Matt D

Greetings Schnugwa, Welcome out your your lurking! I myself have been a lurker with regards to the board all the while developing self knowledge and attempting to bring principles to my life. I am a co-organizer for the FDR meetup in Washington DC. We would love to have you make it out to our meetup next Saturday, the 13th. Visit our facebook page and request to join if you'd like to participate and meet other philosophy-minded individuals. Cheers, Matt

Hi Alex, I would like to help with this project. I'd like to sketch some ideas free of charge and if you find one that you like you can throw me some cash for a fully refined logo. Let me know if this interests you. Matt

A while back I had the idea to compile a playlist of songs with a philosophical bent and that had meaning to me. As the list grew I divided it into four parts: 1) Anarchy; 2) Atheism; 3) Defoo; 4) Virtue. Below is the first part, and I'll be posting the others before the year's end. I hope this music brings a tiny bit of joy into your day. https://8tracks.com/mdrake88/philosophy-playlist-part-1-of-4-anarchy "I started this playlist series because sometimes music can speak louder than arguments. The first part contains songs relating to power and anarchy. The progression from beginning to end is one that mirrors my own journey from self-described conservative to political libertarian to philosophical anarcho-capitalist."

Dear Freedomainers, Myself and another FDR listener are launching a crowdfunding campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of spanking your children. We need your help -- we need as many people as possible to tweet out links to our campaign, change their facebook profile pictures to the orange graphic seen below, and tell everyone you can about this immensely important issue. If you can spare a couple dollars (not to take any coin away from Stef) that would be appreciated as well. Campaign page and video: http://igg.me/at/spankingisassault/ Suggestions for social media posts: This football Sunday don't just sit on the sidelines. Stand up against child abuse. #spankingisassault http://bit.ly/ZzIruW If he was your dad, wouldn't you be frightened? #spankingisassault http://bit.ly/ZzIruW Examine the evidence on spanking before you decide if what Adrian Peterson did was acceptable. #spankingisassault http://bit.ly/ZzIruW Why take a stand on spanking? Because people still defend child abusers. #spankingisassault http://bit.ly/ZzIruW I sincerely thank you for your generous support in helping to end hitting children. Matt and Matt

Let me try to flesh out what I'm thinking instead of posing a question that could be disjointed with the conversation and hoping someone will validate an opinion I have not even put forth. p.s. I know this post was a couple months old, but hey, I was not on the board at that time; I hope you'll forgive me. Mike has a good point, which is that 'blame' is a kind of precursor to 'accountability'. Blaming someone for something only requires making a connection between cause and effect. The reason that blame has a negative connotation and accountability has a more positive connotation here is that we know the complicated nature of cause and effect in important biological/psychological sciences around human development. If, however, someone holds her parents accountable in the here and now for her feelings toward them by talking with them and telling them what she is feeling, then there is great potential for change in the future, usually called closure, at the expense of discomfort in the present. In other words, if you hold another person accountable by taking action, then there is simply no need for pointing blame afterward because you have dealt with the emotion. Only those who have not taken responsibility for how they feel about their childhood can be said to be casting blame in a reckless manner. Does this make sense or ring true for anyone else? Rex's question about the starting line of self-responsibility prior to adulthood is, I think, a common response when talking about parental relationships. We can accept that infants have not developed the skills to question their parents at such a young age, nor would they if they could since they depend on their parents for physical base needs. It is the parents' responsibility to get their child to the level of emotional independence as soon as soon as possible, that is the paradox wherein parents want to keep their children close forever and thereby drive them away forever. Here's where I might get a little more theoretical: Let's say that a parent goes in to his relationship with his child on the assumption that the child upon being born already has achieved a limitless potential for depth, love, creativity, understanding, but simply lacks the skills to communicate and rationalize thoughts. In that case, the job of the parent becomes "how do I teach this child as efficiently/sustainably as possible what she will need to unleash her inherent emotional maturity"? The answer encompasses all the things Stef talks about like being curious and negotiating and explaining how we figure out what is true and false. Perhaps this is one of those things where as long as the theory is helpful in inducing better parents, the exact details of it can be smoothed out over time.... Lastly, maybe this goes without saying, but I don't think it's productive for us as philosophers to give into the temptation of one-liners like "the author had bad parents" even if that has been our experience over years of study. I'm playing devil's advocate, but we really don't know if this guy had mean and terrible parents... all we can say is that the likelihood for it is high and then provide information that supports a broader inference. For someone who has not listened to Stef ad infinitum, jumping to conclusions like this will seem dismissive and rude. As libertarians we don't want to give people justification to fire back at us vis-a-vis their own ridiculous stories. (e.g. "This anarchist was never loved by another person and that's why she has no sympathy for other people, bleh bleh bleh")

Is there a difference between blaming and holding accountable? I'd like to think there is but I'm having trouble pinpointing it.

Hey folks, I just joined the boards having gotten into FDR three to four months ago. I love the show but I have found actual freedom-loving people to be a rarity here for obvious reasons. I'd be interested in future lunches or meetups in the area, for sure. ~matt