• Allonzee@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    They claim to believe in maximum freedom regardless of the societal consequences.

    A classic example is imagining the only water source for a hundred miles in any direction being claimed or purchased by someone. A libertarian would tell you that they should be entitled to sell that water for any price they like regardless of how many people will die as a direct consequence, and they insist one of the state’s only functions is to shoot the people that try to take the water rather than just die quietly.

    If you corner one in a debate, they’ll eventually admit that the personal freedom without accompanying social responsibility is the only thing that matters, and that society probably won’t be able to function as a result, but it is worth the collapse to maximize the freedom of the individual… to be a sociopathic dick.

    They’re kind of modern Republicans minus the “because supply side Jesus told me so” Schtick that absolves them of moral responsibility for their antisocial opinions and positions. Libertarians don’t tend to care about the veneer of finding a reason to blame the people who got hurt by their bulldozers, “I have a bulldozer so I win lol.” The state, in their warped mind, should only exist to protect citizens PROPERTY RIGHTS from others, full stop. No social supports, literally no public anything. They even fantasize about privatizing all roads/schools for private profit.

    Most billionaires conduct themselves as libertarians. Cut taxes to the bone, with the sole exception being the defense/police/court system infrastructure that protects their Ill gotten dragon hoards from those they exploited it from.

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Of course the really juicy contradiction in their claims that their ideology is about Liberty is that Wealth and Ownership are actually restrictions on everybody else’s freedom - you literally can’t go into the land somebody owns withour their authorization and the wealthy can at will stop you from getting the things you need by outbidding you for them and you have no chance if they wish it so.

      Wealth and Ownership let the few control what the many can do, the very antithesis of Freedom.

      Maybe the single greatest scam that Libertarians have played on everybody, especially the “Modern” Left, was to overload everybody with meaningless discussions and focus on Effects rather than Causes, to the point of silencing the much older discussions and thinking about Money and of Ownership as the greatest forms of Power and Control Over Others.

    • Mango@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      Kinda hilarious how they seem to want no control structures in their way so that they can run their own specific control structure.

      • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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        19 hours ago

        They essentially just want a return to feudalism, but they know that would get them laughed out of any serious discussions, so they dress it up as “economic liberty”