this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2024
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Not left libertarians (typically). I'm trying to reclaim this term from the right-wing chuds who have taken it over.
I've seen the term Libertarian Communist around and that makes sense in an international setting. In the US both terms are tainted though. You could try a synonym like Social Autonomy though.
Libertarian Socialism is the one I see around the most.
Best I can do is Libarbarians
maybe don't
As an Anarcho-Syndicalist I disagree, the term Libertarian should be reclaimed by those who truly support Liberty and oppose hierarchy
sounds like you already have a term for that
Why not?
I'd say because it's a losing battle. It takes substantially less effort to drag a symbol or label through the mud than it does to clean it off. Add to that it's still in active use by rightoids, and all you're going to accomplish is giving people the wrong idea of what you stand for.
Just like how the American left wing is still right of center, it feels like American libertarians are still auth of center. Glad there's at least one maniac like me out there
American liberals are right of center. The American left wing is leftist, we're just small and don't have much influence over politics here.
What is a leftibertarian in your opinion?
From Wikipedia, not dunking on you, I just thought this was a very clear explanation of why right-wing libertarianism is the anomaly:
I don't know who wrote that Wikipedia article but it's really really wrong. Libertarian as a leftist idea actually surfaces in the early to mid 20th century, at the same time as the mostly unrelated right wing libertarianism. They had maybe a decade head start on using the term. It really gets going around 1920 when leftist political philosophers start trying to synthesize lessons from all of the different sections of communism.
The mid 19th century is Karl Marx. The citations mostly talk about anarchism. One of them expressly says to call yourself a whole ass anarchist. So as best as I can tell this is a case where left and right wing editors have gone back and forth on the page with little oversight from political historians and left us with a page that doesn't reflect reality.
The word "Libertaire" (french for left-wing libertarian, the amercian libertarian is called "Libertarien") was created in 1857 to differentiate from "Libéral" (which could be seen as an equivalent to nowadays liberals). In France it is still used as a synonym for 'Anarchist', though it has a wider sense, since it describes any left-wing movement that opposes authority/power (so libertarian communists that do not accept the "anarchist" label are still included in the "Libertaire" label). The Wikipedia page seems well written from what I know.
@LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net Good luck in your reclaming of the word. There are parts of the world and languages in which it is still a powerful and unifying word for anti-authoritarian left, english language can still evolve this way !
Similar to anarchism with a large overlap but I would say it includes other related ideologies as well. To be an anarchist I think you need to be very anti-capitalist and very anti-state. I think left libertarianism needs to be at minimum very skeptical of all authority structures but not necessarily opposed to them in all circumstances.
For myself, I’d like to get to anarchy long term but I see more of a gradual transition happening. So I am OK with retaining some state and capitalist structures as intermediate steps with the long-term goal of eliminating them once we develop superior social systems.
That could just mean that you're an "evolutionary" (as contrasted with "revolutionary") anarchist.
In my experience, right leaning Libertarians are just Republicans that are kinda indifferent with gays having legal rights.
Yeah a lot of them don’t seem to be very committed to libertarian ideas unfortunately. The government isn’t the only force that can restrict liberty.