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
RT @OptimoPrincipi:
Mural of Michelangelo's 'David' at the pinnacle of the marble quarries of Carrara. Michelangelo crafted his Renaissance…
I wasn't joking. dark.patriot wrote she "desperately didn't want to" run but did anyway. In other words, she coerced herself. In your tweet you wrote you like people who reject coercion.
Food for thought: doesn't this conflict with what you wrote here: twitter.com/SeanBallard/st…
?
RT @realchrisrufo:
SCOOP: A University of Dayton professor is now ranking law schools according to their "total whiteness"—and demanding th…
The political response is to remove regulatory barriers to competition from other platforms and sellers. The…
RT @HumanProgress:
The world's population has grown 145% since 1960, but income has grown by 183%.
More people equals more ideas, more inn…
Isn't it generous of them to allow us to do something our constitution already provides and protects?
"The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."
What a great description of what seems to motivate so many of government policies. twitter.com/GeneSohoForum/…
To everyone who liked the above tweet: to be clear, I do not condone what those data represent. I think taxation is an abomination.
RT @liberty_deity:
Even if lockdowns and wearing masks worked, forcing people to do it would still be wrong.
@shabaadsha @MukariaK @ewarren
Why is what I have described not theft?
RT @Astro_Soichi:
あーたまーをくーもーの うーえにだーしー 朝陽を浴びる #富士山 Mt. #Fuji at sunrise https://t.co/l6HspPfisn
Getting there:
In 2017, the top 1 percent of taxpayers accounted for more income taxes paid than the bottom 90 percent combined.
Would it change anything if billionaire wealth had stayed the same, or even declined, if everyone else was still affected the same way they are now?
RT @OptimoPrincipi:
The huge marble quarries of Carrara, Italy were first opened by the Romans in the 2nd century BC, their highly prized s…
@shabaadsha @MukariaK @ewarren
To be clear, you think that when the government forcefully extracts money from you, whether you like it or not, that's not theft? Am I understanding you correctly?
@shabaadsha @MukariaK @ewarren
It couldn't be because I'm convinced that price controls and theft are wrong?
I'm not opposed to paying employees more, btw. I'm opposed to forcing employers to do so.
@shabaadsha @MukariaK @ewarren
They are taking it out of my pocket. Out of everyone’s who pays taxes.
I don’t need government handouts. But you probably consider those who do evidence of their stealing from the poor; and those who don’t as stealing from their employees. So what’s it matter?
@Ra43926237 @Juicykisses95 @ewarren
Your “yet” implies a contradiction that isn’t there.
All in the name of science and compassion, I'm sure. twitter.com/CFOBP/status/1…
RT @dchackethal:
@TheBabylonBee
"Scientists have followed the science very scientifically" :)
RT @ANothlich:
Deutschland 2021: Gesunde Menschen stehen Schlange vor Supermärkten, um herauszufinden, ob sie krank sind.
"Scientists have followed the science very scientifically" :)
RT @TheBabylonBee:
Estimated 9 Billion Already Dead From Texas Mask Mandate Reversal babylonbee.com/news/estimated…
No, it is the default state of nature, see the last paragraph in this section:
My response is that employers don’t do that. And that even if they did I wouldn’t get involved unsolicited.
The founding fathers definitely didn’t envision government stealing from its citizens.
It’s not just semantics. You’re using words without knowing what they mean!
And I don’t get involved in what two consenting adults do unless I’m being specifically asked by one of them.
Shouldn’t we leave that up to the entrepreneurs and their employees?
That still isn’t theft. It’s not cool but it’s not theft.
Behind what you’re saying are equivocations of the words “consent” and “force.”
And, if you can believe it, you’re not the first to argue that: blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/libertar…
Because government does so by stealing. They’re parasitic.
The best they can do for everyone involved is to just stay out of it.
Theft is when ppl take money from others without consent.
It’s not theft because their employees consent to being employed. And the employees get paid. They don’t have to pay to work. And even if they did and they consented to that it’d still not be theft.
Relieving them of theft does not imply a debt they owe to others. You can’t trade in one kind of theft for another.
No. And you don’t “fix the system” by instituting more theft. And the vast majority of successful people got to where they are because they meet a need people have. They provide value.
@AbbasAmjad7 @shujolnyc @ewarren
And no, you did not answer my questions.
@AbbasAmjad7 @shujolnyc @ewarren
What is theft is forcefully taking money from peaceful people, including entrepreneurs, whatever the purpose of that might be (including subsidizing of wages).
@AbbasAmjad7 @shujolnyc @ewarren
I did not say that paying people a living wage is theft. There are plenty of ways to do that that don’t involve theft.
@AbbasAmjad7 @shujolnyc @ewarren
Can you take a step back and answer my questions? They weren’t rhetorical.
@AbbasAmjad7 @shujolnyc @ewarren
If somebody (not the government) took money from you at the threat of violence and used it to subsidize somebody else's wage, would that not be theft?
Does it even matter what that somebody uses the money for in your determination of that?
Nothing in my tweet suggests that I support slave labor or that I'm entitled. Why do you jump to such conclusions? Can you interpret my tweet more charitably so that you know what I might really be in favor of?
@AbbasAmjad7 @shujolnyc @ewarren
I was thinking of her plans for a wealth tax when I wrote that. But yes, in a way, minimum wage is theft, too—albeit a more metaphorical kind—since the government extorts money from businesses at the threat of punishment to increase payments to employees.
And you want to counter that by rigging the system more by institutionalizing more theft from successful people?
Es freut mich, dass sich nicht alle diesem Unsinn fuegen – vor allem in akademischen Bereichen, wo sich solche Meme wie das "Gendern" ja bekanntlich wie ein Lauffeuer ausbreiten.
(Ich bezweifle uebrigens, dass Kraemer den Tweet selbst verfasst hat.) twitter.com/Pertsch/status…
Das ist keine schlechte Idee. Man könnte auch Nachrichten von denen filtern, die ihre Pronomen im Namen stehen haben.
Männerfeindlich ist es zwar nicht, aber höchst albern und prätentiös.
Stumbled upon this neat comment on my talk I recently gave at the @OxfordPopper society that made my day:
youtube.com/watch?v=RH1cyC… https://t.co/bWra9VcdHZ
“[...] sponsored by a realtor with no technology experience [...]”
Idiot lawmakers twitter.com/daringfireball…
RT @RichardDawkins:
New Rule: Cancel Culture is Over Party | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) youtu.be/gmXTUSP9a9M via @YouTube
So what explains the difference? Majority of regular flus being misdiagnosed as COVID?
RT @HowardSteen4:
Whoa...superspreaders of common sense. The Dutch and the Austrians have got Germany almost surrounded. Classic pincer tac…
Sounds to me like his Sunday School teacher gave him some pretty shitty advice. God forbid he should have made even more progress! twitter.com/ChrisJBakke/st…
RT @Astro_Soichi:
まちのあかりが とてもきれいね #首都圏 #Tokyo and #Yokohama #Japan https://t.co/4j1lB1RkEw
RT @Astro_Soichi:
#きょうのバジル 16日目。真ん中のバジルも背が伸びてきたね。 #SpaceBasil Day16 https://t.co/74ZNowi4nh
RT @ClimateWarrior7:
Brits: remember you need a reasonable excuse to go outside.
"I like the light of our sun" or "I just wanted to see th…
Hat sie bestimmt noch nie gehört.
RT @RubinReport:
BREAKING: Young children sitting in dystopian plastic dividers get lectured by authoritarian millionaire poser pretending…
Yes. And your tweets helps those who are opposed to regulations understand those in favor better.
Yes, and we're only beginning to see the damage it's doing.
Personal responsibility increases without mandates. When forced, people cannot possibly take responsibility because they have no choice in the matter. They can only point fingers to the government: "well he told me to!" Responsibility is impossible without freedom.
“Removing statewide mandates does not end personal responsibility.” Exactly.
Good for Texas. twitter.com/AP/status/1366…
@FallingIntoFilm @ella_hoeppner
It's conceivable that not just the constants but also the structure of physical laws are (or seem) finely tuned.
@Setsuna7 @NASAPersevere @HiRISE
Me, of course. I meant we will be there in person, standing on the surface.
@FallingIntoFilm @ella_hoeppner
Same laws of physics with different constants are different laws of physics. I think DD writes something to that effect somewhere in BoI.
One day we will see that with our own eyes.
Some. How many more buildings would be built, and how much more would the real-estate market be thriving, if property tax didn't exist?
You're suggesting in effect that since property tax hasn't completely decimated the real-estate market it's not doing any damage.
In effect, government is taking out a loan in their citizens' name and then threatening them with violence to pay it back. And charging interest, too. Even if the citizens never wanted the loan in the first place.
The government provides certain services. That is correct. But once certain laws are passed, citizens do not have a say in whether to pay for those services. So they can't be responsible to "taking" something that was just given to them without them asking for it.
When you encounter someone on the street and you have the power to kill him, do you think it would be okay to do so if you don't know what his preferences are?
What if, instead of a random stranger, it was your child?
Yes, true, the laws of physics are the same across the multiverse.
No precautions for the world's safety because none are needed. The primary "precaution" (postcaution?) is that of being prepared never to turn the AGI off again without its consent.
That said, I think Deutsch says somewhere that the multiverse does provide a measure. I may be wrong, though.
But how one could know that they're all within a narrow range, I do not know. Especially since there are so many possible combinations of constants in different ranges that might all lend themselves to apparently finely tuned phenomena.
One could fix it by saying that while there are infinitely many laws of physics that allow life, they're all within some narrow range of possible values for constants. Then there'd be fine-tuning again.
Isn't that the thing where we don't have a measure for that? To say "comparatively"? Since there are infinitely many laws of physics that would result in both.
Hmmm... then, presumably, that universe would end up with one giant black hole after a while, since all the other holes would attract each other, and if anyone were there to see it, he'd marvel at how the laws of physics were so finely tuned as to create this one giant black hole