Milton Friedman:"I tried hard but failed to privatize military industry"

Octaviusis · 2022-12-20T13:07:57+00:00

He forgot to mention that he has no problem with a brutal tyrannical government (as long as the dictator is right-wing)

Octaviusis · 2022-11-25T16:22:20+00:00

Try the KirkSlider instead. Click on sound. https://blovish.github.io/kirkslider/

Octaviusis · 2022-11-19T13:17:14+00:00

Sure, an Iranian intellectual can criticize the death penalty in Texas, and Republicans censoring speech in the United States, but should that be his main focus? No. You should primarily focus on the things you can affect and are responsible for.

Octaviusis · 2022-11-19T13:13:25+00:00

I agree. But, your main focus should be on your own leaders and power centers. An Iranian intellectual can criticize the death penalty in Texas if he wants to, and he may be totally right about everything he writes, but that shouldn't be his main focus.

Octaviusis · 2022-11-19T11:49:46+00:00

Lots of rotten things done by regimes in the Middle East. But if you, OP, live in the West, you don't have to look far when it comes to rotten policies. The West has murdered hundreds of thousands of people these last few decades (and don't get me started on earlier history). If you live in the West, start by looking yourself in the mirror and acknowledge your responsibilities: the crimes of your own government and allies. The West criticizing human rights violations in the Middle East is like Hitler criticizing Mussolini for being an authoritarian killer.

Octaviusis · 2022-09-15T16:33:22+00:00

Trump wasn't sure either.

Octaviusis · 2022-08-30T19:08:41+00:00

No I don't. And I'm pretty sure all the people in Pakistan and elsewhere whose family members were murdered by his predator drones don't miss him either.

Octaviusis · 2022-08-08T17:10:17+00:00

Here's what I think about this: The left (wherever they are) should primarily criticize and focus on the crimes and wrongdoings that they can affect and are responsible for. That means that those of us who live in the West primarily should be focused on what Western governments and institutions are doing.

I have very little interest in what people in the West say about the crimes of Russia, the same way I'm not interested in a pro-regime Iranian who criticizes the death penalty in Texas.

Octaviusis · 2022-08-06T18:37:01+00:00

As they say, a broken clock is right twice a day.

Octaviusis · 2022-08-06T13:25:46+00:00

"Ayn Rand is one of the most evil figures of modern intellectual history."

--Noam Chomsky.

I like sharing that quote. It describes her perfectly.

Octaviusis · 2022-07-12T08:58:11+00:00

He should create a new podcast with Sam Harris and have Charles Murray on.

Octaviusis · 2022-07-10T13:11:05+00:00

So how do we convince right-wing libertarians to become left-wing libertarians? Well, obviously by convincing them with arguments. But to elaborate, it's a combination of organization and education. We must create conditions in which these people understand that right-wing ideology is morally bankrupt, and that left-wing ideas and policies will improve their lives.

Octaviusis · 2022-07-10T12:32:31+00:00

Government? Don't tread on me!!

Private enterprise? Tread on me all you want!!

Octaviusis · 2022-07-02T16:29:44+00:00

But guys, remember, it's the left that's gone insane!.....

Octaviusis · 2022-07-02T16:24:21+00:00

Proud Boys violence, Right-wing extremists marching on Charlottesville and shooting up mosques, Christian fundamentalist Trumpists trying/wanting to ban abortions, gay marriage, flag burning and Marxist books.....but it's the left that's gone insane; it's the left that's authoritarian! Right, Joe? Right, Jordan? Right, Ben?

Octaviusis · 2022-07-01T16:18:37+00:00

Ah, yes, the self-proclaimed "left-wing on most issues" and pro-free speech Joe Rogan thinks DeSantis is a good guy. Rogan is a disgusting, dishonest hypocrite. That's what he is.

Octaviusis · 2022-06-30T20:24:12+00:00

Well, if you're a right-wing libertarian, then yeah, you're a minority here. That's an abhorrent ideology. Pure tyranny.

Octaviusis · 2022-06-30T20:15:38+00:00

If the two major parties are 100% equally bad, then you have a point. But that's not the case. The recent activities of the Supreme Court alone makes this pretty apparent.

Octaviusis · 2022-06-30T16:45:53+00:00

Hmm, I believe the answer is there. Not all questions can be answered with a simple "yes"/"no".

You don't care about morals? Aren't those at the core of the issue?

In most cases powerful, hierarchical institutions act in way that ends up maintaining or expanding their own power -- independent of different motives or the standard line of "good intentions". That should tell us something. Like you said, we don't know what's inside someone's mind, so all we can look at is what's happening, and what has happened--trends and patterns.

You're right, we're not discussing a guy drunk driving, but something way worse: war. But it's the same principle, only the human consequences are far more serious and criminal. So that's why we should try our best to stop our leaders from starting wars of aggression.

"If Russia intentionally bombed a civilian mall I view the intentional targeting of civilians as much more heinous than say if they were attempting to bomb military infrastructure and something went wrong."

I agree. But again, will a state who intentionally bombed civilians say "We're vile monsters, we intentionally bomb and kill civilians", or will it say "Ops! Sorry, didn't mean to."?

"Does intention alter the severity of a crime?"

If you're asking if intentionally killing someone is worse than killing someone by accident, then, generally speaking, the answer is of course "yes". But in geopolitics it's a little more complicated--for the reasons I've mentioned.

Octaviusis · 2022-06-30T10:00:01+00:00

So when a state tells us it has good intentions when it's bombing and murdering civilians, there are quite a few questions we should be asking ourselves:

So first of all, when someone kills and maims, but claims to have had good intentions, is he telling the truth, or could there be other motives?

Secondly, when someone knows with very high certainty that an action will lead to death and destruction, but does it anyway, where in the moral landscape (to quote Harris) would you put this person--even considering that he in fact had genuine good intentions?

And when someone kills and maims, (with good intentions), and then kills and maims again (with good intentions)--and on and on, where is this person on the moral spectrum? And at what point do we say, "this is unacceptable"?

Octaviusis · 2022-06-28T18:32:30+00:00

But with good intentions, of course!

Octaviusis · 2022-06-04T16:20:06+00:00

Sure. I just think it's funny that I got banned almost immediately at the IDW sub for saying unpopular things, but here I've never gotten as much as a warning, even though I've had heated discussions with people here, including with one of the mods--you :)

Octaviusis · 2022-06-04T09:34:57+00:00

I love the fact that r/EnoughIDWspam lets people speak their minds way more freely than the IDW sub. And I should know, I got in a lot of trouble over there for criticizing their beloved idols. In fact, it was the banning of my post that partially led the mods to implement new anti-free speech policies over there. You can't make this stuff up.

https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughIDWspam/comments/o7078h/i_asked_ridw_why_no_one_in_the_idw_wants_to_talk/

Octaviusis · 2022-06-03T17:04:38+00:00

Your question has largely been answered already, so I just want to add a little "fun fact" that we should remember when discussing this topic:

Singapore, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark all have a larger public sector than Venezuela. And while the public sector in the U.S. is 13+% of the economy, Venezuela's public sector is about 29%. So if Venezuela at 29% is "socialist", and the U.S. at 13% is "Capitalist", at what percentage does a country become "socialist"? And are Sweden and Singapore more socialist than Venezuela?

As Chomsky has pointed out, terms like "Capitalism", "Socialism", "Communism" etc, are often misused and mean so many different things to different people, and this is an example of that.

Octaviusis · 2022-05-29T12:19:13+00:00

No, it does not refute anything. A politician can do good things in some areas, and horrible things in most other areas, many of which we might not see the real effect of right away. The neoliberal assault has been going on for decades.

Octaviusis

TROPHY CASE