The three volumes of The Gulag Archipelago — one continuous, extended scream of outrage — are, paradoxically, brilliant, bitter, disbelieving and infused with awe: awe at the strength characterising the best among us, in the worst of all situations. In that monumental text, published in 1973, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn conducted “an experiment in literary investigation” — a hybrid […]
Culture
Wake up, LP. Grow a Backbone!
The Libertarian Party has become such a joke recently. I seriously pray that changes for 2024. We need real LP leaders who actually stand for some principles Instead of virtue signaling on social media and posting ridiculous things about #blm or how “racism sucks” — vacuous statements that carry no substance at all and do […]
A False Dichotomy: Caused by Human Hubris
The false dichotomy of this election representing “good vs evil” has come up repeatedly in many/most of the political discussions I’ve had on fb recently. I assert this false binary occurs for three reasons: A) a failure to see a beyond stark black/white options we have created in our minds, b) the result of the […]
Primer: The Differences Between Democrats and Republicans
DEFINITIONS Democrats: A left-leaning political party full of bleeding-heart pansies who are all high on the devil’s lettuce. Republicans: A right-leaning political party packed with rednecks who love guns and God, in that order. ORIGINS Democrats: The Democratic party was founded as the dying wish of Karl Marx in 1883, who wanted to infiltrate the […]
You Might Be A Statist IF…
You might be a statist if… If any political discussion finds you regularly using the expression “it’s clear the government isn’t doing enough to ” … you might be a statist. If you’re left-leaning and see “the evil Right” as the cause of all major problems…you might be a statist. If you think the war […]
Political Memes are SO Stupid!!
What are memes? Urban Dictionary calls them “Popular quotes, images, and real people, which are copied, imitated, and spread all over the Internet(s)!” Interestingly enough, it neglects to mention that those quotes are generally made up, in order to emphasize a humorous or political point that contrasts with or embellishes the image they’re blazoned across. […]
Government and the Environment: a Role to Play?
In response to the anarachist or anarcho-capitalist argument that the government must take no role in environmental protectionism or defense of nature–that the free market will do it for us. And to attempt so is amoral if/when no property rights are infringed upon. So fundamentally here is a logical concern I have with the “anarchist […]
The ‘Wasted Vote’ Myth
The biggest objection to voting for a Third Party is the “wasted vote” argument — the idea that if you vote for someone who will not win, then the vote does not count. Join any third party and merely suggest that another person consider voting for a third party candidate and you will hear, ad […]
The Anti-Vote Movement
Why almost everyone (i.e. the uninformed, politically-ignorant masses) should stay home this November! Wearing an “I Voted” sticker on Election Day announces that you are a proud participant in the grand tradition of representative democracy, the worst system except all the others. It says “I care,” “I’m informed,” and perhaps also “this shirt is machine […]
Problem with Memes: Over-simplifying complex ideas
A close friend carelessly posted the following meme on facebook the other day. Big mistake. I hate memes! Well … I obviously could just let it go. What follows is a logical rant in rejoinder. Me: “I don’t really have a horse in this fight, and I recognize there’s often a lot of emotion on […]