re: #89 Romantic Heretic

That’s what I regard all the libertarians as.

As I’ve said before all libertarianism is a marketing strategy. A sneaky and very successful one.

First it cuts the libertarians off from history. Since they are no longer anarchists they no longer carry the baggage that anarchy carries, the various acts of terror and other batshit craziness anarchists perpetrated in the 19th and early 20th Centuries.

Secondly the new name sets the debate before it has even started. By using liberty as the root word of the new name it makes it appear that anyone who disagrees with libertarianism is disagreeing with the concept of liberty itself. It’s bullshit, of course.

The fact that so many people have fallen for this piece of misdirection illustrates how slow on the uptake many people are.

It also appeals to youth who want to be counter-culture and different from the generic liberal and conservative dichotomy. For adults it seems to thrive only in rural areas. Not many libertarians riding the subways.