BlogHide Resteemsarossp (27)in arossp • 6 years agoMaking the World BetterIf you believe Nick Hanauer and Eric Liu, libertarians are nuts. In a recent commentary, they gave a litany of reasons for “Why libertarian society is doomed to fail.” The trouble is, they’ve…arossp (27)in arossp • 7 years agoOn Assessing ArgumentsLet’s say you believe X is true. You know that many smart, well-educated people believe X — including you! — but also that many smart, well-educated people disbelieve X. If you come across what…arossp (27)in arossp • 7 years agoWhat Atheism Offers: Justifying a Life’s PurposeThere exists a need among theists to justify life’s purpose. Far from being content with self made goals, with personal achievements set by the individual for his own existential benefit, they…arossp (27)in arossp • 7 years agoAbandoning Superstition: Why I Don’t Believe In GodIf you take a look at the history of ideas from the Enlightenment onward, an unmistakable trend is the steady abandonment of superstition. Weather patterns aren’t caused by raucous spirits. Diseases…arossp (27)in arossp • 7 years agoWhy Religious Arguments Don’t Have a Place in PoliticsReligion has no place in policy debates. Because of the special nature of faith-based beliefs and values, religious arguments cannot bring anything valuable to the table when discussing the best…arossp (27)in arossp • 7 years agoIntelligent Design’s Logical FallaciesThe many articles on Newsvine regarding creationism and intelligent design have sparked a good deal of comments from proponents of those views, several expressing the same tired arguments for why…arossp (27)in arossp • 7 years ago“The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism” by Timothy KellerTimothy Keller’s The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism was a random find. I’d returned a handful of books to the library and was looking for something to listen to in the car. The title…arossp (27)in arossp • 7 years agoPractical Political Philosophy and Will Kymlicka’s Endnote 42Confusions of the real and the ideal underly far too many policy debates. Libertarians, for instance, often assume perfectly functioning markets and compare them to genuinely (mis)functioning…arossp (27)in arossp • 7 years agoIt’s Okay To Kill: A Libertarian Argument for the Death PenaltyFor those of us who believe in limited government and the fallibility of human certainty, the death penalty can pose quite a problem. Is it ever okay to kill someone because of his own criminal…arossp (27)in philosophy • 7 years agoWhat Kind of Libertarian Are You?My libertarianism’s of an off-the-beaten-path sort, with its intellectual roots among the Ancient Greeks. I was recently asked on Twitter whether my libertarianism is of the consequentialist or…arossp (27)in starwars • 7 years agoThe Last Jedi Betrays the Original Trilogy and its HeroesThrough sheer storytelling laziness, it tells us that nothing that came before mattered. The Last Jedi is the most disappointing Star Wars movie since Attack of the Clones . I don't believe…arossp (27)in anarchism • 7 years agoDecentralization and privacy are inevitable — in tech and in government.Good tech principles will become good governance principles, whether governments want them to or not. Decentralization and encryption/privacy are good principles for digital technology. They’re…arossp (27)in crypto • 8 years agoTechnology, Radical Liberty, and Freedom Without PermissionDecentralization will bring about a radically freer and more dynamic world, and without waiting for the blessing of government. Decentralized, DIY Beginnings I got my start when I was 14…arossp (27)in free-speech • 8 years agoFree Speech and the Whims of College KidsWhen I was in middle school, my history class staged a walkout. I don’t recall the reasons, but I’m sure at the time we all thought them righteous and just. I’m also sure that if I remembered those…arossp (27)in philosophy • 8 years agoThe Humble Case for LibertyThe virtue of humility is found in recognizing our limits — and that humility ought to make fans of limited government. I could be wrong about pretty much anything. What I don’t know so…arossp (27)in movies • 8 years agoHas there ever been a box office smash scifi movie with less cultural impact than Avatar?We’re on our way to four(!) Avatar sequels , which is probably the same as number of people excited about Avatar sequels. It’s pretty striking, really, how quickly Avatar vanished…arossp (27)in politics • 8 years agoAmerica’s Hyperbole ProblemOurs has become a culture of hyperbole. Nothing characterizes American social interaction, mediated through politics and social media, more than our need to assure ourselves, and broadcast to…arossp (27)in philosophy • 8 years agoHow Aristotle Predicted Twitter and the Alt-RightI’m rereading Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics for the umpteenth time, and a passage early on struck me as informative about much that’s going on in American culture today. It comes in Book 1 of…
