"Aye, free! Free as a tethered ass!" —W.S. Gilbert
"All the affairs of men should be managed by individuals or voluntary associations, and . . . the State should be abolished." —Benjamin Tucker
"You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself." —James Madison
"Fat chance." —Sheldon Richman
Friday, April 11, 2014
Eyes Wide Shut
Are those who charge me with the mortal sins of being PC and being a panderer so blind that they cannot see I am showing progressives that disliking something is not a legitimate reason for resorting to state violence?
Some libertarians hate the left more than they love liberty. Look at the debate within the libertarian community about same sex marriage. 20 years ago, outside of a few paleo-libertarians you wouldn't find a libertarian opposed to same sex marriage, in fact, other than a few marginal figures on the left and some in the LGBT community, libertarians were about the only ones in support of marriage equality. Now, there are libertarians who tie themselves in rhetorical knots to oppose marriage equality because they don't want to be on the same side as the cretins in the progressive community. As the progressive community (with a few noble exceptions) has made it abundantly clear they don't actually give a damn about war, civil liberties or police brutality, nearly all libertarians are in the company of the angels on these issues. What libertarians should understand is that the we are not on the side of the progressives when we stand for the rights of LGBT people to marry whomever they wish, the left is pretending to be on our side. The progressives worship authority, while they might prefer to live in a world where marginalized people are treated with dignity, they would gladly abandon those preferences the moment doing so would assure them more power. Whatever aspects of libertarianism with which they proclaim agreement, ultimately their principles contradict it. A world where all types of people can live in dignity is a world that only libertarianism can deliver, we should proudly proclaim it.
If we can bring our infighting back to where it belongs (whether or not to trust folks who take Koch funding or are sucking up to the Omidyar/Greenwald "Adversarial" news conglomerate), it will be because of thinkers like Dennis.
Some libertarians hate the left more than they love liberty. Look at the debate within the libertarian community about same sex marriage. 20 years ago, outside of a few paleo-libertarians you wouldn't find a libertarian opposed to same sex marriage, in fact, other than a few marginal figures on the left and some in the LGBT community, libertarians were about the only ones in support of marriage equality. Now, there are libertarians who tie themselves in rhetorical knots to oppose marriage equality because they don't want to be on the same side as the cretins in the progressive community. As the progressive community (with a few noble exceptions) has made it abundantly clear they don't actually give a damn about war, civil liberties or police brutality, nearly all libertarians are in the company of the angels on these issues. What libertarians should understand is that the we are not on the side of the progressives when we stand for the rights of LGBT people to marry whomever they wish, the left is pretending to be on our side. The progressives worship authority, while they might prefer to live in a world where marginalized people are treated with dignity, they would gladly abandon those preferences the moment doing so would assure them more power. Whatever aspects of libertarianism with which they proclaim agreement, ultimately their principles contradict it. A world where all types of people can live in dignity is a world that only libertarianism can deliver, we should proudly proclaim it.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much. This is an astute analysis.
ReplyDeleteIf we can bring our infighting back to where it belongs (whether or not to trust folks who take Koch funding or are sucking up to the Omidyar/Greenwald "Adversarial" news conglomerate), it will be because of thinkers like Dennis.
ReplyDelete