The Problems with Libertarians

Libertarians …… are hilarious. Y’all can’t organize a bake sale.

Libertarians: “We want to be a national force to reckon with.”

Also Libertarians: “You want ME to do the work with MY time? You want ME to donate MY money? Blasphemy! STOP INFRINGING MY RIGHTS!!!!!!!”

Get serious. When you run presidential candidates like this:

who go on the campaign trail and say “I want to abolish the Department of Energy” but don’t know what it is (hint, it has nothing to do with sending gas or electricity to people; the Department of Energy maintains and oversees nuclear weapons), or can’t name a single foreign leader, or responds to a question about climate by saying “In billions of years, the sun will actually grow and encompass the Earth,” normal people see you as a bunch of dumbass bumblefucks who couldn’t run a Girl Scout troop, much less a government.

Libertarian candidates are embarrassing.

Get a clue: When you lot spout inane shit like “taxation is theft,” you look like 16-year-olds who failed civics class. When you put stuff like this on your websites:

you look like ignoramuses who are completely unaware of…well, the entirety of American history.

You’re so hung up on “Government is oppression! Government is oppression! Government is oppression! Government is oppression! Government is oppression! Government is oppression!” — in fact, “government is oppression” is pretty much the sum total of the entire Libertarian philosophy — that you somehow completely missed the fact people can oppress others without government, and that’s not okay.

As long as you continue to insist that the government has no role in promoting basic civil rights — something most of your fellow citizens believe is part of the basic job of government, even if people disagree on how it should do that job — youll never win.

Prove you’re capable of doing the job. Start at the local level. Run a city government that isn’t a national embarrassment.

This Texas Town Went Full Libertarian and Hilarity Ensued

Turns out self-governing is harder than it looks.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a56856/von-ormy-texas/

The Town That Went Feral

When a group of libertarians set about scrapping their local government, chaos descended. And then the bears moved in.

https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/libertarian-walks-into-bear-book-review-free-town-project

Ah HA ha ha ha ha ha. No, no, wait, don’t do that, that’s asking too much. Run a municipal committee that isn’t a national embarrassment. Run a company that isn’t a national —

Eddie Lampert Shattered Sears, Sullied His Reputation, and Lost Billions of Dollars. Or Did He?

The untold story of how a hedge fund titan profited as an American icon fell.

https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1c33fqdnhf21s/Eddie-Lampert-Shattered-Sears-Sullied-His-Reputation-and-Lost-Billions-of-Dollars-Or-Did-He

Ayn Rand killed Sears

How the me-first corporate structure installed by hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert helped ruin the retail giant

https://www.salon.com/2013/07/18/ayn_rand_killed_sears_partner/

Oh. Oh dear.

Stop being a gateway drug to fascism. Now, on first glance, this might seem a bit of a no-brainer. Fascism is right-wing nationalist authoritarianism. Libertarianism is basically the complete rejection of authoritarianism. Libertarianism leads to fascism? Yeah, right, pull my other one! No way that makes sense.

Except it happens.

The Libertarianism-to-Fascism Pipeline | National Review

If libertarians have a pipeline for kooks, it is probably because they have some non-mainstream views.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/08/libertarians-sometimes-become-fascists-heres-why/

Libertarianism as a gateway drug to fascism

I originally wrote this as a response comment to a thread on Facebook, with some Basic Libertarian Dudes arguing with people who dared to…

https://davestagner.medium.com/libertarianism-as-a-gateway-drug-to-fascism-505ecb0ad54f

The problem is not Libertarian ideology. The problem is that Libertarianism is so fringe, so far outside the mainstream in kooky la-laland (look at the photo of the whackjob nutter sticking out his tongue above — that’s Gary Johnson, Libertarian candidate for US president, during an official campaign interview), that you attract whackaloons and fringe nutjobs…but you’re so desperate for members you will accept anyone.

Including Nazis.

You know the joke: if you let one Nazi drink at your bar one time, without throwing him out, from that moment on you now own a Nazi bar.

The Libertarians have the same problem as modern Republicans: you’re a fringe ideology held by a minority, but you refuse to try to win elections by, you know, adopting policies that the people actually want, because that’s, like, compromising your moral purity or something.

So instead you embrace total whackjob basket cases, who , like maggots, begin eating you away from the inside.

Libertarianism and fascism may seem ideologically polar opposites, but they’re both largely embraced primarily by disaffected white boys and young men who feel marginalized, and they both offer “solutions” that are unworkable but emotionally appealing. Show me a Libertarian meetup and I’ll show you a perfect recruitment zone for neo-Nazis.

Maybe not let the Mises Caucus run your party? These guys make Pol Pot look like a moderate. I mean, “we reject national currency” and “we think the individual should be allowed to secede from the State” are not principles that will ever lead to a functional society. Jesus, what the hell were you lot thinking when you let these guys take over?

Anyway, just a thought.