A List of Rabbit Holes

There are a lot of intellectual traps (rabbit holes) that people can fall in.

These intellectual traps illustrate the nearly complete perfection of the human enslavement Matrix. Is it a deliberate conspiracy, or the result of a series of bad decisions and coincidences? Either way, these false ideas are commonly quoted by pro-State trolls.

1. It's possible to reform a corrupt system by voting! No, you can't.
   
2. Communism would be much preferable to the US system. The USA is already a nearly perfect implementation of Communism!
3. The free market discredited a gold standard. No, government violence caused the gold standard to be abandoned.
4. Inflation is beneficial, because it "stimulates the economy". The State is needed to "stimulate the economy".
   
5. You need a State, because only a monopolistic State can provide police/justice/national defense, etc.
6. The State is needed to "regulate the economy".
7. There's a valid social contract that obligates everyone born in the USA to obey the orders of politically connected insiders.
8. The Constitution is a magic document that guarantees individual freedom and liberty, even though the people who appointed themselves the Constitution's enforcers and interpreters completely ignore it.
9. It's possible to have a government with carefully enumerated, limited powers. Once you give insiders a monopoly of violence, their evil power only grows over time.
   
10. Taxation is a necessary cost of living in a modern society.
11. State licensing requirements for doctors/lawyers/etc. are beneficial.
12. If I want to avoid supporting the State, I should live in complete poverty!
13. If a juror gives a defective pro-State conviction in a trial, that's OK because it'll be reversed on appeal.
14. People are too stupid. They can't be trusted to own guns, work without a State license, etc.
15. Property is theft! There's nothing wrong with private property. In the present, most/all property is stolen property. That's not the same as private property being inherently evil.
16. People are inherently evil. Therefore, a State is needed. Of course, the most evil people then exploit the State for their own personal benefit.
17. Large corporations are a natural free market occurrence.
18. Limited liability incorporation is a necessary perk that business owners need in order to operate.
19. If you didn't have a State with a violence monopoly, there would be bloodshed in the streets. Criminals would not be caught. Several groups of people would have open warfare.
    

When you crack your pro-State brainwashing, it's very traumatic. Most people avoid some of the intellectual traps, but not all of them. Then, via the Strawman Fallacy, you'll say "X writes about ideas A and B. Idea B is wrong. Therefore, X's writing about A is also wrong." It turns out that X was right about A but wrong about B.

One way that I avoid intellectual traps is that I remember ideas and not the original source. This way, if an article contains a good idea and a stupid idea, I'll remember the good idea. Most good ideas are repeated over and over again. A lot of conspiracy sites reference the Compound Interest Paradox, but IMHO my explanation is best.

When people start discovering the above ideas, it contradicts their conditioning. They start writing incoherently. It took me awhile after I cracked my pro-State brainwashing before I could start writing coherently. For that, blogging has been beneficial.

I've managed to avoid most/all of the intellectual traps, and nearly completely crack my pro-State brainwashing. I don't claim I've completely perfectly broken my pro-State conditioning, but I've gone further than the other people I read about.

The above list of intellectual traps is pretty comprehensive. Let me know if I forgot anything important!