The Libertarian "State"

[Seth]

Of course I would be ignorant to a true believer. ;-)

Ignorance in this case has nothing to do with belief, it has to do with facts that you are either ignorant of or are mendaciously ignoring in order to malign Libertarianism by creating a false characterization of it that you can then throw feces at. This sort of behavior is intellectually dishonest, juvenile and indicative of a complete absence of a reasoned argument.

[Seth]

I wonder how Seth deals with the fact that I've spent a good couple of hours arguing against a Marxist tonight? How does his dichotomous world view handle that?!

Of course it does. Anybody can play the fool deliberately, or inadvertently, from time to time. The fact that you do it all the time does give rise to some concerns about your ability to distinguish between the two however.

You see, the question is not whether you argued "against" a Marxist, its whether you did so effectively and rationally, which I doubt.

[pErvinalia]

So it's possible to be an anti-Marxist Marxist in Seth's confused world? That doesn't surprise me.

[Jason]

Why not? You could be an anti-Australian Australian for all I know.

How about those anti-Semite Semite eSemioticists?

[pErvinalia]

It must be like those self-hating Jews. I'm a self-hating Marxists.

[JimC]

Why not? You could be an anti-Australian Australian for all I know.

He does come from Queensland, and they're all a bit strange up there. The heat does things to their brains...

[piscator]

An auto-loathing Queenslander? I thought they were banned there?

[Seth]

So it's possible to be an anti-Marxist Marxist in Seth's confused world? That doesn't surprise me.

No, it's possible to be a liar in the real world.

[Tero]

[Tero]

So by implication, you're saying the first practical thing America needs to do to institute a New American Libertarian State is to gather a 2/3 majority of state legislatures to repeal the 16th Amendment?

Actually the third. The first is to amend the Commerce Clause, which would eliminate 90 percent of the federal government overnight. The second is to repeal the 17th Amendment so that Senators are once again appointed by the state legislatures. The third is to repeal the 16th Amendment.

Cool. All we need is amendments. Does Trump know this? 2/3 of the states are red states now.

[Tero]

Libertarians were right?

Myth No. 3—Buying will make you happy.
This myth is put forward mainly by the floods of advertising we take in but also by our social engineering. Most of us feel a tenacious emptiness, an alienation deep down behind our surface emotions (for a while I thought it was gas). That uneasiness is because most of us are flushing away our lives at jobs we hate before going home to seclusion boxes called houses or apartments. We then flip on the TV to watch reality shows about people who have it worse than we do (which we all find hilarious).
If we’re lucky, we’ll make enough money during the week to afford enough beer on the weekend to help it all make sense. (I find it takes at least four beers for everything to add up.) But that doesn’t truly bring us fulfillment. So what now? Well, the ads say buying will do it. Try to smother the depression and desperation under a blanket of flat-screen TVs, purses and Jet Skis. Now does your life have meaning? No? Well, maybe you have to drive that Jet Ski a little faster! Crank it up until your bathing suit flies off and you’ll feel alive!
The dark truth is that we have to believe the myth that consuming is the answer or else we won’t keep running around the wheel. And if we aren’t running around the wheel, then we start thinking, start asking questions. Those questions are not good for the ruling elite, who enjoy a society based on the daily exploitation of 99 percent of us.
Myth No. 2—If you work hard, things will get better.
According to Deloitte’s Shift Index survey: “80% of people are dissatisfied with their jobs” and “[t]he average person spends 90,000 hours at work over their lifetime.” That’s about one-seventh of your life—and most of it is during your most productive years.
Ask yourself what we’re working for. To make money? For what? Almost none of us are doing jobs for survival anymore. Once upon a time, jobs boiled down to:
I plant the food—>I eat the food—>If I don’t plant food = I die.
But nowadays, if you work at a café—will someone die if they don’t get their super-caf-mocha-frap-almond-piss-latte? I kinda doubt they’ll keel over from a blueberry scone deficiency.
If you work at Macy’s, will customers perish if they don’t get those boxer briefs with the sweat-absorbent-ass fabric? I doubt it. And if they do die from that, then their problems were far greater than you could’ve known. So that means we’re all working to make other people rich because we have a society in which we have to work. Technological advancements can do most everything that truly must get done.
So if we wanted to, we could get rid of most work and have tens of thousands of more hours to enjoy our lives. But we’re not doing that at all. And no one’s allowed to ask these questions—not on your mainstream airwaves at least. Even a half-step like universal basic income is barely discussed because it doesn’t compute with our cultural programming.
Scientists say it’s quite possible artificial intelligence will take away all human jobs in 120 years. I think they know that will happen because bots will take the jobs and then realize that 80 percent of them don’t need to be done! The bots will take over and then say, “Stop it. … Stop spending a seventh of your life folding shirts at Banana Republic.”
One day, we will build monuments to the bot that told us to enjoy our lives and … leave the shirts wrinkly.
And this leads me to the largest myth of our American society.
Myth No. 1—You are free.
And I’m not talking about the millions locked up in our prisons. I’m talking about you and me. If you think you’re free, try running around with your nipples out, ladies. Guys, take a dump on the street and see how free you are.
I understand there are certain restrictions on freedom we actually desire to have in our society—maybe you’re not crazy about everyone leaving a Stanley Steamer in the middle of your walk to work. But a lot of our lack of freedom is not something you would vote for if given the chance.
Try building a fire in a parking lot to keep warm in the winter.
Try sleeping in your car for more than a few hours without being harassed by police.
Try maintaining your privacy for a week without a single email, web search or location data set collected by the NSA and the telecoms.
Try signing up for the military because you need college money and then one day just walking off the base, going, “Yeah, I was bored. Thought I would just not do this anymore.”
Try explaining to Kentucky Fried Chicken that while you don’t have the green pieces of paper they want in exchange for the mashed potatoes, you do have some pictures you’ve drawn on a napkin to give them instead.
Try running for president as a third-party candidate. (Jill Stein was shackled and chained to a chair by police during one of the debates.)
Try using the restroom at Starbucks without buying something … while black.
We are less free than a dog on a leash. We live in one of the hardest-working, most unequal societies on the planet with more billionaires than ever.
Meanwhile, Americans supply 94 percent of the paid blood used worldwide. And it’s almost exclusively coming from very poor people. This abusive vampire system is literally sucking the blood from the poor. Does that sound like a free decision they made? Or does that sound like something people do after immense economic force crushes down around them? (One could argue that sperm donation takes a little less convincing.)
Point is, in order to enforce this illogical, immoral system, the corrupt rulers—most of the time—don’t need guns and tear gas to keep the exploitation mechanisms humming along. All they need are some good, solid bullshit myths for us all to buy into, hook, line and sinker. Some fairy tales for adults.
It’s time to wake up.
If you think this column is important, please share it. Also, check out Lee Camp’s weekly TV show “Redacted Tonight” and weekly podcast “Common Censored.”
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/ameri ... e-8-myths/

[Tero]

Best line:
If you work at Macy’s, will customers perish if they don’t get those boxer briefs with the sweat-absorbent-ass fabric?

[Tero]

I can't find a suitable thread.

Anyway, me trying to be a psychologist
https://esapolitics.blogspot.com/2018/0 ... nment.html

[Tero]

https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/ ... government

[rainbow]

Where is Seth?