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I wouldn't refer to the Cato Institute as anything but biased, as it's a neo-con libertarian think tank funded by the Koch Brothers but this particular study is
by fuzzywalrus 10y ago
I wouldn't refer to the Cato Institute as anything but biased, as it's a neo-con libertarian think tank funded by the Koch Brothers but this particular study is fascinating simply because it IS a neo-con libertarian think tank funded by the Koch Brothers.
- Chinjut 10y ago> this particular study is fascinating simply because it IS a neo-con libertarian think tank funded by the Koch Brothers. Of course a libertarian think tank would argue for drug legalization; that's not surprising at all. (I say this as one who also supports drug legalization, whose politics are in many ways diametrically opposite to libertarianism.)
- dcgudeman 10y agoHonestly, what is your issue with the Koch Brothers?
- refurb 10y agoThey like things he doesn't like?
- jdminhbg 10y agoCato is libertarian, but it's about as far from neocon as you can get. They opposed both Iraq wars.
- mod 10y agoI don't find it surprising at all that people with an agenda can still look at things objectively. Especially since we all have agendas, and I like to think I'm fairly objective.
- PKop 10y agoNeo-con libertarian? What evidence do you have to support the claim that Cato is neo-con? Wikipedia cites Cato as being critical of neo-con foreign policy and the Iraq War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute#Libertarianism.2C_classical_liberalism.2C_and_conservatism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute#Libertarianism.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute#On_foreign_policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute#On_foreign_poli... Do you know what neo-con means? Serious question
- eco 10y agoI'm not terribly surprised that someone would think "neo-con" and "libertarian" were near synonyms. A lot of people seem to have it in their head that libertarians are just hardcore conservatives (and for some reason think neo-con just means an extremely conservative person).
- mattnewton 10y agoI thought noe-con usually meant big government / big buisiness / status-quo republican, which is pretty different from libertarian.
- pjlegato 10y agoHow is that fascinating? Libertarianism as an ideology is overtly based on the theory that everyone ought to have extreme and full personal freedom to do whatever they like, so long as it does not affect anyone else. They have long advocated the full legalization of marijuana and all other drugs. Neoconservativism and libertarianism are very different ideologies, by the way. Perhaps the out-group homogenity bias is at work? [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-group_homogeneity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-group_homogeneity
- ZeroGravitas 10y ago> as long as it does not affect anyone else Unless it's a big corp causing harm to people in which case they fight tooth and nail to prevent any kind of legislation that might fix the issue see discouraging tobacco smoking, global warming, coal pollution, fracking and so on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heartland_Institute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heartland_Institute