Zack Sorenson

Peaceful Means Are Important For Victims Of Empire, Too

by Zack Sorenson | Sep 30, 2018 | Blog

What do we make of the Iranian Navy flexing its muscles in the Strait of Hormuz? I have a somewhat unique perspective within Libertarianism. I'm anti-war - okay that's not special - and anti-empire - that's hardly at all special. However, I'm a proponent of peace, and I think I go farther in this direction than many libertarians. The issue of Iran's military posture presents a good opportunity to delve into this nuanced view. I'm not a pacifist; I do believe in self-defense. If it's your life or an aggressor's at stake, then because they're an aggressor, justice leans to your side if you...

Personality Type, Politics, And The Need For Mythology

by Zack Sorenson | Sep 28, 2018 | Blog

I'm listening to the latest Thad Russell. He's interviewing a very smart, interesting intellectual academic named Daniel Bessner about defense intellectuals in the US. They get into an argument about the Nazis and the scope of their ambitions and ability to win. Thad mentions that Hitler's ambitions, as deeply nationalistic, were simply not colonial or expansionist beyond ambitions in Eastern Europe. He also puts forth the idea that Hitler's regime was unstable, economically underfunded, and so forth. These ideas are fairly uncontroversial among historians today. His interviewee, Bessner...

“SJW” Ideas Are Caused By Misunderstanding Class Theory

by Zack Sorenson | Sep 28, 2018 | Featured Articles, Op Eds

Have you ever heard this: "only white people can be racist" or "men need to learn that they aren't allowed to say whatever they want anymore" or "some speech just can't be allowed". Even the Kavanaugh hearing revealed the idea that when it comes to gender politics, traditional concepts of justice don't apply. I've recently realized the root cause of all this. Contemporary politics is derived from applying Marxian ideas about class to identity politics. In reality, the real world's class politics follow more closely to the ideas of classical liberal class theory. What does this mean? In...

Ever Changing Focus of Socialism

by Zack Sorenson | Sep 21, 2018 | Blog

I was watching a YouTube video by a socialist, and a thought occurred. Here was one of these intense, intellectual type leftists. His analysis was full of highly sophisticated ideological positions, and a lot of buzzwords. I compared this video to similar screeds, which I recall listening to 10-15 years ago in school. I realized that socialists always have this laundry list of things to complain about, and that the focus of those complaints is always changing. The substance of socialist thought seems to be strongly tied to intellectual fashion trends. In contrast, libertarians seem to...

A President I Would Vote For

by Zack Sorenson | Sep 20, 2018 | Blog

What policy platform would I vote for? Simply this: No military operations, ever, without a formal declaration of war from Congress. Otherwise, let the NSC carry out Congress' instructions. All declarations of war must have "win" conditions, which, once achieved, will signal the President to stop fighting the war - regardless of the diplomatic environment and Pentagon's feelings. Trespassing these conditions is grounds to fire NSC members. Supreme court nominees: if a law's constitutionality is dubious, force Congress to settle the question, otherwise strike it down completely. Make...

Why American Culture Sucks, And Wilsonianism Is Garbage

by Zack Sorenson | Sep 19, 2018 | Featured Articles, Op Eds

Russia Jailing People For Fake News: According to Yahoo. So what do "we do about this?" America's Wilsonian evangelism of spreading liberal democracy through military power has always been bunk. So let's not even start. Even so, I have recently been on about Hitler, WWII, and how I see that conflict as eerily similar to the Iraq Wars etc. (the main difference being the relative balance of power between the US and its strawman punk). Hitler was a megalomaniac who was also wrong enough about enough things to get millions killed. No doubt. However, he was not some spawn of Satan, though,...

Closed Borders Libertarians Are In Another Universe

by Zack Sorenson | Sep 17, 2018 | Blog

I have a pretty, probably, novel take on closed borders libertarians. They argument of restricting immigration says that there's a huge "public goods" infrastructure in the USA which needs to be protected, and this is just because it's our "private property". I get the argument. The biggest flaw here is very subtle, but when you understand it, it overrides everything: America is dead, dudes, give it up. There's this notion that there's a liberal, "civilized" American culture - the sort of Christian Leave-It-To-Beaver families out there. I suppose the thought is that restricting...

Ralph Raico Therapy

by Zack Sorenson | Sep 16, 2018 | Blog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj2sy0WXNIk "For the first time Americans are now paying attention to foreign policy and they say, 'Wow, there are such crazy people in the world. Here we were minding our own business... we were on a picnic when the thing happened, and here these crazy people want to attack us.' Go figure, human nature, 'Americans are the most peaceful, sweetest, most generous people in the world, people who love their children...' basically good guys, and here these people are trying to attack us." A little sarcasm to cure my Pearl Harbor blues. The Japanese didn't attack...