Further Notes on Dispositional Politics

Jason Kuznicki

Jason Kuznicki is a research fellow at the Cato Institute and contributor of Cato Unbound. He's on twitter as JasonKuznicki. His interests include political theory and history.

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13 Responses

  1. Mike Farmer says:

    Dispositionally, I tend to move in spirit toward liberalism, but liberalism as something far different than what passes for liberalism presently. You might as well be calling a butterfly a doorknob. Liberal is the spirit of individualsim, iconoclasm, progress, liberty, equality of opportunity, reason, anti-collectivism — it’s what imbues a free market with a “ragamuffin, barefoot, irreverence” toward the status quo. It’s not a whimpering, thoughtless, submission to the politically correct State run by nanny, nudging technocrats with genius government resumes and idiot life experience.Report

    • Plinko in reply to Mike Farmer says:

      @Mike Farmer,

      If a modern ‘liberal’ is “a whimpering, thoughtless, submission to the politically correct State run by nanny, nudging technocrats with genius government resumes and idiot life experience” I guess I’ve never met one, despite hearing about them on the radio all the time.Report

    • Simon K in reply to Mike Farmer says:

      @Mike Farmer, If we’re talking about dispositions, this: “whimpering, thoughtless, submission to the politically correct State” seems very far from what most liberals want. There’s an argument that that would be the end result if liberals goals and means were pursued to their end result (although even that’s a stretch), but it does not describe the disposition of any actual liberals I can think of.

      The primary point of difference between liberals and libertarians isn’t anything to do with the desirability of liberty, irreverence, progress, etc, etc. Its what the primary threat to those things is, and the best means of dealing with that threat.Report

  2. Mike Farmer says:

    Of course you haven’t, Plinko — they are a figment of the fascist imagination.Report

  3. North says:

    Haven’t met very many liberals that meet that definition either. And political correctness runs amok on both the left and the right. They just have different subjects they censor.Report

  4. Mike Farmer says:

    Yes, and this is why we have the Great Liberal Flourishing of the 21st century, brought to you by Frank, Pelosi, Reid, Waxman, Connors, Weiner, Obama, Dodd, Waters, and the rest of the gang. I feel as if we’ve reached the apex.Report

  5. Mike Farmer says:

    The Democrats inherited a mess, but they have prevented the economy from going over the cliff and employment is picking up.Report