Dennis Hackethal’s Blog
My blog about philosophy, coding, and anything else that interests me.
Tweets
An archive of my tweets and retweets through . They may be formatted slightly differently than on Twitter. API access has since gotten prohibitively expensive – I don't know whether or when I'll be able to update this archive.
But in case I will, you can subscribe via RSS – without a Twitter account. Rationale
@jchalupa_ @MatMcGann @bnielson01 @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
The reason we shouldn't demolish our political institutions is that changes should be piecemeal because we're fallible, not that they solve problems without violence (again, they are highly violent, in fact they're embarrassingly incompetent at being peaceful).
@jchalupa_ @MatMcGann @bnielson01 @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Also I thought you didn't want to continue this over Twitter?
@jchalupa_ @MatMcGann @bnielson01 @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
You don't seem to understand Popperian libertarianism very much. As a result you argue against strawmen. It's ironic to claim our political institutions are "the only known way to solve problems without violence" when they use violence against citizens every day.
@jchalupa_ @MatMcGann @bnielson01 @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Popperian libertarians don't really see a state of zero institutionalized coercion as a goal of political systems as a matter of theory.
I'm one, and I do.
@jchalupa_ @MatMcGann @bnielson01 @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
that sounds like a great explanation unless you're in the business of worshipping violence as you have been judging by your tweets
@MatMcGann @bnielson01 @jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Imagine talking about a different problem – world hunger, say – and a Popperian not being 'allowed' to speak of a world in which that problem has been solved because that makes him a utopian or something. Bonkers
@MatMcGann @bnielson01 @jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Being a Popperian does not require one to shit on liberty – quite the opposite is the case as coercion is anathema to problem solving. The recognition of that doesn't make one a utopian.
@MatMcGann @bnielson01 @jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Popperian libertarians are agnostic as to what comes after a 'state' of zero institutionalized coercion has been reached. They're also open as to how to get to that state, as long as that road is not revolutionary.
@MatMcGann @bnielson01 @jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Indeed, insisting by implication that institutionalized coercion should be entrenched or else one isn't really a crit rat is a perversion of Popperian epistemology.
@MatMcGann @bnielson01 @jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
You can absolutely solve a problem (institutionalized coercion) without being a utopian. While utopian libertarians exist, Popperian libertarians are not among them.
Case in point that the enemies of liberty are deeply pessimistic; they cannot imagine a world without coercion. twitter.com/bnielson01/sta…
Chat with Damian about Abortion: blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/chat-wit…
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @bnielson01 @DoqxaScott
Indeed, social contracts are different because they don't exist whereas natural rights do.
@ClimateWarrior7 @dahn_jennifer
Yass kween! So glad to see Belgium is being properly decolonized.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @bnielson01 @DoqxaScott
But government-given rights and lofty social contracts you’ll accept?
But without government, who’d be regulating shower heads? twitter.com/dvassallo/stat…
Bezahlung vom Service abhaengig machen. Dann geht das auf einmal ganz schnell.
RT @michaelmalice:
The Trudeaus of the world are the reason pic.twitter.com/VYlm7ajuLv
Toll, mehr Futter fuer die Panikmache, freut Sie sicher.
@ThunderHermit @BTC_SNEK @jchalupa_ @bnielson01 @falibilista @DoqxaScott
In fact, sewers and water are already private in many places – even in commie Germany, there's countless sewer and water companies.
@ThunderHermit @BTC_SNEK @jchalupa_ @bnielson01 @falibilista @DoqxaScott
There are companies (plural, so not a monopoly) that provide the internet infrastructure on top of which Netflix can offer its shared plans.
There could be something just like that for roads, sewers, water...
Die verstehen augenscheinlich nicht, was Kapitalismus ist. twitter.com/RosarotePanzer…
@ThunderHermit @BTC_SNEK @jchalupa_ @bnielson01 @falibilista @DoqxaScott
What about them?
Doesn’t Netflix (or something like it) offer shared/family accounts?
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
but addressed and refuted/solved by libertarians long before you were even alive and could develop your hard-on for authority.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
with the implication that without government nobody in the world could provide those services — so who’s the one not getting the epistemology?), when ALL of these arguments have not only been made before
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
In this discussion, you’ve gone from ‘most ppl don’t mind paying taxes so it’s not theft’ to ‘our institutions need money so taxation is not theft’ to ‘if you don’t like it move to the African jungle’ to ‘government helps the poor’ to ‘government keeps you safe’ (the last two
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
You repeatedly accuse me of either not knowing things I do know, or of making arguments I haven’t made.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
I have been careful, in the past, to point again and again out how much knowledge our political institutions hold and how we cannot get rid of them overnight.
But I also understand that this is regrettable.
@bnielson01 @BTC_SNEK @jchalupa_ @DoqxaScott
Your go-to criticism of ~anything is that it’s easy to vary. Discussing with you has become predictable and boring.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DorfGinger @falibilista @bnielson01 @DoqxaScott
So they can hire security companies. It’s really not that difficult.
RT @michaelmalice:
We've all forgotten that a judge struck down the plane mask mandate and the blue-pilled lost their shit and Biden said h…
RT @michaelmalice:
WHITE PILL
In the last decade the gun-rights side has shifted from "I need guns to keep my home safe from criminals" to…
RT @chillywillers:
Wow shocking result pic.twitter.com/B0wntzGnAv
RT @michaelmalice:
Since then your entire population has been imprisoned in their homes relatively easily
RT @ben_brechtken:
Wann endlich in Deutschland? pic.twitter.com/EBuBkhI4Gn
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Government exploitation of poverty is built on an altruistic lie: youtube.com/watch?v=7RFlPm…
Again, problems are soluble. Poor people can be helped without robbing others.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
'But government helps those less fortunate' is the statists' oldest trick in the book. The government helps people poorly, if at all, crowds out free-market help, and creates the illusion that without government, poor people would be lost.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Similar to how some of the worst parents have some of the best intentions.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
In dennis' picture of all this, powerful governments conspire to make people pay taxes [...].
No. I have mentioned the concept of benevolent authority. Conspiracies happen rarely – most politicians believe they're doing what's right and necessary.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
"When you taxes though"
You keep missing words and making typos. You should proofread your tweets before sending them. Discussions are difficult enough without such errors.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
I think you're using 'irrationality' wrong. I do think there are some people who gladly pay taxes btw (in fact I know at least one), but regardless it's disgusting to force even one person who doesn't.
Now you're trying exceptionally hard to make theft work.
There is freedom to be found yet, all you gotta do is leave civilization! twitter.com/jchalupa_/stat…
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
By services I mean the maintenance of infrastructure, or the policing of areas.
Sure
But as you point out with the African jungle or Antarctica, there are places you could go to avoid governments.
lolol
@mgoldingmd @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Private arbiters are already a thing used with some frequency, no?
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
They won't let you stop paying taxes by renouncing their 'services'. You have to pay them even if you never use their services. And unless you want to live in the African jungle or Antarctica, I really don't know anywhere you could go where you'd pay truly no taxes whatsoever.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
First there's the cases where he institutions tolerate that people not pay taxes, and have even evolved to accommodate it and support people in situations where they can't afford to pay them.
your slave masters sound very generous
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
It's not meant as an insult, and it is an argument.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Taxes are used to finance your precious institutions. Taxes are violently obtained. (Yes, yes, some people don't mind paying them, but think about what happens once they DO mind and refuse.) So whatever solutions such institutions bring about have blood in their past.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
I, on the other hand, find them absolutely disgusting, which you interpret as exaggeration. It's a difference in attitude.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
We can keep arguing specifics but I think the main difference between us is that you're not as disgusted by violence and coercion as you should be. You wish to accommodate them, at least to some degree, because 'institutions'.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
I JUST said institutions are financed with blood money so they can't possibly solve problems without violence.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Solving interpersonally, meaning actual positive-sum transactions, is what happens in markets – in politics there's always some loser somewhere.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Not to mention that ~all of these grand institutions, including courts, are financed using blood money.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Psychologically I agree – I thought of just that point yesterday and failed to mention it – but there's still a conflict between taxation and man's natural rights, be he aware of his rights or not.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Sometimes, but poorly, and rarely. Most of the time they steamroll, and it takes years to correct an error (courts are sloooow), with much more steamrolling happening in the meantime (see covid policies, for example).
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Well, only if I'm right. But GIVEN that I'm wrong it should, again, be easy to meet Logan's and my challenge.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
TCS definition of coercion: web.archive.org/web/2019032822…
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
So it's not quite as simple as the 'inversion' of consent, since the absence of consent does not necessarily imply coercion. For example, if nobody has asked you about X but you also don't mind X at all, you haven't consented but you also aren't being coerced.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
My conception of coercion is the TCS one: the enacting of one idea while there's still a conflicting one present in one's mind.
Or, across minds, one idea steamrolling over others without solving the conflict interpersonally first.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
That's been the case so far, but if the statists are right and there really is a convincing one, it should be easy to find, and it would automatically come with an explanation for why lack of knowledge isn't the only factor.
Gut reflektierte Kommentare zu meinen Artikeln, so wie dieser, gefallen mir immer besonders gut: blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/wer-soll…
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
What do you mean by “medal”?
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
I think you’d be surprised how many such examples people give routinely (roads, healthcare, etc).
In any case, just because you haven’t been able to change my mind doesn’t mean I won’t.
@mgoldingmd @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
One person’s thief is another’s freedom fighter.
How does that work?
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Chipkin and I already wrote about how to change our minds a while back: blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/libertar…
If you're not trying to make theft work, what are you doing?
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
I take it "garning" = 'gaining'
I don't know what you mean by "medal".
Are you referring to this tweet of yours? twitter.com/jchalupa_/stat…
A German’s pro-gun-control opinion, given their past.
@AxelBuchmuller
Also Eigentum wegnehmen, um Eigentum zu schützen? Das passt doch irgendwie nicht zusammen.
RT @aginnt:
Seriously these people are addicted to hysteria. pic.twitter.com/ByiuAhXjCq
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
still sounds like you're working hard to make theft work
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
you should state in simple, plain english, what you think my conception of coercion is, so that we can correct it
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
yes, well, again, you're arguing against something i'm not arguing for, because i think the child has a right not to be beaten no matter what the political institutions in its country say.
nor would i ever suggest that protecting children is coercion against parents.
@DorfGinger @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
And you laying into me in the Telegram chat and calling me a 'dweeb' was also unrelated?
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
I don't know why you're working so hard to make theft work. You don't stand to gain anything from that.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
But let's assume the government is this all-knowing, all-wise, Santa Claus organization, and whatever it touches works out beautifully. Well that still doesn't make theft okay.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
What's less well known is that in many of these areas, there used to be free-market services that had already developed the knowledge, but then government crowds them out and eventually monopolizes the sector. Afterwards people can't imagine it being any other way.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
You claim the government does well in the areas you mention. But it's also well known it usually fucks up everything it touches, and that its 'services' could be better provided by the market.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Your tweets once more claim contradictions where there are none. The concept of benevolent authoritarians is well known. I never claimed that our politicians enjoy coercing their subjects.
@DorfGinger @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Wait, are you still mad at me for calling out your misquote of me weeks (months?!) ago?
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
"have their kids go to a school"
the "have" sounds like the parent making that decision, whether the child likes it or not, so yea that'd be coercive, too
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
But yes for large parts of our lives we do "live in hellish nightmares of societies drowned in tyrannical coercion". Def for the first ~18 years. For some, much longer.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
I have already said that delegation to a lawyer is legitimate. So you should have already realized that you don't know what I understand coercion to be.
People def can consent to surgery and power of attorney. With kids it depends on whether they want to go to school or not.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Why don't people bother with that?
Because they're brainwashed into loving authoritarianism and neglecting their own preferences from a young age: blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-true…
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
I take property and other rights seriously and make no exceptions.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Well, you did speak of “[p]eople who aren't concerned with this issue and take it for granted as legitimate […].”
And no I’m not exaggerating. I’m just not willing to make any accommodations for the crimes committed by politicians on a daily basis.
@bnielson01 @BTC_SNEK @jchalupa_ @DoqxaScott
Your definition of 'coercion' is easy-to-vary and arbitrary.
I use the TCS definition. Why is it easy to vary and arbitrary?
You don't acknowledge your own coercion.
Which is?
That's why you get it wrong so often.
When? Quotes?
@bnielson01 @BTC_SNEK @jchalupa_ @DoqxaScott
1) Leaving one’s country is not easily feasible for most.
2) The government rules territory despite not owning said territory, which differs greatly from other geographical contracts.
3) If you do want to leave you need to get a passport, which you can only get from the govt.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
So something isn't an imposition unless many people consider it one?
Why should the immorality of evil depend on people recognizing it as such?
@BTC_SNEK @jchalupa_ @DoqxaScott
Yeah. Jose seems to think traditions can't be impositions! And that just because there are some people who don't mind paying taxes, nobody should mind. Complete non sequiturs, both of them.
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Now, before you say ‘but by voting you consent to their representing you’, let me preemptively address that and point you to the link @BTC_SNEK had shared, in which Spooner explains why that can’t be the case: praxeology.net/LS-NT-6.htm
@jchalupa_ @BTC_SNEK @DoqxaScott
Delegation is a legit concept, which is why our ‘representatives’ like to invoke it to justify their crimes. I’ve never asked to be represented by any politician — that representation is instead hoisted on me by force.
@WorriedDenizen @bnielson01 @DoqxaScott
No, you’re worse than Scott, because as far as I know he doesn’t tyrannize kids for work, let alone expect others to feel sorry for him because he allegedly hasn’t been able to find another job. 🎻