The state only deals with people by hurting, killing, caging, and robbing them. It wraps these actions up in hundreds of thousands of pages of demands, orders, mandates, regulations, prohibitions, licenses, and certificates; but the bureaucratic maze which supposedly allows individuals to escape unscathed is an illusion.
Tag: property
“Context” and The Fear of Principle
“Context” is a concept I have recently seen used a couple of different times to justify archation. As in, you just have to understand where “they” are coming from. They aren’t wrong, they just understand the context of things. Put yourself in the shoes of people who want to give themselves permission to violate the life, liberty, or property of others.
How Econ Textbooks Sanitize the Horrors of Communism
When I was first learning economics, I was surprised by how pro-communist many economics textbooks were. I don’t mean, of course, that any economics textbook ever said, “Communism is good.” What I mean, rather, is that textbooks were very positive relative to communism’s historical record. Indeed, many seemed deeply ignorant of actual communism, basing their assessment on second-hand information about communists’ stated intentions, plus a few anecdotes about inefficiencies. Many textbook authors were, in a phrase, communist dupes: Non-communists who believe and spread a radically overoptimistic image of communism.
Borders != Doors
Having locks on some doors does not mean that every door, every road, every shopping mall, every border should be locked and should require ID checks. I say this in response to BCFs (Border Control Freaks) who constantly draw a false analogy between sealed borders and a locked door.
Editor’s Break 014 – Does Private Property Violate the Non-Aggression Principle? (24m)
Editor’s Break 014 looks at the claim that private property violates the non-aggression principle (NAP) by initiating aggression via threat against all would-be trespassers. Skyler disagrees, and shares his reasons why.
Anarchism as Constitutionalism
Trying to refute anarchism by pointing to undesirable instances of anarchy is about as bad an argument as trying to refute Bidinotto’s advocacy of government by pointing to the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany. Whether a state is horrendous or decent depends in large part on its constitutional structure; whether an anarchic society is horrendous or decent likewise depends on its constitutional structure.
A Common Sense Foundation for Liberty
“The foundation of my libertarianism is much more modest: common sense morality. At first glance, it may seem paradoxical that such radical political conclusions could stem from anything designated as “common sense.” I do not, of course, lay claim to common sense political views. I claim that revisionary political views emerge out of common sense moral views. As I see it, libertarian political philosophy rests on three broad ideas.”
Does Evil Justify Evil?
To rely on the argument that as long as there is welfare and the risk of crime, there must be “immigration control” is a really poor argument. You could justify almost anything that way. As long as there is rape, there must be mandatory chastity belts. As long as murder exists, there must be anti-gun “laws“.
Judicial Activism: When Warranted?
Is “judicial activism” good or bad? Let us first ask, what is a proper role for judges? To hear some folks speak, the only proper role of a judge is to act as a rubber stamp for Congress and/or the current Tyrant-in-Chief. One wonders if they have ever heard of the concept of checks and balances?
Coercion versus Persusasion and the Definition of Force
I was recently involved in a discussion involving the allegation that someone forced another person into making certain choices regarding their line of work. The details or identities are not important, but I would like to touch upon the subject of what constitutes force from the libertarian perspective.