An Election-Inspired Rant Addressed to Republicans, Democrats, and Libertarians
Congratulations on having the federal election I care about the least in my entire voting lifetime! All three of you suck for various reasons. The only reason I'm ranting is because I finally have a blog and to inform you of the magnitude of your suck. It's also to inform you of how disappointed I am in how the local elections turned out. I will swear and lump people into groups and threaten them because you've created a situation which makes me angry and being mad over the internet is cathartic. Like all good rants, this one meanders and probably has more than a fair number of fallacies. Also pictures of dead children. You have been warned.
To Republicans
Congratulations on your stunning loss! Libertarian-leaning people such as myself and common-sense-conservatives such as my friend Kevin Kervick have been trying to tell you that the anti-science, anti-women, anti-fiscal sanity, anti-small-government, interventionist insanity was coming to an end. People are rightly fed up with conserving a lot of things which should be thrown out. The evangelicals are done, if not in this cycle then in the next. During times of national trouble people usually cling to religion more strongly. That the evangelicals got their asses handed to them straight up proves to me that the internet is the cure for organized religion; young people don't want the tyranny of tradition. They know the sky cake is a lie.
You people are disgusting hypocrites. You claim you are for small government until it prevents the initiation of foreign intervention, or allows people with the same type of connectors to contractually get the same benefits as others, or allows people to smoke a plant. Don't get me started on the war(s). You support the military up and until you have to take an infantry position or pay for wounded soldiers. You'll happily sacrifice liberty at home and abroad so long as The U.S. can have the biggest dick with which to mushroom stamp any upstarts.
Just man up and own your fucking values already. Yes, you wrap things up in the flag and the children and traditional values. Just admit that you want purity, authority, in group loyalty and that these values weigh against and even override harm, fairness, and liberty at certain points. If you don't I swear to god I'm going to rush the stage of the next republican politician running under guise of small government and punch him in the fucking balls (or taco if it's a woman).
You are also smarmy, though in a different way than democrats. You honestly believe that God or some circumstance of nature imbues you with magical (a.k.a. dualist) rights to things. I mean, I feel guilty when I make an unsubstantiated claim like "most people are on my side." I never had the balls to be so hubristic as to claim that the universe or its creator fundamentally agreed with me. Libertarians take note - this applies to you too.
Romney had his good points but he was mostly a "not Obama" vote (like how Obama's Nobel Peace Prize was a "not Bush" prize). Paul Ryan was much better than Romney from a reducing-the-deficit-perspective except that his plan would do far too little far too late and it would have been completely undermined if Romney was allowed to increase the "defense" budget. At least Romney had experience in the private sector. What's Ryan's pedigree? Working at McDonald's then becoming a political aid. Yeah, that's some real understanding of the business world. I personally know of exactly one (1) person who supported Romney before he was the last Republican left standing (except Ron Paul who is the 13th floor of candidates apparently).
I believe that neither Romney nor Obama would offer any substantive changes in the survival of this country. Romney would probably drive it off the cliff more slowly but, if people are waiting for those in the federal government to save them, they might as well wait for the characters from Fern Gully to slow down environmental damage. (I pointed this "waiting for Superman" phenomenon out in regards to recent hurricane Sandy victims and was summarily dismissed as a "dick.")
When all else fails, I can always rely on Schadenfreude to cheer me up. The RNC got their comeuppance as regards the presidential election went. They didn't want the Ron Paul supporters so they didn't get most of them, even after they begged the people walking away to ignore the hijinks. Oops - it bit them in the ass. "Beyad judgment." Teavangelicals - you're done. Done. You just don't know it yet. Pasty white religious busybodies make up too large a bloc though there is a smattering of misguided sovereign citizens, militia wannabes (tacticools) and a people who actually understand economics and want economic liberty (but who would do better to dump the social values voter baggage).
And thus the Romney/Ryan ticket was doomed from the start. He was a negative vote. The RNC sabotaged the process and pissed of many of the people who would've held their nose and voted for Romney if the RNC had obeyed its own rules. The moderates were pushed toward Obama because of the crazy. Good show.
Now, let's move to local, and to me, more important stuff. New Hampshire.
Ovide Lamontagne is a douche. He just is. He's smarmy and he answers questions which no one asked. In any non-political arena that makes you a douche. I don't grant an exception for politics therefore douche. Kevin Smith (no not that one) actually had solid plans but he was an authoritarian asshole. They're both lawyers which makes them pricks. So the options for a Republican governor were a douchey prick or an asshole prick. I've said before that sortition would at least get someone in office other than lawyers (you know, bullshit artists) or money men (you know, con men). Where are the scientists, engineers, construction workers, doctors, farmers, artists in politics? Oh, that's right - they have jobs doing something productive!
New Hampshire has elected Maggie Hassan who wants to further the indoctrination camps known as schools (in the name of jobz!®) and, though she says she opposes a state (broad-based) income or sales tax, has a checkered past in regards to it. Keeping New Hampshire sales- and income-tax-free is one of my highest priorities. I'd feel safer if the amendment to the state constitution passed but, while it did get a majority, it failed to get a plurality. Thus, while Ovide was an insufferable douche and I held my nose while voting for him and I was just party to a fetal termination, I must act to keep New Hampshire the most geoist state in the union. Losing that the last best hope in the U.S. to prove that such a system works for short term gains is dumb.
Hassan also appears to be an anti-tenther as she is willing to cede control of local issues to the federal government for candy, though she could just be making the best out of a shitty situation.
Why the push against Republicans? At least two reasons, one good two bad. The good reason is that, as disappointing as The Free State Project has been thus far, they are actually winning in certain areas. They went from being either dismissed or a joke to pissing statists off (primarily those working in the mental health fields). Now statists are fighting back. So they've gone from being laughed at to ridiculed to fought. The next step, according to Ghandi, is winning. Though that is nowhere assured but it's said that things look darkest before the dawn.
The first bad reason is that Republicans come off as crazy. Many people don't value authority or purity. I sure as shit don't. People see positive changes made by progressives even if they don't work in the long run or if their benefits were incidental. They see the removal of most (if not all) programs which have been established as detrimental because they've lost the ability to imagine any other way. This sign, for instance, makes the eyes of democrats bulge out. People are uncomfortable with others being against something if they don't suggest something new to put in its place; in other words if they're not talking to them like a politician - with five-year plans and all. After all, any jackass can be against something, being for something (which works) is harder. The word nitpick exists for this very reason.
Keep denying science, keep pushing for tough justice over actually fixing the problem, keep being against stuff and not for stuff. Keep losing.
The second bad reason is that the Free Staters could've gone in with a balanced approach to reducing the size of government and showing progressives that the sky wouldn't fall. They spent their efforts largely on token Republican issues such as guns. Now, I own guns and I think that I should legally be able to have what any non-military government agent has, hell it's even one of my triggers - ban guns and I'll turn them in bullets first - but it's not important right now. Fixing the system rather than fixing specifics is what's critical. Here's what I would've done:
There's more, but things like those are key.
You people are disgusting hypocrites. You claim you are for small government until it prevents the initiation of foreign intervention, or allows people with the same type of connectors to contractually get the same benefits as others, or allows people to smoke a plant. Don't get me started on the war(s). You support the military up and until you have to take an infantry position or pay for wounded soldiers. You'll happily sacrifice liberty at home and abroad so long as The U.S. can have the biggest dick with which to mushroom stamp any upstarts.
Just man up and own your fucking values already. Yes, you wrap things up in the flag and the children and traditional values. Just admit that you want purity, authority, in group loyalty and that these values weigh against and even override harm, fairness, and liberty at certain points. If you don't I swear to god I'm going to rush the stage of the next republican politician running under guise of small government and punch him in the fucking balls (or taco if it's a woman).
You are also smarmy, though in a different way than democrats. You honestly believe that God or some circumstance of nature imbues you with magical (a.k.a. dualist) rights to things. I mean, I feel guilty when I make an unsubstantiated claim like "most people are on my side." I never had the balls to be so hubristic as to claim that the universe or its creator fundamentally agreed with me. Libertarians take note - this applies to you too.
Romney had his good points but he was mostly a "not Obama" vote (like how Obama's Nobel Peace Prize was a "not Bush" prize). Paul Ryan was much better than Romney from a reducing-the-deficit-perspective except that his plan would do far too little far too late and it would have been completely undermined if Romney was allowed to increase the "defense" budget. At least Romney had experience in the private sector. What's Ryan's pedigree? Working at McDonald's then becoming a political aid. Yeah, that's some real understanding of the business world. I personally know of exactly one (1) person who supported Romney before he was the last Republican left standing (except Ron Paul who is the 13th floor of candidates apparently).
I believe that neither Romney nor Obama would offer any substantive changes in the survival of this country. Romney would probably drive it off the cliff more slowly but, if people are waiting for those in the federal government to save them, they might as well wait for the characters from Fern Gully to slow down environmental damage. (I pointed this "waiting for Superman" phenomenon out in regards to recent hurricane Sandy victims and was summarily dismissed as a "dick.")
When all else fails, I can always rely on Schadenfreude to cheer me up. The RNC got their comeuppance as regards the presidential election went. They didn't want the Ron Paul supporters so they didn't get most of them, even after they begged the people walking away to ignore the hijinks. Oops - it bit them in the ass. "Beyad judgment." Teavangelicals - you're done. Done. You just don't know it yet. Pasty white religious busybodies make up too large a bloc though there is a smattering of misguided sovereign citizens, militia wannabes (tacticools) and a people who actually understand economics and want economic liberty (but who would do better to dump the social values voter baggage).
And thus the Romney/Ryan ticket was doomed from the start. He was a negative vote. The RNC sabotaged the process and pissed of many of the people who would've held their nose and voted for Romney if the RNC had obeyed its own rules. The moderates were pushed toward Obama because of the crazy. Good show.
Now, let's move to local, and to me, more important stuff. New Hampshire.
Ovide Lamontagne is a douche. He just is. He's smarmy and he answers questions which no one asked. In any non-political arena that makes you a douche. I don't grant an exception for politics therefore douche. Kevin Smith (no not that one) actually had solid plans but he was an authoritarian asshole. They're both lawyers which makes them pricks. So the options for a Republican governor were a douchey prick or an asshole prick. I've said before that sortition would at least get someone in office other than lawyers (you know, bullshit artists) or money men (you know, con men). Where are the scientists, engineers, construction workers, doctors, farmers, artists in politics? Oh, that's right - they have jobs doing something productive!
New Hampshire has elected Maggie Hassan who wants to further the indoctrination camps known as schools (in the name of jobz!®) and, though she says she opposes a state (broad-based) income or sales tax, has a checkered past in regards to it. Keeping New Hampshire sales- and income-tax-free is one of my highest priorities. I'd feel safer if the amendment to the state constitution passed but, while it did get a majority, it failed to get a plurality. Thus, while Ovide was an insufferable douche and I held my nose while voting for him and I was just party to a fetal termination, I must act to keep New Hampshire the most geoist state in the union. Losing that the last best hope in the U.S. to prove that such a system works for short term gains is dumb.
Hassan also appears to be an anti-tenther as she is willing to cede control of local issues to the federal government for candy, though she could just be making the best out of a shitty situation.
Why the push against Republicans? At least two reasons, one good two bad. The good reason is that, as disappointing as The Free State Project has been thus far, they are actually winning in certain areas. They went from being either dismissed or a joke to pissing statists off (primarily those working in the mental health fields). Now statists are fighting back. So they've gone from being laughed at to ridiculed to fought. The next step, according to Ghandi, is winning. Though that is nowhere assured but it's said that things look darkest before the dawn.
The first bad reason is that Republicans come off as crazy. Many people don't value authority or purity. I sure as shit don't. People see positive changes made by progressives even if they don't work in the long run or if their benefits were incidental. They see the removal of most (if not all) programs which have been established as detrimental because they've lost the ability to imagine any other way. This sign, for instance, makes the eyes of democrats bulge out. People are uncomfortable with others being against something if they don't suggest something new to put in its place; in other words if they're not talking to them like a politician - with five-year plans and all. After all, any jackass can be against something, being for something (which works) is harder. The word nitpick exists for this very reason.
Keep denying science, keep pushing for tough justice over actually fixing the problem, keep being against stuff and not for stuff. Keep losing.
The second bad reason is that the Free Staters could've gone in with a balanced approach to reducing the size of government and showing progressives that the sky wouldn't fall. They spent their efforts largely on token Republican issues such as guns. Now, I own guns and I think that I should legally be able to have what any non-military government agent has, hell it's even one of my triggers - ban guns and I'll turn them in bullets first - but it's not important right now. Fixing the system rather than fixing specifics is what's critical. Here's what I would've done:
- A better statewide election system - first past the post SUCKS. Just look at all these alternatives.
- A better tax system which reduces the need to rely on business taxes or taxes on production. I'm looking at the LVT.
- Stop taking money from the federal government and find ways to allow in-staters to write off what they would send to the IRS by sending it to Concord - take the 10th amendment back!
- Work to establish in-state militias or remove the national guard from federal control... ooh scary!
There's more, but things like those are key.
To Democrats
Warning, I'm going to go even harder on you folks since you just won and won't get the "underdog sympathy check."
Where do I even begin? Shall I start with my outright hatred of the word "progressive?" I don't even have to go further than the damn label to describe a fundamental problem with the people using that label. Yeah - everyone who isn't a progressive hates progress and progress is some definable thing because humans all want the same thing. Do me a favor... fuck off. And, yes, conservatives do this too as they're supposedly conserving some sort of sacred values handed down on Mount Sinai, but it's not as egregious, it's not as smug. That aside... for now... here we go...
Congratulations on your mandate! The people of America either dislike Romney enough to vote for Obama or like the phone's they're getting out of the deal. I'll grant that you're much better, as a party, for science and women even though you suck at economics (for the most part - though don't feel too badly, Republicans are bad too) and suck at decision science. How programmers can support the Democratic party's calls for federal programs is beyond me because they should know that God Objects are an anti-pattern and, if you want to tie ethics into programming, that values are indicated by costs.
Oh, but those pesky harm and equity values override the other parts of your brain and lead you like an emotional droid to favor policies which are functionally retarded. But there are a lot of functionally retarded Americans who vote with their heart even if the policies they support don't work for their purported ends because, even though Republicans have by far the highest percentage of loyalty advocates, Democrats are not above fitness signalling (which, by the way, nearly always run counter to owning your values because most of the time you're not practicing it or starting the habit mindfully).
You intercepted the ball from the moron Republicans who keep pushing fat white religious people issues to the forefront. Care and fairness demanded that abortion be legal and gays can marry. Even though you voted the "right way" on these issues, you still voted just as stupidly as the Republicans by making these issues the focus when don't really matter in the scheme of things. If the country collapses, marriage and abortion will not matter. You support a president who stands behind preemptive war and interventionism - even if his administration is smarter about it than the previous one. China and Russia are, at some point, going to say "enough" and I swear to all reading this forum that I'll laugh if America suffers a military defeat based on arrogance because, even though the soldiers may not deserve it, the abstractions called the military and the country certainly will.
As public relations are a reality of modern warfare, the U.S. can't just nuke the middle east from orbit which means getting bogged down and bled monetarily since there isn't an established metric for victory which has been announced. Al Queda sure more than they could've ever hoped for on that one. Don't let that overshadow the failures of the auto bailout, TARP, QE infinity - they aren't working and they aren't going to work the way the braintrusts claim they will.
Oh, but you'll point out statistics. Too bad the stats lie. There's a reason shadowstats was invented. What doesn't lie is the experience on the ground. I can't get out of the damn grocery store for less than $70 now. Explain how the dollar is not getting weakerwith your fucking egghead Keyensian bullshit artists! Unemployment is not in the single digits - in reality, where people live. The jobs continue to be outsourced and, even though jobs shouldn't be the end all, until we have something like a basic income guarantee if you don't work for others, you don't eat.
Keep pretending that people can stop towing the wagon and get on top of it. Eventually the producers say "fuck it." There have been jobs I have turned down because, after taxes, it wasn't worth it. Now, you can argue that we're still on the left side of The Laffer Curve, and maybe we are - though if you bring up the 90% marginal tax rate thing I will punch you in the nose because you're a mouth-breather who doesn't understand the difference between marginal and effective (and enforceable) tax rates and the differences in the economic and social environments which allowed that shit to fly in the past when it wouldn't now.
Like the conservatives, you people are hypocrites. You claim you want to help people unless they're not part of a protected group or unless doing so interferes with your worldview. You're the ones who are supposed to believe in evolution yet you are government creationists - at least the free market is an example of natural selection. Yes, yes, I know that recognizing something and sanctioning it are different but what's had a better track record for solving problems; human institutions or natural selection? Which has proven time and again to be corruptible? Yeah, case closed.
I'll use that to segue into the argument that you are the most smug pricks on the entire planet... yes, even worse than conservatives or deontological libertarians. You believe that your values are the right values which is just another case of moral realism - a stance which is not materialist and thus denied by me. It gets support from people like Sam Harris who must unfortunately either say something untrue or unenlightening and it is at least more palatable than natural rights doctrine, but it's still bullshit. You're schemers trying to fit reality into an artificial box you're drawing around humans and their interactions - and that's fucking false and hubristic. You think you can correct luck and provide more opportunity by taking it away from others (note - stopping others from taking opportunity from others actually maximizes opportunities overall, playing gift giver doesn't).
You've somehow confused compassion with compulsion and think that voting to spend other people's money on a cause you feel strongly about is a noble thing to do. Hey, but if it feels good who cares what the effects are in the long run? Die in a fire.
You're also the most unimaginative people on the planet thanks, no doubt, to 12,000+ hours being taught in public school that rote learning is they key to success and if it's not being taught within a 50 minute period it's not worth learning and no looking for answers in the back of the book. (FYI 10,000 hours of practice is enough to make you an expert in anything - think of how much more productively that time could be used.) Yup, that plank of the Communist Manifesto is certainly paying dividends handsomely. You conflate government and society, you believe in the social contract theory which has more holes than the colander I use to steam vegetables, and you honestly cannot think of how to solve problems without the government or one of its public institutions (typically big, centralized government, so that there's efficiencies of scale am I right?)
That's your solution to everything: create an institution. Don't worry, you say, it'll be controlled by the people through the power of voting even though bureaucracies both public and private have been shown to deflate after a while into self-serving organisms which sap production from other areas. I guess your biology class didn't cover parasites enough and social studies was more about focused on how the Antebellum south didn't yet have problems with carpetbaggers than it was on studying power dynamics. God forbid there was a psychology class in there somewhere because then you'd have to actually question the pedagogy.
Forget about talking to your neighbors and actually getting together to discuss and solve problems for yourselves. Take Joseph Kony. You could've just kickstarted a bounty on his ass for less than a ten-spot each and you wouldn't have to yield power to one warmonger to send soldiers to stop another. But that'd lead to kuh-razy consequences. We can't have people own their values - nope. No vigilantes who aren't wearing the special costume which makes it all okay (no not that one.) Just spend 15 minutes once every four years (two if you care about local stuff) and pull a lever like a fucking consumer. Yay, civic duty!
Nope, it's easier to just pay your taxes - or get others to do it because you'll always consider yourself poor or middle class and the rich are only those who make more than you - pay your taxes and others will take care of you, cradle to grave like Obama's Julia. Except when they don't but, hey, by then you've ceded power which isn't easy to get back. Oops. Also make sure it's your fair share even though the concept of fair is far from agreed-upon and people being forced to pay more because they have more is of dubious moral goodness.
If I don't like it I can go to Somalia? Sure, but if you really mean that then you have to go to Venezuela or North Korea which are paragons of government involvement in life. I'm sure if they had a better dictator, perhaps one who was elected (which Chavez was by the way), things would be grand. Oh, but you only believe in trotting out that phrase when it comes to normalizing things between different areas of the country because moving to another state is so fucking hard. You don't actually believe it. At least conservatives back up their love it or leave it statement with guns which isn't a logical argument but is convincing.
There are many libertarian-leaning people like me who are not going to stand by while the sphere of politics encroaches on every aspect of our lives. Some of us believe in self-actualization even if it's dangerous and unpredictable. Rubber-padding life and putting everyone in boxes for their own good does not appeal to me. God, I just can't get away from the smug wafting off you people. Has "for your own good" ever been used by any group as much as it's used by progressives? Most of you aren't social scientists and wouldn't even recognize a qualified one if (s)he was in front of you. So just stop it. Just because you have correct beliefs in certain areas doesn't mean you have the mandate on intelligence. If people were incapable of doublethink and compartmentalization then it'd be impossible for any rational person to be religious.
Saving the best for last, there's one more issue which I can't let Democrats get a pass on: war.
Where do I even begin? Shall I start with my outright hatred of the word "progressive?" I don't even have to go further than the damn label to describe a fundamental problem with the people using that label. Yeah - everyone who isn't a progressive hates progress and progress is some definable thing because humans all want the same thing. Do me a favor... fuck off. And, yes, conservatives do this too as they're supposedly conserving some sort of sacred values handed down on Mount Sinai, but it's not as egregious, it's not as smug. That aside... for now... here we go...
Congratulations on your mandate! The people of America either dislike Romney enough to vote for Obama or like the phone's they're getting out of the deal. I'll grant that you're much better, as a party, for science and women even though you suck at economics (for the most part - though don't feel too badly, Republicans are bad too) and suck at decision science. How programmers can support the Democratic party's calls for federal programs is beyond me because they should know that God Objects are an anti-pattern and, if you want to tie ethics into programming, that values are indicated by costs.
Oh, but those pesky harm and equity values override the other parts of your brain and lead you like an emotional droid to favor policies which are functionally retarded. But there are a lot of functionally retarded Americans who vote with their heart even if the policies they support don't work for their purported ends because, even though Republicans have by far the highest percentage of loyalty advocates, Democrats are not above fitness signalling (which, by the way, nearly always run counter to owning your values because most of the time you're not practicing it or starting the habit mindfully).
You intercepted the ball from the moron Republicans who keep pushing fat white religious people issues to the forefront. Care and fairness demanded that abortion be legal and gays can marry. Even though you voted the "right way" on these issues, you still voted just as stupidly as the Republicans by making these issues the focus when don't really matter in the scheme of things. If the country collapses, marriage and abortion will not matter. You support a president who stands behind preemptive war and interventionism - even if his administration is smarter about it than the previous one. China and Russia are, at some point, going to say "enough" and I swear to all reading this forum that I'll laugh if America suffers a military defeat based on arrogance because, even though the soldiers may not deserve it, the abstractions called the military and the country certainly will.
As public relations are a reality of modern warfare, the U.S. can't just nuke the middle east from orbit which means getting bogged down and bled monetarily since there isn't an established metric for victory which has been announced. Al Queda sure more than they could've ever hoped for on that one. Don't let that overshadow the failures of the auto bailout, TARP, QE infinity - they aren't working and they aren't going to work the way the braintrusts claim they will.
Oh, but you'll point out statistics. Too bad the stats lie. There's a reason shadowstats was invented. What doesn't lie is the experience on the ground. I can't get out of the damn grocery store for less than $70 now. Explain how the dollar is not getting weakerwith your fucking egghead Keyensian bullshit artists! Unemployment is not in the single digits - in reality, where people live. The jobs continue to be outsourced and, even though jobs shouldn't be the end all, until we have something like a basic income guarantee if you don't work for others, you don't eat.
Keep pretending that people can stop towing the wagon and get on top of it. Eventually the producers say "fuck it." There have been jobs I have turned down because, after taxes, it wasn't worth it. Now, you can argue that we're still on the left side of The Laffer Curve, and maybe we are - though if you bring up the 90% marginal tax rate thing I will punch you in the nose because you're a mouth-breather who doesn't understand the difference between marginal and effective (and enforceable) tax rates and the differences in the economic and social environments which allowed that shit to fly in the past when it wouldn't now.
Like the conservatives, you people are hypocrites. You claim you want to help people unless they're not part of a protected group or unless doing so interferes with your worldview. You're the ones who are supposed to believe in evolution yet you are government creationists - at least the free market is an example of natural selection. Yes, yes, I know that recognizing something and sanctioning it are different but what's had a better track record for solving problems; human institutions or natural selection? Which has proven time and again to be corruptible? Yeah, case closed.
I'll use that to segue into the argument that you are the most smug pricks on the entire planet... yes, even worse than conservatives or deontological libertarians. You believe that your values are the right values which is just another case of moral realism - a stance which is not materialist and thus denied by me. It gets support from people like Sam Harris who must unfortunately either say something untrue or unenlightening and it is at least more palatable than natural rights doctrine, but it's still bullshit. You're schemers trying to fit reality into an artificial box you're drawing around humans and their interactions - and that's fucking false and hubristic. You think you can correct luck and provide more opportunity by taking it away from others (note - stopping others from taking opportunity from others actually maximizes opportunities overall, playing gift giver doesn't).
You've somehow confused compassion with compulsion and think that voting to spend other people's money on a cause you feel strongly about is a noble thing to do. Hey, but if it feels good who cares what the effects are in the long run? Die in a fire.
You're also the most unimaginative people on the planet thanks, no doubt, to 12,000+ hours being taught in public school that rote learning is they key to success and if it's not being taught within a 50 minute period it's not worth learning and no looking for answers in the back of the book. (FYI 10,000 hours of practice is enough to make you an expert in anything - think of how much more productively that time could be used.) Yup, that plank of the Communist Manifesto is certainly paying dividends handsomely. You conflate government and society, you believe in the social contract theory which has more holes than the colander I use to steam vegetables, and you honestly cannot think of how to solve problems without the government or one of its public institutions (typically big, centralized government, so that there's efficiencies of scale am I right?)
That's your solution to everything: create an institution. Don't worry, you say, it'll be controlled by the people through the power of voting even though bureaucracies both public and private have been shown to deflate after a while into self-serving organisms which sap production from other areas. I guess your biology class didn't cover parasites enough and social studies was more about focused on how the Antebellum south didn't yet have problems with carpetbaggers than it was on studying power dynamics. God forbid there was a psychology class in there somewhere because then you'd have to actually question the pedagogy.
Forget about talking to your neighbors and actually getting together to discuss and solve problems for yourselves. Take Joseph Kony. You could've just kickstarted a bounty on his ass for less than a ten-spot each and you wouldn't have to yield power to one warmonger to send soldiers to stop another. But that'd lead to kuh-razy consequences. We can't have people own their values - nope. No vigilantes who aren't wearing the special costume which makes it all okay (no not that one.) Just spend 15 minutes once every four years (two if you care about local stuff) and pull a lever like a fucking consumer. Yay, civic duty!
Nope, it's easier to just pay your taxes - or get others to do it because you'll always consider yourself poor or middle class and the rich are only those who make more than you - pay your taxes and others will take care of you, cradle to grave like Obama's Julia. Except when they don't but, hey, by then you've ceded power which isn't easy to get back. Oops. Also make sure it's your fair share even though the concept of fair is far from agreed-upon and people being forced to pay more because they have more is of dubious moral goodness.
If I don't like it I can go to Somalia? Sure, but if you really mean that then you have to go to Venezuela or North Korea which are paragons of government involvement in life. I'm sure if they had a better dictator, perhaps one who was elected (which Chavez was by the way), things would be grand. Oh, but you only believe in trotting out that phrase when it comes to normalizing things between different areas of the country because moving to another state is so fucking hard. You don't actually believe it. At least conservatives back up their love it or leave it statement with guns which isn't a logical argument but is convincing.
There are many libertarian-leaning people like me who are not going to stand by while the sphere of politics encroaches on every aspect of our lives. Some of us believe in self-actualization even if it's dangerous and unpredictable. Rubber-padding life and putting everyone in boxes for their own good does not appeal to me. God, I just can't get away from the smug wafting off you people. Has "for your own good" ever been used by any group as much as it's used by progressives? Most of you aren't social scientists and wouldn't even recognize a qualified one if (s)he was in front of you. So just stop it. Just because you have correct beliefs in certain areas doesn't mean you have the mandate on intelligence. If people were incapable of doublethink and compartmentalization then it'd be impossible for any rational person to be religious.
Saving the best for last, there's one more issue which I can't let Democrats get a pass on: war.
Oh, sorry to post something not safe for work. Too bad truth can be like that sometimes. Look at the goddamn picture. Your tax dollars helped fund that. But, you know, we need the roads - even though infrastructure and the federal government's operating budget is like 7% of income tax receipts. I'll break out my checkbook right now and pay 7% of my "fair share." Hell, I'll fucking flat tax it if you want. Nope? Ok, well at least that warmonger Bush out of office and, remember, Libya wasn't a war - it was a humanitarian intervention.
You're no better than the Republicans on this issue at the value level, though you may be at the execution level. Stop acting like you have the moral high ground.
But you have to crack some eggs to catch Emmanuel Goldstein, er, I mean Tim Osman, er, I mean Osama Bin Laden. Yeah, except, as a thinking person, I'm pretty sure that didn't actually happen. Conspiracy! Yeah, good thing those ... never ... happen. Dumped at sea - who makes this shit up?
And now drones. I can't blame Obama for this one - if the tech's there, who wouldn't use it. But it's interesting how the war protests dissipated like a fart in the wind as soon as Hope and Change took office. Those drones are coming to the U.S. and why shouldn't they? You need to do something with military hardware and there are so many (tacti)cool uses for them. What institution voluntarily gives up power?
Now we have the NDAA (but he signed it because it was veto proof - yeah, just like Paul Ryan voted his unconscience)... and the kill list (which even if Obama uses for the best of purposes is now a power attached to that office and who knows who will fill it in the future).
Go sit in the corner until you figure out what you actually want.
You're no better than the Republicans on this issue at the value level, though you may be at the execution level. Stop acting like you have the moral high ground.
But you have to crack some eggs to catch Emmanuel Goldstein, er, I mean Tim Osman, er, I mean Osama Bin Laden. Yeah, except, as a thinking person, I'm pretty sure that didn't actually happen. Conspiracy! Yeah, good thing those ... never ... happen. Dumped at sea - who makes this shit up?
And now drones. I can't blame Obama for this one - if the tech's there, who wouldn't use it. But it's interesting how the war protests dissipated like a fart in the wind as soon as Hope and Change took office. Those drones are coming to the U.S. and why shouldn't they? You need to do something with military hardware and there are so many (tacti)cool uses for them. What institution voluntarily gives up power?
Now we have the NDAA (but he signed it because it was veto proof - yeah, just like Paul Ryan voted his unconscience)... and the kill list (which even if Obama uses for the best of purposes is now a power attached to that office and who knows who will fill it in the future).
Go sit in the corner until you figure out what you actually want.
To Libertarians
In Japanese there is no real distinction between Ls and Rs, hence the existence of Godzirra and Engrish Funny. It appears that's happening in New Hampshire too: just about every (L)ibertarian running for office in New Hampshire is running as a (R)epublican, none are running as Democrats. But you guys should fit right in with Democrats because you are smug as hell. Plus you continuously claim that you're the best of both worlds. So either you really don't give a shit about social values compared to economic ones or you believe that Democrats care more about economic justice than social justice or you can more easily sway Republicans or you're full of shit. Pick one.
You're not helping your cause because it looks like you're paying lip service to social issues while really only wanting to not chip in your buck-o-five. It makes you look like selfish pricks.
Oh wait, you are selfish pricks. There's nothing wrong with being selfish (the self-interested kind, not the detrimental-to-others-kind). There is a problem with pretending like you're part of some great hope and then doing jack shit. You can't get off your ass to move to another state; the free state project stands at a pathetic 1,100 movers after at least half a decade. I was optomistic when the few people who did move here got into the state legislature and started making changes. But it's not enough and it's not on the things which are important. With the exception of medical marijuana legislation (the medical portion was a compromise by the way) how have you lined up with non-Republicans?
Many of you can't even be bothered to run for office or write op-ed pieces or donate to the charities which you claim are a viable replacement to government institutions. I get it, people are busy. I haven't done nearly as much as I could either. But you don't hear me railing on about how awesome I am for being a freethinker. Do something with your newfound knowledge goddammit! If you don't you're useless to the liberty movement.
Johnson got a pissant 1% of the vote - now that was more than any libertarian ever. Yay, it took 40 years to get 1/40th of the way there. Only 1,560 years to go at this rate! Aren't there more people than that in the U.S. who value liberty? If not we might as well all pack up and go to Somalia after all. After all the huffing and puffing the liberty movement deflated like a flan in a cupboard. How about some organization? It's like trying to herd cats and Sun Tzu opined on how disorganized groups fare against those who are organized.
Don't worry, you can always talk with people and just show them the overpowering logic of libertarianism™. Well, except you can't because it's total bullshit. You start with values axiomatically as every agent ever in the history of time does. Libertarianism is only self-evident if you value liberty and don't value anything more than liberty. It's not like it just falls out of non-value facts. You're not jumping Hume's gap any time soon. The reason why spouting facts is not going to work as well as you'd like is that other people do value things other than liberty and value them more than liberty. In many cases they have false beliefs which allow them to disconnect liberty from effects they value. In other cases they know full well and just don't give a shit. You can against me all you want - others don't give a shit about your fraternal club philosophy.
What can you do to change this? Two things: the first is to recognize and embrace other values or at least adopt liberty as a means to values others care about. The other is to grow the fuck up and stop being pussies. Seriously, that's the part that's pissing me off right now, even more than libertarians being pricks. Grow a pair and start living free now. Or admit you don't value liberty as much as you want.
Buh buh I have to pay for drone strikes because taxes are under duress. Good point, except fuck you. I didn't pay taxes for a while. I had to pay for some of it. But at least I did it and didn't whine like a unbearable cunt. George Mandrik sells Balklava for Bitcoins and does so under the table. Buh buh then I can't work at a cushy job. And? You apparently like having a cushy job more than not blowing up children in other countries. Just admit it and move on.
I'm not saying that it's right that you've been put in that situation. I'm not saying you need to acquiesce. I am saying that you need to own your values. Live free now.
A small but vocal group of anarcho-capitalists believe that shit would just work were it not for the government. Well, except how do you prevent government from forming in the first place and how do you avoid that attractor state once you start down that road? We're still living in largely pre-drone times. Guns still work against bureaucrats. What're you waiting for - the power disparity to grow even larger? I don't see people pushing to avoid that attractor state now and backing it up with some sack. Either start your DRO now and start trying people in your own courts or what have you or shut the hell up. As I mentioned, talking it out is going to take infinity years because the establishment will always have better propaganda than you do and you're dismissing 5 out of 6 moral foundations.
Why not show others how liberty works for them by embracing other values even if you can't have pure liberty? You can't let it go? Have fun being marginalized forever. As a non-believer, I can't afford to wait until after I'm dead to start enjoying the fruits of liberty even if I don't have perfect liberty. But that's okay because I like liberty for the fruits it produces, not because it's some mystical end in itself.
Fuck the conservatives. Purity is for chemicals and virgin sacrifices, though humans do tend to like their people of their own "kind." Loyalty is important but not when it fucks many others over. Authority can suck a dick. So that leaves care and fairness. Oooh, socialism! Suck it up. If liberty fucks people over then those people aren't going to support it. Rights don't come from self-ownership Jesus, they're an inter-subjective respect construct. If you fuck people over your shit will become their shit. Which leads me to the concept of fairness. A lot of people get jealous for stupid reasons but a lot of people get jealous for good reasons. There is a strong correlation between the Gini coefficient and the health of a society - at least as measured by my criteria of truth, trust, and trade. Even if you secretly don't care about others or fairness, care because you care about yourself and your stuff.
You're not helping your cause because it looks like you're paying lip service to social issues while really only wanting to not chip in your buck-o-five. It makes you look like selfish pricks.
Oh wait, you are selfish pricks. There's nothing wrong with being selfish (the self-interested kind, not the detrimental-to-others-kind). There is a problem with pretending like you're part of some great hope and then doing jack shit. You can't get off your ass to move to another state; the free state project stands at a pathetic 1,100 movers after at least half a decade. I was optomistic when the few people who did move here got into the state legislature and started making changes. But it's not enough and it's not on the things which are important. With the exception of medical marijuana legislation (the medical portion was a compromise by the way) how have you lined up with non-Republicans?
Many of you can't even be bothered to run for office or write op-ed pieces or donate to the charities which you claim are a viable replacement to government institutions. I get it, people are busy. I haven't done nearly as much as I could either. But you don't hear me railing on about how awesome I am for being a freethinker. Do something with your newfound knowledge goddammit! If you don't you're useless to the liberty movement.
Johnson got a pissant 1% of the vote - now that was more than any libertarian ever. Yay, it took 40 years to get 1/40th of the way there. Only 1,560 years to go at this rate! Aren't there more people than that in the U.S. who value liberty? If not we might as well all pack up and go to Somalia after all. After all the huffing and puffing the liberty movement deflated like a flan in a cupboard. How about some organization? It's like trying to herd cats and Sun Tzu opined on how disorganized groups fare against those who are organized.
Don't worry, you can always talk with people and just show them the overpowering logic of libertarianism™. Well, except you can't because it's total bullshit. You start with values axiomatically as every agent ever in the history of time does. Libertarianism is only self-evident if you value liberty and don't value anything more than liberty. It's not like it just falls out of non-value facts. You're not jumping Hume's gap any time soon. The reason why spouting facts is not going to work as well as you'd like is that other people do value things other than liberty and value them more than liberty. In many cases they have false beliefs which allow them to disconnect liberty from effects they value. In other cases they know full well and just don't give a shit. You can against me all you want - others don't give a shit about your fraternal club philosophy.
What can you do to change this? Two things: the first is to recognize and embrace other values or at least adopt liberty as a means to values others care about. The other is to grow the fuck up and stop being pussies. Seriously, that's the part that's pissing me off right now, even more than libertarians being pricks. Grow a pair and start living free now. Or admit you don't value liberty as much as you want.
Buh buh I have to pay for drone strikes because taxes are under duress. Good point, except fuck you. I didn't pay taxes for a while. I had to pay for some of it. But at least I did it and didn't whine like a unbearable cunt. George Mandrik sells Balklava for Bitcoins and does so under the table. Buh buh then I can't work at a cushy job. And? You apparently like having a cushy job more than not blowing up children in other countries. Just admit it and move on.
I'm not saying that it's right that you've been put in that situation. I'm not saying you need to acquiesce. I am saying that you need to own your values. Live free now.
A small but vocal group of anarcho-capitalists believe that shit would just work were it not for the government. Well, except how do you prevent government from forming in the first place and how do you avoid that attractor state once you start down that road? We're still living in largely pre-drone times. Guns still work against bureaucrats. What're you waiting for - the power disparity to grow even larger? I don't see people pushing to avoid that attractor state now and backing it up with some sack. Either start your DRO now and start trying people in your own courts or what have you or shut the hell up. As I mentioned, talking it out is going to take infinity years because the establishment will always have better propaganda than you do and you're dismissing 5 out of 6 moral foundations.
Why not show others how liberty works for them by embracing other values even if you can't have pure liberty? You can't let it go? Have fun being marginalized forever. As a non-believer, I can't afford to wait until after I'm dead to start enjoying the fruits of liberty even if I don't have perfect liberty. But that's okay because I like liberty for the fruits it produces, not because it's some mystical end in itself.
Fuck the conservatives. Purity is for chemicals and virgin sacrifices, though humans do tend to like their people of their own "kind." Loyalty is important but not when it fucks many others over. Authority can suck a dick. So that leaves care and fairness. Oooh, socialism! Suck it up. If liberty fucks people over then those people aren't going to support it. Rights don't come from self-ownership Jesus, they're an inter-subjective respect construct. If you fuck people over your shit will become their shit. Which leads me to the concept of fairness. A lot of people get jealous for stupid reasons but a lot of people get jealous for good reasons. There is a strong correlation between the Gini coefficient and the health of a society - at least as measured by my criteria of truth, trust, and trade. Even if you secretly don't care about others or fairness, care because you care about yourself and your stuff.
Reconcilliation
To conservatives, you need to ditch some things
To progressives, you need to ditch some things
I actually really like the progressive foundational values (care, fairness, and liberty). I think they could use a little more loyalty and tune up liberty significantly with the caveat that it's expected to increase well-being (decrease harm) and increase certain definitions of fairness. If it doesn't, I don't blame you for ditching it.
To Libertarians, you need to both ditch some things and pick some things up
- Boot out the religious fundamentalists who are anti-science and who want to see the world burn.
- Drop respect for authority which isn't anything other than personally granted. Just because someone is a cop doesn't mean they're better than someone who isn't or that they should have more rights. Step 1: no special rights for cops!
- Ditch the purity value, specifically non-diversity of opinion in areas which don't sow strife. That means letting shit slide - look at this flowchart until you stop sucking. Stop saying shit like "America is the Best Country!" Travel and spend time outside of the tourist areas. Pretty soon you'll see you have more in common with the normal folk in other countries than you do with the leaders of this one.
- Cut out loyalty where it leads to divisiveness or where it undermines liberty, fairness, or where it causes harm. I place a high value on the loyalty of my friends, but place next to nil on loyalty to some abstract group because I liked them at one point or because of an accident of my birth. The difference, I enter into one mindfully and of my own accord and for mutual benefit.
- Stop taking pride in and identifying with shit you didn't actually do. When the Red Sox win, "you" didn't win.
- Stop saying the word "we" unless it includes one person who is actually present or who you are recounting in a story which included YOU.
- Stop focusing on minor issues and believing that Ward Cleaver was the epitome of the American male.
To progressives, you need to ditch some things
- Ditch the false belief that you can micromanage (or macromanage) reality. If you want to do that so badly, go find and island an play John Hammond. If you try to micromanage me I will straight up kill you if I feel that I it's the lowest cost option.
- Stop thinking that everyone else is a moron (I know - I've harped on all three groups for being moronic in some aspects). People have different values than you and got their through different paths.
- Stop imposing values and ditch the word progressive. There's no progress, it's all a random walk unless you specify a target. Any target you specify is arbitrary - but that's getting meta. Just because you like something doesn't mean it's the right thing to do for everyone. The price mechanism is the best known way of expressing values.
- Admit that voting is a hack and democracy kind of sucks - people can say whatever they want, talk and filling in some ovals are cheap and don't necessarily express values - certainly not as well as paying money does. If there were social costs imposed by voting being out in the open (no secret ballots) I'd be less dismissive of democracy.
- Admit that compassion is not compulsion. Stop conflating feeling good with doing good.
- Admit that, even in cases where scales of economy would make a more centralized solution somewhat more efficient, smaller is still better for liberty and, most likely, well-being and fairness. Only go central when the effects are drastically better.
- Admit that economics wins, math wins - regardless of how you feel about it.
I actually really like the progressive foundational values (care, fairness, and liberty). I think they could use a little more loyalty and tune up liberty significantly with the caveat that it's expected to increase well-being (decrease harm) and increase certain definitions of fairness. If it doesn't, I don't blame you for ditching it.
To Libertarians, you need to both ditch some things and pick some things up
- You're not the only one who has seen truth - stop acting like you are
- Stop believing in property Jesus or A=A therefore rights
- Work to change the system or to make it irrelevant or shut up. Basically, live this flowchart at all times. Get the hell off your ass.
- You need to pick up a value of the well-being of others, at least those who can make your life difficult.
- You need to pick up a value of fairness, at least to those who can make your life difficult.
- Focus on what works even if it's not perfectly ideal. Don't get so tied up with a strict reading of the NAP that you're useless at making liberty more valued.
Closing Rant
World, get your shit together because I am not waiting for you. I promise you I will never pay a NH income tax and if, certain things happen, the U.S. can go fuck itself too. I will not grant you a right to be wrong ever and I will unperson anyone who acts like a mindless beast. Own your values, express your humanity. Stop cobbling philosophies together out of spare parts - think for yourself and do empirical research.
If we can't find some common ground, then this country needs to split up. I'm not opposed to that in the least.
If we can't find some common ground, then this country needs to split up. I'm not opposed to that in the least.