Writing a long-format political blog with the hope/intent of providing reasoned, fact-based, and logically coherent arguments sometimes feels like sweeping back the tide.
I’m finding that my previously mostly sunny opinion of mankind has taken a steep nosedive in the past 15 or so years, which roughly coincides with getting my first smart phone.
I always knew there were dummies, idiots and haters out there. But social media and comments sections, which provide a platform to every Tom, Dick and Harry, have revealed that there are far far more of them than I would have thought previously. The opinions and remarks I see regularly are unbelievably ignorant and hateful. I’ve got people insisting, for example, that a tiny shoebox apartment in a 70s Soviet cinder block building where the hot water is shut off for 2-4 weeks every summer for maintenance is superior to life in the US. The stupid, I swear to god it burns. And there’s a lot more of it out there than I thought. It’s at times genuinely discouraging.
I have one disagreement with you today Peter - socialisms failures stretch back beyond a single century. The early settlers of America made an attempt at socialism 400 years ago, and it failed spectacularly (as socialism always does):
I hate to say it, but the desire for liberty is not nearly as great as people here might like or want to believe. Quite a few are more than willing to trade material comfort, or the appearance of it, for genuine individual freedom. Covid, during which any freedom-appreciating person lost at least a couple of friends, amply demonstrated that an American Stasi would find no shortage of citizen enforcers ready to rat out anyone deviating from govt orders.
The cases for liberty and capitalism are self-evident, chiefly by comparing those two things to their alternatives. But no matter how well either case is made, one cannot make the unwilling understand the arguments.
If people see capitalism as the status quo and they don't like how things are then it's not surprising that they consider nonsense like socialism. It's the "grass is always greener" on the other side fallacy.
Excellent advice, Peter. Let me add that, when conversing with a hard-core pro-government brainwashed moron (from any ideological lean), to always be respectful, polite, soft-spoken, and cordial. For gosh sakes, avoid profanity or anger. I've surprised myself on multiple occasions how far it gets me! Then they can see a pro-liberty mindset in a positive light.
In my restaurant days, when a customer got riled up, I never raised my voice, never cursed, never turned personal. When a customer did, I knew I won the argument, because he or she handed me what I needed.
That's face-to-face.
On-line?
As the saying goes, it's like playing chess with a pigeon.
Lately I have felt like I am drowning in political lies and propaganda. Once my thinking has entered into that bleakness it begins seeping into other areas of my life. In order to restore my peace of mind I find myself needing to withdraw from political discourse for now. The tidal wave of antisemitism sweeping the world envelops me in despair.
I’m finding that my previously mostly sunny opinion of mankind has taken a steep nosedive in the past 15 or so years, which roughly coincides with getting my first smart phone.
I always knew there were dummies, idiots and haters out there. But social media and comments sections, which provide a platform to every Tom, Dick and Harry, have revealed that there are far far more of them than I would have thought previously. The opinions and remarks I see regularly are unbelievably ignorant and hateful. I’ve got people insisting, for example, that a tiny shoebox apartment in a 70s Soviet cinder block building where the hot water is shut off for 2-4 weeks every summer for maintenance is superior to life in the US. The stupid, I swear to god it burns. And there’s a lot more of it out there than I thought. It’s at times genuinely discouraging.
I have one disagreement with you today Peter - socialisms failures stretch back beyond a single century. The early settlers of America made an attempt at socialism 400 years ago, and it failed spectacularly (as socialism always does):
https://www.readlucid.com/blog-posts/socialism-fails-lessons-from-the-first-american-settlers
https://www.johnlocke.org/how-socialism-nearly-starved-out-americas-first-settlements/
I hate to say it, but the desire for liberty is not nearly as great as people here might like or want to believe. Quite a few are more than willing to trade material comfort, or the appearance of it, for genuine individual freedom. Covid, during which any freedom-appreciating person lost at least a couple of friends, amply demonstrated that an American Stasi would find no shortage of citizen enforcers ready to rat out anyone deviating from govt orders.
The cases for liberty and capitalism are self-evident, chiefly by comparing those two things to their alternatives. But no matter how well either case is made, one cannot make the unwilling understand the arguments.
If people see capitalism as the status quo and they don't like how things are then it's not surprising that they consider nonsense like socialism. It's the "grass is always greener" on the other side fallacy.
Excellent advice, Peter. Let me add that, when conversing with a hard-core pro-government brainwashed moron (from any ideological lean), to always be respectful, polite, soft-spoken, and cordial. For gosh sakes, avoid profanity or anger. I've surprised myself on multiple occasions how far it gets me! Then they can see a pro-liberty mindset in a positive light.
In my restaurant days, when a customer got riled up, I never raised my voice, never cursed, never turned personal. When a customer did, I knew I won the argument, because he or she handed me what I needed.
That's face-to-face.
On-line?
As the saying goes, it's like playing chess with a pigeon.
Lately I have felt like I am drowning in political lies and propaganda. Once my thinking has entered into that bleakness it begins seeping into other areas of my life. In order to restore my peace of mind I find myself needing to withdraw from political discourse for now. The tidal wave of antisemitism sweeping the world envelops me in despair.