TheAgitator.com
You’re Not Paying Attention
Thursday, December 13th, 2007Apparently, I’m “right-wing.”
This will come as a surprise to anyone who’s read this site more than, say, eight minutes.
MORE: And only “libertarian-leaning!” Must be my sell-out on the dog-fighting thing, huh?
I think many liberals have a shallow view of “libertarianism” as super-hardcore-ultra right-wing. Fiscally speaking, this is kind of true. When it comes to personal liberty though, I think they’d find a lot to like if they paid a little more attention.
I’m more amused by the “libertarian-leaning” part.
that’s because the folks at kos are “myopic” ..wait, i didn’t need the quotes for that.
Huh….I’ve always thought of you as some commie pinko liberal card-carrying-ACLU guy trying to get criminals off and subvert American justice.
Why do you hate America, Radley?
/sarcasm off
I wouldn’t say it’s outlandish to call you right-wing. You’re just the good kind of right-winger. Libertarian “leaning” was the odd part.
Bizarre. Lately I’ve had liberals accuse me of being a right-wing Republican who is simply uncomfortable with the ultra-religious faction of the party. There must have been a memo or something.
Though I suppose it’s partially true. I guess I could be called a Republican who is simply uncomfortable with the ultra-religious, big spending, massive government supporting, liberty stealing, constitution trampling, war mongering, big business up-sucking, immigration fearing, prohibitionist, nanny factions of the party.
But other than that, I’m pretty damn right-wing.
It might be part of the attempt to co-opt the libertarian tag (Kos’s rramblings about liberaltarians). If they brand the libertarians are pro-corporation republicans in sheep’s clothing then they can brand themselves as the party of true freedom.
Are you “right wing”?
Yep. Sorry to have to say it, but you are definitely on the right.
I’m as liberal as they come but I keep coming back to your site because of all the great work you do on civil liberties. Civil liberties should be something the right and left agree on.
But like the folks over at Jim Henley’s site, and the folks at Reason, every so often on your blog I keep seeing a certain consistent disdain for liberalism and an openness towards the ideology of of the mainstream Republican party.
But you’re still one of the good guys. Keep up the good work.
By the way, the folks over at Kos’ site are pretty moderate liberals. Hardly left-wing at all. They’re just angry about the last 8 years and are willing to fight. In most countries, they’d be called conservatives.
As a left-leaning libertarian, I sort of understand the tendency for fellow liberals to try and paste libertarians as right-wing. This typically stems from the fact that the most prominent libertarians are the ones who don’t understand that if the government simply wasn’t there anymore we’d have a free-market utopia and nothing would ever be wrong again (Capital “L” Libertarians, if you will). My reading of The Agitator over the past couple years is that Radley is a small “L” liberarian: preserve personal freedom, fight the growing police state, but not abolish the government. It’s weird, but I know that it’s possible to be a libertarian and not a Republican, and I try to explain this to people as best I can. The Kossacks will take a bit to get the point, though.
“don’t understand” should be replaced with “believe” in my last post. Hectic day at work today. :-/
That was the first time I’d ever been to DailyKos.
*Yawn*
I think you guys are reading too much into this. I think my new ploy to up hits to my blog is to link here and question Radley’s libertarian street cred.
I’ve always been a civil libertarian, but the folks at Lew Rockwell would probably think of my as a commie because I think Social Security is a good thing.
I’d say you’re a Socialist, crack, but six of one, a half-dozen of the other…
Thanks for proving my point Matt.
Radley should have warned you all, in case you don’t normally go to Kos. When you read that site, you should have an umbrella handy to protect yourself from the spittle he creates during his hateful, foaming-at-the-mouth rants. I find reading Kos to be a lot like sitting in the front row at a Gallagher show, except I laugh for different reasons.
Mike,
That wasn’t Kos.
However, there is no reason to let facts get in the way of a good ad hominem attack.
Crack
not only are you right wing, but according to the denialism blog, your work “rivals creationist drivel for sheer stupidity.”
http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/2007/12/reason_the_ultimate_misnomer.php#more
I love labels. I’ve always found when pundits resort to using labels they’ve usually run short of facts.
Apparently “thirdparty” (who wrote the Kos piece) subscribes to a third party which isn’t the libertarians or any pro-liberty party. I shall guess that they insufficiently pleased with the alacrity with which the contemporary Democrats and Republicans are imposing Marxism, and prefer the unrefined ores of the Socialists or Communists.
http://www.roadblock.org/federal/casefed.htm
This is common. In fact, I’ve seen it argued that it’s a trait of evolved human psychology–a reverse of the halo effect, a common cognitive bias. You can argue for civil liberties all day long, but as long as you keep a “government hands off!” point of view, many people are going to see you the enemy, and the enemy is the right wing.
I’m constantly amazed at how many people actually learn they are libertarian and will all but slit their own wrists at the discovery. The same would NEVER vote such either. Any wonder why we don’t see any real change in our countries politicos? Currently we are a two party govt, but yet the sound bites blend together all too well. Seems we are in reality a single party govt, divided only in a few subjects, which are made out to be the grand canyon to all. The goal of course is to divide and conquer, which they do well.
As near as I can tell basically it means, “Dont tread on ME”! EVER! We have and are governed by a constitution, it was well written and had reason for all of it. Follow it! Social issues liberal, yet we know that all things cost REAL money for all!
First thing the voters need to do is insure that ALL new blood gets into the power house. As well hoping or insuring that no lawyers are ever put into a position of making law! Conflict of interest seems to come to mind here. Monopoly as well could be entertained, though with some additional effort.
If only, Mike Vick had been breeding, training and selling those dogs to the government for use against humans by other “humans.”
He would have been a HERO, almost as much stature as the fireman, the friendly cop on the beat, the DMV clerk or any other government employee/sub-contractor. BUT NO he had to go and use those poor sad poochies for personal gain via athletic endeavours. I suppose the next targets will be Siamese fighting fish, Chinese fighting crickets, Mexican fighting scorpions, Phillipine and Japanese fighting spiders and those fighting kites so popular in India and Pakistan.
Maybe it’s the definition of right- and left-wing that gets muddled. To me, right-wing means Fascist (lots of government control, nationalism, etc.). I’ve always thought of Libertarian as not being on the righ-left “line”, but all around, above and below it. That makes it hard for me to define myself, as a Libertarian, as either righ or left.
Radley, haven’t you been more frequently called liberal or left-wing by conservatives?
This typically stems from the fact that the most prominent libertarians are the ones who don’t understand that if the government simply wasn’t there anymore we’d have a free-market utopia and nothing would ever be wrong again (Capital “L” Libertarians, if you will).
Which prominent libertarians are for the abolition of the government?
Les - There are lots of anarchist libertarians. Not many run for office, well, because that just wouldn’t make much sense.
In fact, originally libertarian was used as a synonym to anarchist. And mostly outside of the US it´s still used in that way.
Matt - Oh, sure I know there are anarchist libertarians, but when I think of “prominent libertarians” (which Kit above mentioned), I think of people like Ron Paul, Milton Friedman. If you know of some well-known or “prominent” libertarians who are anarchists, I’d appreciate learning about them.
Eric S. Raymond claims to be an anarchist, as does Randy Barnett, but since both supported the Iraq war I’ll not grant them the label libertarian, leaving aside questions of minarchism vs anarchism (I discovered there might be a third position here).