I have long felt quite alone among my friends in my skepticism of Libertarianism. It seems that many well intentioned, reasonably intelligent and independent people approach Libertarianism due to a regard for civil liberties and freedoms, only to get sucked into a world of ultra right-wing capitalism and selfishness of the highest order. It seems that many people my age (early 20's) get sucked into this trap. One day, I noticed that a friend of a friend had joined a Libertarian group on Facebook, and I decided to look into it. I was surprised to find hundreds of Libertarian groups on Facebook, yet not a single group that was explicitly critical of Libertarianism. In my mind, this brought up many issues. This diary explores these issues, and asks the questions: Why are so many in my generation drawn to Libertarianism? What are the consequences of this? How should we react?
It is a bizarre phenomenon. Most of the self described 'Libertarians' that I know are independent minded people. Often they are otherwise generally non-political. Rural folks concerned about gun rights. Motorcycle enthusiasts that don't want to be told that they have to wear a helmet. People that are disgruntled with the fewer and fewer places in which they can smoke cigarettes. These people are much more concerned about personal freedoms than they are free markets. Most of them could care less about unions and welfare one way or the other. Until, that is, they inevitably encounter some form of institutionalized Libertarianism, such as the Reason Foundation, Reason Magazine, or a "Libertarian" AM radio talk show- all of which are universally founded and funded by right wing capitalist Republicans. In my opinion, these institutions use a most twisted logic to form some very questionable connections. A young man who was once angry over the fact that he can't light fireworks in his back yard now focuses his anger on a single mother that receives food stamps to help feed her young children. To him, these are symptoms of the same problem- government controlling his private life as it sees fit. "Big Mother." Another bizarre connection: one of the most popular Libertarian websites is privatization.org. This is a truly strange development. What does Libertarianism- the supposed defense of personal liberties, have to do with privatization- the cause of huge, bureaucratic impersonal corporations? It seems that right wing capitalists have subverted the cause of folks interested in liberty exactly the same way that they have subverted religion- twisting it into a pretzel logic that inevitably bends back around to defend the market, the wealthy, the powerful. They have been so successful at this that they have managed to convince these folks that one of their sworn enemies should be the ACLU- an organization that has done a great deal to defend personal liberties and the constitution, which is it's stated purpose.
I believe that combating the 'Libertarian Myth' is going to be a very important issue in the future for people that care about civil liberties AND social justice. True Libertarianism is a good cause, but we must shed light on the fact that the Libertarian movement has been hijacked in this country. At this point it is not much more than ultra-right-wing ultra-capitalism which mainly favors the fiscal "liberties" of the wealthy and those with ambitions to become wealthy. Go to any American Libertarian website and you will see reams and reams of articles dedicated to right wing financial causes- privatization of schools ("choice"), NAFTA, the absurd notion of fixing health care with MORE privatization (how much more privatized/screwed can our system get? these guys can't get enough of getting ripped off by huge corporations), crusades against public transportation, crusades against environmentalists ( "Policymakers need to respect America's preference for cars" ...wtf?), building more privatized prisons and selling off public lands (damn those pesky National Parks, always getting all up in my personal liberties!).
Someone reading this list might ask...what the hell do these issues have to do with liberty? Sounds more like the old school conservative party line financial issue checklist to me. Some issues you won't see on these sites very often- criminal justice, death penalty, drug war, immigrant rights, prisoner's rights, gay rights, racial justice, reproductive freedom, rights of the poor and voting rights. These are all issues that fall directly under the umbrella of personal liberties, any way you slice it. However- it seems that "liberty" issues that don't effect the pocketbooks of rich white guys don't make it into the official American Libertarian dialog these days. Granted you do get the odd bitch and moan article mixed in to placate regular folks. These are often about virtually unknown and often completely unenforced nanny laws, and include ridiculously stupid and irrelevant protests like performing unlicensed puppet shows. Seriously...the unchecked rampant intrusion of the government into the lives of puppeteers is a problem that we are all too familiar with. But by and large, Libertarian literature in America at this time is centered around private industry, private property and other issues that all have a common thread- their backbone is the accumulation of wealth, not personal liberties. Considering all of this, I usually pose the following questions to friends that call themselves Libertarians:
Does "liberty" as a concept have a business vs. government bias? What's the difference?
Is it possible that government bureaucracies alone are guilty of imposing on personal liberties, while corporate bureaucracies are not?
Are liberties and rights limited to those that have financial ambitions?
Are 'liberty' and 'freedom' partisan issues?
How many of the issues that brought you to Libertarianism have anything to do with economics.....?
Is there anything weird about the fact that all contemporary Libertarian literature is funded by right wing capitalist Republicans?
When was the last time you were sitting around, pondering the many ways in which government bureaucracy has infringed on your freedoms, and you came to the conclusion that the obvious solution is....more private prisons? Does this have anything to do with "liberty" whatsoever?
Do these rich white guys really give a shit about the smoking ban in your town? Or, like so many aspects of American policy, is it all about the money?
Whenever I pose these questions, my friends are usually baffled. It seems they've never thought about it that way. I've managed to get a few of them to ditch Libertarianism by simply asking these questions. Many more lose their infatuation with Libertarianism after many long months of conversations about these issues. Still, I am astounded by the number of young people that are drawn to Libertarianism. People that hate George Bush. People that smoke pot and hate the war. People that don't go to church. All sorts of people. Well, all sorts of white middle to upper-middle class people, I should say. As I said, after seeing a friend of a friend join a Facebook group for Libertarians, I decided to look into these groups and see what I could find out. A simple search brought up hundreds of groups with thousands and thousands of members. Most of the groups had very little substance, and seemed to exist simply for the reason of someone declaring that they are a "fan" of Libertarianism or a part of a group. Those familiar with Facebook have seen this a million times. So I searched for "anti-libertarian" and found...nothing. I searched for every string I could think of that implied criticism of Libertarianism, and found only one group. It had 2 members, and was apparently set up by a very conservative young Christian that was complaining about atheist Libertarians encroaching upon his social circle of Republicans. Not exactly the results I was looking for. In fact, even using the google machine to search the whole of cyberspace in all of its tubular glory, I found surprisingly few sites that are critical of Libertarianism. One is Mike Huben's great site, which is awesome despite appearing to be as old as the internet itself.
Why is there such a vacuum of criticism of Libertarianism? Particularly now that Libertarian groups are exposing themselves to be the regressive dinosaurs that they've always secretly been by literally sabotaging a popular issue like health care reform? Why are young people so drawn to Libertarianism? Is it because of this vacuum?
For my part, I decided that perhaps Facebook needs an anti-Libertarian group. On a whim, I decided to create a group and give it the admittedly juvenile name "I Hate Libertarians." (BTW - If the link doesn't work for you, you can search for the group by name on FB). I wondered if it would go viral and pick up members who are intrigued enough to check it out, or if it would die in the water. I didn't get an overwhelming response either way...after 2 months, I have 24 members, none of which do I know personally or otherwise. For a month or so it was just me, then one person found it, then several more. Perhaps it will pick up. Perhaps others will help fill this vacuum of much needed criticism in other ways. Time will tell.
I'm curious to see what my Kossack friends think about all of this. Am I the only one that thinks we need to provide criticism of Libertarianism? It's not that I seriously think that there is a rising tide of rampant Libertarianism threatening to sweep away our youth; the issue is that I'm mostly surprised by the lack of criticism out there. Anyone else see this? Thoughts?
And yes, to the Libertarians out there (I know there are many on dkos): I know that you're not all Teabaggers and 9/11 Truthers and cartoons like Glen Beck and Ron Paul. And you're not all selfish. Some of you are just regular neckbeards and dorks.