I watched a great video from Michael Boldin over at the Tenth Amendment Center the other day. Even though it was one of their shorter “Fast Friday” episodes, Michael touched on a very interesting topic: happiness and freedom. He argued that the Founders placed extreme value on freedom, to the point where several of them said things to the effect of: “You cannot be truly happy unless you are free.” That simple but profound statement got me thinking.
First off, I cannot recommend highly enough this recent episode of the Scott Horton Show. Scott talks to Matt Taibbi about the recent court order (released on July 4, 2023) that prevented the Feds from asking social media websites to censor you.
One clear-as-day indicator that the state is out of control is its desire for censorship.
Now, a “good” state (if such a thing is possible) is not interested in forcing the people to think a certain way about any particular issue. If it does anything, it provides facts or arranges for round-tables where a variety of perspectives are discussed.
Secession is the smart and peaceful solution to irreconcilable political differences. I wrote a short essay about five especially bad arguments you often hear against secession, and the Libertarian Institute published it!
Check it out here, and if you liked it, you’ll surely like more of their content! They publish greats like Scott Horton, Ron Paul, Jim Bovard, Sheldon Richman, and more! Support them if you can!
Paul “the Internet is not a big deal” Krugman has stated that it’s paranoid to worry about Central Bank Digital Currencies. See the article at this link.
Considering his track record, did he not realize that his statement makes it more likely that concern is justified?
I saw a new ad from the awful-as-usual Brady Campaign (to Outlaw Handguns) and they’re pushing “Safe Storage” laws. Of course, this isn’t about safety, it’s about tyranny, so I thought I’d peel back some of the layers here and give it some light.
Video also available on Bitchute.
It seems like everyone is talking about secession these days. Whether they call it that, or national divorce, or some other euphemism, they all have opinions about it and most of them are woefully misinformed. Setting aside the ideologues who only want to tighten their grip on their fellow man for their own benefit, there are plenty of people who argue against secession from a practical perspective, but even these people often argue from a position of ignorance, and in this case, their ignorance is definitely not our bliss.
And, right on schedule, barely a week after I say something nice about James Lindsay regarding his evaluation of Marxist offshoots as cults and his studies into Gnosticism and its modern incarnations, he decides to spout off ignorantly about secession, parroting the most absurdly weak arguments all the while maintaining a childishly mocking tone against any and all opposing voices.
So, I’m finally cracking open my copy of Ryan McMaken’s Breaking Away, and getting to work on something about secession, because apparently even reasonably intelligent people are unable to understand how the principles of secession and radical decentralization are the most promising hope we have for peace and diminution of the state’s powers.
Expect a few essays/videos soon, including a review of Breaking Away.
…This comes right as I had had a great idea for something on the absurdity of taxing unrealized economic gains that looks like it might get put on the back burner, at least for a bit. Oh, well.
I just heard that the great Yuri Maltsev has passed away this week–a huge loss for the world of liberty. Yuri was among the last to defect from the ailing Soviet Union, and the stories he told about doing research under the Iron Curtain are poignant reminders of the strangling effect that socialism and all forms of totalitarianism have on not just the economy, but free thought itself.
The Russian Revolution is one of the darkest moments in recent history. It led to millions and millions of deaths, and even more impoverished and horribly oppressed by communist governments in the twentieth century. Richard Pipes is one of the most renowned scholars of the Russian Revolution, with two long books, The Russian Revolution and Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, that describe in gory detail the monstrosities of Russia around the time of its red revolution.