Not even sure if I entirely agree with this piece, but I do feel that some libertarians are more sympathetic to government to do their bidding than they care to admit.
Whenever there is some draconian policy or debt spending initiative from Trump, there are members on this forum that call themselves libertarians, and rush to defend him. Gubmint spending and clamping down on civil rights is the opposite of the libertarian philosophy.
Why Internet Libertarians are becoming Fascists
If you grew up in middle-class white America in the 21st century, chances are you know some “Internet Libertarians”. The type, usually a somewhat socially maladjusted young man, who spends a lot of time playing video games and on youtube. For most of their life they’re apolitical, or maybe have a vague sympathy for Ron Paul. Or maybe they have a cynical view of politics from watching South Park. One day they stumble onto a Sargon of Assad or Stephen Molyneux video, and it speaks to them. Hell, maybe you are one, or were one. But over the past few years, you’ve probably noticed that these people drifted in another direction, away from atheism and libertarianism and towards open fascism.
At first, this seems completely improbable. If you take them at their word, these people stand for individual liberty, and freedom above all else. Wouldn’t fascism be the polar opposite of that belief? How does a “classic liberal” end up defending Nazis? How does a self-proclaimed rational skeptic end up promoting disproven racist eugenics?
Part 1 – Private Power
The proliferation of the “political compass” has something to do with this line of thought. It obscures the potential difficulties of political choices, and makes it seem like one axis – the authority vs. anarchy one – is the be all end all of political ideas of freedom. The very words “free market”, combined with the allure of the political compass, draws people towards that bottom right square. Who wouldn’t want to be pro-freedom? It’s got sex appeal.
The libertarian worldview then, is one where individual rights exist only in a technical sense. The actual ability that person has to exercise their rights depends entirely on their economic standing. The libertarian world is one of hierarchy – of righteous hierarchy. These people are not classic liberals but corporate nietzcheans.
Part 2 – When The Market Fails
But what happens when the promises of the market fail? What happens when certain minority groups are still way behind? What happens when the wage gap lingers even as decades pass? What happens when an entire generation of their peers loses faith in the free market?
Instead of losing faith in the market, the internet libertarians lose faith in their peers. And women. And minorities.
Look at the latest controversy – if you actually read that google employees memo, he basically claims that the lack of women in tech is due to essentialist differences in biology between the sexes. The market could not possibly have failed – the market is pure, it does not see race or gender. Ideas of oppression, which might suggest fixes that go against the libertarian ethos of nonintervention in the market, must be wrong.
This is when the rational™ mind goes fully irrational. They turn to conspiracies, or flirt with them, to explain the way the world is. Remember, it can’t be the market. So all those bad things that happen, they can’t possibly be symptoms of capitalism, they must be caused by sinister forces behind the scenes. Drawing direct cause and effect relationships between current events and capitalism can't be allowed, so instead they depart on conspiratorial "flight of ideas".
Part 3 - Reaction
But to really push them over the edge, to the violent embrace of the far right, it takes a little bit more.
The current pushing them down the lazy river of hate is reaction. Literal reaction. Reactions to videos of “SJWs”. Reaction to the growing left. Reaction to day after day of this being blasted into their brain for hours and hours by social media and youtube personalities that cater to their young male anger. This is what primes them to accept the arguments about degeneracy, and eventually accept the notion that certain groups must be removed from society. It starts as a joke, as a video they watch for a laugh. Maybe they enjoy “punching down”, maybe it feels transgressive, maybe they like the memes. Day after day they watch these videos, videos specifically cherrypicked and curated to make them feel the most disgusted and insulted and outraged.
And slowly but surely, the hate grows, like a tumor. Whatever happens in their life, whatever personal anxieties and pent-up frustrations they have, whatever feelings of alienation, it only fuels the process. Stuck in a filter bubble of youtube and social media suggestions, they’re carried further and further down into the online underworld of far-right extremism.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ChapoTrapH..._internet_libertarians_are_becoming_fascists/
Whenever there is some draconian policy or debt spending initiative from Trump, there are members on this forum that call themselves libertarians, and rush to defend him. Gubmint spending and clamping down on civil rights is the opposite of the libertarian philosophy.
Why Internet Libertarians are becoming Fascists
If you grew up in middle-class white America in the 21st century, chances are you know some “Internet Libertarians”. The type, usually a somewhat socially maladjusted young man, who spends a lot of time playing video games and on youtube. For most of their life they’re apolitical, or maybe have a vague sympathy for Ron Paul. Or maybe they have a cynical view of politics from watching South Park. One day they stumble onto a Sargon of Assad or Stephen Molyneux video, and it speaks to them. Hell, maybe you are one, or were one. But over the past few years, you’ve probably noticed that these people drifted in another direction, away from atheism and libertarianism and towards open fascism.
At first, this seems completely improbable. If you take them at their word, these people stand for individual liberty, and freedom above all else. Wouldn’t fascism be the polar opposite of that belief? How does a “classic liberal” end up defending Nazis? How does a self-proclaimed rational skeptic end up promoting disproven racist eugenics?
Part 1 – Private Power
The proliferation of the “political compass” has something to do with this line of thought. It obscures the potential difficulties of political choices, and makes it seem like one axis – the authority vs. anarchy one – is the be all end all of political ideas of freedom. The very words “free market”, combined with the allure of the political compass, draws people towards that bottom right square. Who wouldn’t want to be pro-freedom? It’s got sex appeal.
The libertarian worldview then, is one where individual rights exist only in a technical sense. The actual ability that person has to exercise their rights depends entirely on their economic standing. The libertarian world is one of hierarchy – of righteous hierarchy. These people are not classic liberals but corporate nietzcheans.
Part 2 – When The Market Fails
But what happens when the promises of the market fail? What happens when certain minority groups are still way behind? What happens when the wage gap lingers even as decades pass? What happens when an entire generation of their peers loses faith in the free market?
Instead of losing faith in the market, the internet libertarians lose faith in their peers. And women. And minorities.
Look at the latest controversy – if you actually read that google employees memo, he basically claims that the lack of women in tech is due to essentialist differences in biology between the sexes. The market could not possibly have failed – the market is pure, it does not see race or gender. Ideas of oppression, which might suggest fixes that go against the libertarian ethos of nonintervention in the market, must be wrong.
This is when the rational™ mind goes fully irrational. They turn to conspiracies, or flirt with them, to explain the way the world is. Remember, it can’t be the market. So all those bad things that happen, they can’t possibly be symptoms of capitalism, they must be caused by sinister forces behind the scenes. Drawing direct cause and effect relationships between current events and capitalism can't be allowed, so instead they depart on conspiratorial "flight of ideas".
Part 3 - Reaction
But to really push them over the edge, to the violent embrace of the far right, it takes a little bit more.
The current pushing them down the lazy river of hate is reaction. Literal reaction. Reactions to videos of “SJWs”. Reaction to the growing left. Reaction to day after day of this being blasted into their brain for hours and hours by social media and youtube personalities that cater to their young male anger. This is what primes them to accept the arguments about degeneracy, and eventually accept the notion that certain groups must be removed from society. It starts as a joke, as a video they watch for a laugh. Maybe they enjoy “punching down”, maybe it feels transgressive, maybe they like the memes. Day after day they watch these videos, videos specifically cherrypicked and curated to make them feel the most disgusted and insulted and outraged.
And slowly but surely, the hate grows, like a tumor. Whatever happens in their life, whatever personal anxieties and pent-up frustrations they have, whatever feelings of alienation, it only fuels the process. Stuck in a filter bubble of youtube and social media suggestions, they’re carried further and further down into the online underworld of far-right extremism.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ChapoTrapH..._internet_libertarians_are_becoming_fascists/
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