[extropy-chat] electing ideas [was Re:Fahrenheit 911 -objectivereview?]

[Samantha Atkins]

On Aug 23, 2004, at 6:25 AM, Mike Lorrey wrote:

>
> --- Samantha Atkins <samantha at objectent.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Aug 16, 2004, at 1:18 AM, Brett Paatsch wrote:
>>>
>>> " ..by virtue of our abdication, a very authoritarian, assertive
>>> form of government has taken over. And oddly enough, it is
>>> doing so in the guise of libertarianism to a certain extent. Most
>>> of the people in the think tanks behind the Bush administration’s
>>> current policies are libertarians, or certainly free marketeers.
>>
>> I am sorry but the current government-corporate love-in has nothing
>> to
>> do with free markets.  With the exception of Cato, none of the major
>> think tanks remotely qualify as or claim to be libertarian AFAIK.
>> This is a gross insult to libertarians by those who haven't the
>> foggiest idea what libertarianism or free markets are about.

>
> Well then, you don't know. Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform
> is very influential in that they've proposed all of the tax cuts that
> Bush has instigated, Norquist is a common face in the White House, and
> his Wednesday luncheons at his HQ are a must-attend event for
> conservo-libertarian movers and shakers.

Americans for tax reform is a think tank?  Norquist is a Republican 
right-winger out to unfund all those liberal groups he hates.

>

That the are for tax cuts and keeping the tax bill down  hardly makes 
said group or person libertarian or even shows that most of the 
proposals are remotely consistent with libertarian ideals.

> In the 1970's Norquist co-authored a book on taxes with Tim Condon, who
> is currently director of participant services at the Free State
> Project.
>

Cool, so?

> Norquist has been pioneering, according to knowledgable sources, in
> melding industry money with conservative/libertarian causes and
> politicians. He annoys many social conservatives like Tucker Carlson,
> who refers to him as "a little creep".
>

So?


>>> We’ve got two distinct strains of libertarianism, and the
>>> hippie-mystic strain is not engaging in politics, and the Ayn
>>> Rand strain is basically dismantling government in a way that
>>> is giving complete open field running to multinational
>>> corporatism."
>>>
>>
>> OK, this is sloppy far beyond any need to deal with it further.
>
> I'd say it's pretty accurate. There are of course also the L Neil
> Smith, 10x10, big L libertarians who are allergic to anything but
> absolutely perfect Libertarian thought, and refuse to support anything
> which is a step on the way. There are a few other minor strains, but
> the hippie/mystic Georgists and the Randroid dismantlers make up the
> bulk of things in the *active* legions.
>


I don't take many of your opinions as accurate on the subject of 
Libertarianism.   I guess it is may be mutual.   Where exactly is the 
evidence that anyone is successfully "dismantling government"?   It 
looks like a very fat fascist state in the making to me.

-samantha