A doomed alliance?

A pretty fair article by Ed Kilgore on the widening rift between progressives and libertarians. One mini-saga of the past decade in American politics has been the flirtation—with talk of a deeper partnership—between progressives and libertarians. These two groups were driven together, in the main, by common hostility to huge chunks of the Bush administration’s [...]

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On bias and extremism in politics

Megan’s article reminded me of some thoughts I have had in the past about political polarizations. There are several commonly held intellectual blinkers, or, to use a Robin Hanson terminology, roads to rationality ruin, that prevent us from properly appraising the value of a political position. This is true with respect to positions we support [...]

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Listening to the other side

A pretty great post by Megan McArdle on open-mindedness, spite and political polarization.

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The tea-partiers

Here’s a great article by Tunku Varadarajan on the tea-party movement. On right and left, “educated” people have given vent to their contempt for the Tea Party crowd, leading me to conclude that there must, surely, be considerable significance in a movement that has had scorn poured on it by such varied names [...] On [...]

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Thoughts on John Mackey and Whole Foods

For those not following the Whole Foods controversy, this is roughly what happened: John Mackey, CEO and co-founder of Whole Foods, and a fairly committed libertarian who once debated Milton Friedman on corporate responsiblity to stakeholders, decided to pen an article against Obama-care at the WSJ. Here’s an excerpt. Many promoters of health-care reform believe [...]

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Utopia and reality

Will Wikinson says: Yet I hear again and again that, since the state should not be in the business of marriage, one should not, as a libertarian, have an opinion about how this business is to be carried out. Increasingly, I find this an obnoxious and shameful form of moral recusal. One cannot use an [...]

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Libertarianism and climate science denial

Ryan Avent on the incompatibility of climate science and some libertarians: That is to say, confronted by a problem demanding solutions inimical to libertarian beliefs, libertarians were faced with the choice of reneging on their beliefs or turning their back on science. Tellingly, they chose the latter. One might think that’s a rather drastic decision, given [...]

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Eric Posner profiles Cass Sunstein

Eric Posner’s article on Cass Sunstein is an excellent profile of the man’s views and positions and it also accurately summarises why I am happy about the Sunstein appointment. Sunstein has strong liberal instincts—his work is animated by his concern for the rights and well-being of poor and vulnerable people and oppressed groups—and he believes that [...]

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Bitterness, happiness and Browne’s resolutions

Of the Browne resolutions, I find this one particularly important: I resolve to cleanse myself of hate, resentment, and bitterness. Such things steal time and attention from the work that must be done. Related to which I’d like to resolve: I will not let myself be poisoned with negative emotions by things I view as [...]

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The libertarian moment?

The latest issue of Reason magazine has a long op-ed titled “The Libertarian moment.” Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie make the case that we are at the threshold of a new age of freedom. They cite as evidence relaxing social norms, increased permissiveness and the `soft libertarianism’ that the internet age has spawned. I would [...]

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The libertarian vice

I came across this old post by Tyler Cowen today: The libertarian vice is to assume that the quality of government is fixed.  The libertarian also argues that the quality of government is typically low, and this is usually the bone of contention, but that is not the point I wish to consider.  Often that [...]

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The personal is not the political

1. And the moral is not the legal. It is a distinction that often seems to be lost. Admittedly, most people, when faced with the distasteful, the unpleasant or the unfair have a natural impulse to ‘ban it’. That is an emotional response. As we grow up, we learn to separate the emotional from the [...]

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Feuding libertarians

I would not be doing my job as a libertarian blogger if I did not link to the blog war between Todd Seavey on the one hand and Kerry Howley/Will Wilkinson on the other (with minor roles played by Helen Rittelmeyer and Julian Sanchez). The best link (in the sense that it points to almost [...]

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Blackmail, libertarianism and the law

A post over at the Art of The Possible asking for libertarian perspectives on blackmail law morphs into an interesting discussion on private property, coercion, reputation and related philosophical issues. I have detailed my position on blackmail law and related issues in the comment thread linked above, so I will not expound on it here. [...]

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Anti-loyalty alliance is still an alliance

A nice follow-up by Robin Hanson to his earlier post I had linked to: You just can’t fight “conformity” by indulging the evil pleasure of enjoying your conformity to a small tight-knit group of “non-conformists.”  All this does is promote some groups at the expense of other groups, and poisons your mind in the process.  [...]

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