While Bloomberg’s retarded proposal to limit the size of soft drink containers is getting a lot of attention I don’t think most people really understand how serious the problem is. I’ve had conversations with a few people who were admitted Marxist and many others who merely claimed they were Liberals or Progressives. One of the things they all had in common was their extremely simple view of the world while simultaneously proclaimed they were smarter than others and that gave them the authority to force others to live as they demanded. Any mention of individual freedom was immediately shot down because “People don’t do what is best for themselves or society.”
One of the admitted Marxists proclaimed, “I’m a firm believer in the good of society over the good of the individual.” In his world view the individual just doesn’t matter. Government must do what is best for the good of society and if the individual sometimes doesn’t get what they want or gets hurt that is just too bad. Pointing out I could find nothing different in that justification versus that used by those who murdered innocent civilians in 10s of millions in the last century yielded comments to the effect of “They made some horrible mistakes. We just need the right people in charge.” Of course he believed he was one of the right people.
Just as Bloomberg apparently cannot think one step ahead to how easily his proposed restriction on “high capacity” soft drink containers would be defeated these people cannot envision what follows next from their every proposed attempt at restricting individual liberty and the free market. In one of the recent books of Thomas Sowell that I listened to he related the story of when he was a economics student and was enamored with some idea that would “force people to do the right thing”. He proudly presented it to his instructor who asked, “And then what happens?” Sowell initially was perplexed. Why of course, the desired outcome would happen. There was a law or regulation that required people to do the right thing. The instructor pushed him to think it through from an economics point of view. And Sewell thought it through and gave the answer that only slightly diminished his enthusiasm for the idea. The instructor again pushed, “And then what happens?” Again Sowell answered and his enthusiasm damped just a bit more. As the instructor pushed him again and again Sowell walked through the rippling effects of the simple one law and it was not long before he realized that not only was the effect of the law far less simple than what he thought but it would not result in his desired outcome. Everyone touched by the “one simple law” would pay a price with no one, except perhaps the bureaucrats and the politicians, receiving a net benefit.
The typical gun controller cannot conceive of why registration of firearms would not make society safer. Unintended consequences escape their grasp all the while they proclaim themselves to be morally and intellectually superior to us. It’s all just “common sense” to them. They vehemently insist there are, literally, easy answers to some difficult problems that involve the constitution, criminology, psychology, and practicality of implementation. I sometimes believe those that insist that if someone had not had a concealed carry permit they wouldn’t have committed multiple murders must be suffering from some kind of insanity. If one is willing to break the law against murder why would they obey the law against carrying a concealed firearm or even ownership of a firearm? Why is it so incredibly difficult for them to think even one step ahead?
I struggle with how to get what I think are extremely simple concepts across to these people. Even everyday things Liberals/Progressives claim to be experts on they are profoundly ignorant and/or stupid on. One Liberal I know went on about how because something was “natural” it was “so much better for you”. I asked what the definition of “natural” was. Was this opposed to “super-natural”? This is about the only thing that even comes close in my mind. She said, “No. Natural is something that is not man-made.” “So”, I queried, “Does that mean the lemonade you are drinking is not natural? At the bare minimum a man or woman had to squeeze the juice from the lemon and mix it with water.” The response was, “If you ask that then you are just stupid.”
This liberal can’t even present a defendable definition of a word that she uses in probably 25% of her conversations with me and she calls me stupid? How do you get through to someone like that?
Sowell’s instructor had an advantage we don’t. He or she had a very bright student with a grasp of economic theory and the student was in a subordinate position. Liberals/Progressives will not tolerate being in a subordinate position. They believe they are superior to non-liberals and any challenge to that world view is met with an attack. And if the verbal attack isn’t sufficient to “win” their argument they are more than willing, as Bloomberg is demonstrating, to use force to get our compliance.
People with the intellectually power and problem domain knowledge of a 2nd grader are demanding they be put in charge of essentially everything with guns to back up their decisions. This is some seriously scary stuff.
“We just need the right people in charge”
Unfortunately power always attracts the wrong people.
And people make fun of Hornady’s Zombie-Max ammunition…..
What an idiot: Doesn’t he know I’m the right person to be in charge?
Isn’t this our current administration?
People who have been touted as supremely intelligent, in charge and implementing their idealistic yet broken policies.
Show me just one governmental agency that operates really well and I’ll be quiet (but please compare it to the alternative of free enterprise or individual behavior in regards to efficiency, liberty, cost, size, unintended consequences, graft/corruption, and so on).
This is why the marxist, socialist, progressive and totalitarian ideologies are all doomed to failure and often in a spectacular and bloody way. I have zero respect for anyone who espouses these views because they have directly killed millions upon millions of people.
Might does NOT make right.
Yes, those ideaologies are indeed doomed to spectacular failures. The trouble is, they are doomed to endlessly repeated failures, for these fools will always be with us.
You have presented an argument in favor of individual liberty, based on rights inherent in individuals, and government of limited power.
Your opponents present not an argument but an assumption in favor of the exact opposite. To expect they will respond to a rational argument or change their assumptions in the face of facts is not realistic on your part.
You state that they have “the intellectually power and problem domain knowledge of a 2nd grader” and you are correct. When I was in 2nd Grade, I saw my teacher put a misbehaving child over her knee in front of the class and give him several swats on his pants seat, to emphasize that he was not allowed to act that way. The whole class understood that we were not allowed to misbehave, because the consequences were severely negative for us if we did.
That is how one handles immature demanding people, by enforcing reality upon them and not just resisting or arguing against their ill-conceived demands, but by actively dominating them and demanding correct actions by them despite their whining. In the case of our government, the correct action is enforcement of limitations on government power and respect under law for individual rights.
I think it’s really unfair to retarded people to compare them to Mike Bloomberg.
Most people with mental handicaps live their entire lives never hurting anyone, and those that do generally only do so on a retail basis. Mike Bloomberg has spent his entire political career sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong and using the coercive power of the NYPD to force people to do his bidding.
If you want to understand a little better, study hypnotism. The left is retarded by the hypnotic state that has been foisted upon them. Also study the phenomenon og human social bonding/interacting. Those two subject will explain everything, exept, maybe, for the motivation for spreading hate, murder, and so on. You’ll have to delve into the soul, or something, for that.
“Retarded” means slowed-down or hindered. The word applies directly and correctly, without interpretation or insinuation. Applying the word to someone with a mental, or brain defect of some kind is to use the word in a something of a slight euphemism. Yes; they are retarded, but it’s because of a brain defect. One can be retarded by strapping on a 100 pound backpack, or one’s mental abilities may be retarded by hypnotism. The ignition timing in my car can be retarded by rotating the distributor in the direction of rotation.
“…the Marxist, socialist, progressive and totalitarian ideologies are all doomed to failure and often in a spectacular and bloody way.”
I argue that envy, hatred, and the desire for mass destruction are the primary motivations for totalitarian thinking. Therefore I submit that it succeeds every time it’s tried. There are those who are fooled by it, sure, but they don’t change the fact, do they?
Ted Bundy’s purpose was murder. That he managed to fool people into believing otherwise does not prove that he had a broken arm, needed help, and was a nice guy and it simply all “failed” when someone got murdered. See? You can’t put “the right person” in charge of fooling people for the sake of robbing, intimidating, retarding, incapacitating, angering and/or killing them, which is the entire purpose of all control regimes. Marxism is a true success, to some extent, every time it’s tried because it always results in theft, stagnation, frustration, division and decline in some fashion. When it results in millions murdered and whole civilizations destroyed, it is a smashing success. You’ll have to get your minds right about this if you’re to deal with it properly. Leftism (the lust for power over others) is a purely criminal enterprise.
The Left’s ideas are un-falsifiable. Their ignorance is invincible. This is why the notion is rapidly catching on that there is no compromising with them. They must be defeated and kept away from the levers of power. Whole swathes of society, which were abandoned to their depredations — education, journalism, the arts — must be reclaimed from them or given up altogether. Some may be converted through repeated teaching and their own experience, but — sadly — not many. It will not be a quick process. There will be many setbacks. But it must be done or the whole of civilization will be taken down by their idiocy.
M
At the root of all evil is the “entitlement society”. No, I don’t mean those who think they are entitled to your and my income, they are just a by-product of evil. It’s all about those who feel entitled to govern us. Those who feel entitled to govern are always the ones to watch out for, for they have forgotten that democracy only works with the CONSENT of the governed.
Rivrdog: Screw “democracy”. Ultimately, all government only works through the consent of the governed, because otherwise they revolt. Democracy is just a means of giving people with no legitimate claim to it power over your life.
I think the solution to what Mark is talking about will have to be the destruction of democracy. We need a system where the majority cannot impose their illegitimate whims on the minority. We don’t accept the principle that “might makes right”, even though might can often get its way through force. Why should we accept the principle that “majority makes right” either?
I often use a simple version of “What happens next?” being the simple southern boy I am. When talking with liberals or even the simply misguided regarding their utopian laws, plans and dreams I simply say I agree if they won’t use guns against the poor/minorities/etc. to enforce it. Really, the victim group changes according to the person I’m talking with. Now, almost 100% of the time these people are rabidly anti-gun and/or pro-fill in the blank so they always take the bait. Then we follow their proposed idea and i simply take their favored victim group group and say X disagrees…What happens? There is no escaping the stormtroopers showing up at some point and forcing compliance. I have seen SERIOUS pain on peoples faces when forced to walk themselves thru an outcome like this again and again and it only takes a minute or two.