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At the first presidential debate Joe Biden and Chris Wallace started interrupting President Trump soon after the initial round of two-minute answers. Trump then went into beast mode, like any self-respecting man might do who was being attacked from both directions. He verbally smashed Biden like an action hero smashing henchmen in order to reach the big villain. "Biden as henchman" is an apt analogy, I think, because he is just a little man with little ideas. He's a weak human shield for the pack of thirsty socialists peeking over his shoulder. Listening to Biden debate was like watching a robot whose battery is running down. As Trump vigorously interrupted him, Biden might have called the president "disrespectful" or even "rude"--and made it stick! Instead he called Trump a "clown" and immediately retreated from his own word, changing the insult to "person." Even Biden's invective arrives dead in the water. He's practically lifeless. If he wins, what vitality will help him fend off the rabid socialists in his own political party? I smile when Trump treats these people with due disrespect. I nod when he gives them appropriate nicknames like "Sleepy" Joe. (It's hard to distinguish one human shield from another without such colorful monikers.) And I clap when Trump points across the battlefield and calls them all "socialists." It's time to draw a political line in the sand. Trump's line will do for now. It's not the best or clearest line, but it's better than nothing. It helps rally forces against the more devoted socialists in this country--and some of their support networks. Politically the battle is between various types of socialists and various types of capitalists. Over the years much mixing has taken place, which makes it difficult to sort out the different sides. But the sorting must happen if we are to ever rid ourselves of socialism. Trump is the candidate actively attempting the division. On a more personal level, I recall that in 2016 Trump told USA Today that he was an "Ayn Rand fan." He even identified with Howard Roark. This makes me happy--that someone running for president would admit to liking Rand, and even connecting with her protagonist in The Fountainhead. Trump doesn't represent the core of Rand's philosophy, but it's a good sign that he shares some of the ideas and the sense of life found in her novel. Has Biden ever said a kind word about Rand? I challenge you to find one. Trump believes in "the power of positive thinking," which he picked up from pastor Norman Vincent Peale. Whether this power comes from God or from one's self, it results in a psychological orientation towards "positive thinking." Further, it apparently helps Trump focus on finding solutions to problems. But even if this idea offers little philosophical value, the name still contains the words "positive" and "thinking," which is something to go on. Trump's speeches are often full of off-script remarks, indicating an actively engaged mind. Unlike Biden, Trump holds his own at regular press conferences and interviews. He entertains large audiences at his rallies, usually for an hour or more. He has a bold sense of humor and rarely fails to communicate his freshest thoughts--sometimes to a fault. Given his positivity and mental output, I'm not surprised that our president appreciates Rand's fiction, which celebrates rational thought and achievement. Primarily for the above political and personal reasons, I'm voting for Trump. In the end, I hope you consider what you want in a president that is of political and personal value to yourself, and vote according to your values.
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Nick Fuentes, leader of the Groypers, wants to see conservatives become more socialistic. He thinks this is the best strategy for saving America, by moving conservatives more to the Left economically, while preserving their cultural Right identity. He uses a white board to illustrate what he means in this video starting at 1:20:00-1:37:00. Here is a photo of his graph in case the video gets deleted. As you can see, he places neoliberals in the cultural left/economic right quadrant; conservatives in the cultural and economic right; populists in the cultural right/economic left; and progressives in the cultural and economic left. He admits himself some problems with the distinctions, and I don't endorse the graph. So you can stop right now if you think I'm being hoodwinked by this young, Catholic troll. What's important is that Fuentes is trying to persuade his followers to persuade the conservatives to become less capitalistic. Whereas Objectivists want them to become more capitalistic. Fuentes considers himself a strategist, one of a few leaders in the America First movement, giving marching orders to the Groyper army. He recently guided their actions against Charlie Kirk and TPUSA, whom he considers neoliberals. Now he's beginning a campaign to find common ground with populists like Tucker Carlson. For several reasons Fuentes poses a real problem. He's young, witty, charismatic, well-spoken, ambitious. His focus is attracting followers and moving conservatism toward Christian nationalism. He receives a lot of monetary support on YouTube from his superchatters. His Catholic upbringing has instilled a sense of moral principle and righteousness in him. Though clearly he's willing to bend on economic principles in order to achieve his political goals. Which makes sense, since his altruistic morality aligns more with socialism than capitalism. He is engaged in the battle for conservatives, and if he wins, I don't think we'll like the results.
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President Trump is taking a survey on socialism versus capitalism. If he makes this the big issue in 2020, I might have no choice but to vote for him. Obviously, he's not the best spokesman for capitalism, but I don't think I can vote for a Democrat this time around.
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These recent mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton appear very similar on the surface level. Both assassins were young, white males acting alone. Each one left political messages on social media. Crusius posted his manifesto to 8chan, and we have since learned about Betts' political posts on Twitter. Neither one had a history of violent crime. In executing their attacks, both killers chose popular shopping malls as a target. Both used assault rifles and protective gear, displaying a level of proficiency and tactics intended to inflict maximum casualties in a short period of time. If not for unusually rapid and brave police responses, these two might have killed hundreds of unarmed civilians all by themselves. If we simply watched a film of both horrific events, we might think these two assassins belonged to the same rebel terrorist group, especially given how close they were in time. And yet Crusius hates Democrats, and Betts was a Democrat who liked Elizabeth Warren. Politically, they seem to be on opposite sides of the culture war. Except that when you look a layer deeper, the ideological similarity becomes evident. Both Crusius and Betts are anti-corporation collectivists. Crusius explicitly rails against corporations in his manifesto, and he spoke favorably of universal health care and UBI. Also, he agrees with the Christchurch shooter, who calls himself an ecofascist. Betts, of course, was a self-described socialist on the extreme Left. In addition to tweeting support for Warren, he also spoke out against the industrial revolution. So it seems that, like Crusius, he too was driven by concern for the environment. Admittedly, the fact that Betts killed his sister and apparently left no explanation for his rampage, that makes his motive less straightforward. Also, since he's dead, we might never figure it out exactly. But the actions speak for themselves, and the Twitter posts give us a sense of his beliefs beforehand. Based on these two extreme examples, it looks like the militant nationalists and militant socialists are meeting somewhere in the neighborhood of militant environmentalism.
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I was having a conversation with an Objectivist lately about the tenets of Objectivism, and I was directed toward this forum section to try to get answers. Part of Objectivist philosophy is egoism, but as far as I can see, egoism leads to socialism when it is adopted on a societal scale. Here is how I see it: Egotistical people, almost by definition, care greatly about "getting theirs". When there is a critical mass of egotistical people in any society and they aren't "getting theirs", they band together and begin using socialism to take from "the rich" who "already have theirs". And that's how they "get theirs". This is especially true when said society is an electoral democracy where the masses of people, for better or worse, have the authority to choose who governs on the basis of the greatest number of votes. In other words, they clearly turn to socialism as a mechanism to service their egoism. To use an Atlas Shrugged example: Fred Kinnan is an apt example of what most people would consider an egoist. He's a fatcat union boss who blatantly leverages socialism in the service of his egoism. The vast majority of socialists are just like Fred Kinnan. They hate it when they are called on that, but that's what they are.
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In Atlas Shrugged, John Galt swore that he would "stop the motor of the world". In Venezuela, as the country drifts farther and farther towards communism, factories are closing down, the country's GDP is falling fast, businesses are closing, and oil in many fields is ceasing to be produced. In Venezuela, is Atlas Shrugged coming true?
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Let's stipulate that free markets are the optimal economic arrangement and that taxation is theft and regulation oppression. Still, it has always disturbed me how those who favor free markets have framed the issue. If people were rational, they would choose a free market economy. They aren't so the choose socialism, in one form or another, instead. Socialism is as natural as any other human vice. And while it may not have always been called "socialism", the essential elements of it stretch back throughout human history. I suppose you might quibble about the moral self-justification that socialists claim but when has anyone ever not justied their most horrible actions? One need only note the self-satisfaction of the Nazis to see that. As much as I enjoyed Atlas Shrugged, as one critic of AS2 recently noted, it has a utopian thread running through it as if to believe that the right combination of events would cause people to finally see the light and truth and realize the errors of their ways. Socialism is a diesase of the human soul, one to be endured like natural disease and natural disasters. There is no cure. Death and taxes. Discuss?
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As a student, I often find myself arguing with socialists. I have organised many debates with socialists, and am holding conferences in Austrian economics. Doing everything I can with my knowledge, in order to persuade socialists to understand economics, capitalism and rights... I am still young however, so I'm sure there are better methods than I have used to convince people. (i.e. YouTube videos of Friedman, Sowell and Rand) Which tools and methodology (i.e praxeology, natural rights &etc) would you recommend to undertake this task? Thanks for all suggestions, Samuel Marks
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What explains the recent radical increase in income inequality in America and the West over the past few generations? Why is the middle class shrinking so rapidly? Why is the upper class becoming so superrich? Why does the upper 2% own the majority of the private wealth in America? What is the standard and accepted Objectivist explanation for all of this? My reading of history indicates that ever since the advent of the nation-state 5000 years ago, about 95% of the populace has been lower class peasants, with maybe 3% middle class tradesmen and skilled laborers, and maybe 2% upper class political and religious leaders who mostly got their money via economic monopoly, inheritance, land seizure, general theft, dictatorship, etc. But once freedom, capitalism, and the Industrial Revolution began in the mid-1700s, the middle class burgeoned in Western Civiliation. Wealth accumulated and grew radically in the middle class for two centuries -- seemingly a social good. (But is it?) And yet, starting in about the 1960s, wealth began to accumulate in the upper class, while the absolute size of the middle class shrank from maybe 80% to 65%, and while the relative wealth of the middle class also declined. The lower class also increased in size, and their relative share of the national wealth also declined. Now, this is a quick summary of Western economics, but I think I'm being fair and accurate. (If not, someone please correct me!) So... Why is all this happening? Why is this new social evil upon us (if it is, based on Thomas Sowell's "cosmic justice") which is so inimical to freedom, and which lends itself so well to pro-Big Brother rhetoric and ideology? Why is the standard nonsensical socialist/communist claim of "the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer" suddenly true? Clearly this has something to do with the radical expansion of the welfare state from WWI to the 1960s. But what is the detailed and insightful explanation for this? What is the current best libertarian or Objectivist explanation for it?
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Last night (August 28, 2012) New Jersey governor Chris Christie gave the Keynote Address to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida. Gov. Christie didn't mention or praise: freedom, liberty, individual rights, justice, capitalism, libertarianism, laissez-faire, free enterprise, or free trade. So too: Ayn Rand, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Locke, Adam Smith, Montesquieu, de Tocqueville, John Stuart Mill, Milton Friedman, Henry Hazlitt, Ludwig von Mises, or Friedrich Hayek. He also didn't mention or condemn: slavery, tyranny, totalitarianism, authoritarianism, communism, socialism, fascism, welfare statism, Big Gov't, or Big Brother. So too: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, John Maynard Keynes, John Kenneth Galbraith, Saul Alinsky, Joseph Stiglitz, or Paul Krugman. He did, however, praise his mother for saying people have to "choose between being loved and being respected." And he noted that you the voter should "fight for your principles." His best line was about the need for America to "cut federal spending and reduce the size of gov't." But Christie also praised New Jerseyians who "shared in the sacrifice"; and he condemned those who were "selfish," and believed in "every man for himself," and who think "self-interest will always trump common sense." What an advocate of self-sacrifice, and what enemy of political liberty! People who vote for Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan and the Republicans this year are truly attackers of freedom and destroyers of America!
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The utopians Plato (The Republic), Thomas Moore (Utopia), Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan), and Karl Marx (The Communist Manifesto) all lead to the Leftist tyranny of socialism. The "paradisists" Moses (Jewish bible), Jesus (Christian bible), Muhammad (Islamic bible), and Joseph Smith (Mormon bible) all lead to the Rightist tyranny of religion. Both groups of irrational idealists hope to deliver us all to a kind of ultimate end place -- a perfect society or Xanadu -- which is never going to happen. Their belief-systems are deeply foolish, naive, and ignorant. And their ideologies are also depraved, since even if you could visit their unreal utopia or paradise, you wouldn't ultimately want to live there. It would be a kind of living hell, unfit for normal, healthy, individualistic, struggling, ambitious, achieving, flawed, mortal, human beings. The utopians above cause physical slavery to the state, while the paradisians above cause mental slavery to "god." One false ideal results in a kind of vast social coercion and destruction of society. The other false ideal results in a kind of vast personal coercion and destruction of the individual. Both mistaken hopes and dreams result in universal self-sacrifice and self-destruction. Their false and evil moral code should probably be described as "the religio-socialist ethic" (not "the Judeo-Christian ethic"). Both families and categories of belief constitute nonsensicality and philosophy gone badly wrong. These massively untrue and immoral groups of ideologies need to be defeated thru the assiduous application of healthy, sound, proper philosophy. A philosophy which provides the hungry, needy Holy Individual with meaning, purpose, pleasure, exhilaration, and personal greatness in his life. And these two related, mistaken categories of ideology need to be defeated thru the Western liberal ideals of reason, individualism, and freedom. Reason will defeat monotheistic paradisism, freedom will defeat communist utopianism, and individualism will defeat both. Unfortunately, so far the champions of reason and philosophy haven't fully done their job. They haven't provided a guide to life with enough rich satisfaction and deep fulfillment to successfully defeat the utopians and paradisists.
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“Because you do not absorb your enemies...” http://nealcormier.wordpress.com/ http://www.VesperHelioTropic.com © Copyright Vesper Heliotropic 2011 All Rights Reserved Vesper Heliotropic Book I. CRYSTAL TURBINES by Neal Aaron Cormier is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
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How did Stalin manage to outmaneuver so many After reading an interesting, and rather unique, book about Stalin, I just posted a very short review of it, at the Amazon’s website. Here it is, for those who might be interested: I agree with those who wrote that Montefiore's voluminous "Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar" is not always easy reading. But it is certainly worthwhile for the light it sheds on relations between Stalin and his close subordinates, those whom he liquidated and those who survived him. Stalin's methods of domination--both brutal and ideological--are skillfully described. The same applies to personal relations between communist leaders. The Soviet Union was the first country in which the idea of proletarian dictatorship, formulated by Marx, was implemented. That is why all aspects of Soviet history are worth studying. Be aware that the number of characters is unusually large. Fortunately, Stalin's family tree and the introductory section entitled "List of Characters" should help readers to deal with this problem. Ludwik Kowalski (see Wikipedia) .