Yes, Indeed. I used to debate economics and politics with a guy who´s also a Linux developer (see www.blagblagblag.org). It all ended in nonsense gibberish from his side like:
"the free market has a crap name in latin america because they think they've had it before when they've never been close."
or
"lots of democrats/greens are supporting Ron Paul in the USA. "
or in response to my comment that Enron was an example of what total deregulation would bring:
"Enron NEVER EVER ran in a "deregulated" market. They may have changed the rules somewhat and called it "deregulation" but I'm talking about something far more radical than any green or communist is thinking of."
When I said that without government nobody would build the big infrastructure projects that a country needs, i.e. those big damns that take several decades to plan and build, and only repay themselves over a century, he said:
"The market wouldn't build big dams? Perhaps that's a GOOD thing considering all the damage they cause."
But he continued:
"These huge corporations are propped up by a repressive state. Take away that state support and the corporations power will decline. I am not talking about "reaganomics" or any of that shit...."
"government helps one group at the cost of another. Everytime the government gives something to someone they had to take it from someone else as government itself has nothing."
Oh boy, the genius!!!
Here´s the icing on the cake: "Or if the government weren't always interfering with it and building these massively destructive/polluting "infrastructure" (burning fuels, nuke waste, dams ruining natural river flows) alternatives would be more affordable. What is so bad about a highly distributed power network where people create their own power? "
I think at that point I gave him a lecture on the inefficiency factor of several thousand small generators vs. one big generator and distributing the power. It all ended with him making a reference equating the Ron Paul internet phenomenom to "LOLCats"... at that point I realized he had the reasoning of a 12 year old
"You should look into what is going on with Ron Paul simply as an Internet phenomenon that's greater even than LOLcats, and I'm a huge fan of LOLcats. "
FC