*** VD 13 Commentary Thread ***

[The Feral Slasher]

In the last ten days:

+69 President Donald Trump
+199 *** VD 13 Commentary Thread ***
+57 Election 2020

+200 !

[Kevin Seitzer]

ANd I should note, the Trump thread and the Election thread continue to trail the VD Commentary thread, zero stars to six stars, in the thread titles....

Donnie makes boring little thread title; Johnny adds stars !

[The Feral Slasher]

Go do a victory lap in that Amazon/NYC/AOC thread since it turns out Amazon is still coming to NYC despite AOC ruining all the attempts at fellating them via tax dollars to come. Then we can talk more about how libertarians are serious people who can be taken seriously. Speaking of right wing extremism, why do libertarians not get called out for what they are?

The entire thread was a slow, painful victory lap. Explaining libertarian beliefs to libertarians is really hard

[The Feral Slasher]

To be kinder, I think a lot of people get sucked into that by a pseudo-intellectualism that surrounds it and aren't consciously aware of the undercurrents.

From my high school to early adult years I was somewhat of a libertarian. I understand the theory and agree with parts of it. However, at some point it became clear to me that it isn't realistic and that in practice it is used to support a lot a really crappy stuff.

[The Feral Slasher]

From my high school to early adult years I was somewhat of a libertarian. I understand the theory and agree with parts of it. However, at some point it became clear to me that it isn't realistic and that in practice it is used to support a lot a really crappy stuff.

Feral Slasher confessions....details at 11 !

[The Feral Slasher]

Go do a victory lap in that Amazon/NYC/AOC thread since it turns out Amazon is still coming to NYC despite AOC ruining all the attempts at fellating them via tax dollars to come. Then we can talk more about how libertarians are serious people who can be taken seriously. Speaking of right wing extremism, why do libertarians not get called out for what they are?

I found it so interesting that Baldgriff thought that having municipalities bid for companies to bring jobs to their area was in any way the free market at work. How can anyone not see that the net affect of that is that large companies are subsidized and given an unfair advantage, which is the exact opposite of Libertarian theory and free markets.

[Kevin Seitzer]

From my high school to early adult years I was somewhat of a libertarian. I understand the theory and agree with parts of it. However, at some point it became clear to me that it isn't realistic and that in practice it is used to support a lot a really crappy stuff.

Likewise. I voted for the Libertarian candidate for president in 2004. That was the point at which I couldn't bring myself to vote for Bush and Cheney a second time but hadn't completed my transition away from the Republican identity that I grew up with.

[Kevin Seitzer]

I found it so interesting that Baldgriff thought that having municipalities bid for companies to bring jobs to their area was in any way the free market at work. How can anyone not see that the net affect of that is that large companies are subsidized and given an unfair advantage, which is the exact opposite of Libertarian theory and free markets.

There is a definitely a knee-jerk element to that thinking, where AOC is stereotyped as a liberal simpleton, and that blinds any real thinking about the issue.

[The Feral Slasher]

There is a definitely a knee-jerk element to that thinking, where AOC is stereotyped as a liberal simpleton, and that blinds any real thinking about the issue.

Yeah, in the end they sort of admitted they really just wanted to throw poo at AOC and really didn't care about anything else.

[The Feral Slasher]

Yeah, in the end they sort of admitted they really just wanted to throw* poo at AOC and really didn't care about anything else.

*fling

[Bene Futuis]

I mean, I think it's just the platitudes that appeal to a certain swath of people: "Every new regulation passed is an attack on individual freedom!" I guess. It's such a vapid system of belief to me.

[The Feral Slasher]

I mean, I think it's just the platitudes that appeal to a certain swath of people: "Every new regulation passed is an attack on individual freedom!" I guess. It's such a vapid system of belief to me.

I suppose that is what many libertarians latch on to. I don't need a license to fish and hunt ! Sounds great in the old west, but devastating in our technological age where we can fish and hunt species to extinction. Or pollute the earth to the point of it being uninhabitable. Or create enough pollution to shorten the lives of billions of people.

[Kevin Seitzer]

I suppose that is what many libertarians latch on to. I don't need a license to fish and hunt ! Sounds great in the old west, but devastating in our technological age where we can fish and hunt species to extinction. Or pollute the earth to the point of it being uninhabitable. Or create enough pollution to shorten the lives of billions of people.

Yeah, there is a pioneer/individualistic spirit that I think is actually a really good quality and one of the big reasons for American progress. But that ignores all the common/social work that underlies that. Yes, when my grandfather homesteaded a quarter section in the Oklahoma Panhandle in the 1910s, the hard work of he and my grandmother was critical. But it was undergirded by the federal Homestead Act, and by huge federal subsidies to the railroads that took his wheat and cream to market and brought in the tools he needed for farming, and by a legal system that enforced his deed (and later enforced the bank's right to take possession when he couldn't pay his debts during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression).

People in the rural areas tend to see more of the need for individualism, and people in the cities tend to see more of our interdependence. I think there is value in a balance. (That doesn't mean I think the truth lies halfway between the current Republican and Democratic platforms.)

[Kevin Seitzer]

Can we get to 6000 posts today?

[Kevin Seitzer]

Can we get to 6000 posts today?

Okay, probably not, but it would feel really good if we did, wouldn't it?