@bascule My flatmate in the late 90s/early 2000s was a rather large figure in digital rights and freedoms. He was someone who had struggled due to his insistence on sticking to principle over convenience, and really worked for the greater shared public good.

But he self-identified as AnCap, back then. I had a hard time with this, but his work in civil liberties made me stop and listen (even if I still vehemently disagree with some of his positions on measures meant to repair equity after the fact). I won't name him, as he still has a Wikipedia entry for his work, and I haven't really spoken to him in over a decade now. Times have changed and I don't know how he has, given all that.

He was vegan, and ultimately I realised everything he believed was because he was pacifist to an extreme. And that was the real political ideology he espoused: pacifism. I think if you scratch the "one good Libertarian" you knew, you'll find out that they're more of an old-school Anarchist with strong pacifist convictions.

So roll on fellow-feeling and mutual aid. We can disagree about power structures, but let's kick the selfish racist conspiracy nutters out of the bar either way.

@bascule libertarianism is fun til the fascists show up.

Fight for democracy, dammit.

@bascule

>> if you use the word “we,” and you’re not talking about eight billion people, fuck you

Fantastic interview. Thank you

@bascule

Penn Jilette was on The Apprentice - and should have won if shitbird had made the decision fairly based on ability - so he’s seen first hand what a piece of shit Trump is.

@bascule I read that interview earlier tonight, really good read.

I didn't know much about the guy prior to this.

@bascule

Penn wrote about Trump on Facebook back in 2016 before the election. This was in a thread that was started by a friend of mine and a bunch of libertarian leaning people participated.

He stated then that Trump was a bad person. And he further said this wasn't about his political positions, he's a bad person as a person according to Penn.

He was very emphatic and clear about it. Don't let Trump become president he said. He's bad news.

@bascule The vast majority of people who describe themselves as "libertarian" in the US are not, in fact, libertarian, at all; in fact, they are the antithesis of libertarian, they are *authoritarians*.

"Liberty for me, but not for thee" is no Liberty, at all.

Real Liberty is and can only possibly be based upon Equality. We must be Free precisely because we are all Equal in Dignity. There is no other possible basis for Liberty. If you do not understand this, you are no libertarian.

@bascule Really pleased to read this.

I've never known a Libertarian who, at the core, wasn't just an overgrown version of a kid in a huff over not getting the first slice of cake at someone else's birthday party.

@bascule

Pretty much exactly like me, and it was pretty much the same "anti-masking" straw that broke the proverbial camel's back.

Exactly why libertarians should support masking: "if I don’t wear a mask, the chance of fucking someone else up increase."

Then again, I don't feel like I belong anywhere else either since pretty much everyone else has stopped masking too (and it was the Biden administration that led the charge on declaring COVID over while it is still wildly contagious).

@bascule

#Troof

@bascule

Folks in the debunking trade are all too familar w/this asymmetry:

"Woodward and Bernstein are pretty sure the president of the United States committed crimes, and they work their asses off to try to prove that. But if you’re deep in the MAGA movement, you can just type that Biden went to China and set up a secret nuclear arsenal, and you get this incredible amount of praise with seven-minutes work."

It's a not a system where energy is conserved. Dark energy is endlessly available.

@bascule Huh, I guess he fooled us :-)

He is such a smart and articulate guy, I often questioned the libertarian leanings.

Now that so many billionaires seem to think that they don't need democracy, quite a few grass roots libertarians are realizing that they can't survive in the US on their own - or maybe they are just getting older and can't afford medical insurance.

LB: This is a delightful interview, but I was particularly struck by this quote:

"(Trump’s) basic idea that, in a transaction, someone wins and someone loses is the most deeply anti-American, anti-capitalist idea you can possibly have. The idea of winners and losers being said about capitalism is a gross distortion of what that’s supposed to be. The way Penn & Teller run (our) business is I want everybody to make money."

@bascule Good, that always disappointed the hell out of me.

Libertarians are housecats: fiercely convinced of their independence from complex systems which sustain them that they are utterly ignorant about.

@bascule one of his best observations in this interview:

“(Trump’s) basic idea that, in a transaction, someone wins and someone loses is the most deeply anti-American, anti-capitalist idea you can possibly have. The idea of winners and losers being said about capitalism is a gross distortion of what that’s supposed to be.”

The real idea is that both people are better off. Win-win. “Capitalism” and “libertarian” have been hijacked, and great examples of why I don’t trust labels.

@bascule

A libertarian who can open his mind to reality. What next?

@bascule this is almost exactly how I left the Libertarian party. They sent me some damn literature on an anti masking demonstration and asked for money to support it.

I wrote back that I would have been less ashamed to be associated with them if they'd openly advocated drunk driving and that I never wanted to hear from them again.

Someone at I Got Mine, Fuck You Headquarters must have read it because I haven't heard from them since.