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YouTube -- Freedomain Radio: Jon Stewart's 19 Tough Questions for Libertarians!

"The free-market is predicated upon win-win negotiations." -- "Is government inherently evil? 'Government' is just one category of the initiation of force. The initiation of force is evil." -- "It's a logical fallacy [Post hoc ergo propter hoc] to say that because the government does it, if the government doesn't do it, it won't get done." -- "Saying you give money to the IRS is like saying you make love to your rapist. It's a contradiction in terms. It's like saying you're being charitable to the man who is robbing you." -- "Representatives are not accountable to voters. Do you have a contract with your political representative?" -- "You don't need a government for people to get together and make decisions." -- "If you live in a world of words you can manipulate your fantasies in any way you want. The Matrix is language. 'Government should be held accountable for its actions.' An imaginary entity should be held accountable in some imaginary, undescribed way for the actions which itself as an imaginary entity it can't even take since the 'government' doesn't exist and cannot act."

2+2=5 statism government minarchism delusion duckspeak StefanMolyneux
november 2011 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Exclusive Interview: Jeffrey Berwick [Daily Bell: What is your take on Ron Paul?]

'...the US is bankrupt and on the verge of complete collapse. If the US government defaults by going bankrupt and refusing to pay its debts we would see turmoil and a deflationary depression that would make the 1930s look like Disneyland. Granted, if the government stayed out of the way it would be a brief, harsh depression... but it would be so dramatic and terrifying to most people that they'd likely call for the most dictatorial of all politicians to "fix it" which would only make it go from weeks or months to lasting years and decades. Alternatively, if they continue to print dollars to paper over the ongoing default then we will soon go into hyperinflation, which is even worse, and we could be headed for a few years, or more, of a Mad Max style environment in the US. In either case, I'd rather see someone like Obama sit there and be president when they have to announce there is no more Social Security and Medicaid or when the US dollar becomes worthless. My nightmare is that Ron Paul becomes president and a few months later the US collapses and the powers-that-be convince people that the reason it all collapsed was because of his free-market policies and we enter into a deeply dictatorial form of communism in the US.'

america politics government delusion
october 2011 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Freedomain Radio: True News: The Wall Street Protests

'Amateur surgery always ends in a bloodbath...' -- "Begging the mafia to solve the problem of crime is a futile, ridiculous and embarrassing thing to do."

tags: 2+2=5 repetitioncompulsion statism government democracy delusion StefanMolyneux

2+2=5 government repetitioncompulsion statism StefanMolyneux democracy delusion
september 2011 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Advisers Emphasize Calm as Global Depression Gathers

'Almost no modern advisers will admit that central banks fix the price of "money"... Central banking blows up economies regularly, and during economic contractions the middle class becomes increasingly unprosperous while more and more wealth is centralized in the hands of great Anglosphere banking families. These families then use their wealth to create dominant social themes – fear-based promotions featuring scarcity memes – that are intended to push Western middle classes into surrendering wealth and power to the globalist solutions (UN, IMF, WHO, etc.) that the familial elites have already prepared. One of the dominant social themes that was remarkable successful in America during the late 20th Century was the idea that various forces were conspiring to erode middle class wealth. The only way to address this potential ruination was through "investing" in a menu of pre-prepared investment solutions featuring rigid, fragile and highly controlled "public" money pools.'

centralbanking businesscycle finance bubble delusion from delicious
september 2011 by adamcrowe

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JoNova -- The money – you earn it, they print it. Welcome to the world of Corruption.

'The people are catching on. Thus we arrive at the strangest of moments when the world is figuring out that the forecasts of fire, flood and plague were faked, just as they realize the reassurances about the money were faked too. Disaster is coming, but not because of carbon. We’ve been worried about the wrong tipping point. Is it a coincidence? A random convergence of delusions? Not so. It takes one falsity to feed the other. We need a special kind of wealth to worry about bad weather 100 years from now. No one was watching the dollars hard enough... Corruption reigned across the high end of town. Politicians lied, scientists lost data, bankers mispriced risk and sold it to suckers but were bailed out, and public servants served government instead of the public. Science journals forgot what science was, professors broke laws of reason, and virtually everyone in the old media let them get away with it. Indeed the old-media was busy hacking phones for entertainment.'

statism metastasis decadence delusion corruption collapse greatestdepression apocalypse from delicious
august 2011 by adamcrowe

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Adam Curtis Blog -- THE BABY AND THE BAATH WATER

'Elections were due in Syria in 1947, and the Americans decided to give "a discreet nudge here and there". This involved warning landowners, employers, ward bosses and police chiefs not to intimidate the voters. The American oil companies were paid to put up big posters telling the Syrians to "vote for the candidate of your choice" (apparently this baffled all the Syrians because the posters didn't mention any candidates by name). Hundreds of taxis were hired to take voters to the polls free of charge. And the Americans brought in automatic, tamper-proof voting machines. It didn't go as expected. The landowners and other elites ignored all the warnings and intimidated everyone. There were massive gun fights and scores of people were killed. The taxi-drivers bonded together and sold themselves to different candidates - promising to make their passengers vote the "right" way.' And worst of all, most of the pro-American candidates defected to other foreign powers.'

history syria democracy bribery statism government delusion AdamCurtis from delicious
june 2011 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Freedomain Radio: The Future of Freedom is the Truth of the Past - Lessons in Propaganda from Government Education

'In order to seal you in slavery, your government must pretend that you were never free. It must shatter your true history into facile propaganda, into fairy tales that endlessly repeat the fantasy that your political leaders rescued you from the scary chaos of liberty. The murder of memory is the first crime of the State – and the source and sustenance of all its other crimes. Why do we believe this propaganda, these fairy tales? I submit that it is to avoid the knowledge of our own enslavement. Most people's beliefs are ex post facto justifications for the after-effects of brute power... We must abandon our illusions of Statist benevolence – not to save ourselves from the State, but from each other – from the festering resentments and predations that inevitably grow among citizens clawing and biting for crumbs from the political table.'

statism slavery slavespeak stockholmsyndrome denial delusion government propaganda memoryhole 1984 StefanMolyneux from delicious
june 2011 by adamcrowe

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Seth Godin -- All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin: A new cover, a new foreword, but the same book

'Once we move beyond the simple satisfaction of needs, we move into the complex satisfaction of wants. And wants are hard to measure and difficult to understand. Which makes marketing the fascinating exercise it is. When you are busy telling stories to people who want to hear them, you’ll be tempted to tell stories that just don’t hold up. Lies. Deceptions. The thing is, lying doesn’t pay off any more. That’s because when you fabricate a story that just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, you get caught. Fast. -- “What’s your story?” “Will the people who need to hear this story believe it?” “Is it true?” -- If what you’re doing matters, really matters, then I hope you’ll take the time to tell a story. A story that resonates and a story that can become true. When you find a story that works, live that story, make it true, authentic and subject to scrutiny. All marketers are storytellers, only the losers are liars.'

storytelling marketing framing delusion grifting SethGodin from delicious
june 2011 by adamcrowe

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Be Slightly Evil -- Organzing the World's Delusions

'To be a professional organizer of delusions, you need to focus on delusions that it would actually benefit you to believe, at least temporarily, and then figure out how to adopt them for just as long as they can serve you. Your overall goal is to create plausible deniability, even within your own mind, to defend against the accusation that you don’t believe something that you are pitching to others. Your lifeline back to reality is your capacity for doubt, which prevents plausible deniability from turning into a pattern of [persistent] denial... It is much easier to do this if you discipline yourself to only work with delusions that are a sufficiently complex mix of metaphysics, morality arguments, metaphor, narrative and facts. This is why you get the most fundamental axiom in delusion organization theory: the bigger the lie, the easier it is to sell, and the biggest ones, bigger than even the civilization-scale ones, are the ones you deliberately sell to yourself.'

emotionalintelligence sophistry delusion doublethink plausibledeniability *
april 2011 by adamcrowe

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AnonNews.org -- Comments for Divide And Conquer: The Union Protests In Wisconsin And Ohio Are Increasing The Hate Between The Left And The Right

Comment: Anon: 'lol left and right... every one want the same food, shelter and joy.... look at those overlords instead of looking to the left or the right. wtf is wrong with people.. they are above you look up spit them in te face.. so your on the right side and poor well lets take it from the left side his is poor but hey we suppose to hate them and visa versa.... and i'm just a 15 year old lol so manny dumb people in this world'

oligarchy dialectics politics government delusion from delicious
march 2011 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Freedomain Radio: The Truth About Freedom - 300 Million Souls Escape Poverty!

'A graphical presentation of some of the most common questions I get about freedom, peace and poverty.' -- But who will build the roads?!?!?!11

economics statism socialism poverty government delusion StefanMolyneux from delicious
february 2011 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Freedomain Radio: Government Workers Will Eat Us All...

"The State is a parasite that almost always ends up eating its host."

statism parasitism metastasis government delusion collapse StefanMolyneux from delicious
february 2011 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Where are the Baby-Boomer Nest Eggs?

'Dominant Social Theme: Invest wisely and well. – Let's try to put this long-running power elite promotion into perspective. We don't agree with the LA Time's perspective (see article excerpt above). It's not nest-egg versus Social Security (which the US cannot afford, especially because there are no SS funds, only fancy IOUs). There is a third way, which is to get rid of central banking entirely and let tortured Western economies gradually deflate. As economies undistort without the endless goad of monetary stimulation, people would gradually begin to be self-sufficient again. Nuclear families would collapse and extended families would reappear; this is the logical solution to old age, not frantic investing leading to the selection of an old-age home where one is likely to be abused before dying. ...the dollar-reserve system died in 2008, along with the popular belief that one could count on "investing" for retirement. It was never a reality; it was fiction.'

economics centralbanking businesscycle bubble delusion "capitalism" investing malinvestment stocks speculation specflation markets manipulation grifting casinogulag cartel kleptocracy greatestdepression babyboomers collapse correction from delicious
february 2011 by adamcrowe

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The Onion -- NASA Completes 52-Year Mission To Find, Kill God

'NASA was founded in 1958 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower for the express purpose of locating and assassinating God. By 1969, it had completed a successful lunar landing, bringing mankind that much closer to neutralizing the Almighty. It was in that year that U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first to step on the moon, and uttered the legendary phrase, "Where are you, God, you fucking faggot? Come and get me!" Over the years, officials told reporters, God had proved to be an elusive and formidable foe. In 1986, He destroyed the Challenger shuttle, killing all seven crew members, including Christa McAuliffe, a special operative who had been given orders to seduce and then strangle God with garrote wire. The Lord subsequently blew up the Columbia Destroyer Shuttle on reentry in 2003, and several times sabotaged the Hubble Space Telescope, a large piece of surveillance equipment launched into orbit in 1990 to monitor His activities.'

TheOnion god government delusion satire from delicious
february 2011 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Freedomain Radio: Power, Propaganda and Alien Eyes!

'...people who complain about propaganda the most tend to be the most susceptible to propaganda.' -- "I'm going to start calling it the 'peaceful market' rather than the 'free market'..."

government delusion StefanMolyneux from delicious
february 2011 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Freedomain Radio: True News: Violence In Egypt?

'No one, but no one is pro- or anti-Mubarak. Here's what his 'supporters' should be called!' -- Great Man is Great

statism government forcedmemes greatmantheory delusion egypt StefanMolyneux from delicious
february 2011 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- NMAWorldEdition: British youth unemployment reaches record high

'Like the punks of the past, British youths have taken to the streets. But they don't want Anarchy in the UK. They just want a job.' -- What have you bought into; what will it cost to buy you out?

uk austerity government delusion intergenerationalwarfare from delicious
january 2011 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- 'Dreamtime' Rolls Along

'Dominant Social Theme: Find a job, invest, save and then retire. -- The unraveling of American prosperity has to be regarded as the single most significant event that most American citizens young or old will face in their lifetime. In Europe, the comfortable myths about socialism have given way to the harsh realities of modern austerity. Meanwhile, the American Dream is unraveling "across the pond." The idea that municipalities would be able to continue to provide an endless array of upscale social and professional services – education, housing, civil services – is being exposed as a chimera. The whole issue of money creation was off-limits in the 20th century (how long ago that seems) and the result was a mythos that people grew up believing regarding their "prosperity" because they had no way of determining the truth. The Internet has provided an unexpected education. Elite media continue to play the beguiling tunes of 20th century Dreamtime, but for many the music has stopped.'

history forcedmemes centralbanking bubble hologram truebelieversyndrome statism goverment delusion collapse apocalypse internet cognitivesurplus from delicious
january 2011 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Freedomain Radio: The Truth About the Tax Cuts - Leeches, Parasites and the End of Us All

'Why no politician can ever talk about how government spending is going to be cut.'

economics statism parasitism tax politics government delusion StefanMolyneux from delicious
january 2011 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Freedomain Radio: True News: 'No Place for Violence in our Political Discourse' ?!?!?

'It's hard to get upset with people who are so deluded...' -- "Politics is violence. Government is force. 'Laws' are violence. Prison is coercion. The police kidnap and imprison. National debts are theft from the unborn. Taxes are theft. Tariffs, regulations are all the initiation of force. The State is a monopoly agency for the initiation of force in a geographical area. The State is the very definition of violence. Government is exactly what people don't want to do because they have to be forced. Whatever someone is doing when they have a gun to their head, is exactly what they don't want to do."

statism violence government delusion politics fantasy denial gulit 2+2=5 2+2=4 oldspeak philosophy StefanMolyneux * from delicious
january 2011 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Freedomain Radio: Bill Gates, Sam Harris and the Superstition of State Education

'An atheist who is a statist is just another theist.' -- "Put your money where your socialist mouth is." "Don't hold a gun to everyone else." "Go teach on the internet for free."

statism government delusion StefanMolyneux irrationality from delicious
january 2011 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- The American Dream

'The AMERICAN DREAM is a 30 minute animated film that shows you how you've been scammed by the most basic elements of our government system. All of us Americans strive for the American Dream, and this film shows you why your dream is getting farther and farther away. Do you know how your money is created? Or how banking works? Why did housing prices skyrocket and then plunge? Do you really know what the Federal Reserve System is and how it affects you every single day? THE AMERICAN DREAM takes an entertaining but hard hitting look at how the problems we have today are nothing new, and why leaders throughout our history have warned us and fought against the current type of financial system we have in America today. You will be challenged to investigate some very entrenched and powerful institutions in this nation, and hopefully encouraged to help get our nation back on track.' -- The Red Shield

documentaries economics centralbanking federalreserve fiat delusion theamericandream oligarchy TheCrown
january 2011 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- The American Dream

economics centralbanking federalreserve fiat delusion theamericandream oligarchy TheCrown documentaries from delicious
january 2011 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Warren Pollock: Is (the) Money (Supply) {and [Central or Local] Banking} Broken?

'The current monetary system is not correct, but replacing it with a hard money system would be a devastating blow to all those who cannot provide reciprocal value to others on an ethically fair basis. The US standard of living would have to be lost under a real money system. We really need to figure out how to provide more wealth to more people through a more ethical arrangement than the projection of force.' -- Got Goldmines?

economics dollar fiat delusion deindustrialization trade WarrenPollock
january 2011 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Freedomain Radio: Despair

"If you really love someone, you owe it them to correct their crazy... You owe them an intervention if you want to continue to claim you love them."

2+2=5 performativecontradiction slavespeak statism learnedhelplessness despair delusion philosophy 2+2=4 StefanMolyneux * from delicious
december 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- RT: Rotten Fruit: London scene of massive student fury

What have you bought into; what will it cost to buy you out?

entitlement austerity intergenerationalwarfare uk government delusion from delicious
december 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Psychogenic Theory of History - The Emotional Life of Nations

'The notion that leaders really lead, not follow, is as much a group-fantasy as the leader's charismatic power to command the sun's rise and fall. A leader is a single individual sitting at a desk in one corner of one city. The power we conditionally delegate to him resides in the group-fantasy, since the leader's function is to act as a poison container for our group-fantasies. If he should unexpectedly die, the container disappears and our fears return to us in a rush. Even if he has been a totally incompetent leader, we panic. ...the charisma of leaders is purely a defensive grandiosity of our own, compensating for our feelings of childhood helplessness. Thus a leader's strength seems inevitably to decay. ...there are four phases of group-fantasies about leaders, as they become less and less able to provide grandiose manic solutions to the nation's growing growth panic: (1) strong, (2) cracking, (3) collapse and (4) upheaval.' ...

mysterybabylon psychohistory psychology childhood abuse trauma dissociation displacement groups collectivism statism learnedhelplessness idealization politics projectiveidentification grandiosity heroism fantasy delusion poisoncontainer from delicious
december 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Psychogenic Theory of History - The Emotional Life of Nations

'...the leader is less a figure of authority than he is a delegate, someone who "takes the blame" for us. As poison container for our dissociated social alter, the leader is expected to absorb our violent feelings without collapsing. Many societies actually designate "filth men" to help the leader with this task, relatives who exchange blood with him so they can "intercept" the poisonous feelings of the people directed at him. In modern nations, cabinet members are our "filth men," and are sacrificed when the leader is under attack. This leadership task of being the delegate of irrational desires of the people makes leaders experts in masochism, rather than sadism, as traditional power theory requires. Only by carefully following our unconscious commands are leaders followed. We might follow them into war and lay down our lives to combat an enemy they alone designated, but the moment they try to ignore the group-fantasy and avoid our hidden commands, people simply do not hear them.'

mysterybabylon pathocracy masochism psychohistory psychology childhood abuse trauma dissociation displacement groups collectivism statism politics violence democracy government delusion duckspeak puppetry poisoncontainer from delicious
december 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Psychogenic Theory of History - The Emotional Life of Nations

'Political leaders are intuitively aware that their main function is to provide grandiose manic antidotes to growth panic. Every society acknowledges somehow its function as a defense against maternal engulfment. The more primitive the dominant childrearing mode of a society, the more growth panic must be defended against. The fears of abandonment that are triggered by social progress are felt by nations to be dramatized in their relationship with their leader, who is felt to be growing more and more distant and less and less able to provide grandiose manic projects to defend against their growing growth panic. The increasing impotence and weakness of the leader can be seen in the much-watched "ratings" he gets in his public opinion polls, which, after starting at a peak, usually decline during his term, unless revived by some particularly effective defensive manic action that the leader engages in. ...growing growth panic makes [leaders] seem more distant, less potent.'

mysterybabylon pathocracy psychohistory psychology parenting childhood abuse trauma displacement groups collectivism statism politics grandiosity delusion hysteria from delicious
december 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- 4OD: Britain's Trillion Pound Horror Story

"Government" doesn't exist.

economics statism socialism welfare debt ponzi government delusion uk collapse documentaries
november 2010 by adamcrowe

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Channel 4 -- Britain's Trillion Pound Horror Story

'Film maker Martin Durkin explains the full extent of the financial mess we are in: an estimated £4.8 trillion of national debt and counting. It's so big that even if every home in the UK was sold it wouldn't raise enough cash to pay it off. Durkin argues that to put Britain back on track we need to radically rethink the role of the state, stop politicians spending money in our name and introduce, among other measures, flat taxes to make Britain's economy boom again. This polemical film presented by Martin Durkin, brings economic theory to life and makes it hit home. It includes interviews with academics, economic experts, entrepreneurs, no less than four ex-Chancellors of the Exchequer and the biggest stack of £50 notes you'll never see.' -- STARVE THE BEAST

economics debt uk statism government socialism entitlement welfare ponzi delusion documentaries from delicious
november 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- The Myth of the Modern Stock Market

'The US is technically bankrupt. It is fighting two, three or four wars, mostly unsuccessfully, and maintaining something like 1,000 bases overseas. It is threatening to unleash kill squads in Yemen, to penetrate Pakistan with helicopters and troops and to start a new war by bombing Iran. Domestically, spending continues to outstrip revenues, the "real" unemployment rate hovers between 20 and 30 percent, 40 million children and adults are on food stamps; foreclosures are at an all time high; famous cities like Detroit are literally being bulldozed to remove squalor; the entire "red" interior of America is dilapidated, filled with empty factories and crumbling infrastructure. The dollar itself, once the world's proud reserve currency is worth about a penny... and eroding still further every time Bernanke launches another quantitative easing—prints another trillion in phony money to "stimulate" the economy. And what does the American stock market do? It goes UP.'

america statism mercantilism QE inflation greaterfool truebelieversyndrome delusion greatestdepression from delicious
november 2010 by adamcrowe

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zero hedge -- Guest Post: The Fuzzy Logic Of Useful Idiots

'It hurts to be wrong. Not just emotionally, but physically, especially when it’s public... The horror of it is almost cinematic. The more artificially pumped your ego, or the more brainwashed with academic pretension, the more terrifying that moment of realization is, that moment when all your assumptions are dashed aside like a three-year-old’s alphabet blocks. To a certain point, it is understandable why so many people live in such violent denial, however, this does not detract from the perils of that denial… Useful idiots talk, they don’t listen. They ask lots of questions, but never wait to hear your answers. For them, questions are not a search for information, but rather a method of antagonism. It is a way to keep everyone else on guard while making themselves feel superior. In this game, the useful idiot never has to expose his ignorance because he never has to enter into a meaningful dialogue with anyone who has an opposing view. All he has to do is attack, attack, attack.'

* YOU usefulidiot intellectualism falseconsciousness truebelieversyndrome herd consensus denial doublethink delusion relativism cowardice wrong from delicious
november 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Debriefing a Sovereign Money Hater

'"You've held your tongue – or been overly polite anyway – and so have others. And now it's an explosion on the 'Net. All these people out of nowhere starting sites... All power to the people and down with the banksters! An explosion of websites and people seemingly committed to the movement of sovereign money. In fact, the powers-that-be would love the US and the world to move toward sovereign money! They work like a kind of mafia and are always trying something new. Think about it: If states or the US Treasury begin to print sovereign money, Leviathan will STILL be in charge of the printing press. Do you really think the powerful families – your perspective – that seem to run the world will have any trouble influencing the government as its prints more money? They could care less if it's "debt money" or not, just so long as they stil control the printing presses. Do you really think the money won't end up in THEIR pockets? The one thing they DO control is government."'

economics greenbackers government delusion 2+2=5
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- The US$200-Trillion Debt Which Cannot Be Named

'The 20th century was a true Dreamtime. People were convinced by the dominant social themes of the power elite that government was going to take care of them. Some people became teachers and put up with the increasingly ludicrous rules imposed by unions and the political correctness demanded by peers. Others became police officers and kept silent while their brethren-in-blue became increasingly cynical and violent. Still others worked for the state and turned a blind eye to the corruption and payoffs that went on all around them. People worked in non-profits and soon realized that much of the money that was supposed to go to needy clients never got there. People worked in finance and accounting and soon realized that most of their efforts involved increasingly useless record-keeping for an ever-expanding authoritarian state. The elites spun magical fantasies that people, not knowing any better, inhaled ecstatically. But Western Dreamtime was never about delivering anything.'

statism government debt delusion collapse from delicious
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Is the Elite Destabilizing the World on Purpose?

'The solution is usually the same (though again, we have not read Marshall's full book) and features additional programs and initiatives that are somehow not tainted by elite interference. This is government, in other words, without mercantilism. It is a fantasy in our view. It cannot exist. If there are governmental levers of power, wealthy elites will always find a way to pull them. The only solution is to starve the beast. Remove the levers of power altogether, or at least as much as possible. We believe in free-markets. We do not see it in class-warfare terms, necessarily. We do not see it even in terms of capitalist exploitation. We see it as a kind of cultural problem. These families have been pursuing the same goals for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years. And for those who say it is impossible, we point to modern royalty and its entrenchment. It is indeed possible to leverage privilege into law and perpetuate wealth through national mandates. The evidence is all around us.'

2+2=5 marxism "capitalism" metanarratives falseconsciousness truebelieversyndrome oligarchy mercantilism statism government delusion stockholmsyndrome from delicious
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Freedomain Radio: The Idiocy of Politics

"Voting: The suggestion box for slaves."

statism government politics delusion StefanMolyneux from delicious
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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Japan Today -- Cash handout? Stupid, wasteful idea, Japanese say (2009)

'Cash back from the government? Stupid, wasteful and ineffective—and a shameless attempt to woo voters, many Japanese say. Prime Minister Taro Aso is touting a one-time cash handout of 12,000 yen as the centerpiece of a stimulus package to revive the world’s second-largest economy, mired in one of its worst slumps since World War II. But polls show that most Japanese oppose the idea—though many confess they’ll take the money anyway. They argue that most people will just save the money, not spend it. Some call it a ploy to boost the plunging popularity of Aso and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. “Japanese politicians are so immature in the way they think the economy should be run,” said Atsuko Yamaguchi, 42, of Osaka. “It’s always for-the-moment kind of thinking. It’s so stupid. I’m so ashamed.” Yamaguchi says she’ll accept the cash because she just lost her job at a consulting firm. “But will it really be helpful for the economy of Japan?” she asks. “I don’t think so.”'

economics keynesianism fiat government delusion japan from delicious
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- So You Want to Go to Law School

"Things are different for my generation." -- #fail faster

legalese delusion careerism theadvertisedlife intergenerationalwarfare lulz from delicious
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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Fascist Soup: Because you're probably a fascist -- A Rebuttal To Greenbackers vs. Goldbugs

'Both parties want the central bank abolished. It is important to understand this crucial difference between the gold standard advocated by the Austrians and the gold standard that is advocated by bankers. The Austrians want a 100% reserve gold backed system of private currencies. A 100% reserve system means the banks essentially act like warehouses. They hold the people’s money and charge a nominal fee for this service. They don’t actually create money through lending like they do now. Inflation in a 100% reserve gold system can only occur if the supply of gold is increased, which requires a large amount of time and effort on the part of gold miners. In a greenback system, inflation is caused by government simply running a printing press and then spending that newly printed money into the economy. If government can’t control its borrowing now, it is ridiculous to think it will be able to control its printing under a greenback system.'

economics money inflation fiat delusion greenbackers 2+2=5 2+2=4 gold from delicious
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Ellen Brown on Debt Money, Why Money is Collapsing and Why Central Banks Need Adult Supervision

Comment: DB: 'The reason to trust markets more than government is simple. Markets, absent government interference, are ruled [by the] Invisible Hand of competition. Governments are not. In a competitive environment it is impossible to be dishonest over a long period of time because consumers will shift their patronage to a partner they can trust. Not so in a government setting. Competition is a far more trustworthy medium for reducing anti-social behavior than government, which is often itself corrupt and anti-social. Who watches the watchers? Ms. Brown's emphasis is so strongly on government solutions - in an era where public solutions increasing fail - that we wonder what the agenda is. Why not let the free-market decide on money instead of trying to re-manipulate government to make it work "better." As to what we suggest ... It is simple. Fight as hard as possible through education and other peaceful means to do away the insanity of regulatory democracy... We would suggest freedom'

economics greenbackers happytalk 2+2=5 statism socialism fiat government delusion from delicious
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Sparks Goes to the White House

"If you had even an ounce of dignity..." -- CHANGE

government statism delusion anarchocapitalism lulz from delicious
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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Gary North -- Ellen Browns Web of Debt Is an Anti-Gold Currency, Pro-Fiat Money, Greenback, Keynesian Tract. Here, I Take It Apart, Error by Error.

'Ellen Brown, the Greenbacker, has posted a reply to me. It is addressed to me: an open letter. I do not intend to reply to her directly. I will address my comments to her victims: her readers. If you are interested in my responses, you can check [here] daily. I will respond by posting one article per day.'

economics greenbackers happytalk 2+2=5 statism socialism fiat government delusion from delicious
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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Lew Rockwell -- Cheerleader for Hitler's Economics by Gary North

'For two generations conservatives have been shouted down by the Left with this accusation: "Fascist!" Ellen Brown is now making this accusation plausible. Yet the great irony is this: Ellen Brown is a Leftist. There is nothing even remotely free market or conservative about The Web of Debt. It is a call for a Federally funded welfare state. She praises the New Deal. She praises John Maynard Keynes. She has only one objection to their recommended programs: governments borrowed money to fund them. She wants a welfare state that is funded entirely by paper money printed by Congress. She is about as conservative as Nancy Pelosi. How could her ideas be getting a hearing in Tea Party circles? The strategic problem is this: the Tea Party movement is filled with people who have no economic understanding. They cannot distinguish Ron Paul's opposition to the FED, based on the gold coin standard, from Ellen Brown's opposition, based on a fiat money standard. They are intellectually defenseless.'

economics greenbackers happytalk 2+2=5 statism socialism fiat government delusion from delicious
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Irish Central Bank: Raise Taxes Now

'Dominant Social Theme: The Irish will pay and pay. It's good for them. The central banker is concerned about the opinion of his peers when it comes to Irish solvency. "There is no credible way of correcting the public finances that doesn't require a higher tax ratio," he intones. Not under current circumstances, anyway. Well how about this? Leave the EU and deregulate where possible. After that disband the government except for a minimal core dealing with poverty issues. Begin the transition to gold backed money and shut down the central bank. Devalue as part of the process. In about a month, Ireland would be back on its feet, figuratively speaking, we estimate. Even if it didn't work, you'd have half of Brussels camping out in Dublin with "new ideas" to get Ireland off the hook. But that's not what is going to happen if the Honorable Honohan has his way. There's nothing to do but raise taxes. Can't default after all. The banking community would be most disgruntled.'

economics statism government centralbanking debt delusion ireland
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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Sobran's -- The Reluctant Anarchist

'For most people, anarchy is a disturbing word, suggesting chaos, violence, antinomianism — things they hope the state can control or prevent. The term state, despite its bloody history, doesn’t disturb them. Yet it’s the state that is truly chaotic, because it means the rule of the strong and cunning. They imagine that anarchy would naturally terminate in the rule of thugs. But mere thugs can’t assert a plausible right to rule. Only the state, with its propaganda apparatus, can do that. This is what legitimacy means. More and more we can expect the state to show its nature nakedly. For me this is anything but a happy conclusion. I miss the serenity of believing I lived under a good government, wisely designed and benevolent in its operation. But, as St. Paul says, there comes a time to put away childish things.'

statism government minarchism libertarianism delusion anarchism
october 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Paul Family Dynasty Ends Before It Began?

'Right now the freedom-movement in the US and abroad is still inchoate and tends to use mainstream sociopolitical methodologies to demand the end of Western empire. It probably won't work. Eventually, in our view, people will grown disenchanted with the system and seek extracurricular methodologies. After a few experiences with the Rand Pauls and Scott Browns of the world, people will begin to see perhaps that they must focus on more direct action. We are not proposing this sort of action will be violent, only that it will be different and more persuasive than what has come before. We like to compare what is going on now to the Renaissance or Reformation, which would not have been derailed by a single individual, or even two or three. What is going on seems to be a massive socio-political shift away from the regulatory democracy that the power elite has patiently been building up these past 200 years. From our point of view, the elite conspiracy is unraveling.'

statism government democracy delusion internet cognitivesurplus renaissance
september 2010 by adamcrowe

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Council on Renewal -- Sovereign Debt: The Death of Nations vs. the Wealth of Nations

Great counter-comment to "government"/greenbacks nonsense.

economics greenbackers government delusion
september 2010 by adamcrowe

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You Are Not So Smart -- Subjective Validation

'When you want to believe something, when you need something to be true, you will look for patterns; you connect the dots like the stars of a constellation. You will take the random and give it purpose, transmutate the chaotic into the systemic, see chance as fate. Your brain abhors disorder. You find patterns where there are none, see faces in clouds, demons in bonfires. The psychologist Ray Hyman has spent most of his life studying the art of deception. Before he entered the halls of science, he worked as a magician and then moved on to mentalism after discovering he could make more money reading palms than performing card tricks. The crazy thing about Hyman’s career as a palm reader is, like many psychics, over time he began to believe he actually did have psychic powers. The people who came to him were so satisfied, so bowled over, he thought he must have a real gift. Subjective validation cuts both ways.'

psychology cognitivebias bias persuasion delusion truebelieversyndrome grifting
september 2010 by adamcrowe

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Molinari Institute -- No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority by Lysander Spooner

'The constitution not only binds nobody now, but it never did bind anybody. It never bound anybody, because it was never agreed to by anybody in such a manner as to make it, on general principles of law and reason, binding upon him. -- It is a general principle of law and reason, that a written instrument binds no one until he has signed it. The laws holds, and reason declares, that if a written instrument is not signed, the presumption must be that the party to be bound by it, did not choose to sign it, or to bind himself by it. And law and reason both give him until the last moment, in which to decide whether he will sign it, or not. The fact that the instrument was written for him to sign, or with the hope that he would sign it, goes for nothing. Where would be the end of fraud and litigation, if one party could bring into court a written instrument, without any signature, and claim to have it enforced, upon the ground that it was written for another man to sign?'

america constitution delusion socialcontract legalese contracts law fraud * government democracy LysanderSpooner from delicious
september 2010 by adamcrowe

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Molinari Institute -- Lysander Spooner: A Second Letter to Thomas F. Bayard

Dear America, -- 'Yet again and again, throughout your speech, you repeat the idea, that this so-called constitution, which nobody ever signed, which few people ever read, which the great body of the people never saw, and about whose meaning no two persons ever agreed, is “The Supreme Law of this Land!” Sir, where did this wonderful constitution come from, that you should describe it as “The Supreme Law of this Land?” Did it originate with any body who had any rightful authority to impose it upon the people of this country? Sir, this declaration of yours, that the constitution (so-called) is “the Supreme Law of this Land,” is utterly, flagrantly, shamefully false. Justice alone is the Supreme Law of this land, and of all other lands. And it is not because your “Supreme Law of the Land,” the constitution – but because the supreme law of justice is “neglected,” “forgotten,” “disregarded,” and “disobeyed,” that our liberty is lost; or, rather, never had an existence.'

* 2+2=4 law contracts legalese america constitution delusion lies fraud slavery socialcontract LysanderSpooner from delicious
september 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Most Americans Just Don't Get It

'...in our era the White House and its legal team, lead by Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein, insist that government creates our rights, that we have none based on our human nature. If one complains about these people extorting from us our life-times and our property, i.e., a chunk of our very lives, the politicians and bureaucrats can retort that these are not really ours at all, we have no rights apart from what they decide we have! (This is exactly what some of the stars of contemporary political theory preach!) That is what it means to claim that government creates our rights and we have none based on our humanity! ...this utter distortion of the nature of government and our basic rights must be something to which American citizens should pay the utmost attention instead of dosing through the experience. It is time to wake up to this travesty and to do something decisive about it. And that must start in the hearts and minds of the citizenry.' -- Do what? Vote? Appeal/Apply/Beg?

america 2+2=5 statism government democracy delusion slavery from delicious
august 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Political Paralysis Spreads to Australia?

'Democrats and Labour often adopt fear-based promotions that emphasize resource depletion and over-population. Republicans and Tories seem to focus on defense issues and protection of the realm, often over resource issues. The system is a clever one because no matter what concerns people have decided to hold, the solution ends up being more state control, even global governance. What is increasingly clear to us is that people's increased disaffection for political choices is beginning to put the proverbial sand in the gearbox of modern Western democracy. In Britain and now in Australia, the choices have obviously proven increasingly difficult for the electorate to make. The results are "hung" governments that may have little mandate to govern. We would argue that something similar might take place in America during the upcoming Congressional elections in November. At some point, there may well be an upswelling of support generally for LESS government.'

politics delusion statism government democracy forcedmemes problemreactionsolution dialetics dialectics from delicious
august 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- US Prosperity Meme Comes Undone

'For decades the West, both Europe and America, has maintained the fiction that government was a nurturing necessity, but all that is ending. We have called the past 100 years a "dreamtime" in which misleading memes were regularly thrown up to justify every advancement of the state and every retreat of freedom. There is a trade off here. In return for taxes that have attacked the middle class inexorably, in return for the grievous ups and downs of a fiat money economy, in return for putting up with a virtual tidal wave of endlessly elaborated laws and regulations, Western citizens have expected some level of personal and professional security. It is more and more evident that Western societies, as currently configured, cannot continue to support this fundamental bargain. Public sector workers were the state's final bulwark, its last true believers. But as these workers also become disabused, who will speak for the modern state? And who will support it?'

statism government democracy delusion collapse irrationality from delicious
august 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Jobless Spending Fights Recession

'Dominant Social Theme: The more the government spends, the more helpful it is. -- In this article we will debunk once more the idea that government can spend its way out of a recession. It is our modest contribution to the 21st century, which we can truthfully label an "Age of Misinformation," fortunately alleviated by the advent of the Internet itself which is intermittently a force for enlightenment, truth and logical thinking. -- It is human nature to want to alleviate pain and suffering. Economic downturns are grim. But the rejoicing that accompanies "recoveries" within fiat-money, mercantilist economies should be seen within a larger context. A true victory would involve a return to some form of free-market money and the reduction or elimination of private/public mercantilist central banks. Something like this may start to happen anyway if the distortions grow too great and sovereign debt overhangs too onerous to manage.'

economics statism mercantilism centralbanking pricefixing keynesianism delusion from delicious
july 2010 by adamcrowe

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Mises Daily -- Classical Liberalism versus Anarchocapitalism by Jesus Huerta de Soto

'Why Statism Is Theoretically Impossible. #1. The state would need a huge volume of information, and this information is only found in a dispersed or diffuse form in the minds of people... #2. The information the intervening body would need for its commands to exert a coordinating effect is predominantly tacit and inarticulable in nature, and thus it cannot be transmitted with absolute clarity. #3. The information society uses is not "given;" it changes constantly as a result of human creativity. Hence, there is obviously no possibility of transmitting today information which will only be created tomorrow and which is precisely the information the agent of state intervention needs to achieve its objectives tomorrow. #4. Finally and above all, to the extent state commands are obeyed and exert the desired effect on society, their coercive nature blocks the entrepreneurial creation of the very information the intervening state body most desperately needs to make its own commands...'

economics statism liberalism libertarianism minarchism government delusion anarchocapitalism humanaction praxeology information #processing #socialization #diversity from delicious
july 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Paul Craig Roberts on Glass-Steagall, Free Trade and the Dangers of an Evolving 'Oligarchy of Private Interests'

'...fundamentally, government cannot foretell the future. A trend projected by government is bound to become undone before it is realized. This is the basic truth, often misunderstood, around which Austrian economics is built. Human action, the profound sacrament of Austrian economics and one of the most resonant presentations of modern philosophy, tells us that people will not sit idly by in the face of drought, famine, illness, etc. People will DO something. Having isolated a trend, those who predict it in any sort of numerical or statistical way, are inevitably doomed to failure. One can make some general observations to be sure (we do it all the time to be sure) but to try to create by regulatory fiat what natural law has not already developed is likely a futile exercise.'

economics government regulation delusion humanaction praxeology from delicious
july 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- What Irritates the Statists by Dr. Tibor Machan

'...this public versus private purpose is a ruse. Virtually every benefit to be obtained by way of forking out our wealth is a private benefit, something that serves the interest of some human individual in a society – maybe many of them, sometimes many of them all at once, but all are private individuals and that includes Marx and Galbraith and all their pals who are so eager to confiscate everyone else's resources for purposes they deem to be important. If they think these are important purposes, they ought to get up a collection and convince their fellows to part with what is needed to obtain them. But it is so much simpler to send out the police to collect these funds rather than to raise them by means of convincing us of the worth of these projects. When this isn't accepted much by the citizenry, the statists are deeply miffed.' -- Now listen, Statie. Mommy and Daddy really don't need to take care of you now that you're all grown up, OK? *wipes the tears from Statie's eyes* :,-(

concepts collectivism statism government paternalism authoritarianism violence delusion choice voluntaryism freedom "capitalism" from delicious
july 2010 by adamcrowe

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The 24 Types of [2+2=5]

Naive, Public Mandate, Elitist Snob, Indoctrinator, Xenophobe, Love It or Leave It, More Humanitarian Than You [LOL], Terrified, Entitled, Drug Warrior, Freeloader, Bereaved Parent, Nanny Statter, The Dreamer, Petty Tyrant, Masochist, The Lawyer, Just Following Orders, Stockholm Syndrome, The Deluded, The White Sheep, Theocrat, The Green Zealot, Drunk on Debt

2+2=5 statism government delusion stockholmsyndrome lulz from delicious
july 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Freedomain Radio: Are Anarchists Naive?

I think violence is bad.

anarchism minarchism statism violence delusion StefanMolyneux from delicious
july 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Central Bankers Losing Control

'Dominant Social Theme: The wise men must step forth and salvage the markets. -- A fiat system, in fact, is only as good as the confidence that people have about it. A fiat system, therefore, is nothing like an asset-based system, presumably one supported by both gold and silver. The effect that the Internet has had on people's belief in the system must be considered, and a general rising tide of disbelief and frustration. The business cycle has not yet played itself out, either. Any moves that central bankers make in either Europe or the US must be seen in the context of an additional 5-10 years of economic restructuring before this current money-metals bull market likely winds to a close. The powers-that-be won't mention it of course, but they've lost control and it is not easy to see how they can ever regain it in the near future. They will continue to sound confident, but the results will not bear them out.'

economics statism mercantilism centralbanking fiat delusion from delicious
july 2010 by adamcrowe

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Johann Hari -- How Goldman Sachs gambled on starving the world's poor - and won

"If we don't re-regulate..." and then re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-regulate and then?

agriculture markets manipulation fraud regulatorycapture regulation government pricefixing delusion 2+2=5 from delicious
july 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Archdruid Report -- A Pathless Land

'Not one of those people has to be there; not one is required to listen. They are there for reasons of their own, reasons that mingle high ideals and base desires in the usual proportions, and if the ideals or the desires you call on them to pursue are far enough from theirs that they see no way of fulfilling their own agendas by helping yours, they will turn away and go looking for another movement that shows more promise of giving them what they want. That’s the trap that waits for every mass movement that tries to change society, because the ideals and desires of the majority define the structure of society as it is; a would-be mass movement that pursues a different path will reliably find itself failing to attract members, while a mass movement that reshapes its message to attract a large audience will inevitably turn into a mechanism for replicating the existing order of things. Truth is a pathless land; no messiah can take you there, or lift the burden of thinking for yourself.'

socialengineering paternalism democracy delusion humanaction JohnMichaelGreer from delicious
june 2010 by adamcrowe

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Freedomain Radio -- How (Not) to Achieve Freedom (PDF)

'If we lose the ability to project our negative traits onto some other person or entity, we actually experience the anxiety, fear and rage within ourselves. The growth of psychological and emotional maturity is the slow and often painful process of withdrawing your projections from the world so that you can see what the world actually is. Most people wander around the world with highly reflective sunglasses on – but pointing the wrong way – so that they are only seeing a distorted reflection of themselves, rather than the world itself. When a man hears that taxation is force, his unconscious hears all of the implications contained in that statement immediately, at light speed, and leaps into action to protect him from being tortured and killed. The hostility that he feels will arise in him as if out of nowhere. You have also provoked a feeling of humiliation in him, by creating fear and anxiety within him that he has to avoid.'

criticism statism intellectualism elitism vanity entitlement libertarianism doublethink goodthink consensusreality conformity hypocrisy delusion projection psychology philosophy freedom StefanMolyneux pdf from delicious
june 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Freedomain Radio: The BP Oil Spill - Brought to You by 5,000 Years of State SNAFUs

'The grim, lengthy and tragic history behind the terrible Gulf Oil spill.' -- Government is not an answer.

statism government delusion StefanMolyneux from delicious
june 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Archdruid Report -- Waiting for the Millennium

'When familiar myths fail and life gets difficult, in turn, the results rather too often include a form of collective flight into fantasy well known to sociologists and students of history. Think of cargo cults, Ghost Dancers, Americans waiting in a suburban Chicago backyard to be taken off the planet by the Space Brothers, and every other example you recall of people responding to a difficult situation by a leap of faith to a farther shore that didn’t happen to be there. Now think about it again, remembering that this time the motivating factors may well include the symbols and slogans and passionate hopes that matter most to you. ...when existing institutions fail and the collective foundations of meaning crack, there’s a large demand for some new vision of destiny that will make sense of the troubles and offer a way past them to some brighter future. The economics of popular belief being what they are, that demand very quickly finds an ample supply.'

collapse denial delusion fantasy truebelieversyndrome scapegoating populism groupthink cults hate JohnMichaelGreer irrationality
june 2010 by adamcrowe

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zero hedge -- Welcome to the Insane Asylum or: How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Big Lie 3/5

'We as individuals and collectively as a nation cling to any false hope offered by our abusers rather than gather our courage, stand our ground and declare no more. Our thoroughly conditioned and abused (collective) mind is almost totally incapable of defending ourselves from the abuser as long as we remain in denial. In our mind, denial appears to be the “sane” (or the least insane) way to survive in exactly the same manner the Jews, Poles, Gypsies and Russians (to name just a few) of Europe denied it would ever get as bad it as did. This is a horrible illusion, albeit a persistent one. The battered and abused must either stand his/her ground or flee not only to survive but regain some measure of physical, emotional and spiritual health. Since we can never flee from ourselves we use denial to flee while still occupying our body. No wonder we’re so screwed up. We must ask ourselves what is it that’s compelling us to use denial to suppress our basic and ultimate instinct of survival?'

abuse stockholmsyndrome denial delusion slavery irrationality
june 2010 by adamcrowe

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Mish -- Paul Krugman's Magic Keynesian Mirror

'When the problem is debt, going deeper in debt cannot possibly be the solution. Yes, Paul, we lost a decade. Yes, Paul, we are going to lose another, not because we failed to follow your recommendations, but precisely because we did! ...the will and the means to pass out "free money" is 100% guaranteed to happen before a lasting recovery can take hold. That dear Paul, is whether you like it or not, the mechanics of peak debt, compound interest, global wage arbitrage, and something you desperately need to learn: Austrian economics. #Recommended Reading List: Paul, you need help. I suggest a few books on my recommended reading list *Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Henry Hazlit *Economics for Real People by Gene Callahan *What Has Government Done to Our Money? and The Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar by Murray N. Rothbard'

economics keynesianism delusion PaulKrugman 2+2=5
june 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Freedomain: True News: BP Spill Update, Educating my Daughter, and Conspiracy Theories?

"Violence is like any drug." -- What's going to happen when it stops 'working'?

statism violence delusion grandiosity hypocrisy predation slavery StefanMolyneux
june 2010 by adamcrowe

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Report #TL07B: The Nature of Government

'#"Government" Consists of Individual Human Beings. When people say "government is necessary to do X (whatever)," what they're really saying is: "people are necessary to do X." Unfortunately, for most people – including many freedom lovers – it seems impossible to grasp the above refutation because they are locked into the habit of thinking, talking, and writing about "government" as a volitional entity. They say "government does this and that" – as if "government" is some kind of living, breathing entity capable of performing actions – collectivist thinking. Sometimes it seems that when you say to these people, "Look at anything that "government" supposedly does, like running a school, and you'll find that all the work is being done by individual human beings," – individualist thinking – they can't hear you. They seem so brainwashed with the notion that "government does things," that their brains automatically shut out anything to the contrary.'

cognitivedissonance magick words newspeak duckspeak 2+2=5 crimestop government fallacy concepts hallucination delusion collectivism statism
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Archdruid Report -- The World After Abundance

'For most of today’s environmentalists, renewable energy isn’t something that people ought to produce for themselves, unless they happen to be wealthy enough to afford the rooftop PV systems that have become the latest status symbol in suburban neighborhoods on either coast. It’s something that utilities and the government are supposed to produce as fast as possible, so that Americans can keep on using three times as much energy per capita as the average European and twenty times as much as the average Chinese. ...all the plans for lifeboat ecovillages I’ve encountered so far, at least, aim at preserving some semblance of a middle class lifestyle into the indefinite future. That choice puts these projects in the same category as the lavish villas in which the wealthy inhabitants of Roman Britain hoped to ride out their own trajectory of decline and fall: a category mostly notable for its long history of total failure.' -- The government will not save you.

ecology economics entitlement delusion collapse
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Daily Bell -- Money Supply Plunging Toward Depression?

'...incessant credit stimulation has so distorted Western economies that even after two years, these economies have not yet returned to a point where banks and other investors can tell the difference between a legitimate opportunity and one that has been kept alive by various forms of governmental chicanery. This is why "stimulus" and "bailouts" are ultimately so counter-productive. They actually retard economic recovery. For monetarists – and other types of non-free-market economic-oriented journalists inhabiting the mainstream media the inability of banks to lend and the subsequent shrinkage of the money supply is cause for alarm. It is actually the most natural thing in the world. What many economists and financial journalists are calling for in the midst of a downturn is for the printing presses to reignite and for yet more faux-money to enter the economy in order to reinflate.'

economics fiat debt credit money businesscycle malinvestment inflation deflation keynesianism happytalk bubble delusion correction
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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Freedomain Radio -- On Truth: The Tyranny of Illusion

'The opposite of tyranny is curiosity. The opposite of ignorance is curiosity. The opposite of manipulation is curiosity. The opposite of immaturity is curiosity, because to be curious is to be wise. The reason that we are not curious is that we already know the answers, and we do not like them. We can choose not to eat, but we cannot erase our body’s need for food. We can choose to jump off a cliff, but we cannot choose to defy gravity. We can pretend that lies are true, and that vices are virtues, but we cannot turn lies into truth, or vices into virtues. We cannot erase the truth within ourselves; we can only suppress and distort it. Fundamentally, philosophy is not invention, but excavation; not exploration, but archaeology. The lies we believe today are the lives we will live tomorrow.'

curiosity morality honesty integrity philosophy illusion delusion doublethink hypocrisy StefanMolyneux books pdf
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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CynicusEconomicus -- The Origins and Development of the Economic Crisis

'There is still a period of adjustment to the real structure of the world economy to take place. This can only be achieved through seeing the destruction of the swathes of the economy that were supported through the distribution and consumption of resources that were generated from overseas. -- ...debtor nations have become credit addicts, and become ever more dependent upon the credit to sustain the structure of their economy, which is itself structured around debt. The more credit they get, the more their economic structure will be shaped to utilise the credit. The population of each country is unaware of the source of their apparent wealth, which is too abstract to understand, and they then resist any reform which might mean that they have to accept their real level of wealth. The politicians cave in, and hope that something will indeed turn up... In the end, the creditor nations must blink. They will only support the profligate so far.'

economics debt delusion entitlement malinvestment correction
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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CynicusEconomicus -- The Origins and Development of the Economic Crisis

'In the period since the financial crisis, there has been no action to address or recognise the problem. Instead, the reaction has been a host of measures to try to restore a situation that was, of itself, a delusion. Front and centre were the bank bailouts. The process was not only one in which government money was poured into the banking system, but also a process of allowing the banks to hide their underlying insolvency. Governments have also borrowed to support the existing economic structure, which is an attempt to maintain employment and activity, which is itself an attempt to support (for example) real estate prices, which in turn supports the value of bank assets, which in turn supports the viability of the financial system. It is all circular, with one element supporting the other, with overseas borrowing the foundation of the system. It is impossible to tease apart the circular relationships. Governments must keep on borrowing more and more, or the whole edifice falls apart.'

economics debt delusion bailout ponzi
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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Freedomain Radio -- #1184 The Truth as Psychotic Drug (MP3)

Gisted -- It's important to understand what occurs emotionally for people when you bring first principles into the conversation. You are unravelling their fantasy and so they go through a semi-psychotic episode. Their delusions are all of their relationships: with their family, with their church, with their government, with their friends – and with the truth, with virtue. And so we have to be gentle. Being injected with the drug called philosophy turns everyone around you into a monster who will attack you for questioning their bigotry with threats of punishment and withdrawals of affection – particularly so with children. And that is a terrifying existence. But the fundamental horror is, you look into the mirror and you see a monster: you see that you have taken as beauty your symmetry with other monsters, that you have taken as integrity your dissemination and infliction of vile moral lies on others. And that is something people don't want to experience.

emotionalintelligence philosophy ideology falseconsciousness psychosis delusion indoctrination abuse StefanMolyneux
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Plato's Cave (animated version)

The Death of Socrates: Socrates asks Glaucon to consider the condition of the man returning to the cave: "Wouldn't he remember his first home, what passed for wisdom there, and his fellow prisoners, and consider himself happy and them pitiable? And wouldn't he disdain whatever honors, praises, and prizes were awarded there to the ones who guessed best which shadows followed which? Moreover, were he to return there, wouldn't he be rather bad at their game, no longer being accustomed to the darkness? Wouldn't it be said of him that he went up and came back with his eyes corrupted, and that it's not even worth trying to go up? And if they were somehow able to get their hands on and kill the man who attempts to release and lead up, wouldn't they kill him?"

realityprogramming puppetry illusion delusion pseudoworlds newspeak 1984 thematrix denial Socrates reality enlightenment truth philosophy
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Did Philip K. Dick disclose the real 'Matrix' in 1977?

"A dark-haired girl shows up at the door of the protagonist and tells him that his [word] is delusional." -- We are living in a word-programmed reality and whenever one word is changed an alternative reality branches off.

PKD pseudoworlds literaryculturevsoralculture legalese words realityprogramming magick thematrix fake delusion reality philosophy
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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YouTube -- Peter Schiff: Bailout American Style

Borrow to bailout -- "How many people can ride in the wagon? Somebody has got to get out and pull."

economics bailout moralhazard debt delusion PeterSchiff
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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The Last Psychiatrist -- Reality Responds To The Matrix

'The narcissist says: if it can't happen to me, it can't really happen. 2500 Americans can't just die in one day. But 9/11 was different. It didn't respect the rules. It violated the most important aspect of postmodern narcissism: story. Not only was the attack a surprise – no warning, no buildup, no exposition, no rising action – but even the characters were a surprise. We were revealed to be powerless. No heroes. No one knew kung fu. -- You might say that the Great Recession we're in now should end postmodern narcissism. Nope. Amazingly, all I hear and read are calls for punishing those who got us into this mess (Wall Street), "fixing the system," "solving the housing crisis." People are waiting for things to "get back to normal." People: this is normal. The past twenty years-- easy credit, college for everyone that leads to a job at Starbucks, unemployment under 6% – that was abnormal. -- So: two huge historical realities have had no impact on our cultural narcissism.'

psychology psychiatry metanarratives identity heroism fantasy grandiosity narcissism entitlement culture delusion irrationality
may 2010 by adamcrowe

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