[lbo-talk] My Ayn Randian, libertarian loving relatives....argh... !!!

ken hanly northsunm at yahoo.com
Sat Jan 2 07:21:47 PST 2010


So what do these young people think of the libertarians such as Raimondo at antiwar.com? Libertarians seem to have widely different views on what US foreign policy should be like. Whenever I want a good selection of critical articles on US foreign policy I go first to antiwar.com.

Cheers, k hanly

Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html

--- On Fri, 1/1/10, Bryan Atinsky <bryan at alt-info.org> wrote:


> From: Bryan Atinsky <bryan at alt-info.org>
> Subject: [lbo-talk] My Ayn Randian, libertarian loving relatives....argh... !!!
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Friday, January 1, 2010, 7:57 PM
> Oh god. Has there been a large surge
> in Randian and libertarian worship among the 20 something
> crowd?
>
> I ask because my father's sister has has five daughters who
> had several boys who are now mostly in there early to late
> 20s, and it seems they are nearly all entranced by Rand,
> Nozick, and libertarian tripe in general.
>
> Lately, some of them have taken to use Facebook as their
> soap box. It is embarrassing to read their nonsense.
> I was wondering if others notice this trend, have to suffer
> this silliness. Do I just have the bad luck of the draw, or
> is this a trend among that generation?
>
> Here are some sadly funny quotes from them of late:
>
> "Why is it that buildings in America can withstand
> earthquakes and strong hurricanes while buildings in
> countries in Russia and China crumble like Saltine crackers
> under similar conditions? "
>
> "When the strongest free nation is reduced to a socialized
> welfare state the entire world be will threatened by the
> tyrant with the biggest army and the most destructive
> weapons. In the end, only a one world government imposing
> their ideology of how much enough is will be capable of
> controlling us and that will be a disaster for those of us
> that love our freedom. "
>
> "Our Country donates more money, resources, knowledge, and
> manpower to help humanity all around the globe than all
> other countries combined. Only in a free country can free
> people help others in need. Capping freedom in the name of
> "social justice" will hurt efforts to end human suffering
> globally."
>
> I mistakenly tried to answer a quote of their's from
> Nozick: "Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with
> forced labor"
>
> With this quick critique from me: "One big problem with
> Nozick's minimal state (and libertarian nonsense in general)
> is that as the differential distribution of resources
> inevitably grows more and more monopolistic in a feedback
> loop, in your dream society, the percentage of the
> population impoverished will grow, and unlike Nozick's
> utopia, they will not take this sitting down, and the only
> way to ensure a retention of this distribution would be an
> extremely large police state. Oh goody!"
>
> Which just set them off on a feeding frenzy:
>
> "Ouch Brian...the liberal personal attack method is growing
> weary. Your dream society seems more like communism, where
> the distribution of resources is supposedly equal (unless of
> coarse you are part of the communist elite). Only problem is
> that production is reduced because there is no motivation to
> even meet demand. Eventually, distribution of basic products
> requires an extremely large and brutal police state - as
> history has shown and that is your reality. Your criticism
> of Nozick's minimal state is missing a very basic
> unmeasurable component: Risk. In a free society, individuals
> have the freedom to take risks based on perceptions of
> rewards. Many risks are not successful and thus individuals
> economic status changes, sometimes drastically. Sure, you
> consider your self to be a well indoctrinated liberal
> elitist who has all the answers and just wishes others would
> listen - because you know it all. You have the inane ability
> to detect injustice where ever it's perpetrated anywhere in
> the universe and immediately understand what it will take to
> level the playing field in a fair and just system. If only
> others could see things as clearly as you do....But the real
> reality is your thoughts are extremely far to the left.
> Libertarianism promotes a free society which is what this
> Country's constitution is based on. Freedom also offers you
> the liberty to have an unpopular viewpoint and the ability
> to espouse it where ever and when ever you please without
> fear of government retribution, jail, or death as was the
> fate of those fighting for freedom in Tienanmen Square.What
> I don't understand is why we need faux freedom fighters,
> like you, to correct self perceived injustices. "
>
> "That is right, you are not a liberal, you are a communist.
> For some reason it is more important to you to have social
> equality than justice and human rights. You can say that I
> am prepubescent and i don't care because its not true but at
> least I don't have something mentally wrong with me. There
> are 2 stages to communism, and until you get to the ... See
> Morepure communist state human rights doesn't matter. That
> is why over 60 million people have died in the last century
> in the name of equality. Also what do you do besides live
> off the teet of your wife's work. Well I guess this just
> proves that you value your life more than others and so live
> like a parasite and live off the work of others. You may not
> agree with my views but you have never stated yours. Get off
> your ivory tower, just because you have been stuck in
> college for the last 25 years doesn't mean you know
> everything or anything."
>
>
>
>
>
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