Pretty straightforward to just say "Libertarianism is wanting less government, as opposed to authoritarianism which is wanting more government". If you're hoping for a narrow and specific set of policies or something out of that, that won't really be possible because it's just a general direction. If I say I'm going South, that could mean I'm going to be anywhere from a Northern US state to central or south America, Australia, South Asia, the Mediterranean, Africa, even Antarctica.
Your examples of COVID vaccines and microplastics sort of suck, since those are both examples of things that happened under the non-capitalist regime. In fact, there's increasing evidence that the Government bureaucracy commissioned the creation of COVID-19, in an act that was illegal but completed anyway using a common trick of getting it done in another country. During the George W. Bush war on terror era, America "didn't torture", so they just outsourced the torture to Syria. A lot of microplastics in the environment are caused by recycling programs implemented by municipal governments in the US and Canada. Since the programs only cared about looking like they were doing something instead of actually doing anything (because bureaucracy cares most about face), they'd take the stuff from your blue box, pack it up in a garbage scow across the ocean to a third world country, and then have most of it dumped into the sea.
So as a start, how about we discuss cutting down on shutting down government like CIA dark sites where they can torture people in Syria? How about we discuss shutting down programs that illegally create viruses that can produce global pandemics that could kill millions of people -- even if COVID-19 wasn't created by a program like that, why not just stop having such programs? Do we really need to be funding research of deadly diseases in countries we're a hop skip and a jump away from war with? How about we discuss shutting down programs that ship garbage to third world countries and dump it so we can pretend we didn't just throw it out? It's 50% of the entire economy, I suspect there's a lot of "libertarian" government cutting we can do before we ever start getting to services that ever directly touch a regular citizen.
Since in the same way most of the earth is south of me, libertarian covers a broad spectrum when half your economy is government. Moreover, you don't need to cut every program, and you don't even necessarily need to cut bad programs and replace them with nothing! Imagine how cool it would be if those recycling programs instead of shipping garbage to the third world recycled the materials on-site and made subsidized materials available for local manufacturing? Instead, it just becomes an opportunity for a "corporation" which just like the bureaucracy using China or Syria to do things they can't do at home without getting caught, is really just an organ of the state and an opportunity for politicians to enrich their friends.
Your examples of COVID vaccines and microplastics sort of suck, since those are both examples of things that happened under the non-capitalist regime. In fact, there's increasing evidence that the Government bureaucracy commissioned the creation of COVID-19, in an act that was illegal but completed anyway using a common trick of getting it done in another country. During the George W. Bush war on terror era, America "didn't torture", so they just outsourced the torture to Syria. A lot of microplastics in the environment are caused by recycling programs implemented by municipal governments in the US and Canada. Since the programs only cared about looking like they were doing something instead of actually doing anything (because bureaucracy cares most about face), they'd take the stuff from your blue box, pack it up in a garbage scow across the ocean to a third world country, and then have most of it dumped into the sea.
So as a start, how about we discuss cutting down on shutting down government like CIA dark sites where they can torture people in Syria? How about we discuss shutting down programs that illegally create viruses that can produce global pandemics that could kill millions of people -- even if COVID-19 wasn't created by a program like that, why not just stop having such programs? Do we really need to be funding research of deadly diseases in countries we're a hop skip and a jump away from war with? How about we discuss shutting down programs that ship garbage to third world countries and dump it so we can pretend we didn't just throw it out? It's 50% of the entire economy, I suspect there's a lot of "libertarian" government cutting we can do before we ever start getting to services that ever directly touch a regular citizen.
Since in the same way most of the earth is south of me, libertarian covers a broad spectrum when half your economy is government. Moreover, you don't need to cut every program, and you don't even necessarily need to cut bad programs and replace them with nothing! Imagine how cool it would be if those recycling programs instead of shipping garbage to the third world recycled the materials on-site and made subsidized materials available for local manufacturing? Instead, it just becomes an opportunity for a "corporation" which just like the bureaucracy using China or Syria to do things they can't do at home without getting caught, is really just an organ of the state and an opportunity for politicians to enrich their friends.
"Nintendo here, and we herd u liek mudkips so we put mudkips in your mudkips so you can mudkips while you mudkips"
That's great and all Nintendo, but 2004 was (throws up in mouth a little) 20 years ago.
That's great and all Nintendo, but 2004 was (throws up in mouth a little) 20 years ago.
Most people don't realize just how fucked up the world economy is right now. Capitalism is long over. You don't have capitalism when 50% of GDP is the state in most countries, or when blue collar workers pay 50% taxes on the last dollar they earn. By contrast, my great grandparents paid no income taxes and the government was about 10% of the economy.
"But look at all the super-rich people!" Yeah, that happens every time the state becomes massive because the powerful people in government make sure their friends and allies are taken care of. It has gone on for millennia in every region of the world because power corrupts.
We're living in a totalitarian civilization because at some point we decided that "everything is political" and thus under the purview of the government. Of course there's corruption and greed. We used to have culture, and community, and even religion. We gave it all away.
And the worst part is that people can't even recognize something as simple as a guy who got rich on subsidies and fed money printing cranking up his stonks isn't a libertarian.
"But look at all the super-rich people!" Yeah, that happens every time the state becomes massive because the powerful people in government make sure their friends and allies are taken care of. It has gone on for millennia in every region of the world because power corrupts.
We're living in a totalitarian civilization because at some point we decided that "everything is political" and thus under the purview of the government. Of course there's corruption and greed. We used to have culture, and community, and even religion. We gave it all away.
And the worst part is that people can't even recognize something as simple as a guy who got rich on subsidies and fed money printing cranking up his stonks isn't a libertarian.
There's an alternative to the HCFCs that destroy the ozone layer. We still have air conditioners. We still fill air conditioners with something like HCFCs. Instead of hydrochlorofluorocarbons they use hydrofluorocarbons.
By contrast there isn't really an equivalent replacement for fossil fuels. Even the things that "replace" fossil fuels use massive amounts of fossil fuels to build, so it's rare to have anything that even comes up positive after all the required energy inputs that can't easily be replaced.
If you force people to replace one coolant with another it's relatively easy. If you stop people from having heat or light or transportation or food, all of which rely heavily on fossil fuels that can't be displaced with current technology, you won't need to worry about climate change because the angry mob will make sure it isn't something you have to worry anymore. Ask the government of Sri Lanka or Kenya.
By contrast there isn't really an equivalent replacement for fossil fuels. Even the things that "replace" fossil fuels use massive amounts of fossil fuels to build, so it's rare to have anything that even comes up positive after all the required energy inputs that can't easily be replaced.
If you force people to replace one coolant with another it's relatively easy. If you stop people from having heat or light or transportation or food, all of which rely heavily on fossil fuels that can't be displaced with current technology, you won't need to worry about climate change because the angry mob will make sure it isn't something you have to worry anymore. Ask the government of Sri Lanka or Kenya.
Oh, I think modernity.news is @PaulJosephWatson s site. That's the other zh thing, you gotta look at the source. I've got modernity.news on my rss feed fwiw but hadn't been there long so I can't say 100% that it's great but I added it for a reason.
Although sometimes it does report things before they're fully verified and sometimes they report things that end up being just conspiracy theories, it is trying to be a real news site.
Come on... It's only happened every single time. Just every single time though. But I'm confident this time will be different.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7axnvInN57E
This is a really cool video of a guy who bought a 70 year old Rolls Royce engine for scrap, checked it all over, and got it running. Really cool!
This is a really cool video of a guy who bought a 70 year old Rolls Royce engine for scrap, checked it all over, and got it running. Really cool!
Just watched a presentation about small modular reactors. One thing that thought of is that you'd get much more bang for your buck in a small community distributing heat instead of electricity. For something like a native community in the far north the electricity is often changed back to heat for homes and the like anyway. Apparently generators are only 33% efficient so instead of a 20MW electric generator you'd have something like a 60MW thermal generator, and that changes a lot.
I think you can also change the calculus in industrial plants as well. If you need to hear air or run a heat exchanger then there's no good reason to switch between them. Moreover you can store heat in a medium to help deal with changes in load so it doesn't shock the reactor.
Presumably the per btu cost of heating would go down since you're delivering more heat for less fuel and less mechanical stuff between you and the heat.
I think you can also change the calculus in industrial plants as well. If you need to hear air or run a heat exchanger then there's no good reason to switch between them. Moreover you can store heat in a medium to help deal with changes in load so it doesn't shock the reactor.
Presumably the per btu cost of heating would go down since you're delivering more heat for less fuel and less mechanical stuff between you and the heat.
I'd probably vote against any bill that increased funding levels too. Half of GDP is more than enough thank you.
Any power you give the government you like will be used by the government you hate...
The other day I explained our establishment is being evil clippy, and I think that it just fits. "You look like you're trying to overrun the country with people from a totally foreign culture. Do you want me to help?" No evil clippy I just want to raise my family. "Congratulations 🎉🎉 now importing millions of foreigners per year! I sure hope you didn't need a place to rent or an entry level job!"
Goddamnit evil clippy.....
Goddamnit evil clippy.....
Ngl though, the kitchen scissors are probably just fine regardless of the price you pay.
The only difference between then and now is one less middle-man pretending they made a thing.
The only difference between then and now is one less middle-man pretending they made a thing.
I was aware of burma shave as a brand but not what it was exactly. That's pretty interesting!
For those who are young and not versed in advertising, burma shave had signs on the highway with short messages you'd read as a series.
"Shaving brushes
You’ll soon see ’em
On a shelf
In some museum
Burma-Shave"
They were considered Americana and referenced in pop culture.
There's a song by Tom Waits called burma shave where the signs were used as if a destination marker since they were everywhere, so if you're "on your way to burma shave" you're just going down all the roads. Ironically it was written 11 years after the signs were all removed.
For those who are young and not versed in advertising, burma shave had signs on the highway with short messages you'd read as a series.
"Shaving brushes
You’ll soon see ’em
On a shelf
In some museum
Burma-Shave"
They were considered Americana and referenced in pop culture.
There's a song by Tom Waits called burma shave where the signs were used as if a destination marker since they were everywhere, so if you're "on your way to burma shave" you're just going down all the roads. Ironically it was written 11 years after the signs were all removed.