I'm a Social Libertarian. That means that, unlike the Libertarian party, I place personal freedom ahead of capital freedom. I essentially have a liberal view on social matters (+ gun rights) and a semi-conservative view on economic matters (fewer government programs, por favor). This essentially places me in a cross-fire.

As soon as you tell a liberal that you are libertarian, you are immediately placed on their **** list. Seriously. Four out of five times, that's what seems to happen. To a liberal, "libertarian" seems to translate as "evil, right-wing, baby-killing, gun-toting, whiskey-drinking redneck shooting at blacks and Mexicans while trying to usurp law and order." They also assume that all Libertarians agree with the Libertarian party, and so assume that I'm a far-right-wing nutcase who wants to do away with 90% of government regulation. I also seem to get called a Bush supporter by Liberals a lot as well. Let me tell ya', Bush is just as antithetical to Libertarianism as he is to Liberalism. More so, even. I've also been called a baby killer, for no apparent reason.

When you tell a Neo Conservative that you are a libertarian, he will immediately assume that you are on his side, again because most people equate libertarianism with the party. As soon as you reveal that you are anti-Iraq War, anti-wiretapping, anti-corporate tax breaks, anti-stimulus packages, pro-Social Security (with extensive reform), pro-gay marriage, are against the mixing of church and state, and do not believe that Islam is trying to take over the world, you are immediately **** listed by the Neo-Cons as well.

I seem to get along fine with pre-1970 conservatives, opinions differing in detail rather than in base. The problem with this is that Liberals seem to assume that pre-1970 conservative necessarily means racist. If that thought enters your head, please shut the fruck up a second and think first. If I'm supporting equal rights for all, does that mean I'll try to oppress someone based on race? Come now.

When I run across a Fiscal Libertarian, or Libertarian Party Libertarian, they immediately assume that I'm an ally in all respects. When I reveal that I think they're a bunch of nuts, I'm instantly crucified as a heretic. Quite annoying.

So really, it's tough being Libertarian, especially since 90% of people immediately stereotype you into groups which you do not agree with at all. I'm being fired on from three sides at all times. The Liberals are worst at it, but the Neo-Cons are bad too.

So please, before stereotyping me, try this:








Learn what the **** Libertarianism is about first!

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"When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation... We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...."
- The Declaration of Independence

No problem, I hope that more people can do this in every aspect, not just libertarianism, but liberals and conservatives and socialists and everyone else. I hate this classifing BS that goes on by extremists.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

I think it's worse with Libertarians. People usually become Libertarian after studying both the Democratic and Republican parties and finding that they agree with portions of each party, leading to the mixed views of Libertarianism, whether it be Social, Fiscal, Objective, Socialist, or whatever.

The average person knows nothing of Libertarianism except for what he hears about the Libertarian Party, which is so far right wing that even many right-wingers refuse to associate with it. Thus we always get a bad name from everyone. Not just one side, but all sides.

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"When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation... We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...."
- The Declaration of Independence

While I sympathize, it is a limited sympathy since you're doing the exact same pigeon-holing on liberals that you're complaining about.

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"Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
-Joseph Welch

Prove that the Libertarian Party is "so far right wing."

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Bob Barr...

__________________
Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

He proves nothing. It may or may not surprise you that a significant number of Libertarian Party members opposed Barr's nomination. In order for it to be proof, it must be from actual statements made by the party itself, such as in its platform, over the course of its history.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Bullsht. The Democratic party has done an about face on civil rights over its history.

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"Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
-Joseph Welch

But the Libertarian Party has a much shorter history. Oh, and I wouldn't call what the Democrat Party did on civil rights an about face: it merely went from being overtly racist to paternalistic.

__________________
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

And his nomination shows that the members are not the party. There are two parts, the members and the party. The party should be following it's members, but it has shown, with Bob Barr, that it is not.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides