Self-described libertarians have been explaining to me on Facebook how my criticism of a Supreme Court ruling that puts the most powerful government official in the world above the law is proof that I'm no longer a libertarian.
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They are monarchists now. No longer republicans or liberals. Not secular or fiscal conservative. No concern for rule of law or the constitution or the bill of rights.
They are "Libertarian" in the sense of Wilhoit's Axiom in that they & their leader Trump are protected by the law but not bound by it, and those of us not MAGA are bound by the law but not protected by it.
I found it easy to be a libertarian during the GWB era. Govt seemed stupid back then. Then Obama was elected, and govt had policies I disagreed with but they didn't seem stupid. A lot of the libertarians started to look like selfish reactionary racists all of the sudden. 🤷🏼♂️
I forget who said it (possibly the existential comics guy) but someone said "libertarians are just authoritarians who haven't found a preferred dictator yet"
That’s always been mine: libertarians are just Republicans who like weed. They purport to stand outside of the party system but, when it’s time to put an X in a box, they always seem to find comfort with the Republican candidate.
The entire premise of American Libertarianism seems to be that the only acceptable way to live is to be a libertarian, and people should not be free to vote for civic improvement or organize collectively or do anything that isn’t explicitly per libertarian doctrine, which feels, not so free.
This is why I sincerely believe most libertarians aren't libertarians. They're just (metaphorically) angry teens who don't want to mow the fucking lawn and think reading Ayn Rand has given them a way out
internet libertarians went from arguing marbury v madison was incorrectly decided to arguing unlimited executive power without missing a beat, truly impressive
there have always been two kinds of libertarians: actual libertarians, and conservatives that call themselves libertarians. The latter has always paid better.
Listen most of these libertarians believe in "states' rights", which if you think about that phrase for a split second is completely incompatible with libertarianism.
Also, libertarianism is like the metal of political philosophy - there are a million sub-genres and holy wars will be fought about classifying something as anarchocapitalist vs minarchist
Ok sure but if it’s laid back jazzy country, it’s not metal. And if you care more about Democrats losing than you do about the rule of law holding a POTUS to account for attempting a coup, libertarian as it used to be isn’t a fit label.
Yeah, it was a formative way of thinking for me but I often wonder if it's just been so strongly co-opted by lunatics that I should just accepted that it's their word now and it doesn't mean what I meant by it.
The takeaway of libertarian thought for powerful US interests was that the government is bad when it tells me I can't pollute a river to save money for my business, without internalizing the part about it being bad if a cop can arrest me for talking about unions.
The "bleeding heart" libertarians understand this, and understand the threat of plutocracy as wealth accumulates (the crypto-authoritarianism mentioned elsewhere in this thread) but that movement is mostly just academic/intellectually satisfying for people who are nerdy about politics.
My working theory is that "libertarian", in US politics, usually functions to mean "I might be slightly skeptical of spending or drug prohibition, but I'm not going to think twice before siding with the right at the end of the day".
The ludicrous immunity decision cannot be reasonably understood as anything but an expansion of of unaccountable state power, but the those people aren't going to care if being consistent is going to put them on the same side as the "woke" wapo crowd.
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If you need to tell people it’s what you are, it means it isn’t evident from what you say and do, and thus you probably aren’t really.
There are exceptions, but drowned out by the howling mob.
Knowing them makes one realise how much off the mark all the rest are.
I like not being my own cop, banker, retirement planner, doctor, sewage engineer… and I prefer that my kids grow up knowing they can count on people.
yeah man you're arguing to the right of john yoo now, orange man is in fact pretty bad!
This is a compliment.
https://jacobin.com/2023/04/libertarians-right-left-capitalism-socialism-mises-rand