I'm a little perplexed as to why you so often feel the need

Posted on: November 27, 2023 at 21:57:34 CT

to jump in and defend pickle when he runs from a conversation.

I have read quite a few articles on the Mises.org site and in general have a lot of respect for most of their stuff. That is especially true with respect to economics, but also, with a few huge exceptions, on the political/social front.

The articles you linked touch on what pickle and I have tried discussing a few times in the past, but in a tangential way with respect to some of the stances pickle has taken.

pickle really should be able to stand on his own and discuss his views and defend his statements in a calm and rational way. But he refuses to do so. From my point of view, it looks like some of his supporters are enablers of his propensity to hit and run without honestly defending the rash things he says.

You have done this on occasion and interestingly on this very topic, which I was thinking of when I wrote the original post he responded to, claiming that what I said was false (that "putting people in jail (cages is their preferred term) is immoral retribution and should not be an option for dealing with criminals).

Background

The discussion I was thinking of was from several years ago when some guys sexually assaulted a woman in an alleyway. She had stepped out to have a cigarette while her boyfriend was DJing in a little bar. When she told him, he ran out into the alleyway and she followed. They brutally beat both of them, sending them to the hospital. There was a surveillance video and police put it up on their youtube channel asking for the public's help in identifying the perpetrators. Youtube yanked the video and said that they would shut down the police dept's channel if they ever tried that again.

pickle's response was ~ "Good for them." ... cheering youtube for preventing the police from getting public help in identifying the perpetrators.

I didn't understand this and tried getting him to explain. He responded that people shouldn't be put in cages. He pretty quickly ran off, refusing to explain himself more fully. When I challenged him to continue the discussion as it really didn't make sense to me, you jumped in to defend him.

That would have been fine if you could have truly explained his position but you gave it only partially, from your point of view, of course, and then backed off when challenged on the obvious crazy ramifications of his position... claiming that they were his opinions and you were just trying to explain his reasoning. The problem was, the result is that it just worked as a cover for him to run and hide from trying to actually discuss and defend his positions in a rational fashion, rather than running away in a flurry of insults and name calling as a smokescreen for his cowardice.

Your explanation for his position against arresting anyone (putting people in cages as he phrased it), even violent criminals, was that it was retribution, rather than self-defense. Of course, in this case that meant that violent criminals would be left to roam free and the victims had no real recourse.

The articles you linked to are some 7,000+ words in total and do not align with pickle's views in all respects. Neither do your views. The rational thing to do would be for pickle himself to defend his views. Instead, the pattern repeated over and over here is that he spouts something controversial, and apparently rather irrational, and then quickly runs from the discussion and sometimes his supporters, as in this case, run to defend him, while hiding in the shadows.

But if your views are not his, that really won't work, at least not all of the time. This is one of those times.

People were a little shocked, as the video showed how brutal these guys were. They were beating him pretty mercilessly and when the girl ran over to get them to quit they started throwing her around like a rag doll on the cobblestone street as well.