Topic: Authoritarianism

The Fun Night that Wasn’t Fun

– November 4, 2020

“May this wonderful country be forever spared another nightmare such as 2020 has brought. The way to make sure that happens is finally to recognize and embrace the limits of state power. Let them figure out how to count ballots before they ever again take away our freedoms in the name of virus management.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Science

Attacks on Dissenting Voices Set Back Scientific Progress

– November 4, 2020

“Learning depends on open inquiry. Thoughtful, informed people know that something is terribly wrong with the Covid-19 orthodoxy. Others have ‘nagging suspicions.’ If dissenting voices continue to be attacked by those in positions of power, there is little doubt that decades from now historians will ask, How could they have been so blind?” ~ Barry Brownstein

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Policy

The ’Rona Squeeze and a Swedish Hip-Hopper

– November 3, 2020

“Most everywhere else, different rules apply: no matter the facts, we must squeeze harder. The badly-behaved virus must stop progressing, must cease and desist. Anything else, apparently, ‘just doesn’t seem worth it.'” ~ Joakim Book

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Government

Covid and Constitutional RoadKill

– November 3, 2020

“Americans need to recognize the profound weaknesses revealed this year in democratic governments at every level. A strict adherence to the Bill of Rights is the surest way to reduce post-Election Day perils. If freedom is to survive, Americans must become far better informed of the dangers from government — regardless of who wins the Presidency.”~ James Bovard

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Economic Education, Science

Lockdowns as a Political Tragedy of the Commons

– November 3, 2020

“All of this because of a political tragedy of the commons created by governments who insist on their right and duty to nationalize decision-making over all the private actions and activities of the citizenry subject to their control. Maybe we need a new slogan: Locked-down lives matter, and governments should stop doing it.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Science

Death by Lockdown

– November 2, 2020

“We attempted to intimidate a virus with PhDs and political power, hoping that it would shrivel and die, and in so doing dramatically disabled human freedom and social functioning. What do we have to show for it? Massive carnage, and a virus that is still with us.” ~ Jeffrey A. Tucker

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Government

Covid Collectivism

– November 2, 2020

“This deeply illiberal collectivist ideology thrives on irrational fear brought on by unusually poor information. And it refuses to acknowledge that Covid-19’s dangers, while indeed real, are not as great as suggested by daily screaming headlines, and are heavily confined to infirm groups on whom preventive attention should be, but isn’t, focused. It’s time for a revolt against Covid collectivism.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Policy, Public Choice and Public Policy

So Much for the “Strawman” of Lockdowns

– November 2, 2020

“Similar returns to lockdown are being actively discussed at the national level across Europe, and on a regional basis in the United States. The much-derided ‘straw man’ of renewed lockdowns, it would appear, has already sprung to life.” ~ Phillip W. Magness

Authoritarianism, Government, Policy

US v. Lopez Voids the National Mask Mandate

– October 30, 2020

“The Founders, like the rest of us, were flawed, their rationality bounded by the assumptions of their times, when gentlemen and statesmen would never stoop so low as Biden appears ready to do in his brazen attempt to follow ‘the’ scientists but not ‘the other’ scientists.” ~ Robert E. Wright

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Science

How Spreading Covid-19 Hysteria Will Backfire for the Covid-19 Vaccine

– October 30, 2020

“Risk can be mitigated and it can be proportional to the threat. We cannot let panic or the terrible damage inflicted on numerous populations by unwise lockdown efforts change this strategy.” ~ Michael Fumento

Authoritarianism, Crisis

Influential Mask Study Under Retraction Watch

– October 28, 2020

“Here is one case in hundreds over this year, when hastily reviewed papers with simple errors drive media frenzies that feed directly into political outcomes, paradigmatic cases in which the appearance of science overrides the real thing in ways that injure the rights and liberties of people.” ~ AIER Staff

Authoritarianism, Capitalism, Classical Liberalism

Unmasking Paul Krugman’s Misrepresentation of Ayn Rand

– October 28, 2020

“Ayn Rand’s way of individual freedom and free markets, at the end of the day, is the better one to be concerned about for saving lives in the face of the coronavirus, while the real killer in all this has been and is the misguided and harmful political paternalism for which Paul Krugman keeps so deeply yearning.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling