Libertarianism is the philosophy that makes neoliberalism possible. They stand to each other in the relationship of a theory and the practice arising from the theory.
My own attitude to neoliberalism is that of an intelligent smoker to cigarettes. An intelligent smoker might love his cigarettes while also recognizing that they are very unhealthy. We’ve all known that one person who smoked two packs a day since 14 and is perfectly healthy at age 85. But we all know that this person is an outlier. She (it’s almost always a woman) probably has some genetic glitch that makes her immune to the harm of her habit. Much as she might love her ciggies, she won’t give a pack to a 5-year-old.
Libertarians, unfortunately, don’t understand the part about the glitch. They are almost invariably very brilliant, high-IQ, very organized people. Their fatal flaw is not realizing that almost nobody else is that way. Their ideas are deadly to those who don’t have their glitch. They want to distribute cigarettes, metaphorically speaking, to every 5-year-old. The neoliberal reality that libertarian philosophy engenders is fantastic for these glitchy (in a good way) people but deadly to everybody else. Libertarians are at war with human nature itself. Their theory appeals to the best qualities in human beings, and that makes it very attractive. But it makes no concessions for the irrational, emotional and dark side of humanity. And that’s why the results of their theory are so hellish when put into practice.
Clarissa's Blog 
As someone on the conservative end of libertarianism, I take it as a given that people need strong social structures like churches. Part of my problem with government is how it tends to destroy those structures as unwanted competition. To be clear, I do not think it is a good idea to completely leave people alone to pursue their own good in their own way. I simply do not want the not leaving people alone to be done with violence so not with the government. Schools, which should be privately run, should expel kids whose parents give them cigarettes. My son’s school expels kids for using social media.
LikeLike
You saw the guy who murdered a young woman on the train in Charlotte. He’s clearly not much of a church goer. There’s no way of stopping him except by state violence.
LikeLike
That I accept. At least for the society we are living in. Having the police use violence to arrest a violent killer is different from a kid smoking in their basements.
LikeLike
One should never ignore the effect or even the threat of vigilantism, both direct and indirect. Directly by simply removing the miscreant(s) and indirectly when that direct action thereby forces the state to alter a situation negatively impacting a portion of the citizenry. Consider the current situation in much of western Europe and what is developing in Norh America.
LikeLike
Private violence is also a possibility.
Currently, though, we effectively have a ban on private violence, and a refusal to exercise state violence, which leaves everyone subject to violence.
LikeLike
You’ve seen that girl on the train. What private violence can she exercise against that huge guy? She didn’t even see him before he stuck a knife in her throat.
I’m clumsy. I wear long skirts. I can’t lift more than 5 lbs on each side in a lateral raise. (I’m hoping to get to 12 by the end of the year). I’m not winning in any altercation with any male. I need to be surrounded by a well-ordered society with very strong policing and judiciary.
LikeLike
Exactly.
But let it happen, and defend the perp enough times, and retaliatory violence will happen. It’ll get a lot of people who aren’t guilty of anything, too.
LikeLike
There’s a reason why people like Daniel Penny and Kyle Rittenhouse were prosecuted so harshly. It was to instill fear in ordinary citizens and discourage them from even considering vigilantism.
LikeLike
Also known as doing the normal male thing of protecting those who are weaker.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t think anybody is talking about basement failsons here.
I used to be a fanatical libertarian. Now I have to live three blocks away from the railroad tracks that the local vagrant fentanyl zombies use to get from their sylvan abodes to the local free food distributories. And… I’m not a libertarian anymore. The entire premise of libertarianism is that we’re all basically decent, self-controlled people who want to do business with others and know what’s good for us, and that social/economic shunning is probably enough to regulate most bad behavior, and for the rest, you can shoot them in self-defense.
And it has never been clearer to me that there is a huge segment of the population for which that is not true.
Like, is libertarianism really so extreme that we’re talking about these people like exotic wild animals? It’s cruel to lock them up in zoos, so we’ll just have to let them roam free until they attack, and then it’s OK to shoot them… and then they will have lived out their natural freedom and liberty so it’s better?
What about those of us who can’t afford to move off the wildlife reserve, but don’t really want to have to shoot hyenas?
LikeLiked by 4 people
Yes! Everybody acting rationally to advance their self-interest. It sounds fantastic. For people who are rational and whose self-interest doesn’t involve stabbing a stranger on the train in the neck. But that’s. . . not everybody, unfortunately.
Libertarianism is a beautiful dream. But it can’t coexist with reality.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Clarissa.
I feel similarly about it – it is an interesting idea in theory, but it is incompatible with human nature. Much like communism. It also does not help that majority of self-proclaimed libertarians do not give a crap about any freedoms but their own…
LikeLike
Libertarians are also retarded in that they’re unable to understand that their vision of the world is only possible in highly disciplined and organized societies, which can only be found in the west (or places like Singapore where you get caned for littering). They should logically be major immigration restrictionists but these rocket scientists are open borders.
Libertarian party = GOP + weed + lowering of the age of consent. Clowns.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They are trapped in their blind worship of freedom. If freedom is the maximum good, then it follows that borders are bad. Since they can’t find their way out of this conundrum, the whole philosophy is hopeless.
LikeLike
Speaking of freedom, let’s check in on Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat Pray Love) who destroyed the minds of millions of gen-X women.
https://archive.md/6wW9c
LikeLike
That is really out there, even for the very afflicted with liberalism.
LikeLike
“Libertarians, unfortunately, don’t understand the part about the glitch”
I disagree. They fully understand, though IME they tend to think of the glitch as virtue they have acquired from RightThink. In their view, the negative social consequences of libertarianism are acceptable as long as the foundation of the social order are ‘moral’ (they dont’ have to pay taxes or have any limits on their personal drug use).
If a person is prone to addiction then too bad, that doesn’t mean that those selling addictive substances should have their livelihoods disrupted by state violence. If a person wants to spend their own resources in trying to help them then fine. But Señor Libertariano shouldn’t be subjected to state violence for the sake of the inferior.
LikeLike
Still no word on the libertarian view on WTF working-class people who have to live cheek-by-jowl with the addicts. If the internet bro scene is any evidence, that’s:
“Tough shit stop complaining: you should have worked harder and made more money so you could afford a better neighborhood.”
LikeLike
“you should have worked harder and made more money”
That seems like a 100% accurate and fair representation of what they think. They would phrase it differently, starting from the inherently ethical nature of drug pushers exploiting a market demand to sell narcotics to adults who freely choose to buy them and maybe, to put on a happy face, say that the presence of drugged out zombies should inspire the working class people who are bothered by it to work harder to find a better address without said drug zombies.
That’s why Rand Paul was against bombing the cartel boat: In a libertarian world they are simply free enterprise bros who are being oppressed by immoral laws preventing them from selling their products to those who wish to buy them.
LikeLike
Clearly, the rational, moral thing for us to do, is sell drugs to the addicts, so we can afford to live far far away from them.
-ethyl
LikeLike
“the rational, moral thing for us to do…”
And that’s why everybody hates (or should hate) libertarians…..
LikeLiked by 1 person