Fighting Ebola with Freedom

[Razgovory]

Don't listen to Yi, Raz.  Your bullshit is no worse than his bullshit.

You're not that much better than Raz.

I'm honored.  I didn't think you thought that highly of me.

[Admiral Yi]

I'd be interested in seeing your relative hierarchy of quality posters on politics.

Do you mean politics, as in the beauty contest, or policy?  If the latter Joan obviously stands out.  He always argues a thing on the merits.

[Neil]

After reading those articles, it would appear that Raz's point might be that the internet allows people to spread dangerous, anti-civilization ideas.

[Jacob]

I'd be interested in seeing your relative hierarchy of quality posters on politics.

Do you mean politics, as in the beauty contest, or policy?  If the latter Joan obviously stands out.  He always argues a thing on the merits.

I mean whatever metric you used when you said Seedy is little better than Raz. And yeah, Joan is the obvious one. I'm more interested in the rest... CdM and Raz are in a range together. Who else is there? Who is in the range above it? Below it?

[CountDeMoney]

I mean whatever metric you used when you said Seedy is little better than Raz. And yeah, Joan is the obvious one. I'm more interested in the rest... CdM and Raz are in a range together. Who else is there? Who is in the range above it? Below it?

Yi is up there, if only because he sincerely believes his own navel-gazing bullshit.

[Martinus]

I just hope we don't have any of the "vaccinations should be optional" kooks here. Now, these are the people who are dangerous to the society as a whole.

[Admiral Yi]

I mean whatever metric you used when you said Seedy is little better than Raz. And yeah, Joan is the obvious one. I'm more interested in the rest... CdM and Raz are in a range together. Who else is there? Who is in the range above it? Below it?

Siegebreaker is a notch above.  Most of the Yuros are quite good about addressing actual ideas.  Squeeze, for all his insular parochialism, is decent.

I have not interest in naming others who I think suffer from similar afflictions.

[Viking]

Libertarianism is all well and fine until it's you or your relative or your friend who has it. Then it's all "use my diplomatic passport to skidaddle to Nigeria getting 20+ nigerians killed.

[Martinus]

Libertarianism is all well and fine until it's you or your relative or your friend who has it. Then it's all "use my diplomatic passport to skidaddle to Nigeria getting 20+ nigerians killed.

I wouldn't want my relative or friend to catch libertarianism.

[grumbler]

I wouldn't want my relative or friend to catch libertarianism.

Like any other -ism, libertarianism can be carried too far, but the concept of placing liberty as the highest value isn't a bad one.  I'd say the libertarians like Smith and Locke ended up with far more coherent and human (and, ultimately, influential) political-economic theories than the non-libertarians like Rousseau and Mun.

[Jacob]

I mean whatever metric you used when you said Seedy is little better than Raz. And yeah, Joan is the obvious one. I'm more interested in the rest... CdM and Raz are in a range together. Who else is there? Who is in the range above it? Below it?

Siegebreaker is a notch above.  Most of the Yuros are quite good about addressing actual ideas.  Squeeze, for all his insular parochialism, is decent.

I have not interest in naming others who I think suffer from similar afflictions.

[Razgovory]

I mean whatever metric you used when you said Seedy is little better than Raz. And yeah, Joan is the obvious one. I'm more interested in the rest... CdM and Raz are in a range together. Who else is there? Who is in the range above it? Below it?

Yi is up there, if only because he sincerely believes his own navel-gazing bullshit.

If only I had the introspection realize my organizing principles had failed and adopted anti-statism.

[Razgovory]

I wouldn't want my relative or friend to catch libertarianism.

Like any other -ism, libertarianism can be carried too far, but the concept of placing liberty as the highest value isn't a bad one.  I'd say the libertarians like Smith and Locke ended up with far more coherent and human (and, ultimately, influential) political-economic theories than the non-libertarians like Rousseau and Mun.

As far as I can tell placing liberty as the highest value is not what Libertarianism is about.  No more then Communism or Socialism is about freedom or equality.  What libertarianism seems to be about is reducing or even eliminating government altogether.  That's not really the same thing as placing liberty as the highest value.

[DGuller]

I wouldn't want my relative or friend to catch libertarianism.

Like any other -ism, libertarianism can be carried too far, but the concept of placing liberty as the highest value isn't a bad one.  I'd say the libertarians like Smith and Locke ended up with far more coherent and human (and, ultimately, influential) political-economic theories than the non-libertarians like Rousseau and Mun.

As far as I can tell placing liberty as the highest value is not what Libertarianism is about.  No more then Communism or Socialism is about freedom or equality.  What libertarianism seems to be about is reducing or even eliminating government altogether.  That's not really the same thing as placing liberty as the highest value.

Depends on how willing you are to ignore the guaranteed unintended consequences of your ideology.

[Jacob]

I wouldn't want my relative or friend to catch libertarianism.

Like any other -ism, libertarianism can be carried too far, but the concept of placing liberty as the highest value isn't a bad one.  I'd say the libertarians like Smith and Locke ended up with far more coherent and human (and, ultimately, influential) political-economic theories than the non-libertarians like Rousseau and Mun.

Personally, I think the approach of placing a single given value as "the highest" will inevitably lead to problems. Instead, I think acknowledging that freedom, justice, equality, and material well being are all very important values (and others as well) and attempting to maximizing them while responding to conflicts between them given context and the desires of the populace is a better approach.