• random@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    18 hours ago

    I actually agree with libertarians more often than with communists, because being anti authoritarian is my most inportant value

    • Glasgow@lemmy.ml
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      4 hours ago

      The great revolution will come when humanity is ready to organize itself, not by force, but by the power of free association.

    • AlDente@sh.itjust.works
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      4 hours ago

      I’d personally rather align more with libertarianism than authoritarianism. But hey, different strokes for different folks.

    • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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      4 hours ago

      Destroyed attempts at American Singlepayer under the blatantly wrong assumption that for-profit companies lead by anonymous billionaires are somehow better at fairly using the ability to decide who lives and who dies than elected officials who have to maintain the support of their constituents to stay in power.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      So many of my friends grew up in libertarian families. I wish their parents had been professional clowns instead of perennially divorced wealth obsessed crypto-nazis.

  • rational_lib@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    Actual argument I had recently with a “libertarian” family member:
    Libertarian: “Rent control shouldn’t exist! It’s wrong for big government to tell property owners and renters what kind of agreements they can enter!”
    Me: “What are your thoughts on single family zoning that bans missing-middle housing throughout most of the US?”
    Libertarian: “Well that’s different! People choosing what kind of rules should apply to where they live is the epitome of freedom!”
    Me: “Couldn’t that same argument apply to rent control?”
    Libertarian: “Wha…you have clearly been brainwashed by the woke mind virus! So sad!”

  • AeonFelis@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Libertarian ideology is logically solid, but it has two minor problems:

    1. It heavily depends on assumptions that never hold in real life.
    2. Any other ideology, when confronted with bad outcome predictions of their models, will try to explain why their way actually prevents these bad outcomes. Libertarianism… prefers to explain why these outcomes are actually a good thing.
    • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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      4 hours ago

      Except it isn’t logically solid, because the premise is that Governing bodies cannot be expected to provide for the general welfare because humans are naturally greedy and selfish, and the solution is that we abolish all social safety nets and instead rely on voluntary charity to solve the problem of poverty…

      But what voluntary charity exists if by Libertarian’s own logic: Humans are too greedy and selfish to give to the poor even when they’re literally mandated to do so?

      • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        Milton Friedman, my favourite libertarian, advocated for a negative income tax as the best form of social safety net. It means that the minimum amount of money any person gets is not zero!

        He also liked to point out that a lot of other government programs were in fact regressive: paid for in taxes by working class people and providing the benefit to middle class and up. A classic example of that is funding for higher education. It’s pretty darn regressive to pay for higher education with taxes collected from working class people whose children don’t even attend higher education!

        He has a lot of other arguments that make a ton of sense. He is against any and all forms of subsidies for large businesses and he is against laws which create and protect monopolies and oligopolies.

        The one thing I’m not clear on is how to organize society to protect against future government interference and especially corruption by special interests.

  • I_Miss_Daniel@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    In guessing these are clown shoes?

    They’re probably actually good for your feet as your toes aren’t crowded, but I’m no podiatrist.

  • ProtonEvoker@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    A libertarian is just a conservative that likes weed. You can ask their girlfriends after they pick them up from middle school.

    • random@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      18 hours ago

      I wouldn’t say that actual libertarians are conservatives (I know some in europe), but a lot of conservatives in the us larp as libertarians because that was the original vision of the us freedom fighters and they also on some level think they are libertarians because they think libertarians are smart (because the avrg libertarian is way smarter than the avrg conservative) but your joke still works because conservatives and libertarians are both pedos

      • ProtonEvoker@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        Bro, the moment that “abolishing the age of consent” is brought up, you need to know that they aren’t acting in good faith. Every argument they bring forth should be tainted by that shit!

        • random@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          17 hours ago

          yeah, but I know some libertarians and the reason most of them don’t like the age of consent is, that a child is basically the parents property in our current system, and I (especially with trans rights in mind) can see their point, parents shouldn’t be able to ruin a child’s life just because they fucked without condom

          that being said a lot of libertarians are pedos

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            11 hours ago

            parents shouldn’t be able to ruin a child’s life just because they fucked without condom

            You have a greater community of people who (theoretically) look out for one another beyond strict family association.

            In my experience, the kids who successfully come out and find their way into the broader LGBTQ community are the ones who have family or friends in that community to guide them.

            But in practice, your parents make a lot of decisions because you lack the information, the resources, or the social contentions to do them on your own.

            Fucking without a condom isn’t what gives parents dominion over their kids.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    4 hours ago

    Libertarianism - The idea that a just society with fair rules is impossible because of the greed and selishness inherent in human nature. So by embracing this we can abolish all taxes and social safety nets, instead we would solve everyone’s problems through voluntary charity work, as after all humans are naturally giving and kind.

    Yeah, clown shoes seem appropriate. I can somewhat respect a philosophy that I disagree with by saying “Well, that’s certainly a take, can’t say I’m on board.”

    But I cannot if the problem isn’t that I disagree, it’s that it is self-refuting by its own logic.

    Kinda like how Sam Harris’ Free Will Denial nonsense is bullshit simply by my own ability to decide for myself that it’s bullshit.

  • Plastic_Ramses@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    In my heart, i am a libertarian.

    In my brain, im not stupid enough to believe that the general public is smart enough to make it work.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      The eternal problem of “the general public” is that they’re a product of their material conditions. They don’t emerge from the soil and engage with the world on first principles.

      When you grow up in a community that has been heavily privatized and financialized, socially owned and operated community functions have to be developed from the ground up rather than inherited. Any kind of proposed social change will grow out of the body of the system that came before.

      Libertarians grow up in countries where it is easier to believe in the end of the world than the end of capitalism.

      • Forester@pawb.social
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        15 hours ago

        I’m not him, but technically anybody who isn’t an authoritarian is a libertarian. Economic theory is Left Right. Freedom is up down. It’s a spectrum.

        Though apparently I’m one of the minority libertarians as I believe in egotistical altruism. Caring about the planet etc.

          • Forester@pawb.social
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            6 hours ago

            Oh I’m fully aware. I’m not a socialist though. I still think capitalism is the best model for innovation it’s just the current system is geared to fuck the small mom and pop and only benefit massive conglomerations. If I was hypothetically in charge I would fully cut corporate welfare and redirect all of that directly to proper funding of essential services and safety nets and infrastructure. If your company requires government handout money to run, it should go under. That’s the capitalism I want to see.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          7 hours ago

          You contradict yourself in the first paragraph.

          It is a spectrum, which is why “anybody who isn’t an authoritarian is a libertarian” is not true.

              • Forester@pawb.social
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                3 hours ago

                You either like authority or you don’t. That’s binary. How much you like or dislike it is the spectrum.

            • silasmariner@programming.dev
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              3 hours ago

              Any assertion in chart form must be true!

              Edit: ok now that I’m getting downvotes I feel I need to explain: the conventional usage of the word libertarian is not commensurate with it covering such a wide range of the political spectrum. Usually we mean people who favour mildly anarchistic views (minimal governmental institutions, low taxation, low intervention). Representing that niche as half of the political spectrum is highly disingenuous

          • AlDente@sh.itjust.works
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            4 hours ago

            I don’t understand why you think that’s a contradiction. You both agree that there’s a spectrum between the two. Technically, if if you’re not 100% authoritarian, you have a greater-than-zero alignment with libertarianism.

            Now, if you’re trying to say landing somewhere in the middle of the spectrum means you’re neither, then I tend to agree with you (labels suck). However, then I’d take it a step further and say nobody is going to be the 100% perfect embodiment of either end of the spectrum, and therefore, no true authoritarian or libertarian exists. I think that to say either one of you is wrong is just arguing semantics.

  • Allonzee@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Reminder: Ayn Rand died on public assistance.

    They’re only for freedom to gouge for water at the only source for a hundred miles when they believe they’ll be the ones holding the ladle.