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Comment by czbond | Hacker News Reader

I've seen the term mis-characterized, for lack of a better word. I've seen European libertarian, eastern (US) libertarian, southern (US) libertarian people describe their beliefs all in vastly different ways. Some I'd characterize as heavily socialist, some heavily.... right, some heavily left, some just as a "alternative" to two main US parties.

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Isn't the quintessential libertarian belief some flavor of "I believe you deserve the maximum possible freedom to act and speak"?

In which case it seems entirely possible to be a libertarian and have strong personal beliefs of wildly different flavors.

I don't know what the textbook definition is, but I think libertarianism (in the US, in my experience) is more about being against government regulation. Even if regulation would increase freedom (for, say, a minority group) libertarians will tend to be against it.

It depends. Libertarians of the more Randian school tend toward the view that there are only individual rights, not “states rights” and such. If the Fed intervenes to support individual rights that is justified. Local tyranny is not superior to Federal tyranny.

Yeah - could be! I had never thought of it that way.

I think the decline of libertarian attitudes is part of why things are so polarized, for exactly that reason. If we can live and let live it’s okay if we think differently. If we are arguing over what everyone must be forced to do, disagreement becomes an actual threat.

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