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Regulation, Moderation, and Social Media Decentralization

“Do you remember the internet in ’96?” a silent television display asks in Facebook’s quintessential Klavika font during an ad break. The sound of a dial-tone connection shrieks out of the television and captures the attention of the casual viewers who have turned elsewhere or to social media during the intermission. At a blistering 2021…

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Why the Real Villain of 2020 Was Big Government

The disaster that was 2020 is finally over. Now it’s time for the inevitable post-mortems. First and foremost, the COVID-19 pandemic posed enormous challenges to American institutions, and continues to do so. Frankly, we were not prepared. We need to diagnose what went wrong, so that we are never caught unaware like this again. Fortunately,…

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Josh Hawley’s Plan to Overhaul the FTC Would Create a Monster Far More Dangerous Than “Big Tech”

On Monday, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley continued his quest to crush Big Tech by releasing a radical plan to overhaul the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Hawley proposes replacing the FTC’s five-member commission with a single Director, who would report directly to the Associate Attorney General in the Department of Justice (DOJ). His plan would also…

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Search Engines are Better Than Hogwarts

Joakim Book The British science fiction author and futurist Arthur C. Clarke gave rise to three iconic laws, where only the third has, as we say in the twenty-first century, gone viral: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” This law can be easily illustrated by some early first contacts with isolated human tribes. In several…

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“Let Them Eat Whole Foods”: The Appalling Elitism of Dollar Store Bans

Should city governments dictate where you can shop for food? If your neighbors see a need for a store, and happily patronize it, should outsiders shut down that option? These are the battle lines of the emerging movement against dollar stores. Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mesquite, Texas, Dekalb County, Georgia, New Orleans, Louisiana, and other municipalities nationwide…

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“We” Should Not Regulate Homeschooling

The desire to control other people’s ideas and behaviors, particularly when they challenge widely-held beliefs and customs, is one of human nature’s most nefarious tendencies. Socrates was sentenced to death for stepping out of line; Galileo almost was. But such extreme examples are outnumbered by the many more common, pernicious acts of trying to control…

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Ireland Fast-Tracks Law Effectively Banning Gas Vehicles Within A Decade. Is The US Next?

Chris White Ireland is fast-tracking legislation that will effectively ban all gas-powered vehicles within a decade, leaving customers who are buying cars in January confused about what to do next, local reports show. The country’s Climate Action Minister Richard Bruton plans to publish the Climate Action (Amendment) Bill 2019 enforcing such a ban, the Independent.ie reported Monday….

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The 10 Worst State Laws Proposed and Passed in 2019

In April, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, proposed banning the popular video game “Fortnite,” saying it was irresponsible to allow kids to play it. “The game shouldn’t be allowed,” said the former bad boy prince. “It’s created to addict. An addiction to keep you in front of a computer for as long as possible….

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The Conservative War on Liberty: A Libertarian Christian Takes on Porn & Theocrats

Conservative Christians on Twitter have flown the coop, displaying a rather disturbing side of themselves with outcries of support for strict regulation of the porn industry by the Trump administration. As previously reported by The Libertarian Republic, Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire wrote an op-ed defending why the federal government should regulate pornography. I…