"Politics" = "Propaganda"

internet politic discussions are circle-jerks

no u

>>1
Only if everyone in the discussion is on the same side and have the same opinions.

>>1 The echo-chamber effect is slightly more common in the left than in the right. It annoyed me, made me stand back for a while, and then I saw a purple fire that intrigued me. Now I'm trying to make reconcile my support for moderate government and alter-globalism with my acceptance of the net good of laissez-faire - quite difficult. I'm reading a book by my landsman, Johan Norberg, right now - "In defense of World Capitalism". Highly recommendable, factual and honest.

>>4

shut it jew zionist

>>5 I'm with Amos Oz on this one. If you are more than a lazy Halo-playing trolltard, check him out.

>>4
>>6
You still act like a bitching whining liberal.

>>7 Xel owns you with his intelligence. You fail because you resort to insults.

Lol.

lol too

>>4
Johan Norberg is a silly cunt and his book is a fucking super strawman. Nobody can take him seriously anymore, except for naive timbro wankers.

Post 1 - 12 same guy

>>11 Here we go with the facts! Right? Facts? I know both Norberg and Cato sometimes take their theses and messages further than the facts can bourne out but who doesn't?

>>13
Well, he uses stupid leftists arguments as a strawman to prove that globalism and capitalism works (like the agorists do here). This doesnt prove anything except that your arguments are weak.

>>14 No, he simply looks at the facts and realizes that the level of human happiness per capita has grown. To a person like me who doesn't care about ethics or ideology that's all that matters.

"47 percent of the world´s population lived in free countries in 2006, up from 26 percent in 1976."

He also mentions that "there is now a negative trend in 33 countries and positive ones in just 18. We also see the emergence of authoritarian countries like Russia, Venezuela and Iran that use their resources to export anti-democratic ideas. And of course, the collapse of the democratic experiment in Iraq has discredited democracy and encouraged dictatorships everywhere."

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6880 Then there's this.

That's assuming that people in free countries are happier than people who aren't in free countries. "Free" is a nebulous term, and alot of people are happy just to be "free" to live their lives with their families, producing children and resources like their government wants them to. Does being free to buy the things you see in advertisements really make you happy? Does it really matter if your freedom is taken away by governments or corporations?
Well, at least corporations can't draft you into an army and send you to war. But what government can't?

>>15
I like that source going off and talking about foreign nations and totally irrelevant garbage.  Considering that the highest percentile has had the most growth in income, the lower percentiles have not had comparable growths in income.

Thusly, the income gap is widening.

>>17
I don't think the income gap is widening.  If anything, it's probably closing.  People are simply becoming more and more aware of just how gigantic that gap is and has been.

>>16
So you would gladly live under the heal of a tyrant because buying things you see in adverts doesn't make you happy.

>>16
"Does being free to buy the things you see in advertisements really make you happy?"

Not in itself, but having that option, as well as countless other options that I can partake in to achieve happiness does.

What if you weren’t free to express that idea? Does expressing yourself on an anonymous message board really make you happy? When one lives in a free society, its not individual actions that gains happiness, it’s the sum total. There is no universal standard of happiness, as you pointed out. But freedom is always the means to achieve whatever set of actions you feel necessary to achieve your own subjective standard. Even if you found happiness in dancing naked on Tuesdays nights right in the middle of the street, although our society does not accept it your more then free to join one that does. People in free societies are in fact happier, if only for the reason that they continue to live in such a society. You’re more then free to move to Cuba or China if that was a necessary step for you to achieve happiness, they would accept you with open arms. But you haven’t.