Have you ever known a libertarian who was lower middle class and other than white?

[Proud to be Woke]

I have wondered about this for years and years, because I personally have met a number of self identified libertarians and ALL of them were white, male and from a middle or upper middle class background. Your thoughts?

[FalloutShelter]

1. Me too...

Their motto:
Get your hand off of my stack.

[TheBlackAdder]

20. Libertarians are the biggest abusers of public largess-plug themselves into every program possible.

.

Every one known and researched are all self-serving takers. They only promote things that they or friends can benefit from, and if others can benefit, it's purely by chance.


They view programs they can plug into as somehow deserved.

They view programs they can't tap into as some form of tax they are paying that just benefits others.

.

[FalloutShelter]

21. Exactly right.

[Phoenix61]

2. They are Republican's who refuse to admit it.

At least all the ones I’ve met fall into that category. They are all white middle to upper class.

[TheRealNorth]

3. I am sure they exist (i thought Herman Cain was a libertarian)..

But yeah, your description matches all the Libertarians that I personally know.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

4. To be completely honest: I first read this as "LIBRARIANS"

I had no clue what the hell was going on until I reread it.

[GenXer47]

10. lol me too!

I was trying to figure out a funny response but to no avail!

[Flatrat]

23. Librarians

are there to help you find the libertarians, in the children's section.

[RobinA]

27. I Did Too

And I realized I never ever knew or knew of a male librarian. White, yes. Have no idea what class any librarian is.

[Raine]

31. Me too, lol! 😅 I didn't realize till I read your post

I was having a difficult figuring out the OP.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

36. Any news on where they're building the Trump Presidential Libertary?

Libertarians will greet all visitors, showing them to the bitcoin ATMs and the statues of Trump and Narcissus.

[NewHendoLib]

5. the fatal flaw of libertarians are their selfishness and hypocrisy

I've known few, but they boggle the mind.

[bluesbassman]

6. There was a classic photo of a Libertarian during the Camp Fire in CA.

Grinning from ear to ear after Cal Fire saved his ass and property from becoming a pile of ash. He was standing there with wearing some Libertarian themed t-shirt thanking the government taxpayer funded firefighters. I often wonder how soon after the smoke cleared did he star badmouthing the big bad government again.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

7. Most libertarians believe military/police/fire are among the things tax $ should be used for (nt)

[bluesbassman]

11. True, because they perceive it as benefitting themselves.

And in the end, that’s all they care about.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

15. Fair enough. This is their dogma, but their dogma lacks internal consistency (nt)

[NewHendoLib]

18. Absolutely

My only libertarian friend thinks he should decide when to cut his grass. Yet when his neighbors let theirs go, he complains. Just a simple example.

"Leave me alone and I won't tell you what to do... until it bothers me"!!

[RobinA]

28. To Me

their fatal flaw is that they have no idea how anything works. They long for the imagined good old days when men were men and the infrastructure built itself, but they have no idea what was actually going on.

[Thomas Hurt]

8. My experience is the same, they call themselves libertarian but they are generally...

racist conservatives who want to smoke grass or they are atheists. I think they are conflicted conservatives myself.

Libertarian - one who espouses an ideology where all people are free to be cheated, poisoned, maimed or killed to insure libertarian cash flow and higher profit.

[JI7]

9. There are a few but most are white hetero males from xtian backgrounds

[brewens]

12. Definitely. I spent a lot of time in rural eastern Washington state in the Moses Lake/

Ephrata area, it would be hard to find any that aren't lower middle class, or lower.

[GenXer47]

13. 94% white and 68% men

...according to this:

https://www.prri.org/spotlight/libertariangotw/

I think it's mostly a gun fetish club.

[haele]

32. I've always found Liberatarians to be Anti-Tax Free Riders who...

want free Sex and to smoke weed/do coke with impunity.
They don't care about Civil Rights unless it's for them, they want to get rid of all government programs for those people but keep those that benefit them.
They care primarily about themselves, not their kids, not their grandkids. They'll do lip service to whatever allows them to look good - family, business ethics, religion - but everything they do will always benefit them personally or their social position.

They will always talk about how they work hard and used their own bootstraps to get to where they are, dontchknow?

Haele

[jimfields33]

14. Most I see are white women.

There are a lot of excellent library science programs at a lot of colleges. Maybe some better recruiting would solve this.

[drray23]

17. The OP is about libertarians, not librarians.nt.

[Tanuki]

25. "Oh, that's very different...never mind!"

[Sympthsical]

26. I absolutely read librarian

And then I started thinking.

And then I realized all the librarians I have experience and interactions with over, say, the past ten years were middle class white women.

So, I was all, "Where is this going . . ."

Libertarians are a different kettle of fish.

[Retrograde]

35. IMHO there's some class selection built into the profession

Being employed as a librarian usually requires a degree in "Library Science", which is a graduate degree. So not only do you need the resources to complete a college degree, but you need to stay on for an extra year or two. Then you have to compete for few jobs available, which generally don't pay all that much. I think it's a holdover from the days when municipal librarian was one of the few jobs that welcomed women who wanted a life outside the home and one of the ones suitable for educated women.

I haven't been inside a library since before the pandemic, although I borrow e-books and audio books regularly. From what I recall, though, library workers tend to be predominantly White, even in this area with a large Asian population.

[Johnny2X2X]

16. Lower middle class for sure

But can't think of one that wasn't white.

One thing that I think is a hallmark for most of them is that they believe they are wealthier than they are. Had a buddy who constantly talked about being in the top 1% blah blah, and how he was one of the high earners who drove the economy. Found out he was making $80K a year. Nice income, sure, but not even top 10%, much less 1%. They don't seem to understand that the 1% is an exclusive club and they ain't in it.

[TheProle]

24. "But can't think of one that wasn't white."

A couple off the top of my head:

Big Boi (Outkast) (AA)
Russell Means (Native American)

Vast majority are white though.

[UTUSN]

19. K&R for excellent point.

[Freddie]

22. They're Republicans who dislike war and like to get high

Seems like misogyny is part of the package too.

[Kaleva]

29. I don't know the political leanings of most people I'm aquanted with

I generally avoid discussion of politics. I'm not going to change anyone's mind nor is anyone going to change mine so the effort is fruitless.

[Hortensis]

30. Which kind of libertarian? Real libertarian is possibly a small, third personality type,

genetically linked like the big two of liberal and conservative. One cautious estimate I read years ago, but not based on studies, was maybe 13% of all. Of course, some of those are going to be black, if proportional would be something like 13% of 13%.

No to your question, but then I don't recall any ever identifying as Republican to to us personally either.

From what I've observed, most who've been identifying "libertarian" are mostly just strong economic conservatives who think they've found a more respectable ideological excuse to dress up their behavior. (A business friend once decided he was libertarian because land use regulations were limiting how he could expand his home and something he heard sounded good; and then he wasn't when I pointed out the libertarian rights he was proclaiming would allow his neighbor to set up a lube shop on his property next door. )

Regarding libertarian personality, btw, it's a damned good thing they're few. Personal freedom is the cre, highest principle. For extremists, close to unlimited individual freedom can be the ONLY principle. While both conservative and liberal are altruistic, libertarianism regards altruism as a flaw and weakness, and libertarian personality feels that at gut level. Moderates aren't so crazy, capable of believing some taxation and some assistance to others can be beneficial, but strong libertarians -- oh, my! They'll regard with puzzled contempt people who'd risk their lives to save others and be outraged at being forced to pay taxes at all, much less to pay for dialysis to keep natural losers who can't take care of themselves alive longer.

[xmas74]

33. I know many lower middle class or working class Libertarians.

I know of an entire black family locally that is proudly Libertarian.
I know a few military spouses who are originally from S Korea and are Libertarian though I suspect that's because they vote like their white military husbands.

[Retrograde]

34. I know a Black woman who's a Libertarian

she occasionally runs for office on a Libertarian ticket, and is active in the local Libertarian party. But she's sort of a wishy-washy one: she thinks governments shouldn't be prying into peoples' personal lives, but should provide basic services such as roads, libraries, schools, and a social safety net.

[Coventina]

37. All the libertarians I've known have been poor, white, straight males. n/t

[Patterson]

38. The ones I know

want to appear smart, without having the brains or putting in the work.

[sakabatou]

39. I've never met any personally.

Just those online.

[Model35mech]

40. Yes. A native American janitor at Bemidji State Univ. in Minnesota

[tenderfoot]

41. I know plenty of blue collar WHITE self-professed "libertarians"

or what I refer to them as "conservative Republicans that are too cowardly to admit it"

[LeftInTX]

42. There was a lower income white Libertarian who

marched for Black Lives Matter.

His GF wss black and in a wheelchair.
He was killed while marching for BLM

He was armed at the time.
Got into an altercation with an armed Uber driver
Uber driver shot him
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2022/05/19/austin-black-lives-matter-protester-garrett-foster-family-sues-daniel-perry-uber/9837712002/