Think, Or Drop Dead

Comes word in e-mail that Seater has remarks on my remarks at Donald Luskin's weblog.

It's utterly ridiculous. He's going to try to claim a "hypothetical" and accuse me of pulling a Dowd?

I made not even an insinuation of a "logical conclusion" in what he said. I pointed out a manifest contradiction. And he cannot have his "hypothetical" as if he had never asserted that "science can never prove anything", and as if he never compared the worth of "econometric estimates" and "all quantitative methods in all fields of science". Maybe someone needs to get out the Big Crayon and draw this in a Big Picture for him, but I do rather hope that others can understand that if he is not attempting to outright bullshit his way through this, then he's just about too stupid for the discussion.

As for Karl Popper: fuck him. I've been up and down it, I know the whole drill, and I say he's wrong. To me, that's worth a lot more than some moron throwing his name around as if it will scare off the monsters under the moron's bed.

And I can always tell someone who isn't fit for the fight, when they complain about "rambling". Fuck Seater, too, then. I don't care about his attitude about my attitude. I never got into any of this in order to make friends. I've been watching the destruction of my homeland as a consequence of rotten ideas bloody long enough that I will not abide morons -- yes -- like him, with patient kindness. In the words of a noted 20th century thinker: "This ain't no disco."

As for Luskin: he is entirely correct about the matter of government application of econometrics, which is the central point that I wanted to make. I am content to see it made. Here is something that a dolt like Seater will not see:

Freedom means that nobody gets chained against their will to anyone else's mistakes. His moral competence to endorse this rot in the hands of a bureaubot extends about as far as my moral competence to chain him to the front of my car. He's got a lot of bloody nerve to complain about my "manners" while he's cheerleading these creatures' arbitrary manipulation of others' productivity.

Now hear this, every one & all: I don't care if you don't like me. I don't care a whit. That is not the point, and it is also no excuse for not thinking. That has nothing to do with me, or my rotten language, or any of the rest of it. And if you think it does, then you deserve a lot worse than I can ever thrash you with in the rest of my life.

Now, beat it. Get out of my sight.

Ps. -- I just sent to following off to Luskin:

"I don't know how you might go about it, but you should think about expunging my name from your blog. It's not going to do you any favors. That's because I don't stop short of a complete mind/body synthesis which includes an ability to sort through things like this, and no scruple at addressing them in language that a George S. Patton would approve. This is not for everyone, and especially not for people who parade their presumptions of being above the nitty-gritty of what it all means, as if it's some parlor-game for their amusement and none of it holds real-life implications. At the rate I've been going for a long time, now, I will very likely end up the most un-popular person on the whole goddamned internet, among people of that sort -- on every side of the 'aisle' -- because I have no patience for their preposterous niceties. They can all go emulate their senators and call everybody their 'good friends', but I won't have it. These matters are far too serious for that.

As for you, sir: I try to hit your blog every day. I generally think you're doing very good work."

I don't think he's going to do it. I think he's actually going to leave my remarks on his quite respectable weblog.

The fool. Bless his heart.