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The Skeptical Libertarian
Personal blog · blog.skepticallibertarian.compoliticseconomics
The Skeptical Libertarian is a personal blog at blog.skepticallibertarian.com about politics and economics. Since 2013, 15 different Hacker News readers have linked it 15 times. The last post was in 2019, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (15) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers cite this blog as a source on US and UK violent crime and murder statistics, on debunking the fake Mussolini 'corporatism' quote, and on Christopher Hitchens's speeches against censorship.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 15 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- /2013/01/12/fact-checking-ben-swann-is-the-uk-really-5-times-more-violent-than-the-us/5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2013-01-17
- /2013/01/12/fact-checking-ben-swann-is-the-uk-really-5-times-more-violent-than-the-us/3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-11-19
- /2014/09/30/christopher-hitchens-freedom-of-speech-means-freedom-to-hate/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-12-21
- /2013/02/07/fake-quote-files-mussolini-on-fascism-and-corporatism/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-02-09
What Hacker News says?
http://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2013/01/12/fact-checkin... 4.8 murders per 100,000 in the US vs 1.2 per 100,000 in the UK. The figures _do_ take size into account.
Comment linking /2013/01/12/fact-checking-ben-swann-is-the-uk-really-5-times-more-violent-than-the-us/
on “How Google Sliced Away Our Knife Ads”Doesn't your argument basically assume the first company will always be able to hire workers? If wages are so bad, workers would seek other options, like developing a skill or taking a job in a different industry. http://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2013/02/25/remedial-eco...
Comment linking /2013/02/25/remedial-economics-and-the-minimum-wage-for-presidents/
on “I spent two weeks delivering for Uber Eats and made $4.40 per hour”OK... drum roll please! I suppose you mean this famous quote: "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power" I have news: this is bullshit. This quote is literally falsely attributed to Mussolini. There is no evidence whatsoever that he said it. It's also somewhat at odds with things he did say (though most of that was pseudointellectual gibberish) and the w…
Comment linking /2013/02/07/fake-quote-files-mussolini-on-fascism-and-corporatism/
on “Meta shuts down global accounts linked to abortion advice and queer content”I remember a speech Christopher Hitchens gave a few times about this, and I generally agree with him. Suggested reading for all: http://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2014/09/30/christopher-... The real point is that saying "I'm offended" doesn't give anyone the right to shut up anyone else. We have freedom of speech, not freedom from speech. The recent move in the US to push hate speech laws is an egregious attack o…
Comment linking /2014/09/30/christopher-hitchens-freedom-of-speech-means-freedom-to-hate/
on “Stephen Fry hits out at ‘infantile’ culture of trigger words and safe spaces”https://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2013/02/07/fake-quote-...
Comment linking /2013/02/07/fake-quote-files-mussolini-on-fascism-and-corporatism/
on “Three Observations”First off, I wasn't in the least presenting it as an actual alternative. I was putting the spree shooting issue in context (much like the terrorism vs falling TVs statistics). Personally, as someone that's rather data driven, I hate when statistically rare issues get WAY more attention than more prevalent and pressing issues. The gun control issues really shouldn't revolve around mass shootings any more than the iss…
Comment linking /2013/01/12/fact-checking-ben-swann-is-the-uk-really-5-times-more-violent-than-the-us/
on “De-Obfuscating the Statistics of Mass Shootings”The US actually spends a low amount of money on policing compared to the EU, where police kill fewer people. Further, the US also has a low number of police officers. https://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2019/01/09/charts-poli... ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependen... The defund the police narrative isn’t based on any actual examination of US police spending, or general public spending. T…
Comment linking /2019/01/09/charts-police-vs-prisons-in-the-us-and-europe/
on “Mathematicians urge colleagues to boycott police work in wake of killings”Unfortunately we can't fact check your statistics since you didn't provide sources for them, but it's naive and irresponsible to compare "violent crimes" between the US & UK. The definition varies quite substantially - for example in the UK "violent crimes" encompasses harassment (without any physical injury) which to most lay people would not strike them as especially "violent". The facts are that in 2010, the US h…
Comment linking /2013/01/12/fact-checking-ben-swann-is-the-uk-really-5-times-more-violent-than-the-us/
on “My mom is dying, and my bank account is dry. I need help”https://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2013/01/12/fact-checki... https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-... https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/... (section 5.1)
Comment linking /2013/01/12/fact-checking-ben-swann-is-the-uk-really-5-times-more-violent-than-the-us/
on “A turf war and a botched contract landed two pentesters in Iowa jail”Christopher Hitchens gave some good speeches in Canada against censorship laws http://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2014/09/30/christopher-... Robert Jan van Pelt's testimony about the architectural plans of Nazi death camps in the David Irving libel trial is pretty fascinating. There is a documentary about his research, he takes the viewer through multiple plan revisions the Nazis made for these camps and shows how…
Comment linking /2014/09/30/christopher-hitchens-freedom-of-speech-means-freedom-to-hate/
on “Seventy years after Adolf Hitler’s death, how Germans see him is changing”Murder rate != violent crime rate How is this misleading at best? Do you have a source that suggests it's misleading? It would seem that your comment was the misleading one given that it didn't respond to the claim about violent crime in my comment and instead changed the subject to murder, right? I can't find the original source I saw this in, but #2 in this link from a quick search gives a decent explanation about…
Comment linking /2013/01/12/fact-checking-ben-swann-is-the-uk-really-5-times-more-violent-than-the-us/
on “Student designs device that stops blood loss from stab wounds”- Benito Mussolini Probably not him. http://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2013/02/07/fake-quote-f...
Comment linking /2013/02/07/fake-quote-files-mussolini-on-fascism-and-corporatism/
on “NSA Spying Risks $35 Billion in U.S. Technology Sales”While I can't speak for Europe as a whole, I do recall that violent crime comparisons twixt the US and the UK fall afoul of not measuring the same crimes. The definition of "violent crime" in the UK covers much more than it does in the US. Here's an old piece about it: https://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2013/01/12/fact-checki...
Comment linking /2013/01/12/fact-checking-ben-swann-is-the-uk-really-5-times-more-violent-than-the-us/
on “Murder up 35.7% YTD relative to 2019 (2020)”http://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2013/01/12/fact-checkin...
Comment linking /2013/01/12/fact-checking-ben-swann-is-the-uk-really-5-times-more-violent-than-the-us/
on “My Experience in Tech and Its Reflection on Women in Tech in India”"They sure are apples to apples." I just told you why they weren't. http://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2013/01/12/fact-checkin... the definitions for “violent crime” are very different in the US and Britain, and the methodologies of the two statistics he cites are also different... First, it should be noted that the figures Swann gives are out of date... Second, and more importantly, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report…
Comment linking /2013/01/12/fact-checking-ben-swann-is-the-uk-really-5-times-more-violent-than-the-us/
on “Why I just joined the NRA”
