(Sigh. You Can’t Fix Stupid)
(Lament)(catharsis) [I] get a lot of criticism from my friends for trying to ‘help’ idiots. And yes, it is often a waste of time in the sense that you can’t change their thinking (much). On the other hand, I learn a lot about how to debate when I do argue with simple folk. I saved…
Twenty Concepts for Public Intellectuals, Journalists, Advisors, Politicians and Bureaucrats.
Calls for the closer integration of science in political decision-making have been commonplace for decades. However, there are serious problems in the application of science to policy — from energy to health and environment to education. One suggestion to improve matters is to encourage more scientists to get involved in politics. Although laudable, it is…
Tilting Against The Market’s Use of Available Information
Guest Post by Michael Phillip [A]ll the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) says is that markets use all available information. Which does not sound like much until one works through the implications. One of which is, as William Easterly states, economists correctly predicted that they could not correctly predict. In Cochrane’s words: “It’s fun to say…
The Portfolio of Privileges and Underprivileges
Guest Post by Michael Phillip [S]ince social status is conferred in many different ways — everything from race to geography to class — all people are both privileged and non-privileged in certain aspects of their life. Furthermore, since dynamics of social status are highly dependent on situation, a person can benefit from privilege in one…
Racism Is Curable: By Eliminating Demand for It
RACISM AND REVERSE RACISM: OR PERHAPS IT’S TRIVIALLY SIMPLE AND SUCH DISCUSSION IS DISHONEST In response to Matt Zwolinski : http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2014/11/on-reverse-racism-three-thought-experiments/ [F]acts: 1) The distribution of physical desirability for mating, the demonstrated behaviors of impulsivity and time preference, aggression, and demonstrated intelligence vary between individuals. (true)2) The social classes are organized by these distributions due to…
Um … The Market Is A Computer.
—“When I was in high school, I thought we should put the robots in charge. … Then I realized the market is a computer.”—Eli Harman
Leninism’s Atavism
—“Leninism’s development of the totally expropriating state was profoundly atavistic. So atavistic that, the Soviet Union managed to pass through ibn Khaldun’s state cycle in a single life time. “— Michael Phillip –“Lenin famously claimed that communism was socialism + electricity. Actually, it was an attempted return to the origins of the state + electricity.…
The Conspiracy Of Trust 🙂
[satire] Guest Post by Johannes Meixner [T]here’s a conspiracy going on in this world, and it is secretly plotting to take over the world. Like any good conspiracy it abides by a ridiculously positive name, which may confuse the reader into thinking they’re doing good: ***The High Trust Society.*** As I was able to have…
Relax. I Can Stop Criticizing Critical Rationalism Now
[I]t is merely a convenient language for science. A pidgin -just as mathematical Platonism is a convenient pidgin for mathematics. I apologise to my friends an ex friends for the experiments that I had to run in order to solve the superior problem. I appreciate all your efforts and patience. But I think it was…
Ending Demand For Racism
(positioning)(achieving equality) [T]he only reason your race is behind my race or any other race is the difference between rates of reproduction of the classes. Just as my race is behind or a head of other races because of our suppression or lack of suppression of birth rates at the bottom. That’s it. So fix…
Propertarianism and the Purpose of Philosophy
(very important) [T]he value of philosophy is to convert what we learn, into the web (network) of related concepts that we currently USE. (Note that I do not use the word ‘believe’, which is a synonym for justification.) This often requires a great deal of rearranging of our concepts. That which was before subordinate, turns…
On Convincing Others
[C]HALLENGING THOUGHT OF THE DAY(useful) 0 – We are unequally desirable mates – this is necessary for evolutionary adaptation.1 – We evolved a reproductive division of labor – the genders.2 – We evolved an inter-temporal division of reproductive labor:4 – We demonstrate short, medium, and long term preferences; 5 – We demonstrate short, medium, and long…
A Challenge – Only Hoppe Can Debate Me
—“First they ignore you , then they ridicule you, then they fight you then you win.”— [O]nly a dishonest man would recommend people not read something, rather than attack the central argument of the author. But then, dishonesty is central to the ghetto ethic, is it not? If you do not understand the central arguments,…
More Mises Institute Reaction to Propertarianism 😉
I don’t remember who in the thread above wondered aloud whether something Curt Doolittle wrote was a joke or not. This is generally a problem with reading what Curt Doolittle writes. It is one of the reasons I recommend not trying to read him. He has been captured by a mania for categorization, and the…
The Only Poor Honest White People Left On Earth
[I]n Ukraine, we have the only poor, honest, white people left on the planet. The only thing we lack is a justice system. The only difference between Ukraine and Canada is that Canada has America instead of Russia as the most influential political neighbor. We just need anglo-american jurisprudence and Ukraine will not only the…
Politicians are Entrepreneurs of Externality
Guest post by Michael Philip [D]emocracy is supposed to make things better, by making all voters part of the political bargaining process. The problem with that is much of the art of representative politics is using the coercive power of the state to provide benefits to folk who do notice (and care and effectively politically…
My Position on Race
[I] don’t care about your race. I care about your IQ, impulsivity, aggression, time preference, degree of suppression of free riding, and total integration into every possible aspect of the culture. You are not going to find anyone, me included, caring about the immigration of smart, un-impulsive, non-aggressive, low time preference (long term thinking), individuals.…
Video: Reforming Libertarianism – With Ron Manners
Video: A Century Of Mysticism
Video: The Restoration of Ancestral Lands
Video: Moral Specialization and the Division of Reproductive Labor
The Love Of Heady Murder
[S]top thinking statists are well intentioned fools who can be persuaded by reason. There isn’t any evidence of it. The evidence is overwhelmingly the opposite. We know libertarians are moral specialists – morally blind to certain parts of the spectrum. And if you’re at least mildly praxeologically inclined it’s obvious that it’s not in the…
On Negative Sums
– Guest Post by Eli Harman – November 22nd, at 7:04am [T]he allegation is often made (by libertarian anarchists) that what states do is fundamentally incalculable, but that it is always negative sum. In other words, we cannot know the absolute value of any state or state policy, but we can be certain about its sign.…
The Liar’s Mantra
-Guest Post By James Santagata “How dare you attempt to _HIDE_ your ‘Hate’ behind Science!” – The Liar’s Mantra I “How dare you attempt to _EXPLAIN_ your ‘Hate’ with Science!” – The Liar’s Mantra II “How dare you attempt to _JUSTIFY_ your ‘Hate’ with Science!” – The Liar’s Mantra III “How dare you attempt to…
Existential Numbers for Existential Creatures
—“The primary concern of mathematics is numbers, and this means the positive integers. . . . In the words of Kronecker, the positive integers were created by God. Kronecker would have expressed it even better if he had said that the positive integers were created by God for the benefit of man (and other finite…