IDENTITY POLITICS: PART 2 - Determinism isn't dead, it just smells that way

 

PART 2 in a series explaining "identity politics." (Part 1 is here, answering the question 'What is Identity Politics?'.) 

Now all-pervasive, identity politics judges you not by your ideas or thoughts or choices, but instead pre-judges you by the group or tribe in which you allegedly belong. You speak not as yourself, but "as a" member of this group. 

If this stinks, it's because it's an outgrowth of a dead idea called "determinism" ...

Determinism isn't dead, it just smells that way

"'Identity politics' . . . sorts individuals into groups based on gender, race or sexual orientation, as if such characteristics actually decide one’s political interests...    
    "Public intellectuals push for ever-expanding and cross-cutting segmentation of society into group identities. Rarely mentioned, let alone taken seriously, is the notion that ideas and principles can, and should, unite individuals of all physical types and cultural backgrounds, for the sake of the individual’s life and happiness. The [idea of the] 'melting pot' is now an object of mockery."
          ~ Tom Bowden

Determinism as a school of thought says that human being beings lack free will and the ability to make choices. Hard determinists say we're "wired" to do and think things, about which we have no choice -- as if, in the words of novelist Anthony Burgess, we're all just some kind of "clockwork orange." Realising the idiocy therein, “soft determinists” advanced the view that the faculty of free will is merely "under severe influence from outside factors such as one’s background and environment.” The theorists of identity politics turn this into an iron law, arguing that your background and environment -- your race, class, ethnicity and gender -- fully determine everything about you, from your emotions, to our perceptions, to your politics. According to this recrudescence of tribalism, you are your group.

According to tribalism [explains philosopher Tara Smith], the source of reality, of truth of value is the group. Truth resides not in the logic of the group's beliefs – in the validity of their ideas -- but in their groupness. Treat our claims as worthy because we’re us. What makes us –our  group -- a group worthy of respect? Well, we were born with this skin pigmentation. Or of this hereditary lineage or with these physical organs.  In this geographic area, Serbia, Bosnia, south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Now, notice you do not control these things. They're accidental… But tribalism maintains that's what's important about you. These accidental characteristics that you happen to inherit.

    Which implies that  individual reasoning, that free will, that action, that these things are not significant. Tribalism elevates the accidental over the chosen; happenstance over decision; the collective over the individual; feeling over reason; “we want it” as opposed to “we can prove it that it's the right way to go.”

    Tribalism represents the attitude “our group, right or wrong,” rather than “our group's view should be adopted because evidence and reason demonstrate its logic.” And because tribalism rejects reason … , you get ahead not by creating things based on reason and trading with others to mutual benefit, but by beating others, wresting the quarry from their hands. So it's an us-versus-them mentality based on a zero-sum picture that requires combat you get by grabbing.

Note how this idea reduces politics to a straight-out game of pressure-group warfare – with the pressure group into which you belong not even chosen by you, but assigned to you by the "group" or tribe into which you are allegedly born. [Assigned by whom, you ask? Ah -- that's where the political power comes from. More on that shortly.]

“What it reduces us to is members of a larger group,” explains US lawyer Steve Simpson in a panel discussion with Dave Rubin and Flemming Rose – a group that essentially functions just as a tribe does. This is the consequence, he observes “of many decades, even centuries, of very bad philosophy.”

Part of it is collectivism, and I think that the best way to describe it in today’s world  is tribalism: that you are a member of a tribe, and you should say only what that tribe says. 

And if you look at the way tribes function, they always rigidly enforce tribal adherence—because the whole idea is that there is no such thing as the individual. There’s only a member of a group. And your role as an individual is just to give yourself over and to sacrifice your life for the good of the group. . . .

Note the elements Smith and Simpson both identify:

•     You have no reality as an individual: your only identity is your group;
•     You do not choose your group;
•     Adherence to group norms is rigidly enforced by the group;
•     The role of every individual is submission, to the group. 

Consider the musty stale odour that this all starts to emit, the sort of smell generally associated with tribalism, and we can see why Simpson and others refer to it this way. It’s not meant as a metaphor: in many ways the philosophies that led us here are as primitive as the tribal idea itself. Any individual worthy of the name would run a mile from such restrictions – it smacks of what is sometimes called the “crab-bucket mentality” – “a way of thinking best described by the phrase ‘if I can't have it, neither can you.’"

The [crab-bucket] metaphor is derived from a pattern of behaviour noted in crabs when they are trapped in a bucket. While any one crab could easily escape, its efforts will be undermined by others, ensuring the group's collective demise.

Tennis ace Chris Lewis, who now trains youngsters to climb the sport’s mountains he once conquered, observes that “there will always be those who give up on their quest to climb life's mountains, and instead choose to remain at the bottom of life's bucket — which would be fine, as long as they didn't then devote their destructive efforts, like the crabs, to pulling the climbers back down.”

This is the mentality of the followers of identity politics, concludes Tara Smith, a lowest-common denominator form of collectivism.

A species of collectivism that groups people together, not on the basis of their thinking, their chosen beliefs … but on the basis of given physical characteristics. Tribalism is collectivism whose basis rests in blood, body chemistry, genes, geography, unchosen physical characteristics. So it's pre-intellectual. It's the love child of collectivism and anti-intellectualism. Tribalism is non-cognitive collectivism.

CONTINUED IN PART 3: 'Tribal Politics is a Zero-Sum Conflict'

PART 2 in a series explaining "identity politics," excerpted from one of my chapters in the 2019 book Free Speech Under Attack.

Part 1 is here: 'What is Identity Politics?'

No, they're not "exceptions" to free speech

"What about the apparent exceptions to freedom of speech— restrictions on libel, fraud, incitement, and so on? Shouldn’t the legal system restrict a person engaged in those types of speech?
    "Yes, it should. The reason is not that they constitute exceptions, however. Rather, it should do so as the proper, context-sensitive application of the absolute principle of free speech."

~ philosopher Tara Smith, from her paper 'The Free Speech Vernacular: Conceptual Confusions in the Way We Speak About Speech'

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“Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech. "Whoever would overthrow the liberty of the nation, must begin by subduing the freedom of speech." #QotD

“Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech... This sacred Privilege is so essential to free Governments, that the Security of Property, and the Freedom of Speech always go together; and in those wretched Countries where a Man cannot call his Tongue his own, he can scarce call any Thing else his own.
    "Whoever would overthrow the liberty of the nation, must begin by subduing the freedom of speech..."
~ John Trenchard & Thomas Gordon, from their Cato's Letters #15

[Hat tip Tara Smith lectures #OCON2019]

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"When you quell speech you quell thought. When you quell thought, you suffocate progress." #QotD

"Intellectual activities, by themselves, cannot take something from someone else. ... Intellectual activities cannot violate others' rights...
    “As Thomas Jefferson said: 'It does me no injury, for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg' ...
    "Freedom of action, without freedom of mind, is pointless at best. At worst, it is destructive...
    "Good thinking makes for good living...
    "The freedom to act is useless without the freedom to think... When the state limits your physical actions, it neuters your mind...
    "The reason to respect freedom is the value of the mind. Man survives by using his wit, his reason - freedom is reason’s pre-condition. When you quell speech you quell thought. When you quell thought, you suffocate progress."
~ Tara Smith, summarised from her presentation at #OCON2019

[Hat tip Mariya‏, Chris Hattingh]

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"If this thing you call 'hate speech' is banned, and it is you who effectively defines what this 'hate speech' is, then you may effectively ban whatever sort of speech and speakers you yourself dislike. It's a beautiful thing, censorship, when you're the one holding the whip." QotD

"'Hate speech' is so amorphous a thing it cries out for definition.
    "And this is the real point of this term: precisely that it is so hard to define. This is the true beauty of this anti-concept. Because if this thing you call 'hate speech' is banned, and it is you who effectively defines what 'hate speech' is, then you may effectively ban whatever sort of speech -- and speakers! -- you yourself dislike: White men. Gun owners. Your critics.
    "It's a beautiful thing, censorship, when you're the one holding the whip."
          ~ paraphrased from this blog's post, 'The knee jerks, and, after having jerked, what's left?'

RELATED LINKS:

• And This is Why the Anti-concept of "hate speech" was Invented - NOT PC 
• Transcript: Golriz Ghahraman & Stephen Franks on free speech - WHALE OIL
• “The Free Speech Vernacular: Conceptual Confusions in the Way We Speak About Speech” -  Prof. Tara Smith, TEXAS REVIEW OF LAW & POLITICS

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4 common free-speech myths

“Words can never hurt me.”

“We must be tolerant of all opinions.”

“Facebook/YouTube/Not PC is censoring me!”

We hear claims like these all the time, but are they true?

Steve Simpson and Tara Smith discuss and debunk these and other common myths about free speech, providing clarity on what freedom of speech means, how to think about it, and how it should be defended.

Among other questions, they cover:
    What is free speech, why is it a right, and what is its value?
    What does “censorship” really mean?
    Is the right to free speech an absolute? If so, how can libel, threats, and fraud be illegal?
    Should we tolerate all views? If so, where do judgment and integrity come in? 

Free speech is so immensely important that, to preserve it, we must understand what it actually means and how best to defend it. 

Watch this video to find out more about this important right, and to understand why the myths mentioned above are just that—myths:

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Friday Morning Ramble, 4 Nov

 

 

“Auckland ratepayers will be the losers here.”
Good and bad news on the Parker fight – Paul Walker, ANTI DISMAL

Oh, FFS!
Gareth Morgan has announced he is starting a new political party – RNZ

“There are a lot of lessons there that New Zealand might have found useful in 2010 and in the aftermath of 2011.”
Disaster recovery is local – Eric Crampton, OFFSETTING BEHAVIOUR

For America, also read New Zealand. “Zoning laws are making homeownership unaffordable. The biggest barriers to reforming land-use regulation are the vested interests preventing such reforms at a local level.”
Zoning Laws are Erasing the American NZ Dream – Jack Salmon, FEE
Common Law Gave You Real Property Ownership – Rosemarie McConnell, FEE

“A change in the age of Superannuation eligibility is inevitable - it's just a matter of when and how. Yet both the Government and Opposition are in denial, hoping to fob off the problem to future generations.”
David v Jacinda: Super changes a poison pill that must be swallowed – STUFF

Inequality warrior Max Rashbrooke asserts that the ‘'”most fundamental omission’ in our report is ‘its failure to deal in any significant way with the long-run consequences of widened inequality.’” But …
Can rising inequality have “incredibly damaging” consequences if it has not risen in important respects? – Bryce Wilkinson, THE SAND PIT

Elsewhere he comments that “The biggest issue I have is The New Zealand Initiative is completely oblivious to the point that even if the big increase in inequality was in the 1980s or 1990s, and hasn’t worsened since then, it still has big implications for the country today”.

“Telcos asked to hand over info to spy agencies without a warrant. PM says: ‘more to fear from Facebook & Google.’” Except they don’t have absolute legal power and men with guns, Prime Minister.
You have more to fear from Facebook and Google than our spy agencies, says John Key – TVNZ

 

 

“The bombshell court ruling which has bogged down Britain's exit from the EU in a legal quagmire has sparked a row over how UK judges are appointed.”
The unelected 'activist' judges who mounted a 'power grab': High Court trio who blocked Brexit are led by one who founded group dedicated to furthering European integration – Richard Spillett, MAIL ONLINE

“The Brexit legal challenge shows just how much the elites loathe us.”
Article 50: down with this legal coup against the masses – Brandan O’Neill, SPIKED
Of course the establishment is freaking out over Brexit. What did you expect? – AGAINST CRONY CAPITALISM
The Brexit judgment - key points and resources – Adam Wagner, RIGHTS INFO

When the Guardian publishes this, a sea change has begun.
Abolish 20 taxes and set 15% flat rate of income tax in UK, says report – GUARDIAN

“A very good article written by a journalist with a leftward political list. (Which he admits from the outset.) He’s tough on Hillary and he is pretty tough on Trump. But he is hardest on the Washington/New York cabal of “journalists” that has been exposed as little more than a den of propagandists in this election.”
This Election Has Disgraced the Entire Profession of Journalism – AGAINST CRONY CAPITALISM
Forget the FBI cache; the Podesta emails show how America is run – Thomas Frank, GUARDIAN
John Podesta's Best Friend At The DOJ Will Be In Charge Of The DOJ's Probe Into Huma Abedin Emails – ZERO HEDGE

“Similarly, journalists who are immersed in a sea of like-minded colleagues and friends, don’t think they are slanting the news. They are not “ideologues”–that’s what their opponents are.”
Blindness to the power of ideas – Harry Binswanger, HBL

“In boosting Trump and funding fringe parties in Europe, Russia has helped construct a new kind of "comintern"—and it's even more effective than the Cold War version.”
Trump, Putin, and the Alt-Right International – THE ATLANTIC
Putin’s libertarians – Mikhail Svetov, NOT PC, 2014

Mind you, it’s John Pilger he’s talking to. On Russia Today. So …
Julian Assange Ends The Suspense: "The Source Of Hacked Emails Is Not Russia" – ZERO HEDGE

“Terrorism, the Skorzeny Syndrome, is flourishing in the modern world, a reminder that Hitler and Nazism are still taking their toll more than three decades after the Third Reich collapsed.”
What We Got Wrong About Nazis And Terrorists – Steve Marriotti, HUFFINGTON POST

And then there's this.
The potential 'economic catastrophe' that no one is talking about – CNBC

 

“The fact that minimum wages cause the least ‘desirable’
people to be priced out of jobs was for “Progressives” of
a century ago a feature of minimum wages and not a bug.”
~ Thomas Leonard from his 2016 book, Illiberal Reformers [hat tip Don Boudreaux]

 

“Your most comical such error is your charge that free trade is elitist.”
Another Open Letter to Peter Thiel – Don Boudreaux, CAFE HAYEK

Did they ever?
Do Central Bankers Know what They're Doing Anymore? – Kevin Dowd, FEE 

"Supply and demand is one of the first things taught in introductory economics textbooks.. Supply and demand is not a breakthrough on the frontiers of knowledge."
Has Economics Failed? – Thomas Sowell, NRO

“Pointing out that the GDP machine isn’t a real machine, and that its levers, pedals, knobs, and buttons are largely imaginary fancies of arrogant imaginations, market-oriented economists invite the scorn of Engineering economists.”
The Economy Isn't an Engineering Project – Donald Boudreaux, FEE

“Featuring lectures by Philipp Bagus, Joseph Salerno, and Murray Rothbard, this three-lecture course gives the student a coherent Austrian economics approach to money and banking, with sound economic theory applied to the origins and development of money, fractional reserve banking, and central banks.”
NEW COURSE: Money & Banking – MISES INSTITUTE
Central Banksters Created Our Problems, Not the Rich – AGAINST CRONY CAPITALISM

“More of that old time Keynesian religion...But what about Japan?”
Japan refutes old Keynesianism – Scott Sumner, ECON LOG

“I want to suggest a question that I'm sure no one at the conference would dare ask, Should there be competition policy in the first place?”
Is no competition policy the best competition policy? – Paul Walker, ANTI DISMAL

 

"The rich…have no particular class interest in the maintenance
of free competition. They are opposed to confiscation and
expropriation of their fortunes, but their vested interests are rather
in favour of measures preventing newcomers from challenging their
position. Those fighting for free enterprise and free competition do
not defend the interests of those rich today. They want a free hand
left to unknown men who will be the entrepreneurs of tomorrow and
whose ingenuity will make the life of coming generations more
agreeable. They want the way left open to further economic
improvements. They are the spokesmen of progress."
- Ludwig von Mises, quoted in David D’Amato’s 'Occupational Licensing and Inequality'

 

“Religious fundamentalists and biblical literalists present any number of arguments that attempt to disprove evolution. Those who listen with an overly sympathetic or religious ear often fail to critically examine these creationist claims, leading to an ill-informed public and, perhaps more troubling, ill-advised public policy. As Aron Ra makes clear in his new book, however, every single argument deployed by creationists in their attacks on evolution is founded on fundamental scientific, religious, and historical falsehoods--all of them.”
Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism – AMAZON

More victims of the global crack down on “undocumented foreigners.”
Adopted at 3 and brought to US, Oregon man to be deported to S. Korea – CBS
National Geographic's 'Afghan girl' arrested in Pakistan – HERALD

 

“The fact is Smith didn’t mention his reference to ‘an invisible hand’ in that way.”
What Adam Smith meant by his use of the metaphoric invisible hand – Gavin Kennedy, ADAM SMITH’S LOST LEGACY

“Self-interest, far from being the enemy of justice, is one of its greatest benefactors, whether or not a given individual is actively interested in aiding the oppressed.”
An Example of Self-Interest vs. Bigotry – GUS VAN HORN

“Friedrich Nietzsche’s proclamation is not an allusion to the death of the religious God. Nietzsche is making a much broader point— he is asserting that in the universe there is no room for an objectively grounded moral order to exist.” But is he right about that?
Nietzsche’s “God is Dead” Proclamation and The Irrational Man – Anoop Verma, THE VERMA POST
How Nietzsche Became the Most Absurdly Bastardized Philosopher in Hollywood – SLATE
Why morality at all? – NOT PC

“When we talk about Objectivism, it is claimed that David Hume’s Is-Ought Dictum disproves Objectivist ethics. There are actually two different interpretations of Hume's Is-Ought Dictum … By citing Objectivism, we can reply to each of those two interpretations. Your life is the fact that gives meaning to value, the ‘is’ that gives meaning to ‘ought.’"
Two Interpretations of Hume’s Is-Ought Dictum, And a Reply to Each – Stuart Hayashi, HAYASHI POST
Is-Ought? Not a Problem – NOT PC

“The idea that a person ought to be selfish is so alien to our culture that when people learn that Ayn Rand upheld a morality of selfishness they are left scratching their heads. What could Rand possibly mean?”
Being Selfish, Being Happy [course] – Tara Smith, CAMPUS.AYN RAND

“His talk was about the importance of freedom of speech in Western culture. The irony.”
The reaction to Dr Yaron Brook’s talk shows that we can’t handle free speech – THE TAB

Always controversial. Frequently profound. Always a teacher. And now retirement beckons …
Leonard Peikoff’s final podcast – LEONARD PEIKOFF

 

 

 

 

Simple supply and demand.
Why is university so expensive? (VIDEO) – AGAINST CRONY CAPITALISM
Inflation-adjusted student aid has exploded over the last thirty years, but probably hasn’t made college more affordable – CATO CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL FREEDOM

“Higher education degrees no longer hold any value for employers.”
The Devaluation of Higher Education – Carmen Elana Dorobăț, MISES WIRE

“We push these kids through the school system. Then we tell them to scrape together $100,000 for yet another degree that will somehow gain them entry into the workforce. It’s time we stop congratulating ourselves for taking away opportunity from kids. It’s time to let the kids work again.”
Let the Kids Work – Jeffrey Tucker, FEE

“Basic skills such as reading labels, using kitchen utensils, fending for himself, and taking care of others are not being taught to children who desperately need them to make it in society. But as I looked through the list of skills for each age group, I noticed that teaching one’s child social skills was a recurring theme.”
Important Skills Your Child Should Be Learning in School, but Isn't  - Annie Holmquist, FEE

“Playfulness can’t be separated from learning. Children watch and imitate the people around them. The child’s natural desire to build his or her capabilities doesn’t have to be enforced. Instruction happens when the child seeks it.”
How School Crushes the Child's Natural Love of Learning – LAURA GRACE WELDON’S BLOG

Not news.
Teacher's union openly admits that it exists to indoctrinate your children with its ideas – AGAINST CRONY CAPITALISM

 

“To design a map of the world is no easy task. Because maps represent the spherical Earth in 2D form, they cannot help but be distorted, which is why Greenland and Antarctica usually look far more gigantic than they really are, while Africa appears vastly smaller than its true size. The AuthaGraph World Map tries to correct these issues, showing the world closer to how it actually is in all its spherical glory.”
A More Accurate World Map Wins Prestigious Japanese Design Award – MENTAL FLOSS

“Who are you to tell someone they aren’t allowed to express their love for another culture because you arbitrarily hold exclusive claim to it? Who are you to micromanage identity and dictate what types of multiculturalism is tolerable and intolerable?”
Cultural Appropriation Is Love – Taleed Brown, FEE 

“Finally, the Ultimate Albert Einstein Collection is ready with some of the most popular videos explaining his theories, countless interviews, original footage, letters and more…”
The Legacy Of A Genius: The Best Of Albert Einstein Online – WAKELET

“For Popular Mechanics' 110th anniversary, we decided to do something special: We dived into our archives to find the 110 best, handiest, and most helpful tips ever printed in PM. It's more than a century of DIY wisdom…”
Know Your Stuff: The 110 Best DIY Tips Ever – POPULAR MECHANICS

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Friday Morning Ramble, 14.10.16

 

 

 

 

The rest is leftist drivel, but let this never be forgotten: “In their time in office, National has tripled New Zealand's debt from $31.4 to $93.9 billion… If National gives away the surplus in tax cuts [or more welfare], the debt Bill English built up will never be repaid.”
"Fiscal prudence" – NO RIGHT TURN
A booming surplus – KIWIBLOG
The surplus isn't really a surplus at all – Andrew Dickens, NEWSTALK ZB

“Helen Kelly didn’t take her medical cannabis before we came to see her last Friday…”
Helen – Russell Brown, HARD NEWS

Both Ministers Mallard and Smith gave the grey ones everything they wanted in the way of regulation and “qualification,” and lo…
New Zealand second most expensive country for childcare – NZ HERALD

Eric Crampton: “The 2009 regs came in under NZ National Party, who had just finished campaigning on an anti-nanny state ticket.”
Award-winning artisan cheese maker says red tape is killing the industry – NZ HERALD
Safety cheese – Eric Crampton, INSIGHTS

“It seems clear the banks have shifted their appetite for risk to a more conservative position.”
Are the banks bracing for a storm? – Liam Dann, HERALD

“[Ardern] was a pig in muck canoodling with Campbell. But her grasp of the wider context of historical child poverty was woefully lacking.”
Judith Collins telling it as she sees it – LINDSAY MITCHELL

“Of course the media chased down all the hand wringers and bleeding hearts, who have never had to make a hard decision about tax payer dollars, to get the predictable reproof.
    “It's hard to know where the condemnation was going but it seemed to suggest that parenting wasn't much of factor in child poverty which wasn't what Collins was saying at all.
    “Just to recap….”
This is how you fix child poverty in NZ – Martin Van Beynen, STUFF

 

“When you subsidise poverty and
failure, you get more of both.”
~- James Dale Davidson

 

"It is almost as if 2016 were designed to make a point: it is the ultimate rebuke of the attempt to find salvation in politics, and it invites us to look to the state of our own souls."
Donald Trump Vs. Hillary Clinton: Choose Your Sexual Predator – Robert Tracinksi, THE FEDERALIST

“Americans aren’t nearly as polarised as Trump and Clinton might think.”
Take a Deep Breath, Voters. There Is a Third Way – Gary Johnson, NEW YORK TIMES

“Gary Johnson polls first post-debate.”
Poll: Who won the presidential debate? – WASHINGTON TIMES

“As recently as September 15, Donald Trump pledged to end all new federal regulation until a review of regulation, its costs and benefits, can be completed. The issue of regulation, it would seem, is once again ‘in play.’”
Isn’t $1.9 Trillion A Year Lost to Federal Regulations Enough? – SAVVY STREET

Both leading candidates hide from the truth…
What candidates won't say in public – John Stossel, CHRON
The Illuminating but Unsurprising Content of Clinton’s Paid Speeches – NEW YORKER

 

“Authority has always attracted the lowest
elements in the human race. All through
history mankind has been bullied by scum.”
~ P.J. O'Rourke

 

“Trump/Clinton tax plans: Some will pay more, some will pay less and the debt will continue to be outta control.”
A Comparison of Presidential Tax Plans and Their Economic Effects – TAX FOUNDATION

Donald Trump needs to read this along with every single one of his supporters – and advisers.
There Are No 'Myths' Or Exceptions About Free Trade: It's Always Unrelentingly Good – John Tamny, FORBES

“Just imagine that you are 20 years old. You have only known the digital age. This election year is your first introduction to real-time politics. The top two presidential contenders are speaking about a world that has very little to do with anything you have ever experienced. You are looking for something different.”
What Every 20-Year Old Should Know about Liberty – Jeffrey Tucker, FEE

“Mike Rowe: Spend a few hours every week studying American history, human nature, and economic theory.
Start with Economics in One Lesson.”
Economics in One Lesson – MISES.ORG

Why bother with press releases?…
"We have had her tee up stories for us before and have never been disappointed." – WIKILEAKS

Wrong tense? “Lots of journalists, including myself, worry about what happens when the public broadly loses faith in the media.”
The fact-checkers keep destroying fact-checking – Timothy Carney, WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“Clinton team instructed DNC with strategic goal of ‘elevating’ Trump two months before he declared his candidacy.”
Pied Piper Candidates... – WIKILEAKS
Excerpts of Hillary Clinton’s Paid Speeches to Goldman Sachs Finally Leaked, Trump hit with self inflicted right cross – AGAINST CRONY CAPITALISM

“Podesta said Obama's Iran deal will lead to nuclear war.”
"This agreement condemns the net generation to cleaning up a nuclear war in the Persian Gulf." – WIKILEAKS

“I would like to take this opportunity to praise Wikileaks Hillary, who is a lot better than Public Hillary…”
”I would be even more a fan of Wiki-Hillary if I could be sure that she represents Real World Hillary's true agenda” – Ilya Somin, FACEBOOK

“If Clinton is serious about addressing corporate short-termism, then she should support loosening Washington’s grip on America’s economy. Instead, many, if not most, of her policy proposals would only tighten it further.”
Short-Term Government Built Short-Term Capitalism – John Allison, CATO

“Why does the NewYork Times support a candidate they consider to be a congenital liar?”

“It's not a new Cold War. It's not even a deep chill. It's an outright conflict.”
Russia, US move past Cold War to unpredictable confrontation – CNN

Russia's used environmental groups to cripple the U.S. fracking industry to keep oil prices high, since virtually the only viable Russia industry and source of government revenue is oil.
Hillary Clinton Email: Russia Funding “Phony” Green Groups – WATTS UP WITH THAT

"“I’m done with the U.S.,” Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani’s wife told him on Friday …Usmani, twice a Fulbright Scholar and an award-winning computer scientist who uses big data to save lives from terror attacks. . . . "
A Muslim Family Fled America This Week – HUFFINGTON POST

Scotland. The welfare State.
Scottish deficit is twice that of the UK and higher than Greece – UK TAXPAYER’S ALLIANCE

The king is dead. Long live his prisoners.
Man jailed for 30 years in Thailand for insulting the monarchy on Facebook – GUARDIAN

“Fresh evidence that the key divide in politics is between the generations, not the classes: the case of UK pensions.”
How the triple lock pension pledge went out of control – Fraser Nelson, SPECTATOR

“As technology reduces transaction costs, the nature of work and the role of the firm are changing. Decades-old government regulations inhibit the market's ability to respond.”
Work Is Changing for the Better, and Government Is Trying to Hold It Back – Iain Murray,FEE

“You commit the ages-old fallacy of judging the worth of firms and industries according to how many workers they employ rather than according to how well they enhance human well-being by increasing the production of consumer goods and services.”
Oh How I Wish that Julian Simon Were Still Alive – Don Boudreaux, CAFE HAYEK

”He loves the real world – and I can understand his conviction of the sheer fakeness of the world imagined by politicians. Henry Hazlitt shared that same view, and this comes through in the text.”
Why Does Mike Rowe Love This Economics Book? – Jeffrey Tucker, FEE

“It is the 59th anniversary of the publication of Ayn Rand's novel, AtlasShrugged. What sometimes goes unappreciated by readers of the novel is the extent to which Ayn Rand targeted business people as potentially the most egregious saboteurs of freedom. It is no exaggeration to say that Atlas can function as a guide to how the corporate state works.”
Atlas Shrugged and the Corporate State – Sheldon Richman, FEE

“You can’t make people equal without the power to force them to be equal, which means taxing their incomes, restricting their choices and regulating their behavior. It’s no coincidence that Thomas Piketty wants to impose a punitive tax of 80% on incomes above $500,000. He’s not interested in funding social programmes; he just wants to confiscate the wealth…”
Inequality and money in politics – Steve Simpson, VOICES FOR REASON

Contra Piketty …
More than 2/3 of this year's Forbes 400 built their fortunes from scratch – FORBES

“I think it’s important to correct this mistake because it has had a big impact on Britain’s reputation around the world.”
David Cameron’s ex-Strategy Man Calls For Amber Rudd To Be Sacked Over Plan To List Foreign Workers – HUFFINGTON POST (UK)

And Keynesians and modern macro types keep insisting business debt = economic growth …

 

Jones et al., 2016: “[C]limate model simulations that include anthropogenic forcing are not compatible with the observed trends. This suggests thatnatural variability overwhelms the forced response in the observations, but the models may not fully represent this natural variability or may overestimate the magnitude of the forced response.”
Scientists: ‘Climate Model Simulations That Include Anthropogenic Forcing Are Not Compatible With Observed Trends’ – Kenneth Richard, NO TRICKS ZONE

“Arctic sea ice defies Al Gore.”
Experts said Arctic sea ice would melt entirely by September 2016 - they were wrong – TELEGRAPH

“Why we need separation of science and state.”
Is Modern Science Polluted? – Patrick MIchaels, CATO

“If this only shows how dottily desperate some of our wilder climate alarmists have become, we may come back to earth a little by focusing on another version of the great climate scare which also got The Guardian very excited eight years ago, when it launched a campaign  under the heading ‘The final countdown.’This proclaimed that we then had only ‘100 months’ left to save the world from ‘irreversible climate change’: soaring temperatures, melting ice caps, dangerously rising sea levels, more hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, and all the other familiar harbingers of catastrophe.”
The Guardian's '100 months to save the planet' was always just a fantasy – Christopher Booker,TELEGRAPH

“Time for tilting at windmills is at an end (South Australian blackout shows need for energy security instead of windmills).”
South Australia’s Wind Power Debacle: Blackout Spells the End for Wind Power – STOP THESE THINGS

 

“Can any of you seriously say the Bill of
Rights could get through Congress today?
It wouldn't even get out of committee.”
~ F. Lee Bailey

 

“Affordable and abundant energy is the cornerstone of human progress.”
The moral case for civilization’s use of fossil fuels – Alex Epstein, PROVIDENCE JOURNAL

“Smarmy and excruciatingly wearisome, DiCaprio is a hypocritical nag who has the carbon footprint of a small Third World country.”
Note To Leonardo DiCaprio: Maybe Actors Shouldn't Be Pretend Intellectuals, Either – Kerry Jackson, INVESTORS.COM

“On Indigenous Peoples Day, let’s stop promoting simplistic myths about Native Americans as the ‘original conservationists’ and start recognizing their rich institutional heritage that encouraged resource conservation.”
Native Americans Loved Private Property – Terry Anderson, FEE

“In 1980 an ecologist and an economist chose a refreshingly unacademic way to resolve their differences. They bet $1,000. Specifically, the bet was over the future price of five metals, but at stake was much more -- a view of the planet's ultimate limits, a vision of humanity's destiny. It was a bet between the Cassandra and the Dr. Pangloss of our era.”
Cornucopians vs. Malthusians – ROGER PIELKE JR.’S BLOG
26th anniversary of Julian Simon/Paul Erlich bet – UTOPIA…

“Some dreams have more cylinders than others…”:

 

“It’s inevitable. Whenever I attack Social Security [i.e., social welfare] as an immoral institution that needs to be abolished, someone announces that my arguments are irrelevant because Ayn Rand was a hypocrite who took Social Security…
    “What most people don’t realise — and what surely is relevant to the debate — is that Rand herself argued that opposing Social Security and cashing Social Security checks is not hypocritical.”
Onkar Ghate on Ayn Rand and Social Security – VOICES FOR REASON

Louise Lamontagne: “No, it is not capitalism that made this happen, it is government involvement in education, medicine and the economy that did.”
Big Pharma's Manufactured Epidemic: The Misdiagnosis of ADHD – SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

How to stop cyclists being “doored”? One simple behavioural change: the ‘Dutch Reach.’
Slamming the Door on "Dooring" – GUS VAN HORN

“After recently experiencing the standard question from a well meaning authority, ‘so how does Montessori support Imagination?"
Creativity and Montessori Education – MARIA MONTESSORI.COM

“This book has nothing to do with coming-of-age issues, rather it is a ‘hippie discovers communism’ kind of story.”
Che Guevara’s Motorcycle Diaries: A Hippie Discovers Communism and Becomes a Monster – Anoop Verma, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

“In 1931, Shaw advocated the extermination of unproductive human beings…”
The Intellectual Guerrilla Warfare of George Bernard Shaw – THE VERMA POST

 

“The worst thing that can happen to a socialist is to have
his country ruled by socialists who are not his friends.”
~ Ludwig von Mises

 

“At least one in three Europeans and untold millions in Asia died. What was the source of this brutal, lethal efficiency?”
What caused the Black Death and could it strike again? - Wendy Orent, AEON

“The study’s findings appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and to the surprise of no one (except science-denying loons), there was no link between vaccines and autism.”
Anti-vaxxer group furious after study they funded debunks vaccine-autism link – DEAD STATE

Rafe Champion: “A long interview with Deirdre McCloskey explaining why she wrote three thick books to rescue the productive people and the decent values which have made us prosperous and free from the “often idiotic” abuse from socialists and economic illiterates at large.”
”Q: Why did you decide to write a trilogy about the bourgeois?” – Deirdre McCloskey, IL GIORNALE

“In this installment of the Ayn Rand Institute’s podcast series on A Companion to Ayn Rand, Tara Smith, professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, discusses the chapter she authored, “Objective Law.”
Inside A Companion to Ayn Rand: #4, Tara Smith on Objective Law – AYN RAND CAMPUS

 

 

“Why is Roark attracted to Dominique? After all, she has no worth, no career that she loves, and she goes out of her way to destroy her highest values, such as Roark. What rational man would want someone so self-destructive?”
Why is Roark attracted to Dominique? – Leonard Peikoff, PEIKOFF.COM

““You would never put fake books on your bookshelf, so why would you put fake art on your walls?”
13 Reasons Why Original Art in the Home is as Important as Bed – STUDIO SIXTY-SIX

The best films to watch for free on British Pathé online – TELEGRAPH

“Some are inspiring and some are surprising, but all give a small insight into the mental qualities that are required to be reach the peak of the architectural profession.”
The Strange Habits of Top Architects – ARCH DAILY

“’Brevity comes from selection, not compression.’”
As American editors sharpen their pencils, some advice on writing short – Roy Peter Clark, POYNTER

“[Lou’s widow] Laurie Anderson has put together a playlist of Lou Reed originals. Listen and read why Laurie picked each song..”
Laurie Anderson's Playlist Reveals The Real Lou Reed - NME

“A piercingly dark piece of writing, taking the heart of a Dickens or Dostoevsky novel and carving away all the rest, Ernest Hemingway’s six-word story—fabled forerunner of flash- and twitter-fiction—is shorter than many a story’s title…”
The (Urban) Legend of Ernest Hemingway’s Six-Word Story... – OPEN CULTURE

Kipling, Yeats, Eliot, Hemingway … Dylan?!
“Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize for Literature for creating ‘new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition’.” Don’t mention ‘Wiggle, Wiggle.’
Bob Dylan's most famous lyrics – BBC NEWS

The Guardian live blogs…
Nobel prize in literature won by Bob Dylan – as it happened – GUARDIAN

“Even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked…”

 

Ladies and gentlemen, Johnny Hodges

 

Blast off!

 

And finally

 

[Hat tips etc. Tim Murphy, A.E. Samaan, Sport Review, Phil Oliver, MattNippert, NIRP Umbrella, J. Neil Schulman, MiamiGator, British Pathé, Famous-Quote.net, hockey schtick, William Gerber, Steve Goddard, Jim Rose, Frank Furedi, Wilhelm Scream, Eric Crampton, ArrestJK, Wagner Clemente Soto, David Bus Baird, John Mc, Niall Ferguson, Neville Vedder , Scott Nelson, Capitalism Magazine, Gov. Gary Johnson, Edward J Czajka, Marijuana, Inc. , Levan Ramishvili, Berend de Boer, Garry Kasparov, Eric Boehm, Yaron Brook, Matthew Yglesias, WikiLeaks, Natalie Fraehlich, Climate Realists, Robert Tracinski, Don Watkins , John Shepard, Hugo Schmidt, For The New Intellectuals, Louise Lamontagne, Bastiat Institute, Vinay Kolhatkar, Duke Ellington Central/TDES New York', Walter Donway, Michael Strong, Philosophy Matters, Lou Reed, Maria Montessori Education Foundation, Jason Monaghan, Alex Epstein, Marvin Adams, Michael Earley, Andrew Sheldon]

Have a great weekend!
PC

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