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Leftism has taken over libertarianism! :(


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ilanamercer.com/phprunner/public_article_list_view.php?editid1=156

I’ve long since contended that establishment-endorsed libertarianism, touted on the Fox News and Business channels, is a left-libertarianism. Like neoconservatism, this “Libertarianism Lite†equates liberty with abstract propositions that—against all evidence, historic and other— purport to work when applied to every individual, Afghani, Israeli and Iraqi, provided he or she gets the proper (invariably American) instruction.

A libertarianism that refuses to recognize “Liberty’s Civilizational Dimension,†sadly, prevails among the young (leftism is, after all, second nature to youth).

Writes VDARE’s James Kirkpatrick:

Students for Liberty, forthrightly supports exterminating the American identity. It defends capitalism precisely on the grounds that it undermines conservatism and traditional values. Its campus coordinators enthusiastically champion the usual “civil rights†causes and are particularly obsessed with championing gay groups. They invite immigrants like Reason Magazine columnist Shikha Dalmia (email her) to punish us for letting her come here by lecturing their mostly white audiences on why their ideology requires more immigrants.

Needless to say, Students For Liberty avoids Politically Incorrect causes that may technically fall under the cause of “liberty.†A column posted on its website about an affirmative action bake sale by the College Republicans says the real root of racism is “statism.†[Don’t Just Bake, Strike the Root!, by James Padilioni, Jr., September 27, 2011] There’s even a defense of critical race theory, and needless to say, no mention of official multiculturalism and its reliance on state support. [The Law Perverted: A Libertarian Approach to Black History Month, February 1, 2012 by James Padilioni, Jr.]

Movements that supposedly champion the radical libertarian economist Murray Rothbard might want to look at what he actually said on the subject.

Note that, as a paleolibertarian, I do not give a tinker’s toss about gay marriage. It is NOT a libertarian issue (other than to stress that “whatever is not specified as a power of the federal government and is not prohibited to the states, is reserved to the states or the people“). However, it is incongruous to profess libertarianism, while supporting affirmative action, anti-private property Civil-Rights laws, and public education extended to all trespassers—these are policies that violate private property, which is the cornerstone of libertarianism.

MORE.

UPDATED: In reply to HBK on Facebook: The stand most libertarians take is that libertarianism is neither Right not Left; we are all supposed to uphold the non-aggression axiom (although left-libertarians, aka the Beltway think-tank type, were more likely to evince full-throated enthusiasm for Bush’s war than the Rightists; I came out against that war on Set. 19, 2002, and never again heard from Neal Boortz, who used to link to my stuff prior). There is something to the eschewing of Left and Right, but in my opinion, it is, for the most, a cop-out. Beltway lefties were also quite hostile to Ron Paul at the inception. Since the nation’s memory is non-existent, they now love him—talking about him gets them on TV.

barelyablog.com/no-suprise-left-libertarianism-prevails-among-the-young/

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It sounds as if someone wants to take the libertarian party even further to the right.

However, it is incongruous to profess libertarianism, while supporting affirmative action, anti-private property Civil-Rights laws, and public education extended to all trespassers—these are policies that violate private property, which is the cornerstone of libertarianism.

What are anti private property Civil Right laws?

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Wha -

I have to admit, I was lost at "establishment-endorsed libertarianism"; and by the time it got to defining libertarianism in terms of states' rights I'd realised that I am completely unprepared for this discussion!

As for

anti-private property Civil-Rights laws, and public education extended to all trespassers
I can only assume this has something to do with taxes (and immigration).
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Well, there are libertarians who are identified with the right (think Ayn Rand), and libertarians who are identified with the left (think about communist anarchists).

The best thing I can say about Mercer is that Kidist called her an idiot:

http://cameraluc.blogspot.ca/2011/12/id ... again.html

I was trying to make sense of her position, and it took a while. What I got was this:

- she's a libertarian

- she doesn't think that simply introducing freedoms will magically change people in other cultures and make them "civilized"

- while she's not a total pacifist, she doesn't believe in massive wars which aren't clearly about self-defense and which don't have narrow, clearly-defined goals (so she was opposed to the Iraq war)

- she's a big Ron Paul supporter

- since she's not a fan of government, she thinks it's wrong to focus on state recognition of gay marriage. She's rather that government not involve itself in marriage at all, for anyone.

Calling Fox News "leftist" is certainly a new one. Her definition of leftism is....different. I saw something about her opposing big wars because she doesn't think that they work to rebuilt entire societies and change people, and she sees this idea that it's possible to socially engineer other countries as a leftist ideal.

Thomas Friedman, Christopher Hitchens (undeniably a writer of considerable flair and originality), George Will and Tucker Carlson (both of whom seem to have conveniently recanted at the eleventh hour), Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Mark Steyn, Max Boot, John Podhoretz, Andrew Sullivan – they all grabbed the administration's bluff and ran with it. Like the good Trotskyites many of them were, once they tasted blood, they writhed like sharks. Compounding their scent-impaired bloodhound act was their utter ignorance of geopolitical realities – they insisted our soldiers would be greeted with blooms and bonbons and that an Iraqi democracy would rise from the torrid sands of Mesopotamia
.

http://www.ilanamercer.com/phprunner/pu ... z2nBz7nF00

There was a certain amount of starry-eyed idealism behind Thomas Friedman's support of the Iraq war, since he really believed that it would be worthwhile if it could bring democratic ideals to the Middle East. Calling Mark Steyn or Tucker Carlson leftists, though, is certainly different.

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The libertarians I know are a weird mix of left and right. They are anti- government involvement in virtually anything that requires money, pro-gun, a mix of opinions on military, strong anti-crime, hate Obama, all pro birth control, mostly pro-choice, pro- marriage equality, mix on drug laws.

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Wha -

I have to admit, I was lost at "establishment-endorsed libertarianism"; and by the time it got to defining libertarianism in terms of states' rights I'd realised that I am completely unprepared for this discussion!

As for

I can only assume this has something to do with taxes (and immigration).

Some hard-core libertarians, like Rand Paul, believe that Civil Rights laws infringe upon business owners right to run their businesses in the manner of their choosing. The problem is that they can't think of free market solutions that would have given blacks civil rights. What they don't understand is that oftentimes it is not the scary federal government that oppresses people, but local communities. Most of the people we talk about on this board are oppressing others through family ties or authority in a church or local religious group. It's worth noting that Ayn Rand was in favor of civil rights laws, which I would think would be enough to make it licit for her fanboys.

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I know a lot of people who call themselves "libertarian socialist" or "left libertarian" or the like. It basically means they are either anarcho-syndicalists or yer average anarcho trying to make themselves sound exciting.

(Anarchism (and by extention, libertarianism) is built out of abstract idealism. It's a stumbling block that non-anarchists have with dealing with anarchos. )

The other sort of libertarian is kinda Rand-flavoured and on the right. They are hands-off everything, state is evil, let's make all roads toll roads and privatise the fire brigade and devil take the hindmost types.

How the kind of libertarian that post talks about is a "left-libertarian" is absolutely beyond anything I know about the Left or about libertarians. Left and right libertarians scorn Fox News (neither set is fond of the "MSM" in any form). That's a made-up bollocks which has nothing to do with libertarianism at all.

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  • 1 month later...

Fwiw, I find mercer more of a lolbertarian than libertarian. But that could be my biases against 'paleo' political ideologies that I find very reactionary.

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Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, et al are authoritarians who call themselves libertarian. When I was in college I took a political science class and one of our assignments was regarding such labels as liberal and conservative. We had to go to Political Compass and take a quiz. My result was liberal libertarian. I usually don't consider myself a libertarian.

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Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, et al are authoritarians who call themselves libertarian. When I was in college I took a political science class and one of our assignments was regarding such labels as liberal and conservative. We had to go to Political Compass and take a quiz. My result was liberal libertarian. I usually don't consider myself a libertarian.

I did that quiz as well and came out libertarian. I'm definitely not :lol:

It's quite a good quiz but there are still problems with the axis which haven't been worked out yet.

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  • 2 months later...

I don't really understand right-libertarianism to be honest. Mind you, I don't know much about political theory, but it seems like right-wing ideas and social conservatism contradict "zomg liberty!!!" that Mercer peddles.

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I don't really understand right-libertarianism to be honest. Mind you, I don't know much about political theory, but it seems like right-wing ideas and social conservatism contradict "zomg liberty!!!" that Mercer peddles.

Right and Left are really broad terms that can mean a whole lot of different things.

Mercer is a libertarian, not a social conservative. She doesn't think that the government should be trying to force Christian values on everyone, for example.

As a libertarian, though, she thinks that the role of government should be as small as possible. So, while a libertarian would oppose government laws and actions that are racist and sexist and push a specific religious agenda, a right-wing libertarian may also oppose government action designed to fight against racism and sexism in the private sector.

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