Sebastian Rey

Between worlds. Author & Host of The List Podcast
You probably know me from The B.L.U.E. System video

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

I'm also currently in the middle of writing another List podcast episode (completely unrelated to BLUE). But it'll take awhile to release.

Articles of Incorporation are about to be filed (which will make BLUE a nonprofit.)

That's about all for now

https://t.co/ev2ek1BaOo

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

Some updates:

The BLUE System project now has an official website: bluelearn [dot] org

(link in the comments)

Discord is poppin. We've had a few struggles in the last month, but we're finally starting to get a clear vision of what v1 of the site will look like.

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

Join the discord for regular updates & anouncements https://t.co/u9D5KzePPG

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

‼️UPDATE‼️

The B.L.U.E. System DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP IS NOW LIVE!
https://t.co/Ub6BF90oa5

More info coming soon!

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

@Lilvaks people are telling me in the discord that it is, indeed, a shadowban... oh well. Btw if you really wanna see what's going on with the project, it's all happening in the Discord.

I'll post on twitter every once in awhile for like MAJOR updates though. We are def making progress

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

I never understood why people use discord, but now I get it. It's addicting.

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

Discord is now open as well. https://t.co/jzeGvWSmfU

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

Video just crossed 100k views!

Holy moly. Thank you guys!

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

Just opened a discussion board/forum on GitHub for the B.L.U.E. System. It's not discord but it should serve it's purpose.

https://t.co/F8DBqEfsO9

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

So it's been a week since my B.L.U.E. video... and shit's been crazy. I did NOT realize how many people would be interested in this, and was not prepared to take this idea any further.

For context, before this video, I had 9 subscribers, and my most viewed video had 260 views.

Couple things:

1. I'm not a developer guys, I'm a writer. And unfortunately I still have a day job. Which means I'm brand new to a lot of these issues, and my time is limited to research/respond.

2. Currently, my main focus is coming up with some kind of forum or platform where people (especially developers) can discuss their ideas regarding the blue system.

So far I've looked into Github, Discord, Telegram, Reddit, XMPP, Matrix, Proboards, Forumotion, PhpBB, MyBB, Twitter (X), and possibly even using my own website to host a forum. Each one seems to have downsides, so at the moment it's hard to choose.

I wish I could make things move faster, but I'm just one guy doing what I can. I'll update once I decide how to move forward.

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

Being able to isolate which factors are more important to focus your explanation on (and in what order), and having the experience to know what information the other person is likely missing, is absolutely a skill.

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

If you never learn the skill of explaining, then being highly intelligent can actually prevent you from being able to explain ideas to a layperson, because there is such a wide knowedge gap between you and the layperson, and because complexities are... well... complex.

[LaurieWired @lauriewired]

I think it’s more that explaining in of itself is it’s own, separate skill, that also doesn’t let you signal fake competence.

You can be super smart and not be able to distill concepts down; mostly because you’re taking language shortcuts that let you convey information really quickly. If you’re talking with work colleagues, conversations can be highly compressed when everyone has the same domain knowledge.

The danger / meta here, is that *some* people use domain vocabulary to fake competence, without actually knowing the underlying field. It’s not that hard to “sound smart” just by using the right words.

The way I’d put it, is *if* someone is able to distill a difficult concept to a lay audience, you can have high confidence that they actually understand the field.

If someone is *not* able to distill a difficult concept, they probably understand the field, but there is a non zero chance (maybe ~10%) that they are just signaling via language without real domain knowledge.

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

Website is back up

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

So the server to my site is down right now... trying to get it back up, but it might take a bit.

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

It's because you don't.

No economic philosophy is without flaws, but people like you criticize Libertarianism without grasping any of it's fundamentals, and without having listened to any of the prominent thinkers in the space.

Read Hans Herman Hoppe - A Theory of Socialism And Capitalism
Read Henry Hazlit - Economics in One Lesson
Read Ludwig Von Mises - Human Action
Watch Mentis Wave on Youtube

You probably won't, so me saying this is probably useless, but you can't say I didn't try to help.

To answer your question, many societies (including the U.S.) implement certain aspects of Libertarianism today. As in, right now. So it works, currently. ("Freedom" "Individual Liberty" "The Free Market"? Any of these ideas ring a bell? These ideas are fundamentally aligned with Libertarian thought. And they're built into the Constitution - because the founding fathers were, in part, Libertarian, even if they didn't call it that.)

Furthermore, Libertarianism has worked in plenty of societies in the past, when implemented (as I said before, the U.S. used to be far more libertarian - but I guess you've just decided to ignore that example). Also, before governments existed, one could argue that many societies were libertarian, to a large extent... or at least practiced certain aspects, like the NAP. So it worked. For hundreds, if not thousands of years.

By the way, Libertarianism is not just one thing. So before you go trying to lump us all into one group, just know that there are different schools of thought regarding the various components of it (such as the NAP). But if you actually knew that, we wouldn't be having this conversation

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

The difference is that ownership is required for a mutual economy to function, whereas theft destroys economies.

[M@tt @atthatmatt]

The similarity between a government and organized crime has always been tragicomic.

But this dialogue is college freshman after a couple blunts level insightful.

For example, taxation is not theft because theft is defined by law; it doesn't exist outside of a legal system. The law simply defines theft as unlawful taking and what the government does is lawful, because the government made the laws, therefore not theft.

The same with ownership, which again is created by law and doesn't have meaning outside a legal system.

A civilized person could observe lions taking a kill from hyenas, but seriously calling it theft of something owned would be affectation.

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

Not obscuring. You're the one who suggested taxes were this great necessity.

1. You act like being the world's superpower is desirable. If a country is the world's superpower, but is completely Orwellian, am I supposed to enjoy that?

2. The NAP is a philosophy, not an action or law. It works anytime two parties agree not to infringe on each other's property... not sure what you're expecting. People use the NAP in everyday life all the time, they just don't call it that.

Clearly you haven't read much about libertarianism. Not surprising in the least.

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

Funny that you mention the U.S. as an example. Because when the U.S. was first founded, there was no federal income tax, and all other forms of taxation were so small as to be negligible.

There were no giant social programs; people had to fend for themselves to a far greater extent (much closer to a libertarian society than we are now). And yet somehow they managed.

The fatal flaw of the U.S. has always been the fact that it allowed democracy... which the masses eventually used to vote themselves more benefits... more benefits which required greater taxes... taxes which corrupt politicians then used to increase their (and their cronies') powers & take away or skirt more of citizen's Constitutional protections... over and over, until you get to where we are today.

But if you believe the U.S. economy is all great & the government has no corruption, then no amount of reasoning can help you.

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

Terrible analogy, lol. Lack of oxygen will kill you much faster than oxygen will, because your body needs oxygen to function.

Economies, on the other hand, do not require taxation to function. The NAP may be imperfect, but it's far better than industrial-scale theft.

You just can't imagine a functioning economy without theft, probably because it's all you've known your whole life.

There's no reason why the majority of government functions couldn't be funded by voluntary payments, rather than forced taxes.

[Sebastian Rey @SebReyWriter]

@atthatmatt No, Taxation typically destroys economies. It just does so at such a slow pace (and the destruction is often so isolated) that it usually goes unnoticed by the general public, until the point where parts of the economy start breaking.

Wealth transfer can't fix human choice.