“It seems obvious to me from my own education that one learns things mostly when you’re interested in learning them and not mostly when somebody sits you down and makes you learn them,” said David D. Friedman in our conversation on unschooling in the latest episode of the LiberatED Podcast.
Category: Blogs
The official Everything-Voluntary.com blog.
Parents Should Govern Their Kids’ Education
The root of the conflict that produced this case is government schooling itself. Ironically, the early government-school movement presented the misnamed “public school” as the way to prevent conflict over religion. How’s that worked out, Horace Mann?
Abortion: No, Dobbs Isn’t “Decentralization”
I’m less interested in abortion itself than I am in the quality of arguments about it. And I see a truly silly argument being advanced by supporters of the Dobbs ruling. Let’s call it “the argument from decentralization.”
Plagiarism
Nobody asked but … I’ll start with a little self-plagiarism by citing Kilgore Forelle in a post to the Facebook group, Another 2000+ Libertarian Quotes: No preordained economic system achieves one-size-fits-all without violent authoritarianism. — Kilgore Forelle This, above, is plagiarism. It just depends on how badly your antagonists want to get you between a…
The Final Freedom
The lesson: When the government oppresses you, you don’t have to submit. You don’t have to make a futile effort to fix the system. And you don’t have to play the victim. You always have the final freedom to be a scofflaw.
Florida: So Much for “Parental Rights”
In late March, Florida governor Ron DeSantis was all about “parental rights,” signing what critics called a “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which he insisted was really all about protecting the ability of parents to guide their children’s upbringing, control what subject matter they were exposed to in the classroom, and be informed by schools of matters pertaining to their “mental, emotional, or physical well-being.” Only three months later, he’s threatening to have parents investigated by the state’s “child protective” bureaucracy should they choose to take their kids to entertainment events he doesn’t approve of.
Government Crushes Individuality
Everyone has their own unique personal preferences. This is probably a good thing since it makes life interesting and keeps us from all fighting over the exact same stuff. Think how boring it would be if everyone preferred identical things. Variety is the spice of life.
Free Assange? Yes, But That’s Not Nearly Enough
If justice had anything to do with it, previous courts would have thrown out the US extradition request on grounds of both jurisdiction and treaty language. The “crimes” of which Assange is accused were not committed on US soil. And Article 4 of the US-UK extradition treaty forbids extradition for political offenses.
Accumulation of Private Property
The following question was asked about 5 months ago on r/AskLibertarians by u/genshu_diatribe, “Can accumulation of private property ever go too far?”. After which the following conversations occurred between myself, this same user, and another after they split the thread. Enjoy!
Socialism Doesn’t Liberate Workers from Domination
Writing in Jacobin, Ben Burgis argues that libertarians implausibly understand freedom as mere non-interference. In his view, a better understanding is one that affirms “that the kind of freedom that matters most is the freedom from arbitrary domination.” In Burgis’s example, “the boss [who] tells you that you can’t get a tattoo if you want to keep your job at his restaurant” subjects you to arbitrary domination and so makes you unfree.