Suppose someone accuses me of being a pickpocket. I respond, “I have picked no pockets, therefore I am not a pickpocket.” My accuser could naturally retort, “Oh yes you are, I have video evidence of you picking pockets on three separate occasions.” What would you think, though, if my accuser instead declared, “There’s a lot of pickpocketing in the world. You’ve personally done nothing to stop it. That makes you a pickpocket!”
Tag: natural
Social Desirability Bias vs. Tourism
Economically speaking, there’s a straightforward win-win case for these Mexican resorts: Not only do they make the tourists happier; they make the Mexicans happier by providing them with better opportunities than they have elsewhere in the Mexican economy. If you reconsider this verdict through the distorted lens of Social Desirability Bias, though, a radically different picture appears before your eyes. Once you forget economics, you could easily describe the resort experience in the following sordid way.
Natural Law in Austin
Let’s face it. There is no single stroke of governance that will make the homeless campers of Austin, TX go away. You cannot put toothpaste back in a tube.
2020: I’m So Sick of Superlatives
Lately it seems everything has to be described in a superlative manner. Natural disaster. War. Police violence. Political craziness. You name it, we just can’t seem to accept that it’s part of a continuum. Everything absolutely, positively must be the mostest or the worstest of its kind, ever.
Shepard Returns, Consequences, Positive and Negative (56m) – Episode 436
Episode 436 welcomes back Shepard the Voluntaryist to chat with Skyler on the following topics: his ongoing radio show and podcast; an exploration of positive and negative consequences; human interference in natural consequences; intended and unintended consequences in politics and economics; what people going along with monopolistic government means for the idea of people going along with competitive government (free society); never letting a crisis go to waste as a voluntaryism popularizer; the consequences of immortality and “The Good Place” television show; the negative consequences of world peace and the positive consequences of world conflict; and more.
Don’t Believe the Hype About ‘Socially Responsible’ Investing
Want to make money and help the world, too? Wall Street says you can!
Rights Don’t Depend on Politicians
Rights can either be respected or violated. There’s no third option. To regulate, limit, ration, license, or criminalize a right is to violate it. The person who violates a right for any reason is the bad guy, without exception, no matter what excuse they use. Nothing justifies violating human rights.
Government Has Too Much Power
If government didn’t have the power to force you to close your business because a new cold virus showed up, and punish you if you ignored its demands, the American economy would still be strong. Much tragedy could have been avoided. The pandemic would have most likely run its course and be only a memory by now.
Absurd Thanksgiving Guidelines Reveal an Astonishing Level of Government Overreach
When we get to the point where individuals find it “natural” for the government to tell us how to take turns eating our Thanksgiving turkey, a pandemic is the least of our concerns.
ARK3 Returns, Trauma and Rage, PTSD, & Violent Parenting (1h3m) – Episode 428
Episode 428 welcomes back Alex R. Knight III to chat with Skyler on the following topics: finally making the connection between his former alcoholism and trauma he experienced in childhood and adolescence; accepting failure as okay, and not as shameful; post-traumatic stress disorder experienced by both of them; family disfunction and divorce; the roots of authoritarianism in violent (physically and psychologically/emotionally) parenting; laws against spanking; the effects of prolonged brain exposure to stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline; stress in infancy, such as “cry-it-out”; evolutionary reasons why kids protest bedtime; Skyler’s family bedroom; and more.