MisterSwig

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  1. MisterSwig
    Maybe he was trying to pay you a compliment?
  2. MisterSwig
    It was a real treat to interview the artist Michael Newberry and ask him about his paintings and thoughts on art and postmodernism. I learned a lot from his book, "Evolution Through Art," and I love his nude called "Winter." Please check out this episode!
  3. MisterSwig
    Here's another episode for you. This time we have two guests, Andrew Bernstein and Dave Goodman, to discuss the Kyle Rittenhouse shooting and trial, the left's attacks on property rights and self-defense, and whether the collectivist left is worse than the religious right. I hope you check it out. I appreciate your responses on this thread.
  4. MisterSwig
    Supposing it becomes possible to live forever through technological advances, we would still need to value those advances in order to keep our lives. So unless we effectively destroy our biological nature in favor of transferring consciousness to robot bodies, I don't think we'll ever stop valuing things. (Not that I believe we could actually transfer our mind into a robotic system.)
  5. MisterSwig
    This episode was recorded last year, before Scott and I started doing the show together. It is him interviewing me about my background coming out of a Protestant worldview and becoming an atheist and Objectivist. Scott also asks me about his favorite subject, life extension, which takes us on several philosophical tangents.
  6. MisterSwig
    Our new episode is an interview with Richard Ebeling, the BB&T Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Free Enterprise Leadership at The Citadel military college. We discuss how he was introduced to Objectivism, his role in discovering the lost works of Ludwig von Mises, and his new article on Marxo-Nazism. Check it out!
  7. MisterSwig
    That's how it probably would have been spelled had it not come from a Greek root word. Personally I appreciate the variety of English spellings for the same sound. But as long as I understand you, I don't care very much how you spell a word, unless you intentionally scramble the letters, which is annoying and a waste of my time when you bust my crow with such silliness. It takes extra time for me to unscramble longer words.
  8. MisterSwig
    You misspelled trerfaliilcy.
  9. MisterSwig
    I started this podcast (my first one) with Lev a couple years ago. We had known each other from years of forum discussions online, and we both were interested in starting a podcast. Initially it had more of a debate format focused on areas with potential disagreements. But then we started recording our Skype calls, and the show turned into more of a general but informed dialogue on topics of mutual interest. We both come from the Objectivist world, but we discuss whatever subjects pique our interests. Our 33rd episode is about rhetoric and persuasion. I thought it might interest some people here, since we've recently been discussing how to spread Rand's ideas more effectively. Check it out and please subscribe, thanks! By the way, I subscribe to any Objectivist I find on YouTube. So let me know if you have a channel there.
  10. MisterSwig
    Our new episode is an interview with Gennady Stolyarov II, a longtime fan of Rand who is now the chairman of the Transhumanist Party, a political group that supports policies favoring life extension research and technology, with the goal of eliminating the problems of aging and death so people can live healthy, immortal lives. Check it out!
  11. MisterSwig
    That is a kind of truth, though. It's truth about the correct method for discovering the truth.
  12. MisterSwig
    Yeah, I've been following him too, after a FB friend recommended him. It's a good sign that he makes the connection between determinism and collectivism.
  13. MisterSwig
    In our latest episode we have a chat/debate with Facebook friend Dave Goodman, who has been an Objectivist for fourteen years and wanted to come on the show to defend Yaron Brook from some of our criticisms. We also discuss some ideas on the religious right versus the secular left, and working with non-Objectivists like Dennis Prager. Check it out!
  14. MisterSwig
    I generally agree with this basic view, though I do think we face important, external factors such as cultural movements devoted to subjectivity, faith, socialism, etc. Not only do we need better arguments, we also need better minds that can grasp the arguments in the first place. When a genius discovers some brilliant philosophical insight, only a moron would expect the rest of society to grasp it. If it were that easy to grasp, it wouldn't have required a genius to develop it in the first place. So this is where character comes into play. The geniuses who grasp the new knowledge need to become trustworthy authority figures in order to gain the good will and attention of those who are sympathetic but who might lack the ability to fully grasp the new knowledge and apply it independently for themselves. The movement is much larger than a few dogmatic leaders. But where the dogmatists reign, those are the foulest groups within the movement. Yes, I'm beginning to see this as well. I think ARI, in particular, has suffered from a messiah complex. They lost their focus on spreading Rand's philosophy, and they misintegrated their mission with a desire to prevent the impending collapse of Western civilization. This has created an unhealthy obsession with maintaining the purity of the philosophy by not associating with perceived corrupters and posers of Objectivism, because only Objectivism could save us. But perhaps even more damaging to the movement, this complex drove the leaders of ARI to concoct fantastic strategies for rescuing the culture, such as a twenty-year plan to place Objectivist intellectuals into Academia, a plan which ARI basically rejects now.
  15. MisterSwig
    Thank you! I haven't researched his stance on Trump. Admittedly I was most interested in his fiction writing, as we share a love for vigilante stories. Incidentally I was also not liking Trump in 2016 and it took me another year or two to realize that the Democrats were worse. I sensed it with the Russia hoax, and then the impeachment insanity absolutely settled it. So I have some sympathy for people who've gone full TDS, though I was never so bad that I blocked people online over it. I've always enjoyed arguing too much. Plus, good opponents can help me see my errors or help me hone my reasoning. Yes, that is an odd cover for an intellectual magazine. What do you make of his position that there shouldn't be an organized Objectivist movement because such organizations inevitably lead to dogmatism centered around gurus? He says that TAS was originally more like an open forum but it too succumbed to dogmatism. See his blog post "Am I Still An Objectivist?" This is from his response to a reader named Mel in the comments section:
  16. MisterSwig
    Robert Bidinotto stopped by our podcast to discuss his history in journalism and the organized Objectivist movement, which he left several years ago. Those subjects occupy the first part of the episode, then at 52:00 we delve into his career as a thriller novelist, his Dylan Hunter vigilante stories, and his thoughts on justice and the death penalty. Check it out!
  17. MisterSwig
    This is my favorite non-interview episode so far because it deals with an important difference between Objectivists. Objectivism, Open or Closed? Scott and I have a small debate over the issue of open versus closed Objectivism. Everyone seems to agree that "open" and "closed" are metaphors which need literal explanations. I propose that "open" refers to Objectivism as a common noun, i.e., a class of Objectivist philosophies; while "closed" refers to Objectivism as a proper noun, i.e., the specific philosophy of Ayn Rand. Take a listen!
  18. MisterSwig
    Let's all do the Taliban dance!
  19. MisterSwig
    We have a new interview of Richard Salsman, discussing his long history in the Objectivist movement, working with ARI, TOS, and now TAS, and his views on the various schisms involving these groups. We also talk about his new book, Where Have All the Capitalists Gone? Check it out!
  20. MisterSwig
    In our new episode Scott and I take a critical look at Yaron Brook's debate performances and Craig Biddle's dialogue with Dennis Prager. We discuss their different styles and approaches to outreach and debating. Thanks in advance for listening. Enjoy!
  21. MisterSwig
    Thanks for listening. Politics wasn't on the agenda.
  22. MisterSwig
    Thanks, Michael. I like jigsaw puzzles and do them occasionally with my girlfriend. Recently I took up chess and play online at Chess.com. I also play Words With Friends (Scrabble) via Facebook. Someone wants me to learn Backgammon but there's only so much time I can spend playing games.
  23. MisterSwig
    Those were some thoughtful friends who gave him a female doll. By the end of the voyage I'm sure it was his wife and she had ten children already.
  24. MisterSwig
    We had a nice chat with David Kelley about his history in the Objectivist movement, creating TAS, ARI trying to buy him out, his view of open Objectivism, and some other things. Check it out!
  25. MisterSwig
    We have another interview up, this time we spoke to Mark Pellegrino about his acting in Hollywood (Lost, Supernatural) and dealing with the woke left. He agrees that the left is a bigger threat than the right but we couldn't convince him to side with the right. Check it out! Thanks.