There is no such thing as a “trade war”, since trade is by definition a peaceful, mutually beneficial activity. However, there is such a thing as the war on trade – that is, the war on the entrepreneurial ethos, cheap and high-quality goods, and peaceful international relations.
Tag: politics
A Little Learning Is A Dangerous Thing
On the drive to work this morning, I was listening to an audiobook, This Idea Is Brilliant. The second essay in this compilation really caught my imagination; The “Illusion of Explanatory Depth” by psychologist Adam Waytz. It refers to the general existence of wide information, but with shallow understanding.
For the Love of Reason
Far be it from me to divide humankind in two, but were I so inclined, I’d divide it into those who love reason and those who are indifferent if not outright hostile to it. Members of the first group adore the reasoning process and their own reasoning faculties. The others find the process burdensome and discomforting, something that threatens long-held beliefs and intuitions.
Murphy’s Law: Big Tech Must Serve as Censorship Subcontractors
Since when has government ever produced proper oversight, transparency, or effective management of anything? And what could possibly go wrong with eviscerating the First Amendment to give these jokers “oversight” or “management” powers over technologies that undergird our politics? What’s really going on here?
The Criminalization of Hate Crimes
If hate crimes are going to be an enforceable legal category, wouldn’t it make sense to recognize people who are impelled by statism to commit wrongs — that is, to support or carry out the government’s business as usual — as having committed hate crimes?
Don’t Be Mental
I think of politics as an attempt to live among people you don’t like by forcing your will on them, using the “political method”, where someone wins at the expense of someone else, instead of by using the “economic method”, where everyone comes out ahead.
Two Worlds—Politics and Everything Else
Political discourse itself is enough to make even a person of moderate intelligence run away screaming. So much ignorance is on display, so much viciousness, so much ill-disguised envy and malevolence, such unscrupulous attempts to take what belongs to other people and redirect it to those who have no just right to it. The stupidity, therefore, is not only an inability to connect real causes and effects, but also moral stupidity, an inability to do what is obviously right and decent, as opposed to predatory and criminal, albeit legal.
Be All, End All
There is no entity that can do defense, imperialism, law enforcement, infrastructure, pharmaceutical, diplomacy, security, education, politics, travel, migration, housing, care for the aged, care for the disabled, economics, finance, agriculture, stewardship, and so forth, and so on.
The Dangers of an Unvaccinated Mind
As bad as the worst diseases to have plagued humankind have been, there is something that is far more vicious, cruel, savage, monstrous and deadly than a bad disease: A bad idea. Infectious diseases can spread quickly through an unvaccinated or otherwise uninoculated population, resulting in the suffering and death of many. The vaccine of bad ideas is free speech.
Political Poisoning
I certainly don’t talk about politicians. So it’s interesting how my daughter has picked up on the Trump hate from… somewhere. Maybe the Roblox gaming videos she watches on YouTube, I suppose. I can’t think of anywhere else.