The poster, whose output I have featured before, is Harvard educated, rational and erudite. Yet he posts things like that, clearly misleading and intellectually dishonest.
Never mind that quoting Winston Churchill on taxes as an appeal to authority on tariffs is a cheat. Never mind that the quote is misquoted (Churchill: “I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”). Never mind that Churchill, who indeed detested tariffs, knew the difference between a tariff and a tax.
The current Trump tariff assault has nothing to do with “making a man richer,”as even the opponents of his policy acknowledge. Furthermore, any quote relating to economic policy during the first half of the 20th Century by an individual who has been dead for 50 years is of dubious relevance at best. But most absurd of all, my friend’s “side,” literally every day on my Facebook feed, is advocating using taxes to redistribute income. My friend knows this: he has to. What is his post supposed to accomplish? Whom is it supposed to persuade?
Ethics Alarms 
WOW, that post graphic text is so transparently misleading that only a person with Trump Derangement Syndrome, or a person lacking critical thinking skills, or a complete imbecile would parrot it; I suppose they could be all three.
The author could have easily been a Conservative troll Democrats trying to expose just how moronic the anti-Trump cult is.
Libertarians are the only ones with clean hands. Free trade is supposed to benefit everyone, and tariffs potentially make economic exchange left efficient. They have a principled argument.
The left doesn’t. They love taxes and regulations. They are also skeptical of free trade because of sweatshops and such. Tariffs actually are more in line with their own ideas.
Conservatives are the ones who need to think about what kind of arguments would support tariffs without just selling out and supporting Trump just for the sake of it.
Define clean hands.
Libertarians want zero barriers to trade which is all fine and dandy if all people play by the same rules and do not gain comparative advantage by demanding others provide them with development aid. Many artificially become a low cost producer because they do not put great value on human life or manipulate their currencies so we in developed nations can wash away the guilt of requiring little shoeless boys to toil in cobalt mines or claim they trade freely.
Unfortunately, the world does not play by the same rules and trade negotiations require give and take. If you believe that The US needs to renegotiate trade deals because we have given preferential treatment to others at our expense for some prior geopolitical goal and the beneficiaries do not then you have to give them a reason to do so.
Raising funds is not the end goal. My other comments on Fridays open forum are all I am going to write about on this topic.
That’s a legitimate argument, imo.
“What is his post supposed to accomplish? Whom is it supposed to persuade?”
Nothing and no one. Facebook is where the self-righteous go to preen, gesticulate by way of meme, and stroke the ego; all manner of which is dressed up, of course, as some admirable sacrifice on the altar of the oppressed.
God, I hate those people. And most of them are my friends.
I’ve begun un-following (instead of un-friending) friends on Facebook who frequently post anything-that-makes-the-other-side-look-bad content without even bothering to have a rational discussion about it in the comments.
I’ve never participated; seems I don’t know what I’m missing, right…?
PWS
That’s partially why I left. I don’t like the way social media makes normal people dumb. It was tempting me too much to comment on things.
I agree. I got Facebook to follow our scuba shop then dropped it because the damn thing kept filling my page with progressive memes. No matter how many I blocked more kept coming. It is designed to elicit anti social behavior in my book
I just got sucked in way too hard. Became compulsive for me. I also wasn’t sure who people were anymore, and some people seemed intent on misunderstanding me. I’ve been happier since I left. I generally just visit Jack’s page and a few others. My discussions are usually in person now.
I know that’s not true for everyone, but me personally, I just didnt wanna do it anymore.
Memories! A good friend bedeviled by self -esteem issues (despite being a genius) once said, “I don’t have many friends, and the few that I do have hate me.”
Again, Progressives are suddenly only anti tax because Trump did it.
Who’s writing these goofy things that get attention on face book? I assume DNC operatives. Paid “content providers?” They posts are the equivalent of “I know you are, but wht am I?”
The original Churchill quote would seem more accurately used as a response to those on the left who keep pushing the idea that what the country needs to do for general prosperity is tax billionaires (or “the rich”, in general) more.