Bretigne Shaffer's Truth and Fiction

I wouldn’t ordinarily write an entire blog post about a conversation I’d had on Facebook – certainly not one as deeply stupid as this conversation became – but I think there’s something important to be learned from this particular exchange. I see it as sort of a snapshot of what is going on all over the country right now. So I hope you’ll bear with me.

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote12 10

I find myself a little speechless. It cannot be that all of these people only see evil when it wears the other team’s uniform. It cannot be that they are more upset by offensive speech than by a man claiming the right to kill any human being on earth at his whim. These things simply cannot be.

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote34 5

It occurs to me that there is something fundamentally disempowering about pursuing a solution that requires a majority of a population to go along with you. If your solution requires getting that many people to do what you are doing, then you don’t have a lot of power there. To me, it makes more sense to pursue solutions where I do have some power.

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote25 22

How did this happen? I wrote this nearly three years ago, and yet it seems to describe precisely what happened at last week's Democratic National Convention. Anyway, it's the only explanation I can come up with:

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote3 0

If you own a business that offers discounts to members of the military, then I have a problem with you. If you put a “support the troops” bumper sticker on your car, I have a problem with you. Because all of these things contribute to the mindless glorification of killing and dying for the state. All of these things help to support a cultural machinery that exists for the purpose of turning my son — and maybe yours — into cannon fodder. And yes, I have a problem with that.

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote45 23

Imagine how different things might have been, had black Americans been able to have their own police forces, competing with and challenging white police forces. The idea is not new. Economists such as Murray Rothbard, David Friedman and others have outlined in painstaking detail how non-monopoly systems of protection and defense might work, and indeed how they have worked in the past.

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote21 10

"I create prosperous outcomes over and over again, without lawsuits, without injuries, without death, no killing unarmed people," says Brown. "These deaths are avoidable. These deaths that you're hearing about... they ARE avoidable."

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote15 6

Perhaps most worrying, I saw how it allowed the members of my group to believe that anything - really, anything - could be considered acceptable, even good and decent, as long as the rest of the group thought it so.

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote9 0

Never mind that the voting merry-go-round doesn’t offer any non-statist solutions to these problems. That politicians are always and only called upon to act. To “do something!” This is not only the politicians’ fault. It is endemic to our culture: We respect those who are seen to be “doing something”. We respect action. We do not so much respect sitting quietly and contemplating.

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote6 1

All of Twitter’s users are different - they have different tastes, different interests, different capabilities, different levels of tolerance for words and ideas that are different from their own... and different thresholds for being offended. The dilemma is this: How does Twitter satisfy its users’ desire for free and open communication (kind of its core business), while also protecting its users from having their feelings hurt so badly that they no longer want to engage or be in the Twitter verse?

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote7 4

Urban Yogini tells the story of a young woman who is transformed into a superhero who is prohibited from using violence. When she's not practicing yoga, she spends her time fighting police brutality and other - mostly - crimes committed by those in authority. And when she's not doing that, she's hiding from those in authority who have labelled her a terrorist.

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote4 0

I discovered The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy around the time that I was suspended from school for going to get my lunch before the bell rang.

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote16 7

And I guess they're right. If you don't want to get beaten up or killed by big guys wearing uniforms, then you should keep your mouth shut and always do everything they say. Just like Kunta Kinte should have kept his mouth shut and stopped trying to run away if he didn't want to keep getting beaten and have body parts cut off. Only that's not the world I want to live in. I don't want to live in a society where a group of people gets to demand obedience from another group of people, and gets to beat them...

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote39 20

"All year long, we worry about the scary things. We watch the news and we see the shootings, and the bombings... But one night of every year we all experience what they don't show us on the news: That the people around us are basically good and decent. That the world is not as scary as we sometimes think it is."

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote7 2

It is time for those who profess to care about human suffering to start being honest about this. If we are truly going to take a stand for peaceful coexistence and non-harming, then we can no longer remain oblivious to the violent implications of the government acts that many of us support: from immigration restrictions to anti-trust law, mandatory GMO labeling to medical licensing, environmental and workplace regulation to taxes on cigarettes ...or indeed to taxation itself.

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote32 12

You know what? People should just be able to walk into a store and buy the fucking medication they need. Or want. Or think they want. The discussion (and the phone calls and the emails and sometimes the faxes) should just end there. But it doesn't. Because Statism.

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote9 0

As the Fraser Institute found for the - I don’t know, billionth? - time in its annual survey comparing freer economies with less free ones, even the poorest residents of countries with a high degree of economic freedom are far better off than even the average person living in the least free countries. Says their most recent report: “the average income of the poorest 10% in the most economically free nations is about 50% greater than the overall average income in the least free nations.” (Emphasis mine.) And life expectancy in the most free countries is seventeen years higher than...

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote12 7

I have to say, I’m flattered that you’re all so eager to keep up our communication - but I should make clear that I was only away because I had some important family stuff to attend to. My absence was not in the least a sign of waning interest in our ongoing conversation. In fact, I’m a little embarrassed that you reacted this way. Yes, we have developed a certain rapport, but I think the offer of gifts was a bit excessive.

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote11 4

When we got to the top of the stairs, we saw two policemen asking to see Alien Registration cards. "Oh what Bullshit!" Said Jody, "come on!" She led us around the policemen before they had a chance to stop us. From across the street, we looked back. Massoud stood there as the police went through his things, searching his pockets and his bag. "They think he's got drugs," said Jody. They asked Andrew for his Registration card. He showed it, and they waved him on. "Should we stay?" Asked Nuri. "No, we can't do anything," she said. "Ah, he'll be...

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote1 0

If you learned nothing else from the 20th century’s disastrous experiments with socialism, please learn this: CENTRAL PLANNING DOES NOT WORK. And by “does not work” I mean creates poverty, waste and, if allowed to continue long enough, lots and lots of death and destruction. Please stop supporting it.

By Bretigne Shaffer Vote12 5

Speechless in 2017 Jan 20, 2017

Why I Won’t Be Voting: The Real Reason Libertarians Don’t Matter Oct 16, 2016

Urban Yogini Accurately Predicts the Democratic National Convention of 2016: Aug 2, 2016

No, I Don’t Support the Troops May 31, 2016

Must We Choose Between Mob Justice and the Police State? Mar 3, 2016

Private Protection Co. Puts Govt. Police to Shame Feb 25, 2016

Don’t Let the Group Do Your Thinking for You Feb 16, 2016

Elections and Nothingness Feb 16, 2016

Urban Yogini is Here! Dec 12, 2015

Douglas Adams and the Vogons at my School Nov 12, 2015

Kunta Kinte Had it Coming Nov 4, 2015

Happy Halloween from Anarcho Soccer Mom (Again) Oct 26, 2015

The Rhinoceros in the Yoga Studio Oct 1, 2015

“What the Government Costs You” Data Point of the Day: Oct 1, 2015

Bernie Sanders Endorses Free Markets! Sep 29, 2015

Team Bernie Tries to Ply Me with Gifts Sep 23, 2015

Massoud Sep 19, 2015

In Which I Do a Really Crappy Job of Ignoring the Campaign Sep 16, 2015