, he hires the local crime boss to force you to build a shed for the car, paint it pink, give it square wheels, and pay an annual ransom for the privilege of owning it. Or else it will be taken from you and you’ll be punished. This is how government solves problems.
Tortured “Complexity”
When someone is about to start doing some mental contortionism in order to try to justify statism, they’ll often make the statement, “it’s a very complex issue“. No, it really isn’t. They’re lying to try to appear deep and smart and to justify the unjustifiable.
World’s Dumbest Phrases
Something doesn’t become “ours” just because you want to impose it on me at my expense when I have no use for it. It’s also not “ours” if you’re trying to spread the guilt around; smearing me by claiming I share in your guilt.
“You Don’t Like Cops”
The people around me know I don’t put up with bullies, thieves, molesters, thugs, or any archators. Yet, they choose to characterize this as “You don’t like cops“. Really? That’s what they get from that? That’s what they focus on? They’re right. I don’t like cops.
Gun Laws Far Overstep Their Bounds
Back in the 1920s, those who advocated alcohol prohibition at least passed a Constitutional amendment to make their laws Constitutional. They were still wrong, but they made the attempt to play by the rules. Those who target your liberty today don’t even go through the motions. They do what they want, secure in the knowledge that the courts will not bite the hand that feeds them.
Dumb Ideas Aren’t “Progress”
A few days ago I saw someone bringing up the 20th anniversary of the mass-murder by the evil losers at the Columbine kinderprison. They were moaning that 20 years have passed and “what progress have we made?”