Minarchists Are Still Stupid

Due to my wage slave job, I have less time available for blogging. I'm way behind on responding to reader comments.

One thing I've learned from blogging is "amount of negative comments received" is directly proportional to "importance of subject". For example, The Compound Interest Paradox and my series on the Black-Scholes Formula attracted a lot of negative comments from pro-State trolls. A lot of people think they're knowledgeable about economics, but really know less than nothing. These fake experts are offended by those articles.

I was surprised that "Minarchists Are Stupid" attracted several negative comments. I conclude this is an important subject.

It's wrong to think of the political spectrum as a linear scale. At one end are the (L)libertarians/minarchists and Ron Paul. At the other end are the pure statists, the Republicans/Democrats/socialists/communists/banksters, the people who believe "The State should regulate nearly every aspect of everyone's life!"

It's wrong to think "anarchism/agorism and really free markets are intellectually close to the minarchists". The "intellectual distance" between minarchists and "big statists" is much less than the "intellectual distance" between agorists and minarchists.

I did investigate Ron Paul's 2008 Presidential capaign briefly. I quickly concluded "Ron Paul would make a good President. However, he has no chance of winning, because the system is broken. This is a waste of time." Then, I discovered agorism as a better resistance strategy.

Just because I briefly considered minarchism briefly before discovering agorism, doesn't mean that minarchists are necessarily the most likely converts to agorism. I figured out pretty quickly that "Vote for Ron Paul! Restore the Constitution!" was pointless.

You can switch from being a pure statist to a minarchist without really challenging your pro-State brainwashing. "Government should be smaller!" is completely different than "Monopolistic government is a scam!" You cannot be converted from a minarchist to an agorist without cracking a huge part of your pro-State brainwashing.

Even before I cracked my pro-State brainwashing, I realized that the Libertarian Party is a bunch of fruitcakes. Smaller government seemed like a good idea, but the Libertairans were obviously wasting their time. The election system is explicitly set up to discourage minor-party non-mainstream candidates. "How are we going to make the government smaller and keep it small?" is a question that Libertarians don't answer.

On the mainstream media, minarchism is sometimes discussed and ridiculed. Agorism and really free markets are not discussed at all. A foolish person would say "We should support the minarchists, because the minarchist viewpoint is sometimes mentioned on the mainstream media. Discussing minarchism is better than no mainstream media discussion of freedom at all!"

Unfortunately, minarchism is an intellectual distraction. Only a fool would waste a lot of time supporting minarchism. If you have a clue, you'll rapidly realize that minarchism is a waste of time, even if you don't discover agorism.

Either you're part of the problem or part of the solution. If you believe "A government violence monopoly is unfortunate but necessary!", then you're part of the problem and not part of the solution. As President Bush said "Either you're with me, or you're against me!" If I were setting up an agorist trading network, someone who said "Government is unfortunate but necessary!", and couldn't be convinced after I explained it to him, would not be given much trust.

It isn't immoral to say "Your beliefs and actions are stupid!" If you never call out stupid behavior as stupid, then people go around acting stupidly and never learn.

The problem with the State is that a lot of intelligent people waste their time doing things that support evil. Many intelligent people think they're doing good, when they're really supporting evil.

A pro-State troll says "Minarchists might get offended and stop reading FSK's blog!" I don't care what fools do. I'm only making a few dollars a month via AdBrite. I'm not distorting my content just to coddle idiots. If you can explain my ideas better than me, without saying "Minarchists are stupid!", then go ahead and do it.

The key factor in helping someone learn the truth is "What is their natural intelligence and personality type?" rather than "What are their current beliefs?" If you're a miniarchist and have the parasitic personality type, then you probably aren't going to learn. If you have the "abused productive" personality type, then it might be possible to convince you, even if you currently believe that communism is the key to solving the evils of the State.

Even if someone explained agorism and really free markets to Ron Paul, he probably wouldn't understand. Ron Paul believes his own lie when he says "The original US Constitution was a good idea and is a valid basis for a government violence monopoly!" Ron Paul has a lot of power and influence from catering to the minarchists/(L)libertarians. Suppose Ron Paul realized "The Federal government has no legitimacy at all!", and started publicly saying that. He probably would get kicked out of Congress. Ron Paul would lose the power and influence he already has. Ron Paul has an economic incentive to stay a minarchist, and not switch to being an agorist. I doubt that someone like Ron Paul could be converted, even if someone carefully explained the truth to him.

If you talk to a communist and ask them to describe their ideal society, it actually sounds a lot like an ideal agorist society. "People get together and voluntarily cooperate" is the way a really free market works, with the additional bit that prices send a useful signal about what work needs to be done. Most communists confuse "State capitalism" with "really free markets". "State capitalism is evil!" leads to the false conclusion "Really free markets are evil!" The problems of the present are caused by "too little free market" and not "too much free market". In a fake free market system, insiders use the State to loot and pillage, while claiming that their profits come from the "free market".

If you're trying to convince an anarcho-communist or statist or anarcho-statist or minarchist, at some point you have to say "Your current beliefs are stupid!" It's an implied hidden assumption of the rest of the debate, so you might as well explicitly state it. If someone says "Taxation is not theft!" and you're saying "Taxation is theft!", you're implicitly saying "You're an idiot for believing 'Taxation is not theft!'" The two viewpoints are opposite and completely logically incompatible.

The State and the Matrix are very powerful. People get offended when they hear ideas that contradict their pro-State brainwashing. If someone has the parasitic personality type, they'll never seriously consider information that exposes how evil they are. If someone has the "abused productive" personality type, then it's possible to convince them of the truth.

You should never be afraid to tell someone "Your current beliefs are stupid!" If the person gets disgusted and leaves, then they weren't worth your time anyway. It's best to focus on people that are receptive to the truth. The target audience for my blog is "The Remnant", and not the typical brainwashed zombie slave.

"Never accuse someone else of being stupid or having stupid ideas!" is an aspect of pro-State brainwashing. It's a key idea promoted in schools. "Respect all ideas, even stupid ones!" is wrong. Saying "Your idea is stupid!" is not the same as physically assaulting everyone, even though many statists treat those as equivalent. If everyone is afraid to call out stupid ideas, then this allows stupid ideas to spread.

If you believe you can promote the truth better than me, then go ahead and do it! I have no patience for fools anymore. The best tactic is to explicitly call out stupid ideas as stupid. Otherwise, intelligent people with stupid beliefs will never learn.