Random Reflections

The fact that their answer is awful does not mean your answer is correct. However, from a purely opportunistic perspective, an instance in which their answer is truly awful would be an excellent time to offer an alternative that was at least semi-rational. If you cannot do that much, then it might be better to offer no alternative at all, to abstain from participation in the discussion altogether.


What is one to do when the voices one had once counted on to represent adulthood and sobriety have bent to the winds of everyone around them and thus, as Kipling would have it, “lost theirs”?


A friend is not a man who stands with you when you serve his purposes — that is merely an ally — but one who would stand with you when all purposes were lost, both his own and yours. Hence, true friendship, always the rarest of external goods, becomes even rarer in a time of universal calculation and pragmatism, in which almost all men are as nations or corporations, and all friendly relationships mere alliances of convenience aimed at short-term personal advantage of various sorts.


The word “disinformation” refers specifically to lies told by and for governments. When government itself is using the word as an accusation or warning against others, you may be sure their aim is not to counter falsehoods, but to protect a lie.


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