tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post14000873041743599..comments2024-03-28T21:32:26.550+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Tame radicals (more on "controlled opposition") Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-34768189885665529572023-01-24T07:58:56.489+00:002023-01-24T07:58:56.489+00:00@AG - Libertarians are leftists; they only differ ...@AG - Libertarians are leftists; they only differ on their suggested means to the same (utilitarian) end. Also, libertarians always sell-out - if/ when that becomes expedient. Always. Mainstream Totalitarian Government is littered with ex-libertarians. <br /><br />@HR - There always have been plenty of articulate Christians to counterbalance the other kind; but finding them requires individuals to take control of, and responsibility for, their own education. Such sources are trivially easy to access, but one must make some personal effort. <br /><br />If people trust The System to bring whatever is important to their attention, they will simply be consuming propaganda. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-33540551218965273992023-01-24T04:39:18.932+00:002023-01-24T04:39:18.932+00:00Very good post. It's funny I wish I had been e...Very good post. It's funny I wish I had been exposed to more articulate Christians in my youth. They always seemed to look so stupid getting mocked by whatever petty celebrity or comedian and managed to slowly shame me towards keeping my Christianity secret. Simple things like the potential truth of the Shroud of Turin or solid mathematical objections to Darwin would have saved me years in the wilderness while I sought intellectual answers to life. HeavyRainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01182568996009604559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-42035911593945919952023-01-24T01:49:20.248+00:002023-01-24T01:49:20.248+00:00I have an example of this. Tyler Cowen, self-descr...I have an example of this. Tyler Cowen, self-described libertarian economist at Marginal Revolution and as such supposedly a skeptic of State power, related this as one of his most "radical" ideas: pricing commuter highway travel by demand.<br /><br />Tenured economist, comfortable living on some of the wealthiest real estate in the US, as secure in his socio-economic status as Gibraltar, and that's his most radical idea: *toll roads*The Anti-Gnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04386593803225823789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-83180589081727512422023-01-23T18:42:12.198+00:002023-01-23T18:42:12.198+00:00@Wm - As I think I once wrote here; all the men I ...@Wm - As I think I once wrote here; all the men I knew (whether in medicine, science or academia more generally) who when young affected a *particularly* cynical and radical persona, ended-up as on-message Establishment-servile bureaucrats. <br /><br />I can't think of any exceptions - but then there are an awful lot of bureaucrats nowadays, and not much of anything else in these areas of work; so perhaps that is not too exceptional. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-39911002240974823722023-01-23T17:22:33.894+00:002023-01-23T17:22:33.894+00:00As Mick Shrimpton of Spinal Tap put it, “As long a...As Mick Shrimpton of Spinal Tap put it, “As long as there's, you know, sex and drugs, I can do without the rock and roll” — or magic or whatever.<br /><br />(Incidentally, Spinal Tap creator Rob Reiner is now, quelle surprise, a particularly aggressive pro-Establishment agitator on all litmus test issues — so much so that, given his background, I sometimes suspect his Twitter persona of being a parody.)<br />William James Tychonievichhttps://narrowdesert.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-61544427260913384512023-01-23T10:14:20.792+00:002023-01-23T10:14:20.792+00:00@ben - One of the functions of 'opposition'...@ben - One of the functions of 'opposition' parties and individuals in the mainstream of the totalitarian Western states seems to be to provide deniability for radicals to stay on board with the Litmus Tests. <br /><br />"embrace these evil agendas even more intensely than most people, as they do"<br /><br />We saw this, for instance, in the birdemic agenda; when the radicals excoriated the mainstream government and lackeys for failing to pursue the totalitarian 'surveillance & control' agenda with much greater severity. <br /><br />For instance, some self-styled radicals demanded that peck-refusers should not merely be sacked, but imprisoned and their children taken from them. Others demanded *permanent and universal* masking, lockdowns and social distancing - and blaming the in-government conservative (Boris Johnson) or republican (Trump) for failing to take this further and eternal step; and regarding this failure as conclusive evidence of Establishment domination by 'Right Wing' values. <br /><br />Or with global warming; the fact that every Global agency and Western government and major corporation supports their agenda is insufficient; so long as there is any person who dissents to the slightest degree from radical demands, and taken as evidence of their subversive and secret power to thwart the zero-carbon plans. <br /><br />"SJWs always project" - I have heard CO2 global warming fanatics angry that the GW agenda was being attacked by the Establishment, inadequately funded, and CO2-blaming climate publications suppressed by the media and kept out of the literature. And really believing it! <br /><br />No matter how much left-inspired societal and civilizational destruction is universal and mainstream; it is never fast nor complete enough for the radicals! Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-19410920186035256162023-01-23T08:20:28.495+00:002023-01-23T08:20:28.495+00:00"because in their hearts they serve the same ..."because in their hearts they serve the same masters as the Establishment."<br /><br />This is exactly it; they're all opposing God and Good together - both the mainstreamers and those more extremely evil. <br /><br />The embrace of mainstream agendas by 'radicals' isn't out-of-place, it's exactly what would be expected. In fact, I'd expect them to embrace these evil agendas even more intensely than most people, as they do. <br /><br />To see self-described satanists expressing well-developed leftism... Well it's like seeing those other 'extremists' discuss that major monotheism. The extremists reveal the severity of the average. bennoreply@blogger.com