Matt Bruenig — Desert-Sacrifice-Utility Whack-a-Mole

Earlier, I explained the common argumentative strategy I call Capitalism Whack-a-Mole. People who utilize this strategy claim that they support capitalism for a specific normative reason (e.g. that it gives to each what they produce), but then, when you show that normative reason is actually inconsistent with capitalism, they shift to a totally new normative framework. For those who use the whack-a-mole, their preference for laissez-faire capitalism never changes, but their justification for it shifts rapidly from moment to moment.

Previously, I wrote about a whack-a-mole experience I had on Twitter with some fellow named Adam Blackstone. Here, I write about another whack-a-mole experience I had with on Twitter with a fellow named William Freeland. This twitter back-and-forth was very long, so I will just summarize it (you can try to work through it here though if you want).

Desert-Sacrifice-Utility Whack-a-Mole
Matt Bruenig