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Jeffrey A. Tucker is Founder and President of the Brownstone Institute and the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press and ten books in 5 languages, most recently Liberty or Lockdown. He is also a columnist at Forbes, founder of the Atlanta Bitcoin Embassy, and Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Austrian Economics Center in Vienna, Austria. He is the editor of The Best of Mises [economist Ludwig von Mises]. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.
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Scratch a Liberal and you will find a Fascist
Dumbest thing I’ve read this week. But the week ain’t over yet.
Some moderation. Please.
The spam has been deleted. Looking to upgrade spam protection for this section of the site.
Don’t worry, if you read anything (unlikely), I’m sure it’ll be far less intelligent.
Sadistic coercion. I was looking for a phrase to articulate the character trait I have seen growing in my left-leaning friends over the past few years (accelerating greatly during the Trump years). That and the identification and ostracism of the Other – who are then in-line for some sadistic coercion.
‘Left’, ‘Right’. Divide and rule?
‘The reality’?
“Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens
Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page
Each of four theoretical traditions in the study of American politics—which can be characterized as theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic-Elite Domination, and two types of interest-group pluralism, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism—offers different predictions about which sets of actors have how much in?uence over public policy: average citizens; economic elites; and organized interest groups, mass-based or business-oriented. A great deal of empirical research speaks to the policy in?uence of one or another set of actors, but until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions against each other within a single statistical model. We report on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues. Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent in?uence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism. “
https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf
Do the best you can in this cray world with the time, talent and resources available to you. The essence of love is forgiveness, regardless of the sadistic coercion around you. You are coerced only if you wish to be, regardless of your political persuasion.
“You are coerced only if you wish to be, regardless of your political persuasion.” Explain it to any victim of a rape or mugging.
Your guest says he has changed his view of
human nature due to recent events. Recent
events have merely proven all my suspicions
about human nature to be affirmed.
Human stupidity, a condition inherent in the
species, is the sole cause of the current
malaise. More people succumb to it than don’t,
and eventually this flaw will mercifully lead to
the extinction of the race.
I suspect it is a characteristic that Ma Nature
instilled in us to insure our ultimate demise,
hopefully to be replaced by a species
less self- destructively obtuse.
This. My darker suspicions have been confirmed. However the SCOTUS decision gives me temporary confidence that I will be able to witness the coming show in relative health. Glad to have witnessed a relatively happy and carefree time growing up. I can accept both slow and less — currently reading Plato which remains foundational.
I do not think this guy is pugged in to what I see happening here and around the world. He seems to need Jim to kick him in the pants to get him to somewhat reluctantly comment on the topics of the day.
This was exactly how I felt listening to this–I got about 40 minutes in before i get fed up and turned it off, which was absolutely a first (OTOH, I think I listened to the David E. Martin one from last month like four times.)
With the Corona thing, for instance, it’s like this guy never left March/April 2020 and is still completely stuck on the whole “lockdowns don’t work and are hurting people more than the virus” thing. Well yes they are Jeffrey, and that appears to in fact be the entire point if you haven’t noticed.
I guess I’m not all that surprised though. First, the guy is a boomer, and second–more presciently– he is a card-carrying libertarian: a political subculture (some exceptions like Ilana Mercer notwithstanding) notorious for obliviousness and navel-gazing.
Excellent conversation.
Yes, sadly most do not want freedom, truth, justice.
“acquiescing”… sounds a lot like “just following orders” to me.
I had a theory that this covid tunnel vision inflicting policy makers might of had to do with thier generally advanced age. I mean who does the virus mostly kill?