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Civil Liberties
My Experience with Campus Climate at a Liberal Arts College
William F. Buckley famously authored God and Man at Yale in 1951. In it, he decried his alma mater’s overt efforts to undermine what he called good, American values such as faith, capitalism, and individualism. Today, I assert that institutions of higher schooling everywhere undermine — or fail to instill — other crucial values; values that underpin the very idea of higher education. In particular: appreciation for freedom of speech, academic freedom, open debate, and fearless, intellectual rigor. For more on freedom of speech, see Prof. Peter Jaworski’s Learn Liberty Video, The
History
Debunking Putin’s Alternative “History”
On February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin commenced a brutal, full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Two years on from this calamity, let’s examine
Democracy and Voting
The Soviet Union’s terrible legacy on democracy and minority rights
From the series: Debunking Myths about the Soviet Union Since they first seized power, Soviet leaders have claimed their “democracy” to be
All Learn Liberty Blog Posts
Uncategorized
Quote of the Day: Aristotle on the Tragedy of the Commons
In this quote Aristotle is providing insight to what economists would later call The Tragedy of the Commons. What is the Tragedy of the Commons? Professor Sean Mulholland lays it out below:
Uncategorized
Voluntary Exchange Makes Us All Better Off
Capitalism is frequently misrepresented on the news, on social media, and in numerous other places. These sources portray the big, evil company as the “dark side”, which is personified by a CEO. In contrast, the “mom and pop” small business owner is heroic – that is, until they become a “big player” and start “exploiting” […]
Uncategorized
Don’t Draft Women. Don’t Draft Anybody.
The draft has been unpopular for quite a while. Most people don’t like the idea of being forced to fight in a war, and now US citizens have even more reason for dismay: top generals have been suggesting to expand the draft to include women. This isn’t a shocking surprise, given the recent decisions to […]
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Featured On Demand Program of the Week: Business Cycles Explained w/ Tyler Cowen
Big crises raise big questions. And in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, economists are asking billion-dollar macroeconomic questions: What causes market fluctuations? What causes business cycles? In this series of videos, Professor Tyler Cowen vets contenders for the title of “top macroeconomic theory” – Keynesian, Austrian, and Monetarist, and Real Business Cycle […]
Education
5 things to ask yourself before you go to graduate school
Suppose that while you’re in college, one of your professors challenges you to look at the world from a different perspective. Or perhaps you discover that you’re really good at research and writing. Or you’re realizing that your classes are making you want to learn more about your discipline–even teach it. At this point, you […]
Free Speech
The Danger of Safe Spaces
Yale University is ground zero for the free speech debate. Last Halloween, a professor was verbally attacked for having the temerity to say student should be able to express themselves through their Halloween costumes. Last week, two faculty members took to the pages of the New York Times to discuss the implication of the attack […]
Uncategorized
The Size of the U.S. Debt, Redux
What a difference just five years will make. The U.S. national debt reached $19 trillion. How can we grasp such an unfathomable number? Here at Learn Liberty, we’ve been trying to answer that question for years. In fact, our very first video attempted to contextualize the size of the then $14 trillion debt. With help […]
Education
Federal Judge Scores Pro-Marijuana Advocates a Free Speech Win at Iowa State
It’s not all gloom and doom for free speech on college campuses through the United States. For instance, a federal judge just ordered administrators at Iowa State to stop censoring a pro-marijuana legalization group’s t-shirts in a free speech win. Jacob Sullum of Reason writes: In October 2012, the ISU chapter of the National Organization for the […]
Uncategorized
70 Years of Economics in One Lesson
Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson was written by Henry Hazlitt and first published 70 years ago, in 1946. The book is based on Frederic Bastiat’s famous essay, “What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen,” and details a number of economic fallacies. The whole book is available to read for free online, thanks to […]
Uncategorized
Celebrate Learn Liberty’s 5th Anniversary With the Top 5 Videos of All Time
February 11th is Learn Liberty’s 5th Birthday. For the last 1,827 days we have worked to bring the ideas of free markets and a free society to life through videos, which have now reached every corner of the globe. To celebrate our anniversary, we’re sharing the top five most viewed videos in Learn Liberty history: […]
Uncategorized
Are you an authoritarian?
In a recent Politico story, Matthew MacWilliams identified the one trait which predicts if you’re a Trump supporter. It wasn’t gender, race, age, income, or religion. It’s authoritarianism. Max Borders has broken down what makes someone authoritarian over at FEE’s blog in a great piece: Beware Your Inner Authoritarian. He explores the foundations of people’s […]
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Become a leader on your campus and beyond!
Are you a leader in your campus pro-liberty group? Do you want to up your impact on campus and improve your leadership skills? Consider becoming a Campus Coordinator with Students For Liberty. Students For Liberty is an international network of students passionate about the ideas of liberty, and their Campus Coordinators are the face of […]
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Periscope Schedule for the Week
If you haven’t checked us out on Periscope make sure to stay tuned this week, to discuss our new video releases and help us choose our next video! These are our scheduled streams for this week: Wednesday, February 10th @ 2pm EST – Learn Liberty Video Pitch Periscope Thursday, February 11th – Learn Liberty 5th […]
Uncategorized
What Are Rights?
Many a political commentator will make the argument that something is a right. But have you ever seriously considered what constitutes a right? This is an important philosophical, as well as political and economic question we must ask ourselves when determining the proper role of government in a free society. In this Learn Liberty video […]
Uncategorized
On Demand Program of the Week: The Price is Right
Why does your iPhone cost $200.00? Why is the price of gas so volatile? What gives Uber the right to enact “surge pricing”? It’s easy to think of prices and profit as symbols of greed and corporate power, but prices are really just bits of compressed information that save you time and effort! What do […]
Uncategorized
Freedom for Sex Workers and MMA Fighters
What do UFC fighters and prostitutes have in common? Both deal with individual adults who choose to use their bodies how they see fit, in various ways. The former was almost banned thanks to Senator John McCain who compared mixed martial arts (MMA) to human cockfighting, while the latter remains illegal, except in certain counties […]
War on Drugs
Vice City, Mardi Gras, and Government Regulation
Tomorrow is Mardi Gras, the celebration of debauchery and vice before the Lenten season begins. For many revelers that means consuming alcohol, tobacco, and drugs – something that is made much more difficult because of counterproductive government regulations. Learn Liberty has a new On Demand program, Vice City, that explains all the ways that the […]
Uncategorized
We Can Never Run Out of Anything
Somewhere along about 2005 I started hearing about “Peak _____,” where the blank is some resource such as oil, water, food, and so on. The pique about “Peak” was based on the notion that “we” (and I’m not sure what that means) had reached the point of maximum production, and that the future was a […]
Uncategorized
The Wonder of Market-Set Prices
The following appeared on Professor Don Boudreaux’s blog Cafe Hayek on January 24th, 2016. The following is an excerpt. Be sure to head over to his blog to check out the whole piece packed full of economic wisdom. In The Road to Serfdom,* F.A. Hayek makes an elaborate and important point that is summarized nicely, I […]
Uncategorized
Discussion Question: Liberty and Security
In the summer of 2013, Edward Snowden revealed to the newspaper The Guardian that the NSA was monitoring the metadata and content of every American citizen’s electronic communications (metadata is the details of the message – to whom, when, where, etc.) in order to protect America from terrorist threats. Is the NSA going too far? […]
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Did you know that David Friedman is a fan of Recreational Medievalism?
In addition to being an anarchist, economist, and son of Milton Friedman, David Friedman is a fan of Recreational Medievalism. Recreational Medievalism includes a range of activities, which can include historical recreation like that of the Society for the Creative Anachronism and cooking recipes from medieval Europe. You can learn more on David Friedman’s website
Uncategorized
Can you be sued for your political newspaper ad?
The Institute for Justice released a great video last week which describes just one of their cases regarding political speech. They point out how laws restricting freedom of speech, especially political speech, can have a negative impact on political dialog—and that the people who have the most to gain from these laws are politicians themselves. […]
Uncategorized
Ayn Rand Seminar at ISFLC
If you’re interested in Ayn Rand’s writing and will be attending the International Students for Liberty Conference, come a day early and learn about Ayn Rand’s unique and integrated moral-philosophical argument and its connection to a free society. The seminar will examine three of her essays, “The Objectivist Ethics,” “Man’s Rights,” and “What Is Capitalism” […]