yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Atheists: Let's Talk About The State


3m read
·Nov 8, 2024

A few weeks ago, the YouTube user Krishna Scrub 047 sent me a link to a few videos by the user Confederal Socialist. I enjoyed watching them, and they got me thinking seriously about the idea of a stateless society. So, I'm currently reading around the subject at the moment. I think that the case against the state is very strong.

I'm reading this book at the moment, which is a kind of layman's introduction to the whole thing. YouTube atheists, I humbly request that you direct your formidable brains, your powers of critical thought and persuasion, at the question of the legitimacy of the state. It seems like an important question to me.

By the way, I don't want to suggest that a theology isn't important. I think it is, and although I think that all the arguments for theism have been thoroughly defeated, I think it's important that people keep patiently knocking them down because zombie-like, they keep popping up again, as I'm sure you've noticed. So, the refutations of these arguments need to remain close at hand.

So, what's a state? I've seen different definitions. The one I'm going to use is a group who imposes rules on others living in a particular region and enforces those rules with violence. If a citizen does not comply with the state's rules and tries to defend himself against being punished for disobedience, he will be killed. The majority of the world population view this group and its violence as legitimate.

In Confederal Socialist's video, a basic argument against a state, which you should check out, he points out the following: The state's willingness to follow through on death threats for resisting punishment is crucial for the continued existence of the state. This is because if it emerged that by resisting arrest with force, you could avoid punishment—for instance, by defending yourself with a gun—quickly everyone would realize this. They would resist punishment, and the state's rules would be ignored.

So, I hope that most people would agree that under normal circumstances, threatening people with death for disobeying rules is not okay. It's a form of terrorism, and it's not the kind of behavior we should be happy to tolerate. But since this is exactly what a state does, then either there needs to be some special reason that we should make an exception here, or we need to decide that sometimes it's okay for an elite to exist which violently subjugates people. All we need to conclude is that the existence of the state isn't acceptable.

So, what do you think? First, do you agree with this assessment? And second, do you think there are reasons to accept the existence of the state all the same?

So, I'd like atheists in particular to talk more about this stuff. I'm thinking of users like Tool Time, Prof Nth, Herb Now, Fat Manchild, Rubber Tape, and Nansha. But I'd like to hear from anyone who wants to reply. This is a welcome to comment too, but I'll mention up front that I'm not really interested in hearing opinions on the subject that depend on or assume the existence of a god.

Perhaps some of you guys already have videos talking about this, and I missed them. It's possible. If this isn't a subject you feel you know well enough to comment on, then please take this as an opportunity to find out more about it all. I've provided some links in the sidebar as a starting point.

Also, anarchism is, I think, a subject that's even more misunderstood and stigmatized than atheism. So, if you prefer not to comment on this stuff, I can understand that. Anyway, I'm looking forward to hearing what people think. Thanks.

More Articles

View All
Introduction to currency exchange and trade | AP Macroeconomics | Khan Academy
What I want to do in this video is think about how exchange rates can affect trade, and actually we can even think a little bit about how they might be able to affect each other, although we’ll go into a lot more depth in that in future videos. So let’s …
Warren Buffett's Warning for the Banking Crisis and 2023 Recession
This video is brought to you by Seeking Alpha. Get a 14-day trial of Seeking Alpha Premium via the link in the description. Anticipating a few questions on banks, I decided we should start using bank language here. Subscribe, please, and [Applause]. Char…
Free Will: be glad you don't have it
Free Will is a fantasy we should be glad we don’t have it. Um, I’m going to talk about the implications of radical Free Will and why we’re much better off without it. So, what is Free Will? Um, in this video, I’m talking specifically about a version of F…
World War I: Homefront | Period 7: 1890-1945 | AP US History | Khan Academy
In 1917, the United States entered World War One on the side of the Allies. After several years of neutrality, Woodrow Wilson, who was serving as president of the United States at the time, even campaigned for re-election on the slogan “He kept us out of …
Announcing ThinkerCon! - A Celebration of Online Educational Content
Announcing ThinkerCon! Remember several years ago, five of us educational content creators got together, and we did this live event. It was really fun, but people came from like 40 states and 12 different nations for it. So, clearly, there’s a lot of dema…
Champion Sidecar Racer Looks Back on a Thrilling Life | Short Film Showcase
[Music] Way sidecar racing on the high-speed surface of the Grand Prix circuit is a job for exceptional men. 70 M of hair-raising work for drivers and passengers alike. But passenger is scarcely the word for the man in the chair at these events. “My nam…