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Quotebag #60
“Obfuscation is just another marketing tool.”—KenG_CA “I don’t see the moral or ethical distinction between a rich person paying a lawyer to pay less tax and a poor person not declaring his cash work to the benefits office because if he did they’d cut his benefits pound for pound. One is lawful because it is…
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Twitter gets a little more mercenary
It seems now they place “promoted tweets” from unfollowed feeds (example) in the user’s newsfeed, in addition to the “promoted feeds” in the “who to follow” column. It’s a free-as-in-beer service, so I’m not complaining, but I tend to think of trends toward salesmanship and advertising playing a bigger part of business models (and of…
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Quotebag #59
“Doing business, even small business, requires mystification.”—Jack Crow “The phrase ‘commercial in confidence’ implies a conspiracy; a conspiracy that should be unlawful.”—ejoftheweb “You folks in the 53% movement are being played.”—Kevin Carson “Yes there are kooks on the left, there are kooks on the right too and as far as I’m concerned all moderates are…
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Can anagorism survive panarchy?
By panarchy we mean pluralism in anarchist ideology, or the coexistence of different and perhaps conflicting non-authoritarian ways of life. More to the point, can anagorism succeed in a world that contains anarcho-capitalism? For this purpose I define success as independence. My optimism is generally so guarded that I assume the odds are against anarchy…
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Quotebag #58
“I think property is like power, Soma. If you don’t use it, defend it, teach it and perhaps most of all, prevent others from having it — it loses not only the value determined by exclusivity, but [its] ability to grab hold of the minds of those without it. ”—Jack Crow “Exchangeable value requires coercion…
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New rallying cry
While I like “against market and state,” and even the neo-mutualist paradox of “free-market anticapitalism,” I can’t deny that I’ve been influenced by the reductionist Robinson Crusoe (“imagine a world in which the only economic goods are eggs and root beer…”) approach of libertarians, so in the spirit of paradox and mindfuckery, I give you…
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Quotebag #57
“The fact that music and the arts is argued for inclusion in our schools primarily as a way to raise math scores shows you how useless the whole exercise in education ‘reform’ is.”—Purple “If I somehow manage to come into the classroom every day and keep my religion to myself, I don’t understand why a…
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Quotebag #56
“I agree about the negative consequences of ‘crony capitalism’. But is crony capitalism only defined as an unwholesome alliance between government and business? What about unwholesome alliances between businesses?”—Poor Richard “A common job interview question is ‘Why do you want this job?’ And the true answer, ‘Because it’s a job,’ is not acceptable.”—impudent strumpet “Contempt…
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Geek Code of the majority: PE>$
It’s official. The Washington Post (h/t John Robb) informs us that solid majorities of Democrats, Republicans and “independents” alike have unfavorable views of both Wall Street (“jump”) and Washington (“how high?”). As the people who devised the Geek Code put it, “distrust both government and business.”
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The 53% backlash, and other reactionary tendencies
Take a look at the McFadden cartoon posted by laura k at wmtc. The transition from the second panel “don’t be haters, we’re job creators” to the third “increase productivity, not employment” is one of the strongest arguments for dealing with the backlash known as “53%.” Our side should definitely exploit the inevitable tension between…