this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
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[–] ProtonEvoker@lemmy.world 122 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A libertarian is just a conservative that likes weed. You can ask their girlfriends after they pick them up from middle school.

[–] random@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I wouldn't say that actual libertarians are conservatives (I know some in europe), but a lot of conservatives in the us larp as libertarians because that was the original vision of the us freedom fighters and they also on some level think they are libertarians because they think libertarians are smart (because the avrg libertarian is way smarter than the avrg conservative) but your joke still works because conservatives and libertarians are both pedos

[–] ProtonEvoker@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (6 children)

Bro, the moment that “abolishing the age of consent” is brought up, you need to know that they aren’t acting in good faith. Every argument they bring forth should be tainted by that shit!

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[–] Glasgow@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 week ago

Rothbard co-opted the term. It used to mean anarchist.

[–] bbpolterGAYst@lemmy.blahaj.zone 33 points 1 week ago (1 children)

i met plenty of people who'd like to fuck clowns and a total of zero who want to fuck libertarians. Clowns 1, Libertarians 0

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

So many of my friends grew up in libertarian families. I wish their parents had been professional clowns instead of perennially divorced wealth obsessed crypto-nazis.

Let me guess - that way you're a mile away, and you have their shoes?

[–] AtariDump@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.

“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”

“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”

“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”

The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”

“Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”

“Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”

He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”

I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.

“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.

“Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.

“Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”

It didn’t seem like they did.

“Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”

Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.

I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.

“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.

Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.

“Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.

I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”

He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.

“All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”

“Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.

“Because I was afraid.”

“Afraid?”

“Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”

I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.

“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”

He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me for arresting him.

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[–] rational_lib@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Actual argument I had recently with a "libertarian" family member:
Libertarian: "Rent control shouldn't exist! It's wrong for big government to tell property owners and renters what kind of agreements they can enter!"
Me: "What are your thoughts on single family zoning that bans missing-middle housing throughout most of the US?"
Libertarian: "Well that's different! People choosing what kind of rules should apply to where they live is the epitome of freedom!"
Me: "Couldn't that same argument apply to rent control?"
Libertarian: "Wha...you have clearly been brainwashed by the woke mind virus! So sad!"

[–] lemmyseikai@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Clearly they are not a libertarian.

The correct reaponse is "The government would need to demonstrate a beyond reasonable need for that ban. Preventing industrial chemical plants from being built near housing, sure, types of housing, get out."

[–] kibiz0r@midwest.social 23 points 1 week ago

I walked my late teens/early twenties in those shoes. Would not recommend.

[–] AeonFelis@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Libertarian ideology is logically solid, but it has two minor problems:

  1. It heavily depends on assumptions that never hold in real life.
  2. Any other ideology, when confronted with bad outcome predictions of their models, will try to explain why their way actually prevents these bad outcomes. Libertarianism... prefers to explain why these outcomes are actually a good thing.
[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 14 points 1 week ago (12 children)

Except it isn't logically solid, because the premise is that Governing bodies cannot be expected to provide for the general welfare because humans are naturally greedy and selfish, and the solution is that we abolish all social safety nets and instead rely on voluntary charity to solve the problem of poverty...

But what voluntary charity exists if by Libertarian's own logic: Humans are too greedy and selfish to give to the poor even when they're literally mandated to do so?

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[–] robocall@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm socially libertarian and fiscally communist

[–] BeanGoblin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 33 points 1 week ago (3 children)

That's the joke.

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[–] festnt@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago (8 children)

whats a libertarian im not usaian

[–] random@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 1 week ago (12 children)

the word libertarian comes from anarchists (eg. libertarian socialists) however right wing anarchists (anarcho capitalists) have claimed the term, so now a libertarian is a right wing anarchist

[–] Famko@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I still don't believe that anarcho-capitalists exist. The ideology just loops back into fascism most of the time.

[–] moshtradamus666@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

I see it more like feudalism with extra steps

[–] azolus@slrpnk.net 9 points 1 week ago

A rebrand, if you will

[–] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago

If they use the term themselves, it's just a synonym then

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[–] flying_sheep@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Capitalist anarchism doesn't exist. Capitalism is a form of unjust hierarchy (or if you want to stick to the literal meaning of “anarchism”: capitalism is a way to create rulers)

There are capitalist anti-statists, bit being against states isn't sufficient to make you an anarchist for above reasons.

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[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

American Libertarianism is all about minimizing governmental oversight, regulation, and taxation. Basically people who already "got theirs" and want to pull the ladder up behind them so no one else can. Sovcits are like extremist libertarians.

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[–] Allonzee@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Reminder: Ayn Rand died on public assistance.

They're only for freedom to gouge for water at the only source for a hundred miles when they believe they'll be the ones holding the ladle.

[–] Plastic_Ramses@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (36 children)

In my heart, i am a libertarian.

In my brain, im not stupid enough to believe that the general public is smart enough to make it work.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

The eternal problem of "the general public" is that they're a product of their material conditions. They don't emerge from the soil and engage with the world on first principles.

When you grow up in a community that has been heavily privatized and financialized, socially owned and operated community functions have to be developed from the ground up rather than inherited. Any kind of proposed social change will grow out of the body of the system that came before.

Libertarians grow up in countries where it is easier to believe in the end of the world than the end of capitalism.

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[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

You have to pay toll for the road first

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