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Rights Don’t Come With Responsibilities

 As more ‘libertarians’ hive off into the realm of right wing idiocy, a good portion of them usually give you this line, or something like it, “rights come with responsibilities!” Or, maybe something like this, “without responsibilities, rights are just entitlement!” Any number of other bullshit lines like that, really. To be fair, they’re not entirely bullshit, the problem is the word responsibility, but not its true definition, but the bastardized version people use today, especially right wingers. So, what do I mean by that? In short, the word has been corrupted. A responsibility is properly defined as a natural obligation, something you are obligated to deal with as the consequence of a choice and/or action on your part. You have a kid, you’re responsible for its well being. You ram your car into someone else’s and break their leg, you’re responsible for helping deal with the damage, even if it is truly an accident. If you did it deliberately, you owe even more responsibility. ...
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Why You Should Still Be A Little Worried About Covid

Covid is, or should be, largely a nonissue right now. It's followed the expected path of a virus, it's gotten more transmissible but less deadly. You should, however, still be a little worried about, and here's why. First, this virus was likely made in a lab. The most often cited reason for this conclusion is the proximity of the initial breakout in China to the Wuhan lab, but another more esoteric reason given is the appearance of the furin cleavage site. It showed up suddenly in the virus' genome, fully formed and ready to make it more transmissible. Second, while it's the natural tendency of a virus to get more transmissible but less deadly, that's because of the odds, not a fait accompli. For a virus to be especially deadly it has to have a very specific genetic code, and for it to be deadly and very transmissible is rare. Think of all the viruses that affect other animals but not humans. Think of all the viruses that seemingly do nothing. The group of possi...
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Twitterati and Why I Don't Give a Shit

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  I'm torn on the recent Twitter releases. As promised by Elon Musk, the internal workings and some communications are being released. Of course, as of this date the second release was hampered by the 'vetting' of one Jim Baker, former FBI, who has been at or near the epicenter of a lot of fuckery over the last few years. That this happened is not surprising, that it happened under Elon Musk's 'leadership' is also not surprising. Here's why I don't give a shit. For one, these information dumps have not and likely will not lead to anything other than a bunch of conservatives saying, "I told you so!" to people who already agreed with them, or those on the left who don't give a shit. The operative strategy on the left has been to deny such things as shadow banning occur, and then act like it's old news when it's confirmed. No one cares except the people who have had their well founded suspicions confirmed. Another reason I don't gi...
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Aesthetic Anarchism: The Question I Asked that Made Me Realize that ‘Thin’ or ‘Political’ Libertarianism was Wrong

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What is aesthetic anarchism? I’m not sure anyone else has defined it or even used the term, so my definition is: opposing the arbitrary exercise of power over people, regardless of the source. Like any other definition there's a gray area to move around in, but it works well enough for me. How did I come to this position? Libertarianism is defined by many people in many different ways. As a political philosophy it’s about what is and is not properly legal. Those who take it further would say its ethical and moral implications go beyond what should or should not be legal or illegal. Generally I agree with the latter, but I didn’t always agree with them. I changed my mind when a question kept popping up: why aren’t politicians the wealthiest people around? More than a few lines of argument lead to me asking this question. When leftists complain about billionaires, the invariable response from most libertarians is that the government is to blame for setting up the system to include ha...
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A Response to Tom Woods on the 2022 Midterm Elections

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I'm a subscriber to Tom Woods' email list and his recent response to the 2022 midterm elections was, I figured, a good point to start this blog. Below are various quotes and my responses, generally put, I think he and many of the newly minted conservative leaning libertarians and anarcho capitalists are missing a vital piece of the puzzle when it comes to the reality of a free society. I do not, and it's sad this requires stating outright, but I do not think these people are evil, I think they are wrong. Some of them like Tom Woods are exceptionally good at messaging and marketing, and get underserved hate from more left or liberal leaning corners of the community. That crap I do not support either, it's annoying and moronic, but I also think those people raise points which are correct and worth addressing.  "How is it possible for there not to have been a massive and brutal repudiation of the Democrats and their bizarre and evil program, not to mention their fact-...
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