From c4ss.org
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What do we speak of when we discuss the concept of rights? There exists the philosophical concept, the notion that all human beings are embodied with certain inalienable rights, simply by consequence of their being human. This notion refers to human rights as they are commonly understood. Then...
#power #rights #anarchy #history #Politics #anarchism #economics #socialism #socialist #philosophy
on Oct 10
From c4ss.org
On Captive Clienteles and Enshittification
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In a column four years ago, I recounted the experience of a friend in academia with the godawful “learning management software” which her institution required for designing exams. She complained that she was trying to create a midterm exam and “blackboard is complete fucking garbage. No...
on Wed, 1AM
From c4ss.org
When You Cross Pinochet With a Cyberpunk Dystopia…
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…what do you get? Answer: “Special Little Freedom Zones.” That’s what Reason’s Liz Wolfe calls the Honduran “charter cities,” officially known as ZEDEs (Zones for Economic Development and Employment), which were declared illegal in September by the Honduran Supreme Court (“No More Special...
on Sun, 1AM
From c4ss.org
The Weird Correlation Between “Understanding Economics” and Payola
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For more years than most of us have been alive, by-the-numbers “minimum wage increases cause unemployment” puff pieces have been an almost daily staple at right-libertarian propaganda sites like Foundation for Economic Education. As I remark every time I see one — more than once in written...
on Oct 6
From c4ss.org
Communizing Society With Consumer Cooperatives
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Within anarchist circles, there is a split between those who advocate markets and those who advocate forms of decentralized planning such as participatory economics or federated communes. While the work of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek has pointed out the numerous issues with centralized...
on Oct 6
From c4ss.org
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Some time ago, in a Facebook argument, I encountered someone who repeated the old “exchange of unequals” argument (i.e., that people never exchange equivalents because each party values what they got more than what they traded for it). I responded that this argument confuses exchange value with...
on Sep 29
From c4ss.org
Hornberger’s Ongoing Love Affair With Capital Accumulation
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If there’s one leitmotif in Jacob Hornberger’s commentary at the Future of Freedom Foundation over the years, it’s that unlimited accumulation of capital by the super-rich is the pathway to prosperity. That musical phrase received its latest tinny, tinkling iteration in “The Importance of...
on Sep 25
From c4ss.org
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Assets in Common: Stories of Business and Community Leaders Remaking the Economy From the Ground Up. Chelsea Robinson, ed. Charity May, Jay Standish, Chelsea Robinson, Zoe Schlag, Derek Razo, contributors. Foreword by Zoe Schlag and Derek Razo of Common Trust (Infrastructure for Shared...
on Sep 25
From c4ss.org
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In a recent interview with Jordan Peterson, Elon Musk stated that one of his values was “meritocracy, as much meritocracy as possible, so you get ahead as a function of your skill, and nothing else.” “Meritocracy” is often framed by liberals as a thing that would be good if we actually had it,...
on Sep 25
From c4ss.org
IA e a verdadeira pílula difícil de engolir
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Por Kevin Carson. Artigo original: AI and the Real Hard Pill to Swallow, de 14 de agosto 2024. Traduzido para o porguguês por Ruan L. Na Foundation for Economic Education (cf. “The Ego vs. The Machine”, 24/02/2024), Dylan Allman, autointitulado “tecno-otimista”, rejeita as controvérsias recentes...
on Sep 24
From c4ss.org
Credit As an Enclosed Commons, Part II
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[Hear an in-depth discussion on this article and its topics in this episode of The Enragés] In a previous column, I examined the way in which those who praise Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and their ilk for their “creative genius” or “value creation” are misplacing the credit. All the components of...
on Sep 14
From c4ss.org
Antifa Activists As The Truest Defenders Of Free Speech
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Anarchists have always paid a lot of attention to feedback loops. Seemingly small actions, small arrangements, small evils tolerated, can rapidly or inexorably build up to systematic and seemingly omnipotent power relations. Things that, in isolation don’t seem that bad, can lead to the...
on Sep 3
From c4ss.org
Advocates of Freed Markets Should Embrace “Anti-Capitalism”
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I. Introduction Defenders of freed markets have good reason to identify their position as a species of “anti-capitalism.”[1] To explain why, I distinguish three potential meanings of “capitalism” before suggesting that people committed to freed markets should oppose capitalism in my second and...
on Aug 25
From c4ss.org
AI and the Real Hard Pill to Swallow
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At Foundation for Economic Education (“The Ego vs. the Machine,” February 24), self-described “techno-optimist” Dylan Allman dismisses recent controversies over AI as a simple matter of wounded egos. “They feel, on some instinctual level, that if machines can do what they do — only better,...
on Aug 15
From c4ss.org
On Captive Clienteles and Enshittification
0 1
In a column four years ago, I recounted the experience of a friend in academia with the godawful “learning management software” which her institution required for designing exams. She complained that she was trying to create a midterm exam and “blackboard is complete fucking garbage. No...
on Aug 13
From c4ss.org
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Infamous British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher espoused a fusionist ideology which sought to weld pseudo-individualism to the traditionalist collectivism of the nuclear family and the nation state in a manner not unlike her American counterpart Ronald Reagan. Unsurprisingly, this ideological...
on Aug 5
From c4ss.org
At Reason, Where Black is White — and Market Competition is a “Grab”
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At Reason, Elizabeth Nolan Brown (“Feds Make a Pharma Patent Grab”) gives new meaning to the term “grab.” Most people would consider a state-granted monopoly on the right to produce something to be in itself a grab. But not Brown. The Biden administration recently invoked the Bayh-Dole Act of...
on Aug 5
From c4ss.org
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Por William Gillis. Artigo original: From Stirner to Mussolini, de 28 de março 2022. Traduzido para o português por Nico. aviso de conteúdo: adiante haverá uma breve menção a violência sexual. Resenha: The Anarchist-Individualist Origins of Italian Fascism Em 1910 Luigi Fabbri e Arnaldo Borghi...
on Jul 30
From c4ss.org
Walter Block: Once Again Defending the Undefendable — Part II
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In the previous installment of this column, I discussed Walter Block’s repeated defense of “voluntary slavery contracts” as one example of his long record of defending economic phenomena as “voluntary,” regardless of the role of background or systemic violence in making them possible. But it...
on Jul 20
From c4ss.org
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Two attitudes, more than any others I have been able to perceive, confuse revolutionary actions in the United States today. First is the demand that revolutionary action have “a goal” and the assumption that, lacking a goal, it must also lack fervor and even practical possibility. Second is the...
on Jul 4
From c4ss.org
Walter Block: Once Again Defending the Undefendable — Part I
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In one sense, Walter Block is very much in the tradition of right-libertarian and anarcho-capitalist polemics, insofar as he hides power relationships and coercive institutions behind a facade of “free exchange” and “voluntary contract.” In another, however, he is much worse....
on Jun 28
From c4ss.org
Free Marketplace of Ideas — or Welfare State?
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There’s a certain kind of right-wing culture warrior — a disproportionate number of whom call themselves “libertarians” — who seems to be confused about what an actual “free marketplace of ideas” is. Self-described “free speech absolutists” of this sort never stop avowing their fondness for John...
on Jun 26
From c4ss.org
What’s In A Slogan? “KYLR” and Militant Anarcha-feminism
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An anarchist walks out of a punk show to smoke. On her vest are anarchist patches with various standard slogans, “No Gods No Masters,” “Death To Transphobes,” “Kill Your Local Rapist,” “All Cops Are Bastards,” “Punch Nazis,” “From The River To The Sea Palestine Will Be Free,” “Make Total...
on Jun 25
From c4ss.org
Mutual Exchange Radio: Christopher Coyne and Abigail Hall on <i>How to Run Wars</i>
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This episode is hosted by C4SS’s Elinor Ostrom Chair in the Study of Self Governance, Nathan Goodman. Nathan is joined by Christopher Coyne and Abigail Hall for a deep dive into the authors’ new book, How to Run Wars, A Confidential Playbook for the National Security Elite, available from June...
on Jun 25
From c4ss.org
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Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals In 1971, American activist Saul Alinsky published a book called Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals. Alinsky bemoaned the fact that activists, with “no illusions about the system,” sought to “Burn the system down!” Many of these same...
on Jun 25
From c4ss.org
Gender Anarchism: Tearing Down the Gender Hierarchy
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[Hear an in-depth discussion on this article and its topics in this episode of The Enragés] The Anarcha-Genderist Manifesto The gender hierarchy is a pervasive system of social control across times and cultures. Like other unjust hierarchies perpetuated by state and nation, this system of social...
on Jun 25
From c4ss.org
Taxation is Theft: An Anarchist Guide to Taxation
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“Tax the rich” is an all too common refrain on the left which, thanks to left unity, has even been echoed by many self-proclaimed anarchists. “Taxation is theft” on the other hand is a slogan many anarchists are hesitant to repeat due to its association with right-libertarians despite it being...
on Jun 23
From c4ss.org
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So we’ve survived another election cycle and the inevitable surge of libertarian socialists like Chomsky lecturing anarchists about our abstention from voting. I want to be clear: it is certainly true that the results of elections can matter. Unless you’re gonna roll the very long odds on a type...
on Jun 1
From c4ss.org
Mutual Exchange Radio: John Cavanaugh on Data Privacy & The Digital Divide
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This episode of MER features Alex McHugh interviewing John Cavanaugh of the digital-privacy organization, The Plunk Foundation. The Plunk Foundation promotes digital data privacy through education, advocacy, and policy recommendations, and by developing privacy tools and tech. Our conversation...
on May 30
From c4ss.org
The Long Library, Episode 3: “Eudaimonism and Non-Aggression”
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The Long Library is back! Cory Massimino is back with Dr. Roderick Long to discuss Roderick’s 2013 blog post “Eudaimonism and Non-Aggression” which was part of a cross-blog discussion on the non-aggression principle. While the first two episodes of The Long Library focused on political economy,...
on May 28
From c4ss.org
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Every Memorial Day and Veterans’ Day, Americans are subjected to endless reruns of an “inspirational” (cringingly stupid) poem by Charles Province, written in 1970: “The Soldier.” “It is the Soldier, not the minister, who has given us freedom of religion.” The poem restates the same basic...
on May 27
From c4ss.org
An Orientalist History of Transmisogyny
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The latest success in trans publishing is Jules Gill-Peterson’s A Short History of Trans Misogyny. Released at a time of global backlash to trans rights in a coalition bringing together figures as varied as J.K. Rowling and Javier Milei, it purports to analyze the origins of a world in which...
on May 23
From c4ss.org
Christian Britschgi’s Lack of Object Permanence
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At Reason, Christian Britschgi (“Do Not Under Any Circumstances Nationalize Greyhound”) celebrates America’s “extensive network of private, for-profit (and profitable) intercity bus services primarily serving lower-income people” as “a great example of how the free market can provide an...
on May 2
From c4ss.org
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By Roderick T. Long Cross posted here from Bleeding Heart Libertarians. I strongly disagree with the suggestion by Jason, Ilya, and others to rename May Day “Victims of Communism” Day. The fact that Communist regimes have attempted to co-opt May Day is no reason to imitate them in a second...
on May 1
From c4ss.org
Every Accusation of Economic Illiteracy Is a Confession of Historical Illiteracy
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The Freeman is back to its “best available option” defense of sweatshops and child labor (“What Many Critics of Child Labor Overlook”). It treats public outrage over the presence of child labor in the supply chains of Western corporations as a demonstration of “how economic illiteracy has...
on Apr 29
From c4ss.org
“Red Mutualism” Series at Mutualism Co-Op
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If there are two contemporary anarchist theorists whose work occupies and influences my thought the most, they are Kevin Carson and Wayne Price. Carson has spent a huge segment of his career not just reconstructing a mutualist political economy as an alternative to the anarchist default to the...
on Apr 26
From c4ss.org
Capitalism Is Still Closer to Caesar Than to God
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At The Freeman, Cody Cook asks “Was Jesus a Friend to Big Business?” He begins by quoting several of the many prima facie condemnations of the wealthy in the Gospels, and notes their troubling implications for the sort of libertarianism (pro-wealthy, pro-business, and pro-big business) both he...
on Apr 25
From c4ss.org
Against Campism and Nationalism on Ukraine
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I haven’t talked much about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine since it occurred, mostly just sharing Ukrainian voices and chastising a now former friend for calling for a NATO enforced no fly zone (e.g. shooting down a nuclear power’s planes). There’s something grotesque about the way slaughter can be...
on Apr 17
From c4ss.org
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Review: The Anarchist-Individualist Origins of Italian Fascism In 1910 Luigi Fabbri and Armando Borghi abducted an anarchist woman who had shamed their friend by divorcing him. Together, they forced her into a gynecological exam so the doctor could publicly pronounce her deformed and incapable...
on Apr 16
From c4ss.org
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If the problem with taxation is the coercion, then surely the priority of any coherent and consistent libertarian reformism on taxes should be to minimize the number of people who are robbed at all. Of course this would mean entirely abolishing taxes on the poorest. By the non-aggression...
on Apr 16
From c4ss.org
Jacob Hornberger Keeps Getting the Welfare State Wrong…
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…along with a lot of other things. Back in November, at Future of Freedom, Jacob Hornberger wrote: “America’s welfare state way of life is based on the notion that the federal government is needed to force people to be good and caring to others.” To which I responded: Um, no. America’s welfare...
on Apr 12
From c4ss.org
Birthday Fundraiser for Logan Glitterbomb!
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One of our long-time contributors and community members, Logan Marie Glitterbomb, is asking for 1500 dollars in mutual aid for her birthday. She has set up a GoFundMe that has yet to reach the target mark. This money will go to paying off debts and costs associated with her legal issues. These...
on Apr 6
From c4ss.org
What Is “Left-Libertarianism?”
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Just what is “left-libertarianism?” The term (as it’s being used here) points to a broad tradition of intellectual undercurrents that are simultaneously radically libertarian and radically leftist. It includes some of the most radical elements of English liberalism (such as Thomas Hodgskin and...
on Mar 27
From c4ss.org
Republicans: The Fake Party of Small Government
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C4SS Research Associate Kevin Carson on establishment hypocrisy.
on Mar 26
From c4ss.org
The Democrats: Fake Party of Compassion
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Kevin Carson on the second set of enemies of the productive class.
on Mar 26
From c4ss.org
Mutual Exchange Radio: Mikayla Novak & Akiva Malamet on Gender as a Discovery Process
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MER is back for 2024! If you’re wondering what the show format will look like this year, please take a look at the 2023 (and early 2024) Director’s Report, which details how we’ll be handling various shows this year. We won’t be publishing every month, but I hope to put out more MER content than...
on Mar 19
From c4ss.org
The Rentier Economy, Vulture Capital, and Enshittification
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The Rentier Economy, Vulture Capital, and Enshittification There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the...
on Mar 2
From c4ss.org
“Tragedy of the Commons” Part II
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The Poverty of Right-Libertarian Cliches Right-libertarians, it seems, have a love affair with Garrett Hardin and his so-called “tragedy of the commons.” It’s a principle to which they return, time and again. But as a foundation, it is historically illiterate; and the structure which they erect...
on Mar 2
From c4ss.org
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My previous three essays have been step-by-step demonstrations of my thinking — each applies specific examples in detail, tailored to specific topics. To answer Andrew Kemle’s question (“Is there a self left to talk about?”) I want a general way of articulating myself. It will hardly be...
on Mar 2
From c4ss.org
Cory Massimino on The Curious Task
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C4SS scholar and coordinator, Cory Massimino, was featured this past November on The Curious Task podcast, hosted by Alex Aragona. In this episode, Cory discusses prison abolition, natural rights theory, and recent movements around prison reform and abolition. It’s a great episode and digs into...
on Mar 1