Libertarianism: Some Clarifications
~by James Hanley This is not a sermon; there will be no alter call at which I invite you to join the Church of the Holy Rand. This is just a response to some...
Tagged: Libertarianism
Political and moral rights
This is adapted from something I posted the other day over at Blinded Trials. I know there are many Friends of Rights who read the front page, and not Blinded Trials, and I’d love...
The Solitary, Poor, Nasty, Brutish, and Short Libertarian Life
You know, I myself dabbled in libertarianism once—not in college, of course. There’s a lot to appreciate about its emphasis upon liberty. Ultimately, I couldn’t quite pass the purity test, though. This weekend, while...
Praying Drunk
Don’t want to interrupt the symposium, so I’m tossing this in Off the Cuff. Liz Anderson, who is still my favorite professor from undergrad, has a pretty awesome piece up at Bleeding Heart Libertarians...
IDEALog Comparison, or Maybe We’re Really All Liberaltarians
by James Hanley Thanks to all who took the time to take the IDEALog survey and report their results to me, and my apologies for taking so long to present the results. I’ll present...
Testing ideology
~by James Hanley Fellow reader Stillwater, responding to my critique, writes: you [Hanley] keep insisting there is this significant difference between our theories, our policies, our preferred values, our analytical methods. If there isn’t...
Cold Fusionism
So, you know how my blognado was supposed to get my juices flowing again? Yeah, well so much for that plan. I can plead all manner of excuses: I’ve started a new project at work that’s tapping my...
What’s In A Label
Andrew Sullivan calls out Jonathan Chait for arguing that libertarianism is inextricably linked to racism. Chait’s view, in a nutshell, is that in practice, libertarianism is a gateway doctrine to racism: “I am sure...
Libertarianism and Liberalism and Labels
I’ve spilled far too much ink trying to map out my politics on to the available political labels, and I fear I will keep spilling it. Over at Bleeding-Heart Libertarians, Will Wilkinson disavows the...
Reproductive Rights and Libertarianism
~by Sam Wilkinson For reasons that I cannot understand, the threat posed by various conservative candidates to women’s reproductive rights rarely seem to warrant mention or concern amongst those who profess themselves to be most concerned with...
A Response to ‘Democracy, Coercion, and Liberty’
~by James Hanley Erik’s been trying to work out a question about the libertarian justification of the state, and so far it hasn’t gone well. His first attempts were not well understood, at least...
Liberty & Democracy
Let’s assume for the sake of argument that I was being slightly hyperbolic when I suggested that libertarians dislike democracy; let’s also shuffle aside the Michael Lind article I linked to and the various...
Liberty, Anarchy and the Pragmatist’s Dilemma
I will be blogging Gary Chartier’s Conscience of an Anarchist over the next couple of weeks at Forbes, but before we set out, I want to touch on a handful of pieces I’ve read...
The economic hurdles of a left-libertarian alliance
~by Shawn Gude We’re in rather unpropitious times for left-libertarian bridge-building. I don’t take glee in making this assertion; I’m more crestfallen than content. Indeed, I’ve spilled a fair amount of ink arguing that...
Liberalism, Centrism, and Libertarianism
Since I have been called a “fake liberal” recently, I thought I’d delve into the subject once again. I am a liberal mainly because the rather short arc of liberalism traces pretty well alongside...
A Good Man is Hard to Find
Tim Carney has a very good piece up on the media’s continued efforts to ignore, at every turn, presidential hopeful Ron Paul. So, again, why doesn’t Paul get the attention he seems to deserve?...
Market liberals
Matt Yglesias makes tons of sense with his latest foray into an ongoing debate between him and John Quiggin and others. I think Matt operates in that awkward position of being not-progressive-enough for much...
On Neoliberalism
First things first: I absolutely loathe the term ‘neoliberal’ and its derivatives. For one thing, neoliberals are much more akin to classical liberals than traditional leftists, and there’s an obvious dissonance between ‘classical’ and...
“Libertarianism and Madisonianism
~ by James Hanley BlaiseP made the following Madison-inspired comment about libertarianism: It is a statement of sovereign truth that every scheme which believes men to be angels, that freedom is the highest good, that...
Libertarianism & Power
Freddie reads this post by Nick Gillespie on the arrest of a Reason reporter at a D.C. taxi public forum and writes: In a poor, majority-black city with a long history of drugs, crime,...
