Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“It starts, like the argument on the other side, with the belief that it is on the whole better for people to believe what is true. The question is what mechanism gets you there. To put it differently, what mechanism for filtering speech does the best job of letting truth through while blocking falsehood? The ideal mechanism would be an omniscient censor committed to truth, someone who always knows whether a statement is true or false and only blocks the false ones, but we don’t have any of those.” (09/24/25)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ryan McMaken
“One of the most memorable passages in the memoir of the escaped slave Frederick Douglass is where he describes how one group of slaves would argue with another group of slaves over whose master was richer or stronger. Exhibiting a mixture of Stockholm syndrome with delusions of grandeur, these slaves, according to Douglass, ‘seemed to think that the greatness of their masters was transferable to themselves.’ … Americans think themselves quite privileged to be dominated and exploited by the current American ruling oligarchy. Why? It is often because these victims of the regime judge their masters to be less awful than some other masters. But, not content with concluding one set of overlords to be merely less bad than another, these willing serfs then go a step further and attribute to their masters great virtue and kindness.” (09/24/25)
“Contrary to popular myth, women do not, as a rule, marry and then divorce men for material gain. Because women are not, as a rule, very stupid. You see, marriage benefits men more than women, on average. Finances are among the reasons this is true. Women don’t marry and then divorce for money because the average woman ends up poorer after divorce. … This is important context as Marjorie Taylor Greene is once again calling for a ‘national divorce.’ As is often the case with her, I’m not sure exactly what she’s proposing. But let’s assume she wants to see ‘red’ and ‘blue’ states become separate countries. If so, she should know that the blue states would be the husband and the red states would be the wife in this political split.” (09/24/25)
“Progressives today are mourning the fleeting (six-day) martyrdom of Jimmy Kimmel, archetype of today’s late-night sometime-comedians, all-the-time-propagandists. And some progressives, noticing how big government can throw its weight around by working levers of coercion, are perhaps having an epiphany: Actual conservatives sensibly warn that government has too much weight and too many levers. Perhaps progressives should have been more troubled when the Biden administration was throwing its weight around, using regulatory threats from the White House and federal agencies to pressure social media companies to censor what that administration called ‘covid misinformation.'” (09/24/25)
“One of the main reasons I can’t be conservative or liberal — Right or Left, Republican or Democrat — is that all of them trust government to some degree. I don’t trust it because I can’t. They trust government with different issues; their specific degree of trust depends on which political party holds the most offices this week. I trust government with nothing — based on its actions, not its promises, and its perpetual failure to fulfill the bare minimum justification for government throughout history. Each political faction also has areas where they doubt government, but I distrust it entirely — especially in critical matters like life, death, ethics, or natural rights. Handing those to government was a mistake.” (09/24/25)
“If there are still historians in 100 years time, and if some of them still know Latin, then they may see Trump’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly as a key symbolic moment in the latest round of Translatio Imperii: the process whereby imperial rule and legitimacy passes from one state to another. In the present era, that means how global leadership, and the leading role in defining global norms, passes from the United States to China. … Generally in history, the Translatio Imperii has been accompanied and driven by great military catastrophes. With luck, this time that will not be necessary. If the Chinese leadership is sensible, after listening to Trump’s speech they will sit back, have some tea, continue quietly with their existing policies and watch the United States destroy its own empire.” (09/24/25)
“A decade ago this month, Germany opened its borders to more than 1 million migrants, mainly Syrians, as well as Afghans and Iraqis. Many were fleeing brutal civil wars. At the time, Chancellor Angela Merkel declared, ‘Wir schaffen das!’ (We can manage this!), and the challenging task of integrating refugees began. But the country’s welcome mat soon wore thin. And that was even before the unexpected flow of another 1.25 million refugees from Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion. Now, like much of Europe, Germany is tightening border controls, turning away many migrants, encouraging many to return home, and deporting those in the country illegally or with criminal records. German politics has been upended by the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment. (09/23/25)
“Studies suggest that today’s kids get an average of 4-7 minutes of unstructured time outside a day, while they spend 7-8 hours a day in front of screens. With a youth mental health crisis also sweeping the nation (rates of anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and diagnosed mental health disorders like ADHD are all at record highs), it’s not hard to imagine that the correlation between kids’ indoor confinement and their mental health struggles is more than a coincidence.” (09/24/25)
“A revolt is building across the United States against property taxes. From Florida to North Dakota, states have attempted or are attempting to abolish them. The anger driving this movement comes from two sources. One is the belief that you are being taxed for living in your house. ‘Is the property yours or are you just renting from the government?’ Florida governor Ron DeSantis asked. … The second driving force is that property tax burdens are often tied to the notional market value of an asset — your house — rather than to the owner’s ability to pay or the cost of providing the services the tax finances. … The first of these points is based on a misapprehension (albeit an understandable one, given the second point).” (09/24/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The Global Sumud Flotilla which is bringing aid to break the Israeli siege on Gaza has once again come under attack. Activists say drones are dropping explosive objects which have reportedly burned the arm of one crew member and destroyed the main mast of one of the boats. As Middle East Eye recently noted, US Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack has admitted that Israel was behind the attacks on flotilla boats in Tunisia which we discussed earlier this month …. The Israelis will literally launch drone strikes on activist boats for trying to bring formula to starving babies and then turn around and say the world hates them because of their religion.” (09/24/25)
