But I ain’t joining no fuckin’ parties!
~MRDA~
Attack the System- Border Crisis EXPOSES Flawed Immigration Policy, Biden WH Continues TRUMP Strategy 22nd September 2021Briahna Joy Gray, Ryan Grim, and Alyssa Farah discuss the Biden administration’s response to the ongoing migrant crisis at the Texas-Mexico border.Keith Preston
- JUST 9 Days Until LOOMING Gov’t Shutdown, Senate Republicans Threaten To SINK Funding Bill 22nd September 2021Team Rising discusses Congress’s efforts to halt an impending government shutdown.Keith Preston
- New Political Movement Could Take Over The Nation’s Smallest State To BUST Corruption 22nd September 2021Ryan Grim breaks down the progressive campaign co-op looking to unseat establishment politicians in Rhode Island.Keith Preston
- Border Crisis EXPOSES Flawed Immigration Policy, Biden WH Continues TRUMP Strategy 22nd September 2021
- Samizdata
- Sweden – “portal into the future” ? 22nd September 2021The woke seek total victory and total defeat – which I long ago predicted they would get, albeit maybe delphically. But an interesting article in Unherd describes the latest state reached in Sweden’s dry-run of woke cancel culture as “an uneasy ceasefire”. It started as all-out culture war. With the benefit of hindsight, immigration now […]Niall Kilmartin (Stirling)
- The treason trials of 2021 22nd September 2021The Mirror‘s columnist Susie Boniface*, who writes under the name “Fleet Street Fox”, would like to see them happen. She writes, If you abandon your country to join ISIS, you can be stripped of citizenship. If you join a proscribed terror organisation, you face 10 years in jail. And if you talk about staging a […]Natalie Solent (Essex)
- A press release worth sharing 20th September 2021I got this today from the Global Warming Policy Forum, a group that I guess can be best called a global warming sceptics group. It is based in the UK. Here is its press release today. It responds to reports that the UK is dangerously vulnerable to cuts in energy supplies and rocketing prices. Winter […]Johnathan Pearce (London)
- Sweden – “portal into the future” ? 22nd September 2021
- Wisdom Dancer
- Excerpt: a chorus of the living, an orchestra of echoesA brief excerpt taken from Book III of Volume I of The Constellation of Man. These metaphors, like others I use in the book, introduce realism concerning the novelty of our personal appearance on preconstructed stages of history and human culture, atop mind … Continue reading →Wisdomdancer
- The Liberating Value of ReconciliationTwo things amaze me, again and again, about American enthusiasm for rancor in politics. I. Vengeance welcomes and relishes any opportunities to humiliate or oppress one’s opponents, but shows no foresight of how this creates a precedent—a legal and cultural … Continue reading →Wisdomdancer
- On Ugly Ideas and IntoleranceIdeas are neither benign, nor malignant, out of the context of a specific mentality. They depend entirely on our subjective mental context to affect us. As we respond to ideas in one way or another, as we adopt one idea … Continue reading →Wisdomdancer
- Excerpt: a chorus of the living, an orchestra of echoes
- Mr. Mean-Spirited
- VISITING THE REMAINS OF BENJAMIN DECASSERES IN TUCSON 31st May 2021by John GrauerholzThere are particular geographic locations that, for one inexplicable reason or another, seem peculiarly enchanting. Certain places resonate with certain personalities. There is, somewhere, a precise scenery that speaks to your soul. No matter how many times I visit Arizona, the city of Tucson has always been an endlessly enchanting landscape. Not a […]Mr. Mean-Spirited
- YOUR OWN MEDICAL RECORD WILL BE USED AGAINST YOU 29th April 2021by John Grauerholz Your medical record is something that will always be used against you. Your medical history only exists to record your physical humiliations. A doctor is not there to cure you, but to cause you as much consternation as possible. A physician’s role is not to heal a patient of your ilk, but […]Mr. Mean-Spirited
- THE FUTURE OPPRESSES US 24th March 2021by John Grauerholz It is the future that persecutes us. The communitarians would have us break rocks all day long to bring forth a better world in the decades yet to come. Activists for the long-threatened paradise will not leave us alone – these advance-men will harass and hassle us whenever we attempt to enjoy ourselves […]Mr. Mean-Spirited
- VISITING THE REMAINS OF BENJAMIN DECASSERES IN TUCSON 31st May 2021
- The Hoover Hog
- In Praise of Delicious Tacos 30th May 2019The writer presently known as Delicious Tacos is responsible for, among other things, a series of short confessional narratives that chronicle his agonizing ordeal with an anorectal abscess. That micro-memoir of butthole affliction – the "Ass Variations," as I have...chipsmith
- In Memoriam! Adam Parfrey 19th May 2018A few years ago I was interviewed by Greg Johnson of Counter-Currents Publishing and I banked off one of his questions to talk about some of the publishers who inspired me to start up Nine-Banded Books way back when. Here's...chipsmith
- Book Journal – "How to Judge People by What They Look Like" 19th May 2018The title cracks me up. I mean, it could have been something vaguely academic -- maybe Physiognomy Reconsidered, or Physiognomy: The Abandoned Science; or it could have been something suggesively literary, like Body and Essence or A Book by Its...chipsmith
- In Praise of Delicious Tacos 30th May 2019
- Wandering Near Sawtry
- A Review of Ed West’s “Small Men on the Wrong Side of History”… 21st February 2020One might think that few people were more annoyed by the 2019 British general election than the conservative author and commentator Ed West. Here he was, preparing to publish his book Small Men on the Wrong Side of History (Little, … Continue reading →bsixsmith
- In Defence of Andrew Sabisky… 16th February 2020The first time I met Andrew Sabisky we walked through central London for hours and neither his energy or my interest flagged. This is a rare combination. There are people who can talk for a long time and there are … Continue reading →bsixsmith
- 2019 14th December 2019I began this decade in London, a physical wreck, mentally ruined, almost friendless and facing the grim realisation that not only was “creative writing” a titanically stupid course to pick but my writing sucked. As bad as all this was, … Continue reading →bsixsmith
- A Review of Ed West’s “Small Men on the Wrong Side of History”… 21st February 2020
- Razib Khan
- Ashkenazi Jewish genetics: a match made in the Mediterranean 19th September 2021How and when did the Ashkenazim come to be?Razib Khan
- The Japanese as a creation of the Christian Era 19th September 2021The traditional model, which I’ve alluded to before on this weblog before, is that Japan is a synthesis of Jomon and Yayoi, with the latter dominant, and bringing rice-agriculture to […]Razib Khan
- The echoes of greater Scythia 18th September 2021I’m reading The Great Indo-European Horse Sacrifice: 4000 Years of Cosmological Continuity from Sintashta and the Steppe to Scandinavian Skeid, since we now know that modern horses come from the […]Razib Khan
- Ashkenazi Jewish genetics: a match made in the Mediterranean 19th September 2021
- Entitled to an Opinion
- A comment agnostic has not let through under his post on elite overproduction 13th July 2021A sensible moderation policy might involve automatically holding back any comment from a commenter who hasn’t yet been approved. But agnostic holds all new comments under moderation by default and sometimes just doesn’t choose to approve them. Knowing this, I saved a copy of the last one I tried to submit in reply to this, […]teageegeepea
- What technological advantage did Russia have in the Russo-Persian wars? 29th May 2021Every summary I’ve read of the Russo-Persian wars notes that the latter held the numerical advantage (particularly since the former were busy fighting the Ottomans & Napoleon), but the former won because of their better technology. These summaries never say what that better technology was. This is well after the Safavid “gunpowder empire” so it’s […]teageegeepea
- A continuing dialogue with marxbro1917 on famines 12th May 2021While arguing with some other people at Astral Codex 10 about the merits of communist regimes that have actually existed, marxbro1917 started questioning whether famines are actually more common under them. I interjected by bringing up Amartya Sen, citing & quoting a paragraph of his on the subject. I begin quoting after that point, as […]teageegeepea
- A comment agnostic has not let through under his post on elite overproduction 13th July 2021
- Evolutionist X
- To Critical Race Theory, or not to Critical Race Theory? 5th July 2021Like the uncollapsed quantum state holding Schrodinger’s cat in a state of simultaneous life and death, whether a school is “teaching critical race theory” or not seems to depend entirely on whether the inquiring person wants them to. Are you anti-CRT? Then, you may rest assured, American schools most certainly aren’t teaching CRT. (If you […]evolutiontheorist
- Review: Seven Pillars of Wisdom, by T. E. Lawrence 26th June 2021Wisdom has built her house; she has set up its seven pillars. — Proverbs 9:1 T. E. Lawrence is the Lawrence, of Arabia, and Seven Pillars of Wisdom is his autobiographical account of his time spent serving in the British and Arab armies during World War One. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ve got the […]evolutiontheorist
- Review: Lawrence in Arabia 10th June 2021Scott Anderson’s Lawrence in Arabia is, quite obviously, about the famous T. E. Lawrence “of” Arabia. The book ranges significantly wider than Lawrence’s personal account, however, shifting between the perspectives of Ottoman officials, German spies, American spies, Zionist spies, and of course British spies. I read this book concurrently with The Berlin-Baghdad Express, so my […]evolutiontheorist
- To Critical Race Theory, or not to Critical Race Theory? 5th July 2021
- Human Stupidity
- Afghanistan cannot fit the mold of white Christian democracy 25th August 2021Afghanistan is not Germany nor Japan. Afghanistan cannot be rebuilt like these nations were rebuilt after world war II, with the Marshall plan. To posit insurmountable cultural, religious ethnic differences is taboo to the point that Trillions (one million million dollars) are spent for impossible fantasies of nation building, to turn Afghans into Americans, Germans, […]Programmer
- Lying by omission, with intent to deceive! #1 Failure to disclose is immoral misrepresentation 24th May 2021Misrepresentation and lack of full disclosure can be serious misdeeds, before the law. Yet leftist’s incessant lies of omission, required by media ethics codes and police gag orders, are tolerated. Even Media and politicians rarely tell outright lies (lies of commission). They spread misinformation by strategically omitting specific relevant details. Deceptively they fail to disclose […]Programmer
- Politically correct DISHONESTY is the root cause of disastrous social and racial policies 7th May 2021A parsimonious explanation to explain the roots of all evil caused by leftist woke policies. Truthrevolution.net’ s Occams razor points to socially accepted and socially required dishonesty and deception as the one singular root cause Reprinted with permission from TruthRevolution.net Do not tolerate the slightest dishonesty. Shun liars, don’t let liars fool you twice! Never […]Programmer
- Afghanistan cannot fit the mold of white Christian democracy 25th August 2021
- Der Geist (Union of Egoists)
- FAQ: Best version of “Einzige” in English 9th September 2021Someone asked: hello! I heard about max stirner and (want to know) best version of that work. I see it is out of stock and was just curious if there was any plans for another run? thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this! We responded: The “best version” depends […]Kevin I. Slaughter
- No Detail Too Small! 8th September 2021This small detail from The Gospel According to Malfew Seklew, published circa 1927, appeared circa 1916 in School Sewing Based on Home Problems by Ida and Myron Burton, published circa 1916. That is all!Trevor Blake
- SA1210 | On Active Service | J.A.Andrews 1st September 2021On Active Service: Items in the History of the People’s Movement in Australia J.A.Andrews 5.5×8.5″, 44 pages, saddle-stitched Stand Alone | SA1210 Available from Underworld Amusements Eccentric Australian anarchist J.A.Andrews writes about his experience with the labor activist groups, including the Active Service Brigade, where he worked side-by-side with Arthur Desmond, popularly known by his pen […]Kevin I. Slaughter
- FAQ: Best version of “Einzige” in English 9th September 2021
hippieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Look who talks, Liberal! :p
I’m beginning to think even that chart is a sham.
Elaborate?
The concepts here are intangible abstractions.
For instance, does the US have more “economic freedom” than China? Does the US have more “personal freedom” than China? In some ways yes, in some ways no. It’s not just a scale that can be easily measured by a number. The questions in that test also take into consideration some forms of personal and economic freedom and leave out may other forms which would result in different results.
Not to mention that both concepts revolve around the idea of negative rights rather than opportunities. E.g. imagine you were born on an asteroid or a desert island with nobody to trade with and nothing to do. You’d have perfect economic and personal freedom, because nobody else would be there to tell you what to do. But would anyone choose that fate over living in even the more restrictive nations in the world, considering that their chance of survival, of living very long, or having a happy life or even remaining sane is so low if they aren’t around anyone else for your entire life? This is an extreme example, but it shows that rights are not the only things that matter with respect to politics. The situation matters more.
The ability to enforce laws and protect rights also matters; for instance property rights do no good in a country too weak to enforce them, as many third world nations are, where they have to bribe the police just to report a crime, and even then they’re not likely to get what was stolen back. Corruption in general is a big problem in government, there’s never been and probably never will be a government without corruption.
In sum, the concepts of libertarian, conservative, liberal, authoritarian, centrist, etc. are only relevant in our particular political context at this moment, and even within it they tend to be somewhat contradictory and there are tons of disagreements within then about what does and what doesn’t constitute economic or personal freedom. For instance, a lot of people feel having copyright means protecting economic freedom, others think it restricts it, and both have good arguments. Others think that allowing people the use of illegal drugs is good for personal freedom, others think it restricts it, others think it depends on the drug (because according to them some drugs always restrict a person’s freedom when they use them), and all three groups have good arguments.
There are also issues which are important to politics which have little to do with these two scales. For instance, whether to start a war or not; there are libertarians in favor of the Iraq War and libertarians against it. Same with the idea of invading Iran. As another example, how elections are done, the structure of a government, how large governments are, all kinds of issues are important to politics that fall outside of these two scales, and which these two scales don’t describe at all. Another example still is how criminals are punished: some libertarians want harsher punishments (I’ve seen some argue for just killing anyone who steals anything) and some libertarians want to eliminate the prison system all together and reduce most punishments greatly, even for things like murder and rape. And that has nothing to do with what one believes should be a crime, it has to do with what one does with criminals after they’re found guilty of a crime. The very nature of the process of determining whether someone is or is not a criminal is important to politics (the justice system in general), yet doesn’t fall under these scales. Likewise rules about what police can or cannot do: some libertarians are much more lenient toward police brutality than others.
And as someone said, this doesn’t even really include anarchism, and doesn’t distinguish between all the different forms of anarchism and all the different ways it could be attempted. There’s even very different forms of authoritarianism: both the USSR and Nazi Germany were authoritarian, but in vastly different ways.
What I hate about that damned chart, which has been making the rounds for at least a decade in libertarian circles, is that all of its area is statist, except one single free point where pricipled anarchism is presumably included too. :/ What about the varied continuum of all possible “anarchist,” i.e. non-statist social possibilities?
Overlapping with that point, its axes rather miss the point of the most relevant livable qualities of a society in my view, which have to do with collectivism versus individualism, force versus liberty (represented in the chart), and orthodoxical thought versus independent thought. For example, you can live in a society where you are theoretically free to do what you want according to authority, but most people adhere to orthodoxy so closely it’s still pure hell for experimental or different thinkers… which, if coupled with collective thinking about the society, would likely lead to expanding authority’s direct control over you at some point. This kind of a realization is one a whole lot of libertarians miss.
This is an interesting comment. But unfortunately “non-statist society” is pretty much an oxymoron unless each citizen perfectly conforms to some set of ideals that provide for a harmonious existence of all members of the society. And that is simply internalizing the “state”. Either way there is still a state authority. The only way to be mostly free of a state is to do so individually; treating all social relations conditionally as opposed to unconditionally(internal super-ego “state”: laws, morals, habit, etc).
Furthermore, statist societies have, as entities in themselves, serious advantages over lone wolfs or loosely associated groups. In the battle of the fittest, states win. Natural selection for superorganisms. So expect the future to be filled with authority just as the past has been. If all nations were dissolved by war, new ones would rise up to replace them.
I’m not saying I like states or want them, but I am saying they are inevitable. I do like that I live in the US though, it provides me with much more than I could have ever provided myself alone.
counterpoints
a) You’re fudging the meaning of the State, which is precise in its socio-political meaning. It is a territorial monopoly on ‘legitimate’ force (which eventually provides for other monopolies, such as money, and criminal law enforcement) and associated social roles such as (in historical times) legal systems. If you confuse the State with internalized morality, you lose the point I was trying to make, that yes, there is more to a healthy society than anti-Statism.
b) A stateless society is an “oxymoron” unless it “perfectly conforms to some set of ideals that provide for a harmonious existence of all members of the society”? What? Why should it have to be a utopia?
c) Are states’ advantages at warfare so clear as all that? Ask partisans, guerillas, terrorists. Ask Hezbollah how they beat the Mideast’s biggest power. It’s called 4th generation warfare. To go further, my personal belief is that a future, proper individualist army would be superior to any other, but that’s the product of years of studying military/cultural ideas and not something I can summarize here.
d) Also, are states’ military advantages in building conventional armies compulsorily (in taxes, drafts, inflation) advantages for their actual citizens, or only “collective” advantages for the “State”? Evolutionary advantage can and must be examined on multiple levels. But this is where the point of collectivism comes in; are individuals the same as the collective? Are the individuals equivalent? No, often they pay and suffer for the “collective.” The State may become so aggressive it falls, or fall from economic excesses, but even if it does not, the individuals along for the ride will not necessarily gain simply because the State is powerful. Most people lose out from State power.
e) You’ll be sorry you live in the US soon enough. State war (I’m sorry, “security”), has a heavy price tag, called blowback and debt and centralization. All the real advantages come from being part of the worldwide economic system which provides for peaceful exchange of goods, services, and ideas. That’s not American, per se.
Re: counterpoints
a) Fair enough to say that I’m using a related but different concept when I use the word “state”. I was referring to a more general concept…call it “stayte”. I take this more general concept of stayte from Max Stirner..and I find his arguments persuasive enough to maintain it. Morality and “legitimate force” are intimately related. It’s not that I think external government and morality are the SAME thing, nor do I think two different dogs are the same because they are both dogs. I just see that with further abstraction they can be brought under one heading.
b) I’m not expecting an utopia, I’m just expecting a society. All societies with decent longevity will end up having ‘legitimate force’, because otherwise a few lawless brutes would ruin society for everyone else. Thus it would pretty much become a State all over again.
c) Yes, states have clear advantages in warfare. An organized band of guerrillas can be a loose and mobile state itself(yes i’m aware your definition of state might not quite jive with this). I know you don’t want to hear it, but “individualist army” IS an oxymoron. Big time. More on that in the last part of this message.
d) When executed intelligently, responsibly, and idealistically(with unknown others abstractly taken into account), a states’ military advantages are of enormous benefit to both it’s citizens and itself. This doesn’t happen very often though. But when it does, the state and its people both flourish.
In relatively “well-run” states, it is entirely false that people “lose out” from State power. Send them out on their own and watch them fuck themselves and be fucked man. In a free for all you end up back in a hierarchal struggle, and a much more brutal one. Where we are now is better for most people. If I go off to my own island that isn’t regulated..you could just go there and kill me and take what is “mine”! I have to stop you, and put efforts into stopping you. And we get back on the same merry-go-round. Of course its easier if I live in a society that will protect me, my ‘property’, and give me personal leeway, rather than me having to nervously clutch a gun and fists at every turn. It’s a philosophical thought experiment..imagine an individual free-for-all and the resulting progression through time.
It goes without saying that people in general have come a long way from the stone age, from feudal times, and so on. All that was made possible by society, and stable society was made possible by states.
Look at the places where intellectual pursuits and the arts flourish…places with huge guns guarding the borders. Potent military states. And these are certainly the highest states of being for people..when they need not worry about food on their plate or someone coming to pillage their property…when they can go on fanciful mental explorations. Play sports for fun. Generally have much more recreation..and so on.
e) Maybe. That happens when the president for 8 years is a short-sighted and self-serving dumbass. I was really just trying to say I’m glad I’m not living in a cave having to fend entirely for myself every day. I at least have decent security. I think ..scratch that..KNOW..that US policies are overall..pretty disastrous right now. But I’m still glad to live here. I’d still take it over most countries in the world. I don’t place special value on “American” this or that.
My impression is that you have too much faith in people generally. People are, in general, petty and selfish buffoons. A nice society and grooming can make them look good, but send them out to the jungle, or maybe just a reality show, and they’ll show their true colors. Even if half of all people could get along well and voluntarily follow rules knowing it would help them live in a society to help them and would thereby be worth the sacrifice…the other half would still be raging monkeys pounding whatever ass they could find. And in reality the proportion of people capable of being both intelligently civil and independent is…well it’s very low, probably too low to mention in civil company. Let’s just say the “wisdom” of the systems we live under is probably underestimated by both of us.
Re: counterpoints
• Defining your terms, such as “State” and “society,” is important. Conflation muddles up arguments.
• “Look at the places where intellectual pursuits and the arts flourish…places with huge guns guarding the borders. Potent military states. ”
Haven’t you ever heard of correlation not equalling causation? Especially since I’m having no trouble thinking of numerous counterexamples throughout military history, such as early America. I’m having much more trouble thinking of any examples to fit your claim, especially factoring some knowledge of relative economic prosperity and cultural vitality into the mix.
• If you think so little of human nature, why on earth would you prefer to entrust it with a power hierarchy?
• You seem to have confused social atomism with individualism.
• You also don’t seem to be aware that many successful human societies have not had States in the sociological sense. Read Franz Oppenheimer, for one theory of its formation, for example. He’s a sociologist. There are also many anthropological and economic analyses of pre-State and non- or quasi-Statist societies.
My score was about 3 grid squares to the left of you.
HAhaha! Daymne rite!