Cork Irish

I am a convinced supporter of Dr Sean Gabb’s Libertarian Alliance, and will remain so. But I am not sure he is right to argue that libertarians should reposition themselves as opponents of capitalism, in particular, opposing limited liability companies, and the preferential advantages the limited company format gives to big business. It strikes me as a wheeze, an attempt to strike a left-wing pose, or what would be seen as one, in a context where many libertarian views are seen as either right-wing, or a cover for those who are right-wing.
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There is plenty that could be said on the history of the British in Ireland. We don’t live in a pre-Enlightenment Age and see no reason to “doctor” the facts of history: we must face up to a “warts and all” form of history that aims to tell the truth, without trying to install ourselves on some kind of pedestal where we could do and did no wrong.
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The Daily Mail has an undeserved reputation as a patriotic newspaper, but frequently publishes articles claiming that Africans and Asians are in fact Europeans. This is not a question of “hating” people of other origins–we should not hate other people for who they are–but the principle applies in both directions. We are entitled to our identities and cultures too. If you are not of European descent, you are not European, and will cause grave offence by claiming or using European passports or other identity documents.
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Are you, like me, sick of hearing sob stories about the workers at Foxconn’s factory in China, where most of the world’s Apple iPads are produced? Around 20 of the literally hundreds of thousands of workers onsite have committed suicide because of the pressures of working in a factory environment, but it seems to me the Chinese are simply resentful of having to work their way up, the way we worked our way up in the West. They see Western lifestyles on their TV screens, and want it all to just drop into their laps. Greed. Selfishness. That’s all it is. Why don’t they remain as agricultural peasants if they don’t want to do it the hard way?
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Integrating a rapidly developing China into the global political system was always going to be a challenge. China’s cultural assumptions led to conflict with the Western nations early in the modern period. In the late 18th century, when Lord Macartney led a trade mission to the Celestial Kingdom, he was commanded to kowtow before the Emperor: the Western version of the tale tells how he refused to kowtow before a non-Christian, but China’s own annals save national face by claiming that the kowtow was performed. Throughout the 19th century, China found it hard to adjust to the reality that the people they viewed as the “Western Barbarians” were more advanced and more powerful. Even today, the ruling Communist Party carefully nurtures the story of China’s humiliation at the hand of the Western powers. As a result, China comes across as an angry power at times, giving rise to valid questions about the impact that a resurgent China will have on the world as a whole, particularly later in the 21st century.
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The difficulty we as conservatives face in trying to get a hearing for our ideas in the mainstream media and also in private conversations is that it does not really matter how right we are. We can go to great lengths to research political topics and to hone our arguments, but the more we do so, the more we prove to liberals just how “obsessed” we are. A cogent argument is a “rant”. The debate has moved way beyond facts and logical argumentation. Our conviction that the truth will win out is encapsulated in the saying that “a racist is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal”. Presumably, the liberal is expected to privately realize he has lost the argument, and perhaps be more amenable to reason next time. I am afraid that is not how it works.
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