I see ’tis the season for tweaking libertarians with “OMG socialist snowplows!!!” memes.
These days I’m moving away from libertarianism so fast there’s visible redshift (see what I did there??), but the snowplow thing still gives me some residual irritation. It’s no better than when people on the Right say “oh, you typed up your Socialist opinion on a CAPITALIST IPHONE, you are SO BUSTED”.
I’m not going to write a backgrounder here on the various ways the several political schools lumped under the “libertarian” umbrella might seek to address community snow removal needs. That’s not really my shtick anymore.
But in general, when you’re tempted to bring up some basic staple of modern life and say “hah, bet you didn’t think of THAT” to your political opponent, I submit to you that maybe they have. Perhaps if you expressed some non-condescending interest they might even explain it to you.
You may still think the explanation is hogwash. But the next time you tell them that their theory for saving the world with a Muppet-based “Bertcoin” currency is full of holes, they might show your opinion a little more respect.
I’m all for not being a reactive jerk towards people you don’t agree with.. mainly because it’s bad form and is often a sign of a weak argument.. because it’s just rather petty.
One thing I will say–most of the self-labeled libertarians that I’ve known for more than 10 years have utterly left the ideology.
You. Scott P. My friend Bill N.
I don’t know 100% what the causes for this are–although I could observe that in each case, my friends got older and involved in more complex and interconnected living arrangements and/or traveled to various countries…
Whether that was the reason or not–I don’t know…. but it is interesting to me..
Well I certainly didn’t move forward because of insufficient snow removal policy proposals 😉
I love your larger point; people seem increasingly unable to hold two thoughts, simultaneously: “I disagree with this person” and “Neither of us is stupid or evil.”