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Thoughts That Should Probably Occur More Often

Posted by M. C. on November 15, 2022

https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/thoughts-that-should-probably-occur?r=iw8dv&utm_medium=android

Caitlin Johnstone

I wonder if my own government is being truthful about its actions in that part of the world?

I wonder if my own government is in the wrong on this issue?

I wonder if the news media are telling the truth right now?

I wonder if the news media tell the truth about things generally?

I wonder if the “Evil Dictators versus Virtuous Liberal Democracies” framework I’ve been taught by teachers, pundits and politicians is the most accurate lens through which to view world events?

Could I have been deceived about the way my government operates, at home and abroad? 

Is it possible that my beliefs about my society, my government and my world are completely wrong?

What if the teachers, preachers and parents who helped form my worldview were relying on inaccurate information?

Who has benefitted from the beliefs that are in my head? Is it possible that those beliefs were placed there, directly or indirectly, by people who have benefitted from my having them?

Are there any power-serving falsehoods that I believe because it is cognitively easier to believe them than to let in information that might hurt my ego or require me to restructure my entire worldview?

Does civilization really have to be organized in this way? Is it possible to create better systems that work for everyone? Do I only assume things can’t change because the current systems have been deliberately normalized for me?

Are there any beliefs that were put in my head by people I love and trust that are untruthful or unhelpful? Beliefs about myself? Beliefs about my place in the world? Beliefs about my family members? My culture? My religion?

Is there anyone in my life who regularly tries to manipulate me into thinking a certain way about things? Anyone who regularly tries to influence how I think about them? How I think about myself? How I think about others? Why are they doing that?

What beliefs am I still holding that don’t serve me? That don’t serve the world? Could I be holding some unhelpful beliefs without even consciously realizing it?

In what areas of my life am I in the wrong? Who have I wronged and who am I currently doing wrong to? What can I do to make it right?

Are there beliefs that that I hold on to because I believe they are me, but when I look at them in the clear light of day I can see they are only fossilised ideas forged long ago in a moment of fear? Have I been defending those false ideas with such force that I have actually been in attack?

How has my childhood affected my way of experiencing life and behaving in the world? Are there any psychological habits I formed when I was small and lacking in knowledge that I am still maintaining? Can I now as a strong adult begin to consciously relinquish them?

What is thought? Am I quite sure I’m using and relating to it in the healthiest and most skillful way possible? Is it possible to move thought and thinking into a more wholesome and efficacious role in my life?

Is it possible that I’m not perceiving reality accurately at all? That not only is the information in my head inaccurate, but my most fundamental assumptions about life and perception as well?

Is it possible that I’ve been holding inaccurate beliefs about not only my world, my government, my society, my culture, my family and myself, but about my very nature?

See the rest here

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Joe Biden and the “Transformational” Presidency

Posted by M. C. on November 15, 2022

Even had the red wave passed over the electorate this past week, it would have changed the Biden presidency very little, if at all. That is how powerful the executive branch under Biden has become. And Biden will continue to listen to the “historians” who fawn over his every word and tell him that he, too, can be a “great” president.

William Anderson has a great article on the genesis of progressivism. Rents and Race
Legacies of Progressive Policies
By William L. Anderson, David Kiriazis https://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?id=947

  • biden3.jpg

https://mises.org/wire/joe-biden-and-transformational-presidency

William L. Anderson

Much is made of the failure of Republicans to make predicted gains in the recent midterm elections, but, as Ryan McMaken has pointed out, Congress plays a much-diminished role in national governance to the point that even had the so-called red wave actually occurred, it is doubtful that much would have changed regarding Joe Biden’s presidency. In fact, most of what Biden has done in his two years in office has been outside of congressional legislative matters.

McMaken points out:

This all combines to mean we should expect very little change on policies at the federal level. For example, we can expect to keep hearing plenty about the evil of fossil fuels. The administration will continue to press for less drilling for oil and gas, and the war on coal will continue. The administration will continue to issue new edicts for “fighting global warming.” 

As McMaken notes, Biden has used executive orders liberally, sometimes using a twisted interpretation of federal law, and then unleashing his regulatory and law enforcement agencies to get his desired results. For example, federal banking regulators and the Securities and Exchange Commission have pressured banks and other lenders not to led to the oil and gas industry, citing the fealty to fighting climate change as the reason.

Note that the administration is doing this not via congressional authorization, but rather through its own self-serving “interpretation” of existing federal law. Likewise, Biden’s infamous student loan forgiveness order was not through such relief passed by Congress, but rather using a 2003 federal law that permits the US secretary of education to employ “expansive authority to alleviate the hardship that federal student loan recipients may suffer as a result of national emergencies.” What constitutes a “national emergency” must be in the eyes of the beholder, as any reason will do—and, so far, the courts have signed off on this vast expansion of executive power. This is reminiscent of Franklin Roosevelt’s perverse interpretation of the 1917 Trading with the Enemy Act to undergird his gold seizure from Americans and devaluate the dollar.

(Biden has not been the only recent president to liberally employ executive orders for questionable reasons. Donald Trump used existing law to raise tariffs against Chinese products, claiming that his actions meant that the Chinese were now helping to pay for their exports to the USA. Once upon a time—before turning over some of its authority to the executive branch—Congress had sole authority to set tax rates.)

Biden’s reckless actions have come in part because progressives in the 1930s convinced Congress to give away much of its authority to the executive branch, the action well described by Paul Craig Roberts and Lawrence Stratton in their book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions. The authors described a scene in which Congress was passing bills not even yet written and acceding their authority to the president as a response to the economic calamity of the early 1930s.

The New Deal, which was Franklin Roosevelt’s set of policies ostensibly to combat the Great Depression (although one easily can argue that the New Deal was the main reason the depression lasted for a decade), made FDR a “transformational” president, a title that Biden actively is seeking for himself. Encouraged by historical writers such as Jon Meacham and Doris Kearns Goodwin, Biden wants to become an icon like Roosevelt, although the “hook” today is not economic depression (yet) but rather the so-called climate emergency.

Unfortunately, becoming a presidential icon requires that the executive branch impose severe economic damage to the country. Roosevelt’s New Deal, far from pulling the USA out of the Great Depression, left it mired it in what economist Robert Higgs called “regime uncertainty,” which resulted in high unemployment and a dearth of capital investment. Biden’s version of the so-called Green New Deal points the economy in the same direction. Writes Thomas Woods:

In the old days, progressives claimed to be trying to improve the standard of living of the ordinary person. Everything they advocated would have had the opposite effect, but at least they claimed to be making his life better.

Now they’re not even claiming that.

You will be poorer, they’re telling you. Your electricity bills will be higher. The price of your car will be higher. And according to them, higher prices are in fact a good thing, because they’re supposedly a sign of a strong economy.

See the rest here

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The Aftermath and After That – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on November 15, 2022

   Let’s get something straight: the Woked-up Jacobin Party of Chaos is not really worried about “mis-and-disinformation” — it’s just afraid of information.

“Joe Biden” has promised to destroy all the fossil fuel industries, and if you take him at his word, that means the natgas sector too. Half of America thinks it’s going “green.” No, it’s going broke.

The Aftermath and After That

By James Howard Kunstler

Kunstler.com

“Normally it would be considered a tell when one political party loses its mind any time someone suggests we should have basic election security procedures common in every other civilized country.” — MartyrMade on Twitter

Let’s get something straight: the Woked-up Jacobin Party of Chaos is not really worried about “mis-and-disinformation,” it’s just afraid of information. Only a tyrannical regime would work so hard and complain so loudly about opposing ideas entering the public arena as to brand them inadmissible. Apparently, that formula also applies to election results, an elemental kind of information bound to determine whether censorship will continue to be the order-of-the-day or not.

The stalling of election results also allows for wholesale correction of results that don’t come in as desired. At a certain threshold, the Marc Elias Lawfare-sponsored ballot-harvesting machinery kicks in and, voila, ten thousand or so mail-in ballots appear courtesy of, say, the Culinary Workers Union in Nevada, and… problem solved! The correct candidates win! My guess is that this happened in other select districts all over the USA. Will it be detected and looked into? Probably not. That would be election denial, a toxic reservoir of “disinformation.”

Which is why the Arizona governor’s race, where the dynamic Kari Lake (R) ran against the inert and corrupt Katie Hobbs (D), is so interesting.  Maricopa County, the second-largest election district in the USA, has dribbled out the results all week to make sure it looked like Ms. Lake was losing, while Democratic Party activists scrambled to generate more early mail-in ballots to make sure that Ms. Lake does lose, if at all possible. Either way, it may not go down so easily. If she wins, Ms. Lake will do everything possible to reform the sketchy Arizona election laws; if she loses, she is prepared to sue the living shit out of Maricopa County election officials and Katie Hobbs — whose position as AZ Secretary of State left her in charge of an election she ran in, and all the machinery behind it.

The post-election mood across America is labile and incendiary. So-called Red America, the opposition to Woke Jacobin tyranny, smolders in fury facing two more years of censorship, war-mongering, FBI-DOJ-IRS persecution, “vaccine” fuckery, economic breakdown, and the WEF-inspired killing-off of Western Civilization. Blue America, personified by the smugly sclerotic “Joe Biden,” ghoulishly salivates over the dying carcass of the country it intends to devour. Between the two factions there is no space for the normal operation of politics — the contest of ideas about running human affairs — especially with the public arena of ideas in Woke lockdown.

Yet, events look like they are out-pacing whatever the mood is on any side. So many crises are already underway threatening to upend everyday life that neither Red or Blue Americans will escape hardship and damage.

The on-the-ground economy has imploded. Inflation is for-real and crushes the country’s standard-of-living. Before long, it may shift into deflation, which means instead of having a lot of money losing value, you’ll have no money at all. Rising interest rates killed off the real estate part of the Everything Bubble, and the building, selling, and remodeling of houses has been locus of the few remaining good-paying jobs. The car industry is dying under several forms of stress: steeply rising unit prices, a strapped middle-class, growing scarcity of capital for lending, broken supply lines for vehicle inventory and parts, and the insane “green” crusade to make all motoring electric. Even fixing things of value — existing houses, cars, machinery in general — becomes increasingly impossible when nobody can get the replacement parts to work with.

See the rest here

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The FTX Collapse Explained in 99 Seconds – Forbidden Knowledge TV

Posted by M. C. on November 14, 2022

SBF didn’t have enough money to repay everyone at once and now his customers have lost everything.
He’ll be happy to know that this is exactly how every Bank in the world operates.

https://forbiddenknowledgetv.net/the-ftx-collapse-explained-in-99-seconds/

The Gateway Pundit reports:

“The word is now out. The Democrats sent tens of billions to Ukraine and then laundered this money back to Democrat pockets and funds in the US. Now the company is bankrupt and the funds are nowhere to be found.”

The Daily Caller reports:

  • Cryptocurrency CEO and Democratic donor Sam Bankman-Fried funded the campaigns of key lawmakers overseeing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the agency tasked with regulating the crypto industry, as he was lobbying the CFTC for greater oversight over the digital asset marketplace.
  • Bankman-Fried donated to the chair and ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, the committee that has jurisdiction over the CFTC, as well as numerous other members of Congress involved in CFTC oversight.
  • The FTX CEO also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying lawmakers and the CFTC on legislation that would expand the scope of the agency’s role in regulating the crypto industry.

The Nobody Special podcast made this 99-second video explaining the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange.

TRANSCRIPT

This is Sam Bankman-Fried.
People call him SBF.
He’s the founder of FTX.

He also controls the crypto hedge fund called Alameda Research.
But that’s all gone now.

He wants you to think he’s a sweet guy.
He even brought in a famous YouTuber who called him “The most generous man in the world.”
Yep. That happened.

Truth is, Sam Bankman Freed is a liar and a crook.
His personal crypto FTX token was basically a Ponzi scheme hidden below layers of Moon Bro jargon.
He even went on Bloomberg’s podcast and bragged about it.
Yep. That happened.

He used his Ponzi token as collateral to borrow billions of real dollars that he couldn’t pay back.
He then used those real dollars to build an empire out of dying companies, like Voyager and BlockFight.
This led Jim Cramer to call him “The new JP Morgan!”

That’s weird.

See the rest here

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Conservative Candace Owens Crashes Ukraine War Party – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on November 14, 2022

Owens went on to claim, based on her reporting from Europe, that Ukrainian political leaders are benefitting from US handouts to purchase luxury property in Switzerland!

Take that, flag-waving and inflation-suffering middle America.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/11/daniel-mcadams/conservative-candace-owens-crashes-ukraine-war-party/

By Daniel McAdams

Ron Paul Institute

It’s weak to start with a disclaimer, but I am afraid I have no choice. I have no cable and I do not watch mainstream media at all. I find a few clips here and there. So I do not pretend to operate with the totality of available information at my fingertips. And I do not doubt that many will send eloquent counter-arguments for what I am about to write. Additionally I do not follow mainstream conservatism or liberalism – or neo-liberalism – because I find it all to be mostly vapid and worthless. But that is not the point. The point is moving the great middle in one direction or another and that is why I write the following.

From what I have seen of conservative commentator Candace Owens I have found her to be an extremely intelligent quick-thinker who develops and delivers comments, quips, and retorts as if from an automatic weapon. She stands her ground and comes armed with facts to back up her positions.

She has taken some risky positions, which is rare among political commentators on the Left and Right (as they most often resemble cookie cutters or tin soldiers). Though she has walked back her association with the controversial Kanye West as he trod unwaveringly upon all the third rails, she did not throw her former-billionaire friend completely under the bus nor did she grovel for forgiveness vowing that she did not know the man, as did Peter with Jesus.

That is why I was so pleasantly surprised to see her appear on Tucker Carlson – himself happy to often color outside the lines – to denounce the seemingly bottomless pit that is US financial support for Ukraine and its president, the “former” NC-17 comedic actor Vladimir Zelensky.

On Carlson’s show, Owens made the excellent point that just one day after the ignominious US retreat from Afghanistan – where we left billions in advanced weapons behind – the Biden Administration announced that it was teaming up with European partners to push for Ukraine’s accession to NATO.

As Owens put it:

We left one money-laundering operation in which we gave 50 billion of American taxpayers’ hard-earned money and we jumped right into the next one. And how much money did we give Ukraine so far? 50 billion dollars! But that’s not enough for this welfare queen. He wants to keep it coming. And that’s what he is: President Zelensky is America’s welfare queen.

Owens went on to claim, based on her reporting from Europe, that Ukrainian political leaders are benefitting from US handouts to purchase luxury property in Switzerland!

Take that, flag-waving and inflation-suffering middle America.

I have often pointed out that America’s anti-American foreign policy at the hands of the US military-industrial complex will only really be challenged when blue-collar, middle America understands that US foreign policy has nothing to do with patriotism or keeping America safe from foreign threats, but is in fact – as Candace Owens puts it so well – a money-laundering scheme concocted by America’s (mostly liberal) elites to pocket billions with the sleight of hand claim that said billions stolen from them will make them safe and vanquish the bad guys overseas.

Middle America who labors to pay for the “defense” of America would be shocked and dismayed at how leftish and “woke” are the people spending their money. They are San Francisco, not Brazoria. The Pentagon is far left wing, not pro-America. Duh! But wave your flag and stay asleep.

An overseas enemy is critical to this ponzi scheme and there has been a steady stream of “bad actors” hyped by the ruling classes in the US to play that role. Saddam, Milosevic, Gaddafi, Assad, Lukashenko, Putin, and so on and so on. None of these “bad guys” have ever expressed the will – nor did they ever have the means – to in any way harm the United States or its citizens. But nevertheless trillions have been burned up building up and then vanquishing these chimeras.

It is a scam.

Who benefits? Elites in the targeted countries, who find themselves at the receiving end of an endless pipeline of US dollars to do the bidding of Washington’s liberal elite. And of course politicians and especially employees of the US military-industrial complex at home. Oh the mansions in McLean built from the sweat of coal miners in West Virginia who felt they were being patriotic supporting ever-increasing military budgets.

The fact is there is nothing patriotic or pro-American about bleeding America dry to make elites at home and abroad stinkingly rich and powerful.

Candace Owens had the guts on nationwide television – on America’s most popular news program – to call out “Saint” Vladimir (“gimme gimme gimme”) Zelensky as the welfare queen that he is. She is possibly wrong on many things from a pro-freedom perspective, but I don’t care. This may shock some people, but the Ron Paul Institute is NOT a libertarian organization. It was founded with the explicit purpose of bringing together everyone of goodwill – from “far right” to “communist.” From conservatives to liberals and progressives. For the purpose of promoting peace and prosperity by opposing endless conflict overseas to the benefit of the elites and endless Fed money printing at home for the benefit of the same elites.

We are for America. Thank you Candace Owens for your important pro-America efforts. We will invite you to join us on our program. Encourage her.

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“Retirees’ Re-Entering the Labor Market Isn’t ‘Good for the Economy’; There’s more to wealth than work.”

Posted by M. C. on November 14, 2022

https://walterblock.substack.com/p/retirees-re-entering-the-labor-market?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email


Luis Rivera

By Walter E. Block

Retirees’ Re-Entering the Labor Market Isn’t ‘Good for the Economy’; There’s more to wealth than work

Does inflation increase wealth? That is the contention of some economists and business journalists who should know better. Inflation has a silver lining for economic welfare, they claim, or price increases are good for the economy as a whole.

The argument in a nutshell is that inflation induces newly impoverished retirees back into the labor force. Their work increases gross domestic product, and we will all benefit from the increased goods and services it creates. So too for those who put off retirement, unable to afford it because of inflation.

It is true the inflation makes people on fixed incomes poorer, and that some people respond by going back to work. But does that really help the economy?

No. It boosts the GDP and its growth prospects, but it hardly amounts to an overall economic benefit. Economics 101 teaches that there is such a thing as a labor-leisure dichotomy. Why don’t people seek to work all the time? Because they value the leisure they would thereby forgo more highly than the additional money they could earn. Most people are reasonably happy with 40-hour weeks and a vacation of one month a year or so. But GDP would be higher if they labored 80 hours on a week and took no holiday at all. The prospects for economic growth would also increase.

Would the average person be happier, and would it help the economy, if people were compelled to work that much more merely to boost GDP? Of course not. Most people would be miserable with 80-hour workweeks, and economic conditions would be worse, not better.

See the rest here

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Watch “iGen: Narcissism and Neuroticism | Dr. Jean Twenge | #303” on YouTube

Posted by M. C. on November 14, 2022

Interesting analysis of social media

https://youtu.be/8CJt2VwDuLE

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They Keep Us Focused On Decoy Dichotomies: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Posted by M. C. on November 14, 2022

https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/they-keep-us-focused-on-decoy-dichotomies?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Caitlin Johnstone

Westerners are taught that evil foreign “regimes” don’t let their people criticize their government, meanwhile westerners themselves are trained to never criticize their government. They’re trained instead to criticize decoy dichotomies — false partisan nonsense — not the real power.

Westerners are trained to criticize the actions of the other party or the beliefs of the other ideological faction, never the foreign or domestic policies which are fully supported by both parties. The power structure which maintains 99.9% of the same policies regardless of which party is officially in charge is the real government, but westerners are trained never to look there. They’re instead trained to fixate on a false two-handed puppet show diversion.

Westerners say “Well I’d rather live here than China or Russia, because here I can criticize my government whenever I want!” Okay. But you don’t. You don’t criticize your government. You just criticize the puppets, and usually only the puppets of the party you don’t like. You never criticize your actual government. Criticizing your actual government looks like attacking the murderous foreign policy that’s supported by both parties. Attacking the authoritarian domestic policies supported by both parties. Attacking the exploitative capitalist systems supported by both parties.

Westerners are trained not to do that. They’re trained to believe that “criticizing your government” looks like saying “Drumpf” or “Let’s go Brandon” while the same tyrannical agendas march forward regardless of who sits in the White House.

Westerners are “free” in the same way “free range” chickens are free; sure the door’s technically open and they can technically go outside, but they’re conditioned never to do so. Western so-called liberal democracy purports to offer freedom while in practice only offering the illusion of freedom. It uses the most sophisticated propaganda machine ever devised to keep people trapped in an existence as blindly obedient gear-turners while cartoons about freedom play in their heads.

❖

The problem isn’t “wokeism”, the problem is that important conversations like US militarism and imperialism get bogged down in ridiculous conversations about whether the US military is too woke or not woke enough instead of how it’s killing people and threatening the whole world. Engaging in either side of that debate protects the worst impulses of the most powerful and dangerous people in the world, because it moves the crosshairs of public scrutiny from the powerful to the other side of the “wokeness” culture war. This is happening all over the place.

A good example is the way Republicans have been pushing the most horrific agendas of US imperialism but using “anti-wokeness” as a carrying agent for their propaganda, like when Jesse Kelly said on Tucker Carlson that “We don’t need a military that’s woman-friendly. We don’t need a military that’s gay-friendly, with all due respect to the Air Force. We need a military that’s flat-out hostile. We need a military full of Type-A men who want to sit on a throne of Chinese skulls.”

Twitter avatar for @NikkiMcR

See the rest here

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What’s The Opposite of Freedom of Speech and Worse than Censorship?? – It’s The Coverup! – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on November 14, 2022

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/11/l-reichard-white/whats-the-opposite-of-freedom-of-speech-and-worse-than-censorship-its-the-coverup/

By L. Reichard White

If this article looks familiar, well, there’s a good reason. Stick with me here – – –

What’s the opposite of freedom of speech and worse than censorship??

I won’t keep you hanging, it’s ForcedSpeak.

ForcedSpeak is when a so-called “Authority“ — nearly always a government entity — tries to force you to make a disclaimer or other statement against your will.

Sort of Orwell’s NewSpeak but, rather than the bureaucrats and their MSM newsy mouth-pieces — modern translation: “presstitutes” — YOU have to do it.

Sounds like a knock-off from an old anti-NAZI or anti-communist Korean-War-era Hollywood propaganda flick doesn’t it? Maybe The Manchurian Candidate.

But it’s not Manchuria, Germany, Russia, Korea – – – or fiction. It’s Canada.

It’s Pastor Artur Pawlowski who grew up behind the Iron Curtain. He designated his church in Canada as sanctuary from the seriously destructive COVID narrative and it’s negative and often murderous results.

So, in the true spirit of current Cancel Culture tradition – – – you know, using the Big-Tech/government complex, when you can’t answer someone with facts and logic, you shadow-ban, censor or otherwise disappear and thus “Cancel” them – – – Canadian Authorities arrested Pastor Pawlowski and closed his church.

But that was just the beginning. I think it’s better if Rev. Pawlowski briefly explains a few things, including ForcedSpeak, himself – – – except as you can see, YouTube cancelled him too – – –

So, YouTube claims, “This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s Terms of Service.” That happened after the clip appeared in the previous version of this article and got significant attention.

I’ve posted the exact same video clip on alternative video hosting site Rumble so you can decide for yourself whether YouTube should have “cancelled” it – – –

So, do you find this clip objectionable? Should YouTube “protect” you — or anyone — from seeing it? Or is the Big-Tech/government complex using this tactic to coverup previous censorship? This would by no means be the first time YouTube has been complicit in this way.

So not only does the Big-Tech/Government complex censor the truth these days, they coverup the proof they’re censoring the truth.

Pretty clearly, covering up evidence is fast becoming Big-Tech/government S.O.P. (Standard Operating Procedure).

I will no longer patronize YouTube. If you think the above evidence of dishonesty and arrogant, highhanded censorship on the part of YouTube warrants it — and if you don’t want to be subject to it yourself — well, maybe you’ll join me? Alternatives are available.

And BTW, how long till ForcedSpeak shows up here?

You can find the article as originally published on October 23, 2021, censorship and all, here — if they haven’t reinstated the clip because of viewer heat or removed the evidence entirely – – –

What’s The Opposite of Freedom of Speech and Worse than Censorship? – LewRockwell LewRockwell.com

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I Am a Libertarian – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on November 13, 2022

I subscribe to the non-aggression principle that says, in the words of Murray Rothbard: “The only proper role of violence is to defend person and property against violence, that any use of violence that goes beyond such just defense is itself aggressive, unjust, and criminal. Libertarianism, therefore, is a theory which states that everyone should be free of violent invasion, should be free to do as he sees fit except invade the person or property of another.” I am concerned with actions; I am not concerned with thoughts: I am concerned only with the negative consequences of thoughts. I believe that the non-aggression principle extends to government. Libertarians should therefore oppose or otherwise seek to limit the domestic and foreign meddling and intervention of governments, which are the greatest violators of the non-aggression principle.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/05/laurence-m-vance/i-am-a-libertarian/

By Laurence M. Vance

I am a libertarian. I am not Democrat or Republican. I am not liberal or conservative. I am not left or right. I am not moderate or progressive. I am not a Libertarian. I am not a fusionist. I am not a constitutionalist.

I am a libertarian. I am not thin or thick. I am not brutalist or humanitarian. I am not holist or solipsist. I am not moralist or consequentialist. I am not open or closed. I am not a modal, cosmopolitan, cultural, theocratic, regime, sophisticated, or Beltway libertarian. I do not have a bleeding heart. I am not a neo, second wave, or millennial libertarian. I am a plain old libertarian, one who needs no labels, issues no caveats, and makes no apologies.

I am a libertarian. Libertarianism is a political philosophy concerned with the permissible use of force or violence. It is not a political philosophy that says limited government is the best kind of government. It is not a political philosophy that is socially liberal and economically conservative. It is not a political philosophy that says government is less efficient than the private sector. It is not a political philosophy that says freedom can be achieved by promoting some government policies over others. It is not a political philosophy that is low-tax liberalism. Libertarianism is not the absence of racism, sexism, homophobism, xenophobism, nationalism, nativism, classism, authoritarianism, patriarchy, inequality, or hierarchy. Libertarianism is not diversity or activism. Libertarianism is not egalitarianism. Libertarianism is not toleration or respect. Libertarianism is not a social attitude, lifestyle, or aesthetic sensibility.[amazon asin=0982369786&template=*lrc ad (right)]

I am a libertarian. I subscribe to the non-aggression principle that says, in the words of Murray Rothbard: “The only proper role of violence is to defend person and property against violence, that any use of violence that goes beyond such just defense is itself aggressive, unjust, and criminal. Libertarianism, therefore, is a theory which states that everyone should be free of violent invasion, should be free to do as he sees fit except invade the person or property of another.” I am concerned with actions; I am not concerned with thoughts: I am concerned only with the negative consequences of thoughts. I believe that the non-aggression principle extends to government. Libertarians should therefore oppose or otherwise seek to limit the domestic and foreign meddling and intervention of governments, which are the greatest violators of the non-aggression principle.

I am a libertarian. I believe in the golden rule. I believe in live and let live. I believe that a person should be free to do anything he wants, as long as his conduct is peaceful. I believe that vices are not crimes.

I am a libertarian. Our enemy is the state. Our enemy is not religion, corporations, institutions, foundations, or organizations. These only have power to do us harm because of their connection with the state. And since war is the health of the state, the state’s military, wars, and foreign interventions must be opposed root and branch.

I am a libertarian. I believe in laissez faire. Anyone should be free to engage in any economic activity without license, permission, prohibition, or interference from the state. The government should not intervene in the economy in any way. Free trade agreements, educational vouchers, privatizing Social Security, etc., are not the least bit libertarian ideas.[amazon asin=098236976X&template=*lrc ad (right)]

I am a libertarian. The best government is no government. That government that governs least is the next best government. Government, as Voltaire said, at its best state is a necessary evil and at its worst state is an intolerable one. The best thing any government could do would be to simply leave us alone.

I am a libertarian. Taxation is government theft. The government doesn’t have a claim to a certain percentage of one’s income. The tax code doesn’t need to be simplified, shortened, fairer, or less intrusive. The tax rates don’t need to be made lower, flatter, fairer, equal, or less progressive. The income tax doesn’t need more or larger deductions, loopholes, shelters, credits, or exemptions. The whole rotten system needs to be abolished. People have the right to keep what they earn and decide for themselves what to do with their money: spend it, waste it, squander it, donate it, bequeath it, hoard it, invest it, burn it, gamble it.

I am a libertarian. I am not a libertine. I am not a hedonist. I am not a moral relativist. I am not a devotee of some alternative lifestyle. I am not a revolutionary. I am not a nihilist. I neither wish to associate with nor aggress against those who are. I believe in the absolute freedom of association and discrimination.

I am a libertarian.

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