Yes, Austin Petersen is giving away an AR-15.
Yes, Facebook gave him a temporary ban for it.
Yes, I'm a Freedom Ninja!
Can a private business, which is open to the public, discriminate?
To begin, let's clarify what the difference between a private business and a public business. A public business is any organization which is run by the government. A private business is any organization which is held by non-government interests. The confusion is because a private business can be open to offering transactions with a private membership or the general public. Offering their services or products to the general public does not magically switch a private business into a public business.
All government agencies should not be allowed to discriminate against individuals. The government uses force to obtain a monopoly on their services. Although there should be, there is no free market allowing individuals to obtain a driver's license from competing issuers.
All non-governmental businesses should be allowed to discriminate. The reason is simple. As free individuals, we should be allowed to choose who we associate with. That includes choosing who we do business transactions with.
Facebook can certainly disassociate itself from Austin Petersen or anyone else they choose.
What is freedom of association?
Freedom of association is an individual right. It's a natural law right in as much as it would take force to compel an individual to associate with another against their will. It's a negative right, meaning you don't have to take anything from another to provide for the right.
It's not a corporate right or a collective right, per se. A right can only be a collective right if all the members of the group claiming the right also have the right, individually. Since every individual at Facebook has the right to freedom of association, by extension, the corporation does as well. Corporations can not create rights for themselves which do not exist for the individuals who own the corporation.
Discrimination is going to happen. Let's shine some light on it.
Wouldn't you rather know who is acting like a bigot so you can avoid doing business with them? Would you rather that they hide it and you unknowingly support a racist?
Gary Johnson got it wrong. Austin Petersen has it right.
Gary Johnson exploded Libertarian minds when he famously said private business should be forced to bake cakes. You may hate bigotry. You should also hate racism. You can hate that kind of discrimination and still support the right of free association. The problem with Gary Johnson is that he wanted to use government force to solve a social issue and violate the freedom of association of individuals.
Bonus Content!
Austin Petersen just released an open letter to Facebook regarding this issue! You have to watch this!
My name is Rich and I'm a Libertarian.
You can find me on the Libertarian Chat Channel and now on the Discord Unmentionables server. I'm working on a production called the LIS, or Libertarian Interview Series. It's going to be a series of written format interviews with the top Libertarians and Anarchists on Steemit. If you would like to be a part of it, either to be interviewed or offer help, just message me here.
Why fight them? Walk away. Facebook should go away just like Myspace did. It should do it by people simply walking away for a better alternative. We're on that better alternative right now!
Stop and ask yourself why Facebook is worth so much money. Why are the founders so rich? Did the users see a penny of that revenue? They got away with their centralized pyramid structure because an alternative didn't exist.
One does now though.
Because of Steemit.com, the old model will go away. Who's going to force people to use their site? No one can. Are they magically going to become pro-liberty? ha! We know that won't happen.
I celebrate the death of the Googles, Facebooks, and other similar platforms. They deserve what's coming to them. We deserve better. Even Minds.com, Liberty.me, and other newer sites got it all wrong.
Steemit got it right. Kudos to them for doing it too. As @donkeypong said yesterday in a reply regarding SMT's, "It's a true group effort to improve the world." Indeed, it is. Isn't it great to be a part of that group voluntarily?
I like this. Liberty and justice for all. Just recently found out I am a minarchist. Didn't even know the word for it. I might be 98% of the way to a full on raging anarchist. I dunno we'll see. Great post and great blog.
Following and upvoting FREEDOM. (because nobody remembers what that word means anymore)
Glad to help you out!
Glad to here it, rock on. The freedom movement needs more people like you who are willing to consider minarchism/anarchism/libertarianism. All center around freedom!
Upvoted and followed!
I made it 100% of the way there recently. I made two posts recently which you may be interested in; click my user for the posts -- one about school buses, and another about renewing my firearms "permit".
I don't like Austin Peterson, but Facebook banning him for 30 days is just childish. I've seen antifa dickheads posting that punching nazis is not enough and on Nov. 4th they will start shooting them. No bans, and their posts are still up. Facebook is a great way to network and to get libertarians together for get togethers and what not, but now it is going so deep in the progressive rabbit hole it is almost cartoonish. Viva La Steemit!
Yeah, antifa is as close as America has to terrorists I think. And universities and cities accept them with open arms. Strange times. And just out of curiosity why don't you like Austin Petersen. It sounds like you identify as libertarian so I'm just curious.
I think part of that is universities and progressives not so secret love affair with Marxists. To me, that is more offensive than Richard Spencer being a socialistic racist.
Austin, while running for president last year, was trying to make a case against the non-aggression principle. Which he could not do adequately, and it only made him look bad. Then, on top of everything else, he switches parties. I do agree with him on some issues, but it just isn't enough for me to like him politically. I'm sure he's fun to hang out with at a BBQ, or playing pool. I'm just not going to vote for him.
I signed up for the ar-15 drawing and I am considering donating $15 to his campaign fund. But I need to find out a bit more about him before I pull that trigger. I some can't figure out why we cannot donate STEEM or BTC. Probably some liberty killing federal law I'm sure. Maybe we should ask Mark Zuckerberg. He seems to have all the answers.
Perhaps a class action discrimination lawsuit against these Giants. Twitter Facebook and the one that took all my money away through demonetization, YouTube.
It is time to take some kind of action that will actually make them hurt.
Perhaps Jay Sekulow or Tom Fitton would be interested in something like that.
Who wants to sign on and make those kind of waves?
Just my two STEEMS Worth.
I think the moral of the story is: Everyone please stop using Facebook.
lol I know.
They've kicked me off twice..I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment.
@libertyranger is right. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
If discrimination is not permitted within a private (let alone public) business than those same limitations need extend to the big ones as well such as Alphabet Inc. and Facebook, Twitter. Also, it's worth mentioning that these are publicly traded companies and should be held accountable to any public business discrimination rules.
We are surrounded by an awful lot of people who are just fine with the idea of some controlling others. Those people own stocks like Facebook. Heck, look up what the Swiss National Bank owns. They own billions worth of our stock market's stocks. It's a complete scam, and most people do not realize how bad it is. Money in the stock market? Ugh. Those people are gonna hate themselves.
That's what the whole game boils down to. Control. Control the image, control the information, control the profits. All under the guise of freedom and free markets.
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STOPNice to see another person from the freedom army on here. I would like to try to recruit them all to steemit, but I don't want to get flagged or kicked. AP has shared a couple of my steemit posts though, I'm hoping that helped tricked some of them in
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Downvoted for promoting an affiliate link.
Also, I think BitConnect is a scam. Here's my analysis: https://steemit.com/life/@libertyteeth/bitconnect-is-gaming-the-system-btc-will-keep-rising-and-they-transact-in-dollars
You can reverse this downvote by informing me that you've decided to stop spreading affiliate links on this platform.
Sorry I won't post affiliate links anymore, Im new and I just learned its not allowed sorry