5 ways to tell if you're a Libertarian

1. The left and the right hate you

Perhaps one of the most frustrating things about being a libertarian is how both the left and the right seem to hate you. The left can’t stand your economic views and willingness to stand up for people’s civil rights, regardless of who those people are, and the right can’t stand, well, your willingness to stand up for people’s civil rights. You constantly feel like a liberal around conservatives and a conservative around liberals. Your support for the Second Amendment and the rights of neo-Nazis to speak freely is sure to get you labeled a “white supremacist” by one side, while your support for the LGBT community, marijuana legalization, and limited government makes you a dirty hippy to the other.

2. People constantly confuse you with your anarchist friends

We’ve all been accused of being completely against government at least once, and while it’s true that most libertarians are for limited government in order to maximize freedom, we’re not typically for the total abolishment of government — that’s an anarchist thing. Libertarians generally believe in maintaining a small government primarily for judicial purposes, while anarchists believe government should be completely eradicated, placing their faith in private police or militia groups instead. But no matter how many times you explain this to acquaintances, most of them will probably ignore you.

3. You roll your eyes whenever someone trashes the free market

Let’s be honest — this one happens all the time. Whether it’s in casual conversation or after you tell someone you’re a libertarian, we’ve all experienced the mind-numbing rants against the free market. “The free market isn’t effective!” “Capitalism has killed more people than socialism!” “But, what abut income inequality?” “You don’t care about the poor!” Are you even a libertarian if you don’t spend at least half your time explaining how capitalism works to people who think using the state to take all your stuff is a moral imperative?

4. The NAP is practically sacred to you

The non-aggression principle, or NAP, is a staple of libertarian thought that tends to find more favor among pacifist liberals than it does hawkish conservatives. Libertarians are decidedly against intervening in other countries, against war, and against fear-mongering war propaganda, especially when it’s coming from the president. It’ll be a cold day in hell before anyone manages to convince you that U.S. intervention in Afghanistan is the correct course of action, and you wish diplomacy could be used more often as a means of settling international disputes. Just how many billions of tax dollars has the government spent on killing innocent people in the name of “freedom,” anyway?

5. You think taxation is theft

Speaking of tax dollars being spent on killing innocent people, you’re probably a libertarian if you believe taxation is theft. When the government is taking more and more of your hard-earned money and threatening to throw you in prison if you don’t comply, how can taxation be considered anything else? While some people say you’re bound to pay taxes as part of a social contract, libertarians reject this idea, believing that what you personally work for is yours to keep.

https://thelibertyreview.com/5-ways-to-tell-if-youre-a-libertarian/
Interesting.

Agreed with #1 as personally experienced on JPP.

Add Alt-Righties to #2. All violent political extremists seem to favor authoritarianism and forcing their views down the throats of all Americans.

#3: The wealth generated by capitalism is the funding that built this country to become the richest in the world. That said, unregulated capitalism led to Cuyahoga River catching fire and Flint water being toxic for children. Common sense should apply to regulated capitalism.

#4. I supported the US response in Afghanistan after 9/11. I believe Clinton's weak response to al-Qaeda and the Taliban led to 9/11. The two great oceans are no longer the moats protecting the US in the 21st Centurya they were for our first 200 years of existence. The US also has a right to protect our trade routes and support our trading partners. See the Capitalism response in #3. That said, while I support international efforts to keep the peace and protect peaceful trade, I'm not a big fan of nation building where the residents don't want international help.

#5 Taxation is a necessity to an extent. Roads need to be paid for. Same for water systems, our military, inspectors, law enforcement, intelligence agencies, etc. As for State taxes, I support State's Rights. If a state taxes unfairly, the residents can move such as they are doing from California to Texas.
 
You have a stunted education of the world.

Libertarians are children playing in the real world with silly beliefs.
Agreed.

Disagreed. 40% of voting Americans do not belong to either the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party. I strongly doubt they are all children with no sense of reality. It's the 40% of Americans who don't vote at all who have silly beliefs IMO.
 
1. The left and the right hate you
Nope. Libertarians are the right. The right end of the political spectrum values individual liberties, whether or not they are protected by a Constitution. The left end of the political spectrum abhors individual liberties, whether or not they are protected by a Constitution.

The left can’t stand your economic views and willingness to stand up for people’s civil rights,
Absolutely correct; a truism.

... and the right can’t stand, well, your willingness to stand up for people’s civil rights.
Contradictory. Conservatives stand up for civil rights. Leftists want tyranny.

Your support for the Second Amendment and the rights of neo-Nazis to speak freely is sure to get you labeled a “white supremacist” by [the left], while your support for the LGBT community, marijuana legalization, and limited government makes you a dirty hippy to the other.
Unfortunately, you are lumping three mistakes together as though they are the same.

1. Support for LGBTQIAMRDPPIPUSVEOWT-supremacy gets one mocked because they already enjoy full equality under the law, and advocacy for their supremacy is stupid. For this one deserves all the mockery one receives.

2. It is deceitful to hide behind the quip of "marijuana legalization" (which most everybody supports to some extent) to conceal advocacy for outright full legalization of all highly-addictive, and often lethal, drug abuse (and all related commerce) without considering the overwhelmingly prohibitive cost to society. Until one can explain how to ensure all problems and costs related to the thousands of desperate criminals willing to commit any crime just to get a fix, and to all the decay imposed on society by allowing such to occur, i.e. social decay that We the People don't want, the stupid suggestion will always be summarily dismissed.

3. It is deceitful to pretend that all libetarians mean the same thing by "limited government." Just like leftists who only say "immigrants" when discussing illegal immigration, many libertarians are anarchists and want no government at all ... and they say "limited government" as a euphemism to mean "eliminated government." When a libertarian says he wants limited government, the automatic presumption is that he is lying and that he is setting everyone up for a con job.

2. People constantly confuse you with your anarchist friends
... because they actually aren't confused. If one won't immediately clarify that one wants a Constitutional republic and that We the People need some government and some police and some military, deliberate concealment of one's position tells everyone everything they need to know.

Whenever I find myself speaking to someone who won't clarify his position on this matter, I immediately change the topic to economics and flesh out the truth.

We’ve all been accused of being completely against government at least once,
I've never been accused of such, but with libertarians, yes, that's the default position until clarified otherwise.

and while it’s true that most libertarians are for limited government in order to maximize freedom, we’re not typically for the total abolishment of government
You don't get to say "typically" because you don't know. The bottom line is that if one is going to use the label "libertarian" instead of "conservative," he is saying that he differes from the conservative position, and the conservative position is "limited government" ... which means that the libertarian is implying that he might want no government ... but is concealing his intentions. Anyone using the "libertarian" label needs to clarify up front.

— that’s an anarchist thing.
Exactly.

Libertarians generally believe in maintaining a small government
Nope. You don't get to say what libertarians "generally" believe. Many are flat-out anarchists.

By the way, the word "generally" means "in all cases", as in a generalization, and does not mean "in most cases" or "for the most part" as you are mistakenly using here.

But no matter how many times you explain this to acquaintances, most of them will probably ignore you.
Correct. It would appear that you are oblivious to the adoption of anarchy by libertarians as well as encouraging fighting against all government.

The Libertarian Party has changed its official wording from advocating for individual liberty to the elimination of governance, in order to cover all anarchists as well as including the "limited government" crowd. The Party also pushes for a world in which all individuals are sovereign, which implies no government/laws at all.

You should take this into account going forward.

3. You roll your eyes whenever someone trashes the free market
Conservatives and all to the political right of them roll their eyes at the suggestion/demand for interference in the free market. Leftists are the ones who want tyranny and government interference, nay domination, of all markets.

Let’s be honest — this one happens all the time. Whether it’s in casual conversation or after you tell someone you’re a libertarian, we’ve all experienced the mind-numbing rants against the free market. “The free market isn’t effective!” “Capitalism has killed more people than socialism!”
These are only people to the left of conservatives.

4. The NAP is practically sacred to you
The NAP is the position of MAGA.

5. You think taxation is theft
You're using a loaded word, i.e. "theft." Theft is illegal and taxation is not.

All people recognize that taxation is the confiscation of wealth by the government. Nobody likes it except for those who don't pay any. Libertarians think taxation should be abolished. Donald Trump would like to abolish the income tax, and he's not libertarian.

This topic is just a word game involving personal expressions of hatred for taxation.
 
1. The left and the right hate you

Perhaps one of the most frustrating things about being a libertarian is how both the left and the right seem to hate you. The left can’t stand your economic views and willingness to stand up for people’s civil rights, regardless of who those people are, and the right can’t stand, well, your willingness to stand up for people’s civil rights. You constantly feel like a liberal around conservatives and a conservative around liberals. Your support for the Second Amendment and the rights of neo-Nazis to speak freely is sure to get you labeled a “white supremacist” by one side, while your support for the LGBT community, marijuana legalization, and limited government makes you a dirty hippy to the other.

2. People constantly confuse you with your anarchist friends

We’ve all been accused of being completely against government at least once, and while it’s true that most libertarians are for limited government in order to maximize freedom, we’re not typically for the total abolishment of government — that’s an anarchist thing. Libertarians generally believe in maintaining a small government primarily for judicial purposes, while anarchists believe government should be completely eradicated, placing their faith in private police or militia groups instead. But no matter how many times you explain this to acquaintances, most of them will probably ignore you.

3. You roll your eyes whenever someone trashes the free market

Let’s be honest — this one happens all the time. Whether it’s in casual conversation or after you tell someone you’re a libertarian, we’ve all experienced the mind-numbing rants against the free market. “The free market isn’t effective!” “Capitalism has killed more people than socialism!” “But, what abut income inequality?” “You don’t care about the poor!” Are you even a libertarian if you don’t spend at least half your time explaining how capitalism works to people who think using the state to take all your stuff is a moral imperative?

4. The NAP is practically sacred to you

The non-aggression principle, or NAP, is a staple of libertarian thought that tends to find more favor among pacifist liberals than it does hawkish conservatives. Libertarians are decidedly against intervening in other countries, against war, and against fear-mongering war propaganda, especially when it’s coming from the president. It’ll be a cold day in hell before anyone manages to convince you that U.S. intervention in Afghanistan is the correct course of action, and you wish diplomacy could be used more often as a means of settling international disputes. Just how many billions of tax dollars has the government spent on killing innocent people in the name of “freedom,” anyway?

5. You think taxation is theft

Speaking of tax dollars being spent on killing innocent people, you’re probably a libertarian if you believe taxation is theft. When the government is taking more and more of your hard-earned money and threatening to throw you in prison if you don’t comply, how can taxation be considered anything else? While some people say you’re bound to pay taxes as part of a social contract, libertarians reject this idea, believing that what you personally work for is yours to keep.

https://thelibertyreview.com/5-ways-to-tell-if-youre-a-libertarian/

6) With very few exceptions, they will spend countless hours on the internet defending the regime of Donald Trump and the Republican Party, despite claiming to be a free-thinking Libertarian.
 
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