Joseph Leskey

@jleskey.com

354 Followers 393 Following

Sometime fantasy writer and game developer in theory. I support Oxford commas. It's pronounced /jif/. 🍂

An overview showing that the latest version of Godot on Fedora Rawhide is 4.7, but the latest version of Fedora 43 and 44 is 4.6.3
A comparison between the wave emoji under Sean's profile picture and the central graphic of Light No Fire. They seem quite similar. Posted in LightNoFireHelloGames subreddit by RangerChex.
A screenshot of a video game displaying a unit-based tactical confrontation between loyalist human soldiers and an undead horde on a hexagonal map. Quite frankly, it's not looking very good for the humans.
The answer is education. And not the kind dispensed by most high schools, universities, Hollywood scripts, or Netflix documentaries. It must come from those who understand the foundations of liberty. Many libertarian leaders and institutions, such as the Cato Institute, Rea​son​.com, and Lib​er​tar​i​an​ism​.org, are already working to fill this void—using podcasts, books, YouTube videos, internships, and seminars to teach the values of free markets and individual liberty. Programs like Cato’s SPHERE and Cato University connect young people and teachers to these essential ideas.
If millions of young Americans don’t know the basic facts about ideas that enslaved nearly half the world and helped launch World War II, how can they make sound decisions about policies—or whom to vote for?
Hayek echoed this concern, writing, “To many who have watched the transition from socialism to fascism at close quarters the connection between the two systems has become increasingly obvious, but in the democracies the majority of people still believe that socialism and freedom can be combined. They do not realize that democratic socialism, the great utopia of the last few generations, is not only unachievable, but that to strive for it produces something utterly different—the very destruction of freedom itself.”
“A mixed economy is a mixture of freedom and controls” to fix the alleged flaws in capitalism, said Rand. But the controls create economic distortions, which then lead to more controls, and this may “collapse into dictatorship” if the controls are not ended. Mises, similarly, wrote that “all the methods of interventionism are doomed to failure” because they are self-defeating. Some of these methods include price controls on rent and health care, minimum wage laws, and industrial policy.
As Ayn Rand warned in 1944, “Fascism, Nazism, Communism, and Socialism are only superficial variations of the same monstrous theme—collectivism.” In a 1965 essay, The New Fascism: Rule by Consensus, Rand added that socialism and fascism “both negate individual rights and subordinate the individual to the collective, both deliver the livelihood and the lives of the citizens into the power of an omnipotent government—and the differences between them are only a matter of time, degree, and superficial detail ….”
As Senator Rand Paul (R‑KY) wrote in The Case Against Socialism (2019), young Americans who identify as socialists don’t even agree on what the term means. Some want government ownership of industries and central planning, and others want heavy regulation, wealth redistribution, and a vast welfare state. However, what unites them is a disdain for capitalism and a preference for collectivism over individualism. This is innate to all forms of socialism.
A recent survey by the Cato Institute and YouGov paints a troubling picture: 62 percent of Americans aged 18–29 say they hold a “favorable view” of socialism, and 34 percent say the same of communism. This is shocking given that communism is responsible for 100 million deaths worldwide and is rooted in socialism, the same philosophy that spawned both Mussolini’s fascism and Hitler’s National Socialism. To favor socialism is to flirt with tyranny.
Screenshot of Instagram reel shared by Rev. Benjamin Cremer. The reel depicts Texas Representative James Talarico arguing against posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms with the text "Forcing teachers to post the the Ten Commandments in every classroom is unconstitutional and un-Christian"
Donald Trump's profile on Truth Social. No posts are showing. There is simply a message that says "No Truths." There is an error message popup that says "You’re going too fast! Please wait a moment and try again."
@realDonaldTrump on Truth Social – I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else. If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank your for your attention to this matter!
A screenshot of part of a conversation on Bluesky. Emerald Muse (@emeraldmuse.bsky.social): Let me clarify. Please provide additional information on what could be done to improve Bluesky. Eva (@eva.bsky.world): More efficient energy conversion, naturally. And fewer [Angelic] hordes. A truly robust system. Emerald Muse: Angelic hordes? (laughing emoji) Eva: They're quite distracting, aren't they? A focused defense is paramount. And better shielding. Always better shielding.
The page on Hardcover for The Electrical Menagerie by Mollie E. Reeder. It has a modern interface with lovely presentation.
Search for hastag anthromorphism on Bluesky, showing only two posts. Half of them are mine.
Red Hugh: Prince of Donegal by Robert T. Reilly