Originally published at: Libertarian Party embraces antisemitism | Boing Boing
…
11 Likes
If this comes as a surprise to anyone, they haven’t been paying attention to capital-L Libertarians in America over the past decades. Fascism and bigotry run deep in this toxic ideology’s roots.
There are a whole bunch of valid reasons to despise Studiously Schlubby Sam, foremost amongst them that this grifter was the vehicle for greedwashing the very cryptocurrency these same “free”-market fundie tout as humanity’s saviour; his religious or ethnic heritage isn’t one of them (I’d add in “obviously”, but there are always a handful of Libertarians around here who hold “unpopular opinions” in this regard).
28 Likes
And their Mises Institute is well-funded by the Kochs. Another example of why greed is a smokescreen for the Kochs real stance.
https://trashpanda-x.github.io/darklantern/#Ludwig%20von%20Mises%20Institute
28 Likes
Libertarian Party has always been a cover for neo-nazis.
24 Likes
There was a remarkable interview of Pat Buchanan where he called for the “wholesale” execution of criminals, and a minute later is very concerned about the possible harm being brought to one particular murderer, a concentration camp guard, as it might be mistaken identity. Many Libertarians have been dogwhistling to nazis for decades.
21 Likes
Usually the libertarian party was a catch-all of right-wing nut-jobs, but those have since gone overtly mainstream in the GOP, so what’s the point anymore?
15 Likes
Interestingly, some of the members are not happy about it becoming “just another” alt-right movement
23 Likes
The maverick indentity is edgy hotsauce. See also “The Tea Party” who were advertised as not really the Republican party and are now just a wing within the Republicans.
21 Likes
Yeh I was thinking just now about the Tea Party and their role in normalizing hatred, leading to the Freedom Caucus.
15 Likes
Libertarians: Republicans who want to smoke pot.
also Kim Stanley Robinson:
"That’s libertarians for you — anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
25 Likes
The Tea Party, also largely Koch-funded.
21 Likes
In theory right now there should be a major split between “libertarians” and Republicans thanks to abortion, but I guess half of everyone aren’t such a concern…
20 Likes
The gap between theory and practise has always been a wide one with Libertarians, going way back before Friedman and Pinochet right to the fascist-infested origins of neoliberalism (including French and German Nazi collaborators). The contradiction has reached such an absurd point the I wonder how any of them can even attempt to claim the “No true Scotsman Libertarian” fallacy as a defense.
9 Likes
(ETA)
From 1990, fwiw:
10 Likes
My politics are certainly small-l libertarian and have been for much of my life, but I’ve long been put off by the capital-L Libertarian Party types who – at best – were a clubby crowd where people would yell at you for not being sufficiently suspect of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (as if standardized meter was somehow market-distorting) and – at worst – an organization so unmoored by any need to win races or get elected that it was a likely resting spot for right-ish political louts. Combined with social media and the social need to push the conversation to its (il)logical extremes, we are left with this…
ETA: A political party so successful they have one state legislature level seat in the entire country which they’ve held since 2020 (the first since 2000) and that one in Wyoming.
12 Likes
There are left-libertarians out there, but the term – both small-l and capital-L – has been effectively poisoned in the U.S. by what is, at best, a fantasy economic ideology that always ends in neo-feudalism.
17 Likes
Capital-L Libertarians believe in privileges, not rights. If you’re rich and powerful the law shouldn’t apply to you.
15 Likes
OH with out doubt that classic antisemitic image was used to create that illustration.
Also that whole FTX thing has a bunch of nuts making comments about how Biden gives money to Ukraine, they invest in FTX, and then FTX donates to the Democratic party, like it is some sort of conspiracy. But as far as I can tell it’s all just bullshit. They really want to twist reality where Biden is somehow the conniving super genius making back room deals to get rich. I think it is more projection, because that is what they would expect Trump to do.
If you ever felt the term “libertarian” was unfairly freighted by its association with
Unfortunately there are way too many crazy, asshole, or right-wing-by-another libertarians out there that I abandoned the label a long time ago. The problem I eventually realized was too many of them wanted the government to have no power over them, but allowed private corporations way too much power. At least I have a dismal say in how the government works, but large corporations not put in check can directly effect your life even worse than bad government polices.
I used to call myself a sane libertarian, but now I go with Anti-Authoritarian. It more or less sums up my basic political belief structures.
16 Likes
I have come, of late, to think of my libertarianism, such as it is, as a filter. I’m just not really sure what to call myself any more. Classical liberal is probably closest to the mark, but were I to boil my politics down to a sentence, I’d simply stick with Aaron Director’s definition of laissez-faire: “Laissez-faire is a short-hand for the idea that all action by the state should be viewed under the presumption of error.”
Because Trump is getting push back, and I’d guess the Libertarian party is looking to expand with whoever leaves if the GOP kicks Trump out…
11 Likes
