Blogs @ Relative Progress

Dear Mr. Sawark,

Look, Small “l” Libertarians are not saying State’s “Rights” (ugh) have been a perfect doctrine. Mr. Sarwark, I get where you’re coming from. For a long time State’s “Rights” have been used as a Judicial precedent to sanction horrible impediments to human rights and liberty (Loving v. Virginia being a more personal example).  However, it is the best doctrine and mechanisms we have to begin to decentralize State (Federal) power. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good enough.

Love,
Nick

(Some thoughts out loud down below)

All these folks shit posting on Facebook about Trump and how illegitimate his administration is in an effort to de-legitimize his administration were quiet as church mice is eight years ago.  They are also people who have always believed in the power of the state to correct the ills of the world. So let me get this right:

The government has failed to rein in Big business, so spend more money and give them more power.
The government has failed to fix our education system, so spend more money and give them more power.  
The government has failed to stop discrimination , so spend more money and give them more power.
The government has failed to stop pollution by Big business, so spend more money and give them more power.  
The government has failed to stop gun violence, spend more money and give them more power.
The government has failed to fix our Healthcare system, spend more money and give them more power.
The government has failed to stem the flow and use of drugs, So spend more money and give them more power.

I could go on but I think the trend is clear.

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Phil Anschutz is the owner of the Coachella Arts and Music Festival.  His crime: owning the Washington Examiner and contributing to socially conservative organizations that oppose same-sex marriage and abortion. The Left, as always, is outraged.   Add Mr. Anschutz to the long list of public and private citizens outed and ripe for boycott.

As far back as the Spanish Inquisition, Salem Witch Trial, to the Hollywood Blacklists of the McCarthy Era,  political and religious witch hunts have always been part of human mental Pathology. This latest brouhaha is no different. This political witch hunt is setting a dangerous precedent. A word of wisdom to the social justice Left that used the power of the public square to shame and persecute free markets in thought; the momentum of the pendulum always shifts. Be warned.

Short answer. No.  Long answer.  Listen.

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Libertarian lessons for life:

• The pain of poverty is what drives most to get out of poverty.
• If you want to eat,  you need to get out there and grind so that you can
• Libertarianism is the most basic of concepts. I live my life, you live yours, and we all don’t hurt anyone else. I can hurt myself, that’s my choice, but I can’t hurt you.    
• Liberty revolves around two concepts: FORCE & CHOICE.
• First the State steals your stuff then they steal your words.
• We must always be skeptical of those whom wish to or seek the power to be lord over men; public servants, private entities or otherwise
• The government can never get rid of or control Markets because Markets are voluntarily interactions between free people.
• If forcibly taking 100% of someone’s income is slavery, then at what percentage is it no longer slavery?
• The growth in Private Prisons aren’t the causes of mass incarceration but a market response to growth in State violence.
• Liberty lesson for the day: Collectivist are fixated on a world of limits in wealth and resources ignoring the limitless ingenuity of human being.
• Fear of religion as a theocratic menace to a free society is irrational while the religious worship of the “State” has literally menaced and killed many, many more people.  
• Haidt states that “Those who tend to see morality mostly through the prisms of Care/Harm and Fairness/Cheating are “liberal.” If your moral compass tends more toward Authority/Subversion and Sanctity/Degradation, you are “conservative.”
• If your moral compass tends toward the prism of FORCE/CHOICE you are a “Libertarian”
• Government is God to Statists, Collectivists and Leftists. The most dangerous superstition is worship of the State.
• Has a Leftist ever stop to think that maybe there is so much polarization and ideological groupthink because they are constantly launching assaults on normalcy? The victims of this aggression just want to be left alone clinging to their worldview not hurting anyone.  Leftist are the aggressors. A perversion of relativism is their ideology. Nihilism is their religion.
• We cannot govern our lives or affairs with “what if” this or that happens.  We must governor these affairs “because of” something.
• Use punishment to cause sensual pleasures to become distasteful to them. Then you will see that every point of your legislation will cause the savages to lose a vice and gain a virtue.  – Condillac
• Christmas is about Christendom & Capitalism – two of the most maligned concepts in contemporary America.
• Once you have the bestowed the “right” to something upon one person you’ve created an obligation for another. Rights are god given not State granted.
• Counter-Economics: Black markets are a natural outgrowth of excessive government manipulation of the economy, which makes operating outside the law preferable.

Know these lessons and you are on your way to understanding the principles of Liberty.