LRC nitwittery in a nutshell
LRC has for years been infected by cutesy contrarianism. from SUVs to animal flesh and fat, if some ignorant control freak wants to prevent you from exercising rightful freedom in that area, the overriding LRC slant assures, "mass quantities!"norman singleton has provided the most compact example of LRC disease i've seen, annointing smoking as the overcompensating market virtue of the moment:
anyone who thinks smoking is a net health plus has his head up his ass. we're supposed to ignore that, however, because someone even stupider wants smoking banned on property she doesn't own. i'm waiting for the exclamatory "heroic cyanide cures the common cold" headline at LRC.Hey Hillary (and the rest of the nicotine Nazis)
Posted by Norman Singleton at August 28, 2007 07:35 PM
before you launch another attack on smoking talk to Winnie Langley, who just turned 100 years old and celebrated by smoking her 170,000TH cigarette. Mrs. Langley, who began smoking at the age of seven shortly after World War I broke out, says tobacco never made her ill. Mrs. Langley also points out that many people smoked during the World Wars because smoking "...helped steady the nerves."
singleton's short post fails in two other areas. the worst error of the post is one shared more by LRC sister site LvMI: utilitarianism argued as primary. regarding liberty, the efficacy and health benefits/risks of smoking are irrelevant. i'll quote it again:
In the end, we don't need to prove the superiority of consequence of living free. Coercionists need to prove they have the Right — not the 'authority' — to cause us to live otherwise.this is not only the end, but the beginning. when seeking mutual liberty, every argument regarding the benefits of a thing must begin with the notation that such arguments are unnecessary, however fun and instructive they may be. today's LRC buffoon of note fails even on that unnecessary bit, for he apparently ignored two damned crucial details from the article to which he linked: the subject estimates she smoked only 5 cigarettes a day (from age 7), and,
~NTA
Despite the numerous health warnings, Mrs Langley insists she's never suffered because of the habit as she "has never inhaled".the habit of not inhaling may have arisen from the early age at which she began "smoking". wouldn't surprise me if she tried to inhale at first, but it was too much of a shock for a 7-year-old.
for a site that pretends to center on the subtle and correct praxeology of mises and other superiors, LRC screws the pooch far more than mere casual error. when busted on these egregious fuckups, the average LRC writer shrugs/laughs it off as no big deal. but being truthful and sound is a very big deal, especially when most of your output is attempting to note failures in others. whatever its benefits, smoking is quite obviously a deadly habit which should not, in a deluded attempt to fight anti-liberty assholes, be encouraged by pointing to rank exception.
Labels: derailleur, liberty
posted by saltypig @ 07:44
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