Why I fled libertarianism — and became a liberal

[freshwest]

22. Thanks so much, DV for bringing this here. These 4 paragraphs say it all:

If you think that selfishness and cruelty are fantastic personal traits, you might be a libertarian. In the movement no one will ever call you an asshole, but rather, say you believe in radical individualism...

From the ashes of the election rose the movement that pushed me from convinced libertarian into bunny-hugging liberal. The Tea Party monster forever tainted the words freedom and libertarian for me. The rise of the Tea Party made me want to puke, and my nausea is now a chronic condition...

I began to think about real people, like my neighbors and people less lucky than me. Did I want those people to starve to death? I care about children, even poor ones. I love the National Park system. The best parts of the America I love are our communities. My libertarian friends might call me a fucking commie (they have) or a pussy, but extreme selfishness is just so isolating and cruel. Libertarianism is unnatural, and the size of the federal government is almost irrelevant. The real question is: what does society need and how do we pay for it?

...I don’t think regular Americans have any idea just how crazy libertarians can be. The only human corollary I can offer is unquestioning religious fervor, and hell yeah, I used to be a true believer. Libertarians think they own the word “freedom,” but it’s a word that often obfuscates more than enlightens. If you believe the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quote “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free,”  then libertarians live in a prison of their own ideology.

That and his mention of how often they use the n-word says he has truly made the change. Yes, they do, but don't want to be called racists. I've run into these overbearing, proud fanatics who destroy democracy with zeal, using philosophical points to call it mob rule because they see themselves above others. They speak in the language of aristocrats and the plutocrats when they scornfully refer to social justice movements.

Much conspiracy against government is from the sources that enriched themselves off all the wars, to defame democratic government and push people away from working their minds in the real world instead of the feverish fantasies this man describes so well here.

JMHO.