All posts tagged "Libertarians"

Former White House adviser Van Jones on Monday defended recent remarks he made against "so-called libertarians" by saying, "I think we have to start punching back."

There is some unstated libertarian law that requires libertarians to adhere to the position that civil rights laws which target private behavior are absolutely wrong, because discrimination will be taken care of privately by the marketplace, as we can see in the South, where but for white supremacist cartels made of private citizens all other private citizens would totally have not been racist at all.

It's been hilarious watching so many libertarians scramble and scramble and scramble to insist with their incredibly limited toolbox (which amounts to "believe me because I, a white man, say so!") on defending Rand Paul. It's a real illustration of the congenital incapability of libertarians to know when they're really not going to win this one, because they never were as smart as they think they are. So, a word of advice to libertarians rushing to defend Paul, and only dragging this out---sometimes it really is best to let one go. You can't win and you're only digging yourself in deeper. When something like this happens, just take a holiday! And to go with that recommendation, here's the original song for today's Genius Ten. Leave yours in comments, or a comment about anything else you wish to talk about today.

I really shouldn't keep dragging this out, but I didn't have a chance to post tonight, and so there. In the comments of the latest post of the most ridiculous blog war of April 2009, one of our newly gained commenters says:

Update: God, I'm going to regret posting this, aren't I? Libertarians are easily the most sensitive, easily offended, bed-wetting crybabies on the entire internet, which is a real achievement when you consider the competition. Internet libertarians have no life and no qualms about trying to shut down criticism and mockery of them by flooding your comments with wankery and whining. It's like they want to make a blogger's life as hard as that of an insanely pampered dot com millionaire who wants to escape with Captain Kirk to the stars.

[rebelmouse-image 24748300 original_size="155x200" expand=1]Jacob Weisberg surveys our financial collapse and declares libertarianism dead. (Hat tip.) Alas, I wish I could feel as secure as he does on this front, but I'm afraid I don't, because while it's true that we can blame deregulation frenzy for our current economic situation---and that people trying to say otherwise sound like the ripe fools they are---I fear that the premise of his article is a bit off. Libertarianism may be extremely unpopular right now, but it's always been unpopular and that hasn't stopped it. In fact, your average pedantic libertarian gets off on the fact that most people wisely hate libertarians, because it confirms to the libertarian that he is a unique snowflake that the rest of the world is too stupid to get.* Libertarianism isn't popular, but it will always be well-funded because the class warfare at the heart of it appeals to embittered, willfully ignorant rich people who give money to think tanks.