I hate that the only viable "third party" are these chucklefucks.
Fuck you, you dipshits. "WhAt iF tHe cHiLd CoNsEnTs" bullshit. Also, there is no such thing as more competition with less regulation. Fucking morons.
I hate that the only viable "third party" are these chucklefucks.
Fuck you, you dipshits. "WhAt iF tHe cHiLd CoNsEnTs" bullshit. Also, there is no such thing as more competition with less regulation. Fucking morons.
I don't know the actual numbers, but the demographics of libertarians in the US says it all. I bet it's something like 95% white and 90% male. Meanwhile the left in the US - for all it's problems - is pretty diverse and I think that's a testament to our commitment to equality and liberation.
But yeah, US libertarians are mostly the types who benefit tremendously from privilege and are assholes about it. I should know, I was a libertarian in college and shortly after. Got really into Milton Friedman, von Hayek, all those guys. I'm a white dude raised in the suburbs in relative privilege. And you know what, I am fully ok admitting I was a real asshole who refused to question my privilege, who looked down on poor people, and didn't care about anyone other than myself w/r/t politics and society. I sucked, I own that. I was the kind of person who would have been ruthlessly mocked in c/the_dunk_tank and for good reason. My material conditions absolutely led me to libertarianism. I'm just thankful that something inside me pulled me out of all that and led me to socialism eventually.
I've known two other libertarians IRL. Both are white Americans who grew up in privilege. One is set for a 7 figure inheritance and the other is "working" for his dad's sizeable construction company that he will inherit when his dad retires.
I'm a white dude that was raised poor as fuck and I still understand privilege. There are two times in my life I am certain I would have been murdered by the cops without question if I weren't white.
I have to add to this that I also sort of drifted toward libertarianism in my early twenties because of anti-war libertarians like Ron Paul and because I had no real ideological framework outside "America bad".
The American propaganda machine is terrifyingly powerful.
Grow up around hispanic people with illegal immigrants parents, some of the things they say will blow your fucking mind
this is how you get ICE agent Sanchez shoving a baton up the ass of someone who literally was their parents decades ago
Yeah I live in California. Mexican reactionaries are something else for sure. Most of the people I know that are of latam descent are comrades but the ones who aren't are like :jesse-wtf:
Real pulling up the ladder behind you vibes
Something inside you, instead of the material conditions again?
Hmm... that's a good question. And tough to answer. Like, I know what were the things that pushed me left. I guess a lot of them were semi-material? Climate change was one. Actually getting out into the world experiencing the grinding, exploitative nature of capitalism was a big part of it, too. I guess my libertarianism came out of place of living a privileged life as a kid, and never even challenging that once I got out on my own? Would that really be a "change" in my material conditions? I don't know.
But I also know I was raised in a very sheltered environment that viewed pretty much everyone as an "outsider" (thanks evangelicalism!). And taught that everyone basically gets what they deserve in life. And actually living among other people and seeing how capitalism brings suffering to other people really softened my heart and changed me. That doesn't seem very material (at least relating to my material conditions) but I know without a doubt that was also part of it. I have Marxist Jesus in my heart now and I'm very down with materialism, but I struggle to explain this aspect.
A lot of this, including climate change, is you choosing to care about things. Perhaps there are things that prompted you to care, but it's not like you had a vested interest in caring, or something that forced your hand. You could possibly say downward class mobility, but I think caring about things out of principle is more important and trustworthy than caring about things out of your own personal interest.