Current Events > Why do Libertarians get such bad rap?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Is anything right of center, even if just economically, taboo here?

because they just are conservatives who like weed

Too much capitalism.

because right-wing policies help the powerful and harm the vulnerable

I think many people would agree with the skepticism of large governmental power, reduction of unnecessary regulations like occupational licensing, weed, foreign policy,etc.

The issue is libertarians just end up taking it a step further and fully agreeing with the ideology gets weird for certain topics

Because like the New Hampshire libertarian party keeps saying fucked up shit.

There's really no reason to differentiate them from MAGAs at this point.

Because many conservative folks never admit to being conservative and would use other labels like "classical liberals" or "libertarian" when it's just them agreeing with right leaning talking points. Best example would be Alex Jones.

Because a lot of them are pedophiles.

If you ask a room full of people for their opinions on AOC, youll get a variety of answers.

Conservatives will say Shes terrible!

Progressives will say Shes awesome!

Libertarians will say Lower it to 13!

Jokes aside, Libertarianism smacks of Ive got mine; fuck everybody else. They dont want to actively contribute to inequity like conservatives do, but they sure as shit dont wanna fix it either.

IronChef_Kirby posted...

If you ask a room full of people for their opinions on AOC, youll get a variety of answers.

Conservatives will say Shes terrible!

Progressives will say Shes awesome!

Libertarians will say Lower it to 13!

Jokes aside, Libertarianism smacks of Ive got mine; fuck everybody else. They dont want to actively contribute to inequity like conservatives do, but they sure as shit dont wanna fix it either.

You say that's a joke, but there is more truth to that than you realize lol.

Everyone online gets a bad rep, since it's all people wity very little insight trying to feel good about themselves by putting down others. Only to feel like shit bevause that's a dumb way to try to find peace of mind.

Because completely unrestricted capitalism is really stupid for a lot of really obvious reasons.

libertarians are generally a lot worse than american conservatives, they're just not as openly racist/homophobic as often so people give them more of a pass. and to be fair to them its difficult to be a good person when your guiding political ideology is capitalism unregulated to the point of sociopathy

Tote_All_ posted...

Is anything right of center, even if just economically, taboo here?

I could write a feature film length essay on the virtues of right of center economic policies with a 0% chance of getting moderated.

No, it's very much the nazi stuff that gets moderated.

To be fair to some libertarians, they aren't against helping other people. They just think it should be solely voluntary in the for form of charity.

I mean, I disagree and think it's a bit naive, but I can understand that some actually believe this. They're just wrong

because libertarianism is a fundamentally stupid belief system that doesnt recognize that social and economic issues are intrinsically tied together, while also being adopted primarily by enlightened smartest guy in the room types

They have never held power here, so no one takes them seriously. Since they have to start somewhere, where other parties are further along in terms of record, they will probably have a bad go of it.

Libertarian is shorthand for "selfish asshole".

COVxy posted...

Libertarian is shorthand for "selfish asshole".

Ok but does the ideology make people more free or does it just benefit them?

MedeaLysistrata posted...

Ok but does the ideology make people more free or does it just benefit them?

Right-wing policies are defined by the ever shrinking number of people they protect. Libertarianism is pretty far right as it is just a rebranding of feudalism.

MedeaLysistrata posted...

Ok but does the ideology make people more free or does it just benefit them?

that depends on how you define freedom

MedeaLysistrata posted...

Ok but does the ideology make people more free or does it just benefit them?

Libertarians mostly don't give a fuck about freedom. They say things like "you should be able to choose whether or not you want to put your hard earned cash towards charity/public works"

But what they mean is:
"I don't want to put my hard earned cash towards charity/public works".

COVxy posted...

Libertarians mostly don't give a fuck about freedom. They say things like "you should be able to choose whether or not you want to put your hard earned cash towards charity/public works"

But what they mean is:
"I don't want to put my hard earned cash towards charity/public works".

And the popularity of means testing benefits or work requirements for welfare shows how "stingy" people would be if we really did do a charity based approach where the money leaving your hands is less abstract than it is with taxes

averagejoel posted...

that depends on how you define freedom

A benefit is an increase in prosperity in one possible world. Freedom is choosing between possible worlds when is comes to will, and maybe knowledge. That would be how I define those two. It's close to Sen's distinction between selections and options I believe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeiK0fdPv8Y

Also, if you can choose between any possible world, suddenly people are more interested in proving the existence of God.

COVxy posted...

Libertarians mostly don't give a fuck about freedom. They say things like "you should be able to choose whether or not you want to put your hard earned cash towards charity/public works"

But what they mean is:
"I don't want to put my hard earned cash towards charity/public works".

And just to be clear, this is obviously how it was always going to be. Like the number of libertarians that would voluntarily contribute to taxes is a rounding error. Because if you are happy paying taxes, you wouldn't be a libertarian. So you can feel pretty comfortable replacing "libertarian" with "selfish asshole" anytime the word is uttered.

There's two types of "libertarians":

1) The political oddities who read Atlas Shrugged in middle/high school and never grew up, like @Questionmarktarius ,
2) Republicans who want to smoke weed and/or lower age of consent to 12.

The Libertarian party has been the target of a GOP takeover for a loooooong time and has ultimately succumbed in the last decade or so. The form 1 Libertarian generally competes on the ballot with the form 2 Libertarian, who exist to funnel votes to the Republican party. The form 2 Libertarian deserves absolutely all the bad rep it gets becaude they're even less morally and ethically consistent than the Republicans.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/7/6/AAPstsAADncI.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/8/5/AAO38LAADmyF.jpg

Because we're terrible.

Because their ideology is pure selfishness, is based on a premise that is fundamentally flawed ("humans are naturally selfish so we should double down on that"), and despite all their cries about wanting small government and individual freedom, they've repeatedly aligned themselves with the authoritarian-right when convenient.

Because American libertarians bastardized what was originally a left wing anti authoritarian movement

Because of their bad ideas.

In the US, they're just Republicans who like weed.

Scintillant posted...

because they just are conservatives who like weed

They're usually very socially liberal so I don't get this

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

and despite all their cries about wanting small government and individual freedom, they've repeatedly aligned themselves with the authoritarian-right when convenient.

This is my personal issue with them

Garioshi posted...

In the US, they're just Republicans who like weed.

And hate age of consent laws.

Because they deserve it. It's just another ideology that boils down to kissing rich people's asses and wanting to live in some weird dystopian society out of a movie or video game where you can have sex with young teenagers. They're just another batch of fools who think letting the rich do anything they want benefits them when it obviously doesn't.

Conservatarians are better

averagejoel posted...

because right-wing policies help the powerful and harm the vulnerable

So explain every Communist society and compare it

Southernfatman posted...

Because they deserve it. It's just another ideology that boils down to kissing rich people's asses and wanting to live in some weird dystopian society out of a movie or video game where you can have sex with young teenagers. They're just another batch of fools who think letting the rich do anything they want benefits them when it obviously doesn't.

didnt the left fall on their sword for that Cuties movie?

WorsCaseOntario posted...

They're usually very socially liberal so I don't get this

It is because such "liberal" practices are skin deep. For instance, the current chairman for the party is Angela McArdle. In a generic sense a Libertarian *must* be for Roe versus Wade as a general Libertarian stance should be "there should be no laws, unless those laws restrict the act of government having power" and RvW is a limiter on power. Unsurprisingly, she has the parties official stance as "we have no stance" ( https://twitter.com/angela4LNCChair/status/1540725063934246914 ), which is effectively the same as "we have no qualms on the government having control over people's bodies/lives as it relates to RvW." As that is authoritarian by nature that means that they are officially AuthRight, which is the domain of conservatism (in any shade).

This holds true for all stances that you can possibly come up with, with minor exceptions for drugs (in particular, weed) and age of consent laws. If at any point there is a question that could be answered with "is there is a conservative way to go about this" they will assuredly have that as their official stance. To put simply: a Libertarian is someone who wants a liberal market-based economy, but only wants conservative laws/bills passed.

MARKINGRAM22 posted...

didnt the left fall on their sword for that Cuties movie?

Hey look, it's that guy who lost his shit over anti-military memes.

MARKINGRAM22 posted...

didnt the left fall on their sword for that Cuties movie?

This is a non-sequitur. You don't have to be on the left to dislike libertarianism. Address the points.

Intro2Logic posted...

This is a non-sequitur. You don't have to be on the left to dislike libertarianism. Address the points.

Watch out, that guy likes to make fun of people's dads when provoked, LOL.

Probably their whole heated debates between pedophile and ephebophilia they get into.

MARKINGRAM22 posted...

didnt the left fall on their sword for that Cuties movie?

No and even if they did how does that excuse many if not most libertarians being hardcore about lowering the age of consent?