Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Libertarianism

  • Legutko on Libertarianism

    I have some bones to pick with Legutko, but this is good: [Libertarianism] crumbles because it attempts to square the circle. Two loyalties — one particular to one's own community, the other to an infinitely open system — cannot be reconciled.   ― Ryszard Legutko, The Cunning of Freedom: Saving the Self in an Age of False…

  • Libertarians Lurching to the Left and Slouching toward Gomorrah

    Here: We were also witnessing the end of the pure libertarian movement. Cato, possibly in an attempt to become more relevant, embraced the left on many issues – open borders, gay marriage, and transgenderism, for example. When I say they’ve since embraced the left, I don’t mean they pay lip service to the issues; they…

  • Trump and the ‘Losertarians’

    The Libertarian Party is for losers. If you are a conservative who votes Libertarian, you are behaving foolishly. You say you stand on 'principles'? Principles are great. And some of the Libertarian ones are salutary. But principles without power are just paper.  Politics is a practical game. Wise up and get with the program. Don't…

  • Just Like a Libertarian!

    A member of the Cato Institute argues that the solution to the immigration crisis is to legalize immigration. Too stupid for words. Or maybe you disagree?

  • More on the Politics of Abortion: Ron Paul and Subsidiarity

    Ron Paul. M.  D.: I strongly believe that the more difficult the issue is, the more local should be its solution. That is the real success of the Dobbs decision, because abortion should have never been a federal issue in the first place. Overturning Roe v Wade returned us to where we belonged, with state…

  • Free Speech, Censorship, Toleration, and a Lame Libertarian Argument

    Substack latest. 

  • Losertarian Update

    A tip of the hat to Dmitri Dain for sending us here where we read: Libertarian Marc Victor dropped out of Arizona’s closely watched Senate race on Tuesday, encouraging voters to cast their ballots for Republican Blake Masters in his challenge to Sen. Mark Kelly (D). Polls had shown Victor garnering support in the low single digits, but his…

  • The Losertarian Party

    The Libertarian Party is for losers. If you are a conservative who votes Libertarian, you are a damned fool. You say you stand on 'principles'? Principles are great. And some of the Libertarian ones are salutary. But principles without power are just paper.  Politics is a practical game. Wise up and get with the program.…

  • Free Speech, Censorship, Toleration, and a Lame Libertarian Argument

    Your right to free speech entails my duty not to impede your speech; it does not entail a duty on my part to provide you with a platform. "But then you are censoring me!" In a broad and defensible sense, yes. I am tolerant and so I tolerate you and your beliefs. To tolerate, however,…

  • Banning Guns and Banning Muslims

    Conservatives are not opposed to gun control, but they strenuously oppose gun confiscation and proposals to ban civilian ownership of semi-automatic weapons. These include semi-auto handguns of .22 caliber,  semi-auto rifles such as the AR-15, and semi-auto shotguns. Most of these same conservatives, however, support a reduction of, or moratorium on, Muslim immigration, either across…

  • Should Libertarians Support Open Borders?

    Maybe not. It might not be in their best, long-term self-interest, assuming that they are more than a discussion society and want to see their values implemented politically. Libertarians stand for limited government, individual liberty, private property, and free markets. On these points I basically agree with them, although I am not a libertarian. But…

  • The Decline and Fall of the American Civil Liberties Union

    An account of how it came about.  I have heard it said that classical liberalism is unstable, and that in the fullness of time it collapses into hard leftism.  A case in point. Future historians will have to reconstruct exactly how and why the tipping point has been reached, but the ACLU's actions over the…

  • David Boaz on F. A. Hayek

    Excerpts worth pondering: Hayek’s last book, The Fatal Conceit, published in 1988 when he was approaching ninety, returned to the topic of the spontaneous order, which is “of human action but not of human design.” The fatal conceit of intellectuals, he said, is to think that smart people can design an economy or a society better than…

  • Mary Jane and the Stupidity of Libertarians

    Colorado's pot experiment is having disastrous results. No surprise. We conservatives told you so. A cautionary tale for other states. Libertarians falsely assume that we are all rational agents who know their own long-term best interest and are willing and able to act upon that knowledge.  Anyone with any experience of the world and the…

  • Why Do Intellectuals Oppose Capitalism?

    An important essay by Robert Nozik. (HT: C. Cathcart) Teaser quotation: Intellectuals now expect to be the most highly valued people in a society, those with the most prestige and power, those with the greatest rewards. Intellectuals feel entitled to this. But, by and large, a capitalist society does not honor its intellectuals. Ludwig von…