Thursday 14 July 2016

Neither left nor right

 

Yes, it’s been some time since the left fully embraced personal freedom or the right fully (if ever) embraced economic freedom –and it’s clear that at least one libertarian can’t spell (can you spot it?) – but for all of you who are confused by folk who seem to agree with you on one thing and disagree on another, well, maybe just think it possible that you might be mistaken, and that it’s those libertarians who are the principled ones.

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13 comments:

MarkT said...

The inclusion of "non-interventionist foreign policy" (aka let dictators and terrorists across the world run riot) as a libertarian trait tells me that the confusion & inconsistency is not just amongst the Left and Right, but also amongst many libertarians.

paul scott said...

You don't need drugs from Mexico to escape them bear, you need to bare arms.
Trump .

paul scott said...

You don't need drugs from Mexico to escape them bear, you need to bare arms.
Trump .

paul scott said...

no, just kidding its too cold to bare arms, we need to separate the fantasy of the church from the fantasy of the State

macdoctor said...

The left believe in personal freedom? Yeah, right!

Unknown said...

I'm with the Doc on this one. Maybe they believed in some personal freedom 50 years ago, but the left of today are all about control.

Ross said...

You, like other contemporary libertarians, are right wing PC. Take the test on politicalcompass.org if you don't believe me.

Unknown said...

How so? What is your idea of 'true' Libertarianism?

Because in my book advocating for freedom in both personal affairs and economic affairs is Libertarianism.

MarkT said...

But is Libertarianism (with a big L) also advocating for freedom of dictators and other tyrants to do what they want? (i.e. a non-interventionist foreign policy)

Ross said...

Tell you what: make a mental note of how many times you see 'leftists' smeared on this blog compared to those on the right.

Unknown said...

You have a point: leftists are the main target of ridicule. Part of that is because support of Capitalism is a focal part of most Libertarians' philosophy, and that is something that's shared (to a certain extent) with the Right. The other thing is that, as some people mentioned in the comments above, liberals no longer stand for personal freedoms such as free speech and privacy. The contemporary Left is drifting towards outright Statism, whereas the Right still maintains a lot of their free market policies. Is it any surprise then that Libertarians find more in common with modern conservatives than liberals?
But on the other hand, how many times has PC written about how bad Trump is? What about the anti-religious articles? What about support for the legalization of drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes? Perhaps he is less harsh on the Right and more so on the Left, but that in itself does not mean that he is conservative.
My question remains: if PC is not a Libertarian, then what are the views of a 'real Libertarian'?

Ross said...

There is no such thing as a 'real libertarian'. It's more complicated than that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism

But most who identify as libertarian today are right wing. Especially in America.

Unknown said...

Ah, I think I get what you mean. You are correct that PC and most contemporary Libertarians are Right Libertarians. But Right Libertarianism has many principles that are associated with the Liberal Left, as well. That's why they consider themselves neither Right nor Left.