This episode features an interview of legal scholar and lawyer Randy Barnett from 2015 by Trevor Burrus and Aaron Powell, hosts of the Free Thoughts podcast. Barnett describes five rights—informed by natural law—that are crucial for properly structuring a society. He also shows how libertarian theories successfully counter the structural societal problems of knowledge, interests, and power.
Tag: society
Nick Sandmann: GOP’s Poster Child for Fake Victimhood
Grievance-based politics is nothing new, nor does America’s political “left” enjoy a monopoly on it. For proof of that latter claim, one need look no further than the case of Nick Sandmann.
Tacit Acceptance of Tyranny
Hard work being effective is a sign of a middle class and a capitalist society. Hard work isn’t the currency of the elite or privileged, it is the currency of the poor and underprivileged. Elites have no need to work hard, their currency is status, favoritism, and government. Hard work being effective is the sign of people being relatively free.
Anthill
Back in the 70s, I catered to peer pressure. I fired a guy because he wore bellbottoms to work. I acquiesced to the firing of a young native woman because she got arrested at Wounded Knee for demonstrating. I shudder to recall these events.
Local Tyrants Are Incredibly Diverse
The way to put checks on human interaction and incentivize respectful behavior is more liberty and a culture that promotes individualism.
Aaron W. Returns, Interpersonal Domination, & Moralizing (57m) – Episode 356
Episode 356 welcomes back Aaron White to chat with Skyler on the following topics: Aaron leaving California for Texas; arguing versus trying to simply dominate someone in conversation; woke crusading, rooting out heretics, and inspiring fear; cancellation of leftists by woke leftists; whether truth can be racist; race realism and anarchist society; facts and deriving values; feeling defensive when considering implications toward one’s worldview of another’s arguments; why someone should chose “the good”; teasing/ballbusting with your kids; and more.
You Will Not Stampede Me
During the last twenty years, I’ve lived through a series of public crises. 9/11. The Iraq War. The Great Recession. The Syrian Refugee Crisis. ISIS. Systemic sexism (“MeToo”). Systemic racism. And of course COVID-19. In each case, society’s demands have been the same.
With Remote Learning, Schools Are Watching and Reporting Parents at Alarming Rates
As remote learning creates more distance between school districts and students, school and state officials are clinging to control however they can. From sending Child Protective Services (CPS) agents to investigate charges of neglect in homes where children missed Zoom classes last spring, to proposing “child wellbeing checks” in homes this fall, government schools and related agencies are panicking over parents having increased influence over their children’s care and education during the pandemic.
Five Rules for Studying History
“History” is a product of human beings. History of the same events and people may be done (will be done) differently from generation to generation. Sometimes, due to advances in archaeology or new discoveries of old texts, history done 500 years after the fact will be better than history done 100 years later. Similarly, changes in dominant ideology might make later history less reliable than earlier historical works. Best to read histories from multiple perspectives and times.
Kamala Harris’s Problem Isn’t Her Identity; It’s Her Character
As you no doubt know by now, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has chosen US Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) as his running mate. You’ve probably also noticed the first salvo of Republican attacks on Harris: She’s “not really black,” and she may not even be a “natural born citizen” as required by the Constitution to hold the office of president or vice president. No one sane or intelligent finds either of these attacks convincing.