Bill Blake @[email protected]

RT @normative: How appropriate. It turned out “The Storm” was just a few snowflakes.

Oh, the humanity! https://t.co/166aJjYnwU

Conversely, if one holds that the right to speech is absolute, the "right to property" is then is an approximation, with implicit limitations relating to fraudulent speech (among other things).

3/3

Thus, if one holds that there is a right to not be defrauded, one must conclude that there is no unqualified right to speak. "Freedom of speech", then, is an approximation, with implicit limits related to property (among other things).

2/3

Non-contradiction as applied to rights entails that simple statements of rights are approximations. An unqualified right to speak is inconsistent with a right to not be defrauded; at most one of them can be true.

1/3

If one's system contains a contradiction, one can prove any proposition whatsoever. If there are contradictory rights, one can proven any proposition--including the proposition that there are no rights. Rights are either entirely self-consistent or they do not exist.

If rights are subjective--coming from some god or merely axiomatic--they are merely a matter of opinion; no one's conception of rights is more valid than anothers' and to implement any given theory of rights, *any theory*, is to coerce those who disagree with that theory.

Observation and reason are the sine qua non of *all* knowledge. "Man has rights" is a claim to knowledge and so must be upheld by observation and reason--or it is a mere assertion, not to be taken seriously.

If you think that a government, by its nature, violates rights, you do not understand the nature of rights.

From: @trevortimm, re the hackneyed "Fire in a crowded theater".

https://t.co/oHnELIaQEY

An analysis of the Qanon cult from the perspective of a game designer. https://t.co/ncQhXWQCGa

RT @rcalo: Censorship must be out of control. Everyone is constantly talking about it.

I've said it on twitter and I'll say it here: If you aren't civil to me, you won't be in my timeline. I don't care who you are and I don't care if you have something worth my hearing. If you can't say it civilly, don't bother saying it at all.

"Americans are sheeple who need their government."

"America is heading for for secession."

Both can't be true....

RT @Maggie_McNeill: So, so much good advice about reducing bigotry, undermining the police state, and ending injustice can be summed up by four simple words: "Mind your own business".

What a clusterfuck. https://t.co/mYU3GPZ35B

For reference, the highest debt/GDP ratio before 2020 was in 1946, and was about 1.2.

And I probably have another couple to go.

I've been spending the last couple of days dealing with bitrot--a humorous term for software that no longer works properly because the environment it works with has changed in some way. Such "fun", but it is what I get for not auditing my admin directories for far too long.