The Mindcrime Liberty Show with Dobson and Patton

Ep. 96: Why do people do drugs? Is Brave New World right?

The Mindcrime Liberty Show discusses, what is the purpose of drug use? By drugs we mean so-called recreational drugs and alcohol. Debates on what drugs are medicinal and what are recreational are quite fraught, but regardless, why do people use them? Do people use them to escape a bad reality? Do they use them for fun? Are the drug and alcohol prohibitionists right in that it ruins lives? Is Brave New World right about the usage of drugs as a way to maintain control over a population? What are the Marxists views on drugs? Why do some communist regimes like North Korea and Cuba have relatively strict drug laws? Did the Deep State create the drug culture in the west? What is Christianity's relationship to drug use? What in principle is the difference between riding a roller coaster and taking drugs? Why are certain drugs illegal while other drugs legal?

Ep 95: Can we escape ”Liberalism”? / Mark Fisher, Nick Land and Alasdair Macintyre/

The Mindcrime liberty show discusses whether “liberalism” is escapable? There are many similar words to describe the current ruling order and they can include what we used in our title, liberalism, as well as crony capitalism, late capitalism, liberal democracy or neoliberalism. It is true that Murray Rothbard wouldn’t call our current society pure capitalistic; however, the anti capitalists would call it capitalists. It is also true that Mark Fischer and David Graeber wouldn’t of course call this existing order socialists or democratic; however, many of its right wing critics would. Neoliberalism may be the most technical but very few people identify as such. Naming and categorization problems aside, whatever one wants to call this “ancien regime” is it escapable? We answer this question in the negative by using the work of three acclaimed thinkers of different backgrounds: Mark Fischer, Nick Land and Alasdair Macintyre. For all their seeming disagreements they all agree that no tolerable or likely socio political order is going to emerge to this current order unless a breakthrough form of technology emerges. Even if that emerges, that is likely to emerge within the existing liberal capitalistic democracies themselves and be somewhat under the current regime anyways.

Mark Fisher in his book Capitalist Realism makes the argument that a lot of what conservatives consider to be woke cultural victories isn’t a win for the “true” left. The universities are commonly criticized by the right as being left wing but as Fisher argues they are the ground floor of sorting and reproduction of the existing corporate capitalists' society at all levels. To him they and their students/employers aren’t a bastion of revolution and if anything a kind of woke styled regime conservatism. Selling anti capitalist movies such as Wall-e or Black Panther, in the capitalist mode by mega corporations like Disney or Netflix to Fischer/Zizek is arguably a draw. Fischer and Zizek think a lot of the LGBT issues if anything strengthen the appeal of the current order. Disney of course isn’t a pure capitalists' corporation on Rothbardian terms but is technically competent compared to most of its competitors. So called socialists like a Bernie Sanders can’t even beat a Hillary Clinton let alone be in the position to seize the means of production. Maybe reactionaries should be happier considering the grim condition that self described lefties view themselves?

Speaking of reactionaries Macintyre in After Virtue attacks the spectre of pessimistic Marxists arguing that in some sense they cease to be Marxists by losing their optimism in human society. Once they become pessimists they in a way become reactionaries of some variety in practice which leads to the odd categorization problem of actual existing socialist revolutions being functionally “right wing.” Stalin has show trials and gulags which make the historical ancien regime look like humanistic lightweights. By Rawlsian terms arguably a lot of so called western capitalist societies are more "humanist" than any actual existing socialist society. In North Korea today a kind of horrific parody of socialism exists. Paradoxically some paleo conservatives today look with some amount of affinity at the historical USSR as being moderately cultural conservative which kept a lid on social lifestyle issues as well keeping out the megacorps like Disney and McDonalds.

Our third thinker we included is Nick land who has direct ties to our first thinker in Mark Fischer. Nick Land is a kind of hyper capitalists who views China as the future but China seems to be looking more backward by the day even before the shutdown. If China is the society of the future it seems that it may not exist demographically or politically if you take the work of Peter Zeihan seriously. Its entire economic rise is based on cheap manufacturing exports to the so called enemy liberal democracies themselves all backed up by the US Navy (a service which it can’t provide currently). It seems that the liberal capitalist democracies have a lot of punch left in them compared to their likely competitors. For all the collapse narratives is this ruling order of the US and its allies/vassals along with the megacorp culture escapable internally or externally? Is “neoliberalism” more secure than ever?

Ep 94: What is a woman? Ft. Natty.

The Mindcrime Liberty Show is joined by Natty to discuss, what is a woman? What is the biological basis of male and female? Is there a third sex? Some in the Dissident Right have argued that women are childlike. Is this true? Either way, what are the general psychological differences between men and women? Given typical female psychology, are the Pick-up Artists right or are they only correct about more K strategist women? What kind of relationship do women want with their husband? Do they want the dominant Alpha Chad telling them what to do all the time or do they want their own space and agency? Given how many tasks have been outsourced from the home, do traditionally minded wives need to home educate to bring the sense of female agency back within the home? Would arranged marriages for daughters on average improve the quality of their husbands? Are arranged marriages even possible in the modern West with the level of geographical mobility?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ep 93: Why is wealth inequality a problem? W/Todd Lewis

The Mindcrime liberty show is joined by Todd Lewis to discuss whether wealth inequality is a problem and why? What are the causes of wealth inequality? Is wealth inequality just an extension of talent inequality? Who or what ideology is to blame? What can be done? Would wealth inequality be a problem for Ancapistan? Are interest and absentee landlordism always going to cause excessive wealth inequality?

Ep 92: What is the purpose of sex?

The Mindcrime Liberty Show discusses what is the purpose of sex, especially in developed societies with effective birth control? The “natural” answer, whether one is dealing with animals or humans, is to create offspring which is no longer the answer since the invention of birth control. With its rise, things have changed significantly, with pleasure and peer bonding added into the mix of reasons to do it; they have arguably become the central reason. For much of human history there wasn’t really any cheap, reliable, available and effective birth control. If healthy fertile people did the act then children would result. As Walter Block’s opponent argued, this is what is “supposed” to happen if everything is working. The invention of effective inhibiting measures has arguably changed society even more than steam engines. Everyone in a sense family plans, which has led to the drop of birth rates almost everywhere. The post-Soviet states and East Asia are in demographic collapse. Even Iran has declined and arguably the Third World will follow. Abortion and the rise of people having no children are commonly brought up but what tends to be forgotten is the pro-natal people are having fewer children.

 

If one goes back three generations, most westerners can find people with ten plus children. In the past high birth rates did coincide with high infant mortality rates but the number of live children is quite historically low all things considered. Is this entirely due to family planning? What are the other reasons if any? If sex isn’t mainly for child production then what are the consequences for the family and society? Is the left-wing Anglican Giles Fraser right to support same-sex marriage for the purposes of peer bonding? Is the infamous Mr Spencer right that abortion is mainly birth control for certain classes of people? Is the campus “rape culture” and “date rape” an extension of the divorcing of sex from reproduction?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ep 91: Is Arranged marriage defensible?

The Mindcrime Liberty Show discusses whether arranged marriage is defensible. The divorce rate in the UK is 33% and 50% in the USA so alternative marriage arrangements need to be considered. Is an approved list of marriage candidates preferable to parental veto or typical American dating? Are the lower divorce rates with arranged marriage good evidence for its desirability? Is arranged marriage possibly in modern western with high levels of geographical mobility? In that case, what is the best way to encourage good spousal choice? Would treating marriage more like a standard financial investment help?

Ep 90: Why aren’t there more women in prison? W/Todd Lewis.

The Mindcrime Liberty Show is joined by Todd Lewis of the Praise of Folly podcast to discuss, why aren’t there more women in prison? If opening up male dominated spaces and closing the gender gap is so important for politicians, government bureaucracies, megacorporations, universities, many churches and activists, then why do they not try to go after the disparity in this male dominated institution: prisons. In England and Wales 95% of the prison population is male. In the US Federal prison system 93% of the population is male as well. A large gender gap also exists in school detentions and punishments as well. Why is this so high? Why do all the egalitarians and male dominated space critics not care? Is society much harsher on men and boys? Do men commit more crime? Do men get longer sentences? Will this disparity continue to get worse? Is this disparity all "capitalism's" (not Murray Rothbard's definition) or better known as neoliberalism/crony capitalism fault? Should the Marxist Left take seriously the claims of Men's rights activists? At their height, were historical Marxism and the historic labor movement at their height mainly a male thing? What could change this disparity?

Ep 89: How much would an ideal society spend on healthcare?

The Mindcrime Liberty Show discusses what is the marginal value of healthcare compared to other goods (say a nice dinner or a house)? If an ideal society existed where there was no IP, parasitic middleman, regulations and etc what would people spend on healthcare? How much is a life worth and how much is life extension worth given that scarcity exists? How much is perfect safety worth? Is Hans Hoppe right about the absurdity of modern “insurance”? Can healthcare be provided by the free market? What is to be made of alternative, or off label use of medicine? Why do progressives and at times so called classical liberals/conservatives think that medicine only consists of what state licensed doctors do? 

EP 88: What is GDP growth and why should anyone care?

The Mindcrime Liberty Show discusses GDP and the problems surrounding its calculations and use. Is GDP useful? Is much of GDP growth illusory especially that which is created by finance and central banks? Is the wealth of nations impossible to calculate and compare? Is calculating the wealth of nations harmful and only done for malevolent reasons? Would private product remaining be a more useful statistic to calculate? What are the problems associated with this? What would be a better way to calculate the "wealth of nations"?

Ep 87: Is Vladimir Putin right? #justwartheory #reparations

The Mindcrime Liberty Show discusses whether Vladimir Putin is right? Is this a legitimate case of re-acquiring land as a kind of military invasion version of reparations? Is this a just war? What exactly is a modern “just” war and does anyone care to apply the standards consistently? Who exactly owns a piece of land and how do individuals, groups and/or state acquire it “justly”? What exactly is the process of just land acquisition other than naked state military force and has it ever occurred justly? Does anyone or any state have a pure clean title to land, especially the land within Ukraine? What are some similar versions of disputed lands throughout the world both currently and historically?