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L.P.D.: Libertarian Police Department
- rayiner 13y ago"Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs®" really captures the Zeitgeist of Silicon Valley libertarianism. Public services are ad supported! Although, it falls a bit flat because without the government trademark monopoly there's no incentive to spend so much money advertising to build up brands.
- just_reading 13y agoFunny, and at the same time accurately representing their subscriber's understanding of libertarianism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_Kael#Alleged_Nixon_quote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_Kael#Alleged_Nixon_quot...)
- bogs_carut 13y agoSeeing various media outlets attempt to portray Bitcoin as some kind of Randian fetish with criminal undercurrents is getting rather tiresome. "computer money invented to buy drugs." -- come on. I get that the New Yorker is middlebrow yuppie polemic, but they could at least put a modicum of effort into an attempt at satire.
- cromwellian 13y agoThe majority of the cypherpunks behind the development of the crypto in Bitcoin are libertarians, that's just the unavoidable fact. Hal Finny, Nick Szabo, you name any of the heavy hitters of the original cypherpunks list. Then, if you move on to look at the Bitcoin Talk forums, you'll see they're infested not only by libertarians, but crazy right wing gold-bug types. Maybe as bitcoin goes more mainstream, you can claim it outgrew these sensibilities, but you can't ignore the disproportionate number of rabid anti-government types who are the early adopters.
- bogs_carut 13y agoSome of the community is like that, sure. But it doesn't follow that the technology as a whole was created as a political vehicle, nor does it follow that it will necessarily serve as one. A technology cannot possess sensibilities. But there are plenty of people willing to assert otherwise.
- cromwellian 13y agoAre you aware of the history of cryptocurrencies and who is behind them? See http://www.cypherpunks.to/faq/cyphernomicron/chapter4.html#11 http://www.cypherpunks.to/faq/cyphernomicron/chapter4.html#1... The core people who worked on the algorithmic components that form the basis of Bitcoin, are not only sympathetic to Libertarianism, but are sympathetic to anarcho-capitalism. I used to be heavily involved in cypherpunks myself (search for "cromwell" in the cyphernomicon, see my Anonymous Remailer stuff http://marc.info/?l=cypherpunks&m=85281458701690&w=2 http://marc.info/?l=cypherpunks&m=85281458701690&w=2 or search Cromwell here http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~daw/papers/privacy-compcon97-www/privacy-html.html http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~daw/papers/privacy-compcon97-www... to see my note on the Decense Project, one of the very first anonymizing web proxies), and I used to be a rabid libertarian myself and I can tell you from personal experience it's not an exaggeration to say where the sympathies of the creators are. I personally developed cryptotools for anonymous double blind mailing lists (neither the recipients of the list nor the list itself know each other's addresses), shamir sharing, and distributed publishing, on the basis I believed I was defeating government surveillance and censorship. At the time, there was a vague notion that untraceable anonymity, absolutely secure communication, and digital cash would permit the creation of an online world which was 100% free of government.
- bogs_carut 13y agoThat's lovely for you, but not terribly relevant to anything I've stated. An appeal to personal experience does not constitute a refutation of the assertion that a technology cannot possess sensibilities. Nor does it provide evidence that the majority of the present Bitcoin community shares such beliefs -- asserting otherwise constitutes a fallacy of improper generalization. It's quite possible that the views most frequently articulated on Bitcoin Talk, etc. are those of a vocal minority.
- cromwellian 13y ago"Brought to you by Carls Junior!" "Why do you keep saying that?" "Because I get paid everytime I do! If you're so smart, how come you don't know that?!"
- cromwellian 13y agoFor whomever voted it down, this story mirrors similar concepts presented in Mike Judge's _Idiocracy_.
- api 13y agoLibertarian != anarchist. (I am not either of these, just pointing out that this is a straw man.)
- afsina 13y agoCorrect. But they can intersect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- tlrobinson 13y ago"I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth." Huh? Why does this person think libertarians would believe secondhand smoke is a myth? They might argue against laws prohibiting smoking indoors, but it wouldn't be because they believe second hand smoking is a myth. This piece is filled with non-sequiturs.
- bogs_carut 13y agoThe conflation of libertarianism with a variety of nonsensical positions is likely a deliberate attempt to discredit the ideology. It's nonsense.
- rayiner 13y agoIt necessarily follows. Even libertarians acknowledge that people's rights don't extend to hurting others. So any libertarian that opposes a smoking ban must believe that second hand smoke is a myth.
- tlrobinson 13y agoThat logic would only apply to public property, right?
- samolang 13y agoThese libertarians oppose smoking bans imposed on private establishments. They believe that second hand smoke is fine if it only affects people who voluntarily enter the establishment (similar to how they're fine with people throwing concerts even though the noise level of concerts can damage the listener's ears).
- dllthomas 13y agoOr one could think that second hand smoke is harmful, but that bans entail greater harm when all is said and done. I'm not saying I hold such a position, just that "I object to policy Y opposing X" does not imply "I don't think X is bad."
- tracker1 13y ago
- mlieberman85 13y agoThere are valid criticisms and parody of libertarianism. There are valid criticisms and parody of Bitcoins. This article doesn't provide any of that. It's just a big straw man.
- Aloha 13y agoThe 'Fountainhead' reference annoyed me, privately funded police and courts are not a real objective as per randian ideology - Rand was an objectivist, not a Libertarian. The rest of the article is just stupid stereotypes piled one on another.
- breischl 13y agoI can't tell if this is an intentional misrepresentation for attempted comedy, or if the author's only research into libertarianism consisted of jokes he heard at a party while shooting up that heroin mentioned the first paragraph. My bet is on the latter.
- jedberg 13y agoLibertarians still believe in a publicly funded police force (and military). It's one of the few things Libertarians feel should be publicly funded.
- cromwellian 13y agoDepends on the kind of libertarian. Some libertarians would scope that down. Much of the court system can be privatized as arbitration panels and insurance adjustment show. Security can be privatized as well, so local police don't necessarily have to be government funded. National defense is the only area where anarcho-capitalism doesn't quite bridge the gap. I don't really agree with any of the above, but I think it is disingenuous to claim that there aren't a lot of libertarians who fall along a spectrum including Minarchy.
- UVB-76 13y agoDoes such a consensus really exist? Who decides what the libertarian consensus is on a particular view?
- jedberg 13y agoI based it on the Libertarian Party platform.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- rainmaking 13y agoAh, but the Libertarian Party by definition represents those Libertarians who see a role for the state.
- rainmaking 13y agoI believe private crime insurance is a more commonly advocated solution.
- Torgo 13y agoWas this just copied from a 4chan troll post?
- bogs_carut 13y ago4chan usually does a better job than this.
- rainmaking 13y agoAs a Libertarian, this is pretty funny.