The Ron Paul Revolution - A Postmortem (and prescription)

An examination of the pluses and minuses of the Ron Paul Revolution by Stefan Molyneux, Host of Freedomain Radio, the most popular philosophy podcast on the web - www.freedomainradio.com

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• stefan
• molyneux
• freedom
• ron
• paul
• libertarian
• election
• philosophy
• morality
• freedomain
• radio

[QwidgyboMan]

No answer needed Stef, as I have checkout your site and shall procede to verse myself with your works. I am quite excited and, lol, scared shitless by the excerts/previews. Nevertheless I would again like to thankyou for bringing out in me, what I have known was inside for many years(I'm only 20) - the potential and healthy need for philosophical and "deep" thought, rather than easy gratification via acceptance of untested logic, morals and beliefs. Cheers from

[stefbot]

Thanks, I do hope that you enjoy the material, and I appreciate your interest in philosophy! :)

[jacobssandy]

Wow this sounds pretty lonely if you have to write off everyone who disagrees when that means 97% of society apparantly.

[stefbot]

Yes, it is about quality, not quantity, for sure... :)

[kimuraftw]

so what'll happen when enough of us reject morally evil people in our lives? sounds kinda cool, i'd like to hear where you think this might go...

[stefbot]

Well, I do know the answer, since I started this about 10 years ago - it leads to all sorts of wonderful new relationships... :)

[mrgrieves9876]

very good stuff but ron paul would still have been the best candidate than any of the other bozos running

[JacobSpinney]

In all the time that I spent talking to people about Ron Paul, I cannot remember a single time when someone asked me, "So then why does Ron Paul support letting the free market take over all government programs EXCEPT the military?" No. The reason Ron Paul failed was quite simple. People would rather be slaves to a state than live in a free and voluntary society.

[razerfish]

The RP Revolution is not even close to being over. Sorry about that.

[nuarBlack]

@stefbot you say to please stop lecturing others about your ethics yet here you are doing it yourself. So is it ok to talk about your ethics only if you live them then? and then if your ethics are that you don't associate with others that don't share them then you can never talk with someone who doesn't share them. So how do you effect change or promote liberty? You can't even show by example with out some measure of association. Needs clarification because as is it is a huge logical fallacy

[nuarBlack]

@stefbot All I have to say is I appreciate the effort but your criticism of Ron Paul supporters and libertarians on the grounds of them not living by their ethics rings hallow and hypocritical considering that just by using the internet and producing this podcast implies you are seeking association with people you would deem evil as well. I full well agree you need to live by your ethics that you preach and all but your argument on this seems incomplete at best. Further clarification needed.

[dweber73609]

@stefbot , I just found this video but I still find it VERY interesting and, at times, very challenging. I do have a question, does this video (and you, I still assume) advocate the disassociation of yourself from family members or friends simply on the grounds that they are rabid statists? My brother (an admitted "radical leftist") is one of the few people who I know that is intelligent enough to argue with about things that we both are passionate about.

[JennJenification]

@kimuraftw Answer: Isolationism, bubble think, and a failure to teach or learn from others. Yee-haw. I'm disappointed, Stef.

[JennJenification]

I would disagree that Libertarianism has made no progress whatsoever. The Ron Paul movement is still going, and doing better from what I can tell, and it has influenced me despite the fact that I was a liberal democratic voter and haven't made any commitments to Paul politically. More people are waking up to why this system doesn't work in it's current misuse. Why you feel that talking about it doesn't help (and yet here you are), is kindof baffling.

[JennJenification]

Wait, now you're ranting about 'evil'?? Hardly seems rational to me. Sure, the gov't might be said to be evil for taxing/aggression, etc, but your cousin who doesn't quite get your reasoning (yet) about why it's evil ISN'T. He's just not as far along. You're making the assumption in your argument that ALL people must reach the same conclusions at the same time, or alienate each other for lack of agreement. Those 'empty intellectual discussions' are what this is about. LEARNING is necessary,

[JennJenification]

And how do intellectual conversations about liberty (14:00 ) not help the cause of liberty? If we are to free ourselves, (through philosophy) does it not help to develop understanding, knowledge and opinions? Movements, and changes in a society are brought about by the meeting of minds. I don't understand why you, as a philosopher, feel this is 'empty'. I guess I just don't know where you're going with this. I'll watch on.