Thursday, December 20, 2012

Cato Removes the Words "Peace," "Free Markets" and "Individual Liberty" From Its Front Page

A friend emails:
Cato has a new website design.  The word 'peace' no longer appears on the top of the front page, or anywhere else on the front page.

Granted, the "About Us" page still includes "The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization — a think tank – dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace."


Here's the old header:


Here's the new design:


It should also be noted that the words are replaced on the front page by these research "areas" which beltarian technocrats love to chat about during wine and cheese tastings.

RESEARCH AREAS

14 comments:

  1. At least it's more accurate now.

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  2. How the hell do you expect Cato to pull in donations in DC using individual liberty, free markets and peace as come-ons? Peace is an extremist position.

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  3. This is a pretty petty and trivial post. Childish in-fighting is embarrassing. Yes, we know the Cato guys wronged Rothbard. Get over it. Most of what Cato does is better than the Heritage alternative.

    Don't let the perfect be the enemy of progress.

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    Replies
    1. Nothing petty about it.

      You fail to notice much.

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    2. LOL, you a clown, Shin boy and quack me up. Heritage invented the health care mandate, so to say that Cato is betterthan it is starting with a very low bar indeed.

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  4. thanks for the update, I haven't had the slightest urge to visit their site in at least a couple years now...

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  5. If you're going to blast Cato, there are things of substance to do it over. So they don't have a tagline on the front page anymore, big whoop. It's sensationalist non-stories like this that made me stop following your feed.

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  6. CATO lost me when they put a big picture of tax happy big governemt optimist Ronald Reagan on their home page a couple years ago to memorialize him on his birthday I think it was

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  7. You should note that the Title Bar (the thing at the very top of the browser) still contains their tagline.

    As a web developer, it looks to me like a designer's decision. Of course it still could have been easily and nicely worked into the new design, so it's not much of an excuse.

    One would think on a web site such as theirs, however, the main principles would be front and center and not just an afterthought.

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  8. The CATOcrats lost me when they moved to DC! You can't bathe in a sewer and come out smelling like a rose!

    This is only the final, long overdue change that was too long in coming.

    In any event, we have the Ron Paul movement, we have Mises.org, we have ISIL, we have Future of Freedom Foundation, we have...

    We don't need CATO and frankly, I don't even want them!

    PEACE AND FREEDOM!!

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  9. This is the reason why the Libertarian movement has not gotten anywhere in decades. Libertarians are more interested in purging their own movement of the "impure" people who only agree with them 95% of the time instead of going after actual statists. There is a place in the movement for both the fellow travellers and the party cadre.

    Here's a question for everybody who denounces Cato: Do you have more in common with the Cato Institute or with the Center for American Progress (or any other Soros front)?

    By the way, read Rothbard more closely on strategy. Rothbard was fine with incrementalism, so long as every step was in the right direction and he rejected uncompromising purism. Of course, the statist side has learned to stop talking about their end game and pose as moderates while offering incremental measures to advance the cause of ever-larger government. People are reluctant to support any radical changes while we have a system that still works fairly well. Causing the system to break down is not a desirable option because we don't know that we'll win in the lottery that would ensue in the event of collapse and there is a good chance something worse will take the place of the current system (as has been the case with virtually every revolution in history). People mostly like things as they are because things are still pretty good at present. The only way to advance any radical cause right now is to pose as moderates and pursue incrementalism. However, there is still a place for a purist wing to appeal to idealists.

    The MSM isn't the only reason why most people reject radicalism of any form, so we need to pose as moderates and propose reforms that invariably move us in the direction of more liberty and less government. Some people will be open to radical ideas and it is a good idea anyways to keep the reformers aware of what the end game is. I guarantee you every "moderate" Libertarian would press a button and transform our society into the Libertarian ideal tomorrow, but that isn't an option.

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  10. Cato lost me when they attacked Ron Paul for racism. It was an alarming failure of imagination.
    But I agree with Anon 9:02 PM. The cause of liberty is more likely advanced by posting rebuttals against the anti-libertarian hysterics of web sites like Naked Capitalism, than it is by attacking moderate libertarians like Cato.

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