| FSK's Guide to Reality |
I want to do useful work and get paid, without having to report it for taxation, confiscation, and regulation.
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- Which Color Pill do you Prefer?Yesterday
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I was talking with a guy at work. I tried explaining "Taxation is theft!", "The USA has an unfair monetary system!" and "Who needs a government anyway?" He responded with the usual pro-State troll arguments.
It was hilarious. He thought he had made a logical refutation of my points, but he was obviously spouting incoherent gibberish.
Then, I asked him "Suppose the move 'The Matrix' were nonfiction. Would you take the blue pill or the red pill?" He responded that he would obviously take the red pill. I pointed out that he was lying, but he didn't get it.
If you want to see The Matrix, just ask your statist friends and relatives about "Taxation is theft!", "The USA has an unfair monetary system!" or "Who needs a government anyway?"
Whenever someone starts seeing The Matrix, the shock leads to a panic attack. You then are involuntarily hospitalized with a mental illness and given drugs that dull your senses. By labeling sane behavior as insane, a world where everyone is insane becomes an unstable fixed point.
The antipsychotic drugs are literally blue pills. Abilify 5mg is literally a blue pill! - False OppositesNovember 20
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The opposite of a Boston Red Sox fan is not a Yankees fan; they have more similarities than differences. The opposite of a Boston Red Sox fan is someone who is not interested in baseball at all.
Similarly, the opposite of a Republican is not a Democrat. Both Republicans and Democrats believe "Taxation is not theft." and "There should be small group of people that tell everyone else what to do." The opposite of a Republican is an anarchist/agorist.
This is a common evil fnord. Two similar ideas are falsely touted as opposites. This allows people disgusted with one idea to flee to the false opposite.
As another example, the opposite of "The Federal Reserve should raise interest rates." is not "The Federal Reserve should lower interest rates." The correct opposite is "There should not be a central bank."
Debating false opposites allows true discourse to be suppressed. - The Fallacy of "Tax Protester Fallacies"November 19
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I see a lot of websites debunking the arguments for "the income tax is illegal!" The Supreme Court has ruled that all legal arguments against the income tax are invalid. Due to stare decisis, once the Supreme Court makes such a decision it cannot be questioned. (Stare decisis says that once the Supreme Court makes a ruling, it cannot normally be questioned or reversed. The Supreme Court usually makes rulings that increase State power, due to the obvious conflict of interest. Once the Supreme Court makes a ruling that erodes individual freedom, then that ruling has full force of law and is permanently irreversible. In theory, refusing to review past decisions saves time. In practice, stare decisis means that bad precedents cannot be questioned and are almost impossible to overturn. Over time, stare decisis leads to decay of the legal system, because bad practices become institutionalized and legitimized.)
For example, the Supreme Court ruled that the 16th amendment was properly declared ratified, and no court may now consider otherwise. Legally, that issue is considered settled and is not subject to further debate, even if the Supreme Court made a mistake. Most of these "tax resister debunking" websites list a whole bunch of Supreme Court decisions that say the income tax is proper. They also cite a whole bunch of Supreme Court decisions that say that defendants are barred fr - Reader Mail #69November 18
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I liked this article, via Hacker News. Depressed people can more accurately measure reality than "normal" people. What if the reverse is true? If you're better at sensing reality, then you become depressed?
Also, such scientific studies are usually blown out of proportion. They were writing about a single carefully-controlled experiment. From that, you cannot generalize to all possible circumstances.
Further, the experiment did not indicate if the depressed people were taking antidepressants or not. Taking antidepressants dulls your senses.
Also, there's a feedback cycle. If you're unhappy, you try to figure out what's going on. As you figure out what's going on, the realization is depressing.
I liked this article, via Hacker News. "Grand Theft Auto" is a better management training exercise than most simulations produced as serious businesses.
He also said that he'd like to see more remakes of classic games. A sequel to a game is usually completely different, and often sucks. It would be better to take the original game, update the sound and graphics, make minor enhancements, and add new levels.
The problem is that the team of programmers making the sequel is usually different than the team that made the original. - The Sunk Costs FallacyNovember 17
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When making the decision whether to pursue something or not, expenses already spent should be ignored. If you've already invested a lot of time and money in something, you are reluctant to abandon it, even if that's the strategically correct decision.
The sunk costs fallacy is a very common problem. I consider this to be an aspect of pro-State brainwashing.
For example, I was studying for a PhD in Mathematics. After 3 years, I decided to abandon it and pursue a career as a software engineer. It would have taken me another 2-3 years to finish my PhD. At that point, I had already completed some decent research; it was merely a matter of putting in the time to get a degree. By the sunk costs fallacy, I would say "I already invested 3 years. I should finish so that investment isn't wasted." Correct reasoning is "Those 3 years are already gone. At this point, is a PhD worth 2-3 more years?" I concluded "no", and left for a job as a software engineer. (Some other grad students pointed out that they did not have a Computer Science background, and lacked the option to switch like I did.)
Suppose you have been dating a woman for 2 years, and it turns out she is abusive or not right for you. By the sunk costs fallacy, you should keep trying to make the relationship work. The correct strategy is to break up with her and find someone else.
Suppose you have been spending a year working on starting a business, but it isn't showing an