Enlightened insights taken from the past week’s reading:
"The problem of fake news isn’t solved by hoping for a referee, but rather because we as citizens, we as users of these services, help each other. We talk and we share and we point out what is fake. We point out what is true. The answer to bad speech is not censorship, the answer to bad speech is more speech. We have to exercise and spread the idea that critical thinking matters, now more than ever, given the fact that lies seem to be getting more popular."
Edward Snowden
"The statesman will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them: and thus he will by and by convince himself the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception."
Mark Twain
"One thing can be said for American nationalism. It has led to every major war, every bad policy, every bit of government corruption at the federal level, and every political conflict in American history. Americans don’t like top-down government unless they control the levers of power. The only solution is to rebuke Hamiltonian nationalism and return to the Jeffersonian vision of federalism and limited central power. There would be fewer wars, less political conflict, and a happier and more prosperous people."
Brion McClanahan
"Socialism proceeds in a gradual but harmful way, always attempting to seem reasonable and to offer measures that help human beings, that are benign, and that are moral, even Christian. Yet it is based upon slavery."
Michael Rozeff
"There comes a time in the history of every nation when a particular movement, failing to understand the will of the people, pushes the boundaries of acceptability too far, thus endangering the very society it wishes to help. It appears American society has reached that point with the emasculation of the Boy Scouts. The Liberals have crossed the cultural red line, I would say, and it is high time for some sort of push back."
Robert Bridge
"Using inflammatory code words like anti-Semitism, isolationist, racist, homophobe, conspiracy theorist, etc. to shut down debate and the spread of ideas is a common tactic used by those trapped in conventional wisdom because it gives them an excuse to avoid considering whether a concept may be true. It is a protection mechanism for them and for the establishment. Another protection mechanism is to run away from those ideas to prevent future exposure to them."
Bob Livingston
"The state loves 'equality' -- a concept so compendiously broad that its definition can be endlessly expanded. The state grows ever more powerful and intrusive in pursuit of equality's ceaseless demands.
Equality can never be attained, for the very moment after we achieve it, when someone first voluntarily transacts with someone else, resources will have been shifted around and 'equality'will already have been disturbed.
That's why the state loves it."
Tom Woods
"The generations of Americans who have been propagandized instead of educated need to understand that Reconstruction did not mean rebuilding southern infrastructure, cities, and towns destroyed by the Union armies. It did not mean reconstructing southern food production. It meant reconstructing southern society and governance. Blacks, who were unprepared for the task, were put in control of governments so that carpetbaggers could loot and steal. Whites lost the franchise and protection of law as their property was stolen. Some areas suffered more than others from the Reconstruction practices, which often differed from, and were worse than, the policies themselves."
Paul Craig Roberts
"In the final analysis, the only way to prevent the further federal erosion of our gun-rights is to remove the federal government from the equation. Washington cares nothing for the limits that the Constitution imposes on it, casually violating its mandate each day. Therefore, it has broken its political contract with Texas, absolving Texas of its responsibility to remain in such a compact. If Texas doesn’t want to become a fully-processed slave-state of Washington, where our citizen’s rights are subject to the whims of politicians rather than being natural, then we will have to resign the Union and return to being an independent country. It’s either independence or acceptance that we will eventually lose this right, and many others as well. There is no alternative, if history is any judge."
Ryan Thorson
Edward Snowden
"The statesman will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them: and thus he will by and by convince himself the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception."
Mark Twain
"One thing can be said for American nationalism. It has led to every major war, every bad policy, every bit of government corruption at the federal level, and every political conflict in American history. Americans don’t like top-down government unless they control the levers of power. The only solution is to rebuke Hamiltonian nationalism and return to the Jeffersonian vision of federalism and limited central power. There would be fewer wars, less political conflict, and a happier and more prosperous people."
Brion McClanahan
"Socialism proceeds in a gradual but harmful way, always attempting to seem reasonable and to offer measures that help human beings, that are benign, and that are moral, even Christian. Yet it is based upon slavery."
Michael Rozeff
"There comes a time in the history of every nation when a particular movement, failing to understand the will of the people, pushes the boundaries of acceptability too far, thus endangering the very society it wishes to help. It appears American society has reached that point with the emasculation of the Boy Scouts. The Liberals have crossed the cultural red line, I would say, and it is high time for some sort of push back."
Robert Bridge
"Using inflammatory code words like anti-Semitism, isolationist, racist, homophobe, conspiracy theorist, etc. to shut down debate and the spread of ideas is a common tactic used by those trapped in conventional wisdom because it gives them an excuse to avoid considering whether a concept may be true. It is a protection mechanism for them and for the establishment. Another protection mechanism is to run away from those ideas to prevent future exposure to them."
Bob Livingston
"The state loves 'equality' -- a concept so compendiously broad that its definition can be endlessly expanded. The state grows ever more powerful and intrusive in pursuit of equality's ceaseless demands.
Equality can never be attained, for the very moment after we achieve it, when someone first voluntarily transacts with someone else, resources will have been shifted around and 'equality'will already have been disturbed.
That's why the state loves it."
Tom Woods
"The generations of Americans who have been propagandized instead of educated need to understand that Reconstruction did not mean rebuilding southern infrastructure, cities, and towns destroyed by the Union armies. It did not mean reconstructing southern food production. It meant reconstructing southern society and governance. Blacks, who were unprepared for the task, were put in control of governments so that carpetbaggers could loot and steal. Whites lost the franchise and protection of law as their property was stolen. Some areas suffered more than others from the Reconstruction practices, which often differed from, and were worse than, the policies themselves."
Paul Craig Roberts
"In the final analysis, the only way to prevent the further federal erosion of our gun-rights is to remove the federal government from the equation. Washington cares nothing for the limits that the Constitution imposes on it, casually violating its mandate each day. Therefore, it has broken its political contract with Texas, absolving Texas of its responsibility to remain in such a compact. If Texas doesn’t want to become a fully-processed slave-state of Washington, where our citizen’s rights are subject to the whims of politicians rather than being natural, then we will have to resign the Union and return to being an independent country. It’s either independence or acceptance that we will eventually lose this right, and many others as well. There is no alternative, if history is any judge."
Ryan Thorson
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