I decided to move some discussion from this post up to the top level here. Specifically, Watoosh wrote: "Well, if violence is defined as initiation of force (which, of course, presupposes certain property rights), then I think Rockwell is correct..." Well, if we define cats as elephants, then many people keep elephants in their house. More seriously, firstly, violence is not usually defined that way. It's defined as, you know, violence, so that, say, someone may respond violently or non-violently to someone who aggresses against them. Otherwise, it would make no sense to say, for instance, "He punched me, but I did not stoop to violence in response." And, secondly, the libertarian usage of "initiation of force" is very offbeat. If I wander onto someone's meadow, most people would not say I had "initiated force" -- I mean, sure, I used "force" against the earth to push off walking, but that's not force directed against...
Good reductio ad absurdum. Mine for restrictions on ways someone can use their property: "If I can't shoot people with my gun, then I don't really own it.".
ReplyDeleteAncaps like Brock and Major.Fredom accept that expicitly. Many others do and when pressed waffle about how it's "more complicated" when that someone ia actually on you land.
DeleteI can only imagine that those people are so far down the rabbit hole that there is no chance of saving them.
DeleteOk, rob, you've exceeded your stupid quota. Bye!
ReplyDeleteSpillover http://consultingbyrpm.com/blog/2014/09/potpourri-230.html#comment-941847
DeleteWhat an astonishing mischaracterization of your point.
I had warned rob about a dozen times to stop it with the "Oh, so what you are really saying is the government should regulate how many calories we eat?" kind of crap. This one was the last straw: I don't have time to correct his fanciful re-writings of my posts again and again and again.
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