Thursday, February 26, 2009

Critiques of Libertarianism, more like elementary taunts

This was kind of funny that Libertarianism was seen as such a threat that there is an actual website out there to give you the talking points to "deal" with the arguments from "Libertarian Evangelists" at first I thought it might have some informational value, until I got to this part:

The Libertarian Party: America's third largest political party.

Wow, third! That sounds impressive until you realize that the Libertarian Party is about one percent of the size of the other two. Funny how they don't mention that in their slogan. I guess they should get a new slogan. Let's have a new slogan contest for the Libertarian Party!

* A party a lot smaller than the Communists used to be?
* The party that can't get as many votes as any one-shot third party?
* The party that's elected fewer to national office than the Socialists?
* The party whose symbol is a big government statue.
* The party with the oxymoronic name?
* The party of Pat Paulson, uh, I mean Don Imus, uh, I mean Howard Stern!
* America's Third Most Comical Political Party?
* Preschool for hyperactive Republicans?

Evidently some have taken Mike Huben seriously enough to write a response to him. Which rather than make Huben think, probably created him awarding another Libertarian Loser of the week. Which maybe it's just me, but I believe in freedom of thought, when you can't offer a real argument but your response is immaturity? It's hard to take the critique seriously and if what Huben said is true and the numbers of Libertarians are small enough to mock, then why expend so much effort?

3 comments:

Mike Huben said...

Libertarianism is not so much a threat as a constant annoyance on the internet.

It is strange that you dismiss a site linking 500+ criticisms of libertarianism and libertarian positions based on the mocking humor in one tiny section of my Non-Libertarian FAQ.

Many libertarians take my FAQ seriously enough that I link about 10 of their responses at my site. And the responses are uniformly pathetic, including David Friedman's.

Many OTHER libertarians have written to me to say the FAQ is spot on, and identifies huge problems of libertarian beliefs.

And if you read enough, you'd find the "About The Author" page where I do explain why I expend the effort (at the end.)

Mike Huben

Unknown said...

I'm sorry Mike, I read for quite some time, then visited your blog. To me it was contradictory to first say the group was so small they didn't matter and to mock them but then to go on and on and on with reasoning as to why they are so horrible.

I'm more of the sort that's interested in real exchanges rather than poo throwing. I think it accomplishes more.

Mike Huben said...

Sounds to me as if you're looking for excuses to avoid conflict with your beliefs. That's a normal part of confirmation bias.

There's nothing contradictory about a group being small enough to be unimportant AND horrible.

And if you really object to poo throwing, then you need to reject most of the literature of libertarianism and the LP.