Monday, June 01, 2009

Some attempting to connect Scott Roeder to Libertarianism

It's a bit of a far stretch, but it's being done as can be seen in this blog post titled, "Prominent abortion provider murdered (suspected killer may be a libertarian.)

The Libertarian Party platform on abortion is clear:

U.S. Libertarian Party position

The U.S. Libertarian Party political platform (2008)[5] states: that "Recognizing that abortion is a sensitive issue and that people can hold good-faith views on all sides, we believe that government should be kept out of the matter, leaving the question to each person for their conscientious consideration."

There are a good number of Libertarians who have expressed a pro-choice sentiment, and trying to connect those on the fringe, such as Freeman's is just another scenario where the attempt is to give Libertarianism a bad name. It's just as silly as blaming religion as a whole for people like Roeder...It happens enough for this to be one of the top myths about Libertarianism:

Libertarians believe in violence against government.

Wrong! Media stories about people like the Ruby Ridge victims, the Freeman in Montana, and Timothy McVeigh, often mistakenly call these people "Libertarians". Libertarians (with a capital L) are members of the Libertarian Party, and to be such must have signed a pledge against the initiation of force. The Libertarian Party is the only party that expressly advocates honest negotiations to settle business dealings and differences and not forcing people to associate with others against their will, and that expressly forbids the use of force except in self defence against physical attack.

2 comments:

Terrence C. Watson said...

Hey there. Thanks for the link.

First, I'd hope we could distinguish between Libertarians (party members) and libertarians (those who subscribe to a libertarian philosophy.)

As far as I know, this guy isn't a Libertarian (capital L), but his anti-government and pro-individual sovereignty view makes him sound a lot like a libertarian.

People in the broader freedom movement should be aware of this, because both the leftists and the pro-lifers are trying to make a big deal out of his connections to "anti-government groups."

Best,

Terrence

Unknown said...

I'm not sure this guy is even a "small l" libertarian, though just as anti-abortion groups are labeled by the actions of men like him, it appears the same thing happens when it comes to libertarianism. Which is unfortunate, and is a part of the scapegoating that happens.