Libertarians Are the New Communists

[Constitutional Paulicy]

Libertarians Are the New Communists
Sep 5, 2013 6:00 PM EDT
By Nick Hanauer & Eric Liu


Let’s start with some definitions. By radical libertarianism, we mean the ideology that holds that individual liberty trumps all other values. By communism, we mean the ideology of extreme state domination of private and economic life.

Some of the radical libertarians are Ayn Rand fans who divide their fellow citizens into makers, in the mold of John Galt, and takers, in the mold of anyone not John Galt.

Some, such as the Koch brothers, are economic royalists who repackage trickle-down economics as “libertarian populism.” Some are followers of Texas Senator Ted Cruz, whose highest aspiration is to shut down government. Some resemble the anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, who has made a career out of trying to drown, stifle or strangle government.

Yes, liberty is a core American value, and an overweening state can be unhealthy. And there are plenty of self-described libertarians who have adopted the label mainly because they support same-sex marriage or decry government surveillance. These social libertarians aren’t the problem. It is the nihilist anti-state libertarians of the Koch-Cruz-Norquist-Paul (Ron and Rand alike) school who should worry us.

more here... hxxp://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-09-05/libertarians-are-the-new-communists

[Ronin Truth]

Read This Book! (http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/07/karen-kwiatkowski/read-this-book-2/)http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/07/karen-kwiatkowski/read-this-book-2/
It’s the real libertarianism, says Karen Kwiatkowski.

[Carlybee]

Ayn Rand was an Objectivist.

[amy31416]

We're nihilists and commies now?

Well that's news to me.

[NIU Students for Liberty]

"It is the nihilist anti-state libertarians of the Koch-Cruz-Norquist-Paul (Ron and Rand alike) school who should worry us."

Haha, please. Koch, Cruz, & Norquist give libertarianism a bad name but that's largely because they aren't anti-state and prefer cutting and pasting the libertarian principles that suit them the most.

[Brian4Liberty]

Another article by the same author. It's common to be able to identify some of the problems. Much harder to come up with a solution. Hanauer's solution is pretty much socialism. Aristocrats who want to stay in control by giving out free stuff to the masses. There was always a bit of schism between them and the pure Marxist communists.



Memo: From Nick Hanauer
To: My Fellow Zillionaires

You probably don’t know me, but like you I am one of those .01%ers, a proud and unapologetic capitalist. I have founded, co-founded and funded more than 30 companies across a range of industries—from itsy-bitsy ones like the night club I started in my 20s to giant ones like Amazon.com, for which I was the first nonfamily investor. Then I founded aQuantive, an Internet advertising company that was sold to Microsoft in 2007 for $6.4 billion. In cash. My friends and I own a bank. I tell you all this to demonstrate that in many ways I’m no different from you. Like you, I have a broad perspective on business and capitalism. And also like you, I have been rewarded obscenely for my success, with a life that the other 99.99 percent of Americans can’t even imagine.
...
But let’s speak frankly to each other. I’m not the smartest guy you’ve ever met, or the hardest-working. I was a mediocre student. I’m not technical at all—I can’t write a word of code. What sets me apart, I think, is a tolerance for risk and an intuition about what will happen in the future. Seeing where things are headed is the essence of entrepreneurship. And what do I see in our future now?

I see pitchforks.

At the same time that people like you and me are thriving beyond the dreams of any plutocrats in history, the rest of the country—the 99.99 percent—is lagging far behind. The divide between the haves and have-nots is getting worse really, really fast. In 1980, the top 1 percent controlled about 8 percent of U.S. national income. The bottom 50 percent shared about 18 percent. Today the top 1 percent share about 20 percent; the bottom 50 percent, just 12 percent.

But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.

And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.

If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when.
...
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014.html

[56ktarget]

Its sad how libertarians never see any out of the nuances in politics... If you're not with them, well then you must be a card-carrying socialist-marxist-leninist-stalinist evil collectivist that is out to destroy america.

[ZENemy]

Most people don't know what a libertarian is but they sure know what a communist is so all the mainstream has to do is throw those 2 words together and bam it becomes truth. They have been trying to co-opt the libertarian movement for quite some time now, after RP 2012 they learned most of the ins and outs of it, now they are exploiting it.

[ravedown]

lefty news sites know this kind of propaganda is irresistible click bait for libertarians. the article has been slammed for over a year...don't even give it the time.

[jkr]

you mean...
...we're in charge???

[twomp]

Its sad how libertarians never see any out of the nuances in politics... If you're not with them, well then you must be a card-carrying socialist-marxist-leninist-stalinist evil collectivist that is out to destroy america.

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/37/376510bb6db7d18a4dc2673a83399f02d0f4751f52d45a6d6e 8e62162daffae2.jpg

[Acala]

Its sad how libertarians never see any out of the nuances in politics... If you're not with them, well then you must be a card-carrying socialist-marxist-leninist-stalinist evil collectivist that is out to destroy america.

Funny thing, there really is no nuance in the difference between armed robbery and a free exchange. Either you are sovereign over your own mind, body, life, and property or you are some kind of slave. It is only those who have embraced the idea that it is okay for some people to exercise tyranny over other people that need to cover their immorality with "nuance".

[Carlybee]

Its sad how libertarians never see any out of the nuances in politics... If you're not with them, well then you must be a card-carrying socialist-marxist-leninist-stalinist evil collectivist that is out to destroy america.

And if you aren't a liberal you are a racist capitalist pig out to sew women's vaginas shut and reinstate slavery.

[Brian4Liberty]

Related, by Ron Paul:

http://www.ronpaulchannel.com/editorial/rons-blog/wealth-inequality-pitchforks/

[DamianTV]

And if you aren't a liberal you are a racist capitalist pig out to sew women's vaginas shut and reinstate slavery.

Vaginas, and what women (and men) decide to do with them are not exempt from total regulation.

[cajuncocoa]

I thought we were allowed to discuss vaginas here at RPF :eek:

[Henry Rogue]

Let’s start with some definitions. By radical libertarianism, we mean the ideology that holds that individual liberty trumps all other values. By communism, we mean the ideology of extreme state domination of private and economic life.
Any similarity eludes me.

[pcosmar]

I thought we were allowed to discuss vaginas here at RPF :eek:

You can discuss them,, but not use that word to do so..

have to give it an accepted nickname.

[pcosmar]

bloombergview

Sort of says it all.. :(

[amy31416]

You can discuss them,, but not use that word to do so..

have to give it an accepted nickname.

Hoo-haw? Slippery taco? Poontang?

Can we say penis?

If not, I have far more nicknames for that.

[Acala]

Hoo-haw? Slippery taco? Poontang?

Can we say penis?

If not, I have far more nicknames for that.

Hahahaha. Couldn't give you rep

[56ktarget]

Libertarians, like communists, are nothing but ideological fanatics. Facts don't matter to them.

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

they lost me at "By communism, we mean the ideology of extreme state domination of private and economic life."
Showing how stupid and uneducated you are in a single sentence. I applaud them.


Communism s a socioeconomic system structured upon common ownership of the means of production and characterized by the absence of classes, money, and the state
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism

Real Communism is basically anarchy

Countries like the USSR were socialist.
I mean socialism is even in the FREAKING name.
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

So is the writer just deciding he can change the definition of anything he wants?

[Carlybee]

Libertarians, like communists, are nothing but ideological fanatics. Facts don't matter to them.

One wonders then why you hang out on a forum made up of mostly libertarians.

[acptulsa]

Libertarians, like communists, are nothing but ideological fanatics. Facts don't matter to them.

Says the person who gets bombarded with facts and historical precedents every time they come here and never so much as responds to any of them.

You're too busy plugging your ears and shouting, 'Nya nya can't hear you!!' to know how we feel about the wealth of facts we bury you with.