Against the presumption of open borders. Border policy agnosticism.
Libertarians cannot assume that a state-controlled open border policy is automatically a more libertarian option than the state restrictively policing the border.…
Gun Governance without Government
Private ‘Rights Enforcement Agencies’ allow a granular approach, better for finding the proper balance between the harms and benefits of gun ownership.…
002: Max Borders – The Social Singularity and Distributed Income Support Cooperatives (DISCs)
I talked with Max Borders about his new book, The Social Singularity. We also touch on social technologies, incentive systems and scarcity, the importance of culture, and Distributed Income Support Cooperatives (DISCs).…
001: Justin Goro – Programmable scarcity, the oracle problem, and Pythia.
Justin Goro is a developer building tools on the Ethereum network.…
Bitcoin has no intrinsic value. Neither does gold.
Bitcoin doesn’t have intrinsic or inherent value. This isn’t as serious a handicap as it might seem, because nothing has intrinsic value. Not government notes, not gold, not even grain, or salt.…
The Motte and Bailey of NAP Libertarianism
The problem has to do with overselling libertarianism with attractive anti-violence/anti-aggression catchphrases.…
'Vaccines are safe' - An Underdetermined Claim
Though not all vaccines contain aluminum, compelling evidence of risk associated with this ingredient undermines the claim that vaccines are safe.…
Human Needs Don't Exist
Imagining categorical needs – divorced from individual values and goals – dismisses human difference, subjectivity, intentionality and reason.…
Against The Presumption of Open Borders. The libertarian argument from imperfect restitution.
Is an open border policy inherently more libertarian than a restrictive or exclusionary policy? I believe the answer is no.…
For the arts – Against compulsion. Dear Patreon.
Arts funding depends on taxation. Taxation depends on maintaining credible threats of violence against peaceful people who would otherwise not comply.…
Responses to Slate Star Codex's Machinery of Freedom review
Scott Alexander’s 2015 review of David Friedman’s Machinery of Freedom includes a few interesting objections. Here I answer them as best as I can.…
Exploitation Theory Was Obsoleted Long Ago
Marxist accounts of the injustice of capitalism can sound plausible. But there's a foundational mistake in Marx’s exploitation theory.…
How To Make Peace With Moral Nihilism
I encourage you not to be afraid of moral nihilism. It doesn’t make you a wicked person. It coheres better than moral realism with what we know about the world, and you sacrifice no persuasive power by accepting it.…