Larken's massive creativity and impact

With respect: I've read your books. Loved the message in the fiction, as well as the general happenings in the book. Not as deep or complex as I typically enjoy in fiction but oh well, can't have it all. The Most Dangerous Superstition rocked and I want the entire Universe to read it. I also love and have massively promoted your animations, especially the Anarchia one and the Jones Plantation! They are golden to me because they really help statists see what's really going on.

I'm glad you care enough to speak out about what you seem to perceive as a fly in the ointment. I watched the debate between you and Adam. To me it seemed like one person was self controlled and gracious while the other was doing a bunch of name calling and missing the point. That said, I'm glad for your idealism and passion, Larken. I've admired you for years. And no, this is not being "passive aggressive." This is giving you credit where it is due and being honest with my thoughts.

Black & white thinking

I wish - hope - you experience something in your life that clicks for you in a way where your vision is less limited to binary thinking. Otherwise known as "black & white thinking," otherwise known as "splitting" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splitting_(psychology). If you read about it, you may notice it describes you. I'm not kidding when I say I believe a person CAN shift away from those limiting thought patterns because I've done it. I was you. Many years of martial arts training, some massive trauma, and mushrooms all contributed to "snapping me out of it." So I'm confident it is possible to liberate yourself from limiting thought patterns.

Unity vs division

I'm a fan of embracing/accepting both the negative and the positive, so I'm not really disappointed in you for taking the negative stance here and wanting to point out something you see as destructive to a movement you believe strongly in. Where I am disappointed is that you are promoting division while Adam is promoting unity. He is ADAPTING to their language, so that his message will spread further. I understand how adapting can overlap with and/or seem like a lapse in integrity. But it doesn't have to mean that. In this case I don't think it does.

Actions vs words

I'm not biased here, either. So I say, ha! I discovered you before I did Adam and immediately started gobbling up everything you created AND sharing it with anyone who would listen! I've had beefs with Adam and we've worked close together before. Overall, my experience of him is that he believes in the cause and - much more importantly - his ACTIONS are in line with what he says.

Humility

Something Milton Friedman said comes to mind. It was something like how to him, being a Libertarian meant being humble; showing humility. He explained that one example of that is the idea that we don't know what is best for others, so we definitely don't try to change them. You seem to be coming from a place of thinking you know what is best in terms of how to best shift people from Statism to Voluntaryism. I can certainly be wrong about what you think. It's your words and manner that come across this way, like you know it all and people doing it any other way are just wrong, stupid, or misguided. When you are so sure of yourself and there are only two choices (in your mind), I see how it is easy to be so sure of yourself. Obtaining that kind of confidence is one of the reasons people undergoing certain kinds of trauma will become binary thinkers; when your life is chaotic and/or you have no control, reducing things down to only two choices can add clarity, along with feelings of control and safety.

Is trust a binary thing?

Do you either trust or not trust, with no middle grounds? Are you are either right or wrong in all situations? Are you either an honest person or a liar? Really? So if you lied once in your life, you are forever a liar? Or is it twice? You tell me, Larken. There is no middle ground for you, is there? This is extremely limiting. I wrote an article on that topic here: https://steemit.com/life/@scottermonkey/is-it-better-to-see-trust-as-black-and-white-or-spectrum

Multi-pronged approach

I think Jeff Berwick nailed it in the debate when he mentioned a "multi-pronged approach." I, too, believe we need to be coming at this from many directions. For many reasons! Including the fact that we all have different skills and talents to contribute. Here's an article I wrote on the many ways we can all contribute to changing the world toward more Voluntaryism:
https://steemit.com/voluntaryism/@scottermonkey/recipe-for-peaceful-revolution

I hear you that you worry that by using the aparatus of the State to try to dissolve the State is not an easy thing. Actually, you would put it more like "impossible," right?

Ron Paul

But why not try? And are you going to continue to discount the number of people who will be transformed by hearing Adam's message as he campaigns? You make weak distinctions between Adam and Ron Paul. Is this in order to tiptoe around offending the gazillions of us who respect and value what Ron Paul did for the liberty movement? But I don't hear anything solid from you on that.

Speaking of solid, when you talk about how voting "legitimizes" the State, I get the concept and how it could be a thing, but really? When the voting is for a 3rd party, it sends a message. We could debate about how powerful that message is, but it does exist and I think it more than makes up for this "legitimizing" you imagine is going on. And what about voting at a level where laws and regulations are removed? Are those not at least good to some extent? I bet I lost you at "some extent" because you want to hear all or none, don't you? Either voting is all good or all bad. Limiting. Sad. Remove YOUR shackles, Larken.

Does this make any sense to you?

So I'm betting what I'm saying here may make little sense to you, filtered through your lack of [current] ability to process information in a way that allows for "middle grounds" or "shades of gray." But correct me, please.

Unless we have a cataclysm, apocalypse, violent revolution, or some other massively fucked up, improbable, or unrealistic event, there won't and can't be an instant 100% switch from statism to Voluntaryism. Can you tell I'm more a fan of a gradual movement? Not that I wouldn't love sudden shift to all gov being gone, but shoot dang, we don't live in Scotter's Fantasy Land :-(

The enemy of my enemy is my friend

Now with regard to your general critique of all Libertarians (I use the big L to denote minarchists), why not choose to see them as allies FOR NOW? If you can for a moment try to see a path where we can move from 100% statism down to 80% down to 60% and so on (requires breaking through your black & white filters), then why not work together with Libertarians until gov becomes the 20% (or whatever) they want. And if we all worked together all the way to that point, can you imagine (a) During that journey, how many of those Libertarians will convert along the way to full on Voluntaryist? (b) And once we get to that 20% gov, how many people will see just how effective the private sector has been at handling all the services they used to think were needing to be under gov purvue and decide they actually want 0% gov?

Do you have the capability to see how 20% gov is better than 40% gov? Or does your mind go straight to, "No! Only 0% is right and good. Even just 1% is like having 1% cancer and thus, not good and not acceptable!" By the way, I've heard you say something like that before and I'm wondering if you have evolved away from at least that position yet?

Finally, it takes a manipulator to recognize one. Like all of us, you have that in you. Maybe if you pull the stick out of your ass, you will be able to relax enough and have a hole big enough to look inside of yourself and do some of the internal work necessary to clean those filters so you can start seeing the wider spectrum of what is going on with perspectives other than your own. I believe you can. I hope you will.

To me, that kind of understanding/acceptance will give you more peace than anything else can. I want this for you.