Is there any flavor of libertarianism that even in theory makes sense? I lump libertarians together which I guess is unfair but I only talk to them online and they always seem to so similar however they define themselves with nuance. I find them to be ridiculous, obnoxious, and selfish.
For example - at Bluesky I just had an argument with a self-described socio-libertarian who was against “disruptive” protests against climate change. The character limit at Bluesky makes an actual discussion pointless in a situation like this. But they were an asshole anyway so that limit did me a favor. And I didn’t need to her some kind of fantastical thinking about the magic of the free market solving climate change.
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about libertarian socialism…
Libertarian socialism is an anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist political current that emphasises self-governance and workers’ self-management. It is contrasted from other forms of socialism by its rejection of state ownership and from other forms of libertarianism by its rejection of private property. Broadly defined, it includes schools of both anarchism and Marxism, as well as other tendencies that oppose the state and capitalism.
I was a “left libertarian” for a while. In theory, do whatever you like as long as you’re not hurting anyone sounds nice. Of course, this means people would have to uphold environmental regulations, since there’s a lot of bad stuff other people could be downwind of. There’s also regulations on hunting, fishing, and farming. I also noticed a pattern where a lot of libertarians weren’t so fond on personal freedoms if they involved being gay or a religion other than Protestant Christian.
Tldr: there are libertarians with good intentions, but most of them lack theory or just don’t like to think to much beyond “good vibes for everyone”. The Ancom leaning sorts can work in the small scale commune type of situations, I guess.
I’ve listened to some of what Chase Oliver (Libertarian Party presidential candidate) has to say. Unlike most LP politicians I’ve heard (or adjacent ones like Rand Paul), he seems like a nice guy who genuinely means well. For example, he’s spoken out pretty vociferously against the the genocide in Gaza; and he mentioned the invasion of Iraq was what got him into politics.
But when he starts to get into the details of Israel/Palestine, you can tell he just doesn’t know much of the context. He doesn’t understand the purpose Israel serves for the US. I think he has good intentions but the libertarian ideals really don’t have a good theory of imperialism like we do.