You’re Not a Real Libertarian!:
If you are an open Libertarian, there is no doubt you have been told you are not a real Libertarian. In an ideology that is about free…
If you are an open Libertarian, there is no doubt you have been told you are not a real Libertarian. In an ideology that is about free though you would think that differences of opinion would be normal. Though the ideology ranges from Anarchist up to Classic Liberal. There are also left leaning “Chomsky” Libertarians, which are not widely thought of. The base principles of Libertarianism are the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP), and Anti-Interventional. These are consistent accross the board. NAP is essentially live and let live as long as you arn’t hurting anyone else. On. issues that deal with the role of government, everyone seems to think their brand of Libertarianism is the only true Libertarianism. I’m going talk about the different labels, as well as some of the areas were Libertarians split in issues.
The different kinds of Libertarians
Chomsky Libertarians
Most people don’t know, nor talk about left leaning Libertarian. Many feel their existence is an oxymoron. The reason is they believe in socialist policies. Think Tulsi Gabbard. She respects the constitution, and wants to bring our troops home. She also wants to reinvest that money in Healthcare and other big gov programs. The vast majority of libertarians mantra is “Taxation is theft” and believe in Volunteerism over using the state. TheseLibertarians don’t seem to be very libertarian with those standards. In the rest of the article I will simply be talking about the main brand of Nozick’s Libertarians.
Anarchist
Anarchism believe in the complete absence of a government. Total capitalism, total volunteerism, private security, private fire department, and zero standing Army. Even within anarchist there are ones that would not fall into the Libertarian camp. As my friend Jessica Green explains in her podcast, the differences comes from how do we get to a state of Anarchy? There are “Left Handed” Anarchist that would want to use violence to burn the system to the ground. This is a violation of NAP, and not a Libertarian principle. Where you also have the Libertarian Anarchist, who wants to work within the system. Step the system down to get to the point of no government, using non violent means. This is how they work with the rest of Libertarians to achieve the overall goals.
In political theory, Anarchy and Communism are very similar. The difference is that Communism believes in the collective. All has effort goes into one pot, and split amongst the people. Everyone has a specific needed job and the group relies on each other. It is not sustainable. When one person doesn’t pull there weight there needs to be an authoritarian to make people work. Otherwise no one would work. that is how we get the genocidal governments we have seen throughout history. Anarchist believe in the individual. They have their own private propert, and use their skills to trade with other individuals, creating full capitalism. It works to prevent an authoritarian, when coupled with guns and self defense. Critics will say anarchy is still unsustainable as there is still no justice system, or protection from foreign powers.
Minarchist/classic liberal/Constitutionalist
Classic Liberal and Constitutionalists are synonyms. Minarchist and Classic Liberals are very are very similar. They believe in a small government. Monarchist believe the only function of Government is to protect the country with a standing Army. Where Classic Liberals believe in the the responsibilities laid out in the Preamble to the Constitution. “Establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
The Founders were the original Classic Liberals. The biggest criticism of these are how do you pay for a government like this and still believe Taxation Is Theft?
Key Policies
Libertarians even disagree with those that fit into their categories. They disagree on a multitude of issues.
Taxation
All right leaning Libertarians believe taxation is theft (extortion). To what extent is it theft is debated. To some, any form of taxation would be theft. To others income tax, and Tariffs would be acceptable. The reason is for this, is the level of consent. Obviously Anarchist don’t need to pay for a government. The rest do, unless you can pay for everything voluntary, or charge per use of the service. You can look at a sales tax as a voluntary payment for and item. You consent to it. If you don’t want to pay for it, then you don’t have to buy the item. Tariffs, though a cost passed on to the customer, could be an incentive to buy local. As well as looked at as a cost for a company to do business in that country.
The reason taxation is theft is simple, really a misnomer. Taxation is Robbery or extortion. “Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by putting the victim in fear.” “Extortion or a shakedown is obtaining benefit through coercion; Robbery is the simplest form of extortion.” So income taxes for example, the government forces you to pay them under the threat of jail time. They use the police and their guns as the enforcement arm.
Abortion
Libertarians tend to split when it comes to abortion. From my experience the split seems to be fairly even. It is the same reason for the split of the population as a whole. Some are pro choice, and believe that the baby receives its individual rights at conception. It would be murder to abort. The pro-choice Libertarians believe the baby does not get its rights until it can live outside the womb; on its own. The rights belong to the mother. To each it would be a violation to deny those rights.
Border enforcement
The differences between Libertarians on borders is usually based on the type of libertarian one is. An Anarchist is much more often going to be for open borders. They believe that this land is not owned by anyone but the individual, so anyone can come here and share the space. The others are more likely to believe in border enforcement as a mechanism to keep the country safe, and to maintain population control.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a lot of nuances when claiming to be a Libertarian. If you haven’t been told you are not a real Libertarian yet, then you probably arn’t very active in the online community. There are also many people who claim to be Libertarians, then deride the LGBT community with their religious beliefs. Generally Libertarian won’t tell others how they are living is wrong. They definitely won’t try to use a government to make laws against how others live. The main thing to remember if you are questioning if you are a “real” Libertarian or not, is your take on NAP. Are you ok with people living as they wish? Even if that means that it is a sin in your eyes? Like LGBT people. Do you believe that the government shouldn’t punish people for victimless crimes? Like Sex work, or Taking Drugs. Do you believe in personal responsibility? That it’s not the governments job to protect the people from themselves? If you said yes to all, then you are probably a true Libertarian.