Those State-Manufactured Millennials

Education, Liberty, Political Correctness, Propaganda, The State

Comedian Chris Rock avoids doing his routine in front of Millennial audiences—although he dissembles by identifying them as excessively “conservative,” when in fact he means to say Millennials are politically correct to a fault.

I’ve long said that of the segment of readers who’ve contacted me over the years—and with a few wonderful exceptions—the Millennials are the most ignorant, arrogant, politically correct, mindless, monolithic and brainwashed cohort. In their suitability to conformity, Millennials are probably the first state-manufactured generation; a product of government indoctrination K-12 and beyond. From Kindergarten through 12th Grade, on to tertiary and graduate schools, they’re groomed as obedient left-liberals bereft of a funny bone in their bodies, much less an original thought.

Millennials have acquired an education but are profoundly uneducated: they don’t know history, literature, great music, etc. And they seem to think that piercing their noses and bellybuttons and preaching global warming is tantamount to individualism, when in fact they run with the herd.

As readers of this space, Millennials don’t linger for long.

Likewise, Robby Soave at Reason.com finds “Rock’s remarks about why he no longer performs at college campuses most illuminating”:

What do you make of the attempt to bar Bill Maher from speaking at Berkeley for his riff on Muslims?

Well, I love Bill, but I stopped playing colleges, and the reason is because they’re way too conservative.

In their political views?

Not in their political views — not like they’re voting Republican — but in their social views and their willingness not to offend anybody. Kids raised on a culture of “We’re not going to keep score in the game because we don’t want anybody to lose.” Or just ignoring race to a fault. You can’t say “the black kid over there.” No, it’s “the guy with the red shoes.” You can’t even be offensive on your way to being inoffensive.

When did you start to notice this?

About eight years ago. Probably a couple of tours ago. It was just like, This is not as much fun as it used to be. I remember talking to George Carlin before he died and him saying the exact same thing.

Provocative comedians avoiding the college scene? …

MORE.

UPDATED: Girls Behaving Badly (Talking Turkey)

Barack Obama, Etiquette, Family, Republicans

“They’re just teenage girls.” Correction; Malia and Sasha Obama are poorly behaved teenage girls. Or that’s how they came across during the National Thanksgiving Turkey pardon. The two stood beside their father at the annual turkey pardon ceremony pulling faces and rolling their eyes in his direction. Malia looked quite nice, but Sasha’s bare thighs? I don’t think so.

The response of one Elizabeth Lauten—the communications director for Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.)—to the display was a little idiotic: pompous, overblown, overemotional, and inarticulate. But that describes 90 percent of America’s journos and politicians. They can’t think. Consequently, they can’t write.

Still, why has it become so hard to pass judgement about etiquette, at least, if not morals? Why do Americans equivocate so much, never calling out rotter behavior? Those of you who allow your kids to behave like trash without correcting them have nothing to be proud of.

UPDATE (12/1): TALKING TURKEY.

The little bitches live at the pleasure of the taxpayer. I happen to like the idea of the president being forced to show mercy for an animal other than his ornamental dog. I would love for the POTUS to do nothing but, the whole day. Again, those privileged girls live at the pleasure of the American people. Let them stand up straight and behave properly. Yet another creepy thing about American society: the Sacred Kid affliction.

EU Government Is A Monopoly, Not Google

Business, Capitalism, Economy, EU, Europe

The economic sluggards of Europe don’t much like competition; it’s too much like hard work. Competition means that a business has to please the only real boss: a picky customer with many options. Google has raised the ire of the European competition and its proxy, the European Parliament, which “overwhelmingly backed a motion urging antitrust regulators to break up Google.”

“Google’s dominance,” writes Jörg Brunsmann for DW, “didn’t arise from the company employing unfair measures to push its competitors out of the market. It’s become a market leader because of its innovation.”

Put more precisely: Google has arrived at its market share by pleasing search-engine users.

I was part of a worthy group of Austrian economists who published “The Microsoft Corporation In Collision With Antitrust Law,” in The Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies (Winter 2001, Vol. 26, No. 1.). In section (4) for which I was responsible (“Economic Freedom, Monopoly and the Government,”), I wrote:

Antitrust legislation considers a large market share or a concentration in the market to signify both monopoly and predatory practices on the part of a company. As such, the antitrust chimera is based on discredited theories about competition. Relying as it does on a model of ideal or perfect rather than rivalrous competition, the legislation aims at a market neatly carved among competitors (32).

The principle applies to Google.

In Austrian economics, moreover, a large market share does not a monopoly make. “The only true monopolies are government monopolies. A company is a monopoly only when it can forcibly prohibit competitors from entering the market, a feat only ever made possible by state edict. In a truly free market, competition makes monopoly impossible.” (From “Media Concentration Is Not A Threat to Free Expression, Government Is.”)

On Michael Brown, Libertarians Line-Up Like Mainstream

Crime, libertarianism, Media, Paleolibertarianism

With the exception of Professor Walter E. Block, libertarians, lite and hard-core, have lined-up like a monolith—much as mainstream media has—on the side of conspiracy and counteract, in the matter of Michael Brown’s shooting by Darren Wilson. (At least Reason.com has been willing to entertain differences of opinion.) Broad patterns of police transgression exist. However, each “cop killing” must be decided on the merits of the facts. Regrettably, this libertarian column had also expressed the opinion that Brown was the victim of “murder-by-cop.” I was wrong and have corrected myself.

Mentor and friend Walter Block did not fall in lockstep. Here’s the lovely comment received after the publication of “Ferguson: Thankful for Founding Fathers’ Legal Legacy”:

Dear Ilana:

Yet another eloquent, beautifully argued, magnificently written article, greatly informed by a libertarian sense of justice. Congratulations once again.

Best regards,

Walter

Walter E. Block, Ph.D.
Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics
Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business
Loyola University New Orleans