Episode 411 welcomes back Dennis Pratt to chat with Skyler on the following topics: the shutdown of Rodger Paxton’s Pax Libertas Productions; his multi-year career writing thoughtful answers to libertarian questions on Quora; New Hampshire’s Free State Project; life and politics in NH; how the locals are responding to the influx of libertarians to NH; what taxes are levied in NH; his involvement in building community centers for NH residents; why all economic regulations are a type of hidden tax; libertarianism as a paradigm shift; respecting cultural diversity among libertarians; slavery reparations as federal land divestments; why everyone is owed reparations by government for its many crimes; the dangers of cultivating and maintaining victimhood mentality; Porcfest, freedom festival; Joe Biden on the minimum wage; and more.
Tag: libertarian
Every Four Years, The Same Old Thing
Do you ever feel like you’re stuck in an infinite presidential time loop? Every four years I watch it repeat, but no one else seems to notice.
No, Google is Not a Monopoly
On October 20, the US Department of Justice — joined by 11 Republican state attorneys general — filed a civil lawsuit against Google, with the stated goal of stopping it from “unlawfully maintaining monopolies through anticompetitive and exclusionary practices in the search and search advertising markets.” The lawsuit is meritless on its face.
Suicide
Let me be clear: I consider suicide a tremendous tragedy. It has touched my life and my family very deeply, and personally. It seems to me that there are a thousand and one options, in most cases, before one should undertake such a dramatic, final, and irreversible course of action. That said, in the final analysis, the decision to live or not to live is – and should be – 100% the exclusive choice of the owner of that life – and never some outside party. Ever.
Michael Huemer: Common Sense Libertarianism (1h2m)
This episode features a talk by philosophy professor Michael Huemer from 2013. Maybe the best way to defend libertarianism is not through economic arguments; nor appeals to general, abstract theories about the nature of morality; nor through the non-aggression axiom. Maybe the best way to defend libertarianism is through appeal to common sense morality.
Socialist Critique of Libertarian Children’s Books Drives Massive Surge in Sales
As Connor Boyack recently discovered, there is no such thing as bad publicity. The creator of the popular Tuttle Twins children’s book series, which reinforces libertarian values and free-market principles, saw his book sales surge after an established progressive magazine wrote a lengthy feature article attacking the books.
COVID-19: Two Things About “The Science”
I support the Great Barrington Declaration — not because of the specific approach it advocates, although I agree with that approach, but because it demonstrates two important truths about science that many seem to have lost sight of recently.
We Need a Political Divorce
I find it irritating how few people discuss political divorce. Do you think these Trump supporters are just going to go away? Do you think these intersectional socialists are just going to find Jesus or something? They aren’t. No government you want is really possible with these people who want something so radically different from you.
Capitalism, Communist Tax Evasion, Section 230, & Libertarian Congress (23m) – Episode 407
Episode 407 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following entries to r/shitstatistssay: @TikTokInvestors shares, “So capitalism is an economic system based on infinite ‘growth’ and infinite consumption…”; buttstuff_magoo writes, “In fact, not paying taxes is as communist as it gets. It’s free riding and profiting off of the contributions of others while contributing nothing yourself.”; Stunning_Capital writes, “I don’t see anything un-libertarian about repealing Section 230. These companies are protected from defamation suits on the grounds that they merely provide a public square. Well if they don’t want to provide a public square, that’s fine, but then they should be held liable for defamation just like the rest of us.”; and @omidG9 tweets, “Well one reason congress doesn’t work is libertarians don’t know how to run a government so they just blame the institution instead of themselves”.
Why “Preference” is a Dirty Word to the New Puritans
“I do want to be clear,” Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett said during her Senate confirmation hearing, “that I have never discriminated on the basis of sexual preference and would not ever discriminate on the basis of sexual preference.” A laudable stand, one might think. But some don’t.