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Support the LP Mises Caucus!

The Libertarian Party has a lot of people in it who value signaling their social virtue better than actual liberty. The LP Mises Caucus is dedicated to bringing a strong love of liberty to the forefront.

They’re great, and they just published a really good promotional video that got me really inspired.

You can find the video at https://www.facebook.com/GoulashFilms/videos/538229143853502/
-or-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFPGjXBFA1Y
(you don’t need to be logged in to watch them).

I also made short video talking about them.

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Political Video Link

The Drawbacks of Civil Libertarianism

The concept of civil libertarianism is sometimes useful, but it has some serious logical flaws–well, perhaps flaws is too strong a word–let’s say issues. In reality, the notion of civil libertarianism is often used to push out liberties from the argument because the speaker doesn’t like those particular liberties.

In my opinion, a person who respects only a subset of liberties is usually not acting based on principle, but on aesthetics or personal preference.

Below is a short video where I discuss.

Update: Now also available on YouTube.

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Political Video Link

Warmongers, Blowback, and Afghanistan

The recent breaking of the peace deal with the Afghan government and the Taliban is worse than most people are thinking, or at least worse than they’re saying. Here’s a short video where I think out loud about why.

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Economics Political Video Link

A Short Rebuttal of Late-stage Capitalism

I’ve been hearing a lot of what I would charitably term as concern trolls using late-stage capitalism as a rationale why so many firms today are becoming bad actors. No, it’s not because the Material Productive Forces are inevitably pushing us toward socialism. It’s not because voluntary trade has some kind of internal contradiction that will break upon itself and herald the next stage in social evolution.

It’s the state. The state’s velvet-covered iron fingerprints can be found practically everywhere these bad actors appear. And the idea of late-stage capitalism is just bad economics.

Enjoy.

Update: Video now also available on YouTube.

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Economics Political Video Link

The Bigotry of the Literati

This showed up in the feed on Mises.org a few days ago and, even though it was published in the 1950s, it’s still extremely valid today. The video below is a short reading of a section of Mises’s book The Anti-capitalistic Mentality and it’s a good one. Enjoy!

The whole book is available for free from the Mises Institute at https://mises.org/library/anti-capitalistic-mentality. They also have a print version, if that’s more your style. All of the print books I’ve gotten from Mises have been very good quality, especially hardcovers.

Update: Video now also available on YouTube.

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Political Video Link

Saving Great Books and Media

I was listening to an episode of the Tom Woods show a few days ago and they said something that got me thinking about dealing with the rising tide of censorship going forward. Basically, I’m worried that the forces of political correctness and hecklers’ vetoes may be making more progress than we believe.

Therefore, I propose that people interested in great works, be they books or other media, start thinking seriously about preserving these works against those who would destroy them in order to eliminate inconvenient thoughts and ideas.

Check out the video!

Update: Video now also available on YouTube.

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Economics Video Link

What the Labor Unionists Won’t Tell You

It’s very common these days for people defending labor unions and their tactics to act as if labor unions are a free-market phenomenon in the United States. In fact, labor unions have massive state privileges and their supporters won’t tell you about them. They ignore these privileges and act as if they are merely voluntary organizations.

As you might expect, even a cursory examination of labor law in the United States shows this narrative is completely false. The privileges and special treatments that labor unions receive from the state are very significant, and any economist worth his or her salt will tell you so.

I decided to make a video about some of these privileges and give some details and additional sources for anyone interested in learning more.

Enjoy!

Links for more info:
Forgotten Facts of American Labor History, by Tom Woods
https://mises.org/library/forgotten-facts-american-labor-history

Paper by Morgan O. Reynolds in J. Libertarian Studies
https://cdn.mises.org/6_3_3_0.pdf

Episode 1019 of the Tom Woods Show:
https://www.tomwoods.com/1019

Update: This video is now also available on YouTube.

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OCD Is No Joke, But Neither Is Spiraling Into Insanity

I use FireFox at work a lot and it has that Pocket thing that puts up semi-random articles whenever I open a new tab. One day, it gave me a link to an article whose author argues that OCD shouldn’t be made fun of or referenced in pop culture because she has OCD and it makes her uncomfortable. She draws exactly the wrong conclusions. It’s ridiculous.

The article can be found at https://thewalrus.ca/ocd-is-not-a-joke/

I also reference a video I did with a friend a while back where some girl trying to get her Ph.D. does something similar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUG1kUoVV2M

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Political Video Link

Heckling Elizabeth Warren

One of America’s worst senators thinks she’s above being heckled. How wrong she is.

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Political Video Link

Nothing Social About Distancing: A COVID Rant

The whole COVID situation has really got me riled. I thought I’d try writing a little rant about the issues with masks, lockdowns, and cowardice.