5. “You can’t call yourself a patriot if all you want to do is look at the Statue of Liberty … you like the Statue of Liberty, READ the poem at the base of that statue. ‘Give me your tired, give me your poor, give me your huddled masses who yearn to breath free.’ You can’t be an anti-immigrant bigot and a patriot at the same time.
I think Van Jones’s characterization of libertarians as people who just call themselves patriots all day and go to New York and post Facebook photos and all of that is inaccurate – it’s closer to what empty-right-wing-nationalists might do, but that’s neither here nor there. What’s more important is the glaring lie that libertarians are anti-immigrant. I don’t know one libertarian who doesn’t support the free flow of capital AND LABOR. Although I do think it’s unfair that illegal immigrants come over when those trying to come here legally are waiting for years and years, I still don’t scorn otherwise peaceful illegals. They shouldn’t have broken our laws by coming here and if they commit another crime they should go to prison and then get kicked out of the US.
First on Van Jones: the guy sounds like a total idiot...and anyone who believed his bullcrap probably wont be smart enough to read your blog and anyone smart enough to read your blog probably thought it was bullcrap anyway.
ReplyDeleteSecond on defending against accusations of racism by including examples of gay or black people you know--dont do that. it looks really ignorant. i dont know why that is, but multiple people have tried that defense before and it's just not good. im not saying you are racist im just saying that defense makes it look worse than if you didnt even respond to that baseless bullcrap.
third on environmental destruction: one thing that i guess i have yet to reconcile with the libertarian model is that it always seems to assume companies have the foresight to really preserve the land that they own or operate on and they wont get driven by short-term impulsive greed even when it does lead to them imploding. while i dont know any examples right now, if you tell me i have to research examples of this, to make you convinced that such companies exist and have existed, i could easily do that.
I love economic freedom and the elimination of hte FED and price fixing and laws against euthanasia and smoking weed etc. but the environmental piece i do think the government needs to enforce the same way that if a bunch of people are stuck living together, the messy ones might not mind making a mess of the place, but because it's everyone's place, they cant be allowed to. in this case, we're all stuck together on this country and just cause my neighbor doesnt mind polluting the shit out of the air, I do and it's my air too--you really think the free market would regulate air pollution?