It should be obvious to all why Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War was a villain: he is a coercivist, not a voluntaryist. Coercivists who identify problems prefer solutions which are coercive, aggressive, or violent. There’s little thought given to non-violent solutions.
Tag: knowledge
“How Do You Talk to Someone Who Doesn’t Believe in Climate Change?”
The best way to “talk” to someone who “doesn’t believe in climate change” is … don’t. Stay quiet. But if you can’t mind your own business, and you ignorantly (and unwisely) broach the subject, maybe you could at least listen to the reasons why they aren’t in your cult.
“Our President”
It doesn’t matter who the current president is or isn’t. I will never have a president for the exact same reason I will never have a Grand Wizard or a Pope. I am not a participant in that particular religion or club.
Entrepreneurial Innovation and Crony Corruption
It always starts with entrepreneurial innovators breaking new ground and establishing new avenues for the expression of individual liberty and private initiative. Then, as soon as some of the companies established by those innovators grow sufficiently large and influential, the biggest protection rackets operating in their respective territories stop fighting them and proceed to corrupting them with subsidies, “public contracts”, unofficial monopoly privileges, etc.
Intelligence, Knowledge, and Self-Respect
Intelligence without ego-strength, a vibrant knowledge base containing various ideologies, and self-respect means little. It will largely mean you are a calculator, an emotional reactionary, or an eloquent parrot.
The Art of the Smear — The Israel Lobby Busted
Al Jazeera, the Electronic Intifada, Max Blumenthal’s The Gray Zone Project, and others have performed a much-needed service on behalf of freedom, justice, and decency. I urge you to watch this program and spread the word.
Why I Seek Converts
“I don’t want to crush, humiliate, frighten, silence, irritate, defeat, discredit, demoralize, delegitimize, depress, frustrate, or ostracize my intellectual opponents. I want to convert them and be friends.”
Battling Assumptions
In the first case, I am reflecting on a book that I am reading; The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything, by Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey. The premise is that it took many centuries for the current paradigm, double entry bookkeeping, to revolutionize the marketplace, but now that the effect of those who would game the system pretty well offsets the increase of those who honestly abide by the system, it is time to find a new, greed-proof paradigm.
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.
The Pittsburgh Double Bind: Presidents Shouldn’t Be So Important
If we’re going to have a president, why not keep him or her in Washington — at a desk with a stack of paperwork, away from television cameras and smartphones — instead of centering every aspect of public life around his or her actions and utterances?