Or you know, just go and do your own thing, it's cool.

This is more suited for Troper Covens and they already have this thread in OTC.

God dam it.

Shouldn't this be in Covens?

It is now.

(No, I didn't do it, not a mod here.)

Anyway, I have to admit that when I saw the thread title, the first thought was about whether "Libertarian" was capitalized because it started the title, or was referring to "Big 'L' Libertarians", as in those in the Libertarian Party.

For the record, I'm a "small 'l' libertarian" in general. I was formerly a member of the LP, but was turned off by the tone taken by True Believers(tm) that held (hold? Haven't looked lately) many of the higher positions in the party hierarchy.

Go Ron Paul, woo woo.

Will everyone in Covens please shut up about uniting? I don't feel like uniting with much of anyone. </complain>

So! Yeah! Libertarianism. Right.

I guess I'm a moderate libertarian, but I prefer to use the term "classic liberal" or "voluntaryist". Unfortunately, as much as I like the idea of letting people do their own thing, there seems to be a certain threshold past which you simply can't trust people not to mess things up. You can, however, absolve society of responsibility for them if you provide some basic services. So, yeah, go the free market, and go individual freedoms... But we're gonna have to tax you a little bit (and it'll probably be flat income tax with a reasonable bottom, alongside 10%-ish hit on non-basic-needs (basic-needs being defined with quite a bit of frugality in mind) goods-and-services, as well as road tolls and the like), and your privately-owned emergency services, telecommunications infrastructure, postal systems, etc. are unlikely to compete with the government's. Sorry.

^ At first glance (keeping in mind I just got off work), it sounds like you might want to take a peek at Minarchism (also known as limited-government libertarianism). The Wikipedia article isn't all that bad as a general overview, but it's not all that great beyond that, either.

Basic summary: minarchists believe that while there is a need for a government, said government should be limited to the barest minimum needed to protect individuals from fraud, theft, agression, or breach of contract.

Robert Nozick's book Anarchy, State, and Utopia goes into more detail on it, though as it's still on my "to read" list I can't offer any assessment of its value.

-wipes the dust from this thread-

Anyways... here I am! Johnson 2012!

edited 11th Sep '12 6:23:49 PM by EarlOfSandvich

I forgot I even made this thread.

Any way does anyone like personal freedom?

We can form our own Political Covens?

What do you mean?

I'm pretty hellbent on social issues to the degree that all man should be free to make choices so long as they don't harm others... which is about as far as things go without violating common sense.

People hav always support personal freedoms. It's freedoms or others that's the problem.

I'd say that I agree with libertarians on some issues but I wouldn't call myself a libertarian. I like personal freedom, if by that you mean the freedom of me to do whatever it is I want to do. The idea of personal freedom becomes very interesting when you live for a year with your more traditional Asian extended family, where the family comes first. It has a very collectivist feel to it.

Well, I'm a libertarian socialist. :3

Go team.

You can't tell me to unite! That goes against my personal freedom!

Yeah, what I mean is this: things like that government just shouldn't have a say over who would not marry, and so on. Drug possession charges are a big mistake and we shouldn't put people in prison for this. Social views like these...

Nobody says you must conform here. Posted here by choice.

Hey, your refusal to conform infringes on our right to form groups of like-minded individuals!

Burn the witch!

I'm a libertarian socialist (anarcho-communist, to be precise). I prefer the term anarchist, though. Here in the US, the term libertarian is increasingly becoming disassociated with anarchism, and increasingly associated with people who could probably be better described as minarchists than anarchists, such as the Libertarian Party and Randian Objectivists, so using the term anarchist creates less confusion.

*Bumps fists*

TERRORIST FIST JAB! *Bumps fists.*