I’m amazed at the historical ignorance of the US Libertarians. For most of the past two centuries (since Proudhon), “libertarianism” without any qualifiers woul

I’m amazed at the historical ignorance of the US Libertarians. For most of the past two centuries (since Proudhon), “libertarianism” without any qualifiers would refer to the socialist form – and as a synonym for “anarchism”. The politics of the US Libertarian Party has far more in common with classic laissez-faire liberal capitalism than pre-existing anarchism/libertarianism. Also, unlike the socialists, the individualist and the free-market branches of libertarian thought never had mass support. A mere 4 decades before the US Libertarian party was founded, an explicitly, self-described libertarian communist organisation in just one country had well over a million members (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo). It’s kind of tragic that American dominance of Internet culture has meant that even a decade ago, younger people that I spoke to were only aware of the more recent capitalist form of libertarianism.