Applied Autism…
Libertarian arguments, when stretched outside of their proper sphere, very quickly annoy me. These are people who make the argument that it’s ok to defraud someone with words (non-violence) but evil to use physical force to undo the results of the fraud (violence). Sailer nails it here- Libertarianism is simply applied autism. I.e. people who can’t see past the economic model of individualism and experience the full measure of humanness with all of its irrational and arbitrary attachments (libertarians call this “collectivism”).
January 7th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
I’m just getting around to looking at this peice, Tom.
I agree with you that the big-L Libertarians are out to lunch on most social issues, but almost always right on economic (and usually political) issues; this side of the post-nation-state world, anyway. Their main problem is that they tend toward removing all emotional weight from any decision, which is an entirely inhuman way of dealing with the world.
The open-borders thing is one of those that bring me stingingly back to reality when I start to get carried away by their small-gov’t, pro-capitalism sweet talk. They seem to be unaware that not everything in this life has a bottom line.
In illustration of the disconnect, I offer a line from one of the last commenters in the linked article:
It’s a lesson worth taking to heart.