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    Why is the Ray Peat community so far right?

    The Junkyard
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    • lutteL
      lutte
      last edited by

      Economists did not invent capitalism, it is material reality, independent of thought. The profit motive is not about being greedy, it is based on surplus value. One of the factors that weigh down on your wage (if you are employed). Socialism is easy to fail because it is the transitionary stage; balancing features of "socialism" and capitalism or actively trying to replace the laws of capitalism. Fortunately we have giant monopolistic corporations who are already planning logistics in large scale so even if there were/are no nominally socialist countries, the developement of society still tends toward it.
      Eventually it becomes crystal clear that a planned economy is not only possible but good; then the topic might finally move away from whether certain people are "tranny crybabies" " jealous/lazy" or "feigning sympathy". Capitalism is holding us back already.

      KvirionK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • VehmicJurymanV
        VehmicJuryman @CO3
        last edited by

        @CO3 Christ did not live in a commune. In fact his ministry was largely financed by donations from wealthy people. Landlords, merchants, religious clerics, government officials. The very group of people your Marxist idols hated and massacred.

        CO3C 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • CO3C
          CO3 @VehmicJuryman
          last edited by

          @VehmicJuryman
          Incredible the way in which you slander Christ, saying he and his flock were dependent on welfare from the rich. You are already implying it here; you pharisees would be the first to judge such a way of living where property was shared. Disgusting.

          You are more of an opponent to his ideas than maybe anyone else, because you fake your allegiance to him and even use it to justify the satanic order of things in the world.

          The point is the mask you call your 'religious' views are downstream of your covetousness. You proved it in this thread but are too blind to see it.

          Master Broth Recipe: https://twitter.com/thesquattingman/status/1737526599023526043 / https://recipeats.org/master-broth/

          VehmicJurymanV 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • CO3C
            CO3 @VehmicJuryman
            last edited by CO3

            @VehmicJuryman
            Referring to this, dummy?

            Acts 4 32-35
            

            And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need

            Probably wouldn't even recognize that last line from another work, because you guys unironically take pride in ignorance.

            Master Broth Recipe: https://twitter.com/thesquattingman/status/1737526599023526043 / https://recipeats.org/master-broth/

            VehmicJurymanV 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • KvirionK
              Kvirion @lutte
              last edited by Kvirion

              @lutte said in Why is the Ray Peat community so far right?:

              Economists did not invent capitalism, it is material reality, independent of thought.

              LOL! What an exponential BS!

              You have never heard about Adam Smith and the (especially recent) critique of his works, do you?

              BTW, you have mistaken a local exchange of goods with the whole capitalistic doctrine...

              I will not comment on the rest of your scribble, because I guess that ignorance is bliss for you... ;--)

              A little learning is a dangerous thing ;
              Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :
              There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
              And drinking largely sobers us again.
              ~Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism

              lutteL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • fiesterF
                fiester @S.Holmes
                last edited by

                @S-Holmes

                iirc Preterists believe most if not all prophecy has already been fulfilled, basically disallowing any dual-fulfillment, and their eschatology is wacky and unbiblical. I would suggest everyone avoid this site.

                “The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.” (Proverbs 20:30)

                S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • lutteL
                  lutte @Kvirion
                  last edited by

                  @Kvirion economists have not invented capitalism. biologists have not invented life.

                  KvirionK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • S
                    S.Holmes @fiester
                    last edited by S.Holmes

                    @fiester said in Why is the Ray Peat community so far right?:

                    @S-Holmes

                    iirc Preterists believe most if not all prophecy has already been fulfilled, basically disallowing any dual-fulfillment, and their eschatology is wacky and unbiblical. I would suggest everyone avoid this site.

                    I've observed that those who make these claims have never really done a deep study of eschatology and usually just go along with the Scofield crowd, whether they're aware of it or not. (I bet you didn't even skim the article.) It's also interesting that you don't think others can critically assess whether or not preterism is true, so you unwisely advise them to steer clear. If you have scholarly (IN CONTEXT) arguments to refute it I would like to hear them. I've been asking futurists for nearly 25 years for a thorough refutation. I'm STILL waiting.

                    Every person we have studied this with were convinced, one the son of a Baptist minister, and ALL well versed in scripture. They were astonished and asked how we all could have missed something so obvious and hiding in plain sight for so many years. Futurism is the brainchild of the criminal and scoundrel Cyrus Scofield (and John Darby). The Zionist puppetmasters had/have deep pockets and hired Scofield to author the commentary which was then distributed far and wide, for FREE. Once people read it, and began watching the sky they lost interest in being good stewards, and leaving an inheritance (liberty or wealth) to their families. I mean why polish the brass on a sinking ship? We must reverse the lies told by Scofield.

                    This is the truth I had been searching for. Let people make up their own minds.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • KvirionK
                      Kvirion @lutte
                      last edited by Kvirion

                      @lutte said in Why is the Ray Peat community so far right?:

                      economists have not invented capitalism. biologists have not invented life.

                      DoubleFacepalm.jpg

                      1. Your argument is a simple (ontological, epistemological) fallacy
                      2. You mistook (weak, utopian) social science with natural science...
                      3. You seem to not have any idea about philosophy, which is a necessary condition to discuss such topics...

                      BTW If you don't know that something exists it does not mean it doesn't... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect

                      A little learning is a dangerous thing ;
                      Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :
                      There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
                      And drinking largely sobers us again.
                      ~Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism

                      Norwegian MugabeN lutteL 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Norwegian MugabeN
                        Norwegian Mugabe @Kvirion
                        last edited by

                        @Kvirion Point number two is enough to bury his argument. Men created capitalism, so it does not make sense to compare it with biological life forms, which were not made by man.

                        Put yourself on fire for peak energy metabolism.

                        Ignore, judge, overcommit.

                        KvirionK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • M
                          Mulloch94
                          last edited by

                          Capitalism describes a system of ownership. So I would agree it should be differentiated from a simple commodity exchange, which is something even Marx himself took notice of. The fatal misconception in the left's argument is believing private ownership doesn't (or otherwise can't or never has) existed outside the scope of State decree and artificial scarcity. Ownership occurs at that precise moment when the natural environment has been transformed by the physical labor of another individual.

                          And once this transformation has taken place, then the owner can exchange with another individual who has also transformed nature via physical labor to create property. Hence how the early free-market radicals viewed capitalism...a system of voluntary exchange. This is also why wealthy plutocrats originally feared the early libertarian radicals in the late 1960s, as this radical approach to property appropriation would make Big Business a thing of the past. Murray Rothbard's homestead principle paper entails the situation perfectly. It would basically be a proletariat takeover without the nationalization. Basically Rothbard took Marx's idea and upgraded it. Then the libertarian movement got corrupted in the 70s by the kochtopus and has essentially been seen as a pro-corporate movement ever since (except for another brief stent in the 90s when libertarians allied with right-wing populists). But typically speaking, true right-wingers are rarely free market supporters.

                          When you drift far enough to the right, it's basically the same thing as the left. Fascism is Socialism with a side of nationalistic fervor. If you go ALL the way to the end of the right-wing spectrum, which is Eco-Fascism, then you arrive at "reactionary anti-capitalism." There also anti-human in general, but that's besides the point I guess. I suppose the point I am making is that Capitalism has not held a clear distinction of itself throughout the 700 years of it's existence. And from a historical analysis, a critique of Capitalism largely rests on the land grabs by English parliamentarians in the 16th century. Although modern leftists continually forget (or remain ignorant to) the State itself is what made those land grabs possible, and that forcing people into a wage-rent cash nexus is mutually exclusive to transforming labor into private property.

                          CO3C KvirionK 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • CO3C
                            CO3 @Mulloch94
                            last edited by

                            @Mulloch94 said in Why is the Ray Peat community so far right?:

                            The fatal misconception in the left's argument is believing private ownership doesn't (or otherwise can't or never has) existed outside the scope of State decree and artificial scarcity.

                            @Mulloch94 said in Why is the Ray Peat community so far right?:

                            Ownership occurs at that precise moment

                            If there is a productive conversation to be had here, you have to absolutely try to be aware of the position you are trying to represent, and not just write about your impression of it!

                            Master Broth Recipe: https://twitter.com/thesquattingman/status/1737526599023526043 / https://recipeats.org/master-broth/

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • KvirionK
                              Kvirion @Norwegian Mugabe
                              last edited by

                              @Norwegian-Mugabe said in Why is the Ray Peat community so far right?:

                              Point number two is enough to bury his argument. Men created capitalism, so it does not make sense to compare it with biological life forms, which were not made by man.

                              Yeah, you're right I am often too generous (comprehensive) with my arguments...

                              I often forget that You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink...

                              A little learning is a dangerous thing ;
                              Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :
                              There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
                              And drinking largely sobers us again.
                              ~Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • KvirionK
                                Kvirion @Mulloch94
                                last edited by

                                @Mulloch94 I assume that the problem is more complex than a one-dimensional left-right axis...

                                PoliticalCompass.gif
                                This picture is a bare minimum to consider - to start comprehending that we have at least two dimensions to think about...

                                BTW the whole economics and practical thinking about economies need a serious upgrade with a multi-perspective approach... https://evonomics.com/new-ways-to-teach-economics/

                                A little learning is a dangerous thing ;
                                Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :
                                There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
                                And drinking largely sobers us again.
                                ~Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism

                                M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • lutteL
                                  lutte @Kvirion
                                  last edited by

                                  @Kvirion
                                  Economists have not invented capitalism. Thomas Edison has not invented electricity, or any other person. No biologist has invented life
                                  The capitalists arose through capital, private property, which was made possible by feudal conditions, managed to overturn the feudal system and state (monopoly on violence) through a bourgeois revolution (aided by their own employees and serfs). Long before anyone knew what it would actually bring or how it would look like.
                                  Tell me what is utopian about science? Or were you talking about some specific tradition of social science you are discontent with?
                                  Not only do we need to reassess science, history every time because of recent relevations or understandings, but also because life, everything is constant flux. Even physical laws.

                                  "The scientists of empire are announcing the end of
                                  science and art, and of all cultural progress. Their argument
                                  is simple: The knowable world is finite, and our knowledge
                                  of it grows at an increasing rate. The end must come soon.
                                  Some of them say that physics and chemistry are already
                                  finished, and that biology will be completed when a few
                                  puzzles are solved in genetics--and the general form of
                                  these solutions is already known.
                                  For German idealists--like Hegel or Hitler--"our
                                  world, our own time" tends to be seen as "the last stage in
                                  History." The Golden Age, or the 1000 year Reich, is
                                  always just now arriving. At the end of the last century,
                                  many physicists were certain that their science was
                                  complete, except for a few details.
                                  Idealists see "pure knowledge" as the source of
                                  technology, and so technology must come to an end too, a
                                  little later than science.
                                  Materialists are more likely to see our time as being
                                  near the beginning, not the end. For example, Marx (who
                                  borrowed so much from Hegel) said that "real history" couldn't
                                  begin until capitalism has been overcome.
                                  I think this observation is more tautology than
                                  perception. The term "materialism" describes the attitude
                                  that likes to begin with "the matter at hand," "idealism"
                                  describes an approach that emphasizes the importance of
                                  established ideas. One's place in the world obviously
                                  influences judgments as to where truth and value can be
                                  found.
                                  Ever since Heraclitus, materialists have emphasized
                                  change, while idealists emphasize stasis. "Pure knowledge" is
                                  a source of technology, but technology is also a basis for the
                                  development of new formalized knowledge. The steam engine
                                  was already in common use when Carnot and Joule formulated
                                  its basic theory.
                                  What the idealists are saying is that their science is
                                  nearly complete, and there is no other science. What they
                                  imply is that there can never be technologies which conflict
                                  with their laws. In the Golden Age, science must achieve
                                  certainly, otherwise it wouldn't be perfect. Hegel's version of
                                  this was: "...the laws of real Freedom--demand the
                                  subjugation of mere contingent Will."
                                  German idealism has been influential in western
                                  science for most of the 20th century, but now scientists in
                                  capitalist countries are letting it guide them into cultural
                                  fascism."

                                  "Several years ago, in the quarterly publication Social
                                  Sciences, I noticed an article by a man whose specialty was
                                  exploring the future of work; he projected a future in which a
                                  person's desire for growth and exploration is realized in his
                                  work. This person's job was to clarifY the changes that must
                                  be made in the "economy" so that it will serve humanity--the
                                  workers and consumers--instead of vice versa.
                                  Previously, in Mind and Tissue, I had briefly discussed
                                  some Soviet views on labor: That work tends toward perception, as machines become available; politics, work, culture,
                                  and science interpenetrate; brain function, education. science,
                                  and work have much in common--an emphasis on purpose
                                  and goals, deep reorganization, and complex perceptual interaction with the material. P. K. Anokhin and A. A. Ukhtomskii, and their students have created a sound basis for the role
                                  of goals and future thinking.
                                  The attitude toward the future is an important part of how
                                  we orient ourselves and what concrete things we do to prepare for the future. A mechanistic view argues that we can't
                                  intervene to change the future, that it must fundamentally resemble the past, and that if people just invest in things that
                                  promise to give them a good profit the future will be nice.
                                  Another view sees the future as being composed of choices
                                  which lead to new choices, with new possibilities emerging as
                                  choices are put into action.

                                  It's important that people start talking about the possible
                                  choices we have. If we accept that "the choice" is between
                                  being unemployed and having a job, the job we get is not likely to be what we want to do with our lives. And "status" isn't
                                  what I'm talking about. Giving maximum meaning to our
                                  lives should be one of the basic things that we demand of our
                                  work.
                                  I. To start with concrete and familiar things, we might first
                                  want to discuss what work is, and why-wunder capitalism, and
                                  also under fascism, primitive cultures, and socialism. The issue of specialization could be considered here.
                                  2. This might be followed by considering what work could
                                  become, and how. The nature of history, time, and culture
                                  should be considered, as well as the projections that are made
                                  by different groups.
                                  3. And at some point, I think it is important to consider
                                  how work shapes us, how we are our work, and why it defines what we can be. Cultural, intellectual, and biological influences should be considered.
                                  There are some things I want to quote, because they suggest some of the things that work is, what it does to us, and
                                  what it should be.
                                  About 1790, William Blake wrote the poem "London," which begins

                                  "I wander thro' each charter'd street,
                                  Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
                                  And mark in every face I meet
                                  Marks of weakness, markd of woe .
                                  . . . the mind-forg'd manacles I hear."

                                  Another poem, "The Human Abstract," begins
                                  "Pity would be no more
                                  If we did not make somebody Poor .. . . "

                                  Repeatedly, Blake tried to define the mechanisms of oppression and limitation of the human personality. He observed that the State chartered corporations, licensed
                                  that it used false science, devious moralizing and religion, and
                                  illiteracy to create a culture of obedient drudgery. Commercial interests, he pointed out, distorted and degraded human
                                  life, art, and science.
                                  "Schoolmaster of souls, great opposer of change,
                                  arise'! O how could'st thou deform those beautiful
                                  proportions Of life & person; for as the person, so
                                  is his life proportion'd. "
                                  "Thy self-destroying, beast form'd Science shall be
                                  thy eternal lot. "

                                  Blake referred to factories as the "Satanic Mills," whose
                                  technology was invented
                                  "To perplex youth. .. & to bind to labours Of day
                                  & night . . . that they might file and polish. . . hour
                                  after hour, laborious workmanship, Kept ignorant
                                  of the use that they might spend the days of wisdom
                                  In sorrowfull drudgery to obtain a scanty pittance
                                  of bread. In ignorance to view a small portion &
                                  think that All. And call it demonstration, blind to
                                  all the simple rules of life. "

                                  Several people in the following century were influenced by
                                  Blake's attitudes and perceptions, but most of them wanted to
                                  retreat to a simpler past, rather than (as Blake desired) to advance into a more generous future.

                                  "And when all Tyranny was cut off from the face
                                  of the earth living flames winged with intellect and
                                  Reason, round the Earth they march in order, flame
                                  by flame. . . . Start forth the trembling millions into
                                  flames of mental fire . .. "Why sit I here & give lip
                                  all my powers to indolence . .. ?

                                  [...]

                                  People like Blake, Higgins, and Marx have realized that
                                  there are different ways of being, that one is fragmented and
                                  diminished, and the other is whole, alive, and growing. When
                                  people feel that they are in possession of their own lives, then
                                  problems become opportunities. Each problem leads to new
                                  problems. The world draws us forward, and we are not defined by an "occupation" or "profession," but by the work we
                                  have achieved, and the problems we have confronted."

                                  • Ray Peat

                                  "The policy of some nations has given extraordinary
                                  encouragement to the industry of the country; that of others to the
                                  industry of towns. Scarce any nation has dealt equally and
                                  impartially with every sort of industry. Since the downfall of the
                                  Roman empire, the policy of Europe has been more favourable to
                                  arts, manufactures, and commerce, the industry of towns, than to
                                  agriculture, the industry of the country. The circumstances which
                                  seem to have introduced and established this policy are explained
                                  in the third book.
                                  Though those different plans were, perhaps, first introduced by
                                  the private interests and prejudices of particular orders of men,
                                  without any regard to, or foresight of, their consequences upon the
                                  general welfare of the society; yet they have given occasion to very
                                  different theories of political economy; of which some magnify the
                                  importance of that industry which is carried on in towns, others of
                                  that which is carried on in the country. Those theories have had a
                                  considerable influence, not only upon the opinions of men of
                                  learning, but upon the public conduct of princes and sovereign
                                  states. I have endeavoured, in the fourth book, to explain, as fully
                                  and distinctly as I can, those different theories, and the principal
                                  effects which they have produced in different ages and nations."
                                  ...
                                  "According to the natural course of things, therefore, the
                                  greater part of the capital of every growing society is, first,
                                  directed to agriculture, afterwards to manufactures, and last of all
                                  to foreign commerce. This order of things is so very natural that in
                                  every society that had any territory it has always, I believe, been in
                                  some degree observed. Some of their lands must have been
                                  cultivated before any considerable towns could be established, and
                                  some sort of coarse industry of the manufacturing kind must have
                                  been carried on in those towns, before they could well think of
                                  employing themselves in foreign commerce.
                                  But though this natural order of things must have taken place
                                  in some degree in every such society, it has, in all the modern
                                  states of Europe, been, in many respects, entirely inverted. The
                                  foreign commerce of some of their cities has introduced all their
                                  finer manufactures, or such as were fit for distant sale; and
                                  manufactures and foreign commerce together have given birth to
                                  the principal improvements of agriculture. The manners and
                                  customs which the nature of their original government introduced,
                                  and which remained after that government was greatly altered,
                                  necessarily forced them into this unnatural and retrograde order."

                                  "When the German and Scythian nations overran the
                                  western provinces of the Roman empire, the confusions
                                  which followed so great a revolution lasted for several
                                  centuries. The rapine and violence which the barbarians exercised
                                  against the ancient inhabitants interrupted the commerce
                                  between the towns and the country. The towns were deserted, and
                                  the country was left uncultivated, and the western provinces of
                                  Europe, which had enjoyed a considerable degree of opulence
                                  under the Roman empire, sunk into the lowest state of poverty
                                  and barbarism. During the continuance of those confusions, the
                                  chiefs and principal leaders of those nations acquired or usurped
                                  to themselves the greater part of the lands of those countries. A
                                  great part of them was uncultivated; but no part of them, whether
                                  cultivated or uncultivated, was left without a proprietor. All of
                                  them were engrossed, and the greater part by a few great
                                  proprietors.
                                  This original engrossing of uncultivated lands, though a great,
                                  might have been but a transitory evil. They might soon have been
                                  divided again, and broke into small parcels either by succession or
                                  by alienation. The law of primogeniture hindered them from being
                                  divided by succession: the introduction of entails prevented their
                                  being broke into small parcels by alienation."

                                  "Laws frequently continue in force long after the circumstances
                                  which first gave occasion to them, and which could alone render
                                  them reasonable, are no more. In the present state of Europe, the
                                  proprietor of a single acre of land is as perfectly secure of his
                                  possession as the proprietor of a hundred thousand. The right of
                                  primogeniture, however, still continues to be respected, and as of
                                  all institutions it is the fittest to support the pride of family
                                  distinctions, it is still likely to endure for many centuries. In every
                                  other respect, nothing can be more contrary to the real interest of
                                  a numerous family than a right which, in order to enrich one,
                                  beggars all the rest of the children."

                                  "To the slave cultivators of ancient times gradually succeeded a
                                  species of farmers known at present in France by the name of
                                  metayers. They are called in Latin, Coloni partiarii. They have
                                  been so long in disuse in England that at present I know no
                                  English name for them. The proprietor furnished them with the
                                  seed, cattle, and instruments of husbandry, the whole stock, in
                                  short, necessary for cultivating the farm. The produce was divided
                                  equally between the proprietor and the farmer, after setting aside
                                  what was judged necessary for keeping up the stock, which was
                                  restored to the proprietor when the farmer either quitted, or was
                                  turned out of the farm.
                                  Land occupied by such tenants is properly cultivated at the
                                  expense of the proprietor as much as that occupied by slaves.
                                  There is, however, one very essential difference between them.
                                  Such tenants, being freemen, are capable of acquiring property,
                                  and having a certain proportion of the produce of the land, they
                                  have a plain interest that the whole produce should be as great as
                                  possible, in order that their own proportion may be so. A slave, on
                                  the contrary, who can acquire nothing but his maintenance,
                                  consults his own ease by making the land produce as little as
                                  possible over and above that maintenance."

                                  "To this species of tenancy succeeded, though by very slow
                                  degrees, farmers properly so called, who cultivated the land with
                                  their own stock, paying a rent certain to the landlord. When such
                                  farmers have a lease for a term of years, they may sometimes find
                                  it for their interest to lay out part of their capital in the further
                                  improvement of the farm; because they may sometimes expect to
                                  recover it, with a large profit, before the expiration of the lease."

                                  "After the fall of the Roman empire, on the
                                  contrary, the proprietors of land seem generally to have lived in
                                  fortified castles on their own estates, and in the midst of their own
                                  tenants and dependants. The towns were chiefly inhabited by
                                  tradesmen and mechanics, who seem in those days to have been of
                                  servile, or very nearly of servile condition. The privileges which we
                                  find granted by ancient charters to the inhabitants of some of the
                                  principal towns in Europe sufficiently show what they were before
                                  those grants. The people to whom it is granted as a privilege that
                                  they might give away their own daughters in marriage without the
                                  consent of their lord, that upon their death their own children, and
                                  not their lord, should succeed to their goods, and that they might
                                  dispose of their own effects by will, must, before those grants, have
                                  been either altogether or very nearly in the same state of villanage
                                  with the occupiers of land in the country."

                                  "But how servile soever may have been originally the condition
                                  of the inhabitants of the towns, it appears evidently that they
                                  arrived at liberty and independency much earlier than the
                                  occupiers of land in the country. That part of the king’s revenue
                                  which arose from such poll-taxes in any particular town used
                                  commonly to be let in farm during a term of years for a rent
                                  certain, sometimes to the sheriff of the county, and sometimes to
                                  other persons. The burghers themselves frequently got credit
                                  enough to be admitted to farm the revenues of this sort which
                                  arose out of their own town, they becoming jointly and severally
                                  answerable for the whole rent.
                                  To let a farm in this manner was
                                  quite agreeable to the usual economy of, I believe, the sovereigns
                                  of all the different countries of Europe, who used frequently to let
                                  whole manors to all the tenants of those manors, they becoming
                                  jointly and severally answerable for the whole rent; but in return
                                  being allowed to collect it in their own way, and to pay it into the
                                  king’s exchequer by the hands of their own bailiff, and being thus
                                  altogether freed from the insolence of the king’s officers—a
                                  circumstance in those days regarded as of the greatest
                                  importance."

                                  "The lords despised the burghers, whom they considered not
                                  only as of a different order, but as a parcel of emancipated slaves,
                                  almost of a different species from themselves. The wealth of the
                                  burghers never failed to provoke their envy and indignation, and
                                  they plundered them upon every occasion without mercy or
                                  remorse. The burghers naturally hated and feared the lords. The
                                  king hated and feared them too; but though perhaps he might
                                  despise, he had no reason either to hate or fear the burghers.
                                  Mutual interest, therefore, disposed them to support the king, and
                                  the king to support them against the lords. They were the enemies
                                  of his enemies, and it was his interest to render them as secure
                                  and independent of those enemies as he could. By granting them
                                  magistrates of their own, the privilege of making bye-laws for their
                                  own government, that of building walls for their own defence, and
                                  that of reducing all their inhabitants under a sort of military
                                  discipline, he gave them all the means of security and
                                  independency of the barons which it was in his power to bestow."

                                  "Without the establishment of some regular government of this
                                  kind, without some authority to compel their inhabitants to act
                                  according to some certain plan or system, no voluntary league of
                                  mutual defence could either have afforded them any permanent
                                  security, or have enabled them to give the king any considerable
                                  support. By granting them the farm of their town in fee, he took
                                  away from those whom he wished to have for his friends, and, if
                                  one may say so, for his allies, all ground of jealousy and suspicion
                                  that he was ever afterwards to oppress them, either by raising the
                                  farm rent of their town or by granting it to some other farmer."

                                  "The militia of the cities seems, in those times, not to have been
                                  inferior to that of the country, and as they could be more readily
                                  assembled upon any sudden occasion, they frequently had the
                                  advantage in their disputes with the neighbouring lords. In
                                  countries, such as Italy and Switzerland, in which, on account
                                  either of their distance from the principal seat of government, of
                                  the natural strength of the country itself, or of some other reason,
                                  the sovereign came to lose the whole of his authority, the cities
                                  generally became independent republics, and conquered all the
                                  nobility in their neighbourhood, obliging them to pull down their
                                  castles in the country and to live, like other peaceable inhabitants,
                                  in the city. This is the short history of the republic of Berne as well
                                  as of several other cities in Switzerland. If you except Venice, for
                                  of that city the history is somewhat different, it is the history of all
                                  the considerable Italian republics, of which so great a number
                                  arose and perished between the end of the twelfth and the
                                  beginning of the sixteenth century."

                                  " Order and good government, and along with them the liberty
                                  and security of individuals, were, in this manner, established in
                                  cities at a time when the occupiers of land in the country were
                                  exposed to every sort of violence. But men in this defenceless state
                                  naturally content themselves with their necessary subsistence,
                                  because to acquire more might only tempt the injustice of their
                                  oppressors. On the contrary, when they are secure of enjoying the
                                  fruits of their industry, they naturally exert it to better their
                                  condition, and to acquire not only the necessaries, but the
                                  conveniences and elegancies of life. That industry, therefore,
                                  which aims at something more than necessary subsistence, was
                                  established in cities long before it was commonly practised by the
                                  occupiers of land in the country. If in the hands of a poor
                                  cultivator, oppressed with the servitude of villanage, some little
                                  stock should accumulate, he would naturally conceal it with great
                                  care from his master, to whom it would otherwise have belonged,
                                  and take the first opportunity of running away to a town. The law
                                  was at that time so indulgent to the inhabitants of towns, and so
                                  desirous of diminishing the authority of the lords over those of the
                                  country, that if he could conceal himself there from the pursuit of
                                  his lord for a year, he was free for ever. Whatever stock, therefore,
                                  accumulated in the hands of the industrious part of the
                                  inhabitants of the country naturally took refuge in cities as the
                                  only sanctuaries in which it could be secure to the person that
                                  acquired it."
                                  -Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

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                                  • lutteL
                                    lutte
                                    last edited by

                                    butchered formatting

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                                    • M
                                      Mulloch94 @Kvirion
                                      last edited by

                                      @Kvirion said in Why is the Ray Peat community so far right?:

                                      I assume that the problem is more complex than a one-dimensional left-right axis.

                                      It certainly is. In fact, I've increasingly been developing a new opinion that the left-right axis means essentially nothing in today's sociopolitical culture. The waters become even more muddy when you throw political parties in the ring too. As meaningless as the left-right axis is, democrats and republicans are even more meaningless. For example, all American democrats are right-wingers. More or less. Take all their social culture BS out of the equation for a second, because being a leftist has nothing to do with any of that. Do democrats support labor or do they support capital? The answer is definitively the latter. Republicans, also right-wingers, but far more radicalized in the sense they have a strong push toward national independence, which is naturally at odds with the establishments quest to further the globalization of capital.

                                      Naturally MAGA bros lack the "intellectual refinement" that their Occupy Wall Street predecessors had in the early 2000s. But that's too be expected, the OWS movement was mostly anarchists, smart ones too, like David Graeber. As much as I disagree with Graeber's economics, he understood power dynamics very well. The MAGA movement doesn't understand power dynamics well, but they do recognize corruption and know how to point at it, lol. The big difference is anarchists did it in the 2000s out of loyalty to labour. MAGA's anti-globalism is out of loyalty to the nation-state. In this light, we could see the democrats as being a party slightly more capitalistic than even the republicans. America doesn't really have a left-wing option. And since America doesn't recognize absolute property rights, they don't have a libertarian option either.

                                      So this two headed axis is very useless in my opinion. We're not even getting into all these little micro nuances either. Like urban liberals vs rustic blues. As soon as you get out of any major Big City shit-hole, most people, even democrats, own guns. Likewise, I've seen examples of traditionally very conservative practices like church becoming woke for LGBTQ or other groups in the inner cities. What were seeing here, in my opinion, is that environment is superseding anything people believe politically. And I think this is where bioenergetics slips into the equation. Might also be why someone like Ray Peat was never really pinned down by a particular political ideology. There's this old saying that "culture is upstream from politics." If that's true, and by all accounts it is, then bioenergetics is the source.

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                                      • VehmicJurymanV
                                        VehmicJuryman @CO3
                                        last edited by

                                        @CO3 said in Why is the Ray Peat community so far right?:

                                        @VehmicJuryman
                                        Incredible the way in which you slander Christ, saying he and his flock were dependent on welfare from the rich. You are already implying it here; you pharisees would be the first to judge such a way of living where property was shared. Disgusting.

                                        You are more of an opponent to his ideas than maybe anyone else, because you fake your allegiance to him and even use it to justify the satanic order of things in the world.

                                        The point is the mask you call your 'religious' views are downstream of your covetousness. You proved it in this thread but are too blind to see it.

                                        Exposing your ignorance as usual.

                                        Luke 8: "1 Soon afterward, Jesus began going around from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God. The twelve were with Him, 2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others who were contributing to their support out of their private means."

                                        Other wealthy benefactors of Jesus mentioned in the Gospel include Joseph of Arimathea and Mary of Bethany.

                                        There is genuinely no ideology more antithetical to Christianity than Marxism. No ideology has ever harmed as many people or sent as many people to hell. It is an ideology of pure hatred, envy, resentment, atheism, and murder. Nobody has killed more Christians than Marxists.

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                                        • VehmicJurymanV
                                          VehmicJuryman @CO3
                                          last edited by VehmicJuryman

                                          @CO3 I'm aware that Marxists have quoted the Bible out of context to support their hateful ideology. Satan quotes the Bible too. Btw, you're quoting Acts which happened after Christ left earth so claiming Christ lived the same way is speculative at best. It's also very different from Marxism - Marx didn't believe in voluntarily forming communities that shared property, he believed in mass murdering and terrorizing everyone in society who owned property.

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                                          • CO3C
                                            CO3 @VehmicJuryman
                                            last edited by CO3

                                            @VehmicJuryman You clearly did not know. Now the rats are fleeing the ship truly, slandering not only Christ but 'their' apostles too. The disloyalty is disgusting! No wonder Nazis were and are so partial to neo-paganism. Not one single principle between all of the people that come into this thread to make a fool of themselves.

                                            Master Broth Recipe: https://twitter.com/thesquattingman/status/1737526599023526043 / https://recipeats.org/master-broth/

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