Difference between revisions of "What Is Libertarianism?"
From Critiques Of Libertarianism
(→A Rightwing Populist Movement In Miniature) |
(→A Blinkered Ideology) |
||
| Line 54: | Line 54: | ||
== A Blinkered Ideology == | == A Blinkered Ideology == | ||
| − | Libertarianism is often easy to recognize by the things it will not consider. For example: market failures, public goods, benefits from government, benefits from spending tax money, deadweight costs from private sources, threats to liberty from private sources, rights other than property rights, values other than economic values, social harms from private actions (such as drug usage), anything but methodological individualism, Keynesianism, etc. "There are no market failures, only government failures" is a characteristic example of such denialist ideology. | + | Libertarianism is often easy to recognize by the things it will not consider. For example: market failures, public goods, benefits from government, benefits from spending tax money, deadweight costs from private sources, threats to liberty from private sources, rights other than property rights, values other than economic values, social harms from private actions (such as drug usage), climate change, anything but methodological individualism, Keynesianism, etc. "There are no market failures, only government failures" is a characteristic example of such denialist ideology. |
Shunning these ideas is essential for "consistency" in the beliefs of many libertarians. If you don't admit contrary data, your theory is unfalsifiable. | Shunning these ideas is essential for "consistency" in the beliefs of many libertarians. If you don't admit contrary data, your theory is unfalsifiable. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == A Distorting Lens == | ||
| + | There is a major streak of spin and revisionism in libertarianism: when the facts don't back your ideology, [http://world.std.com/~mhuben/revisionism.html redescribe the world so that it does match.] When government does something undeniably good, such as freeing slaves, denounce it for other actions.<ref>Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, "Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men: A History of the American Civil War"</ref> Always look only at the costs of what governments do and the benefits of what markets do, never the reverse. Promote cost-benefit analysis now that you've stacked the deck against government. If you don't like the tax or gun laws, reinterpret the constitution ahistorically to suit your claims. Rebaptize historical figures (such as Jesus<ref>Bill Butler, [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig9/butler-b1.html The Libertarian From Nazareth?]</ref>)and documents (such as the Constitution) as libertarian. | ||
== A Cargo Cult == | == A Cargo Cult == | ||
