Liberty much like buffet choices

(My Clovis News Journal column for April 1, 2016)

Buffets are nice. You get to choose what you like from all the glorious possibilities offered, picking and choosing your favorites. If you see something you find disgusting, skip it and move on to the next item. No single buffet can possibly offer everything, but no one can tell the buffets what to offer. Consider them all together and your dining choices are practically unlimited.

Some people think of liberty as a buffet, but they want to be in control of what's offered so as to limit the choices others can make. They want to pick and choose between the things they personally like while claiming everything they don't like is off-limits for everyone. This is the opposite of liberty.

With liberty you can choose anything which doesn't violate another person or their private property. The popular, the offensive, the wise, and the foolish- they are all there. Things you love and things you hate. The only thing not available is the authority to tell others which selections they can't choose. Neither are you allowed to slap the choices you disapprove of from anyone's tray.

No one will force you to take part in things you don't like, but they are there if you ever change your mind. Your power lies in making the choices for yourself, not for anyone else.

In other words, you don't get to decide what is on the buffet, even as you decide which parts to enjoy.

Be warned: this liberty buffet has many choices which may offend you. Some of the offerings may even offend the majority of people. But as long as one doesn't use private property against the wishes of the owner, nor use violence against those who are not being violent nor violating someone else's property, it's simply none of your business. Being offended is your personal problem, not a license to push others around.

This is hard for a lot of people, even some who claim to support liberty. People react strongly to those things which offend or disgust them, forgetting that things they see as normal probably disgust and offend someone else.

It's painful to see someone who says they love liberty trying to limit other people's choices on the grounds that those choices are disgusting.

Respecting liberty doesn't mean you approve of everything others might do, it means you recognize where the limits of your power lie. It's an issue of boundaries.

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Is "Cops are scum" collectivism?

(Previously posted to Patreon)

In spite of the well-meaning-- but misguided-- objections of some liberty lovers, "Cops are scum" is NOT a collectivist statement. It is a recognition of identity.

Frozen water is ice. It doesn't matter what form it takes; whether a snowflake, an icicle, or the surface of a hockey rink. It doesn't matter what contaminants it contains or any other conditions. If it is frozen water, it is ice.

If someone is a cop, that person is scum.

Only scum would lower itself to do the things a cop must do as a part of the job.

It doesn't matter how nice Cousin Bob the Cop is at the family picnics. If cousin Bob is a cop, then cousin Bob is required to be scum while he is on the clock. Can a person be part-time scum, or does it color everything he does? Can there be good serial killers?

Now, maybe you believe scum is a necessary component of society. That's a different question altogether. I believe you are wrong, but it's a question for another day.

Saying "cops are scum" is no more collectivist than saying "rapists are aggressors". "Policing" is what someone does, not who they are. A rapist might be the nicest person you ever met while they aren't raping. They might save little old ladies from violent death. But, still, as a rapist he is an aggressor-- not a "good person" at all, no matter what else he does. And, no matter what good a cop may do, as a cop he is scum.

Saying something like "Black people are criminals" is collectivist. No one chooses his or her "race". Being "Black" or "White" or "Asian" doesn't mean anything as to the character of the person. I know people of every "race" who could disprove any collectivist accusation anyone could dream up about them, good or bad.

But being a cop is a conscious choice. It is the choice to enforce counterfeit "laws" against people. It is the choice to be a thief and aggressor. Choosing to be a cop is choosing specific actions and behaviors. You can't make that choice and be a good person.

Every good thing a cop might do could just as easily be done by anyone. Every evil committed by a cop could only be committed and gotten away with by those operating under the safety net of being a cop. Cops are allowed to commit evil by "virtue" of their job. Things you or I would rightfully be shot for doing, cops do every single day.

So, when someone doesn't like the truth that "cops are scum" being shared, and tries to make the case that you are being as collectivist as racists, just remember: "Cop" is a behavior, not a "race". To deny that some behaviors are evil is denying reality.

#CopsAreScum

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Letting "the law" control you

If you go out of your way to make an effort to break a "law" just because it's "illegal", you are just as much a slave to the "law" as those who go out of their way to obey.

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If you get any value from my labors, consider rewarding me with your financial support. This blog is in its 10th year now. If you believe I have contributed anything to the conversation regarding liberty during these ten years, and believe I have more to contribute, help me stay online.