>Unless you live in a self-sufficient homestead in the middle of a forest, there's no such thing as a "self-made man". Where did I argue individualism means yo

>Unless you live in a self-sufficient homestead in the middle of a forest, there's no such thing as a "self-made man". Where did I argue individualism means you're in a "self-sufficient homestead in the middle of the forest"?? This type of straw man is employed frequently and is aggravating because OF COURSE we live in a society and we rely on others. Even hardcore libertarians don't make that claim. Having said that, society is an ever-present constant, like the environment. An individual by themselves cannot really affect it. An individual, however, can certainly affect how they interact with it and the choices they make. In that sense, there sure are 'self-made men'. >individualism is often found in practice to be pulled as a justification for privatising our economic output in the hands of a lucky few, and for ever-greater concentrations of wealth and an unjust distribution of duties and rewards. We're way beyond debating whether we should live in pure capitalist-type of world with a tiny government and everything is privatized. We live in a mixed system, with a market-based economy and a social welfare state. There is no mainstream debate to change that. The political debate is centered around whether to move the dial a little towards the welfare state or the market-based side. So move on from that argument it's not relevant. The attacks on individualism I'm talking about are ones that deal with attacks on basic enlightenment values like getting rid of due process (as was done on collage campuses when dealing with accusations of sexual assault) or treating immutable characteristics of an individual as boosting or discreding an argument they make ... you know, anytime an argument is taken more seriously when it is preceded with "As a member of identity group X here's what I think...". How about the immoral idea of 'privilege' promulgated by academia and media, as a way to dismiss all individual experience in favour of group identity.