NOS4A2

Necessary or not it has it. I cannot defend my property or take it back by force. At any rate, I’d prefer it wouldn’t take my wealth in any fashion.

For a moment there I thought you were above the most basic of strawmen.

Tax laws…We know what that means in practice: use the monopoly on violence to exploit the labor of others so you can spend their dollars on your inves...

I’m not sure why someone would defend Stalin. It’s difficult to find a favorable quote about collectivism, I’m afraid.

A protest vote is still a vote. You have to go to a poll and cast a ballot. It isn’t clear that voting is the “civic responsibility” we are often told...

The conceit is in the idea that so long as you can form a ruling class of your proles all will be right and well. Of course, this idea has ruined ever...

Collectivism in a nutshell. Make hasty generalizations and form a politics around it.

On “direct” vs “indirect” perception, JL Austin makes some great points regarding the language of the debate in his manuscripts Sense and Sensibilia. ...

When democracy is indistinguishable from tyranny we’ve lost the plot.

The power imbalance in so-called democratic countries is obscene. We’ve seen it in full action during the most recent pandemic, where most of these st...

Another day a government failure, another call for the government to fix it. By now we’ve relinquished so much social power, and converted what little...

Then in terms of wages, benefits, you’ve had what others thought you deserved. It’s like having two employers, except you pay dues to only one of them...

I made the point in the original post that “representative democracy” isn’t rule by the people.

Have you ever worked for a union?

Grasping for straws. It’s so stoic I love it.

No.

It’s still a vote. If a vote is a concession of power to the state, it makes little sense to concede power while at the same time wasting a vote.

I always hated working for a union. Union dues was another tax. Shitty workers never got fired or reprimanded so we all just stooped to their level. I...

It isn’t a reason to vote, either.

I think that is a clever point but I have to disagree. Two politicians, Alice and Bob, are running for city mayor. I refuse to vote. Which one am I in...

We were talking about not voting and you said it was an irresponsible political position. Why?

But you won’t say why it is irresponsible. The only one doing the rubbing are your emotions.

Someone is sour and couldn’t come up with anything better to say. Very praxisian of you.

I’ll accept that. Statist responsibilities are little different than the slave’s, in my opinion.

Not voting is quite the opposite. Zero support is given. Besides, the effect of not voting is nil, and one doesn’t violate his morality by refraining ...

It’s certainly not a winning strategy, and wouldn’t change the results of any election. I think that’s largely the point of refusing to vote. It’s mor...

I said there is no mediating factor between experienced and experiencer, between man and the rest of his environment, between A and B. Light is of A w...

Do you think we directly perceive the light but indirectly perceive apples?

I’ve answered the question already. We directly perceive apples through light. I don’t think we’re viewing sense-data, representations, or images of a...

I’ve read Stirner and Proudhon and reject both egoism and socialism. I gravitate more towards people like Herbert Spencer, Albert Jay Nock, HD Thoreau...

That’s what I was looking for. Thanks. I don’t follow too much anarchist literature. There’s often too much collectivism in it for my tastes.

That’s right. We experience light, air, glasses, apples, heat, gravity, pressure, the tree, the leaves and so on. We directly perceive the environment...

I’m not sure that is the case. We directly perceive apples through light. I don’t think we’re viewing sense-data, representations, or images of apples...

Exactly. Sense-data is. You experience the image your way, I experience it my way. Our bodies are different and occupy different positions in space an...

You’re confusing a actual medium in the world with the mediums made up by indirect realists. It only proves that we see it differently, not that somet...

In terms of direct realism, yes. Does it have a physical structure or chemical make-up? Can we put some of it under a microscope?

Of course I’m not speaking of sight only. But you keep limiting it to sight. Nonetheless, we see everything in our periphery, including light, air, gl...

Again, viewing things in the world such as air, glasses, light, and so on is direct realism. The mediums I speak of are the ones that are assumed, mad...

No medium appears at any point in the scenario. The evidence for a medium is zero.

Good point. Maybe the problem is more with representative democracy than voting itself. In America, at least, some constituencies are massive. The con...

“It is compulsory by law for all eligible Australian citizens to enrol and vote in federal elections, by-elections and referendums.” https://www.aec.g...

Yes, refusing to participate would be opting out of the system, in a way. But it’s more like refusing to play baseball but having to remain in the dug...

“Direct” in the sense that we directly perceive the environment, including the lights, smells, touch, taste, of apples. “Indirect” in the sense that w...

You’re right that it entails little more than avoiding the polls, except for wherever compulsory voting is in order. But voting isn’t the same as poli...

More lies. I openly oppose fascism every time I oppose your political activity.

Protest voting is still voting. I don’t want to stand in their lines and go along with their charade.

I would not want to see a withdrawal from the legal right to vote, only to retain the legal right not to vote. In a way the vote, at least in election...

Yes it is and for the same reasons I already stated. There is no mediating factor between experienced and experiencer, so the experience is not indire...

I have read the article, and if you want to quibble about definitions be my guest. The thread is about phenomenalism. I’m speaking of “Perceptual Dire...

But I can watch you directly eat an apple. There is literally nothing between the experienced and the experiencer prohibiting one from directly experi...