Why aren't more people Libertarian?

[sonatine]

yeah 'breakage' is an easy concept to swallow when youre integrating a retail business into society, but it doesnt scale well when the product being written off are human lives.

[Dan Druff]

There are various factions of libertarianism, to the point where simply saying "I'm a libertarian" doesn't mean much these days.

I know some super-right-wing conservatives who claim to be "libertarian" because they want zero taxes and zero government regulation.

I know some super-left-wing liberals who claim to be "libertarian" because they hate what they call the "police state" and want to see prisons aboilshed.

In general, while I think most people agree with some libertarian views, a libertarian government would be a disaster. It's one of those things you can say you align with in order to sound edgy, but a lot of the logic fails if you really think about it.

My first three real exposures to libertarianism were in the early-mid 90s. In the early 90s in college, the "Liberty Club" -- a libertarian college club which gave itself an apolitical-enough name so it could qualify for school funding -- showed up to the College Republicans meeting in order to recruit members. Everyone in the Liberty Club was of the conservative libertarian variety.

A few years later I briefly dated a girl who was libertarian, and remember being baffled by her views on crime and punishment. I recall that she said that there should be no laws specifically against drunk driving, and that one should only be punished if they drive drunk AND hurt someone (lol).

Very shortly after that, I moved to an apartment, and the guy next door was a PhD student who was libertarian. I became friendly with him, and we even went to a few baseball games together. Turned out he was very conservative, and I didn't even fully understand why he didn't just call himself a Republican.

It was only later that I encountered the left-wing brand of libertarians.

[Texter]

If you’re in a state that already is going to go to a dem or repub no matter your vote, you should vote libertarian. If the lib candidate can get enough votes they will be allowed on the debate stage for the next election....maybe help make the two main parties less extreme

[Daly]

If you’re in a state that already is going to go to a dem or repub no matter your vote, you should vote libertarian. If the lib candidate can get enough votes they will be allowed on the debate stage for the next election....maybe help make the two main parties less extreme

[Crowe Diddly]

I voted Badnarik in '04, since I lived in MA and the state was clearly gonna be a Kerry blowout anyway, I thought the best use of my vote was to try to get another party on future ballot automatically next time.

The libertarians I've met like to talk a lot about economics and markets and invisible hands an whatnot. I'd rather they talk about Jesus and miracles, tbh, because that shit makes more sense than Libertarian economic theories. Utterly repellent to real-world issues and humans.

Libertarians don't believe in real world variables. Like, at all.

[Daly]

I was libertarian and still kind of am, but I think it's immature and unrealistic way of thinking. you gotta realize there are retards, women and poc's

ive known a lot of super intelligent people who are initially attracted to the sense of personal responsibility / common sense angles of libertarians and noped the mother fuck out once they realized that whatever it was 20 years ago, its now a hyper right wing christian boys club for republicans and people with uncomfortable passions for military weapons.

There are still a lot of intelligent people who are attracted to libertarian ideas who want nothing to do with religion or guns and would prefer to break off from the GOP so as to not pander to the ilk you speak
Of.

[Crowe Diddly]

There are still a lot of intelligent people who are attracted to libertarian ideas who want nothing to do with religion or guns and would prefer to break off from the GOP so as to not pander to the ilk you speak
Of.

Attracted? Fuck yes.

Committed to? Fuck no.

There is no rigor at all in libertarian politics. Surface-value social and economic theory that is thinner than an anorexic's fingernail.

[MumblesBadly]

There are still a lot of intelligent people who are attracted to libertarian ideas who want nothing to do with religion or guns and would prefer to break off from the GOP so as to not pander to the ilk you speak
Of.

Attracted? Fuck yes.

Committed to? Fuck no.

There is no rigor at all in libertarian politics. Surface-value social and economic theory that is thinner than an anorexic's fingernail.

Agreed. While in college in the early-mid 80’s studying finance, I became enamored with libertarianism, and was thinking of voting for David Koch for president in the next presidential election. But after learning from a fellow student who was a registered Libertarian that the party platform called for legalizing all drugs, including heroin, I begged off joining. For you see, at that time, and for about 2 decades hence, I was a staunch supporter of the War on Drugs, and lauded Ronald Reagan’s tough stance on recreational drugs. Little did I understand back then how disastrous that policy would be for the country. I still don’t support a lot of the deregulation policies that libertarians laud, but they were way more correct about drug policy for the past four decades than either major party.