I have a soft spot for Libertarians even though I shouldn't and they don't deserve it. When I was a kid I had a weird neighbor who was always giving me Libertarian books... I wish I still had some of them they were WILD. He was a thorn in the side of the local, school board as well insisting that if they had an event at the school that involved politics Libertarians had to be included.
And in defense of the guy, he was about as likable and earnest as a Libertarian could be.
1/
This was the 90s and I think Libertarians weren't as horrible back then. You still had people who were more like anarchists with dreamy notions of freedom from "the state" involved.
At some point that all dissolved and they just became another flavor of right wing reactionary. And I was a little sad to see the Trumpers taking over their convention this year. That is the death nail of anything ever was. (But really Rand Paul was the death nail.)
2/
My weird Libertarian neighbor passed away back in 2005. I'm glad he didn't have to see this.
I'm also glad he's not around to hear me say that I think they deserve this fate. American Libertarians used to sincerely care about freedoms in their own strange way. They would explain to you how you needed to hire your own private police (which sounded awful to me even as a teen) but somewhere in all those bad ideas was a commitment to a combination of freedom and tolerance.
Where did it go?
3/3
@futurebird There was a real "left libertarian" movement. A lot of it was queer, and a lot of it died before AZT.
The survivors and most of the rest of it either went to the Democrats for survival, with a few going anarcho-leftist of one sort or another.
That left the "right libertarians" who no longer had to bargain with the left and, well, we know how that went.
@moira @futurebird i don't understand. You don't mean plain anarchists?
"Anarchists"
Is a big umbrella of a word wherein you can find very different philosophies. At the moment the term seems to be used more by those who sincerely support the idea of popular distributed power. People skeptical of concentrations of power, especially the state, but not limited to the state.
@futurebird
I just recently got into a big debate with some anarchists on masto about whether they should vote or not. Interesting to hear how conflicted the community seems about it in today's environment where voting is under attack.
@ehproque @moira
I think it is weird how some people see voting as reflection of who they are. As identity. Confusing voting (which I see as my opportunity to give the behemoth a kick that may or may not send it moving in a better direction or at least steer it away from me and my friends) with swearing allegiance. Pledging fealty.
They act as if voting for someone is saying you love them, agree with everything they do forever, will marry them & kiss them.
I don't get it.
@futurebird @jonquass @ehproque @moira
I'm not going to vote, and most anarchists do not vote. We oppose the state, not just one bad politician.
Voting in the next election, assuming that anyone reading this would vote for Biden, is not an expression of fealty but it is an approval of genocide. Biden is now officially a genocide supporter and a vote for him means that you think that this is not disqualifying.
@richpuchalsky @jonquass @ehproque @moira
No it's not an "approval of genocide" nor is it an approval of anything else any canidate represents since even if only a few thousand voted and everyone else did as you would: abstaining--
***the election would still be valid under the current laws***
We do not have a law that says that "if too few people vote the state is no longer valid"
You can say it feels like that *should* be true but it's just a feeling. It's literally not how it works.
@futurebird @richpuchalsky @jonquass @ehproque @moira Insofar as there’s a theory here, it’s not legalism, it’s legitimacy. For a representative democracy, legitimacy is strongly tied to the notion that the representatives actually are.
Basically, drive down the voting percentage enough and it will *look* like a ridiculous fascist farce as well as *being* a ridiculous fascist farce.
No more legitimacy.
