Libertarianism (and especially American libertarianism) is not the logical conclusion of rationalism in the minds of many rationalists. Rationalism is more abou

Libertarianism (and especially American libertarianism) is not the logical conclusion of rationalism in the minds of many rationalists. Rationalism is more about analyzing bias and using reason to the greatest extent possible than promulgating any particular political view. In fact, in this comment on LW[1] which I recently came across, Scott appears to compare using rationalist ideas to win specific political arguments to the dark side. Also, take, for example, the CFAR[2], where the workshops cover: - How to combine conflicting intuitions from multiple sources, including your gut reactions, your analytic reasoning, and of course the opinions of others; - The structure of your own goals and motivations; - How to learn new skills faster So perhaps if the only rationalists you've met are haughty libertarians, you've gotten unlucky. I will say that the rationalist community tends to be liberal on social views, but that's probably because the community tends to be utilitarian, and it's hard to justify, for example, banning homosexuality in a utilitarian framework. [1] https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/GfMSiorAsYeezpn9o/the-problem-with-rational-wiki?commentId=Hcsdsys5HvBZpuur2 https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/GfMSiorAsYeezpn9o/the-proble... [2] https://rationality.org/workshops/upcoming https://rationality.org/workshops/upcoming