Somebody’s gotta say it.
Here's a pretty old post from the blog archives of Geekery Today; it was written about 14 years ago, in 2010, on the World Wide Web.
In the Wednesday link round-up, I mentioned Roderick’s fantastic contribution to the recent Cato Unbound roundtable on Ayn Rand. One of the things he talks about is Rand’s embrace of capitalism
not only in the sense of a free market, but also in the sense of something like the actually-existing system of class power over production (bosses, employees, the pyramid of ability,
etc.; for the yada yada, see Roderick’s article, and perhaps also my What’s in a name?
, which Roderick kindly took notice of in the footnotes).
Anyway. Bryan Caplan takes notice of Roderick’s article and offers (what I take to be) a rather ill-thought-out critique of the economic stuff in it over at EconLog. (Search down for Roderick’s spot-on reply in the comments.) Meanwhile, Brian Doherty takes notice of the article over at Hit & Run, where the comments thread is its usual fascinating self.
While it can’t top that thread in which the very first entry consisted entirely of Fuck you Roderick Long
, I have to say that my current favorite is this one:
¢ | 1.20.10 @ 9:12PM | #
I haven’t kept up with Long’s quest to be the David Brooks of (increasingly nominal) libertarianism lately. His establishment-toadying got too embarrassing to watch a couple years back. Looks like it’s even worse now.
Let us know when he gives up the pose and busts his McGovern gear out of storage.
You may not have known that there was an establishment
that could be toadied
by arguments for unfettered laissez-faire, open borders, cooperativism, radical feminism, anti-electoralist strategies based on deliberate criminality to advance the cause of individualist anarchism.
But[1] I, for one, welcome our new radical Left market anarchist overlords.
[1] … All together now …
Follow
Kudos to Brian Doherty.
Why do you think the comments at Reason’s “Hit and Run” are like that? Reason isn’t perfect, especially on class, but it doesn’t push nastiness as do VMI and Lew Rockwell. Yet this takes the laurels for the worst atmosphere I’ve ever in Greater Libertaria.
Reason is the mainstream libertarian site. As such it draws a lot of people getting their feet wet and leaving either establishment conservatism or liberalism (having just read “Atlas Shrugged” or watched a John Stossel special or somesuch,) the real dyed in the wool radicals don’t post on the comment sections that much. What’s more, since it is better known to your average conservative or liberal (standard meanings of these terms apply) it draws a lot of Republicans and Democrats who think they are walking on the wild side. I like Reason a lot, I think they have some great contributors and some of the regular commentators are pretty sharp even when I disagree with them.
I know that there are much dumber and more absurd comments to choose from, but for some reason my favorite one is the guy on Caplan’s blog who asks Roderick why he hasn’t started a business, if he’s so smart. As if that mattered. (Do philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians resolve disputes in their fields by means of competitive IQ tests? No? Why should economists, then?) And, you know, after Roderick and Carson got finished reiterating that their case has nothing, nothing at all, to do with the individual intelligence of managers.
This reminds me of something that’s been bothering me for a long time now.
I just want to let everyone know that anyone who disagrees with me on the full implications of laissez-faire economic theory is by definition toadying up to the establishment.
Got it? Good.
I believe that pretty much simplifies things for everybody. I know it does for me.
Oh, and I almost forgot…
All hail our left-libertarian market anarchist rulers, to whom we pledge eternal allegiance, etc., etc., etc…(you know the rest).
I spent four years as a middle-manager of a computer game company. After I left and became self-employed, my IQ went up 25 points.
So it’s true, all true.
Scott: Any tips on becoming self-employed and where to go to get clients? Or do you just serve clients of your former employer?