objectiveMan

As I am not gay, I do not have a particular interest in supporting or opposing "gay rights". An objectivist would support or oppose something based on what selfish value it brings to them. I gain very little either way. What I am against however, is the promotion and glorification of gays in media and culture. In general, I view marriage as something which does not require special intervention and regulation from government. To me, it is a business contract, and should be treated as such. And more importantly, it is a contract which mostly involves only the two persons entering it. If two adults want to enter into a contract, whether it is marriage or something else, I think the government has no business stopping it.

Position 3, which for me is most interesting, is the ideological one. The fact that it works by objective rules governed by math, so that it cannot be changed at whim by the government. I think it is a truly "free market" alternative to currency, and is pretty groundbreaking in that sense. I support a minimal government, so I am always excited when some function of society can be successfully transferred from government to "the market". And what could be more profound function of society than money? By successful I mean it is working as a proof of concept. Obviously people who care about position #3 are a tiny minority, and the reason why this has almost no impact on bitcoin adoption in practice. The masses are perfectly happy with the government running every part of their lives, and the currency is the smallest of their concerns when it comes to government exceeding their reasonable power. That is why I am not particularly bullish on the Bitcoin price in long term. I looked at the thread. This Dean was a pretty interesting character I must say.

Beautiful photos indeed. Those men look tough in the freezing cold winter.

I don't actually know what exactly you mean by the "Jewish question". If you mean WW2 and the holocaust in general, I don't think there was a particularly strong emphasis on it in our history lessons, but it is hard to recall so far back. Probably the usual line that is taught in western countries in general. Of course, we were allied with Germany in WW2. The emphasis of WW2 history lessons was more of what happened to our country.

It is a shame there are some forces in the world who wish to encourage them the other way. Or at the very least, increase their confusion. This "sex education" in schools to very young kids, who shouldn't even be thinking of sex yet...

As far as I know, yes. All the Scandinavian countries are very similar to each other in most aspects.

Have any of you looked into Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general? There are a lot of libertarian type of people in those communities, because obviously the idea of a currency which is not controlled by a government is pretty nice. That is what got me excited about it, because it just fits into an Objectivist/libertarian philosophy. Of course it also attracts the extreme left, anarchists and the like.

I think you may be confusing two things here. Feeling sexual desire towards someone is different than the physical act of having sex. I think whether someone is gay or straight is generally thought to mean the desire part. Like for example some men rape others in prison, but they aren't necessarily gay, there just aren't any women around. Also sex, and specially rape, can also be more about domination than sexual pleasure. There is no such thing as gay rights, or at least there shouldn't be. Individuals have rights, not groups.

Some good insight here for sure, but I don't feel much closer to a clear cut answer. I guess there isn't one.

This is an issue which I have not understood as an outsider to US politics. Why does Israel get such a special treatment in American politics? Why do all the politicians always say in debates and interviews how much they support Israel? Their attitude is often so strong, that it feels like they care about Israel even more than USA. Usually the politicians justify this by just saying "Israel is our ally", but US has many allies. I've never heard this said about South Korea. I know Israel has a powerful lobby, and I understand that to be part of the reason. I also know Israel is important for religion, so I guess that has something to do with it. Maybe some guilt over what happened to jews in WW2? Help me out guys, I can't figure it out. To me it's just another country like the rest of them.

I have no idea honestly. I have not studied it at enough detail to have a really informed opinion. Lets just say that my "gut feeling" is generally biased against simply believing the "official story" of any event. I think there is often more than meets the eye to things.

I follow a bit of US politics. There are a lot of things I like about Trump. I just worry someone will pull a "JFK" on him if he starts to be a serious threat, but I guess the party would never give him the nomination in the first place.

Looks very nice, and I like your website too.

Yeah, this is a huge issue over here. Our treasonous government is opening our borders to the so called "refugees" and putting them on social security with all benefits. We have had some demonstrations against this, in a country where public demonstrations are very rare. But yes, Sweden is even worse than us. That would be nice, but I guess there aren't many here since the group of active participants does not appear to be that big. Hi Mikee, thanks for the welcome. I am sorry to say, but I have not heard of these athletes. Interesting stuff though.

Thanks for all the responses. I wouldn't want to limit my dealings to people who meet some strict definition of Objectivism, so that won't be a problem for me. There's a good chance I wouldn't meet that description myself. I am interested in people who agree with the broad principles at least. It is curious that you find my name so strange. It is a pretty standard name over here.

Hi there! I just joined the forum. I am a passionate objectivist and I am looking to meet like minded people here. Such a lovely forum you have. I live in Finland (a hellish socialist country), but obviously my long term goal is to relocate elsewhere.