libertarianism
About us
An open, user owned community for the general disscussion of the libertarian philosophy.
- Libertarianism is the belief that each person has the right to live his life as he chooses so long as he respects the equal rights of others.
- Libertarians defend each person’s right to life, liberty, and property.
- In the libertarian view, voluntary agreement is the gold standard of human relationships.
- If there is no good reason to forbid something (a good reason being that it violates the rights of others), it should be allowed.
- Force should be reserved for prohibiting or punishing those who themselves use force.
Most people live their own lives by that code of ethics. Libertarians believe that that code should be applied consistently, even to the actions of governments, which should be restricted to protecting people from violations of their rights. Governments should not use their powers to censor speech, conscript the young, prohibit voluntary exchanges, steal or “redistribute” property, or interfere in the lives of individuals who are otherwise minding their own business.
Source: https://www.libertarianism.org/essays/what-is-libertarianism
Rules
1. Stay on topic
We are a libertarian community. There are no restrictions regarding different stances on the political spectrum, but all posts should be related to the philosophy of libertarianism.
2. Be polite to others and respects each others opinions.
Be polite to others and respects each others opinions. We don't want any form of gatekeeping or circlejerk culture here.
3. Stay constructive and informational
In general, all types of contributions are allowed, but the relevance to this community must always be evident and presented openly by the contributor. Posts that do not meet these requirements will be removed after a public warning. Also remember to cite you sources!
4. Use self-moderation measures first before reporting.
This community is fundamentally built upon freedom of speech. Since everyone understands libertarianism differently and we do not want to exclude any kind of content a priori, we appeal to the individual users to block/mute posts or users who do not meet their requirements. Please bear this in mind when filing a report
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Yeah, and there's never a reason given why "freedom" as conceived by a libertarian trumps all other values. It's just asserted that freedom is the most important fundamental human value from which all others derive, and thus it's the highest. I am not convinced (though I once was).
And the non-aggression principle fails to be useful when human relationships enter into the context; that is, it fails to be useful at all. I am partial to the libertarian ideal, as much as I don't like it, and in my own personal life, what others consider perfectly normal, I often feel as an attempt of coercion because of my libertarian affinity. And this is in relationship without a power dynamic. In other contexts, both in my life and from what I've seen of others, and especially where power dynamics exist, the assumptions of non-aggression principle are being routinely violated.
Human relationships restrict freedom in all sorts of ways and interfere with others's abilities, too. My use of a public bathroom removes from you the opportunity to use it simultaneously. You are less free in a sense because of my need to relieve myself. Attending to my biological needs results in a restriction of your opportunities. Sure, that's a trivial example, but, from a libertarian perspective, that restriction on freedom is not less important than more meaningful instances, like taxes that redistribute wealth. A violation of freedom is a violation of freedom. Period. It is after all, the fundamental value of what freedom is" and "before everything else".
In short, globalized libertarianism is both derivative and trashy.
Yeah, I hear what you're saying, and I see a lot of Libertarian-doubters have similar issues with the philosophy. You can point to a specific situation and say "Libertarianism doesn't work here. Libertarianism must be trash." But really I've been seeing the same thing with other competing philosophies right? Like "Our world is a mess. This is what Capitalism does? Capitalism is trash." And then right wing people say "look at the communism in Venezuela. Is this what the Left wants? Communism is trash" And the Libertariand are all "its not TRUE Libertarianism" It's not TRUE capitalism It's not TRUE communism Etc. But really it's just a lot of arguing over small matters that necessarily arise between people who hold different philosophies. There are some people who legitimately believe that governments are better equipped to decide what people need and better equipped to provide those needs to individuals. Others believe that the individual knows best and is in a better position to provide. Because of this one simple outlook on life there are necessarily thousands of differences in opinions about daily life choices, controls, limitations etc simply because of a higher disagreement. Yes, people find the non-aggression principle to be useless, but we Libertarians find war-making and unprovoked aggression to be less beneficial than peace, mutual cooperation, and the resulting division of labor.