Reply #93: I think that's what I've been getting at. [View All]

"Most American's DO embrace libertarian philosophy" "most of our candidates are Authoritarian Right".

An individual is almost always libertarian and authoritarianism is a problem of leaders. Almost no person is going to self-identify as an authoritarian. And no average citizen is in any position to do anything about it anyway. It's the leaders who are authoritarian. Therefore there's not much use in self-identifying as a libertarian.

I guess I've thought about the Libertarian Party ideology quite a bit because of annoying interactions with some self proclaimed libertarians, and as you have pointed out they are really just anarchists. And in my opinion they are too stupid to realize it. They want to do away with any government intervention into the economy... except of course that major fundamental government regulation that actually creates the market by creating our currency and creating the whole concept of private property! They are simply too dumb to think this idea through to its logical conclusion which would be the end of money and private property (true anarchism).

But I wonder if there isn't a similar dynamic at play in the concept of civil libertarianism. Just like you can argue the economic libertarian into a corner where they're embarrassingly forced to admit that they would allow slavery and child labor, doesn't an absolutist position on individual liberty leave you open to similar ridiculous positions? And once you concede to some minor limitations in personal freedom, aren't you simply admitting that you're on some kind of spectrum with the rest of us and you pick and choose based on the individual issues?

Where is the line in the middle that you have to cross to veer from the libertarian side into the authoritarian side? What is the litmus test? Is there an individual issue that decides, or like the political axis test, do you have to arbitrarily tally up your positions on a bunch of issues and you get plotted on a graph in between?