Media and Culture

Walter Block decries statists who distort the meaning of words, and also those who kowtow to their politically correct agenda.

The census is intrusive by nature, but the Clinton administration's version is brazenly pro-welfare, outrageously invasive, and costly even for states that supposedly benefit from its results. 

In a display of amazing ignorance or brazen political grandstanding, he strode up to a gas station and berated the owner for charging too high a price.

All talk of disproportionate wealth gains belongs in the dustbin of history. 

Statism has so permeated our culture that even the games we play reflect the popular belief in omnipotent government. For example, one of the most successful computer games of all time is the SimCity series, which requires the player to plan a city in exhaustive detail from uninhabited terrain. Over five million copies of the game have been sold, and each version to date has reflected a government-centered view of the world.

In a hyper-political age, the words we use, says Walter Block, can reveal hidden political and economic agendas. 

You may never have heard of them, but they battled against the main cause of state expansion in the 20th century. 

Why the attempt to eliminate social and economic inequality always and everywhere ends in massive coercion. 

If you want your phone number unlisted, you have to pay for the privilege--a typical bureaucratic inversion of the prevailing market rule. 

Government has an influence over programming because of an age-old political decision to nationalize the airwaves.