• Pennomi@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Outside of the US, yes, there are real libertarians.

    American Libertarian policies from that article:

    Its cultural policy positions include ending the prohibition of illegal drugs, advocating criminal justice reform,[14] supporting same-sex marriage, ending capital punishment, and supporting gun ownership rights.

    Conservatives have over the last couple years taken to labeling themselves as Libertarian to avoid the stigma of being Republican, but have never actually voted for a libertarian.

    • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      The problem being that they’re also fully in favour of allowing businesses to do whatever the fuck they want. Even an ideologically “pure” libertarian would support your right to gay marriage while also supporting the right of your landlord to kick you out onto the street for being gay. They’ll support legalization of all drugs, but also support your workplace being allowed to fire you for posting about weed on your social media.

      Paying lip service to socially progressive ideas is meaningless if you also want to institute a neofeudalist society where every freedom is only really afforded to the wealthy.

      • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Yes, totally agree. I’m just answering the question on how they differ from conservatives.

    • Nougat@fedia.io
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      2 months ago

      Full disclosure, let’s not pretend that Libertarians are any good, even if they are in favor of some good things.

      We should eliminate the entire social welfare system. This includes eliminating food stamps, subsidized housing, and all the rest. Individuals who are unable to fully support themselves and their families through the job market must, once again, learn to rely on supportive family, church, community, or private charity to bridge the gap.

      The party supports ending the public school system.[161] The party’s official platform states that education is best provided by the free market, achieving greater quality, accountability and efficiency with more diversity of school choice.

      The party also contends that free markets and property rights (implicitly without government intervention) will stimulate the technological innovations and behavioral changes required to protect the environment and ecosystem because environmental advocates and social pressure are the most effective means of changing public behavior.

      The Libertarian Party opposes all government intervention and regulation on wages, prices, rents, profits, production and interest rates and advocates the repeal of all laws banning or restricting the advertising of prices, products, or services.

      The Libertarian Party favors a free market health care system without government oversight, approval, regulation, or licensing. The party states that it “recognizes the freedom of individuals to determine the level of health insurance they want, the level of health care they want, the care providers they want, the medicines and treatments they will use and all other aspects of their medical care, including end-of-life decisions.” They support the repeal of all social insurance policies such as Medicare and Medicaid and favor “consumer-driven health care”.

      The party supports the right of free persons to associate or not associate in labor unions and believes that employers should have the right to recognize or refuse to recognize a union.

      • snooggums@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        The party supports the right of free persons to associate or not associate in labor unions and believes that employers should have the right to recognize or refuse to recognize a union.

        If the company can simply ignore a union, then the union has zero power…

        • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Nah, the power in a union is all about denying labor. A strike is the power of the people, not the legal framework which facilitates the talks.

    • Gigasser@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      They’ve(Republicans) taken to calling themselves libertarian(Right libertarians) yes. But they’ve also managed to infiltrate and take a significant chunk of power from the libertarian party.