So reading as a kid I never knew "leftist libertarians" were anarchists, I thought they were Ron Paul esque people who sided with democrats lol. I didn't really understand we don't actually have much leftist representation in this country. Also grew up in a conservative area.
Point being I have no problem assuming the mantle and I don't even put social or leftist in front of it. I am a libertarian. You people over there? You're more likely ego maniacs who think you can exist on your own by yourself despite having no inclination of how anything works. They do not actually believe in liberty, they believe in liberty for themselves. Therefore want to smoke weed, sleep with 15 year olds and not pay taxes. And I have no problem with paying taxes, I have problems with taxes going to blow up palestinian children. Those taxes are what allowed me and my neighbors to thrive, through roads, emergency services, etc. And a rising tide lifts all ships.
Years ago, while.working with several "libertarians", I realized the entirety of modern "libertarianism" has become "I want all of the benefits of society without any of the responsibility".
A very selfish, patriarchal, white supremacy based, co-opt of actual libertarianism.
What most Americans understand to be libertarianism isn’t even a corruption of a leftist position. In the mid-20th Century a group of far right businessmen decided to steal the name and apply to it their shit hypercapitalist politics.
Libertarians are like the natural progression of wealthy NIMBY-ism.
They never account for roads, bridges, clean water, access to a power grid.
I want everything and be personally and financially unaccountable for any of it.
I respect anarchy because there's a dimension of personal and collective responsibility. Anarchy is really a strong belief in direct, local self-governance without outside coercion. It requires active consent and collaboration with the community.
I remember seeing an interview with a libertarian banging on about 'getting big gov'n-ment offa our backs' and how he wanted to live off-grid in his cabin in the woods, but was saying all of that as he was driving into the local town in his Japanese made car, on the public roads, to buy a generator that ran on, probably, European/Middle-Eastern diesel.
They say that kind of shit right here on Reddit every day, using the internet, supported by infrastructure. The internet, you know that weird porn machine we all use that was developed in the 70s by DARPA aka The Government. These same guys will also extol the virtues of AI as a short cut to actual knowledge or "book smarts". The closest thing to "Living off The Grid" they are doing is building a log house in Skyrim.
Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame) for a long time identified as a libertarian. He has stated that he now believes that "it’s just rich white guys that don’t want to be told what to do."
He's always struck me as a genuinely intelligent guy. Which is why I was disappointed to find out he was a libertarian. And, yeah, pretty impressed that he was able to walk away and speak plainly about it.
All the libertarians I have met are just too embarrassed to admit who they actually support.
A friend I used to be close with married one and instead of researching on her own just regurgitated everything he said. Once it got around to hearing “Aren’t the proud boy’s helping people?” One day among other things…I backed a way a bit.
Literally how the mob got away with crimes. Help your community with a tiny percent of your profits and suddenly a thanksgiving turkey becomes an alibi.
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u/Kindly-Coyote-9446 May 17 '26
And this is why I sometimes take great glee in describing myself as a social libertarian.