There is No "Good" in Government

A couple of days ago I was taken to task by someone whose opinion I generally respect, even when we disagree.  It was over voting.  Let me quote the two relevant passages:

When there are two wrong choices, and at least one right choice, it doesn't matter to me if nearly everyone else is making the wrong choice. I'm not the boss of them. I have to answer to my own conscience, not peer pressure.

And

In voting R or D, you are *voting* for evil.

Let's unpack this.

In the first quotation it is apparent that the act of voting is not considered evil.  That voting one's conscience is righteous and good, even if it's tilting at windmills, but voting for one of the two parties that's actually going to win is EVIL.

It's my understanding that the Spoonerite wing of the anarcho-capitalists consider voting itself to be an act of evil, and to my thinking they're right.

Government is evil. Government is the concentration of power over others into the hands of a few.  Governments have the power to do things - and get away with them - that individual citizens would go to jail for (or be strung up for).  Government is not good.  Government cannot love you.  Government cannot care about you.  Government is going to be some group of assholes interested in having their hands on the levers of that power.  But Government is a necessary evil, because without it - despite the fantasies of the anarchists - someone is going to have the power of life-and-death over you, against which you will have little to no recourse.

Our Democratic Republic was designed to limit the reach of that power as much as practicable.  Two-plus centuries of entropy has eroded many of the protections initially installed, but it's still the best we've got. In our system of government as it stands today, we have a two-party system.  The parties have changed over time (I certainly hope they both do again in the near future), but one of those two established parties will have its hands on the levers this go-around.  Yes, both R and D are evil, no question, but one's going to win.  Voting "Other" no matter how much it assuages your conscience will have no effect - and voting is STILL EVIL, regardless of who you vote for.  You're voting to put that person in a position of power over others.  (Which may explain why the majority of eligible voters stay home.)

"What if they gave a war and nobody came?" someone once asked.  "Well, then the war would come to you!" was the reply.  What happens if you vote your conscience?  You get one of the other two anyway.  This is not to discourage votes of conscience, absolutely not.  It's to discourage feelings of moral superiority over those of us with a different worldview.

Phrase of the Day - Tim Pool Edition

Heisenberg's Uncertainty People of Color: 

With mixed-race people, the position of their marginalized status is dependent on the wokeness of the observer.

Quote of the Day - Larry Corriea (again)

This may sound crazy, but just remember. If you are on the right you share collective guilt for every bad thing which has ever happened, even if it was done by people on the left. And if you are on the left, you are free from sin because you Care Harder.

On the individual level, if you are on the right, you are responsible for things that other people's ancestors did 200 years ago. But if you are on the left, you aren't responsible for what you are doing right now.

Stunning how that works, isn't it?

What. The Actual. FUCK?!?

Yes, this is a ... thing.

Word of the Day - Hypocrickets

 Hypocrickets - The media silence that ensues when what should be a major story doesn't fit The Narrative™.

Now for Something Completely Different

First, read this:  What I Learned in the Peace Corps in Africa: Trump Is Right

Excerpt:

Three weeks after college, I flew to Senegal, West Africa, to run a community center in a rural town.  Life was placid, with no danger, except to your health.  That danger was considerable, because it was, in the words of the Peace Corps doctor, "a fecalized environment."


In plain English: s--- is everywhere.  People defecate on the open ground, and the feces is blown with the dust – onto you, your clothes, your food, the water.  He warned us the first day of training: do not even touch water.  Human feces carries parasites that bore through your skin and cause organ failure.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that a few decades later, liberals would be pushing the lie that Western civilization is no better than a third-world country.  Or would teach two generations of our kids that loving your own culture and wanting to preserve it are racism.

RTWT.  Then read this classic from 2002:  Let Africa Sink.