denis bider

Various thoughts

Libertarec

Posted Apr 23, 2007 at 22:50 by denisbider

Last edited Dec 8, 2007 at 05:14 by denisbider

economy liberty politics

I've just - belatedly - discovered this amazing blog, written by someone for whom I have a lot of respect. The blog is in Slovenian and is, in general, aimed at the Slovenian public. The author is an exceptionally bright and informed thinker on economic policy and freedom, and many of his articles shed some Socrates-like light on the sorry envy-based economic situation in Slovenia in particular and Europe in general. He also has an amazing sense of humor, as evident from his articles Kritični intelektualec 1.0 and Generator sporočil za javnost Matjaža Hanžka, as well as his other posts.

I wish that we had more people like him. :-)

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Showing 7 out of 7 comments, oldest first:

Comment on Apr 24, 2007 at 22:48 by boris kolar

I have mixed feelings about this guy. Yes, his blog and political thinking is very much in line with mine and his reasoning is sound and well expressed. But I'm pretty sure this same guy was a potent poster on president Drnovsek gibanje.org forum (which is now closed and unavailable). I can't be 100% sure, because he obviously wanted to be anonymous. There, his views were incomparably more extreme, provocative and sometimes plain silly. Some examples from my imperfect memory:
- it's good for Americans to keep people in Guantanamo, because the only alternative would be to kill them all
- abandoned animals should be euthanized
- Jesus was killed by communists
- countless accusations in style "you lie, you communist,..."
- he was totally unwilling to accept any criticism against catolic church (he dismissed cited resources as lies, false propaganda,...)

It was nevertheless fun to read his views and I agreed with some more moderate of them. After they banned him from forum because of countless argumentless posts like "you lie", he had this to say about his fellow debaters:
http://libertarec.blogspot.com/2006/06/neoidioti.html

So I started from the opposite: first I had a total disrespect for this guy, but after I saw his blog, he appears much more moderate and sensible in real life.

PS: If I wrongly deduced his identity, I deeply apologize for this comment.

Comment on Apr 25, 2007 at 10:52 by Anonymous

It would be interesting to read those posts on gibanje.org that you mention. Unfortunately, the forum seems to be down right now.

I did read his Neoidioti article. It's amusing. I think he makes a good presentation of the braindead arguments that people supporting various communisms and socialisms usually make. There's something decidedly wrong with these people - not exactly that they're idiots, but something in their logic circuits seems to be very much fried. They almost never present their arguments in a logical and coherent manner; I have not once seen them produce any sensible support for their claims like "capitalism is exploitation" and "the rich man is rich because he stole from the poor man". People just repeat these things, and when you confront them they get emotional and angry... All in all, it's quite irrational.

The "Neoidioti" article exposes the morosity of those people (A) by quoting their own writing, and (B) without exposing their identities, and (C) the title itself is not too much out of line. I think it's an amusing article.

Comment on Apr 25, 2007 at 11:01 by Anonymous

I can't say much about his church bias because I haven't seen it in action a lot; and also, I have an anti-church bias myself, so I can't reliably judge whether someone who appears to be defending the Vatican is biased, or is just being more neutral.

Comment on May 15, 2007 at 12:24 by Tomaž Štih

Boris,

"the guy" -that would be me- never posted any such posts on gibanje.org.

I did wrote Neoidioti after discovering their forum; I must admit twas a lot of fun to read it, but twould be a loss of my precious time to post to it.

Comment on Mar 9, 2009 at 09:34 by Anonymous

He is sociopath, like other guys from Mico's clan.

And i don't understand why they are considered bright? People like this caused worldwide economic problems we are facing today.

Comment on Mar 9, 2009 at 15:46 by denisbider

Klemen, if you are stating that, then you must have no idea what kind of sociopaths you're voting for.

And no, while Mr. Štih has opinions I don't agree with, he is not a sociopath, and people like him did not cause the current economic crisis. The causes are complex and the crisis is global and systemic, encompassing countries without regard to their political doctrine.

Blaming it all on liberalism is what leftists in power would have you believe so as to promote their interests. Those interests, incidentally, are aimed to raise your costs of living while providing you poorer products and services in order to benefit the corrupt capitalists in charge.

Comment on Mar 9, 2009 at 15:56 by denisbider

For non-Slovenian readers, I have to clarify that my above assessment is specific to Slovenia. Slovenia features a peculiar mix of leftist ideology that goes hand in hand with untransparency and fairly corrupt practices of local oligarchists, who use their media power and the surviving strength of socialist ideas to impose monopolies and impede free trade. Slovenians swallow this hook and sinker, paying larger costs for inferior services because it's for the "national good" and it is "socially responsible". Apparently, when you are paying head over fist to a local monopolist bastard who uses mean tricks to disadvantage his competition, that's okay, but if you're paying less for a better service provided by a foreign-owned company, then it's neoliberalism and ruthless exploitation of Slovenians by foreigners.