Pulling Weeds
I follow a number of libertarian and pro-free-market sites and pages on social media, and I sometimes amuse myself by reading the comments under posts promoting capitalist ideas. Sure as the sun rises, I will find a plethora of criticisms and condemnations. All of which are contemptuous and condescending. None of which show the remotest understanding of what capitalism actually is.
Herein lies a big-picture problem for those of us who promote liberty. The natural reflex is to point out the errors in their arguments. Many of them conflate capitalism with anarchy or lawlessness. Many misattribute blame more properly assigned to government interference. Many commit logical fallacies. Many make nonsensical “empathy” arguments, or simply lob insults about how capitalists are heartless and selfish.
Our rebuttals can be as solid as the footings of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in whose shadow I grew up, but they won’t make a whit’s difference to those self-righteously obnoxious commenters.
They don’t care about the fact that capitalism is head-and-shoulders better than any of their socialistic systems at improving human living standards, or that the comfortable lives they live are the products of capitalism rather than socialism, or that the “features” they embrace are actually the flaws that are slowing human progress.
These people are like weeds in a garden. No matter how many you pull, more will emerge.
Thus the adage about “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” Which Thomas Jefferson did not coin, but which remains eternally (see what I did there?) accurate despite that misattribution.
On line, in comments section, they are best ignored. Some of them are trolls, some are bots, some are useful idiots, some are just idiots, and some are selfish, immoral coveters of Other People’s Money who use the veneer of “I care more than you do” to justify their thieving ways. But in broader society, they must be fought. On our terms, not theirs. Counterattack - calmly and rationally - rather than allow them to control the narrative. Remember that you are presenting to whoever reads the conversation, not to them. You’ll never change their minds - your goal should be to win over everyone else. Point out the misery and destruction that socialism has always created, and tear down whatever utopian hairball they cough up.
And always remember - there is no utopia, even via liberty, capitalism, and free markets. Liberty just gets us to the best possible outcome. Emphasis on possible.
Finally, next time someone says “more taxes, redirect the narrative and ask them what their plan is to address the trillion a year being lost to fraud and waste and corruption.
The "comments" section, in general, tends to be a worthless cesspool of garbage, best avoided. (And I say that as I post to a comments section.) I've always said that the good thing about the internet is that anyone can say anything. The bad thing about the internet is that anyone can say anything.
Sound advice. It is exhausting, however, pulling the weeds. The arguments aren't the least bit interesting or novel - it's the same weed as last week. And at a point, you realize you're fighting people who're PAID to troll the nonsense. The recurring common theme right now in all their posts is "there's no proof of fraud" anywhere in all this welfare spending. In our state, SNAP rolls dropped 50,000 in two months (in a state of just 5 million that's a lot) - and the paid activists are screaming about "hunger" - and yet, there's nobody legitimately claiming THEY are going hungry. Which is unsurprising - the "new standards" require only that you be a live person, you show proof that you live in the state, that you're provably below a certain income level and that you worked or volunteered 5 hours PER WEEK (or are elderly or permanently disabled). I don't doubt the vast majority of those 50,000 (and counting!) were simply fraudsters who couldn't prove they were even real people.