Topic: Authoritarianism

The Dubious Premise for Expanding the Regulatory State

– May 10, 2021

“Arbitrary political interests are meant to be enacted by the legislative process where they can be debated, vetted and their architects ultimately held accountable. Looking to the regulatory state, which can essentially act as judge, jury, and executioner, to pass one’s political mandate not only exhibits a disdain for the lives of individual citizens but is also tyrannical in nature.” ~ Ethan Yang

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The Baby Bump that Wasn’t

– May 9, 2021

“Few people would willingly take on additional stressors during lockdowns, uncertainty and financial stress during Covid. Depriving expectant mothers of significant milestones, such as baby showers and gender reveal parties isolates them from supportive networks of friends and family essential to reducing stress and improving mood.” ~ Micha Gartz

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Competing With China Shouldn’t Entail Becoming More Like China

– May 6, 2021

“When we talk about competing with China to win the 21st century we first need to be very clear on what that means. President Biden’s rhetoric seems to suggest he just wants to use the geopolitical tensions between the US and China as an excuse to pass his list of big government policies. The massive expansion of state power into the American economy is not a novel innovation in response to China but a failed and tired dream held by Progressives since the early 20th century.” ~ Ethan Yang

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GosFed Looming at the Fed?

– May 5, 2021

“It’s easy to see why the comrades of Gosbank showed so little dissent. Say, or think, the wrong thing in the Soviet Union, and you risked a one-way ticket to Siberia. What in the world is GosFed’s excuse?” ~The New York Sun

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Is This Our 1914 Moment?

– May 5, 2021

“Last year’s government power-grabbing disasters could be the modern equivalent of 1914 – the war to end all wars, where ‘We’ll be back by Christmas’ is to be replaced by the ‘Two weeks to flatten curve,’ that unfathomably stretched into years or decades. It took Europe some 50 years to recover from that initial governmental blunder and in many ways it never did. Let’s hope that Trump and Biden are harmless Kennedys and not Herbert Henry Asquith, the British Prime Minister of 1914. I have my doubts.” ~ Joakim Book

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The Covid-19 Emergency Did Not Justify Lockdowns

– May 4, 2021

“Whatever the novelty and dangers of Covid-19, the novelty and dangers of Covid-19 lockdowns are at least arguably of the same magnitude. The dismissal of the unknown possible horrors of lockdowns in order to focus attention exclusively on the unknown possible horrors of SARS-CoV-2 is as unjustified by science as it is unpardonable as policy.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

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Biden’s Agenda of “Democratic” Paternalism and Planning

– May 3, 2021

“Joe Biden and Xi Jinping both believe that the national interest comes before the individual’s peaceful interest; that the collective take priority over the person; that the state must have the authority and power to assign and direct most or all aspects of people’s lives and actions; and that constitutional rules and procedures written on pieces of paper are less important than the implementing, imposing, and achieving of the purposes in ‘the plan.'” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

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China Unleashes Financial Tech Crackdown

– May 3, 2021

“This fintech crackdown could be emblematic of China’s authoritarian growing pains and it remains to be seen if they will even be able to balance economic progress with political control. This move will certainly have consequences for short-term investment and economic growth in China. Perhaps this is how the free world breaks China’s authoritarian model, by forcing them to increasingly compete on the open market or risk sliding into irrelevance.” ~ Ethan Yang

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Lockdowns are No Substitute for Focused Protection

– May 3, 2021

“Good public health policy must reflect this interwoven relationship between pathogen, pathology, and social and economic equality, not merely impose the blunt and devastating ‘nonpharmaceutical interventions’ indiscriminately on the whole of the population.” ~ AIER Contributing Authors

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“The” Science Is Coming for You Again!

– May 2, 2021

“To effectively ban menthol cigarettes, the FDA will have to ban tobacco entirely, something it has admitted is not in its power to do. Or it would have to destroy the environments in which mint grows naturally throughout the world and ban all possible chemical substitutes and their constituent parts. This is why liberty lovers always warn about the ‘slippery slope’ of regulatory authoritarianism. Effectively banning just one simple thing usually requires widespread repression.” ~ Robert E. Wright

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Why Is Government Abusing the Children?

– April 30, 2021

“A snow or hurricane day here and there provides students with a treat, but a Covid-Zoom year is just plain child abuse (and taxpayer abuse). So push back on government-owned education and government-regulated childcare, if not for yourselves then for the children, the poor, defenseless, masked, emotionally and physically damaged future leaders of our country.” ~ Robert E. Wright

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The Anti-Lockdown Movement Is Large and Growing

– April 29, 2021

“The reason why the lockdown advocates are intensifying their perception and exercise of hegemony right now is to forestall the possibility that the entire lockdown praxis will fall into massive disrepute. They will not get their way. Let the blowback begin.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

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