I’ve already written how polluting and depleting appropriate other people’s lives, liberty, and property without their consent. Societies used to take other society’s land—also known as colonialism—by invading or settling. Nowadays they avoid the risk of violence by addicting people. The opium wars were fought over incapacitating a population with opium. Now we do it with cell phones and hydroelectric dams. A new way of appropriating others’ land is by[…] Keep reading →

I was thinking about the people who manufacture addictive things like doof. If you believe that someone choosing to buy something means they valued what they bought more than what they paid for it, then you think that the more they buy, the more they’ve improved their lives. Then the more addictive you make the product, the more you sell. You can tell yourself that your profit means their life[…] Keep reading →

I tried to remember what I bought this year besides food. My doormen remark when a package arrives for me since I get a few per year. I ask if anyone else gets less. They say not even close. They tell me that some people receive more packages in some weeks than I do in a year, and many such weeks. As for food, I probably spend about $200/month, though[…] Keep reading →

The first time I unplugged my fridge was December 2019. A few months later Covid hit and I lived outside the city a couple months. My fridge remained unplugged, but I don’t count that time since I wasn’t home. The next time I unplugged earlier in the year: November 2020, and made it six months or so before spring warm weather made keeping things fresh harder. The next year I[…] Keep reading →

Why are some people homeless? Why does the problem persist throughout time and across cultures? Learning about dominance hierarchies as systems helps see patterns beyond just what the eye sees. Take, for example, the observation that some cities in the US have greater homeless populations than others. People are quick to assign causality to correlation. To understand helplessness and homelessness, it helps to understand freedom. If freedom is ability to[…] Keep reading →

When people talk about industries sowing doubt to avoid being scrutinized or regulated, people often say that those industries are using the tactics of big tobacco. It happens a lot with businesses the pollute and deplete a lot. I think they’re mostly relying on the book Merchants of Doubt, which wrote about how the tobacco industry created uncertainty and other tactics, not to defend themselves so much as to deflect[…] Keep reading →

This nation’s government says it’s just only if based on the consent of the governed. Consider Cancer Alley. Nobody consents to being given cancer. Nobody consents to being born with a birth defect. Yet Cancer Alley and other sacrifice zones are growing. I don’t deny that people can benefit from perks that come from activities that pollute and deplete, but as long as they pollute and deplete, they violate what[…] Keep reading →

I found a podcast episode from the Cato Institute, where I spoke last year and met some wonderful people: How Does Libertarianism Deal with the Problem of Pollution?. I’m posting quotes from them mainly for future reference. Sorry if the post isn’t my most readable, but my main response: Lack of hands-on practical experience leads them to opposed their own values. They think no pollution means the end of civilization,[…] Keep reading →

I’ve been learning more about America’s founders who opposed slavery, their personal actions on slavery, and their resulting views. Lately I’ve been learning more about James Madison so saved some comments on him by a biographer, Drew McCoy. I haven’t finished a full biography of him, so I’m just starting learning about him in more depth, but I’m coming to see his views on slavery versus liberty, freedom, equality, and[…] Keep reading →