“It has been said that a libertarian is just a Republican who does drugs.” – Factsheet Five
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I remember when that Rolling Stone article came out. I only knew Mel Lyman as the harmonica player in the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. It was only 1971, a lot of stuff hadn’t happened yet. Hence my thought that I couldn’t believe that kind of behavior from a musician of all people.
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You told us which cult you escaped from, but which cult did you escape to?
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I’d say the former and that many of the symptoms of toxic masculinity in culture derive directly from cults as defined by @jhbadger. Formalized religions have, almost to a one, institutionalized misogyny, anti-lgbtq bigotry and the primacy of the male as not just a societal imperative, but a divine directive.
I have three (yes, three) close people in my life who have been immersed in cults. My ex and niece were both born into ones and my ex-friend, a dude, was recruited into one by his father; the same father that had abandoned he and his twin brother when they were infants so he could “prepare a place in his father’s house”. Every single one of them was founded and led by a charismatic misogynist and, in one case, and internationally wanted pedophile.
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It also stuck out at me, seemed like a rather sloppy offhand use of a term that has been treated this way so long it’s not meaningful to use anymore. People do on occasion honestly confuse ‘libertarian’ with ‘libertine’, and the way it’s used here (the idea being that people were attracted to breaking society’s rules) makes me think it’s at least possible that’s what happened here. Except that she wouldn’t have said plus sex and drugs because that would then be included. So I’m also confused. That said, it’s not a contradiction to be libertarian and join something non-individualist, the key thing is it being voluntary. Just how voluntary cults are I’m sure can vary quite a bit.
Joshua Tree, California, via San Diego, Ca.
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The discussion of this kind of Reason-magazine hedonistic Libertarianism brings to mind another famous female cult leader who celebrated rape culture while convincing her followers that “government and society can’t tell us superior beings what to do…”
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Does that explain your avatar, launching yourself out toward a better place? 
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Jo Thornley’s “Zealot” is an excellent podcast that explores various cults:
(widely available, the Stitcher link was the most convenient)
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Heh, you’re a quick one!
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To be fair, there’s a fair portion of the population that still looks at Mormonism in much the same light as $cientology (and many other fairly well established religions as well).
(May not be the most endearing of opinions, but there, I said it)
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Now that’s a cult worth joining!
(But I’m only joining if there’s a compound. No compound, no dice.)
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Well yeah, pretty much any religion is just a superstitious cult that’s managed to gain respectability.
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I agree but it would still be weird to call that non-individualist group a libertarian one. You may live in a free society and be a free person but the cult is still anti-freedom.
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“Welcome to Boing Boing!”
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“A religion is a cult with an army.” (I can’t find the source now.)
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I once saw a bunch of kids with their banners from the local Games Workshop march down the street, knowing they were about to run into the local Salvation Army Brass Band.
I heard “Plus One because we have a banner!” before I was past…
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Technically most “libertarians” aren’t libertarian (Ayn-Caps and Hoppean “libertarians”). Some cults promoting themselves as libertarian is not surprising to me.
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All I need is a phone, a good loud bluetooth speaker and this
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I was thinking of you when I wrote “mostly” before saying libertarians were implementing authoritarianism. Only mostly.
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