General

Re: Myths about libertarians

Andrew Cain — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 08:47:15 GMT

What a wonderful leap. You believe in property, therefore you propound slavery! Essentially everyone believes in property rights. It's just a question of who justly utizilies it.

Re: Myths about libertarians

Azure — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 08:43:31 GMT

I've spoken with more than one individual who believed I supported human slavery because I supported property rights. When I informed them that I did not, they said I was being inconsistent!

There seems to be misunderstandings as to what property actually entails.

Re: Myths about libertarians

Lyle D. Riggs — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 08:04:43 GMT

Libertarianism is the same as Libertinism.

Libertarians do not believe in a world without moral restraints. Libertarianism rests firmly on moral restrains. The non-aggression principle is a moral restraint. Libertarians just do not believe that every moral restraint should also be a legal restraints.

An anarchic society means a lawless, chaotic, or unordered society.

Libertarians believe that people pursuing their own interests will engage in voluntary interactions with each other and that this will produce a well-ordered society.

Re: Myths about libertarians

resist272727 — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 05:14:41 GMT

That all libertarians support states' rights.

Re: Myths about libertarians

DD5 — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 02:44:55 GMT

SirThinkALot:
Myth #1: All Libertarians are radical individualists.

Followers of Ayn Rand are of obviously radical individualists. But other, more sensible libertarians recognize the impotance of cooperation and like to observe how markets bring numerous people together to build something as simple as a a computer mouse or even a pencil. A free market requires cooperation to work, and rewards it with greater wealth for all.

Being an individualist has nothing to do with isolation or anti-cooperation. On the contrary, individualism is what brings about social voluntary cooperation. I'm sure you know this. So how can radical individualism (whatever you mean by this) possibly mean the opposite? I think you're strawmanning Randians.

Re: Myths about libertarians

BrianAnderson — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 02:27:17 GMT

Good job! I'll post this in a few places so more people can read it!

Re: Myths about libertarians

Solid_Choke — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 02:23:03 GMT

Myth #9: Radical individualists are against cooperation.

Your responses to the myths are more or less correct, but although #1 is a myth your response relies on a straw man of individualism. Other than that, your post seems to be pretty good.

Myths about libertarians

SirThinkALot — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 02:17:56 GMT

I created this as a blog post. But I thought I'd share it with everybody here. Feel free to add new ones:

I'v noticed that whenever I try to argue for libertarian ideas I have to fend off certain 'myths' about what libertarians think or believe. So here I want to debunk a few so hopefully we can have a more fruitful discussion.

Myth #1: All Libertarians are radical individualists.

Followers of Ayn Rand are of obviously radical individualists. But other, more sensible libertarians recognize the impotance of cooperation and like to observe how markets bring numerous people together to build something as simple as a a computer mouse or even a pencil. A free market requires cooperation to work, and rewards it with greater wealth for all.

Myth #2: Libertarians dont care about the environment.

I dont anybody, except the bad guys from Captain Planet actually want to see the environment needlessly trashed. The real question is how do we balance environmental concerns with other human needs and wants. Libertarians like those at the Property and Environment Research Center(PERC) think that free markets and clearly defined property rights are the best way to do so. And that much of our environmental concerns can be traced to a lack of the latter. We also like to point out the horrific environmental records of places like North Korea or the Soviet Union(there arestill places in Russia that are un-inhabitable thanks to Stalin's policies)

Myth #3: Libertarians offer a Utopian vision.

'Libertopia' is the often thrown around term. No libertarian I know thinks their vision can create a perfect world, just a better one. Pointing out flaws in the way the world works now and offering alternatives isnt 'Utopian' its the way change starts.

Myth #4: Libertarians put blind faith in businessmen/corporations:

I cant speak for all libertarians out there, but I dont trust any individual person(including myself), which is why I dont trust government with power over me. At least with business if I dont like something they do, I dont have to partake of their services. Not so with government.

Myth #4 Libertarians are actually Republicans/Conservatives

First let me say that there is a trend recently thats been bugging me of Republicans/Republican supporters calling themselves libertarians in order to avoid the stigma that has plagued the Republican party recently. However, there are plenty of things about Republicans that true libertarians can(and have consistently) opposed: the war-mongering, their support of the drug war, their desire to control our personal lives in the name of 'moral decency' the fact that they are willing to suspend all sorts of basic rights and liberties in the name of 'fighting terrorism'(including torturing people illegally). Not to mention the fact that they are just plain dishonest in their claims about wanting free markets/smaller government.

Myth #5: Libertarians are racists:

Now, I have no doubt that, like any large, multi-faceted movement, there are some libertarians who are racist. However, I'v yet to meet any. I personally long for a day when 'race' will be of no more importance than hair or eye color. Many libertarians have argued that a free market tends to downplay racist tendencies in people. After its patently absurd for a business to deny paying customers just because of how they look....

Myth #6: libertarians are wealthy fat-cats.

Well, I personally am about as far from 'wealthy' as you can get. And if you go to places like mises.org you'll find people from a wide variety of backgrounds and income levels. In fact the largest growing segment of libertarians is college students. I actually suspect that very few of the so-called 'fat-cats' are libertarians because we oppose they way they like to use the government to help them eliminate competition/shield them from losses and offer other favors.

Myth #7: Libertarians dont care about the poor:

Much like several of the other myths above, its not a case of us not caring, so much as we feel that the poor will be better off with a free market. There are numerous reasons for this, but for now its enough to note that its not as simple as we dont care.

Myth #8: Even if Libertarians are correct, theres no way to transition from where we are to the kind of society we envision.

This one is simply not true. While most libertarians(myself included) are not so naive to think that we could transition to a libertarian society overnight a gradual decrease in governmental power is certainly possible. There are numerous roadblocks in teh way, but its not as unrealistic as it would seem.

Thats it for now. I'll probably add more later. Till then Peace!