Today’s public schools already share many characteristics with prisons, yet the ‘answer’ some folks are proposing to the (statistically negligible) threat of school shootings is to make schools even more like prisons. Schools are an artificial environment that (much like a prison) forces kids to join gangs or cliques in order to avoid rejection and outsider status. Those who don’t fit in are subject to ridicule, abuse, and even brutality in some cases.
Tag: respect
Slow to Speak Up
A lot of times, in discussions with statists, they refuse to make a case for their position. They’ll just make an assertion and refuse to explain their reasoning when asked. I suspect they can’t explain, because they haven’t thought it through, but are simply parroting something that sounded “right” to them. It feels right. That’s not going to impress me and it’s certainly not going to convince me of anything.
Obligations, Responsibility, and the Inalienability of the Will
Even among those who subscribe to the non-aggression principle (NAP), there are those who do not understand the nature of obligations, responsibility, and the inalienability of the will. While a thorough discussion of these issues could fill many volumes, it is my desire to provide a simple summary for those who desire an overview of the subject.
Dreamers’ Parents Never Sinned
I made a comment on a friend’s post on Facebook, which turned into quite the exercise in the Socratic method toward challenging Federal jurisdiction over immigration.
The Church of America
“Perhaps we should read the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause — ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion’ — not as a mandated separation of religion and state but as a non-compete clause.”
“Stupid” Christian Vulgarity
I was taught that “bad words” (fuck, ass, shit, etc) were sins, while everyone ignored the accepted words used to shame, manipulate, and otherwise harm people. I’ve lost any regard for this shitty view of vulgarity. It merely saves the sensibilities of busybodies, while ignoring true harm done with language.
Collective Ownership
If I am told that because I live in a certain place, being born there, I have a share in the collective ownership of the whole region, including other people’s private property, but that no one can opt out of the rules imposed on the land without moving away, this is not legitimate collective ownership.
The Reformulation of Rights as Liberties
Everyone and their mom likes to posit that humans have rights, and they shan’t be violated. Some say the source of these rights are God, or the gods. Others say that our rights were bestowed upon us by nature. Others, by “government” (Oy!). Through my study of this concept and the evolution of where my thinking on it stood, I have decided, for now at least, that “rights” are just liberties.
Coworker Friendships Are Underrated
Odds are, if your old coworkers were doing something interesting when they were working with you, they’re doing something cool now. And the same things that made them great comrades on the job will make them great comrades as you go forward in your career.
This is Why Young People Go to College
Most people don’t realize just how much pressure young people feel to be mediocre, monotonous, dull, dependent, unproductive, and unhappy.