Today's resource is something a little less topical and a little more important the the Pope's bad science.
The Tragedy of Enforcement is something that bothered me for the longest time.  Even back in my commie days, I was faced with the tragedy of enforcment.  For this reason, I was enthralled with cybernetics, as it seemed to be a useful tool for "tricking people into" voluntarily doing "the right thing", so as to avoid turning to the constant use of lethal force and coercion "for the common good".  Of course, cybernetics presents its own ethical issues that are far more complex and destructive than even the tragedy of enforcement.
Ultimately, (mostly on my own), I came to realize that there is no solution to the tragedy of enforcment.  One must either become a moral nihilist or reject the use of enforcement.  This was one of the key elements in my journey to anarchism.
All this is just supposed to contextualize the role that videos like this could have played in my awakening, and may play in that of others.

True to form, as a "philosophical encyclopedia", the SEP covers a wide array of subjects, many of which pertain to the daily life of non-philosophers.  I have recently begun linking to SEP articles in my main blog posts, as it has come to my attention that I'm using vocabulary words that normal people have a hard time grasping.  It seems to have helped at least a couple of my readers, and I think the SEP can help everyone understand the world a little bit better.

I got a little bit of push-back at the end of last week for my Pope-related resource suggestions.  Interestingly, I think the push-back came from the only two people that read that suggestion, and I doubt they actually read the articles, just the comments I had concerning them.  I'm not sure if they've read previous main blog posts I've made, specifically ones defending the Pope and the papacy or those concerning epistemic rectitude.
I have already written more extensively than I really desire to concerning the Pope and the papacy, but that push-back (and arguments on social media) ought to be addressed.  Rather than writing (and writing, and writing) about a subject that is superfluous to philosophical inquiry, I think I will outsource my arguments concerning Catholic social teaching, encyclicals, and the capricious foundations of the Church in politics.  There could be no-one better suited to take on the task than Tom Woods.
In Episode 497 of the Tom Woods Show, Tom addresses many of the issues I have brought up before, concerning the relationship between Doctrine and political considerations, the nature of authority and infallibility, and the relationship between epistemology and ethics.
Anyone who has an opinion on Pope Francis' soundbites or "encyclical" ought to listen to this short podcast and read the resources linked in the show notes.

In my resource suggestions (and work in general), I try to avoid chasing whatever is topical that day or week.  Instead, I try to focus on central and unmovable philosophical foundations.

But this Pope visit is somewhat important.

Addressing congress personally (while demeaning to the position of the pope, it is a thing that happens), Francis opted to ignore the murder-machine fueled by theft that is the United States' Government and talk about global warming in a naive and uninformed manner.  Instead of calling for conversion away from the culture of death and subjugation, he called fore more death and more subjugation in the name of protecting a rock floating in space.

I recommend that anyone, before uncritically gulping down the pope's rhetoric, one ought to educate themselves with regards to the material he addresses.  In line with that recommendation, I provide you with a short exhortation to learn economics before assuming "global warming is a thing and it's all capitalism's fault," as Francis claims.  I also have here a super-brief and very simple explanation of the basics, which Francis sees to have missed out on somehow.

This issue is very, very important.  The Church has withstood the test of time due to two factors: willingness to admit fault when caught teaching or acting outside of accordance with the truth, and assuredness in Doctrinal Truth.  When people confuse different classes of assertion (Doctrinal Truth vs. practical consideration), they tend to discover the Church's spotty track record with regards to practical considerations (RE: Catholic social teaching) and throw out all of Doctrine due to a category mistake.

The Pope, in preaching empirically false and logically impossible teachings, is likely to attract lukewarm converts who are radically divorced from reality while chasing away rational and virtuous Catholics, especially when both the pope and those receiving his message fall into the category mistake of believing everything the Pope says, instead of critically assessing his teachings and discerning between Doctrine and practical consideration.

A while back, I shared a list of logical fallacies.  It is important to be aware of fallacious reasoning, especially when engaged in exercises such as philosophy.  It is equally important to be aware of cognitive biases, even in simple daily tasks.  Most logical fallacies tend to have positive rhetorical impact due to the way our brains work, specifically the illogical biases that they lend themselves to.
Here's a lost of the more common and impactful ones:

Today's suggestion is fun and practical and is only tangentially related to freedom or philosophy.  CodinGame is a game in which one programs their character in just about any programming language (no Rust, sorry).  The game runs through a series of tests to see how many contingencies your program can over, granting a higher score for more tests cleared.  I've been playing it this morning to see how much I remembered of Bash and Java and realizing that I've forgotten just about all my C(++).


What does this have to do with philosophy?  Programming languages are function-driven languages.  Like the difference between math, spoken language, artistic expression, programming language is another type of language.  In order to best explore reality, I believe a philosopher has to have at least a passing familiarity with these different kinds of expression, each with their unique grammar and vocabulary.  It gives one the epistemic and phenomenological tools required to see things from different angles, maybe even noticing regularities that would otherwise be missed.


Also, even though one may never find themselves programming autonomous drones to defend the planet from invading aliens, such know-how can server one's survival well, especially in high-tech self-providing environments.  In order to run an aquaponics bunker/greenhouse off of a handful of Raspberry Pi-s, one would likely have to do a little coding to get them to do what one wants.

Also, this game is fun and you should try it for that reason.

The time has come, I think, to purge some podcasts off my list.  I have more podcasts than I have time, and some of them have ceased providing utility for my current situation... which happens a few times a year.  Usually, when this time comes, I share on facebook the ones that I am abandoning and why.  Now that I have a platform on which I talk about podcasts incessantly, I figure this may be a better place to do so.

Podcasts I continue to listen to (in order of priority):

1. Superego:  Short and rarely updated, Superego is the funniest thing I have ever heard on the internet.  That is all.
   
2. Robot or Not: Five minute episodes in which the hosts determine whether or not a specific piece of technology is a robot.  Fun, short, funny.  I disagree with their conditions for being a robot, but that doesn't take away from the fun.
   
3. Tom Woods Show:  Updated every weekday, I make it a point to keep up-to-date with this show.  Tom is the most respectable and most influential anarchist alive today.  Every day he has something new and important to share with the world.  Everyone, regardless of what they believe, must listen to his show, if they are going to say they are a critical thinker.
   
4. Mad Philosopher Podcast: Yeah, yeah... I know... I listen to my own show, I'm such a dork and a narcissist.  I listen to it the day I upload in order to catch major issues with the show.  I've already caught and re-uploaded two shows, so the process works.  I recommend everyone listen to what I have to say, too (as any narcissist would).
   
5. Sovryn Tech:  A tech and culture podcast with another paradigm anarchist.  A little think/left sometimes, but always well-reasoned and intellectual, Brian Sovryn has done more for liberty than any politician, ever.
   
6. History of Philosophy Without any Gaps: A weekly podcast that has been methodically plodding through the history of philosophy from the pre-socratics through today.  Each episode is short, easy to understand, and like the name says, has no gaps.  Excellent for both beginners and people who know it all.
   
7. The Cracked Podcast:  Just like the Cracked website, but in audio format.  Hilarious, informative and a little too left to be taken seriously.  I have fun and learn a lot of trivia.
   
8. DH Unplugged: A weekly discussion of the financial markets by Dvorak and Horowitz.  Very informative about what's going on in the world, even if one has no skin in investments.
   
9. Christopher Cantwell Essays:  With more passion and rage than even I can muster, the well-read and ever-grounded Cantwell will occasionally record a stand-alone rant which always has something important to tell someone.
   
10. Very Bad Wizards:  My favorite Philosophy podcast, these two guys are hilarious and relaxed.  Their content is always fresh and informative.
    
11. Philosophize This:  A fun exploration of concepts in philosophy, seemingly chosen at random.  The host has a cleverness about him and a solid grasp of the concepts and contexts he covers.
    
12. Catholic Stuff you Should Know:  A podcast currently hosted by my assistant pastor and my (likely) future pastor, they cover a wide variety of subjects, all of which are important to living a full faith life.  Lots of fun banter and jokes, lots of educational stuff.
    
13. Partially Examined Life:  My first and still one of my favorites podcasts, the Partially Examined life is a monthly exploration of a small group of texts in philosophy.  With a healthy balance of irreverence, humor, and knowledgeably, this show is usually a lot of fun, and teaches me stuff I didn't know in a field in which I'm generally very knowledgeable.
    
14. Radical Agenda:  Christopher Cantwell again, hosting a live show in his living room.  Every so often, he goes a little too conservative (being against immigration, for example), but he is usually 100% on top of what it means to be an anarchist in an unfree world.
    
15. School Sucks Show:  Usually randomly updated, but with long episodes, School Sucks is a show devoted to education and intellectual self-defense.  Parents and educators ought to listen to this show, as well as anyone who wishes to be intellectually literate.
    
16. The Ex-Worker:  An AnCom production about AnComs, this is a useful resource in encouraging me that at least some anarchists are actually doing something besides sitting around and praying for the second coming of John Galt.
    
17. Rationally Speaking:  An atheist podcast that focuses primarily on cognitive biases, science, and ethics.  On rare occasion they'll bring Neil DeGrasse Tyson (or some other popular "scientist") on to shit all over philosophy and religion, but they are usually very ice and even-handed.  One of the main hosts just left, but the remaining host has carried along nicely.
    
18. Anime World Order:The snobby older brother to Anime Pulse, AWO updates rarely and sporadically, but I very much enjoy their discussions of older anime, especially since they tend to share similar opinions to my own and expose me to things I've missed.
    
19. History on Fire:  A new podcast from Daniele Bolelli (of Drunken Taoist fame).  He recounts interesting and often-ignored chunks of history from an amusing angle.  The history lessons being my favorite part of the Drunken Taoist, this podcast is awesome.
    
20. Atlas MD: A recent discovery of mine (I shared it on the daily resource suggestions).  It helps me keep tabs on an amazing agorist project that may save the medical industry from itself.
    
21. Personal Profitability Podcast:  Another recent find, this is a podcast put on by a former co-worker of mine from Summer Camp.  It reminds me a lot of "The Art of Manliness" but with more useful ideas about money and less soldier worshiping.
    
22. Samurai Archives Podcast: Exactly what it sounds like.  A historical survey of Japanese culture, samurai, bushido, etc.  A must-listen for samurai fans.
    
23. The Drunken Taoist:  A show that talks about lefty subjects more than anything else, funny and informative, if a little too statist for me to really recommend it.  My favorite parts are the history, drugs, and stories about the host's daughter, Isabella.
    
24. Powerful Parenting:  I found this show just last week.  It was features on School Sucks, and it seems to be a good show along the lines of peaceful parenting and the other parenting "styles" that I'm interested in.
    
25. Rebel Love Show:  The host of this show recently reached out out me on facebook, so I thought I'd give his show a listen.  Turns out it's pretty good.  I've only heard a few episodes, but I plan on listening to more.
    
26. Lets Talk Bitcoin:  A huge network of blockchain-related shows, I listen to the actual "Let's Talk Bitcoin" show and the MaidSafe show.  Both of them keep me up-to-date on what I believe to be the most important areas of the Bitcoin world.
    
27. East Meets West:  A show that I'm not really sure why I listen to... It's a discussion between two fairly well-to-do people in the hollywood circuit.  They usually talk a little bit about movies and a lot about current events.  They update rarely, but their conversations are fun.
    
28. The Art of Manliness:  A former favorite of mine, the Art of Manliness explores manliness and male culture.  Of late, there has been too much president and soldier worship for me to get all that excited about the show.
    
29. Radiolab:  This show keeps just barely making the cut.  Overproduced, frenetic, and excessively liberal, the only thing that keeps me coming back is the fact that every three episodes or so presents me with something I hadn't known about previously.
    
30. Matt Walsh:  The only reason he's still on my list is because his episodes are short and it reminds me of how a lot of my Catholic friends see the world still.  When talking about social issues (like whether someone becomes a woman because they chopped off their balls), he's usually spot-on, but his politics are decidedly neocon bullshit.
    
31. Anime Pulse:The show is on a temporary hiatus while management gets all their ducks in a row.  Until recently, it has been a fun and quality production (mostly Manga Pulse and Anime Pulse... VG pulse sucks).  After a host change at Anime Pulse, I've been losing interest in the show, but this hiatus makes me feel that if it gets off the ground again, it will be a quality show again.
    
32. Freedom Feens:  This show was one of my favorites for a good while.  A group of people just talking about freedom and stuff on the radio for a few hours every day.  The only reasons I don't listen to them too much anymore is because they put out so much material that if they had priority, I would wind up listening to nothing else, and for a while now they've been spending more time shitting on Chris Cantwell than doing anything fun or productive (and MK Lords posses me off a lot of times).
    
33. Anarchast:  I rarely listen to this podcast anymore, as Jeff Burwick is a very sketchy guy and the show tends to host respectable people alongside total nutjobs and it isn't really worth my time.  However, There is an occasional guest that I hadn't heard of before who actually has something worthwhile to say, and I use this podcast to find these people.
    

Podcasts I no longer listen to:

• ArchDen.org: The official podcast of the Archdiocese of Denver.  It used to be a campy but fun and informative podcast by a couple people from teh Chancery... but that was discontinued in favor for random instances of the Archbishop's homilies.  All of which are identical: "God loves you, we are unworthy, abortion is bad, vote republican, give us money."
  
• The Nerdist:  Funny, but updates something like every day, and I just don't have time for it.  Cantwell, Superego, and Cracked make up for it in the funny department.
  
• The Voluntary Life:  I originally started listening to this show because Stephanie Murphy voiced the intro and outro.  It's an interesting show, with good tips and tricks for living more freely in an un-free world, but they rarely present anything I don't already know.
  

Podcasts that have been discontinued:

• Enchanted Grounds: Technically, not discontinued, but their podcast feed has been broken and they haven't fixed it for over a year.
  
• Into The Deep: Also technically not discontinued, but the last time it updated was June of last year...
  
• Z-Talk:
  
• Zelda Working Title Podcast:
  
• FTL Weekly Digest:Philosophize This:
  
• Saint Cast:
  

As one would expect, I am opposed to all of the TLAs in both principle and based on their actions.  Of late, the FCC has been at the heart of some non-issues.  Most especially that of Net Neutrality, which simply would not be an issue in a free society.

In the latest instance of the FCC attempting to halt technology and freedom, they are attempting to lock down all of the software interactions with hardware concerning network infrastructure.  This is a major problem for three reasons:

• There is not, as of yet, a reliable open-source community for hardware engineering and manufacturing, a federal lockdown of commercially available hardware will essentially cripple the infrastructure options available to people.
• There is no manner in which such a law can be justified: it uses the violence of the state to compel behaviors that have been arbitrarily selected out of a select group of individuals' special interests (just like every law and regulation).
• Regulation of the type and scope have been implemented in other industries and have demonstrably hindered or stopped innovation and progress in those industries.  This is likely seen as a feature, not a flaw, with such regulations.

If one isn't certain what this is about, I recommend listening to Sovryn Tech episode 142 and then heeding calls to action.  Namely, call your senators or whatever bullshit involvement people have in politics.  Most importantly, though, one ought to do what they can to aid in the development of open-source hardware and do whatever they can to eradicate the FCC.

Today's suggestion is a little strange.  It's a Wikipedia page and a suggestion.  I've addressed in some main posts and on social media the fact that it seems AnComs are far more prone to actually doing something (burning down buildings, fighting ISIS and drug cartels, and shooting federales) than AnCaps, who seem to simply sit around and pray for the coming of John Galt.

An apparent example of AnComs kicking ass and taking names is the PKK and YPG serving as a private security force/free militia in the areas of the middle east being outright destroyed by the Turkish government and ISIS.  Information coming out of that region is sparse and incomplete, which shouldn't be surprising given the governments' propensity for murdering journalists on live TV.

I've been watching the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) as closely as I can, especially the YPG (Peoples' Defense Units) for the last couple years.  On rare occasion, they will appear in mainstream news, but never by name.  When one hears of all-female Kurdish units racking up hundreds of confirmed ISIS kills on Fox News, that's the YPG.

They PKK (as one could guess from it's name) has a checkered past, to say the least.  Having originally been a straight-up communist revolution group, they have since reformed into an federated voluntary anarchist community... which still sounds very communist.  It's hard to argue with results, though.  Where the PKK and YPG fight, civilian casualties drop dramatically, important tactical positions against the local governments (Turkey and ISIS, primarily) are secured, and quality of life improves while crime rates drop.  Or, so the information coming out of the region seems to indicate.

Today's resource suggestion is the YPG Wikipedia page.  The information on the page is too sparse to have much of a political spin, but it provides enough information to begin a journey down the rabbit-hole.  I have done my best to not simply sing the praises of the PKK and lay all the supposed facts that I have found out on the table, as there is simultaneously a paucity of facts and a surplus of speculation.  If one could read the local languages, I'm sure they would be able to put together a more complete picture than I.  If someone is genuinely concerned about ISIS (I'm not) and wants to know "How would anarchists stop things like ISIS?"  I recommend looking at the YPG for answers.  It would seem to be one of a handful of real-world examples of anarchism working better than statism when it comes to dealing with aggressive government invasions, but you have to figure out what you think about them on your own.

Time for a little change of pace.  Usually my resources are directly related to philosophy or anarchy in some way.  This one, though, has more do do with living intentionally.
This Blog Post, "10 Types of Odd Friendship You're Probably Part Of", is an excellent primer for paying attention to one's relationships.  It's an important skill to have if one wishes to live a secure and fulfilling life.
There is certainly more that should be said concerning the nature of one's long-lasting friendships and the circumstances in which one forms said friendships.  Such a discussion would necessarily concern itself with the nature of family/tribal life, education vs. school, and other anarchist talking points, but this article itself rightly chooses to give a very high-altitude normative statement.

This list is really fun and astute, especially when coupled with the "Does This Friendship Make Sense?" chart.  I kinda' hope the author produces a sequel, as there are plenty more weird friendships that may not be the healthiest kind (depending on the circumstance).

For instance the "I stole you from your former friend" friendship.  One in which you were introduced by a mutual friend and promptly forgot your mutual friend in favor of the new one, which could create tension in your new relationship, especially if you frequently find yourselves in a group with the original friend.

Or another one would be the "weird breakup friend" friendship.  One in which there is an unresolved sexual/romantic issue in a small group.  For instance, a semi-successful attempt at "we can still be friends", or "those two were going out, but they broke up and both still want to be in the group, but without the other one", or "we both slept with him/her and have some of his/her dirty laundry and need to keep it secret from the group.  Such Drama, Much Immature, Wow.