#libertarianism

grey@sysad.org

If in the future Maine continues to get more and more gentrified, corrupt, and authoritarian, beyond any hope of reversal or repair, I'd try to move to this little blue circle that I drew on this image. Because it seems like it still might be somewhat rural, NH in general is more libertarian than other places, and there certainly would be more of our french speaking ethnicity in that area.

It would be a horrific, dreadful, and very painful decision that would only come after any hope for Maines culture and Mainers autonomy is completely defeated. The fact that things have gotten so bad I have to give this idea any thought fills me with a deep feeling of grief.

#maine #me #vermont #vt #newhampshire #nh #socialism #libertarianism #libre #liberty #tourism #gentrification

eccodrum@diasp.org

How Corporate America Invented Christian America

Inside one reverend’s big business-backed 1940s crusade to make the country conservative again.
By KEVIN M. KRUSE April 16, 2015

ChristianNationalism

This is an older, but relevant, article that gives some insight into the rise of Christian Nationalism. It compliments nicely Elizabeth Fones-Wolf's book, The Business Assault on Labor and Liberalism (1994). I've only just started The Power Worshipers by Katherine Stewart but highly recommend it. Lastly, I'll include a link to Political Research Associates and their work on uncovering Right-Wing funding.

#religion #ChristianNationalism #RightWing #authoritarianism #conservatism #liberalism #libertarianism #business #fascism

jalfro@diasp.eu

What is 'negative' freedom?

Imagine a society in which everyone is born with a socially guaranteed right not to be obstructed from their individual right of access to living space and subsistence production on the commons. Imagine, rather than the society of nuclear family households created by the atomizing effects of the modern state and capitalism, most people are born into micro-villages or other co-living units, with a birthright including adequate food and clothing, medical care, etc., in return for performing some minimum of contribution to the extended household’s needs (e.g. doing one’s 15 hours in the co-living project’s gardens and workshops) when capable of doing so. In that case, what right-libertarians dismiss as “positive freedom” would be every bit as much an actual “negative freedom” as the right of a corporate shareholder to receive dividends or participate in corporate governance without interference.

https://c4ss.org/content/58663

#anarchism #mutualism #freedom #property #libertarianism #capitalism #Carson

diane_a@diasp.org

#Libertarianism doesn't work
#Individualism doesn't work.
more on the demise of sears from Beverly Dir
"Ayn Rand's - Sears Demise began much earlier.
Sears followed #Reagan's Union Busting and Lifetime Firing of 11,364 Experienced Professional Air Traffic Controllers who went on strike due to under staffing and wide spread fatigue which caused unsafe working conditions in the air traffic control system for in- flight plane accidents. There have been 22 near misses this year. Reagan's undermining of unions was also the Demise of the Middle Class.
1) In the late 1970s Sacramento, Sears "laid off" their BEST large appliance repairman & retained or hired young inexperienced cheaper repairmen.
2) In the 1990s, Raley's Supermarket, now with 129 Supermarkets worth $1.4 Billion did the same thing. Raley's grocery store CEO Mike Raley Teel is the wealthiest man in Sacramento according to Forbes, worth $ 940 Million. Despite the Corporate and Individual wealth, Teel with 92% ownership, cut the hours of all Senior staff with 10 years or more working for Raley's, from 40 hours weekly to 24 hours weekly, so that Raley's did NOT have to contribute as much to the employees retirement fund.
3) Our son worked for Raley's Bel Air Supermarkets for 26 years as the graveyard warehouse receiving and stocking crew manager, and he was also assigned to various stores to "clean up & reorganize" departments like the biggest money making liquor departments.
4) Raley's not only cut Workers' weekly hours and income, but workers consequently lost family medical benefits.
5) Our son had three kids to support, some older staff had kids in college who were forced to drop out, and some employees lost their homes through no fault of their own.
6) Our son and our grandkids were on the brink of homelessness were forced to move out of expensive California to a cheaper, but lower wage State on the East Coast.
7) Mike Teel's raw unrestrained capitalist greed ruined some workers and their family's' lives, contributed to the decline of the community and homelessness!
8.) Employers must have to hire employees for a full 40 hour work week before they can hire part time, underpaid, and under compensated workers who must work 3 jobs to barely pay for living expenses."

mosesvsjesus@pod.g3l.org

Hey everyone, I’m #newhere. I’m interested in #anticorruption, #art, #boardgames, #cardgames, #cars, #chess, #cricket, #datascience, #football, #gaming, #guns, #gunsareforeselfdefense, #humanrights, #humanrightsabuses, #knives, #libertarianism, #manchesterunited, #motorcycles, #movies, #nobs, #pcgaming, #playstation, #privacy, #security, #selfdefence, #selfdefense, and #xbox.

I'm fed up of Facebook's intrusive advertising, data collection, surveillance, and overall BS. Looking for a better social network.

drnoam@diasp.org

#Bitcoin is a Right-Wing Technology

#Tech Won’t Save Us #podcast: Paris Marx is joined by David Golumbia to discuss the ideology of #cyberlibertarianism, the right-wing politics of #cryptocurrencies and #blockchains, and why the left shouldn’t embrace them.

David Golumbia is an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and the author of “The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism.”

#rightwing #leftwing #libertarianism

dredmorbius@joindiaspora.com

What has government ever done for you?

How about, for the US: regulating the business cycle, the Interstate Highway System, FDIC/SLIC, Social Security, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act, the GI Bill, clean air and water, scientific research, public health, vast amounts of public information, the Library of Congress (largest collection of printed material in the history of Earth), anti-discrimination policies, investor protections, the military, the courts, air traffic control, airline safety regulation and investigation (including as a worldwide standard and often agent), GPS and weather satellites, the West, fire protection, farm information and training, student aid and support, food and drug safety, containerised shipping (who do you think created the unified-standard demand finally fixing shipping container dimensions?)...

Municipal freshwater systems, waste removal, sewerage, electric and gas utilities, rural electric and telephone service, railroads, highway systems, post offices, standards of weights and measures (Herbert Hoover (R)), police departments (and here I particularly recommend looking up the Peelian Principles of London's Metropolitan Police), public health systems, social welfare systems, port and harbour districts, national defence, air traffic control, the Internet, Silicon Valley, GPS, satellite weather systems, major oil and gas pipeline systems, stockpiles of critical strategic minerals (to prevent market-gaming by private individuals), the Texas Railroad Commission (which of course regulated global oil prices from 1930 - 1973 -- fascinating story), and a great deal more, come straight out of government.

And yet we're told the opposite. That science and engineers are enough. That we should oppose all this good. Why?

What the Right Really Hates: Successful Programs

[V]ociferous attacks on successful government programs like Social Security reveal one of the dirty little secrets of anti-government conservatives and libertarians: they hate successful government programs even more than unsuccessful ones. Government programs that work contradict the conservatives' contention that government is bad and always screws things up. Worse, successful programs may actually encourage people to view the government and their taxes in a more positive light. So it is the very success of a program like Social Security that invites attack by conservatives. As Paul Krugman has explained, government haters "are not sincerely concerned about the possibility that the system will someday fail; they're disturbed by the system's historic successes. For Social Security is a government program that works, a demonstration that a modest amount of taxing and spending can make people's lives better and more secure. And that's why the right wants to destroy it."

https://governmentisgood.com/articles.php@aid=7&print=1
Citing Paul Krugman, “Inventing a Crisis” New York Times, December 7, 2004, p. A31.

There's a great deal else.

Organisation of the parts is itself a way of achieving a better whole

And there are modes of organisation which provide for a vastly better state of existence than any assemblage of technical tricks can accomplish. Somalia, North Korea, Syria, Russia, New Zealand, Denmark, and the United States have access to all the same technology and information. What makes them different states, and some quite considerably better than others, is how they are governed. What the organisation of the whole is.

Yes, governments can fuck up, especially if they fall into the wrong hands. That's why you fight like motherfucking hell to see that that doesn't happen, and to recover them when it does. As with virtually all power tools (and government is nothing if not a tool for managing power), it's potentially dangerous if it's going to be in the least bit useful. That doesn't make it a bad tool. But it means you want a skilled operator with good intentions.

The Mont Pelarin Society: Monopoist Apologists

The notion that government is the problem, planted some 36 years ago by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, and in 1946 by the Mont Pelerin Society, is itself a significant problem. It's the primary message of the a significant infrastructure of propaganda and disinformation, including recent posts on social media and elsewhere. This is a falsehood, propaganda unfortunately all too effectively promulgated. Discover the truth, which serves your own best interests.

Answering in part an extraordinarily misguided meme asserting, falsely, the alternative.


Adapted from a January 2017 Googe+ post.

#GovernmentIsGood #Government #BullshitArgumentThatMustDie #libertarianism #MontPelarinSociety

dredmorbius@joindiaspora.com

This is Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is an economic ideology that exists within the framework of capitalism. Over four decades ago, neoliberalism become the dominant economic paradigm of global society. In this video series, we'll trace the history of neoliberalism, starting with a survey of neoliberal philosophy and research, a historical reconstruction of the movement pushing for neoliberal policy solutions, witnessing the damage that neoliberalism did to its first victims in the developing world, and then charting neoliberalism's infiltration of the political systems of the United States and the United Kingdom. Learn how neoliberalism is generating crises for humanity at an unprecedented rate.

Long, excellent, fact-filled, accurate and critical history and background of #neoliberalism, #AustrianSchool #Libertarianism #ChicagoSchool and the #MontPelarinSociety You may well find it dry but stick through, this is very good.

Creaator #BarakalypseNow is worth following.

#video #podcast

https://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&list=PLATIVW2S3zKMbVlnAHAPR0sHZisHJl4fd&v=myH3gg5o0t0

dredmorbius@joindiaspora.com

Now if we can only find a cat that eats Libertarians ...

@woozle@hey.iseeamess.com from The Other Place: "The Tale of the Mice and the Cat, classical liberalism version"

"The cat must not be belled!" spoke up another mouse. "The cat is simply trying to live, just as you are -- what right have we to impose our will upon it, to interfere in its life? This is nothing more than opinion carried out by mob rule, putting a noose around that which we dislike! How would you feel if a group of cats decided to put bells on each of you??"

Sadly, it seems to me that Libertarianism has evolved a mechanism more similar to Toxoplasma gondii.

#libertarianism #cats #mice #fable #toxoplasmagondii #libertarian #classicliberalism