Libertarian Thread #2: We Shall Never Die!

The T wrote: Epignosis wrote: The T wrote: Epignosis wrote: The T wrote: Epignosis wrote: So T, when will you be converting to Christianity?   When they stop opposing freedom....  "The truth shall set you free."  "Nothing shall set you free since you were born free."  I was a "go-along" Christian until 16 or so. Eventually I said things orthodox Christians didn't like, like how the doctrine of the Trinity is a fraud, "Satan" does not exist, and "hell" is a bullsh*t scare tactic people made up.  I also drink beer because Christ made wine! Neal Morse is booed for his "preachiness," but ironically, he would be viewed with scorn in most churches in the US because he also is not a Trinitarian. Interesting. I have never have profound religious beliefs. My family has never been religious. At one point in my life I used to pray but eventually I realized it was empty interested prayer: I was not really praying out of faith but out of interest. I stopped immediately.  Politically I've never been nothing because I never found an answer to many questions in my head and in my ego and in my personality. Thus, I tried to create order in that chaos with control, and control is the basic point of communism and fascism. Yes, I actually liked things of the Third Reich at one point in my life. It was all about power, narcissism, weakness of the ego and the self. of course I grew out of that but the belief still wasn't there because I never really believed in anything. It was easy to suscribe to democratic-socialism since it sounds nice, it's quite popular, and provided a safe cushion for my procrastinating self.  Not anymore. Because in the ideas of liberty and freedom I found myself. I always believed in all that. But my own inconsistencies stopped me from realizing the system I was dreaming off would only work if I RUN IT. Total show of a dangerous view of politics.  Not anymore.

You truly impress me.

Epignosis wrote: Llama, in the spirit of free trade, I will send you a copy of Refulgence (next Epignosis album) for a good book you wrote.  What say you?

Deal! As I say, my next one should be ready in a couple of days, so I will PM you for your address then.

Epignosis wrote: What a lot of folks don't realize is that "welfare" takes up so little of our budget, that if it were cut out completely, practically nothing would change in terms of government spending.

I think what Rob is getting at here is that when people think "welfare" they think "free money from the government", and that "free money" is such a tiny part of the budget that getting upset about it is pointless. Entitlement spending is not welfare because people pay into it, and it wouldn't be such a big problem if the government weren't so recklessly irresponsible. If the government hadn't written itself IOUs on the increased revenue from the increased Social Security taxes in the '80s we would actually have some money for when the Baby Boomers retire. 
 

Equality 7-2521 wrote:  This is why spending has to be cut. You can't tax your way out of a deficit, it doesn't work. Spending must be cut.

I think that everybody agrees spending should be cut, at least on the ground. In Washington, it might a different story, since people tend to get outraged when the abstract ideas of cutting programs starts to affect them, and Washington is foremost beholden to the elections. The disagreement is whether or not it's a good idea to slash spending in a recession and what exactly should be cut. 
 

Epignosis wrote:   The first novel I wrote is called Tolerance.  It deals with an alien race among US people.   This alien race is inherently inept and stupid, yet the United States government requires that teachers and other federally-funded entities cater to them and help them thrive, despite the havoc that doing so causes.

Is that...racist?


Edited by Henry Plainview - February 08 2011 at 01:29

Henry Plainview wrote:   Epignosis wrote:   The first novel I wrote is called Tolerance.  It deals with an alien race among US people.   This alien race is inherently inept and stupid, yet the United States government requires that teachers and other federally-funded entities cater to them and help them thrive, despite the havoc that doing so causes. Is that...racist?

Nope.  The aliens are a different species, not a different race.

Besides, race isn't an issue at all.  Culture is.


Edited by Epignosis - February 08 2011 at 07:34

Even if God exists, I don't see why I should love/respect/care about him at all. That's something that drove me away from Christianity. 

stonebeard wrote: I could go into tons of reasons why I'm an atheist, but the primary thing is that I simply hate the idea that something created me with the expectation of praise for doing so.

I'm still under the impression that our government really is mostly illusion. I can't get past the ticking voice in my head that screams "it's all divide and conquer!"; they get everyone riled up and their own citizens soon pick sides based on arbitrary values (which they were indoctrinated on by the system itself) then make un-informed choices about the entire countries future and spending. How can stupid, un-interested people who are more interested in American Idol, playing Call of Duty, and competing over who makes more money run a country built on our collective voice? They can't, and that's the entire point. I'd go so far to even say that it's basically a plutocracy in disguise as democracy to give people the illusion of choice, when both outcomes don't serve their well being in the long run. America is a giant Wal-Mart, and we are all employees. 

Edited by AllP0werToSlaves - February 08 2011 at 11:03

I always wanted to do a poll to see how many people would give up their right to vote in exchange for free cable.

AllP0werToSlaves wrote: "You may not have all you want, all you need All that you've had has been due to my hand It can change; It can stay the same Who's to say? Who can make their claim You are my people, and there must be no change! HAIL! HAIL! HAIL! TO THE POWER AND TO GLORYS WAY!"

Whitesnake?

Epignosis wrote: Henry Plainview wrote:   Epignosis wrote:  The first novel I wrote is called Tolerance.  It deals with an alien race among US people.   This alien race is inherently inept and stupid, yet the United States government requires that teachers and other federally-funded entities cater to them and help them thrive, despite the havoc that doing so causes. Is that...racist? Nope.  The aliens are a different species, not a different race.Besides, race isn't an issue at all.  Culture is.

Even I missed any racial implications here. Obviously, if it's alien, it's not human, therefore not racist from our point of view (speciesist? Planetist?). And if you were loomi g at the metaphoric side of it, I also understood it was more related to how the working people feed the lazy ones, no matter what race they have. That most poor people belong to minorities have nothig to do with race, but how they got here, and how they don't integrate into the system, or decide to love on external support and forget how to do things themselves.