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The Doge πŸ”—
1606411433  



India.gov: decrypt or face 7 years in the slammer πŸ”—
1546621961  

🏷️ news
No 4th amendment problems there!

FecesBeef jumping on the crypto bandwagon πŸ”—
1546621923  

🏷️ news
yet more shit coins

Retarded Copyright beefs over tattoos πŸ”—
1546619413  

🏷️ news
Another great reason to not get them

NY Slimes: Bunga is the answer πŸ”—
1546619385  

🏷️ news
Clearly they're upset about the punch bowl being taken away by the FED

No Market for Liberty πŸ”—
1546576355  

🏷️ blog

The true concerns of the great intellectual and political movements are quite straightforward to discern when judging actions. Political movements are straightforward to figure out; their ideology is little more than "say and do anything to gain power". They do like to disguise themselves with one intellectual movement or the other, which generally is leftist or reactionary (the right).

Frankly, when one speaks of intellectual movements in the last century, there really isn't one aside from leftism to speak of until quite recently. While the varieties of leftist moderate to revolutionary thought have many disagreements, there is a shared tone upon which the difference is simply in intensity. This common tone is the emotional need for external validation.

All forms of collectivization, democracy, concern about "alienation" and other forms of consensus decision-making are neither necessary or desirable. The aggregate result of all individual actions (if free of coercive modification) will tend towards satisfying the ends of as many of the individuals as possible. The best average individual outcomes does not necessarily mean general approval of the actions of any given individual; most successful individuals are generally disliked. This is simply the "crabs in a bucket" effect. You'd be surprised how much of politics this explains.

This is further complicated by market success to some extent actually requiring a degree of consensus. Many times commercial projects fail not because the project fails to meet the needs of said consumer, but because customers simply did not feel their concerns were listened to. Much of the art of successful projects is convincing stakeholders that good ideas from the team actually were the stakeholder's idea. Buy-In is very important to people -- more so than rational evaluation as to the given utility of the goods and services in which they partake.

This, I think explains the popularity of the "mixed economy", as people are rational in wildly varying levels about various subjects. Most irrationally desire validation, but only so much. Validation is at a higher tier of Maslow's hierarchy -- starving people don't give a damn about what you think of them. This would also explain why revolutionary agitation happens not at the low point of penury, but when things turn south for rising bourgeoisie.

This leads me to the recent developments in reactionary intellectual tradition; previously there wasn't much of one other than "don't kill the goose that laid the golden egg". Which is to say concerns from a lower level of economic coordination and maslow's hierarchy.

This is why much of the support for reactionary dictatorship tends to be populist, as the poorest classes get their opinions where they get their corn pone. Similarly, the concerns of long-term wealth is mostly tied up in capital preservation, making elite alliances with the forces of reaction the obvious choice.

In any case, Libertarianism and the "dark enlightenment" (AKA the "alt-right") is the recent development I speak of. Both have their detractors on the reactionary right as these philosophies are a sort of synthesis born of liberal ideas. Nevertheless, they are both rooted in a more rational approach to the subject rather than the fundamentally emotional need for validation dominating leftism.

This in large part explains the demographic split amongst the various factions now:

  • The peasants have no ideology beyond getting today's corn pone. They can be counted upon siding with whatever pays best.
  • The irrational middle class consider themselves socialists or "liberal" of one stripe or another.
  • The rational middle class overwhelmingly are radicalized into either outright authoritarianism or anarchism. Mostly of the leftist flavor.
  • Old money can be counted upon to care for little beyond capital preservation. Like the poor, their primary aim is not being poor, and tend reactionary.
  • New Money can be counted upon to care for little beyond capital accumulation. They are opportunistic backers of authoritarianism and the attendant cronyism.
The middle class in particular is of the most concern. In particular the irrational are self-defeating; their quest for acceptance almost always leads to economic over-extension (pursuit of veblen goods). This tendency aggravates their susceptibility to revolutionary sentiment when times get tough. The same impatience to rise above their station leads to willingness to use violence as a shortcut (Revolution).

Unfortunately, the rational ones among them are little better. Rationality does not imply being well-informed. As such, self-defeating consensus philosophy tends to take root, as it has wide appeal amongst their less rational peers. This infection of design by committee produces substandard outcomes that everyone feels real good about and validated by. As such "True Leftism/Socialism/Communism" as advocated by these types is unerringly defeated by authoritarians of one stripe or another when push comes to shove.

Right and left authoritarians don't seem to have any particular advantage over each other when opposed. The amount of men and materiel able to be secured for war seems to be the deciding factor in which wins. That said, neither type are likely to emerge as a significant force unless conditions are bad enough for either a revolution and attendant counterrevolution in the first place.

Which brings me back to the mixed economy. It tends to keep the irrational just happy enough to not revolt, and conditions are not so bad that the rational (while radicalized) are cowed by the power afforded the authorities by the irrational. This reminds me of the Saxon law code, which concerned itself not with justice, but minimization of conflict.

It is entirely possible that despite a libertarian social order being in fact the best way to improve material standards of living, it is doomed to create conflict due to the irrational ninnies out there. Civil conflict is a far worse problem to have than the deadweight loss inherent in the mixed economy. Like Ben Stone said repeatedly, there isn't a market for liberty.

Most of the uninformed arguments (thought terminating cliches really) by the middle class against libertarian (and other) anarchy are in this vein of conflict. The traditional counter-arguments here don't exactly help defuse their concerns either:

  1. Wouldn't warlords take over??? (Like that isn't the case right now -- they just kill foriegners, not you yet)
  2. Without theft how would Y good or service be provisioned??? (Maybe it shouldn't be provisioned to that extent)
  3. Yeah, but who ultimately decides a conflict??? (As if it isn't one of the two combatants now, though intermediated by gowned clowns)
In each response we focus on the wrong thing. Emphasizing how our way both validates and minimizes conflict better than consensus (tragedy of the commons) approaches would be more persuasive to the irrationally inclined. This is the cynical reality of realpolitik; much of your time is spent coddling emotional children.

Ultimately, this is the root of the split between left and right libertarians. Fortunately, the leftist libertarians have not yet figured out how to spread their message as effectively as the right. I suspect this is due to the ideological vacuum on the reactionary right making grounds ripe. By comparison, the left is already chock full of nuts; at best they will simply further splinter an already hopelessly fractured left.

Knowing all this, what then shall we do? A retreat into self-improvement is certainly better than the strategy of chasing shadows as has been done up to this point. It is unfortunately falling into the same "lower level concerns" trap as the old reactionaries. There is no way around having to figure out an emotional appeal to those most libertarians find incredibly distasteful. If you aren't willing to make cynical distortions intended to manipulate those around you, have fun resorting to the cartridge box.

You have to decide that you'd rather be happy and free than right and pure.


Taleb and the one law πŸ”—
1546560005  

🏷️ blog

For those not aware, I'm a large proponent of the Stoic insights. One of the primary ones I promote is that virtue is not only it's own reward but it's only reward. The other half of this coin, which many do not discover, is that this is a good thing. When altruism is to be rewarded, it is all to easy to fake, with attendant and catastrophic costs to society.

One of the most prominent such failures in our modern society is what is popularly called "Virtue Signaling"; a term which once was simply referred to as "putting on a show". Politics is infested with this, as its practitioners overcompensate for their lack of real virtue with an abundance of such fake virtue.

In any case, it is heartening to realize that this is fundamentally what Nicholas Taleb has been groping for all these years. His Intellectual yet Idiot concept is an expression of this; however that is merely a generalization of his core inisght. Namely, that people are applying the wrong model entirely when it comes to dealing with uncertain events.

As explored here previously, people try a variety of schemes to curve-fit us into Procrustes' Iron Bed; the most popular of these are called "laws". In reality, a far simpler model works: "Do as thou wilt, but be prepared for the consequences". I have come to realize more and more that it's the latter half of that statement that nearly all of civilization's distortions are built to try and avoid.

Taleb's SITG (Skin In The Game) is a powerful argument for why not attempting to expand past that one rule is desirable; the further we insulate ourselves from consequence, the more foolish we necessarily become, until survival itself is threatened. He is pilloried by his detractors for "not providing answers", but they simply do not listen when he advises that rather than worry about the fact consequences happen (X), we instead concern ourselves with how our response effects ourselves and the system as a whole (f(x)) -- being prepared for consequences.

That core insight returns right back to stoicism. The wise stoic concerns himself not with the affairs of the world which are not under his control. He instead concerns himself with what he can control; e.g. the reaction to said events (f(x)).

As such it is unsurprising Taleb has drifted increasingly into the Austrian Economist camp. They are the most closely aligned with these particular insights; indeed his discussion of fat tail risk is quite a damning explanation of nearly all extant centralized economic planning's failure. As an apriori theory as to why information theory and risk must necessarily behave so, Praxeology is in perfect harmony.

The one law is simply a necessary lemma of the core praxeological axiom: "Man Acts on limited information and other means to achieve specific ends". This necessarily implies that circumstances may align such that practically anything may be seen as virtuous or licentious at the time, depending on the context understood to the actors involved.

As such, the wisdom of "live and let live" an "Love thy Neighbor" becomes ever clearer -- as one man's virtue may be another man's vice, all attempts to centrally plan and impose a return curve on the necessarily transactional relationships between humans are doomed to failure. All we can do therefore is simply gird ourselves against the reality of the situation in pursuance of our own ends.


Liberland Update πŸ”—
1546555966  

🏷️ news
Hangin' out with EuroParl. Sounds like they're gonna get an embassy and start causing trouble.

The CIA's afghan death squads πŸ”—
1546536189  

🏷️ news
MAKING FRIENDS

9/11 Insurance docs supposedly out there πŸ”—
1546535039  

🏷️ news
In a ransom scheme against the insurance scammers involved in the towers coming down.

Blackwater back in Business πŸ”—
1546534969  

🏷️ news
Sounds like Prince has secured some lucrative Deep State contracts now that the troops are getting pulled out.

Infra Hexa Vaccine: No antigens, plenty of poison πŸ”—
1546534829  

🏷️ news
The new Italian government proving to get rowdy. Here's hoping it keeps up:
In Infanrix Hexa we found

chemical contamination from the manufacturing process or cross-contamination with other manufacturing lines; chemical toxins; bacterial peptide toxins; insoluble and indigestible macromolecule that reacts to the protein assay, but cannot be recognized by any protein databases.

We have not found:

Protein antigens of diphtheria toxoids, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, haemophylus influenzae B, Poliomyelitis 1-2-3;

Formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde, phenoxyethanol, antibiotic residues indicated in the composition;

NY Slimes: Time to get out of Afghanistan πŸ”—
1546532969  

🏷️ news
IT'S HELPING THE RUSSKIES!!!!!1

Trump: I fired Mattis over lack of results in Afghanistan πŸ”—
1546532909  

🏷️ news
Damn straight. Guy is a moron COINdinista.

China makes it to the far side of the moon πŸ”—
1546532320  

🏷️ news
Here's hoping they find something interesting, rather than it being a bust as cover for ICBM research like all other space programs.

Syria Update πŸ”—
1546532120  

🏷️ news
The "Withdrawl" of US forces is really just slinking across the Iraqi border. Meanwhile, the YPG is making the smart move and working on re-joining Syria.

Another year, another gun grab πŸ”—
1546531670  

🏷️ news
No more bump stocks, despite rubber bands working better.

US interest payments starting to explode πŸ”—
1545403498  

🏷️ news
I predicted this would begin to happen when rates hit ~3% roughly 4 years ago. It's just basic math folks.

The troops are coming home from Afghanistan! πŸ”—
1545403196  

🏷️ news
Not all of 'em, but still! This is the beginning of the end for the forever war. Put coal in all the neocons' stockings!

Hodeidah assault fails πŸ”—
1545245289  

🏷️ news
Ceasfire and UN observers moving in. The Saudis have failed.

Yet another reporter outed for making shit up πŸ”—
1545238931  

🏷️ news
A Der Spiegel bozo this time.

The troops are coming home from Syria! πŸ”—
1545208620  

🏷️ news
Finally, real good news on the war front! This is on the heels of the Yemen war pullback -- Has the antiwar moment finally arrived? It's probably too much to hope for a Christmas peace with the Taliban.

Latest Ginned up Syria CB πŸ”—
1544963765  

🏷️ news
US Citizen killed by "animal assad". Like in WWI, I guess we have an inalienable right to wander around warzones which must be protected at all costs.

Audit hammer still falling on broke losers looking for benefits, I see πŸ”—
1544959666  

🏷️ news
"Progressive" taxation. Ha Ha Ha. Taxation is always and everywhere regressive. A dead-weight loss.

Thankfully, audits are way down in general due to the sensible Trump policy of making the satanic IRS suck hind tit.

Philadelphia: systematic looting by the DA πŸ”—
1544959430  

🏷️ news
Good ol' asset forfeiture abused as a property source for a real-estate flipping scam.

Streaming has won πŸ”—
1544958525  

🏷️ news
Cable is dead. Finally.

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