Do Humans Have Free Will? Answering Destiny's (Twitch Debater) Thoughts -- No Free Will?

Destiny this article is written personally to you. I'm a hardcore laissez-faire capitalist who has frequented your Twitch chat and have had fantastic times, and have even changed my mind on many different subjects when presented with the evidence to provide contrary viewpoints. I am not stranger to cognitive dissonance and I do not mind tackling it head on. With that being said, I came across a YouTube video that spoke about Libertarian Free Will and Why It's Cancerous. Thank you for the video. It was very insightful.

I think this could have something to do with a root of a more interesting problem. Whether or not someone would believe in the cognitive abilities of an individual to pull themselves out of a situation which would otherwise be considered as deterministic. Interestingly enough, one can point out the concept of determinism as certain groups of people who contain a predestined reality are not capable or possess a rational faculty.

To hear your statements about how your "phone" or "drink" has properties about it that would cause them to behave a certain way just as a humans is highly dismissive of a human's rational faculty.  Could man not pull themselves out of their own problems? What happens when you take a newborn child born in Africa and have them adopted to a wealthy family? Would their existence change? Would they then reach their predestined route of living in Africa as subsistence or would they live an entirely different life? Would the person's internal body chemistry change according to different stimuli? What about if they willfully partake in drugs, or endorphin-generating activity?

Okay, that's not fair. Not a good enough example. So again, lets think of those who would otherwise be considered to be useless to society. A lot of people bring the concept of predestination that if your IQ is below a certain point, that there is nothing that person can do without being a huge detriment to society. Truly one could then say, how is it that someone who is stupid is able to maintain jobs, or that those who maintain lack of cognitive ability still seem to exist in society breathlessly?

One of the most common arguments for determinism falls in line with racism directly. A bit of reasoning from a public figure certainly you would detest:

"Racism claims that the content of a man’s mind (not his cognitive apparatus, but its content) is inherited; that a man’s convictions, values and character are determined before he is born, by physical factors beyond his control. This is the caveman’s version of the doctrine of innate ideas — or of inherited knowledge — which has been thoroughly refuted by philosophy and science. Racism is a doctrine of, by and for brutes. It is a barnyard or stock-farm version of collectivism, appropriate to a mentality that differentiates between various breeds of animals, but not between animals and men.​" ~Ayn Rand

Okay. I get it. Ayn Rand is an extremist. You can hate what she says. And probably the part I would have the most problem with: "...which has been thoroughly refuted by philosophy and science." is an issue that I would need to find more information on to determine whether or not Ayn Rand is correct in a modern structure. Science has come a long way since the 1930s. Though this is the justification for for racists in that the race of someone can somehow predetermine their choices. The concept is still there that determinism is a stepping stone to facilitate racism. That somehow, any amount of changes in atmosphere, external stimulus, internal body chemistry or cognitive apparatus is somehow immune to change. That, somehow the human brain is equivalent to a Red Bull drink or a smart phone.

It's like the example of someone who would say: "Say you will have a good day when you get up in the morning." Is a positive stance someone takes to try and better their own life. Is that statement alone, not only being proven that it works and changes your state of mind, but that it would mean that their life can be conceived of in "free will." When a neuroscientist, or a teenager can understand cognitive dissonance, it is known in psychology that a human can make the innate decisions to change their cognitive apparatus to fight cognitive dissonance within their own mind. This would be a direct corollary that the human mind does possess the probability of change by the internal "self" contrary to deterministic intent.

By the way. As a thought, I love your work. I would love to have a debate with you Destiny. I admire your work candidly, even as a Libertarian Capitalist, an idiot in your eyes.