The problem-- the enemy-- isn't liberalism/progressivism or conservatism. It is authoritarianism. Government-supremacism. The variety you embrace is just as monstrous as the variety you hate.

It's obviously not that

They can call the Covid shots "vaccines" all they want, but that's not what they look like to me.

A cheesecake is, to me, obviously not a cake, but a pie.

And no matter what you call it, punishment looks to me like revenge, not justice. A lot of people-- even libertarians-- are very fond of punishment. They'll do anything to not let go of it.

I completely understand the primal desire for punishment. I've felt it myself. I get all the justifications for punishment. I just think they are wrong.

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Speak now or forever hold your peace

If there is any interest in getting a Time's Up flag, let me know soon. The time for my decision on whether to keep the flags for sale or not is fast approaching.

Marty McFly improved his 1985 at the cost of destroying our 2021. It's why "hoverboards" have wheels in this timeline.

Leave the garbage in the trash pit

Migrants who bring bad ideas with them, into any new place which still tolerates politics, almost always try to turn their refuge into a sewer. 

Whether they are migrants from California who turn Colorado into a mirror of what they fled, or people from Middle East theocracies who want to impose the same failed brutal systems they felt the need to escape onto their new neighbors, it happens time after time.

I doubt they realize what they are doing. I'd bet they are just craving the familiar.

If the backward superstitions of democracy and political "authority" didn't already enslave the population, there wouldn't be a danger. It probably wouldn't be possible to accomplish. Even those who hate democracy (but still believe in politics) see how useful democracy can be to achieve the dystopia they crave. If all you have to do is out-v*te someone else, you can enslave them however you want.

If you try to remake your new home into a version of the old place you had to escape, you're a moron. If you work to impose it on others, you're committing evil.

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Happy Armistice Day

That's something worth celebrating in some way.

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Why cave in to their tantrums?

A commenter told me the proper word for "mandate" is "dictate". I like that. Even though I don't see any positive side to "mandate", "dictate" is even more assertively negative. Good. Brush aside those cozy euphemisms. 

I'd go even further. Any mandate or policy or legislation is a tantrum. A bully's tantrum. "You do what I want or I'll make you suffer!" I've encountered enough bullies to recognize them by their behavior.

Bullies are stunted in their maturation process. Who would let nasty, demanding children-- spoiled toddlers with guns-- run their lives? Often, "children" who've never done anything productive and are now old and wrinkled, physically and spiritually. Bullying is all they know.

I hate bullies-- they are all political whether they are governmental or freelance. And I hate their tantrums. I have no intention of changing my behavior based on their tantrums. 

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I firmly believe that if someone doesn't want to be shot in the act of attacking someone, the responsibility to not be an attacker is theirs. Regardless of the beliefs of the person forced into the position of defending himself. Only a corrupt, broken system deserving of abolition would ever prosecute the defender. In case you misunderstand, I'm not only speaking of one case that's currently in the public eye, either.

Some people are... what's the word?

You just can't protect people from themselves. Some people seem determined to do stupid things. You can give them tools to protect themselves from their own inclinations, but they won't use them. Then they'll be angry when you don't (or can't) drop everything and come rescue them from a situation you've done all you can to help them prevent, but they didn't do anything to avoid.

There's one person in my life who is this way, and no matter how I work to make it so that this person doesn't get into these situations, my efforts are pointless. 

Not only that, when something along these lines happens, it's somehow my fault. "You know I..." ...do this thing I've told them over and over again is a bad idea. But they do it anyway and get angry if I warn against doing it, and get mad at me when the thing I've warned against happens-- as it always does. And Heaven help me if I mention this after it happens!

I know part of it is that this person likes to disrupt the lives of others. It makes them the center of attention. It may not even be a conscious thing. They are also the least self-aware person I've ever met.

They are simply a garden-variety statist-- the standard statist irresponsibility and all that.

It's just a frustrating thing.

I must remind myself "Be like water. Flow around the obstacles."

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Political opinions can be irrelevant, if you let them be

I follow some preppers on YouTube who have opinions-- political opinions-- I don't agree with. 

I still respect their other opinions-- their opinions on prepping-- because they don't try to force those weird political opinions on anyone else. Thus, those warped opinions are irrelevant. Their other opinions are still worthwhile.

There are others I generally respect who can't let go of some really dumb beliefs that make me occasionally pause and reconsider their beliefs on other topics. But, yeah, they can be super smart in some ways while having blind spots in other places.

That's how it is with those in my personal sphere who have political opinions but don't try to impose them on anyone. They may believe bizarre nonsense, but it doesn't matter if they don't use those beliefs against others.

No matter how toxic someone's opinions may be, as long as they keep them personal and don't try to force others to live according to them, I can ignore them (but not forget they exist-- that would be dangerous).

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Best to let people try different things

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for October 6, 2021)

The best survival strategy for a society, a civilization, or a species is to let individuals try different things. Get out of their way, even when you believe their choice will lead to certain doom. The only legitimate limit is when an action would violate the life, liberty, or property of another. In that case, the intended victim has the right to stop the violator, but otherwise, step aside.

Every choice is a fork in the road. You can't see what's ahead along either path. You may strongly believe one thing is, others may just as strongly believe something else is. It's wisest to let everyone choose their own path.

The fork usually has more than two options and no expert can know which is the best path. In fact, what would be trouble for some might be perfect for you. Don't let political authorities dictate your choice. Yes, you may choose poorly. Others will make a different choice which works out well. The more free we are to choose, the better our species will fare.

So, let some get vaccinated and let others decline to do so. Let some wear masks, let others breathe free.

Let some people use Bitcoin, let others trade in precious metals, let others trust government fiat money, while others diversify.

Let some people work with solar energy, let others provide petroleum, and let others develop Generation IV nuclear energy.

Let those who embrace risk emigrate to Mars and let others stay on Earth.

The more variety in the paths taken, the better off we'll all be.

One size does not fit all. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Let people choose what they believe is the best path, even when you're sure they are wrong. Feel free to give them your reasons and then step away and don't force them to do what you believe is best. You could be wrong. I could be wrong. It's not good to make everyone do the exact same thing.

This is why government legislation is such a bad idea for humanity as a whole. It limits options and forces everyone down a funnel which might lead to a really bad outcome. Even if it allows a couple of choices, those choices are artificially limited to the ones politicians like. Do you trust politicians to run your life? I don't. Just as I don't trust myself to run your life.

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Dark humor?

I drove past this accident about 5 or 10 minutes after it happened yesterday. I found perverse humor in the billboards above one of the wrecked vehicles. 

I was relieved to find out no one was killed, because I figured someone died at the scene (the other wrecked pickup was a little farther down the road and was pretty much destroyed).

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"Any encounter you have with an armed gang member has the potential to turn deadly -- sometimes accidentally. You don't have to be an idiot who demonizes all MS-13 members for the abuses of some to understand this."
Oh, wait, she was speaking in support of cops, not MS-13. ALL cops are evil scum. (Yes, that one, too.) Recognizing this truth doesn't make one an idiot. Trying to justify cops, because you are too cowardly to live without them, just might.

Pouring water into a full cup

If you have a cup that is filled to the brim with good water, have you gained anything by pouring in another cup full of water? Well, as my daughter pointed out, you've gained a mess.

In reality, there's nothing worthwhile to gain by adding more to that full cup. 

What if you aren't even the one choosing what will be poured into your full cup? Can you trust the one adding something to your cup? If what is poured in is not what you want in your cup, there's still a way to lose but no way to gain.

If having caught and survived Covid filled your bodily "cup" with antibodies-- natural immunity-- does a "vaccine" add anything helpful? Is "more" better? Not if you are already filled to the brim. 

Plus, you've added the risk of something you might not want ending up in you since you have no control of what's being added.

You do what you want, but that's just something to think about.

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Hail to the teapot

There are plenty of bad things you can say about Joe Biden, but at least he's made it obvious (to anyone who didn't already get it) that the presidency is pointless and unnecessary. If he can hold the job, anything can. 

Any mystique is gone. It's just a figurehead; a placeholder. A face for the bureaucratic tyranny and for the "authority" worshipers to focus on. Any face would do; alive or not. For that matter, a teapot would probably do.

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Silence-- the best policy?

I probably get a stupid look on my face.

When? Any time someone starts telling me some "wonderful" thing a politician they like is doing. Chances are, I don't think it's wonderful. I probably don't like their politician, either.

It happens pretty often.

One topic from this category I encounter often is people gushing over border control.

I got an email from someone just a couple of days ago. He invited me to join his trip to the border to thank the border control agents, the National Guard, and the sheriffs for "keeping us safe". I'm not going to do that. I'm against Big Government every time.

Why would I thank the jailers who are keeping the cell doors locked? Which side of the cell do these borderists imagine they are on?

Then, just a day or so later, I was treated to a glowing report of some politician-- the Texas governor-- taking it into his own hands to build a border wall without the US feral government's help, and against their wishes.

Look, I get why people want borders, I just don't agree with them anymore.

Those aren't the only topics. I've had the same reaction to government-supremacists talking about schools, gun legislation, cops, drugs, taxes, social media, property codes, and just about everything else governments screw up.

Anyway, at times like those I've found it's best to just not respond. At all. Or change the subject. They aren't going to listen to the other side-- even from someone who was once on the other side. So, I probably sit there with a blank expression for a while, until the topic changes to something more civilized. Silence is (or can be) golden.

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When the criminals run the show

A local doctor has been sentenced for "parading, demonstrating or picketing in a capitol building" in Washington, District of Crooks, on this past January 6th. (Notice, no charges for "insurrection".)

I would probably disagree with him on just about every contentious topic that forms an excuse for committing political acts against others, but he had more right to be in that building than the vile congressvermin who cowered under their chairs that day. The building belongs to him, not to government employees.

He is not the criminal; those punishing him are criminals.

If I couldn't side with people I (probably, or for sure) disagree with when they are victimized by thugs, my principles would be worthless. What use are worthless principles? Why bother?

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In most cases, it seems as pointless to say "the government" as it does to say "the cancer". The disease is bigger than an individual case. It's not enough to cure one specific instance, you want to cure the whole category so it doesn't come back. If one person has cancer wouldn't they prefer all versions be cured so they don't get a different one later?

They could have solved politics

I know it's dangerous to say this, but the only way the US Constitution wouldn't have been a failure from the very beginning is if it had made the assassination of politicians explicitly permissible for any reason.

Yes, there are rare cases where that would be a clear violation of the ZAP, but so is establishing a state. If they can do one, they can do both.

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Ignorance as social lubricant

When I was a kid and teen, I pretended to not know a lot of things I knew. I did this in self-defense. 

I had figured out at an early age that people didn't like it when I knew things they didn't know. Especially people who were older than me and thought of themselves as "authority". So I feigned ignorance a lot to survive socially. 

It was a hard habit to break, even once I stopped caring so much about what others thought. I still sometimes catch myself self-censoring for the same reason. 

I've also learned that it can be fun watching someone digging themselves into a deep hole. And, I'll admit I sometimes toss a little fuel on the fire by pretending to not know something, asking strange questions, and seeing where they go with it. We all need hobbies, right?

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