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I can't say I disagree, while I haven't read much of Moldbug, his politics being rather unappealing, I think I would be largely indifferent to living under the rule of Fnargl, right up till the end of his reign when his incentives to maximize productivity through means conducive to human flourishing cease to exist.
Prosperity is moderately contagious, even if trickledown economics is dubious (I hold no strong opinion on the latter), Palestinians would be far better served being the Mexico to Israel's US instead of doing, well, whatever they've been doing.
But revealed preferences suggest that quite a few angry young men are ready to die for their "freedom", and I wish them well, at least in the dying part.
Besides, it always struck me as very confusing how much the average citizen in the West values their political power, my single vote in India is outweighed by over a billion others, and the marginal influence of the average person is near nonexistent even when the denominator is a mere few millions.
Democracy was born in Athenian city states, and that's where it's strongest. I'll take Singapore myself, not that they'll take me.
I've linked this elsewhere today as well, but you'll probably enjoy Nozick's The tale of a slave if you haven't seen it before.
At 5 we mostly cross from slavery: notably, someone can do nothing whatsoever or whatever they want.
Main sticking point would be
depending on how it works in practise (there is a substantial difference between ban (1) on selling stuff heavily radioactive food / poisonous milk for small children / fentanyl / cigarettes from (2) need to obtain permission before pregnancy or ban on mountain climbing)
I see what author tried to achieve, but no it does not prove that taxes are morally equivalent to slavery. And no, not equivalent to robbery or theft either.
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Well, I certainly get the points that libertarians try to make that living under a state is only a difference in degree and not kind from being a slave. I'm not a card carrying one myself, just sympathetic and believing that the government should restrict the activities of its people to the bare minimum necessary. Maybe that makes me a minarchist, but categories were made for man and it's not always a cozy fit.
The average person is politically impotent, they wouldn't even notice if procedural democracy was replaced by a dictator and the media just kept on acting like nothing had changed. I am at peace with that, even if I wish otherwise, and it can't be otherwise until everyone owns a Von Neumann replicator that provides all the products of technological civilization, and is a Sovereign Citizen in the same way that states are sovereign. And even then they'll have to deal with the Uranian Home Owner's Association, which is just about as much a PITA as it sounds.
Hmm, I'll work that one into my novel.
I don't think this applies to just the average person. Do you really think that even high IQ individuals would notice if votes and polling were both altered to reflect the wishes of the hidden dictator? We could very plausibly be living in a world like that right now.
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Expand a word's definition enough and you end up with a useless word and a smug feeling.
At 5 we cross from slavery as I expect a reasonable person to understand it to subjecthood (as in "subject of the Crown", perhaps).
Right. At 4, the slave is still beaten for not picking cotton, and has to live on the master's plantation. At 5, the slave can move to LA and pay for a fourth of an apartment by working as a plumber, buy a laptop, get a girlfriend or a boyfriend, and start posting a lot on Tumblr, and maybe even quit their job as a plumber if they get enough fanart commissions. This really is a substantial difference, and is much of what people would object to about slavery. (I'd rather be able to decide my occupation and place of residence but be beaten sometimes than the opposite). The best arguments for voting, liberal democracy, etc are that it preserves the substantive rights and abilities that people gain between 2 and 5.
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