I’m not sure how that is possible in a progressive tax system. The tax-rate increases the higher the income bracket. — NOS4A2
Like I said, people do not know where the sum total of their money goes. This is because the government, not themselves, get to decide what to do with it. They cannot know whether it goes to feed someone in dire need or to droning some family on foreign soil. — NOS4A2
giving the state wealth and power could not be considered an act of help or compassion — NOS4A2
We humans are immoral because we can't tolerate boredom/stasis. — Nils Loc
You can defend the existence of the state without accepting some libertarian’s equating of the state with socialism. — Srap Tasmaner
You can also defend socialism, but it’s opposed to libertarianism only insofar as it is one way of organizing the state. — Srap Tasmaner
FEMA is not the greatest example. — NOS4A2
t has gone through more reforms due to its failing responses than it has had successes. — NOS4A2
He's considerably worse than Trump as a person. — Manuel
I didn't think it was strange. Putin is precisely the kind of charismatic, unconstrained 'strong man' Trump would see himself as aspiring to be. Since Trump scorned most conventional Western democratic politics, where else would he go for models? — Tom Storm
If you could show that there is a performative contradiction in espousing libertarianism
— Srap Tasmaner
I did.
— James Riley
I don’t think you did, at least not here. — Srap Tasmaner
In fact, it is the big guy intimidating the little guy. Libertarians are socialists who hate themselves for it, because they want an autonomy that comes with being a big guy, and they can't have it because they aren't big guys. They rely on the state to protect them from big guys and they hate it. Colonel Colt helped, but he can't make a libertarian hate themselves less. — James Riley
I think it is true that the state can guarantee your ability to advocate for there being no state, — Srap Tasmaner
and I think it’s true that providing such guarantees is one of the reasons people accept the necessity of state authority. — Srap Tasmaner
Otherwise, only the strong have free speech. — Srap Tasmaner
Is that the same thing as socialism? — Srap Tasmaner
It doesn’t work like that. — NOS4A2
All we can be sure of is that they’ll take our money, they’ll spend it, but we don’t know whether it’s “helping others” or buying a politician’s neck-ties. — NOS4A2
And if they change directives, spend all their money on this or that program inimical to othe citizen’s interests, we have no choice in the matter. — NOS4A2
Worse, every time we give the government the power to do something for us we give them the corresponding power to do something to us. Much better to skip the middle-man entirely, in my opinion. — NOS4A2
Every state thus far—liberal, fascist, socialist, Islamist—has been organized monopoly and exploitation. One thing is clear to me: as government consolidates and strengthens, the power of independent moral judgment in the citizenry weakens. So it isn’t long before statists of all types beg for more government wherever their own morality is waning. — NOS4A2
So it isn’t long before statists of all types beg for more government wherever their own morality is waning. — NOS4A2
This ‘genealogical’ critique specifically doesn’t speak to whether libertarianism is a sound political philosophy. — Srap Tasmaner
If you could show that the ideas of socialism are implicit in the ideas of libertarianism, that would be interesting. — Srap Tasmaner
If you could show that there is a performative contradiction in espousing libertarianism — Srap Tasmaner
that you cannot do so without an unacknowledged commitment to socialism — that would be interesting. — Srap Tasmaner
One problem with this sort of ‘analysis’ is that it invites more of the same: how hard would it be for me to pass right over whatever you’re saying and instead ‘diagnose’ your attraction to this sort of critique? — Srap Tasmaner
Would you find that a satisfying way for me to engage what you have to say about libertarians? — Srap Tasmaner
Even when grounded in a thorough historical reconstruction, this sort of thing only makes sense if truth is off the table. — Srap Tasmaner
It is seductive but dangerous, and we’d be better off if Nietzsche had never thought of it. — Srap Tasmaner
You say you want to help others then delegate some government official to do it for you. — NOS4A2
But even then, erecting a bureaucracy is helping no one, so no help arrives at all, just more machine. — NOS4A2
By all means, help others with help, but none of what you provide or do can be considered “help”. — NOS4A2
Rather, it’s an escape from having to help others. — NOS4A2
Socialism is state monopoly and power-grubbing, nothing besides. It has only ever served asa means to dupe entire masses into giving up their autonomy. — NOS4A2
They are socialists to me. — NOS4A2
So-called “social” legislation and other mollycoddling adopted by governments these days are but the successive steps to a socialist regime, if they’re not there already. — NOS4A2
Let’s just swallow the pill already, name and all. — NOS4A2
The state is a tool, true, but more of a machine. Its sole purpose is the exploitation of one class by another, and to secure its interests from insurrection from within and without. It doesn’t matter who wields it or pulls its levers, it goes on doing what it always has, in fact, what all states were created to do. If you were to man the state with a flock of honorable men, what exactly would change? Extortion, robbery, exploitation, coercion, mendacity, hypocrisy, rent-seeking, corruption—all of it would go on, simply because no state was formed for any other purpose. — NOS4A2
Excellent, but, alas, I am a poor man. The nearer to god I be - - lol!! — boagie
If anyone other than the government acted like the government, handcuffed people and locked them in a cell, they’d be rightfully called a criminal. That’s why it’s difficult to distinguish the government from any other criminal class. — Michael
If anyone other than the government acted like the government, took wealth as they did, they’d be rightfully called a criminall. That’s why it’s difficult to distinguish the government from any other criminal class. — NOS4A2
I don’t care who it’s for. It’s done because others have given them the power to do it. — NOS4A2
I have no theory as to what caused the Great Depression. — NOS4A2
It’s amazing how fast an institution can spend other people’s money. — NOS4A2
There is so much government intervention in the way that no one could ever know. — NOS4A2
Speaking of neoliberalism, the debt-ridden, big government policies that led to it are now occurring once again. Stagflation? — NOS4A2
Probably the 1% are not the evil power elite, they are too visible. — boagie
These aren't problems, they are nice to haves. Give me whatever big asshole is available to keep the welfare state viable in the Netherlands, instead of austerity, and I'll vote for him. — Benkei
Or basically, you can't play hardball when you're the least popular faction in government, which progressives are in polling, in votes, and in seats. — Count Timothy von Icarus
Mmm, which is I suppose why you and your ilk unconditionally flag carry for one of the most agressive foreign policy war hawks to have ever breathed oxygen. — StreetlightX
It's fundamental nature is killing poor people for American corporations. I'd say it stands for exactly what the right does. And so too what passes for 'the left' in America too frankly. — StreetlightX
Trump had no policies and no ideology. — Xtrix
You're probably right but it's funny to see someone call an institution of war criminals and murderers that preys on the poor a socialist institution. — StreetlightX
AOC would be the front runner now IMHO. — Count Timothy von Icarus
identity plays a core role in ideology. — Count Timothy von Icarus
Lmao the US military are mall cops of oil corporations. — StreetlightX
In retrospect, it probably would have been in the best interest of the progressive caucus to blink on the infrastructure bill before their party lost the Virginia governor's seat and almost losing New Jersey. Based on the narrow margins, it could easily have made the difference. — Count Timothy von Icarus
There is no better way to absolve man of his failings than to devise a state program to cover for him. — NOS4A2
; however, the latter seems, by far, more probable than the former. — 180 Proof
I thought that was Conan the Barbarian. :lol: — Xtrix