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OH DEAR.

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Niccolò:
So protesting the eight largest mass murdererers, imprisoners, rapists, etc. in the world is a "leftist hissy-fit"?


In this context, yes. You are deluding yourself if you think they were protesting the G8 states themselves.

Niccolò:
Anti-globalization - actually most "anti-globalizationists" don't use this term as they see it as being too vague, many call themselves members of the Anti-Corporate-Globalization Movement - is A-OK with me. I guess you support the EU, NATO, UN, IMF, WTO, etc. though.


And Anti-Corporate-Globalization Movement is somehow different from anti-globalization? It seems to me like a pointless addition.

And what exactly makes you think I support the EU, etc? You don't seem like a wholly rational individual, since you jump to rather far-fetched conclusions.

Niccolò:

Same thing in Italia  - and France - yet, somehow half or nearly half of both economies are underground.



I don't suppose you have any real evidence to support this? Because that would mean that both economies rival Japan in size.

Niccolò:
Hmm... Could it be that Europeans are just less inclined to care about what the politicans think or do?


So you are extrapolating from a few rioters that all of Europe is less inclined to care what politicians think? I'm sorry, but you are not making any sense. That's like arguing that China is a hotbed of anarchistic sentiment because there were riots in Tibet.

You also seem to be working with rather nonsensical notions that Americans are all Fox News watching automatons, while Europeans are all counter-economy activists. This is patently silly. Most Europeans want government services and limitations on freedom, including most of the rioters you are using as examples. Where as many Americans - at least use to - have an aversion to government invasions into their lives.
Drag not your strength from government, but from the voices they abuse.
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Ego replied on Wed, May 21 2008 1:42 AM

Sorry, I should have included this in my last post at the end of page 4.

Nicky:

Ego:
On a side note, if Europeans really are more libertarian than the Americans, why do they consistently elect socialists with high voter turnout? Something doesn't add up here...

 

Because several countries in Europe have compulsory voting laws.

So what if those countries have compulsory voting laws? If anything, that helps my point! Why are Europeans voting for big-government socialists if they're in fact anti-tax pro-market libertarians? Don't waste any more of your credibility on this point.

Don't allow leftists to play games with definitions! Some of the libertarian-leaning leftists at this forum will try to redefine "left-wing" back to its original defition (Third Estate, limited government, free-markets, laissez-faire reforms, etc.). Fine! We non-leftists can't stop them from using their own personal definitions; they can use whatever labels they want to describe any concept they want.

However, they have the audacity to then use their personal definition of "left-wing" (remember, the original definition, which is no longer valid) to prove that modern leftists are more libertarian than modern rightists! They will say that libertarianism is "inherently leftist" (again, using the original, no longer valid definition), and use that to insist that we should prefer and side with modern leftists over modern rightists.

Question their motives.

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Niccolò:
The students were not rioting in defense of anything other than to put food on the table. It's the government's fault for making that so difficult.


Oh please. There was no grand scheme behind the Paris riots. The whole thing was a massive clusterfuck. The government created the slums through welfare and eventually the people in those slums lashed out. But it wasn't for or against anything specific, it was just another generic riot against poor conditions, coupled with generic demands for something more (usually more government handouts).

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Niccolò replied on Wed, May 21 2008 1:52 PM

Ego:

 

No, Nicky, these statists were clearly rioting in favor of keeping the regulations; they weren't chanting anti-state slogans, they were chanting pro-state and anti-market slogans.

 

No, Eggy, the students were rioting to keep regulations, but only because those regulations are the only safeguard they have from other regulations.

 

Ego:

It's funny that you want to pretend that these leftist thugs are really pro-market; would you give the same benefit to Hitler and his thugs? When they were chanting their pro-state slogans and destroying others' property, were they just "rioting against the situation", or were they anti-Jew and pro-state?

First, I'm not claiming that the students were "leftists" - at least not necessarily. If there were non-radicals among them, then those were rightists.

 

I am simply defending their right to protest and looking at the situation through dialectics.

Second, wasn't Hitler on the right?

Third, yes, most Germans were just rioting against the situation - it was those in power who were advocating the retension and expansion of that power through the state. Ask anyone historian why the rose to power. The situation was an exploitable one and they were the ones who best exploited it.

 

Ego:

Again, no, see my signature.

 

Your signature is, for lack of a better word, stupid. You aren't a good writer. Please, stop referencing yourself.

 

Ego:

You keep trying to push the wild-eyed theory that "left" means liberty and "right" means tyranny. You can use whatever definition you want, but FDR, Ted Kennedy, Cesar Chavez, Noam Chomsky, Barrack Obama, Hugo Chavez, and other leftists are not pro-liberty; they're as pro-state as you can be. I'll leave it to others to guess what reasons you have for insisting otherwise.

FDR, Ted Kennedy, Obama, C. Chavez and H. Chavez are rightists.

 

Noam Chomsky is a confused leftist.

 

 

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Ego:

Libertarians are leftists.

Again, no, see my signature.

You keep trying to push the wild-eyed theory that "left" means liberty and "right" means tyranny. You can use whatever definition you want, but FDR, Ted Kennedy, Cesar Chavez, Noam Chomsky, Barrack Obama, Hugo Chavez, and other leftists are not pro-liberty; they're as pro-state as you can be. I'll leave it to others to guess what reasons you have for insisting otherwise.

 


Why don't you hop in this...:

....go back and visit this man...:

...and ask him if he sits on the 'left' or 'right' side of the French assembly?

The state is a disease and Liberty is the both the victim and the only means to a lasting cure.

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Niccolò replied on Wed, May 21 2008 2:07 PM

Libertas est Veritas:


In this context, yes. You are deluding yourself if you think they were protesting the G8 states themselves.

In no context. You're just wrong. I don't know how to put it any more clearly than that. You don't know why the Europeans protest. All you do is look at the word "globalization" and assume from there.


Libertas est Veritas:


And Anti-Corporate-Globalization Movement is somehow different from anti-globalization? It seems to me like a pointless addition.

Again, it goes to show how little you know about... anything. The Anarchists in Europe are not anti-globalization, per se - at least not in the sense that you think. Anarchists are anti-globalization in the sense that globalization has been pushed by governments - they rightly include the multi-national corporations in it - at the expense of the lives and welfare of domestic "citizens" and people around the world.





Libertas est Veritas:
And what exactly makes you think I support the EU, etc? You don't seem like a wholly rational individual, since you jump to rather far-fetched conclusions.

Well, if you knew what the Anarchists in Europe were fighting against, you surely would have known that it was just the remnants of the Bretton Woods system in the WTO, IMF, WB, etc. You surely would have known that they aren't against cultures living together, but rather against cultures being set farther apart by force for the benefit of these 8 national regimes.

Libertas est Veritas:

I don't suppose you have any real evidence to support this? Because that would mean that both economies rival Japan in size.

 

You didn't read the links previously provided a few pages ago?



Libertas est Veritas:
So you are extrapolating from a few rioters that all of Europe is less inclined to care what politicians think? I'm sorry, but you are not making any sense. That's like arguing that China is a hotbed of anarchistic sentiment because there were riots in Tibet.


First, Tibet is not China.

Second, Tibetans are also more resistent to government than Americans. Why else would they continue to fight the Chinese government?

Third, if not, then why would they riot and stand up against national regimes when Americans... well... don't?

Libertas est Veritas:
You also seem to be working with rather nonsensical notions that Americans are all Fox News watching automatons, while Europeans are all counter-economy activists. This is patently silly. Most Europeans want government services and limitations on freedom, including most of the rioters you are using as examples. Where as many Americans - at least use to - have an aversion to government invasions into their lives.

 

" I don't suppose you have any real evidence to support this?"

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Niccolò replied on Wed, May 21 2008 2:09 PM

Libertas est Veritas:
Niccolò:
The students were not rioting in defense of anything other than to put food on the table. It's the government's fault for making that so difficult.


Oh please. There was no grand scheme behind the Paris riots. The whole thing was a massive clusterfuck. The government created the slums through welfare and eventually the people in those slums lashed out. But it wasn't for or against anything specific, it was just another generic riot against poor conditions, coupled with generic demands for something more (usually more government handouts).

 

Actually, that's exactly what it was. A lashing out. Were they calling for something like welfare? I don't know, I didn't catch that. I do know, however, that they were protesting against the government. That's much more than Americans can say.

 

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ThorsMitersaw:
...and ask him if he sits on the 'left' or 'right' side of the French assembly?


Perhaps someone could explain to me why libertarianism would be either leftist or rightist? Quite frankly, this is getting silly. I consider both leftism and rightism to be threats to liberty, but for some reason people here insist on labeling libertarians along those lines.
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Niccolò replied on Wed, May 21 2008 2:17 PM

Ego:

So what if those countries have compulsory voting laws? If anything, that helps my point! Why are Europeans voting for big-government socialists if they're in fact anti-tax pro-market libertarians? Don't waste any more of your credibility on this point.

 

You're apparently not too inclined to understand economics.

 

First, compulsory voting laws add an incentive to vote - or at least a disincentive not to vote.

Second, Europeans aren't voting for "big-government socialists," at least not the Europeans I'm referencing. Like in the US, the stupid outnumber the radical. Combine that with the idiot reformists who compromise the movement of radicalism and you get something similar to America, but only closer to the final stages.

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Niccolò replied on Wed, May 21 2008 2:18 PM

Libertas est Veritas:
ThorsMitersaw:
...and ask him if he sits on the 'left' or 'right' side of the French assembly?


Perhaps someone could explain to me why libertarianism would be either leftist or rightist? Quite frankly, this is getting silly. I consider both leftism and rightism to be threats to liberty, but for some reason people here insist on labeling libertarians along those lines.

Karl Hess.

 

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Ego replied on Wed, May 21 2008 2:24 PM

Niccolò:

Ego:

No, Nicky, these statists were clearly rioting in favor of keeping the regulations; they weren't chanting anti-state slogans, they were chanting pro-state and anti-market slogans.

No, Eggy, the students were rioting to keep regulations, but only because those regulations are the only safeguard they have from other regulations.

No, Nicky, they were rioting (while using coercive force to destroy others' property, of course) in order to maintain illegitimate control over the individuals employing them.

If they were actually pro-market, pro-liberty, and anti-aggression, they'd be rioting against government aggression, not rioting in favor of it, and certainly not aggressing against other individuals and property themselves!

Ego:

It's funny that you want to pretend that these leftist thugs are really pro-market; would you give the same benefit to Hitler and his thugs? When they were chanting their pro-state slogans and destroying others' property, were they just "rioting against the situation", or were they anti-Jew and pro-state?

First, I'm not claiming that the students were "leftists" - at least not necessarily. If there were non-radicals among them, then those were rightists.

I am simply defending their right to protest and looking at the situation through dialectics.

Second, wasn't Hitler on the right?

Third, yes, most Germans were just rioting against the situation - it was those in power who were advocating the retension and expansion of that power through the state. Ask anyone historian why the rose to power. The situation was an exploitable one and they were the ones who best exploited it.

Oh, absolutely, hated their situation, and decided to act upon that hatred. That doesn't mean that all methods are equally legitimate and equally moral.

Reacting to a bad situation by destroying Jews' property and torturing innocent children is not legitimate, despite what apologists like you would have us believe.

Ego:

Again, no, see my signature.

 

Your signature is, for lack of a better word, stupid. You aren't a good writer. Please, stop referencing yourself.

I've admitted that I'm not a particularly good writer; I'm certainly still learning. Most of the time I write in a computer programming language, not English.

Ego:

You keep trying to push the wild-eyed theory that "left" means liberty and "right" means tyranny. You can use whatever definition you want, but FDR, Ted Kennedy, Cesar Chavez, Noam Chomsky, Barrack Obama, Hugo Chavez, and other leftists are not pro-liberty; they're as pro-state as you can be. I'll leave it to others to guess what reasons you have for insisting otherwise.

FDR, Ted Kennedy, Obama, C. Chavez and H. Chavez are rightists.

Yikes!

I do know, however, that they were protesting against the government.

You almost got that right; they were protesting against cutting government back.

Don't allow leftists to play games with definitions! Some of the libertarian-leaning leftists at this forum will try to redefine "left-wing" back to its original defition (Third Estate, limited government, free-markets, laissez-faire reforms, etc.). Fine! We non-leftists can't stop them from using their own personal definitions; they can use whatever labels they want to describe any concept they want.

However, they have the audacity to then use their personal definition of "left-wing" (remember, the original definition, which is no longer valid) to prove that modern leftists are more libertarian than modern rightists! They will say that libertarianism is "inherently leftist" (again, using the original, no longer valid definition), and use that to insist that we should prefer and side with modern leftists over modern rightists.

Question their motives.

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*boinks the neo-bolshevik leftist jews* Geeked

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You do a lot of boinking.  Good for you.  Stick out tongue

I would make a great bureaucrat.  Wanna see?  Click here.  It's fun.

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