Whats A Libertarian?

[lame54]

A Libertarian Is A Republican With Plausible Deniability #WhatsALibertarian

[Wounded Bear]

1. Always considered libertarians to be...

Republicans on steroids.

[NightWatcher]

2. "Republicans who like hookers and pot"- Thom Hartmann

Not a direct quote but close.

[KentuckyWoman]

23. Oh that's perfect. nt.

[dorkzilla]

3. A deluded fool who thinks he sounds smart.

And nothing you say will dissuade them of their lunacy.

[MineralMan]

4. A Linux consultant who sometimes follows politics.

That's my experience with Libertarians.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

6. Ha! I actually can think of a couple of those I know.

[Odin2005]

14. Techie Libertarians are the most insufferable assholes.

Any site dominated by techies, like 4chan and Reddit, is complete shit because of it.

[MurrayDelph]

15. Those are the ones that I seem

to find myself dealing with most-often (Well, that and SF fandom).

They seem to operate on two equally false views.
1. An artificially-high view of their own self-worth, matched with
2. And equally-artificially-low view of everyone else's.

[Odin2005]

16. They have power fantasy issues.

They were bright kids who were often bullied as nerds and were thus easily attracted to the "lone genius against the stupid masses" trope in Ayn Rand's books. They see themselves as geniuses being kept down because democracy lets the "stupid normies" (to use a popular 4chan phrase) run things.

For all their pretensions about "liberty", Techie Libertarians are actually authoritarian technocratic elitists.

[HughBeaumont]

5. Someone who lives in a world where . . .

. . . Reagan and Bewsh were somehow "statists",
. . . Hitler was a lefty,
. . . Abolishing the minimum wage will help the poor and taxing the wealthy will cause America to fall to the Roooskies,
. . . FDR prolonged the Great Depression and the New Deal sucked,
. . . swaths of them being anti-choice doesn't put them in league with the Religious Right,
. . . America isn't right wing ENOUGH and being HYPER-right wing will solve all of our problems.

[meow2u3]

7. A Libertarian is conservative who likes to get stoned

#WhatsALibertarian

[Orsino]

8. Five bucks, same as in town.

Seriously, the notion that everything ought to be for sale defines the worst of libertarianism. The rejection of the idea of the commons is not just anti-American, but anti-civilization.

[bemildred]

9. A sucker. nt

[B Calm]

10. A right wing Republican who smokes pot!

[treestar]

11. one who believes the free market is magic

that letting it function without hindrance gets the best results for everyone.

[TexasProgresive]

12. An anarchist who is clothed in politically correct clothes.

[Odin2005]

13. "A Libertarian is an anarchist who wants police protection from his slaves"

-Kim Stanley Robinson

[hifiguy]

17. A republican who wants to smoke reefer and

watch porn.

Alternatively,

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

[Rex]

18. They are recovering republicans that think Ayn Rand has all the answers and not Reaganomics.

IOW, even more confused and lost in the sea of reality.

[madinmaryland]

19. Someone who has gotten his stuff thanks to the society he lives in...

and says fuck off to those who have not gotten theirs.

[madville]

20. I agree with them on some things like

Getting the US out of "free trade" agreements. Repeal of drug prohibition. Getting the government out of the marriage and abortion business. Strengthening civil liberties, particularly the 1st and 4th amendments.

I don't favor their open borders stance. They are too extreme about isolationist foreign policy but their policies about severely restricting US military overseas interventionist-type involvement are agreeable.

[lindysalsagal]

21. Selfish baby lacking critical thinking

"Gimme, I deserve everything given to me, and screw everyone else."

They can't figure out that local, state and federal governments make life livable.

[jmowreader]

22. Do you mean a Libertarian or a libertarian?

There is a difference.

A big-L Libertarian believes the only proper functions of the government are national defense and providing any infrastructure the private sector doesn't want to involve itself in. The old joke that a Libertarian is a "Republican who likes smoking pot" is somewhat close; the reality is, Libertarians hate drugs just as much as Republicans, but they want it legalized because legalization would take drug control out of the hands of government; they think the private sector being able to fire people who use drugs is all the control needed. (Most Libertarians actually run for office as Republicans. Witness the Pauls: if Libertarians could get elected to anything higher than county commissioner, they would run as Libertarians. Since Libertarian is another way of saying "unelectable," they choose to run on the GOP ticket.)

A small-L libertarian is a right-wing anarchist. They don't want ANY government; the defense of the nation should be left to private companies, fire and police protection should be privatized, roadbuilding should be privatized...