Monday, April 25, 2016

Libertarians telling others "how to live"

I wonder where the statist notion that libertarians shouldn't speak up on anything comes from.

I have run into this several times. I'll comment on something, and then some statist will pop up with the comment that "Oh, the 'libertarian' decides to tell other people how to live?"

Well, sure. You have no right to initiate force nor to violate private property, and if you do either one you may face consequences. I think it's nice to warn you; would you rather be surprised?

I also think it's nice to make people aware of times they may have been initiating force (or theft) without being aware of what they were doing.

After being told, the choice is yours. Learn from it or ignore it. The only silly choice is to get angry about it, or try to "shame" me into silence.

Maybe they just want me to sit down and shut up because they know they have no rational response and hope they can shut me down so one won't be necessary. Or so the lack of a rational response won't be obvious.

.