Patrick Carroll

Christ-follower | An-cap | Opinion Journalist | Author of Against the Left on Substack

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

October 4 marked one year since I launched Against the Left. 27 articles and 200 subscribers later, I couldn’t be more proud of what I’ve accomplished with this newsletter.

To commemorate this anniversary, I want to highlight some of my personal favorite pieces. 🧵

[Megha @megha_lilly]

Most adults need to be homeschooling themselves. With some exceptions, it is very likely your education failed you in significant ways. Especially if you went to public school.

[Libby Emmons @libbyemmons]

I'm sharing the lifetime reading list from my high school English teacher. He loved books, thought deeply, and told us that during the War he always had a paperback in his back pocket to escape into.

*not my checkmarks, had to get a copy from a friend after losing mine

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

A free market produces those goods and services which are at the top of the consumer priority list.

Regulation is when the government substitutes its own priorities for those of consumers.

"I know you wanted more X, but we're giving you more Y instead. Be grateful."

[Mark Carney @MarkJCarney]

We’re making an historic $4 billion investment in Canadian culture so that Canadian artists can tell our stories. So that our institutions can preserve them. So that all Canadians can experience and share them in communities across the country.

Strengthening our identity, our sovereignty, and everything that unites us.

Read more: https://t.co/o97z0Wdn2x

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

@ladiesofliberty The *Bill of Rights* is arguably such a list. The Constitution as a whole is quite the opposite.

"The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes...To borrow Money....To establish Post Offices..."

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

I wonder if my anti-government propaganda will count as "art."

Something tells me probably not.

[Mark Carney @MarkJCarney]

We’re empowering more Canadian artists — painters, sculptors, writers, musicians, actors — to tell our stories, in our own voices, in our own ways.

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

What Chris means, of course, is someone who can effectively wield the *rhetoric* of free markets.

Conservatives would roundly reject anyone who actually believes in free markets.

[Christopher Rufo @christopherrufo]

Have spoken with many people on the Right in the past week. A recurring theme: must reconstitute the party behind someone who can combine free-market economics, effective culture war, foreign policy realism, and hyper-competent administration. DeSantis frequently mentioned.

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

@AaronSepulvedaC Sure, but he said "I believe in free markets" when he doesn't.

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

A true free market doesn't involve taxpayer dollars.

[SuptMMaine @SuptMMaine]

I'm a public school superintendent in Florida. And I believe in school choice.
Some people find that surprising.

They shouldn't.

I believe in free markets and I believe competition makes everyone better.

Florida has given parents real power to choose where their children learn. Charter schools, private schools, virtual options, scholarships that follow the child.

I don't see that as a threat to public education. I see it as the push public education needed.

When a business knows its customers can leave, it gets better. It listens. It innovates. It earns loyalty instead of assuming it.

Our customers are students and parents. And in my district, we compete for them every day.

That means:

→ Building programs families can't find anywhere else
→ Responding to parents like their time and trust matter
→ Measuring ourselves by whether families choose to stay
→ Never treating an enrollment as something we're owed

Competition doesn't weaken public schools. Complacency does.

The question isn't whether families should have a choice. They should, and in Florida, they do.

The question is whether we'll give them a reason to choose us.

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

Nuance is anathema to the low-IQ mind.

[Nicole Arbour @NicoleArbour]

People defending Russell Brand… I genuinely don’t get it.

I don’t care if a rapist is a Dad
I don’t care if a rapist is a Husband
I don’t care if a rapist is popular
I don’t care about a rapists religion
I don’t care about a rapists political views

It’s soooooo easy to not rape, I have no sympathy for people who do it.

If he was sorry, he had over a decade to make amends with the women.

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

It should be legal to be mean to people.

[Rick Hurlbut @RickHurlbut]

The BC Human Rights Tribunal's decision might seem excessive, but anytime a minority is slighted and a business gets away with it, the more it gives permission to others. Bias becomes so ingrained that it requires extreme measures to force people stop and think before they act.

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

@Holden114 @CrownMaybe I'm against it on principle. People should not be forced to fund charitable initiatives.

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

@Holden114 Government: [Taxes half your paycheck. Regulates you to death. Wastes tons of the money it takes in.]

Government: Oh hey, can we also have $6 for food for kids.

Me: Are you kidding me?

Government supporter: I just don't get the reflexive hostility.

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

@brendan_loves Everywhere is someone's private property in a libertarian society.

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

Some thoughts on each of the issues mentioned 🧵:

Guns
-I think the way gun rights are typically presented by libertarians is not great. The key is that gun rules should be specific to each private property, not just "anything goes."

[Reem Ibrahim @ReemAmirIbrahim]

What’s your least libertarian opinion? 👀

Libertarians don’t always agree, and that’s okay! You don’t have to be a complete ideologue to believe in more freedom.

So I asked libertarians what their least libertarian opinion is. What’s yours?

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

@brendan_loves Libertarianism is about private property rights. If a private property owner says no guns are allowed on his property, then it is a violation of his liberty to take a gun onto his property.

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

@marissenmark @GMDanTO Yes! Some of us are actually consistent on this.

All education should be privatized with no taxpayer dollars involved.

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

@marissenmark It's healthier because they don't have a financial incentive to say things that are favourable to the government.

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

@brendan_loves The idea that you should be allowed to carry whatever guns you please anywhere you like is anti-libertarian. That's what I mean by "anything goes."

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

@Anarcho_Econ If you are abusing animals I'm not going to be particularly sorry if someone uses force to stop you.

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

Betting shops
-Classic example of paternalism. I know you mean well, but why should other people's vices be banned and not your own? Spooner's Vices are Not Crimes comes to mind.

[Patrick Carroll @PatrickC1995]

Also you don't know their situation so how do you know what's best for them?

AI decisions
-Don't really understand this one.

Min wage/unemployment
-I wouldn't consider this position anti-libertarian technically. It's more anti-Austrian.

Foie gras
-Understandable. Good answer.