Commentary

Idiots on the left and right

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged fake news journalism news SanityProject on by

Sometimes there is so much idiocy in the news that you have to unpack it layer by layer. This is the case with a statement which Florida governor DeSantis made and the way some people have described it.

In an interview, DeSantis said: “We also have a policy that if you’re driving on one of those streets and a mob comes and surrounds your vehicle and threatens you, you have a right to flee for your safety. … You drive off and hit one of these people — that’s their fault for impinging on you. You don’t have to sit there and just be a sitting duck and let the mob grab you out of your car and parade you through the streets. You have a right to defend yourself in Florida.”
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June 14

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged liberty Massachusetts on by

Things have gotten steadily worse just in the past week. Trump’s goons have assaulted a US Senator. He has illegally deployed the military against American civilians. Today is a day of protest, and it’s quite possible the administration will respond with violence.

Stay calm and stay focused. Things may yet come to an armed uprising, but this isn’t the time.
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A primer on Trumpism for libertarians

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged liberty on by

It shouldn’t be necessary to write this. The way Trump is running the presidency is so obviously hostile to liberty that libertarians should be unanimous in opposing him. Some people who call themselves libertarians, though, don’t quite get it. A few actually support him.

The Democrats aren’t good, but the issues with them aren’t as urgent. The first thing is to stop the country from sinking into dictatorship, then we can worry about excessive regulation and runaway deficit spending. Let me outline the main reasons Trump is a major danger and requires unequivocal opposition.

A lot of this will be familiar to many of you. I’m sorry that I have to belabor the obvious. Even if it’s all familiar, you might find some value in having all these items in one place.
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Reclaiming the American narrative

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged history liberty on by

Narratives are a powerful thing in shaping a culture or a political movement. Narratives are patterns of explanation that turn a series of events into a story. They ascribe a consistent purpose to actions and show one event leading to another. Sometimes narratives stray from the facts, but they don’t have to. What makes a narrative is an underlying direction and a causal chain.

They’re often more powerful than facts for influencing people. Convince people of a narrative’s validity, and they’ll ignore or reject what doesn’t fit it. They’ll accept even implausible conclusions that fit with it. They’ll admire people who promote it and dislike ones who contradict it. To persuade large numbers of people, it isn’t enough to muster facts; it’s necessary to assemble them into a story.
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“Its hour come round at last” 1

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged liberty on by

My mind keeps coming back to Yeats’ 1919 poem, “The Second Coming.” He wrote it shortly after World War I, knowing that nothing had really been resolved. In retrospect, we know the answer to his question, “What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?”

We also know the answer to that question today in America. We see again that “the best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.” There’s plenty of noise opposing Trump, yet too little broad-based opposition. Congress is, with a handful of exceptions, divided between the Minion Party and the Coward Party. Outrage should be building to the point of besieging the White House, but as far as I can tell, it’s declining. People’s idea of opposing Trump is to put “#Resist” into a social media hashtag.
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Balticon 1

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged conventions fandom science fiction on by

With Balticon coming around again, I took another look at their code of conduct. It still has some disturbing features, and I’m not going, although it’s within a day’s driving distance and will likely have a good filk program.

There is a blanket prohibition on “Slurs and derogatory comments about a person, group, or category of people.” That presumably includes, just to come up with some examples, the Chengdu con chair, the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the Russian army, billionaires, Neil Gaiman, and the new Pope. It will be one dull convention if no one can say anything bad about any of those people! When attendees can be accused without eyewitness testimony, it’s even worse. This isn’t just hypothetical; in 2022 Balticon used this provision to make life miserable for one of its program participants.
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The Democratic Party has abandoned America 1

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged law liberty New Hampshire on by

I am furious at the Democrats. They are cowards who won’t stand up to a president grabbing as much power as he can. To a man who has literally portrayed himself as king and pope. To a man who says he doesn’t know if he needs to uphold the Constitution.

To be precise, I mean the office holders and leaders in the party. Voters have to choose a party if they want to vote in primaries, and they choose where they think they’ll have a positive effect. They don’t necessarily like what the leaders are doing. But I have utter contempt for nearly all the Democrats in Congress.

The Republicans in Congress are despicable, with rare exceptions like Rand Paul. They’re actively collaborating with Trump to enable abductions of people and maintain a fake “emergency” so he can impose ruinous taxes on us. But that’s not the topic here. The Democrats are supposed to fight this. They don’t feel like it.
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Is the Empire in Star Wars fascist?

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged Disney fascism star wars on by

I’m looking forward to seeing the new seasons of Andor. With it has come a new round of claims that the Empire is a prime example of fascism. But there are several kinds of totalitarian systems, and the Empire doesn’t really fit the fascist model. Using the term too loosely takes something away from identification of the real thing. In an earlier post, I discussed the nature of fascism. You may want to read that article before continuing here.
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Silent film restorations and copyright 3

This entry was posted in Commentary Movies and tagged copyright silent movies on by

In January, I posted the 1925 silent film The Lost World to my YouTube channel together with my original accompaniment. A hundred-year-old movie is supposed to be out of copyright. The video is downloaded from the Internet Archive, which I took as confirmation of its public-domain status. Last week YouTube took it down, citing a copyright complaint by Flicker Alley. The issue is that Flicker Alley claims to hold copyright on the restoration of the movie which I downloaded.

So far I’ve taken two steps. I contacted Flicker Alley disputing the copyright claim. They responded promptly, insisting their copyright is valid. I then submitted a counter-claim to YouTube. What happens next depends on Flicker Alley’s next response. If they persist, I’ll have no choice but to keep the movie permanently off the Internet. Accompanying silent movies is a hobby that I don’t make a cent from, and it isn’t worth it to me to pay a lawyer to dispute the matter in court.
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