Many people have killed — sometimes a few, sometimes millions — in order to put their ideology in the saddle. I am deeply invested in my ideology; I have great confidence in its coherence and its foundational values; I have little doubt that if it were to become a society’s reigning belief system the members of that society would reap enormous benefits.
Tag: logic
Entrepreneurship Is Skyrocketing During the Pandemic
The pandemic offers a moment ripe for “creative destruction."
Constricting Social Cooperation
The COVID-19 pandemic and, especially, the actions governments have taken in response to it have been, both directly and indirectly, enormously destructive of life, liberty, and wealth. But another tremendously significant aspect of these terrible events has been the lapse into what we might call ideological insanity on both sides of the lockdown divide.
Argumentum ad Populum (Appeal to Popularity) & Neglect of Probability (25m) – Episode 028
Episode 028 looks at the logical fallacy Argumentum ad Populum (Appeal to Popularity, and it’s many children) and the cognitive bias Neglect of Probability.
Unfortunately, Voters Aren’t “the Adults in the Room”
On Election Day, 1976, I was eight days away from turning 10 years old. As my morning school bus passed the lone polling place in my tiny town, I leaned out the window and yelled, at the top of my lungs, “Vote for Carter!” If you plan to vote this November, please consider growing up first.
Spurious Causation & Not-Invented-Here Syndrome (21m) – Episode 024
Episode 024 looks at the logical fallacy Spurious Causation and the cognitive bias Not-Invented-Here Syndrome.
Fuck You, Facebook: I’m Leaving
Mark Zuckerberg was the first to create a program we now refer to as a social media network, and was thereby successful in establishing Facebook (more properly known now as Fascistbook) as the “industry standard.” When I first joined a decade ago, FB was relatively unfettered. You could write and post freely, with little chance of being banned or censored. All of that, in more recent times, has changed dramatically.
Social and Economic Demolition
These days I am feeling a sort of bitter vindication as I look out at the world being destroyed by states and politics.
Teachers Unions Are More Powerful Than You Realize—But That May Be Changing
The pandemic is set to weaken the long-held grip of teachers unions on US education and social policy, and strengthen educational diversity and choice for more families. It may also prompt a closer look at the outsized influence of public sector unions more generally. Taxpayers should know what they are paying for.
Aphorisms in Honor of Liberty, Part Five (27m) – Episode 370
Episode 370 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following aphorisms written by Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski: “A fool believes in designing markets. A person of reason believes in marketing designs.”; “A consistent freedom lover is an anarchist in the making.”; “A fool deplores the fact that without the state, the poor would be at the mercy of individual charity. A person of reason delights in the fact that without the state, the poor wouldn’t be at the mercy of institutional violence.”; “Happiness: fulfillment without boredom.”; “A nationalist is someone who praises domestic illusions out of fear of confronting foreign realities.”; “A seeming ontological nihilist believes that nothing really exists. A real ontological nihilist believes that nothing only seems to exist.”