When a movement builds itself of reduction in governance, the people we successfully govern against get a hard on
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Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Why are so many of those who claim that they’re libertarians not actually libertarians?
reka@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Snapz@lemmy.world 3 days ago
First and foremost, it’s because libertarians aren’t a thing
- They are republicans that are too embarrassed to identify as such publicly .
Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
libertarians aren’t a thing
[Libertarians] are republicans that are too embarrassed to identify as such publicly
Be careful to not make hasty generalizations.
TheLowestStone@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Because they are embarrassed about being Republicans.
GrammarPolice@lemmy.world 4 days ago
cough Ben Shapiro cough
barsquid@lemmy.world 3 days ago
He doesn’t seem embarrassed but he should be.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 days ago
I mean, trump is leading the republicans and has for almost a decade.
I’d be embarassed too if THAT GUY represented me too.
1rre@discuss.tchncs.de 4 days ago
And yet (at least from an outsider perspective) libertarians are closer to democrats than republicans
Republicans seem all about telling you what you can and can’t do (can’t get hrt, can’t get an abortion, can’t smoke weed, must marry and have children etc.) whereas both democrats and libertarians are largely “just live your life” but that could just be because all the american parties seem so financially right wing that they’re basically the same in that respect
boonhet@lemm.ee 3 days ago
I’m an outsider too, but here’s my take on this
For the most part (certain exceptions exist, like guns), democrats seem to be about individual freedom from government, but they want government to regulate corporations.
Republicans are more about corporate freedom from government, but they want government to regulate people they don’t like (women, LGBT, immigrants).
Libertarians ideally want corporate AND personal freedom from government, but a lot of people only want personal freedom from government if it applies to “their kind”. So they’re really republicans.
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
Republicans are also always on about how the government is bad (even when they’re the incumbents) and how deregulating things make everything better. Libertarians are people who drank a full jug of that particular kool-aid. Also like republicans, they tend to only care about gun rights, though they will sometimes pretend to care about other rights to make it feel like an ideological thing.
Agrivar@lemmy.world 4 days ago
To be fair, Libertardians also care about lowering the age of consent!
EurekaStockade@lemmy.world 3 days ago
So they fucking should be, although being libertarian is only marginally less embarrassing anyway
Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
What about libertarianism is embarrassing to you?
EurekaStockade@lemmy.world 3 days ago
The idea that a functional society can arise from a population that only does what it wants is, let’s say, unlikely. It removes checks and balances, so there is not really anything that prevents someone with huge resources to become a tyrant. What happens if someone with billions of dollars ignores the NAP to get their way? They can fund a private army, I can’t, so how can I prevent them from aggressing against me? Without a state law enforcement and legal system, there is no entity that can stop them. We would regress to a society of warlords, dukes and serfs.
Likewise it makes the country as a whole more vulnerable to enemies. If there is no central state to run the military, just a rag tag collection of powerful, self-interested groups, then could they successfully repel an invasion? What if they are bribed with power by the oppressors, and facilitate the invasion? Look at colonisation in Africa and the Americas to see examples of how that played out. Tribes played off against each other for the benefit of the highly coordinated invaders.
Libertarianism is a user-pays society, where if you can’t pay and can’t generate income (even if it’s no fault of your own) then you better hope someone takes pity on you and you receive charity, or else your remaining option is to just die. Our current system is a playground for the rich and a crushing, lifelong burden for the rest as we compete for relative scraps, Libertarianism would dial that up to 11.
Note that I live in a country where although government has its problems, there is quite a bit of pro-worker and pro-citizen law on the books, and government institutions are generally seen as competent and are trusted. If that wasn’t the case then perhaps Libertarianism would seem more appealing.