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[[Category:Basics|400]] {{DES | des = Several views of the big picture of libertarianism.}} == A Rightwing Populist Movement In Miniature == While libertarians may profess socially left ideas such as freedom of choice, their right-conservatism becomes obvious if you ask them what parts of the right-wing economic agenda they'd be willing to sacrifice to realize their left social goals. They just won't give up their opposition to government and taxation, nor will they give up their allegiance to absolute property. No matter what social goals you propose in exchange. (This is a generalization -- of course some individual exceptions occur.) == A Catspaw For Corporations == A great deal of libertarian literature is written by corporate hirelings. Sure they can throw in the occasional socially liberal complaint about warmongering to genuflect towards the purported ideology, but they do NOT bite the corporate hand that feeds them. Otherwise they'd be pointing out that corporations are government creations of special privilege, and asking that they be abolished the way they ask that public schools be abolished. == Philosophical Fairytales == There are three dominant libertarian fairytales. They are natural rights, Nozickian night-watchman state, and Objectivism. All three are non-positivist: they are not founded on observable facts and just plain make stuff up that contradicts what's known of reality. Each has produced large, complicated apologetics that attempt to explain away their myriad failings. Like science, they create models, but unlike science their models cannot be validated because they presume the unobservable. == A Justification of Personal Righteousness == hich emphasizes the notion of virtue in selfishness and has as its historical genesis the exceptional American experience. As such, it appeals mostly to white American males who are moderately above-average in intelligence, economically secure, independently-minded, and prefer simplistic theoretical constructs for making political and moral decisions. It validates their own affluence/privilege not by group affiliation, but by inherent individual merit; and it likewise superficially validates the poverty and lack of privilege of others not on the basis of group affiliation, but inherent fault. In this it mimics a meritocratic view, which allows the libertarian to congratulate himself on his lack of bigotry; but, in fact, it is a facade behind which his true bigotry hides. [http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2009/08/what-is-libertarianism/#comment-1644385 Keith M Ellis] == A Simplistic Ideology == Kevin Carson calls this "vulgar libertarianism". Simple rules for identifying friends and enemies, righteous and unrighteous. Private or public? Statist or freedom loving? Individualist or collectivist? Market or coercive? Ignorant or enlightened? Libertarians portray themselves as elite because of their ideological righteousness: just read Atlas Shrugged for that mentality. == A Cargo Cult == Libertarians expect gifts from the sky if they perform the right philosophical rituals: surrender of political rights, surrender of all government property claims, etc. This has been called "The White Men's Ghost Dance" by Bob Black. They have the unrealistic assumption that if they succeed, they will have an advantage because they knew the magic ritual philosophy first. But instead, the rich and powerful will step right in as the oligarchs did in Russia. They wish us to hand over the biggest pot of money in the world: social security funds for the retirement of essentially the entire US population. Dream on. == Snarky Definitions ==
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