We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Samizdata quote of the day Well, I was in Brussels last week and, contra the mood on Twitter, Europe feels more buoyantly European than it has in a long time, and Britain is absolutely a part of it, sending weapons to Ukraine, beefing up Nato and generally putting some stick about. It is UK Remainers who now seem parochial, refusing to move on from yesterday’s hurt and even, in the case of that fake news flick Boris Does Brussels, reimagining contemporary events as a commentary on unrelated stuff that’s still grinding their gears six years later.
When President Biden said that meetings that bring America and the EU closer are a “victory for all of us,” Alastair Campbell added that they are also “a defeat for the UK. Which is why Brexit was a foreign policy goal for the Kremlin.” Bingo: a conspiracy theory and a contradiction all in one Tweet!
– Tim Stanley
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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When you’re on the opposite side to serial liar and war monger Alastair Campbell, you live in the sure and certain knowledge that you’re on the side of the angels.
Time the Remoaners moved on. It’s a whole new and exiting world out there.
@John Galt – that’s why he is useful. As a barometer, a check for your moral compass. A kind of inverse pole star by which to guide your ship through the sea of life.
Any place I can read the article without a credit card entry? I hate those.
@Bobby B – Will Britain ever be rid of Brexit Derangement Syndrome?
Centrist dad neoliberalism is the zombie ideology that won’t die. Seems mainly motivated by spite and class hatred. I think that’s got more pronounced following Brexit, Trump, Orban etc. But I think spite and class hatred were always the main drivers of Blairism. Blair’s 1999 speech made it clear he saw ‘the forces of conservatism’ as the enemy. But while Blair back then at least made a pretence to be friendly to the working class, contemporary centrist dadism has written off the working class, at least the white, heterosexual majority of it.
@Bobby B (and presumably et al)
You can also use 12 foot ladder – https://12ft.io/
John Galt and Justin: Thank you.
@bobby b:
You can also right-click on any paywalled Telegraph page and select ‘view page source’ – this will open in a new tab: scroll about two-thirds of the way down and you’ll find the text of the article.
Personally I use “Bypass Paywalls” for Brave from Github. It’s a bit of a pain to install the extention via Developer Options, but that’s about it.
The Pro European Union people will not stop – indeed they are frothing at the mouth in the hope of destroying the Hungarian government next week, the “fiend of Putin” smear.
Remember the European Union is only part of a much bigger design – the world governance dreamed of by Woodrow Wilson and so many others.
Mr Biden is in a direct line from Woodrow Wilson (in both his foreign and domestic policies) – which makes the idea that “the parties have switched” rather odd, as both President Wilson and Mr Biden were Democrats.
It is true that President Wilson supported white people against black people and Mr Biden (and other modern Democrats) supports black people against white people – but it is still Collectivism, rather than judging people as INDIVIDUALS. And the policy remains EVER BIGGER AND MORE INTERVENTIONIST GOVERNMENT.
Remember when Mr Biden and other Western leaders talk of “democracy” that is what they mean – Collectivism, ever bigger government.
And Mr Putin? Mr Putin is a scumbag.
If you are looking for Good Guys – you are not going to find them. At least not among the leaders.
Still ordinary people are often decent, whether they are Ukrainians, Americans, Russians (yes most ordinary Russians are O.K. – if you dispute that, go jump off the nearest cliff), or British people.
You’ve been to Russia, right? You’ve met Russians in Russia, yes? Tell me where, because it must be some part of Russia I wasn’t rich enough to see, where people were different to ones I met, bacuase Russians I knew & worked with liked Putin or at least didn’t dislike him, and they were all ordinary Russians.
There are consequences to openly opposing Putin as Alexei Navalny, Alexander Litvinenko, Sergei Skripal and many others have discovered. Often fatal consequences.
For your average working Ivan / Tatiana they know better than to disagree with the state sponsored propaganda, consequences for which can lead to losing your job, home and prison. Better for them to nod and smile and hope one of the generals or oligarchs takes Putin out.
Russian despotism isn’t exactly new and the likelihood of a replacement for Putin making significant material and structural changes in Russia are slim.
Most likely “Here’s the new boss, same as the old boss” and before you ask, yes I’ve worked with Russians for decades in the oil business and most support Putin either grudgingly or enthusiastically, but they do support him at face value. Or did.
Work for agricultural machinery business (I am speaking Polish/Ukrainian/Russian/Czech/English/German/Danish), do training of people in Ukraine/Russia/Czechia, so this is kind of people I am meeting, not sort who care what they say after beer & vodka, too unimportant to get attention. All cynical about Moscow, but Putin is ok for them.
How many anti Putin television stations are there in Russia?
Most Russians see pro Putin stuff all the time – they do not know what he does.
So stop the anti Russian racism – just stop it.
60% of Americans voted for Franklin Roosevelt in 1936 – so they must support robbing people of their gold and ripping up the Constitution of the United States by ripping up the gold clauses in private and public contracts?
How many American radio stations presented the bare truth of what Franklin Roosevelt was doing?
None of them did – his FCC (young bureaucrats like a certain Lyndon Johnson) made sure of that. The radio stations presented Franklin Roosevelt as a good man (or indeed as too moderate) – none of the radio stations presented the truth.
Perhaps Americans are “naturally despotic” it is “in their history” – after all they voted for Woodrow Wilson (twice), Franklin Roosevelt (four times), Lyndon Johnson, and even the Frankfurt School Marxist Barack Obama (twice). They did not know what these people were really like (the insane fantasies of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt’s private excuses for the Holocaust -see Paul Johnson’s “A History of the Jews” on that, the fact that Lyndon Johnson was a life long criminal), but let us ignore that little “detail” and pretend that most Americans were just like the despicable people who won these elections.
People often do not know what they are voting for – because the media work very hard indeed in pushing lies and (even more important) covering-up-the-truth.
So again, stop the anti Russian racism – just stop it.
When half the Russian media present the truth about Mr Putin for years and people still vote for him – then you can come back with the anti Russian racism. Till then – stop it.
I am part Russian and entire Slav you idiot. Why do westerners try to shut down things they don’t like to hear by squealing ‘racism’? This doesn’t work on slavs beacuse we don’t give a fuck. Don’t like? Not my ptoblem.
You don’t know what you’re talking about, Russian people have internet until few days ago, coukd see media outside Russia if they want, everyone has vpn (was not like China). Russia has no history of freedom & so Russians have different assumptions to comfortable west, if you think otherwise, you are nothing but unicorns & wishful dreams. Unless Putin loses war, Russia is with him, will only turn on him if Putin loses. Don’t care about casualties if he wins, only care about casualties if he loses, like Afghanistan. it is Russian way, always has been, always will be.
The Economist magazine had a puff piece in this week’s issue – what Joseph Biden can learn from President Truman.
The puff piece left out the fact that Mr Biden is both a life long criminal and senile (clearly Americans think it is fine to have a criminal, and one who is going senile, in charge of nuclear weapons – after “81 million voted for Biden” – and if you believe they voted for him, you believe anything), and left out the facts about President Truman.
Harry Truman was a crook – in bed with Kansas City (Kansas City Missouri) organised crime. How many voters knew that? Well clearly all of them (according to the above commenters).
According to the above commenters – Americans are natural criminals – after all they voted for a criminal (Harry Truman) over a Mafia buster, Tom Dewey. Anyone who suggests that most voters n 1948 DID NOT KNOW what Harry Truman was like – well such a person must be silly, obviously all Americans must have known that Harry Truman was a crook (according to the above commenters).
And his “policies” – the domestic policies of Harry Truman were never carried out, thank God. His domestic policies, written out in ranting letters were all about price controls and nationalisation and shooting (yes shooting) people who did not obey his orders. Domestic policy in the late 1940s was under the control of a conservative Congress – not the crook in the Oval Office (again – thankfully).
Foreign policy? Letting Stalin have half of Europe – even though the United States had a nuclear monopoly and was about HALF the entire world’s industrial output.
The United States in 1948 was about half the industrial output of the entire world (no thanks to Harry Truman – whose domestic policy ideas were ignored, because they were insane).
And then we have CHINA.
In 1946 the Truman Administration issued orders to the government of the Republic of China to STOP the successful Manchurian Offensive and engage in “talks” with the Communists.
When you engage in “talks” with Marxists they can only be one outcome – they win and you lose.
Later the Truman Administration cut off all military support to the Republic of China – essentially handing over the country to the Marxists, on a plate.
Tens of millions of people died because of that decision of the “Old China Hands” in the Truman Administration – and it may well have SIGNED THE DEATH WARRANT of the United States and the rest of hte Western world – because that decision in the late 1940s led to the People’s Republic of China which is crushing us today.
So yes Economist magazine – Mr Biden, if he were not the corrupt paid agent of the People’s Republic of China that he has been for many years – and not now hopelessly senile, has a lot to learn from Harry Truman.
One should look at the Truman Administration as a guide as to what NOT to do.
The education system and the media present the Truman Administration as strong in relation to Europe and Stalin – in reality they were weak (as Mr Putin knows well) allowing Stalin to keep the European countries he had conquered (Mr Putin, an admirer of Stalin, would note that), and the Truman Administration handed China to the Marxists – condemning tens of millions of people to death, and (it may well be) signing the long term Death Warrant of the United States and the rest of the Western World.
The monster we face to today, the Communist Party Dictatorship of the People’s Republic of China – was the creation of the Truman Administration. And all the endless lies of the education system and the media can not change that basic fact.
The racist “idiot” (his own word) Poniatowski is doing the work of Mr Putin, by arguing that it is “Russians”, not Mr Putin, who is at fault – and thus undermining any effort to remove Mr Putin from power.
“Russia has no history of freedom” – forget the Free Peasants of the North, forget the Cossacks in the South (and they were not all Ukrainians – the Cossacks went from the river Don all the way to the Pacific Ocean, indeed beyond to North America), forget the Republic of Novgorod, forget the trial by jury and lively opposition press that existed in the Sliver Age before the First World War, forget Russian literature, forget everything.
“it is Russian way, always has been, always will be” – the most extreme racist insanity (“always will be”).
If Mr Putin is not paying Poniatowski – then he ought to, as Poniatowski is (by his own racist rantings – repeated in comment after comment, again and again) declaring that the problem is NOT Mr Putin – it is “Russians” in general. Text book racism – not Mr Putin, “Russians”.
It will “always will be” Russians – because Russians are (according to Poniatowski) inherently evil – nothing to do with Mr Putin, and getting rid of Mr Putin would do no good (according to Poniatowski).
Yes – Mr Putin should pay him.
Still at least Poniatowski and myself agree on Poland and the rest of Central Europe – Harry Truman betrayed them (just as Franklin Roosevelt had betrayed them – at Yalta).
Central Europe – not “Eastern Europe”. Anyone who thinks Poland is in “Eastern” Europe can not read a map.
Geographically Europe extends from the Atlantic to the Urals.
Culturally Europe is much bigger – as Vladivostok is just as much a European city (culturally) as Liverpool is.
I left out Jack Kennedy.
Clearly most Americans (leaving aside the detail that the 1960 Presidential Election was rigged) must support giving a man dying of Addison’s Disease, who is using every drug (including many recreational drugs) he can lay his hands on, and is sharing mistresses with Mafia bosses, NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
The idea most Americans DID NOT KNOW what Jack Kennedy was up to, is silly, according to the above commenters, as Americans are inherently evil, born-that-way, and “always will be”.
And this is somehow not racist against Americans.
At least it is not racist if an American says it – just as it is not racist for a Russian to say that Russians are inherently evil born-that-way – and always-will-be (even though it obviously is racist).
Just like it is “fine”, supposedly not racist at all, for a black man to support the KKK.
Oppose Mr Putin – stop carrying the water of Mr Putin by saying it is “Russians” who are the problem.
You’re clowning yourself, mate, calling peop[le who annoy you racist means you’ve lost the plot (& the argument). He said he’s a Slav & part-Russian. People arne’t born evil (who the hell even said that, mr. strawman?), but we’re products of our culture. Have you talked to many Russians? I have, although I haven’t been to Russia (online game guilds is how I met them, lots of them), and I’ve got to say his description of what the average Ivan thinks seems a lot more real-world then your pie-in-the-sky.
That is pretty much what Konstantin Kisin says too.
The view that Russian culture circa 2022 is a big part of the problem is not “carrying the water of Mr Putin”, regardless of the fact it gives you the vapours. Time to calm down.