Voluntaryism Is Not A Sunday School Class: Why pointing out bad actors is a necessary market function.
VIDEO IS HERE:
No, it is not "trolling" to bring attention to bad actors and unsavory actions in a libertarian community. It is a necessary function in the marketplace of individual action. Those who call this sort of expression "trolling" or "communist" without further investigation or genuine consideration are exercising the most insidious form of collectivism: that which pretends to be pro-individual-self-ownership and free expression of market preference, but which is really no more than a "football team," meathead mentality of "US VS. THEM!"
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as DLive and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)
My live stream is at DLive
I'm busy writing right now - hey, I'm taking a small break, okay? - so I'll check the video later.
But this seems to be about the very reason why I no longer engage with libertarians or anarchists, even though I still consider myself to be one.
Libertarians only see either or, black or white, up or down. I guess it's because libertarianism attracts those with a severe case of autism. I dunno.
But it's damn near impossible to discuss with some libertarians about a problem with a private corporation, for example.
The discussion never goes anywhere unless the libertarian rule of self-ownership is breached. If not, it's the same thing every time:
"In a free market, a private company has the right to blah blah blah."
Yeah, gee, fuck, I've only been a libertarian for a decade plus, so I'm glad you finally explained the basics. Also, how do you feel about it personally? Not through the libertarian lense alone, but personally.
The point I'm trying to make is that an individual actor can still very well be an asshole, even if he isn't directly attacking someone else's self-ownership. And sometimes I'd like some discussion regarding the nuances of society, instead of the same tired old bullshit about self-ownership that we all have memorized by now.
"I think Comcast has a really shitty customer service."
"In a free market, a company has the right to produce shitty customer service."
Shut the fuck up.
Yep. just got labeled a "Communist" this morning for pointing out that someone who is seeking to control billions and billions of dollars of resources cannot even manage their own personal finances very well.
YOU WANT TO CONTROL THEIR PERSONAL WALLET!?!? COMMUNIST!
Fuck man. Sometimes it seems things would be much better if these lemmings would jump off a bridge.
Oi!
Many people do not handle terms and comment a lot of errors .. But hey, it is the world.
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I got into a debate this week about this very thing with some fellow live music fans regarding ticket scalpers/touters. Some companies have legions of bots that snap up a significant percentage of available tickets to popular shows mere minutes (or even seconds) after they go on sale to the public, and then immediately start to re-sell them at several times their face value. While the majority of the people involved were in the "there ought to be a law" camp, there were a few who were more liberty-minded enough who asserted that "it's their right in a free-market economy to do so."
While the second statement is certainly true, I contended that it was still a rotten practice that stiff fans of particular artists who are not as rich as others. The typical libertarian response would be some variation of "So what?" However, I believe that calling them out on their unethical behavior could lead some innovative (and profit-driven) individual(s) to create technology that hinders the robo-scalpers from being as successful at their game. But solutions like that will never arise from those who shrug their shoulders and simply say, "It's their right," and stop there.