Bracing Views is a cesspit of midwittery. Arrogance and hypocrisy are two things I despise above all else, and Bracing Views offers an abundant supply of both. – Karel Antonovič Janáček
In an article beginning with that line (now private), there are hyperlinks to a live version and archived version (which I will be working off of, just in case he decides to redact the live article) of William Astore’s ideal vision for the United States. You can read it if you wish, but it’s not required, since I will go over every single point and provide commentary. What you should read, however, is a previous article of mine titled Socialism is Sociopathy, otherwise you might be confused as to why I’m being so uncharitable. Done reading? Smashing, let’s continue.
Astore is a socialist, which he will never admit, but he doesn’t exactly deny, either, possibly because he is determined to peddle socialism to baby boomers who don’t know any better, but at the same time, he is aware of the fact that central planning has a long and consistent track record of failure… which he blames on an ostensibly capitalist country (the US) constantly undermining socialist societies. I’ve already debunked that narrative too, and when I’m done with this collection of utter tripe, I’m going to bat in defense of the F-35… which I don’t actually care about, I care that it’s being lied about, thus making the Pentagon look good by comparison. Anyway, now for the topic at hand!
Point № 1: All workers make a living wage with raises pegged to the rate of inflation and cost of living.
Response: Raising the minimum wage doesn’t work. The real solution is to halt inflation (by eliminating government interference in the economy) and lower the cost of living. The “muh $15 minimum wage” is one of those socialist PRATTs (points refuted a thousand times), so I’m not going to spend any more time on it in this article. I’ll leave you with this for the time being:
Point № 2: Everyone has “free” health care as a human right.
Response: Notice the sleight of hand here, placing the word “free” in quotes. We all know that nothing is ever really free. Furthermore, health care isn’t a right, it is a need, but as we all know, socialists habitually conflate needs and rights.
Point № 3: Everyone has a home of some sort, i.e. there are no homeless or “unhoused” people living in the streets.
Response: This one I actually agree with. That being said, homelessness is not as big of a problem as leftists make it out to be, and it’s almost entirely limited to large cities that are known for outrageous living costs. Get out of the city, simple as.
Point № 4: Prison populations are small, with only the most violent offenders locked away for long terms.
Response: Again, this one I actually agree with. However, this is an easy platitude to make, and nothing more than hollow virtue-signalling.
Point № 5: Climate change, recognized as a problem in the 1980s, is being controlled with massive investments in renewable energy sources.
Response: Climate change is real, but the anthropogenic climate change narrative is completely false. The data is misrepresented and sometimes even outright manipulated. I’ve written articles on this in the past, and on how we know that the mainstream narrative is a pure and total grift… or is it large enough to be considered a “graft” at this point? In any case, either go nuclear or STFU.
Point № 6: Nuclear disarmament, begun with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, will be complete in 2021 after thirty years of dedicated effort.
Response: Absolutely NOT! Nuclear weapons are the ultimate deterrent, and no-one should ever give them up… just ask Ukraine. Look, in a perfect world, nuclear weapons would never have been developed in the first place, but now that they are so prolific, we need to learn to live with them. Don’t give up your nukes and expect that your enemy will do the same, you naïve sap. The same applies to guns, hoplophobes GFY.
Point № 7: No one leaves school with massive amounts of student debt.
Response: Again, this one I actually agree with, but the subject of colleges being businesses is something I will rant about in the future. Also, fuck liberal arts; if you want an art degree, you pay for it.
Point № 8: Corporations are not citizens, money is not speech, and all political campaigns are publicly funded.
Response: I agree, but as with some of his proposals in other articles, I don’t think that’s going far enough. Get money out of politics altogether. Then again, as an anarchist, I see politics as a zero-sum game anyway, but I’m willing to cede some ground to the minarchists… but not the statists, they can GTFO.
Point № 9: Wars are universally reviled and are only fought for defensive purposes via a Congressional declaration. Thus America hasn’t fought a shooting war since 1945.
Response: Right, because Congress totally wouldn’t declare war if the president asked them to in the current political environment. Also, I’d like to take this time to remind you that it wasn’t necessary for the US to be involved in WWII, and don’t you DARE argue with me unless you read the article I just linked to FIRST!
Point № 10: The U.S. political scene has a range of “major” parties and a wealth of choices, including a socialist or people’s party and a Green party, along with Libertarians and Populists and Progressives.
Response: If I were naïve enough to take Astore at his word, I would simply ask “what, no Constitution Party?” and leave it at that. However, this is where things get tasty. On the surface, this looks like a healthy balance of left and right. However, as I have mentioned before, progressives like Astore think highly of the Libertarian Party, but not actual libertarians, because the LPUSA has been taken over by progs. Likewise, populism is represented by the MAGA movement, and “make America great again” was a Reagan-era slogan. I know that Astore hates Ronald Reagan almost as much as he hates Donald Trump, but that’s beside the point. MAGA simply means “restore the economy and make life more comfortable,” and in 2016, it absorbed the TEA (taxed enough already) Party, which scattered to the four winds after it was scuttled from within by evangelical nutters funded by the Koch brothers. I could go into greater detail, but this article is going to be way too long as it is. I felt the need to explain that actual libertarianism and actual populism are both rightist, but Astore doesn’t know this, which is why he lists off parties that he thinks are all leftist. Furthermore, as a self-described progressive, he makes it abundantly clear that he hates the Constitution (along with pretty much everything else about his country), views it as an obstacle to progress, and I’ll get into how I know when I debunk one of his anti-gun rants. Remember, he’s a leftist who portrays himself as a centrist for the sole purpose of dragging the Overton Window as far left as possible, and this is but one example of how I know that.
Point № 11: The top priority for most Americans is sustainability and the environment: preserving the planet for future generations.
Response: No-one’s top priority is ever their environment, see my rebuttal of utopian thinking, in which I discuss a derivative of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs known as Dan’s hierarchy of government. Before anyone can concern themselves with their environment, their more basic needs must be met first, simple as.
Point № 12: There is no such thing as a billionaire, since a progressive tax code ensures an equitable distribution of resources.
Response: Even if I gave a rodent’s posterior how rich some people are, how much wealth inequality would you allow for, Billy Boy? Is everyone supposed to have the same net worth down to the last dollar? No, seriously, I know you’re economically illiterate, but I don’t think you’ve thought this through at all, and are just spouting more empty platitudes.
Point № 13: People are respected for who they are and what they do, meaning that racism, sexism, ageism, and other forms of discrimination are largely unknown.
Response: Yeah, and I’d like to see a world free of narcissism and sociopathy (which would go a long way to solving everything listed in the original point), but even with Gattaca-style eugenics, it would never happen, because personality disorders can pop up anywhere from a myriad of different causes. Think back to the nuclear weapon problem; there are always going to be bad actors, and instead of wishing that they didn’t exist, learn how to deal with them. I am reminded of feminists pissing and moaning about being told how to avoid being raped by saying “teach men not to rape instead!” Newsflash love, we already do, it’s just that some people don’t want to follow the rules. Take some responsibility, and learn how to both avoid and defend against bad actors.
Point № 14: “Hero” is a term used to describe peacemakers and helpers, the most compassionate and giving among us, the ones fighting hardest for equal rights, fairness, and justice.
Response: By that definition, Astore is a villain. Instead of whinging about the oppressive power structures, he should help people live free of them. However, as we have established, socialists hate the proletariat, and progressives are not motivated by compassion.
Point № 15: Government is completely transparent to the people. Meanwhile, people have privacy and autonomy.
Reponse: This is another point that I agree with on the surface, but I think is entirely disingenuous. Seriously, “people have autonomy,” coming from the guy who routinely denounces “rugged individualism” as “far-right Hollywood propaganda”?! Never mind how far-left you’d have to be in order to view Hollyweird as “far-right,” but how the hell would you ensure resource equity if you didn’t have a surveillance state? Again, Astore hasn’t thought this through, he’s just spouting empty platitudes.
Point № 16: Most drugs are legal, and essential medicines like insulin are affordable for all.
Response: Well, at least it ended on a note I can agree with. Again, however, I must remind people the government is the obstacle in this case, not capitalism.
In conclusion, I’d like to evaluate just how authoritarian this particular utopian vision is, using the scoring system based on Dan’s hierarchy of government:
Proposals 1, 2, and 3 fall under “welfare,” therefore worth two points each. However, I will start Astore’s make-believe America off with a score of five, since point 1 is only a half-measure. Proposal 4 is a matter of actual human rights, and is worth four points, bringing the score down to one. Proposal 5 concerns the environment, but since Astore defaults to the State to solve everything, I’m not going to subtract a point for this, but neither will I add any points. Proposal 6 is a rebuke of foreign wars, which fall under “distractions,” therefore subtract three points, bringing the score down to negative two. Proposals 7 and 8 both fall under “welfare,” (boy, does Astore love the welfare state), adding four points and bringing the score back up to two. Proposal 9 is another rebuke of foreign wars, but the way he phrases it implies thought control; furthermore, even though the subject is nominally “defense,” Astore falsely claims that WWII was a defensive war for the US, and constantly advocates for open borders, so he doesn’t get any points for this one. Proposal 10, if my assessment is accurate, is definitely thought control, bringing the score up to seven. Proposal 11 is nominally environmental, but since it is also thought control, I will add four points, bringing the score up to eleven. Proposal 12 I will treat as welfare, adding another two points and bringing the score up to thirteen. Proposal 13 is more thought control, but it also supports actual human rights, so I will add only one point for this one. However, proposal 14 is pure thought control, bringing the score up to nineteen. Proposal 15 is a total lie, so I won’t add or subtract any points. Proposal 16 could easily be achieved by getting the government out of the way, so I will treat it as a rebuke of welfare and subtract two points, bringing the total score down to seventeen. Seventeen points is extremely authoritarian, given that a five-point plan (one proposal on each tier) for a top-down system would get a score of only fifteen. Maybe Astore will make another attempt at a utopian thought experiment in the near future, in which case I’ll evaluate that one as well. Maybe he’ll do better, but I doubt it. Na shledanou!
Sasha V's Sesquipedalian Soliloquies 