Libertarians believe that...

[Boojatta]

Poll question: Libertarians believe that...

[TommyO]

1. Dickensian suffering is so much fun, they want to inflict it on everyone.

[Towlie]

2. "Dickensian suffering" gets 164 Google hits, so nobody knows what the hell you're talking about.

See for yourself:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Dickensian+suffering%22&btnG=Search

With that many hits, it's not exactly the hot topic at parties.

[Boojatta]

3. about 26,300 English pages for "nobody knows what the hell"

Congratulations on using an exact phrase that is approved by Google.

[Reterr]

5. I think outside of Freeperville most people are probably aware of Dickens' work

without having to use "teh googel"...

[riverdeep]

8. "Is our children learning?" n/t

[Laelth]

4. They believe suffering isn't their fault, isn't their responsibility, and isn't their problem.

They are, generally, selfish and blind to the benefits they receive from government. They want all the benefits of government. They just don't want to pay for those benefits.

:dem:

-Laelth

[ColbertWatcher]

6. They believe that their ideological purity will work in a multi-cultural nation.

And, that people want to hear their shit.

[superduperfarleft]

7. They believe that roads, schools, fire & police depts, etc. are a naturally-occurring phenomenon n/t

[xchrom]

9. there are a lot of libertarians here at DU.

i'll be interested in watching how this poll goes.

[Toucano]

10. In all of the whole human race, Mrs. Lovett, there are two kinds of men and only two.

There's the one staying put in his proper place
And the other with his foot in the other one's face.
Look at me, Mrs. Lovett, look at you!



The libertarian believes that the proper place for the other guy's foot is in my face.

[burning rain]

11. Dickensian suffering is right and just.

It is proper that people who aren't productive should suffer. And being productive means having wealth.

[walkaway]

12. There are a lot less Libertarians over 50 yrs old these days.

When you lose half of your retirement savings and your job is on shaky ground.....Socialism starts looking pretty good.

[devilgrrl]

17. Yeah? Well there seems to be quite a few under 50!

They're Republicans but won't admit it.

[izquierdista]

13. That all things are equal

And that minimum wage workers all get the same wage because it was a coincidence that they all struck the same deal with their employers.

[Luminous Animal]

14. My favorite quote...

That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
Kim Stanley Robinson, "Green Mars" p318

[Warren DeMontague]

15. Other: that Ayn Rand would whoop Dickens's ass. nt

[riverdeep]

16. I'm not going to demonize all Libertarians.

I think they genuinely believe in an outlook that they think will help, just like we do. There are selfish, short-sighted bastards, John Stossel-I'm looking at you, but a lot of them are good people.

I will say, one time I had a long talk with a Libertarian and I asked him to name some large culture that successfully practiced Libertarianism. What he gave me was the example, which I've since heard many times, of the US shortly after the founding to around the civil war. Others change the times around, but that's the general period.

So, I looked at the principles he laid out: Libertarianism believes in individual liberty and the belief that people should be able to do as they please, as long as they don't harm anyone else. But during this time, there was outright ownership of blacks, and quasi-ownership of women. Well over half the population, then, had no liberty.

Another principle or tendency, is isolationism. Mind your own business, and stay out of the affairs of other nations. But America has been involved in the affairs of other nations all along. Whether it was a major war like the Barbary Wars or wars by proxy or simple meddling, we rarely followed George Washington's edict to avoid entanglement in the affairs of other nations.

Property rights is almost a fetish of Libertarianism, so how does that explain the driving out of Native Americans?

When you want to test out a new idea, you start with a model, a small scale construction, and then see if THAT works, if it does, THEN you build a large version. This way, if something goes wrong, you don't lose that many resources. I told him this, he hemmed and hawed. It turns out, some Libertarians thought along the same lines. The 'Free State Project' asked people over the internet to move to New Hampshire to push that state into a Libertarian-leaning enclave. The goal was 20,000 people. So far, 701 people have actually done it. Successful? Of course, slavery existed in most cultures and now it doesn't, so I'm not saying it can't be possible, but I'd be a lot more convinced with a concrete working example.:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_State_Project

[Sebastian Doyle]

18. Ebeneezer Scrooge was Right!!!111!!!!

That lazy son of a bitch Cratchit should have worked a double shift on Xmas for regular wages and been happy to do it, and who gives a fuck if his sick cripple kid sees a doctor????222????22?

If Cratchit wasn't so lazy, he would be rich like Scrooge (who inherited everything from his dad, Ebeneezer H.W. Scrooge)!!111!!!111111!