“A cliche is haunting America — the cliche of a second civil war,” writes Jesse Walker in the Los Angeles Times. Pundits left and right wax ominous over the prospect of a permanent break in American society along partisan Republican/Democratic lines, citing outbreaks of street fighting a la Berkeley and Charlottesville.
Tag: libertarian
The Structure of Your Principles
Part of the challenge of lifelong learning is to understand that the goal is not to add to your collection of “well what do you know’s”, but to assimilate your new knowledge with the creation of, revisiting, modification of, or withdrawing (shedding) from your current set of principles. It does one no good to regard new information as just “interesting,” one needs to test that new learning against the structure, the principles, of one’s information system.
Net of the Long Knives? Neutrality Advocates Put it in Reverse
On July 12, a number of prominent companies joined in the “Internet-wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality.” Among them were GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google, and CloudFlare. All four companies issued pious statements about the dangerous possibility of Internet Service Providers cutting off access to perfectly legal content. A little more than a month later, all four companies (and others) are themselves doing exactly what they warned us ISPs might do unless a “Net Neutrality” law forbade it: They’re cutting off access to perfectly legal content (yes, neo-Nazi speech is legal in America).
Putting Principle above Party, People, and the Past
When I put principle first, I’m better able to judge the compatibility of parties, people, and the past with what I believe in. And when my understanding of those things change, it’s easier to move on. I’m also less likely to be fooled and subsequently betrayed.
To Initiate Force Against Certain Others
“It is acceptable and/or desirable to initiate force against __________.” How one fills in that blank is one of the central components of their ideology and worldview.
Charlottesville Haters: Test Case for the Internet as Public Square
John Gilmore famously noted that “The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.” Libertarians like me view the market in much the same way. This situation is a practical, nuts and bolts test of those views. There’s a great deal riding on the outcome.
Does Everyone Want to Live in a Free Society?
People who give the highest priority to living in a free society do not make the same mistake year after year after year for more than a century. Except for a tiny minority, avowals of the love of liberty are little more than hot air. Given a choice, people choose something else.
Episode 077 – Jordan’s Journey (1h11m)
Episode 077 welcomes Jordan Vaughn Neal to the podcast to chat with Skyler about his journey to voluntaryism. Topics include: golf, the anarchy in cooperative games, Facebook discussions/debates, being Canadian and dual citizenship, public school in Canada, his parents’ careers, moving to the United States, complete disinterest in high school, LDS mission to East Germany and the libertarian seeds that were planted, his passion for computer science and programming, a Society Security law firm job he held, Stefan Molyneux’ influence on his libertarianism and peaceful parenting, the War on Drugs, overcoming biases, subjective theory of value and economic thinking, and his wife and his commitment to radical unschooling.
@YesYoureRacist Crowdsources Social Preferencing
The main objection to @YesYoureRacist doesn’t cut much ice with me. The project is not an “invasion of privacy” or a “violation of rights.” The Charlottesville marchers engaged in public action with the explicit purpose of attracting attention. Mission accomplished. They got noticed.
How an Airborne Ranger Became a Voluntaryist
Government directives to do evil (whether by commission or omission) do not override our conscience and our understanding of right and wrong. I favor agoristic obviation of government institutions. I support voluntary alternatives to government services as much as I can and continue to encourage government institutions to reduce and eliminate their restrictions on our freedoms.