On 3/26/19 6:22 PM, Punk wrote:
The Libertarian As Conservative - Bob Black
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/bob-black-the-libertarian-as-conserv...
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I think Black's views are mostly accurate. Vast majority of people who pretend to be 'libertarians' are in reality rabid supporters of industrial fascism.
An interesting article, but a little long winded and jargon heavy for my taste. I like radical propaganda that does not alienate "regular folks" on contact. When I see "Libertarian as Conservative" I mentally respond, "So what else is new?" If the Libertarian ideology of its leading U.S. advocates did not share key features with Conservative theory and practice, why would Republican operatives have taken the trouble to co-opt the Libertarian Party in a hostile buy-out back in the 1990s? Today our Libertarian speakers, authors and pretend-candidates work in tandem with the Republican Party: Both do their best to defend billionaires and their corporations from taxation, fight against unions as a matter of principle, assert the right of Corporate persons to destroy communities and natural resources to enhance shareholder value for absentee landlords, etc. When I think about the word "Conservative" as more than just an arbitrary label, I have to ask what the people involved want to "conserve." Libertarians I have personally known were interested in conserving their Middle Class status - real, aspirational or imaginary - against perceived assaults by lesser economic beings and, paradoxically, the State tyranny that makes their preferred way of life possible. Between Libertarian and Conservative I see differences in belief and style, but not in motives and actions. I would not describe Libertarians as "Conservatives who do drugs," but maybe as "Conservatives who have no use for fundamentalist religion." I think that hits the mark squarely.