Difference between revisions of "The Short, Simple Dismissal Of Libertarianism"
From Critiques Of Libertarianism
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How can we know that so easily? Here are some simple principles that make it obvious (though these problems are not unique to libertarianism.) For brevity and clarity, "many" and "most" are omitted: presume they are there. | How can we know that so easily? Here are some simple principles that make it obvious (though these problems are not unique to libertarianism.) For brevity and clarity, "many" and "most" are omitted: presume they are there. | ||
| − | + | # Libertarians can only agree with each other if they get so vague that their statements have no fixed meaning. It's the same way we know that no more than one religion could be right, and probably none are. | |
| − | + | # Libertarians use vague glittering generalities of propaganda (terms like "liberty") rather than specifics such as "liberty for A to do B at an uncompensated cost C to D". | |
| − | + | # Libertarianism is based on imaginary "natural rights" (including property rights.) Real rights are creations of coercive human institutions such as law. | |
| − | + | # Libertarians ignore the fact that all real rights, including property, are coercive. Non-coercive "rights" are merely moral claims. | |
| − | + | # Libertarianism privileges property rights (their "liberty") above all other values, redefining liberty in terms of property. | |
| − | + | # Libertarian economic arguments are based on multiple, conflicting, unrealistic economic models such as "economic man". | |
| − | + | # Libertarians prefer the feudal property relations of business and markets to democracy. | |
| − | + | # Libertarian philosophy is a "one size fits all" procrustean bed that only addresses the desires of economic winners. It doesn't address the human needs of women, children, elderly, incompetent, sick, minorities and others who resent being forced into unjust market competitions. | |
| − | + | # Libertarianism is domineering and totalitarian: nothing and nobody is excused from ownership and markets. No matter how impractical markets might be. | |
| − | + | # Libertarians want to dictate which freedoms we get for all time, and don't want to allow others to choose their freedoms. | |
| − | + | # Libertarians ignore ideas of equality and justice except to make the ludicrous claim that markets provide them. | |
| − | + | # Libertarians demonize government while ignoring the benefits of government. | |
| − | + | # Libertarians argue as if government is monolithic when there are hundreds of competing nations and most contain balances of powers and delegate powers to many independent levels of smaller, subsidiary governments. | |
| − | + | # Libertarians shill for the wealthy. | |
| − | + | # The intellectual structure of modern libertarianism has been funded from the start by the wealthy and corporations as propaganda to serve their interests. | |
| − | + | # Libertarians engage in corporate-funded denialism of science, history and economics. | |
For a more extensive list, see: [[What Is Wrong With Libertarianism]]. | For a more extensive list, see: [[What Is Wrong With Libertarianism]]. | ||
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| + | A few libertarians avoid some of these. The Friedman clan avoids (3) natural rights, but suffers badly from (7) preferring feudal relationships to democracy. | ||
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| + | A few, such as the "Bleeding Heart Libertarians" are aware of some of these problems, especially (8), and engage in elaborate contortions to delude themselves they can solve them. Smarter libertarians depart libertarianism when the cognitive dissonance becomes too great to withstand. See: [[Testimonials By Former Libertarians And Objectivists]]. | ||
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