Quotes of the Week

Enlightened insights taken from the past week’s reading:

"We have been watching the slow-motion assassination of Julian Assange. They have been choking him to death by tactical psyops, siege tactics, and wilful neglect as surely as if they placed a noose tied around his neck, not just in Belmarsh Prison but in the embassy as well. The only difference between his execution and someone on death row is the same as the difference between covert and overt warfare, which makes sense because the intelligence, judicial and military agencies who are carrying out his death sentence operate within the same power structure which carries out war. First came the smears (propaganda), then came the siege (sanctions), and they staged their coup (dragged him out of the embassy) and now they've got him in their clutches and they can do what they want behind closed doors. That's how you kill a nation while still looking like a nice guy, and that's how they're killing Assange."

Caitlin Johnstone

"Although Julian Assange is the one being harmed, the issue at hand is much larger than any single individual. Without free and open reporting, without the exposure of illegal and heinous acts of government, without constant scrutiny of the political class, all of us will eventually suffer adverse consequences. While governments rely on force in order to control individual dissent, it relies on fear to control the masses. The government’s abuse, torture, and even murder of Assange will send a message to all others willing to expose evil deeds to stand down or face harsh or deadly consequences. This single case will go a long way toward eliminating criticism of the ruling class, as more and more journalists will tow the line of the state instead of opposing it. This is the objective sought by government."

Gary D. Barnett

"The trade war issue appears to cause confusion among the new collectivist breed of libertarians regarding the non-aggression principle. This core principle is what underlies the free trade issue: it is fundamentally a question of voluntary market exchange. Trade is a matter of the parties involved in each exchange, not a conflict between the parties or their 'teams'. In fact, the state is antithetical to this freedom, whether or not it is exercised alone or in voluntary association. Thus, a libertarian cannot see the state as a mechanism for good, or as a means to an end, no matter how legitimate the end."

Per Bylund

"Tax cuts that are not paired with spending cuts are deferred tax increases. Unless the people and the politicians kick the welfare-warfare habit they will soon face increases in inflation and other taxes. The key to avoiding this is to restore a proper understanding of sound economics and the philosophy of liberty among the people. Politicians will only cut spending when the people stop demanding security and start demanding liberty."

Ron Paul

"Gun owners are the new Negro. Private weapons ownership and communism do not mix.

No such thing as socialism. That’s just a polite way of saying fuck you. It is all just communism with a smiley face. The socialist hides the gun and the communist brandishes it."

Bill Buppert

"The agorists have it right: there are two spheres, politics and the market, and they have nothing to do with each other. Their principles are 100 percent opposed to each other."

Tom Woods

"America was founded on separation; the Declaration of Independence explains why it's a basic human right. It was a separation of states and individuals from the British Crown; it had nothing to do with race. (I mention this because people love to conflate people who want to be left alone or to separate from a corrupt government with white supremacists. This is because of the phony history taught about the reason for secession of the several southern states prior to the War of Northern Aggression.)"

Bob Livingston

"Given the changing demographics and unwieldy tasks the United States government is undertaking, the country needs to take a timeout and actually consider separation. Even if it’s based on a simplistic red vs. blue divide, it’s still a conversation starter for future separatist movements. The depoliticization of society starts with decentralization."

Jose Nino

"In addition to the growing censorship, I have noticed among younger generations the disappearance of the very concept of objective truth. They see truth as the mere expression of some identity interest. There are racial truths, gender truths, sexual preference truths, and apparently also age truths. The younger ages, or many of them, cannot tell the difference between an explanation and a justification. If you explain something to them, they think you are defending it, or endorsing it, and that it is your belief. In other words, communication on the basis of facts and logical explanation becomes impossible. 

I think much of the Western world has sunk into this mindframe, which might also be the case in the rest of the world."

Paul Craig Roberts

"How does a hopelessly divided bunch of apparatchiks confined to the DC empirical beltway, deal with, let alone solve the problems of 300 plus millions with diverse cultural, economic and social needs? What do we get?

Internecine swamp creatures engaged in civil war. The guy who was to 'drain' it finds himself feeding it. A fools errand. The 'swamp' has been nurtured by a decades old, systematic, defenestration of the Constitution. Words, phrases no longer with meaning. Defined by the highest bidder, conflated to the political interest de jour. Likely beyond repair.

Sensible folks would sit down and peacefully work out commission toward secession and allow states to form their own alliances. Confederate into a mutual defense agreement and bid the 'swamp' a fond farewell."

Dennis Brislen

"Rightism has its problems, but Leftism is a genuine psychological aberration, an actual psychological disorder. As support for that statement, I offer absolutely every one of the current Democratic candidates for president. Leftists say they love humanity in general, especially the poor. In fact they hate other people as individuals – including themselves. However, they’re clever hypocrites that disguise this with rhetoric about unicorns and rainbows."

Doug Casey

"Technology comes.

It causes a massive shift in the public consciousness…

The 'powers that be' go on record saying it’s a threat.

And then they outline all the ways we need for them to save us…

To wield it for themselves.

It’s the oldest trick in the book.

Problem: It works every time."

Chris Campbell

"Imagine working and your pay goes all to the government or the 'democracy'. The 'democracy' decides what you will get. The 'democracy' turns out to be an impossible way to make the countless decisions that have to be made in order to get people to work effectively and economically to produce what other people need, and then to distribute these goods when, where and how to make people happy. The attempts at democracy as a substitute for prices and markets fail. Invariably, a bureaucracy of power-seekers accumulates power and dictates. Marx conjured up such concepts as the 'dictatorship of the proletariat', a kind of democracy of the working class. Instead, every attempt at socialism either fails because it doesn’t deliver the goods, or else it’s transformed into command-and-control by bureaucrats, administrators, managers, politicians, none of whom themselves face the control by those they claim to be feeding, clothing, housing, etc. The consumer is definitely not king in any Marxist system."

Michael Rozeff

"…Don’t be fixing up the economy, 18-year-olds. You don’t know anything about the economy. It’s a massive complex machine beyond anyone’s understanding and you mess with that your peril. So can you even clean up your own room? No. Well you think about that. You should think about that, because if you can’t even clean up your own room, who the hell are you to give advice to the world?"

Jordan Peterson

"Once you admit that the individual is merely a means to serve the ends of the higher entity called society or the nation, most of those features of totalitarian regimes which horrify us follow of necessity. From the collectivist standpoint intolerance and brutal suppression of dissent, the complete disregard of the life and happiness of the individual, are essential and unavoidable consequences of this basic premise, and the collectivist can admit this and at the same time claim that his system is superior to one in which the 'selfish' interests of the individual are allowed to obstruct the full realization of the ends the community pursues."

Friedrich Hayek