The ugly truth about political borders – a NEW Mental Lever

February 15, 2018
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Locking down borders is not the same as locking your front door Retweet

I’m tired of having immigration debates. Whenever we write on the topic, we get long editorials, often invective-filled. But honestly…

There are less than a dozen arguments. They can be categorized. In fact, Perry Willis and I are in the midst of doing just that. It’s a measure of how repetitive we find these arguments to be. Indeed, if someone could say something new on the subject, then discussion might be fruitful.

But we’ve heard it all before. And categorizing these arguments would allow us to develop complete, polished answers to each. We could simply link to an article that addresses a respective objection to our voluntaryist view, and then move on to more compelling things. And…

You could benefit from our work. That is, you could share these links too!

Our corner of the world is the libertarian sector. And within that subculture, even some well-known libertarians have tried to create a libertarian justification for immigration restrictions — more accurately, “people prohibition.” They have produced property-based assertions.

I addressed one set of property-based arguments from a published Lew Rockwell speech, just a bit over two years ago.

Today, Perry and I introduce a new Mental Lever added to the Our Lexicon collection

Why political borders are not like private property lines

This new Mental Lever is for those people who say, “We need to lock down our borders for the same reason you lock your doors at night.”

We explain how they are conflating two ideas that are actually in conflict with one another. Once you see that tension, it’s hard to view borders and property the same way again.

Mental Levers are thinking tools. They are mini-articles, usually less than 225 words, though this new one is more like 460 words long. They’re shorter and easier to share than a book would be.

Taken together, Mental Levers help explain the logically-consistent social system of voluntaryist-libertarians. Perry and I have found them to be valuable for social media discussions. They save the time of having to reinvent an explanation to a specific concern, raised by a friend. You might find them valuable for that purpose too, if you’re familiar enough with them. In fact, that’s why they all propose to answer a question.

With the addition of this latest piece, Why political borders are not like private property lines, there are now 80 Mental Levers. That’s a large toolbox. Still…

More are planned. So if you like what you see, share these ideas just like Perry and I do. Use them with friends, online and off. And…

Consider making a contribution or starting a monthly pledge to support our work. Contributions are tax-deductible, if you itemize.

ZAP The State and have a nice day,

Jim Babka
Co-creator
Zero Aggression Project

P.S. Feel free to write us with your objections. You can reply to this email or leave a comment on our website. This topic generates more response than nearly anything else, these days. We may not have time to individually answer, but it will help our categorization project and might inspire a future article.


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