Falsifying liberty
I believe liberty to be worthwhile, to say the least. I also believe it is objectively superior to any alternative. This means I should try to falsify this hypothesis to myself. If I can't think of ways which-- if they held up-- would prove my belief is based on a falsehood if it is, my belief is worthless.
How could liberty be falsified? If I could find one example where liberty-- freedom tempered with responsibility-- fails, that would do it. So far I keep coming up empty.
People have given me lots of examples where they imagine liberty fails: drugs, sex, "immigration", etc. (and even the post office!) In every case, they weren't thinking their position through very well or were trying to argue against liberty by artificially keeping The State a part of the scenario.
Sure, some people neglect their responsibility. This simply means humans are flawed and since they can't always be responsible for themselves they certainly shouldn't ever be put in charge of others.
Sometimes, people want to argue that because exercising your liberty in some essential ways is illegal, it can't work even if it weren't illegal. They imagine this rights-violation shows that liberty would fail even if the artificial barriers they refuse to reconsider weren't there. The "we can't get rid of government border controls because of democracy and welfare" people fall into this category.
That's just dumb. If you want to argue against freedom of movement, you've got to at least discuss it without the artificial constraints of keeping other Big Government programs propped up to make sure liberty fails the way you want it to fail. And if you can get rid of one facet of tyranny you can get rid of the others-- don't pretend otherwise.
Yes, I am biased. I am pro-liberty and I am against theft, aggression, and slavery. I think I am able to consider all claims, however, I don't need to wake up each day and decide anew whether I would be within my rights to go next door and start slaughtering people so I can take their stuff. You can ponder that question with each new day if you believe it's necessary, but I'm done with it. No one has the right to archate and nothing can change that fact.
If, in the course of pondering this question yet again, you come to a different conclusion for reasons no one has presented before, try to convince me you aren't just wallowing in statist superstition. Maybe you're on to something and have discovered a way to falsify liberty, but I wouldn't bet money on it.
I feel like a SHTF event is imminent. Notice I don't say I think it is, rather it's just a feeling. Possibly triggered by the upcoming election.
I don't have a crystal ball. I'm almost definitely wrong.
If you can see it coming, it's not going to happen. That's almost a guarantee.
Just like the Coronapocalypse came at us out of nowhere, triggered by unexpected government overreactions to a fairly normal virus, a more serious event will also be a surprise. Consider the Coronapanic a practice run. It should have shown you the holes in your preps if you were paying attention.
I lucked out with the panicdemic because I was ready. Well, maybe it wasn't completely luck; I've prepped for years "just in case", and it finally paid off. I was pretty sure I wouldn't see it coming when it finally happened, and I didn't. But it didn't matter because I stay ready all the time-- and I have done so since well before the Y2K fizzle. I intend to be just as ready, if not more ready, the next time something ...
Sometimes it's good to just listen to people's stories without interrupting, even when you know the stories are nonsense.
My 2nd wife used to tell of a ghost that lived in her house when she was a kid. It was an interesting story even though I didn't believe it. I learned quickly that her family was very prone to believe anything as long as it fit with their magical worldview.
Other people tell me stories about beneficial things political government can do. These stories are no more true-- in the sense of being objective reality-- than ghost stories, but they can still be informative if you want to know which particular superstitions a person is living under.
Interrupt and you'll never hear the whole tale. Listen and you might be entertained by some fantastical tales of magical realms. Just don't bet your life on them being true.
My nature is such that I simply can't see government as a solution to anything. This puts me at odds with most of the rest of my species.
Yes, I think "social media" has become a horror. This doesn't mean I want government to regulate it; it means I think people who don't like it (or are too dumb to know not to take it at face value) should probably stop using it.
The same is true of so many other things I don't like.
Litter/pollution, scammers, sexual predators, abortion, animal cruelty, Hillary Clinton, poverty, drug abuse, pandemics, crime, and all manner of awful things.
I may hate them, but that doesn't mean I want government to step in. Look how often that has the opposite effect anyway; making the original problem worse-- or at least not solving it-- while also creating a host of new problems that never would have existed otherwise (anti-gun legislation being a perfect example).
And even if government intervention doesn't make this specific problem worse this particular ...
