Blogs @ Relative Progress

I would call this headline a little Hyperbolic. That is not what Nick Sarwark said per say. I listened to this very show on a drive back from El Paso. I have a slight disagreement with his position that States “Rights” (I am growing to hate that word in context to states) are not a Libertarian position. Nick should probably talk to some more rank and file party members I talk to locally.  This type of shit is how fake beefs get started. I am no worshiper of Dr. Paul – I’m personally sick of hearing his name come up constantly – but this is blown a bit out of proportion.

When I first started this blog I was really into tech. To a certain extend I still am but where tech met socio-economics and culture I saw a rift.  I spent a lot of time in the Bay Area and talked to lots of folks.  This is where I began to truly see a ideological divide that I saw as troubling.  For an area of the country so touched by entrepreneurship, free-markets and meritocracy they seem to spout an awful lot of cultural Marxist and socialist bullshit. There was this naivete about government that I found puzzling. The growing “Technorati”, beta-male types started infiltrating the tech press and the incessant virtue signaling began. I suspect this was mainly because of the fact that the tech press was growing increasingly more female (which in and of itself wasn’t a bad thing) began to push a social justice agenda and the “feels” that had little to do with the underlining technologies. Progressive politics began to pollute my tech.

Increasingly, my post became less about tech and more about political trends that I saw developing in the tech world and tech industry.  A look at my older articles will show this slow evolution.  I did a weekly podcast for a while using a startup and now defunct platform FlipZu.  Those links are dead and the podcasts are gone.  These were mostly apolitical podcasts but every once and a while I would go a little right-wing with a rant or two.  When my travel between my home base and California increased, I ceased the podcast and simply stuck to blogging.  And as is the case with most blogs I stopped altogether.

That brings us to now.  More and more of my deep thoughts and musing where appearing more on Facebook, Twitter and various Google platforms than on my blog.  These platforms make it friction-less to do so.  A series of unfortunate and eye-opening events caused me to reevaluate where I placed my efforts.  So I’m back.

 

In the coming weeks I will re-start my posting activities on this blog.  For years I have posted long soliloquies on other platforms – contributing greatly to their bottom line – while neglecting to bring my thoughts here for a memorandum of record. No more.  As a reacquaint myself with the platform, you’ll see lots of template changes and glitches until I find my flow. Bear with me.  In the meanwhile here is some more audio content.

The short answer is I have no idea.

I was a conservative. There I said it – call this acceptance. I not a fully a Libertarian today. I will not and shall not pass a purity test because I cling to the belief in an enduring moral order.  I am not a warmonger; I am just not a pacifist. I reject the Progressive worldview because I reject the advocacy of a paternalistic State. So what did being a conservative mean at least to me?  It has been bastardized by media, intelligentsia and opportunist both Left and Right for many decades. A conservative, as I had come to believe it, was derived from the Russel Kirk conservatism of the Old Right (give it a read). In summary; things that have been tried, true and proven to order a society are eternal. What it has evolved into is a simply a belief structure that serves as speed bump on the road to serfdom, a road paved with corpse and good intentions in service of the State. What makes me more Libertarian today is a growing skepticism of that State, if not strongly considering arguments for it abolition. 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.”  I would argue that if your moral compass tends toward the prism of FORCE vs. CHOICE you are a “Libertarian”.  Not a pure manifesto, but a start of a journey. I am still formulating my thought processes on this.

I have been noticing how little broadcast cable television I consume now that I have 3 streaming services and YouTube.  To be exact my two little girls barely consume that much television either.  My youngest consumes a horrendous amount of Netflix and Hulu (that reminds me I need to check my bandwidth cap this month), while my oldest is addicted to YouTube, not to mention the tons of free content available online from Disney and Cartoon Network.  My own personnel video consumption habits have changed tremendously.  I pay for Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, purchase content weekly from Amazon Instant Video and Bit Torrent from time to time.  I have hacked both my Roku boxes and look a tremendous amounts of YouTube content daily.  The last time I look at cable television was the season finale of Mad Men (2 months ago).  My wife seems to be the only holdout when it comes to broadcast TV and that is mostly DVR content.  I would gladly dump Direct TV and put that money toward faster business class internet with no monthly cap and would still save money.  That is not to say I am considering this option anytime soon, my wife would have my head and I still like my occasional sporting events.  But it does beg the question, who still needs TV?