I feel there now has to be a distinction made between “Capital Libertarians” and “Individual Libertarians”.
You might be interested in Isaiah Berlin’s “Two Concepts of Liberty”.
Basically, there is no absolute thing called “liberty”, because anything you do changes the material world and the state of the material world also shapes what you’re able to do. So you can’t talk about simply “liberty”, and must always describe it in terms of those two relationships. What Berlin calls “freedom to” and “freedom from”.
For instance, I might consider my liberty to mean that I have the “freedom to” shoot a gun in the air. My neighbors might consider their liberty to mean that they have the “freedom from” falling bullets.
We can’t create a policy which guarantees both “freedom to” and “freedom from” for all people. But we can create a policy that guarantees both for some people. We just have to allow that some people get to enjoy both the rights and the protections, while other people lack the rights and must suffer the consequences of others’ actions.
And that might be why the contemporary conservative version of so-called “libertarianism” plays so well with a notion of a superior social class, whether that’s economic, religious, or racial. You can invoke the word “liberty” in support of your attempts to bully others, and then you can invoke it again as a protection against others’ attempts to bully you.
It is strange and striking that climate change activists have not committed any acts of terrorism. After all, terrorism is for the individual by far the modern world’s most effective form of political action, and climate change is an issue about which people feel just as strongly as about, say, animal rights. This is especially noticeable when you bear in mind the ease of things like blowing up petrol stations, or vandalising SUVs. In cities, SUVs are loathed by everyone except the people who drive them; and in a city the size of London, a few dozen people could in a short space of time make the ownership of these cars effectively impossible, just by running keys down the side of them, at a cost to the owner of several thousand pounds a time. Say fifty people vandalising four cars each every night for a month: six thousand trashed SUVs in a month and the Chelsea tractors would soon be disappearing from our streets. So why don’t these things happen?
But LoSavio had opted out of the arbitration agreement and was given the option of filing an amended complaint.
This is why it’s important to opt out of arbitration!
Also notice the potential for fuckery in the statute of limitations here:
the relevant statutes of limitations range from two to four years, and LoSavio sued over five years after buying the car. Under the delayed discovery rule, the limitations period begins when “the plaintiff has, or should have, inquiry notice of the cause of action.”
But when Tesla declined to update his car’s cameras in April 2022, “LoSavio allegedly discovered that he had been misled by Tesla’s claim that his car had all the hardware needed for full automation.”
Without that specific moment to point to, to reset the clock through delayed discovery, Tesla could just say “Yeah, we lied, but you bought the lie for 5 years, so now we’re in the clear!”
Then you have to somehow get your mortgage-contingent offer accepted by the seller when you’re up against cash offers, $50k over asking, with no inspection, no appraisal, unlimited possession, and a free hit of adrenochrome.
the study finds that people who are otherwise very good at math may totally flunk a problem that they would otherwise probably be able to solve, simply because giving the right answer goes against their political beliefs.
…
it turns out that highly numerate liberals and conservatives were even more—not less—susceptible to letting politics skew their reasoning than were those with less mathematical ability.
I love how economic reporting is always framed as “these quirky little consumers’ wacky proclivities!” and not the inevitable consequences of increasingly-concentrated wealth.
The International Criminal Court prosecutor said Monday that he has requested arrest warrants for the leaders of Hamas and for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel....
It’s like Gary’s Economics says in The Changing Shape of Great Britain: When the rich own all the wealth, ordinary people can’t work for each other, so they have to work for the rich to make goods that are sold to the rich.
It’s all a pretty half-hearted way to address the obvious:
We printed something like 7 trillion dollars, which is about 28k per adult.
If you and everyone you know are not 28k richer than you were before COVID, then someone has your money.
It’s probably someone rich. And you know what the rich do with more money? They don’t spend it on goods and services. They buy assets, to make them even more money — money that comes from you.
If you are a Libertarian and hold liberty as your core value, why do you not believe in universal healthcare? Nothing impacts liberty more than sickness and death.
Maine Cybertruck Owner Sad Everyone Hates His Truck (jalopnik.com)
Lefty Nemesis (i.redd.it)
Scarlett Johansson denied OpenAI the right to use her voice. They used it anyway. (boingboing.net)
The second matchup of the tournament (lemmy.world)
Therapy (lemmy.world)
Average U.S. vehicle age hits record 12.6 years as high prices force people to keep them longer (www.nbcnews.com)
Meme Manager needed... (lemmy.world)
Tesla must face fraud suit for claiming its cars could fully drive themselves (arstechnica.com)
Congrats to all 2024 college graduates! (kbin.run)
You are now entering your spicy years. 🌶️
Can I make it fit, or do I have to just let it go? (lemmy.world)
Is he though (sh.itjust.works)
Choices choices. (lemmy.world)
The lunch rush is dead as Americans live for the weekend, office workers are pinching lunchtime pennies (www.nbcnews.com)
its still deprecated (lemmy.world)
Torso™ (sh.itjust.works)
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Requests Warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas Leaders (www.nytimes.com)
The International Criminal Court prosecutor said Monday that he has requested arrest warrants for the leaders of Hamas and for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel....
Honestly, this is probably how I will end up dieing (sh.itjust.works)
Major consumer divide: The rich keep spending, as poorer Americans struggle (www.axios.com)
As Peace Protests Are Violently Suppressed, CNN Paints Them as Hate Rallies (fair.org)
To Stop AI Killing Us All, First Regulate Deepfakes, Says Researcher Connor Leahy (time.com)
cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/10961870...
it's shrimply unbelievable (rule) (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
Cain and Abe-rule (midwest.social)