Comments by "Julian The Apostate" (@juliantheapostate8295) on "Actually, Leftists aren't STUPID people" video.

  1. 'It's not that our 'liberal' friends are ignorant. It's that they know so much that isn't so'. Ronald Reagan from 'A time for choosing' a speech in support of Barry Goldwater
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  2. Yes, because QE has inflated asset prices. Who started the QE? Ah yes, the State
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  3. Indeed, the area where this is made most stark is investing. And unlike social 'sciences' it's easy to measure success in investing
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  4. Very sound reasoning. Arthur Laffer did some good work in this field, although that was focused on what percentage tax rate yielded the best $ tax take. The starting assumption is that a zero tax rate yields zero tax $, and a 100% tax rate also yields zero $ (as no one would work or invest). If you see the tax take as a proxy for people's willingness to contribute, then I think it is very telling in a wider sense.
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  5.  @ssik9460  Your fallacy is you think an economy can be effectively organised. It can't. No group of people, or computers, are that smart
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  6.  @lokischildren8714  It's Eton. And no, Johnson is actually very well educated. It's just you seem to think he runs the country. He doesn't. He follows orders
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  7. 'My opinion is that the true spectrum of government runs from collectivism to individualism' That is my belief also. Left is collectivist Right is individualist This is what the evidence I have seen supports
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  8.  @alecjones4135  The Austrian school inspired the Chicago school (which Friedman was a proponent of) they have similarities and differences
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  9. But can right-wingers understand the use of paragraphs?
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  10.  @billlansdell7225  Indeed. The Tory alliance of the Crown and the masses against the Whig aristocracy
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  11.  @erozionzeall6371  And socialism requires slaves. What one gets for free another has to produce for no pay. No one willingly submits to this, so socialist labour comes at the point of a bayonet
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  12. Exactly. We could hardly say that we have 'real' capitalism, when the most important commodity (exchangeable for every other one) is printed out of thin air by the state
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  13. Very interesting way of looking at it and hard to disagree
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  14. It is in the short run
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  15. Well the Communist Manifesto was originally called the 'Communist Confession of Faith'
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  16. Wow that is incredibly sage for a 19 year old! You are better educated than I it seems!
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  17. What came first? The labour in the business or the bank loan to set it up? Do you want savers to take risks with your company for no reward? Doesn't seem fair to me
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  18.  @erozionzeall6371  Come on I know you can do better than that
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  19. Todd, he's representing that argument - it's not what he believes. Are you neurotypical?
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  20. Wow, the best condemnation of academia I have ever read. Well done, though you were unware you were doing it
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  21. See if such a thing as 'salary sacrifice' exists in Sweden. This is how it works; You tell your employer to keep some of your salary (say 25%) and put it into the company pension. This means your actual salary is reduced, so you save on income AND payroll taxes. This way, I saved on UK income tax and National Insurance. By the time you retire, your income will be lower anyway so you won't be paying the tax back
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  22. Actually it's because of tribalism that we have. The Neanderthals were reputedly less tribal
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  23.  @alecjones4135  No bother my man. I lean to the Austrian school myself. But Sowell is the best teacher and he is a Chicago man
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  24.  @markcollins2704  This is Academic Agent's take, and he argues well for it
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  25.  @alexeyvlasenko6622  Anyone who owns shares 'owns the means of production'. As that includes pension funds, that covers the vast majority of the population (including children)
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  26.  @NietzscheanMan  Very true. Immigration is only a burden because we have welfare systems which the natives have been paying for all their lives. No welfare, no problem
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  27. Best of luck with the job hunting from a fellow Scot!
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  28.  @lilpitt4860  I saw a video about how some people can't process predicate abstraction. That is, if you asked them how they would feel had they skipped breakfast, they reply 'But I didn't skip breakfast' Crazy stuff
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  29.  @Gurhammer  I have seen a few cases where 'an' would have been used in your sentence (from native English speakers)
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  30.  @fakeorchestra4260  Yeah it's bizarre, but his reaction seems genuine
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  31. The biggest problem with racism? It blinds you to enemies in your midst who look like you
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  32. That is not bad reasoning you are using but you need to realise Labour have changed too. They are the party of the public sector professional now. So if you are on £60,000/year working for the council then by all means Labour will look after you
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  33.  @archdornan3068  True, but the Labour party was never all that socialist - it was trade unionist, and there is a difference
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  34. That may be true theoretically, but what force exists for wealth redistribution which doesn't mean a more powerful government? Or if you prefer, can you tell me about a left-wing policy which doesn't increase the power and purview of the state? I'm not being rhetorical, I would be interested to know
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  35.  @untruelie2640  Well that is a policy that you will find the Right supporting in the UK and US (Vouchers and academy schools). I guess it's not impossible that 'Die Linke?' would adopt a right-wing policy, especially if it works
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  36.  @untruelie2640  And that 'die Linke' isn't necessarily behaving in a left-wing way!
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  37. George Orwell wrote extensively on this
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  38.  @thereligionofrationality8257  It's the same in the UK. There is little difference between the parties
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  39.  @zxbzxbzxb1  Opposition to lockdown measures is not the same as 'Covid denial' Interesting choice of word. It's usually religions who denounce their opposition as 'deniers'
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  40.  @zxbzxbzxb1  Fair enough, just as long as we don't conflate the two. There is a disease spreading about, but it's not worth tanking the economy over
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  41. By those standards the Arab world is much more capitalist than Britain has ever been
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  42. The EU springs to mind
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  43. TIK, This has been a valiant effort, but you must accept that some people cling to socialism (and other ideologies) as a way to justify their lack of success in life. Sadly, for some of these people, they will never turn it around, so for the sake of their sanity they cannot accept what you are saying. They NEED to believe that 'the man' is keeping them down. On the plus side, most people aren't like this IMO, and your audience is growing all the time
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  44. Read Jonathan Haidt if you really want to understand the conservative mind. Then read T. Adorno if you want to piss yourself laughing
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  45.  @rdleon99  I would say so
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  46. In my estimation TIK is quite close to that, but different nonetheless. I am almost bang on a classic British Liberal - which means I hold my nose and vote Tory!
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  47.  @bezahltersystemtroll5055  I think it's pretty obvious how that would be bad - have a look at Athens' many debacles during the Peloponnesian war, for example
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  48. @horriblepancake And that's probably why Reagan said it. The man was smart
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  49. They do exist, but TIK isn't one of them
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  50. 'Free' college means that everyone gets to pay (via tax) for a privilege enjoyed by a minority. It is wealth redistribution from low income groups to high income groups
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  51. Privatisation only works if it introduces competition. Worked well for airlines and telecoms, not so much for railways
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  52.  @michaelkovacic2608  I'm against the State in the same way as TIK - I appreciate it is inevitable but it is a necessary evil, not a force for good
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  53. I think the reason is that politics is about the role of the state. Should it be bigger and have a larger role in your life? Or the opposite? That's one axis.
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  54. Really? What is politics other than the role of the state? What can the state do other than get bigger and more interfering, or the opposite?
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  55.  @remifasolla2863  Yes that's all true, but still fits within a linear model
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  56. The religious metaphor is doubly apt. Lucifer means 'lightbringer' I believe
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  57.  Wulf  Yes indeed, but we can dull the weapon, reduce the state, cut taxes
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  58.  @TheImperatorKnight  Maybe you could put on a mullet wig so you look more left-wing? : p
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  59. LOL at the right-wing Soviet Union. I'm thinking of buying a pet - should I go for a cat-dog?
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  60.  @0witw047  ??? The fact that it could cost you money if you're unlucky must surely mean that if you are lucky you should get a profit. Or why would people lend money at all?
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  61. But you will get there under capitalism. It might not even take 3 generations
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  62.  @zxbzxbzxb1  Everything is relative. Compared to everyone she has run against, she is. EDIT , to clarify I mean in the final head to head (I know who Bernie Sanders is!)
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  63.  @zxbzxbzxb1  Well he was right-wing by Soviet standards. In fact, the Soviet premiers became more and more right-wing, until it all collapsed. I wonder why?
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  64. He wasn't wrong. Nazism was further right than Marxism but further left than liberalism
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  65. Could be, but prices are our best way of measuring if we are producing what's needed. What's the alternative, fill out a million surveys? (The Nazis tried that). Price goes up, we need to make more. Price goes down, we made too much. This might sound really lumpy, but thankfully we have share and commodity traders who can smooth out the lumps with arbitrage
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  66. Because conservatism is a relative term which can only be understood when comparing it to something else
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  67. I'm actually surprised more socialists don't have the same opinion as you on this. Especially the Marxist ones. No one is claiming Hitler was a Marxist (we know he disliked them). Maybe they are too keen to keep their position because they know how the Right have been smeared by association and don't want it happening to them
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  68. There are loads of shallow history channels out there, but I'm paying for this one so can I keep it the way it is if you don't mind?
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