ToddSeavey.com

You've ruined your career. You're never go...

2012-05-30T08:25:02.342-04:00

You've ruined your career. You're never going to get a book published - the female-dominated publishing industry won't touch an abusive creep like you.

You have the same haircut as an eight-year-old.

2012-05-28T10:42:18.036-04:00

You have the same haircut as an eight-year-old.

By the way, the nice person information is serious...

2012-05-27T21:56:51.497-04:00

By the way, the nice person information is seriously insulting. You are no counterculturalist. Drop dead.

Call that answer "The Wife-Beater calls it a ...

2012-05-27T20:15:19.506-04:00

Call that answer "The Wife-Beater calls it a day."

Just as I'd suspect from a loser like you.

No, I meant mercy toward her. You I presumably do...

2012-05-27T20:00:23.713-04:00

No, I meant mercy toward her. You I presumably do not even know.

No, with sisters no one comes between you. Anyone...

2012-05-27T19:57:52.905-04:00

No, with sisters no one comes between you. Anyone who insults my sister, fuck them. That's the way it is.

The fact that you don't see that basic human truth is also telling.

You don't owe me mercy. Be as mean as you like. I can take it. Maybe I'll even return it to you. Unless you only like to give it out? I'm ready when you are.

I would love to know where you think you got the &...

2012-05-27T19:16:10.030-04:00

I would love to know where you think you got the "wonderful person" information -- but since she is, by her own admission, _now_ striving to be nice to people for the first time in her life (after long having -- and, believe me, acting upon -- a secret but conscious philosophy of sadism), I wish her the best.

If I had a sister and she had at one time held views -- and engaged in behaviors -- as dark as Helen's, I would have denounced that sister myself, and anyone who attacked _victims_ of that sister or defended her would be _profoundly_ morally confused.

But out of mercy, I will not encourage you to reveal what you think your evidence is, since I have no wish to dwell further on Helen's past wrongdoing.

Three comments: "Red Eye" is always on ...

2012-05-27T19:02:01.315-04:00

Three comments:

"Red Eye" is always on at 3 am; that is its air time.

Unitarians, not UCC, are the most left-leaning Christian denomination.

That you left out the "be" in the sentence "nothing could further from the truth." is very telling. Telling because it's a significant emotional refusal on your part, but you happened to mistype. telling indeed.

Helen is a wonderful person and how would you feel if someone broke up with your sister and blogged such hate about it? This is madness.

Read Sex at Dawn by C. Ryan, PhD to really underst...

2012-05-07T12:13:02.512-04:00

Read Sex at Dawn by C. Ryan, PhD to really understand why human sex is the way it is.

Calling "social justice" the only altern...

2012-05-02T00:22:20.687-04:00

Calling "social justice" the only alternative to dismissing emotion and fairness is like saying we have to endorse the labor theory of value because people will inevitably get tired, or that we have to craft a new and better form of fascism because people will always tend to like leaders. Social justice is a complex philosophical idea with a horrible history and terrible baggage, not some universal human impulse. Do not encourage it.

Hmmm...I'm not sure I'd be so dismissive o...

2012-05-02T00:17:49.100-04:00

Hmmm...I'm not sure I'd be so dismissive of the notion of fairness. Is it fair that 7 family members died in one car crash in the Bronx? Is it fair that some party boy inherits millions of $ from his parents, while hard-working immigrants struggle to afford health care? I don't believe that it's inconsistent for a "libertarian" to feel distressed about these types of outcomes...In fact, I think think it's very *human* to feel distressed at these types of outcomes. That doesn't mean that the government can do anything productive about it. I think it's extremely unwise for libertarians to dismiss basic human emotions as "wrong." An emotion can't be wrong, and that's especially true if an emotion is just a state in the brain caused by swirling neurotransmitters.

People have all sorts of conflicting moral intuiti...

2012-05-01T19:55:07.386-04:00

People have all sorts of conflicting moral intuitions, and the last thing we should do is hand them rhetoric giving shape and reinforcement to the _wrong_ ones. Not _that_ many young people are full-blown "social justice" advocates, after all, even if they have some vague notions of "fairness." Don't nudge them toward formalizing those sentiments.

Similarly, a far _larger_ portion of the population have vague religious sentiments, but would you, as a pro-science skeptic like me, ever suggest that we should therefore formalize their intuitions by encouraging our fellow skeptics to adopt the language of Deism or moderate ecumenical Protestantism?

"Well, most people already believe there is at least some sort of 'higher power' out there, so..." Blah blah blah. No. Better to speak the truth. Especially with attention spans getting shorter every day.

Fair enough. But a huge majority of young people a...

2012-05-01T17:46:43.341-04:00

Fair enough. But a huge majority of young people arrive at adulthood with an ingrained moral sense of anger at inequality and injustice. That's okay, because there *is* indeed a lot of inequality and injustice in the world....even in a perfectly free world! We're already conceding the battle if we try to convince people that their moral outrage is invalid. Better to persuade them that injustice/inequality are impossible to eradicate...but that well-intentioned government policies often exacerbate those very problems.
So - in other words - we're not "giving" them the ideal....We're just working with the ideal that they already have. I would also argue that this ideal is probably biologically programmed. Our moral emphasis on "fairness" is probably an inevitable outgrowth of our species' dependence on reciprocal altruism.

But the crucial part of your story, I think, is th...

2012-05-01T16:35:27.568-04:00

But the crucial part of your story, I think, is that bit about "when combined with the hard facts of economics, politics, and psychology." We really need to ask what gets people to _those_ fastest, and experience does not suggest that for most people the quickest route is giving them some inspiring ideal largely at odds with them and then waiting -- and hoping -- they'll get properly disillusioned.

Likewise, I would not suggest focusing on, say, God and hoping that this focus leads people gradually to the realization that "Thou shalt not steal" is one of the most important Commandments -- they may just stay obsessed with religion in general.

People gung-ho for "social justice" have not proven to be the most free-market-loving segment of the population. We should not be encouraging more people down that path.

Todd - I get where you're coming from, but I a...

2012-05-01T15:10:51.661-04:00

Todd - I get where you're coming from, but I also think that this way of thinking has lead to libertarianism being the bastion of a small group of like-minded nerds, rather than a political movement that can make a real difference.
There are two paths to small-l libertarianism: (1) the first path, taken by my brother, is through right-leaning politics and an emphasis on the free market, and (2) the second path, taken by me, is through a left-leaning concern about inequality and injustice....which - when combined with the hard facts of economics, politics, and psychology - often leads one to conclude that government intervention does not actually reduce inequality and injustice.
Folks on both sides are prone to impurities of libertarian thought (e.g., Ron Paul's anti-immigration stance and my own inclinations toward allowing for some basic forms of social insurance). But that doesn't mean that they aren't worthy allies in the fight for more liberty overall.

I guess DC wanted Batman to have an alternate univ...

2012-04-28T17:13:13.793-04:00

I guess DC wanted Batman to have an alternate universe daughter? How many children does he have now?

I'm a little sad to hear about Ms. Bertinelli's death myself. Cry for Blood was a great story which wouldn't have been possible if the Huntress were merely impersonating her.

At this point, I need to remind everyone that one ...

2012-04-28T14:36:53.483-04:00

At this point, I need to remind everyone that one purpose of DC Comics' "New 52" initiative was to make its comics more accessible, new-reader-friendly, and less complicated. Like every DC initiative since and including "Crisis on Infinite Earths," it has had the exact opposite effect. But at least DC Comics is properly named, because that's just like every initiative that has come out of the other DC (i.e., Washington).

millsrevenge, sometimes when I'm hiking in dif...

2012-04-27T18:49:59.349-04:00

millsrevenge, sometimes when I'm hiking in different places I'll encounter some unknown berry that looks edible. Then I'll ask myself...is it worth it to try it? Economics basically boils down this this one question...Is it worth it?

Whenever I eat any fruit or vegetable or nut or grain...I try and imagine who exactly was the first person to decide it was worth it to eat that plant. Did the emptiness of their stomachs influence their decisions?

Then I'll think of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. Do you know why Adam and Eve never studied economics? Because economics is the study of scarcity. The Garden of Eden was the epitome of abundance...so scarcity was not a problem. Well...one thing was scarce. Just one thing... knowledge. Eve decided it was worth it to break the one rule in order to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.

By choosing to eat the fruit...Eve made the very first sacrifice. She sacrificed abundance for knowledge. Much in the same way that Odin sacrificed his eye to drink from the Well of Wisdom. That's the sacred.

On the profane side...on occasion we might hear somebody say that they'd give their left nut for something. They'd sacrifice something they value (their left nut) in exchange for something that they value even more. What would I sacrifice my left nut for? What would be worth it?

The hard part to understand is that there's nothing that's profane. Anything you sacrifice for is your God. Look through your receipts and you'll see who your Gods are. Keep track of what you spend your time doing and you'll see who your Gods are. We're all trying to spend our way back to the Garden of Eden. Therefore, there is no religious tolerance...there is simply tolerance.

You sacrifice your taxes to your Gods and I'll sacrifice my taxes to my Gods. May the best Gods win. And may Nietzsche roll over in his grave.

"social justice is fine and wonderful...but i...

2012-04-27T16:25:01.217-04:00

"social justice is fine and wonderful...but it shouldn't trump basic economics."

What makes "economics" more important than doing right by your fellow human being? If "economics" can't be used for the betterment of society, then what's the point?

Well...as far as I know...I'm the only person ...

2012-04-27T05:34:23.772-04:00

Well...as far as I know...I'm the only person to have been banned from the BHL website. Here's my discussion with Zwolinski that resulted in my banishment...Fallibilism vs Fairness.

The point that I failed to convey to Zwolinski in our discussion is that social justice is fine and wonderful...but it shouldn't trump basic economics. The biggest obstacle that libertarianism faces is that liberals do not understand basic economics. Nah, the biggest obstacle that libertarianism faces is that libertarians do not understand basic economics...as Zwolinski clearly demonstrated in our discussion.

But...I wouldn't write the BHL project completely off. As long as Peter Boettke is a guest blogger there's still hope. Andrew Cohen is pretty solid as well...States Must Do Bad...but, given that he's a political philosopher, not sure if he'll be able to help Zwolinski learn the economic arguments for libertarianism.

Damn, great post. I had not realized Seavey was an...

2012-04-16T22:55:30.550-04:00

Damn, great post. I had not realized Seavey was an anarchist.

The more deontological you get, the more absurd an...

2012-04-14T22:44:10.705-04:00

The more deontological you get, the more absurd and dangerous it is that you intuit countless rules beyond property. It is no coincidence that Rawls began with an interest in theology -- of a quite absurd kind, linking the Trinity to collectivism under socialism -- and went on to intuit whatever he damn well pleased behind the imaginary veil of ignorance.

Who knows what will pop out of deontological BHLers' fevered imaginations next -- and inflicted on a hapless citizenry? Must the genders have equal social influence (really? why?)? Must drastic income disparity be avoided (really? why?)?

Back in the real world, there is pain and pleasure, material surroundings, and the basic econ and scientific methods that enable us to understand them. Ditch the elaborate political fantasizing and spare the innocent your metaphysical discoveries, as I hope you'd spare them punishment meted on on behalf of an imaginary god.

It's not time to end anarcho-capitalism. It's time for an end to bullshitting.

Ack, we want more than a merely rule-u case ...

2012-04-14T22:04:40.872-04:00

Ack, we *want* more than a merely rule-u case ...

But most of the BHLers are deontologists ... just ...

2012-04-14T22:02:54.367-04:00

But most of the BHLers are deontologists ... just not the self-ownership sort. We can more than a merely utilitarian case for liberty, but without the side-constraint natural rights view. But surely you know that ... right? I mean, Tomasi explicitly defends a Rawlsian view.

You seem to have confused me with Congress. Admitt...

2012-04-14T11:43:16.358-04:00

You seem to have confused me with Congress. Admittedly, we've never met.