TGIF: “Due Process” under Anarcho-Capitalism

TGIF: “Due Process” under Anarcho-Capitalism

Libertarian advocates of minimal government, such as the late Robert Nozick (Anarchy, State, and Utopia, 1974), have feared that individuals in a stateless libertarian society would face corrupt or careless protection firms that used "risky" rights-enforcement procedures to determine guilt or liability. Innocent people might be held responsible for offenses they did not commit, while guilty individuals avoid paying restitution to their victims. Obviously, that would be undesirable. Without a minimal monopoly state to prohibit such abuse and protect "procedural rights," how could innocent...

read more
TGIF: Notes on Anarcho-Capitalism

TGIF: Notes on Anarcho-Capitalism

I'm pretty sure I won't be around long enough to see anarcho-capitalism—or what I call market-ordered anarchism—prevail in the United States. I'm just as sure that I won't see government strictly limited to protecting individual rights and never violating them (if that's coherent). So that's a wash. But it doesn't follow that discussing individualist, pro-property, free-market alternatives to the current, virtually out-of-control political system in America is time wasted. Far from it! If we want to progress toward liberty, we'd better get a move on. The only proper way to proceed is through...

read more
TGIF: Trump Weighs in on Netflix, WBD, and CNN

TGIF: Trump Weighs in on Netflix, WBD, and CNN

The proposed merger of Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) "could be a problem," Donald Trump says, because Netflix has "a very big market share. When they have Warner Bros., that share goes up a lot." He said he would consult "some economists" on the matter, adding, "I’ll be involved in that decision, too." He went on to say that CNN, which is owned by WBD but is not part of Netflix's offer, should be included in any deal because the cable-news channel's management must be ousted: "I don't think they should be entrusted with running CNN any longer." He also said the "dishonest [people...

read more

Pinker on Peace and Enlightenment

"If, despite impressions, the long-term trend, though halting and incomplete, is that violence of all kinds is decreasing, I think that calls for a rehabilitation of the ideals of modernity and progress, and it's a cause for gratitude for the institutions of civilization and enlightenment." --Steven Pinker

read more
TGIF: Defending Israeli Mass Murder Isn’t Easy

TGIF: Defending Israeli Mass Murder Isn’t Easy

Although much has already been said, I can't not comment on Sarah Hurwitz, the former Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama speechwriter, who faults young people (especially young Jews) for applying their power of abstraction in thinking about the Holocaust. What do I mean by that? Hurwitz thinks (or says she does) that the TikTok generation makes a big mistake by drawing general lessons from the National Socialist regime's mass murder of European Jews last century. She is dismayed that young people have concluded that powerful bad people, no matter who they are, should not harm weak people, no...

read more

Pin It on Pinterest