http://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughPaulSpam/comments/siu0p/so_how_many_people_in_this_subreddit_are_familiar/
Can we respond to this? Theres so much misinfo here I don't know where to start. Maybe at the OP's username.
Can we respond to this? We sounds collective, man. I think that's leading to some sort of civilization.
Bert, he asked a serious question. The least you could do is give him a serious answer, or not respond at all.
The keyboard is mightier than the gun.
Non parit potestas ipsius auctoritatem.
Voluntaryism Forum
I dont think its worth your time, sadly. eps is just a progressive circlejerk uninterested in opposition.
The Anarch is to the Anarchist what the Monarch is to the Monarchist. -Ernst Jünger
I don't know if I'd put too much stock in it. Most of them barely know anything close to approaching an understanding of the Austrian School. Most of them defer to what "every legitimate expert" says of the school, if that. The majority of them seem to only know that Austrians are opposed to mathematical modeling, that Austrians generally are in favor of the gold standard, and that Austrians reject empiricism as a methodology. In other words, a majority of them have only tenuous grasps on the whats and are absolutely clueless of the whys. It'd be nice to fully elaborate what Austrians believe in that thread since so many of them seem compelled to bring up discussions they've had with actual "austrian schoolers" to legitimize what are probably their own thoughts. They seem so comfortable with their ad populem (i.e. "I have never met anyone with a degree in either economics or business that doesn't think it is pure bullshit."; "My knowledge is at a 101 level generally about economics, so I defer to experts until I know more about it. Since pretty much every legitimate expert (i.e. Nobel prize winning or academic at a prestigious university) rejects Austrian economics, I do too.") arguments and their articles "refuting" the Austrian school; it would be a shame if someone rained on their parade ...
People bashing the Austrian school is nothing new. Haters gonna hate. Statists gonna state.
If I had a cake and ate it, it can be concluded that I do not have it anymore. HHH
It might be useful to go through those comments and find some popular criticisms, and then post them on this website along with some attempts at refutation. For example:
I don't think a completely free market is possible. Big business, organized crime and organized religion would fill the power vacuum almost immediately. Even if it were possible, I don't think it would be in anyway efficient, and certainly nowhere as successful as even the worst models of government.
Historically, all three of those institutions have greatly benefited from state power. I think most progressives would agree that oil interests, financial institutions, and other special interests have had a dangerous amount of control over how the government behaves. Organized crime obviously thrives on the black market created through legislation regulating what the government deems to be immoral or hazardous activities such as drug and alcohol use, gambling, etc. And we all know that the state has been far and away the number one tool for oppression of the religious and non-religious alike, and that even today much of what authoritarian religious people try to do for the "embetterment of society" would not be possible without a high degree of government power.
As for efficiency, when you speak of efficiency for the "worst models of government", you're speaking of the efficiency at fulfilling the interests of the state, not the people. Can you consider Nazi Germany to have been efficient? In a way, most certainly. But this efficiency of the system of government was detrimental to society. Even the worst actions of what you consider "unregulated market behavior" can't hold a candle to the atrocities committed by the worst states and empires.
LOL
Freedom4Me73986:Can we respond to this? Theres so much misinfo here I don't know where to start. Maybe at the OP's username.
The aforementioned collectivist nature of this "we" notwithstanding, I kind of got the impression you were intending one of us to respond to it. I highly doubt you were actually intending people to get together here, formulate a collective response and then have someone post it in the reddit (that sounds waaaay too collectivist, and actually kind of like something people part of a civilization would do.)
I got the impression you simply didn't like something on the Internet and wanted someone here to go respond to it for you, so you could sleep better in your civilized bed in your civilized room, in your civilized dwelling with all of its technological amenities.
Wait...aren't you supposed to be living in the woods, shunning technology? What are you doing on the Internet?
How come JJ can get away with being sarcastic but I can't? I blame civ.
Oh no, I'm sure the one-man "abuse" report brigade will be in full force on my post as well. Right after he's done not being intimidated somewhere by someone, I'm sure.
^ You guys should date
Why? Because he's jealous that he felt the lash of Captian Picard's holier than thou sting and I didn't (yet)? Not sure how that works, but okay. Whattya say Bert? Are you taken?
Sorry, but you're not my type. I date loud mouthed, apolitical, feminist, vegans who enjoy black metal and mythology, and actually go in the wilderness. Maybe next time.
and actually go in the wilderness.
lol very funny. Do they know survival skills or do they only escape to the woods for a few hours to read poetry?
What survival skills do you have left to learn? Do you know more or less than Davy Crockett?
Bert:Sorry, but you're not my type. I date loud mouthed, apolitical, feminist, vegans who enjoy black metal and mythology, and actually go in the wilderness. Maybe next time.
Freedom4Me73986:lol very funny. Do they know survival skills or do they only escape to the woods for a few hours to read poetry?
I thought that's what you did. Except by "woods" I figured your backyard. And by "read poetry" I figured "on a Kindle".
Do they know survival skills or do they only escape to the woods for a few hours to read poetry?
Well, seeing how I do have friends that have been train hoping and travelling for years it may be questionable. I currently do have a friend who's living in the woods until we all get a place together, and my girlfriend in a month or so is taking a few weeks off to travel the country. I like going into the wilderness to write poetry instead of reading it.
I wrote an article about Steeve Keen's [and Marx's] so called refutation of Say's Law:
http://smilingdavesblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/marxs-refutation-of-says-law.html
My humble blog
It's easy to refute an argument if you first misrepresent it. William Keizer
John, didn't Daniel Sanchez - a moderator and administrator of this forum - tell you to stop being so antagonistic? I seem to recall that he did.
So now their mocking me on reddit.
http://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughPaulSpam/comments/ssg3w/austrian_economics_bashing_on_redditcan_we/
Why don't you respond to it then?
Thanks for sharing.
I challenged them. If I get myself into some trouble, some back-up would be appreciated.. Probably a pretty pointless endeavor, but I'm going for it.
I don't have a reddit account but I'd make one just to show these fools how full of shit they are.
Freedom4Me73986:I don't have a reddit account but I'd make one just to show these fools how full of shit they are.
Out of curiosity: What's stopping you from doing so?
I really can't be bothered strolling through the swamps of Reddit for the sake of fighting to defend F4M's honour. I'll watch and pass the popcorn though
A Glyptodon. There's a GLYPTODON stopping his response?!
What the hell does this have to do with my original topic?
who cares if people are bashing Austrians. Many of the arguements against it seem weak and closed minded. That's the problem with so many on the internet. Lets all debate about something that only about 10% commenting have a firm grasp on while the others are cheerleaders for what they believe is right. Debating these people does litttle to change anything. They aren't go to come to our side and neither will we. If we aren't a threat then they really have no need to bash. Educating ourselves is wiser than putting up with this bs.
This is something that also bothers me with a lot of Ron Paul supporters. I don't know how many times i see a thread say, "help debating ___". If you don't know then what makes you think you'll be about to further the discussion from there? Also, the spamming of places with a Ron Paul 2012 post. I see these as hurting our movement more than anything.
I have read the reddit. Nothing there is worth addressing.
What's reddit?
Yeah, you can usually sum up attacks from the left in a couple of ways (which I shall briefly go over):
-"Hur hur hur, the ASE is unscientific because it doesn't use maths"
Funny how we seem to be picking up a disproportionate number of IT professionals and engineers then, but any decent mathematician could tell you that a mathematical equation applied to reality is only as useful as its premises. A lot of lefties (not all, of course) justifiying other schools seem to be under the impression that math isn't simply a streamlined language and is, in fact, a mystical thing that can "prove" anything. Economic models are more obviously "unscientific", since they are effectively treated as unfalsifiable; if they are completely and utterly off the mark, people simply "tweak" it as though that'll make it better somehow.
-"ASE has no common sense/makes no sense compared to mainstream economic schools"
Says the advocate of the "Breaking things and repairing them ad infinitum is the key to economic growth" school of thought.
-"Everyone says the ASE is crazy"
Everyone (as in, economists of other schools) also generally predicted a strong US economy going into 2009. Everyone thought the abolitionists were pretty crazy too.
I'll bet thats what a lot of posters were thinking when their initial topic, followed by your posts, turned into a "Civilization is evil" thread.
Freedom4Me73986:What the hell does this have to do with my original topic?
What does your being bashed on Reddit have to do with the original topic?
Anyway, I was responding to Rorschach who was responding to my question, posed at you, asking for the reason as to why you are not responding to "these fools" who are openly "mocking" you. He seemed to imply that there is a rather large mammal, from the Pleistocene epoch, preventing you from posting your erudite and exciting insights into the nature of civilization, economics, and reality on that thread.
excel:What's reddit?
Reddit
Yeah, it's not worth anyone's time. I tried to engage, but they won't even put forth an argument.
He is a budding hunter-gatherer, after all, so I thought the metaphor to be appropriate to whatever the predicament may be.
It's notoriously simple. It should take anywhere from 5-20 seconds. Unless, of course . . .
Oh. There's another one.
I don't respond to reddit the same reason why I don't go on facebook or tumblr: reddit is probably connected w/ the FBI/CIA and tracks your every move.