What Makes People Become Libertarians?

Post Reply New Topic

If you love your liberty than hate your government.

ruveyn

I do love my liberty, and I do hate my government. I just worry that things would be much harder, and the world much less prosperous, and I'm not sure if a gain in liberty is worth that.

Makes sense. Logic is a means to an end which is emotion. We use logic to achieve an emotion more efficiently.

the axioms are emotionally based but the logical constructs are not.
The think logical people are attracted to system that seem internally consistant
and
shares their emotional values.

I'm not a libertarian, but I often call myself that.

I'm more a mild libertarian/classical liberal than anything else. I want the welfare state reduced so that people who are generally disabled and ill (like many of those with Asperger's) still receive state help (whilst encouraging as many of them to work as possible, thus helping to better themselves) but trying to get people to live responsibility and take responsibility for their own lives.

I am very liberal socially too but the party I'm in has an awful lot of Daily Mail-type "the country is full of perverts, alcoholics, drug addicts, asylum seekers and scroungers" hangers 'n' floggers.

I'm very near Nigel Farage politically and not most of the members.

Last edited by Tequila on 02 May 2011, 10:39 am, edited 3 times in total.

Have a look at radical, classical liberalism. Not night watchman-state libertarianism (far too extreme for me) but classical liberalism. A state that will provide a safety net for those people who are disabled or ill through no fault of their own but tries as much as possible to help people not to need the welfare state. A state where as much power as is possible is vested in the individual and not the state.

To answer the OP, suffering from too little sense of gratitude to be a conservative yet also lacking sufficient sense of duty to be a liberal.

The libertarian unknowingly laps up the benefits of other people's labors but complains loudly when asked to make his own contribution.

The libertarian whines imperiously about having to abide by any rule or ordinance that happens to be an inconvenience to him.

The libertarian believes that he owes the world nothing but feels entitled to all of its fruits.

The libertarian knows the price of nothing and the value of nothing.

The libertarian is a selfish and petty sort of person.

Libertarianism is to freedom as kitsch is to art. It is hollow and lackluster.

Libertarianism is a false god worshipped by self-centered, self-righteous, narcissistic, arrogant jerks.

The libertarian is like a bully who demands everyone else's respect while showing no respect or consideration to others.

In short, I deeply hate libertarians and believe they have almost no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

And making believe that misrepresentations of the so-called "founders" of our country doesn't help my opinion of them. They were politicians like any other, and most people are completely and totally wrong about them in every possible respect. Furthermore, their over-emphasis on Wealth of Nations makes them look not only stupid but ignorant, and it also proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that they have never read the damn book and don't really care what's actually in it. Their misrepresentations of the Communist Manifesto are further proof of their lack of literacy.

And, when asked to actually read these things, the libertarian reacts with affronted disdain, as if you have asked him to scrape up pig feces. He expects you to believe that he is so brilliant that he can know its entire contents without ever having to lower himself to actually checking it out from the library and reading it thoroughly.

Most libertarians have never done an actual honest day's work in their entire pampered, over-privileged, lackluster lives.

The libertarian is a pompous, stupid, pretentious know-nothing donkey who has probably received an expensive education but has absolutely failed to ever take any intellectual initiative. He is final proof that it is an absolute waste of money to try to educate people who were apparently born to be outright morons good for nothing really except screwing the caps onto bottles or some clerical equivalent thereof.

The libertarianism waxes poetic (and badly) about the value of individual initiative and free thought, but he is too much of a p**** to actually pursue this. He is in this respect like one of those imbeciles who speak highly of the military but in practice would never really lift a finger to defend this country or its interests, even to pay an extra penny to the IRS to give the troops a piece of kevlar.

Last edited by WilliamWDelaney on 02 May 2011, 11:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

Wow, there's a lot of psychological projection in there.

That sounds a lot more like lots of the socialist types than libertarians.

What libertarians really want is to have a system where they pay as little tax as is possible and contribute to society in other ways. They believe that state interference in private lives is a bad thing.



That's bollocks and you know it is. Libertarians favour getting rid of 'victimless' crimes and excessive taxes, plus ceasing the denormalisation of certain groups.

Their philosophy is "if it harms no-one else and you consent, do it. If you harm someone else, you will be caught and heavily punished."



Psychological projection. Much more suited to many socialist types who believe the state should look after them all their lives.



He does, because he goes out and works for it.



How is that? They want the freedom to help out and do lots for their communities without being hammered with excessive tax rates. If the state taxes too much money off people for their hard work, wealth-creators lose the incentive to bother, particularly when that money is often wasted on stupid and illiberal pet-projects.



No; the libertarian just wants to live his or her own life in peace without being bullied by others.

I am speaking from my individual experiences with libertarians, Tequila. In practice, they really are a bunch of pompous dicks.

Oh, and another thing that makes me honestly want to strangle libertarians is that they invariably believe that anyone who is not sold on their crap is a "socialist." Yes, I have to say that this is what make me hate libertarians the most.

I think making sweeping statements about members of any group, a lot of which are just meaningless rhetoric, makes someone a "pompous dick".

The other problem is that Cameronite Tories here really don't want to reduce the welfare state that much so the 'cuts' are a misnomer. It's more a case of bashing the disabled and looking for scapegoats rather than making serious, rational choices about a smaller state.

The three main parties here are very similar.

Well, we can probably still maintain some practical distinctions, but the dichotomy of emotions vs reason doesn't really hold in practice.

Reason is and ought only be a slave of the passions. -paraphrase of David Hume

LOL the irony. I think the dude is either a troll or he is truly this ridiculous. Either way, he's not worth addressing.

I've seen him make a few "Trollish" posts. He's certainly a fan of Ad Hom, if he is genuinely not trying to annoy people.

lol I love it when people resort to ad homs, that's the quickest way to lose credibility.