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Oh please. Every anti-government ideologue I've ever met seems to think that absent government humanity is made up of angels or Rousseau-style noble primitives. There are plenty of scumbags to go round, always have been.



The anti-government ideologues I talk to recognize this perfectly well; in fact, it's a core part of their philosophy. They argue that any center of power will actually serve as a magnet for sociopaths and eventually become infested by them, thereby empowering scumbags more than it controls them in the long term.


A specious argument if I ever heard one. For starters, what's with conflating sociopaths with scumbags? Sociopathy doesn't make you a criminal.


Sociopathy very often results in criminal activity or otherwise simply the manipulation of other people. It is confused regularly with psychopathy, which positions of power are far more likely to attract. However psychopaths are generally not criminals and can be very useful to have around in many cases. This discussion is one of baseless scare mongering and it's not really worth it to dwell on.


Every anti-government ideologue I've ever met seems to think that absent government humanity is made up of angels or Rousseau-style noble primitives.

The 'noble savage' [edit:absent government humanity is made up of angels meme] is more a favored construct of the left wing. See, for example the art of Gaugain, Picasso and early modernism. Unless your liberterian ideaolagues acquantences were closest cubists or something.


This is like something out of a Markov generator. 'anigbrowl mentions "Rousseau" and here come "noble savages", Gaugain, Picasso, modernism, cubism, and "the left wing". Huh?



And most pro-government ideologes seem to think that absent government humanity is made up of liars, cheats, and scoundrels. There are plenty of good people to go around, and always have been.

In other words, there are a small number of corrupt people in private as well as government roles, and that's just the way it is. Problem is, in government, they get to dictate the rules that the rest of us have to live under.


Yes. And? I wasn't mentioning or implying angels or noble primitives or scumbags or anything.




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