Neuroscientist/philosopher Sam Harris caused quite a stir recently by defending the social networks' conspiracy (his word) to suppress news coverage of Joe Biden's son Hunter's smoking-gun laptop shortly before Election Day 2020. Harris said the suppression was...
Justice
TGIF: Question Intuition!
by Sheldon Richman | Sep 16, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
In the 1960s a popular button that New Left activists wore implored everyone to "Question Authority!" It was good advice, even though many kinds of authority exist. Some authority is chosen (for example, one's doctor) and others are compulsory (the government). But in...
TGIF: Reject Both Identity and Egalitarian Politics
by Sheldon Richman | Sep 9, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
The push-back against identity politics by disillusioned leftists is welcome, but the striving to replace identity with economic equality as the guiding political principle? Not so much. I won't spend time on the problems with identity politics, a zero-sum game if...
TGIF: Jefferson on Not Trusting the State
by Sheldon Richman | Aug 26, 2022 | Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Regardless of written constitutions and the laws on the books, individual liberty is always at risk. And as liberty goes, so goes our capacity to live well, to achieve the good life as rational, virtuous social beings. The danger comes from left and right, both of...
TGIF: The Coming New and Improved IRS
by Sheldon Richman | Aug 19, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
The brilliant people in the Biden administration and the U.S. Congress have decided that one thing America really needs is an Internal Revenue Service (!) fortified by 87,000 more employees and 80 billion more dollars so it can help reduce the inflation that currently...
TGIF: About Those January 6 Committee Extravaganzas
by Sheldon Richman | Aug 5, 2022 | Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
I admit it: I watched nearly every moment of the House committee extravaganzas on the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. I did more than that. I was transfixed. I couldn't even multitask. Were the mislabeled "hearings" beyond all criticism? Of course not. They were...
TGIF: The Limits of Ideology
by Sheldon Richman | Jul 29, 2022 | Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
I have defended the idea of ideology per se and have disparaged the idea that anyone can operate without an ideology. The self-proclaimed non-ideological person is really one who has an implicit and therefore unexamined or underexamined ideology. No one really judges...
TGIF: Complete Liberalism
by Sheldon Richman | Jul 22, 2022 | Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Many people formerly of the left, who have bid good riddance to their former political home, believe they can retain the mantle of authentic liberalism while ignoring its free-market component. They don't want socialism, and they appropriately dislike the right-wing....