by John Walker April 15th, 2011 Collaborators Respectfulness vs. Civility Fourmilab home page
These so-called “progressives” or “liberals” are not advocates of progress or liberty: they are enemies of them, and the sooner champions of liberty acknowledge what they are, the better our slim chances for defeating them will be. Libertarians and conservatives are inclined toward civil discourse and respect for the rule of law. They must come to terms with the fact that their enemies—not opponents—are implacable, bent on winning whatever the cost may be, willing to use any means whatsoever to prevail and, once triumphant, to deprive their opposition of the means to reverse or even impede the implementation of their agenda.
They are enemies. ...
Reclaim the language from the enemy. We should have a “swear jar” for every time we utter the words “liberal” or “progressive” except in scornful irony. May I suggest “statist”, “collectivist”, “socialist”, or “communist” as alternatives?
We believe in a multitude of voices speaking in a free arena, with the best argument winning. The enemy believes in an echo chamber where only their message is heard. This conveys upon them an asymmetric advantage, where we're inclined to let them speak in favour of shutting us up. Fine: we should not sacrifice our principles, but at the same time we must come to terms with the fact that they are the enemy, and must be defeated and dispersed in disarray, not accommodated, lest we forfeit everything in which we believe.
In identifying the enemy, it is crucial to distinguish the enemy: the collectivist/statist ruling class and its partisans in the media, academia, and rent-seeking crony capitalist industries and financial institutions, from the electorate who support enemy politicians. We should view those voters not as enemies, but allies we haven't yet recruited. Most voters pay little attention to politics and have little appreciation for the consequences, social and economic, of policy choices. This is not so much due to laziness, but rather rational ignorance: since a single vote has a negligible chance of influencing the outcome of an election, a rational voter will spend a negligible amount of time investigating the candidates and researching the consequences of the policies they advocate.
Our goal must be to defeat the enemy. In a democratic society, this means apprising those who vote the enemy into power of their true nature, breaking the hold of the enemy media on the populace, and reversing enemy infiltration of education. The enemy strategy depends upon an uninformed, unengaged, and passive electorate. We must turn this around by communicating, by all means possible, the true nature of the enemy and the cataclysmic near-term consequences of their triumph.
138 sats \ 4 replies \ @TomK 26 Jul
it's really astonishing how the term 'liberal' could degenerate in this way and thus actually describe nothing more than a crazy communist. for me, these are commis and I'll stick with the term. i also like the term 'etatist'. all of this describes a basic collectivist attitude, a hostility towards individual sovereignty that offends me.
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I share that attitude. It's hard to use "commie" and be taken seriously, here, so I tend to largely use it half-jokingly. "Statist" is more of my go to, as well.
Hoppe referred to these folks as a "technical problem" to be solved by those of us who want to live in a free and peaceful society. I think that's basically the right framework.
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117 sats \ 2 replies \ @TomK 26 Jul
If they really put my nerves on the edge I use the phrase: 'communism is a mental disease'. They love it
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call them far left call them lunatics call them brainwashed
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I have used all of those. I also use "cult" and "Stockholm Syndrome" a fair amount.
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Pills and more real pills, totally agree with everything you have written.
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Disseminate this manifesto to like minded defenders of freedom
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Rest assured
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @398ja 26 Jul
Reclaim the language from the enemy.
Above all, do not get intimidated into silence or self erasure, say the things as you see them. The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name...
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1000 percent
Attack and counterpunch
When they call you far right, you call them far left. Whey they call you racist, you call them the boy who cries wolf or Mr or Ms Talking Points
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Couldn't say better myself.....
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Spread this manifesto!
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I fully agree, on everything.
I can not stress enough the importance of the language. The descent of Argentina into socialism started when the first socialist leader, Perón, stopped calling himself a "socialist" and instead used the word "justicialist", for socialism correctly had a bad connotation within the population, but people fully ignored what it was about, so when they received the exact same with a different name, they fully embraced it.
Here's a video where Perón explains the stunt himself:
(I couldn't find one subtitled, sorry)
I fully endorse the post, the subjects are as important as it stresses.
On the bright side, here in Argentina "liberal" still means liberal as in "libertarian", so we call ourselves "liberals", but only use the therm "libertarian" when speaking in english.
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Mucho Gracias!
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Con gusto :)
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @398ja 26 Jul
👀🔖
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It was an eye opener for me too
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The author of this manifesto, John Walker, is the founder of AutoDesk and creator of AutoCAD
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