Do Libertarians Still Exist?

[kent_island_sailor]

I know PA will always have Tom, but outside of him, are there any more?

The Republican Party is currently the absolute worst nightmare I can imagine for an actual libertarian, yet I have seen nothing at all in the wider media world from them or about them?

Did they all explode in a cloud of cognitive dissonance or ?????????

 

[Ishmael]

I know PA will always have Tom, but outside of him, are there any more?

The Republican Party is currently the absolute worst nightmare I can imagine for an actual libertarian, yet I have seen nothing at all in the wider media world from them or about them?

Did they all explode in a cloud of cognitive dissonance or ?????????

Quoddy claims to be a libertarian, but he may have meant Liberian.

 

[Olsonist]

'Actual' libertarians remind me of the zen koan

If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.

 

[Snaggletooth]

I saye yes, as longue as theire our libertine women theire willbe libertine men..........  and vissa verssa              

 

[Steam Flyer]

I know PA will always have Tom, but outside of him, are there any more?

The Republican Party is currently the absolute worst nightmare I can imagine for an actual libertarian, yet I have seen nothing at all in the wider media world from them or about them?

Did they all explode in a cloud of cognitive dissonance or ?????????

With just a very few exceptions, "Libertarian" means just another RWNJwho thinks the rich should not have to pay taxes, and hates Democrats. They pat themselves on the back for being more intellectually pretentious than trumpalos, but they're eager to jump aboard the same bus.

- DSK

 

[Fah Kiew Tu]

With just a very few exceptions, "Libertarian" means just another RWNJwho thinks the rich should not have to pay taxes, and hates Democrats. They pat themselves on the back for being more intellectually pretentious than trumpalos, but they're eager to jump aboard the same bus.

- DSK

It's a wonderful and internally consistent political theory. Just like Marxist communism.

And, just like Marxism/communism, doesn't apply to human beings.

FKT

 

[kent_island_sailor]

It's a wonderful and internally consistent political theory. Just like Marxist communism.

And, just like Marxism/communism, doesn't apply to human beings.

FKT

LibertarianLand and MarxLand would both be a paradise on Earth if people were perfect. Which they aren't.

Libertarian Paradise = that wonderful place absent of overwhelming government authority where free people fulfill all their dreams and desires to the best of their abilities. This place has been observed to exist in the brief interval between collapsing government authority and the realization among the rich and strong that there is nothing left to stop them.

Communist Paradise = that wonderful place where all give freely to the best of their abilities and get everything that they need. It will happen any second now, just need to shoot a few more and we'll be good.

 

[BeSafe]

Yea, I lean that way.

 

[SloopJonB]

Somebody posted this a few days ago.

The best description of them I've ever heard.

 

[Mrleft8]

I thought I saw Meli posting not long ago......

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

With just a very few exceptions, "Libertarian" means just another RWNJwho thinks the rich should not have to pay taxes, and hates Democrats. They pat themselves on the back for being more intellectually pretentious than trumpalos, but they're eager to jump aboard the same bus.

- DSK

So how did the only Libertarian to ever serve in Congress vote on Trump's impeachment again? I forgot.

 

[Hard On The Wind]

Libertarianism is like the Flat Earther's beliefs, in that the theory can be dressed up to sound compelling but it's never been useful in practice.

 

[Ishmael]

Libertarianism is like the Flat Earther's beliefs, in that the theory can be dressed up to sound compelling but it's never been useful in practice.

Sounds good until you hit real life. Like an eclipse.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

I know PA will always have Tom, but outside of him, are there any more?

Where, oh where, could I possibly find libertarian views on the stupid drug war or asset forfeiture or eminent domain or the fourth amendment or other aspects of the fourth amendment or campaign finance or occupational licensing, Trump's stupid trade war (I know it's not stupid any more now that it's Biden's), Trump's stupid wall (I know it's not stupid any more now that it's Biden's) or those post-election lawsuits?

Even harder to find: people who will explain why we're wrong on all those things. Guns.

 

[BeSafe]

Where, oh where, could I possibly find libertarian views on the stupid drug war or asset forfeiture or eminent domain or the fourth amendment or other aspects of the fourth amendment or campaign finance or occupational licensing, Trump's stupid trade war (I know it's not stupid any more now that it's Biden's), Trump's stupid wall (I know it's not stupid any more now that it's Biden's) or those post-election lawsuits?

Even harder to find: people who will explain why we're wrong on all those things. Guns.

People with more authoritarian views seem to enjoy explaining to people with less authoritarian views what less authoritarian people actually believe.  I think that's pretty helpful and very altruistic.

 

[Olsonist]

People with more authoritarian views seem to enjoy explaining to people with less authoritarian views what less authoritarian people actually believe.  I think that's pretty helpful and very altruistic.

Are you a states rightsy libertarian?

 

[Steam Flyer]

People with more authoritarian views seem to enjoy explaining to people with less authoritarian views what less authoritarian people actually believe.  I think that's pretty helpful and very altruistic.

Some people think it's the government's job to keep everybody else from interfering with them doing what they want. They justify this on the basis of -their- rights, with no concept whatever that maybe other people have rights too.

- DSK

 

[kent_island_sailor]

Where, oh where, could I possibly find libertarian views on the stupid drug war or asset forfeiture or eminent domain or the fourth amendment or other aspects of the fourth amendment or campaign finance or occupational licensing, Trump's stupid trade war (I know it's not stupid any more now that it's Biden's), Trump's stupid wall (I know it's not stupid any more now that it's Biden's) or those post-election lawsuits?

Even harder to find: people who will explain why we're wrong on all those things. Guns.

Thanks to the links back to PA. I almost forgot what goes on here

This post was about the wider world. Maybe I don't pay attention in the right places, but the Libertarian Party, while never mainstream, always used to pop up in the news every now and then. The current Roe V Wade shenanigans would seem to be their ultimate nightmare and one would think that would have them all out doing something. I get the perhaps incorrect impression that Libertarians folded into Tea Partyers who folded into Trumptards.

 

[BeSafe]

Thanks to the links back to PA. I almost forgot what goes on here

This post was about the wider world. Maybe I don't pay attention in the right places, but the Libertarian Party, while never mainstream, always used to pop up in the news every now and then. The current Roe V Wade shenanigans would seem to be their ultimate nightmare and one would think that would have them all out doing something. I get the perhaps incorrect impression that Libertarians folded into Tea Partyers who folded into Trumptards.

Libertarians were, and are, a pretty small group - never more than left-handers relative to the right-handed body politic.

IMHO, what's happened relative to coverage is the 'duopoly' fetish.  There's no interest in non-binary choices.  You're either on one side or the other side, the more emotionally charged issue, the better.   That's what sells.

The tea party started out libertarian-lite but as soon as career politician Dick Armey took over, that concept was done.  It was just a Republican talking point and Democratic boogeyman after that.  The same thing happened to the "Occupy movement" - which was also libertarian-lite, except on the Democratic side.  It had an even shorter history because lets face it, Republicans aren't interested in beating up on corporations anymore than democrats.  Not a boogieman.  The Republicans just apply the 'chaos actor' part to the Democrats, not the anti-corporate emphasis.  Both movements were eventually assimilated, Borg style. 

I was amused to see Trevor Noah - who I can't imagine ever being accused of being a libertarian - getting raked over the coals for questioning whether the 'boosters forever' might be a ploy by big pharma and not really justified, given the evidence thus far.   That tiny bit of independence - SHALL NOT BE TOLERATED.  That's just the media world we live in.  Accept the left narrative and join that tribe or the right narrative and join that tribe.  Question either and be shunned by both.