States engage not only in conquest, plunder, and oppression, but also—in order to create conditions in which the populace is rendered less likely to resist a state’s abuses or rebel against it—in pervasive bamboozlement. Those who support the state ideologically tend to engage in chronic misrepresentation of what the state does and how it does it. So, not only war—the characteristic state action—but statism in general makes truth the first casualty of its claims, proposals, programs, and projects.
Tag: logic
Who’s Afraid of Russian Propaganda?
If we believe the people who claim to be so concerned about Russian Facebook activity, we really ought to be concerned about something much deeper: the apparent fragility of American society. For if the Russians can strike a propaganda blow comparable, as some have ludicrously said, to Pearl Harbor and 9/11, isn’t that also true for any number of domestic websites across the political spectrum?
The Best Reason to Drink Coffee
My coworker Chuck told me he drinks two cups of coffee a day. I asked how he came to that decision. He said he chose to because he likes the way it makes him feel. I can’t think of a better reason.
Leftist Lessons of The Case Against Education
Overall, reactions to The Case Against Education have been civil and fair. While I’ve been heavily criticized, I’ve been criticized for what I actually said and believe. My main disappointment: While the quality of the left-wing critiques has been fine, the quantity is modest.
The Students Being Promoted in the Media
These kids opinions are being marketed as if they are knowledgeable and representative of reality. They aren’t. They represent themselves. However, the reason we are hearing them is because their opinions are opinions that people in the media desire for you to hear. The narrative wasn’t created due to the shooting (like is being inferred). The students were chosen for the narrative.
Forget the Data, College is a Religion
The psychological benefit of going along with the dominant belief, gaining the prestige it entails, and not risking being seen as a non-believer motivate all kinds of actions detrimental to a person’s individual goals and aspirations. Attending college is the most pervasive religious act today.
That’s Not Feminism: 3 Ways Women Advocate For Their Own Oppression
Something I often see in the feminist movement (and I am a feminist!) is women demanding for something that appears on the outside will liberate them, but in reality, it only furthers their oppression. Usually, the very nature of the thing they are asking for, the very concept of it is bred from patriarchal ideals and ways of thinking.
A Call for Counterfactuals
Great actions are motivated by imagination. Grounded in logic, yes. But beyond the provable alone. If we can’t explore what might have been, and what might be, we have no reason to change.
Against the Whole Concept and Construction of the Balance of International Payments
The location of the trading partners has no economic significance whatsoever. Trading entities enter into exchanges voluntarily, each one in each transaction anticipating a gain from the trade. Hence, in expectational terms, every such trade entails a gain from trade, or in other words an addition to the trader’s wealth.
Complexity of Causality
We make this mistake over and over. We think that A causes B. But in addition to A, there are infinite A primes, double primes, triple primes, n-tuple primes, as well as the rest of the alphabet and its primes. And these are not a solid front, but a staggered and scattered barrage. Furthermore nothing strikes B directly, or practically so.