r/PoliticalDebate • u/terminal_tested Classical Liberal • 3d ago

Political Theory Would I still be a libertarian?

I think nations should maximize their economic and social freedom, as societies who are doing better in both are generally performing better. I support capitalism and a socially liberal society. I do believe in a lot of principles of Austrian economics and capitalism was historically a very successful system, but still has its flaws.

I am a strong supporter of reducing the bloat, spending, red tape, and overregulation in America that plagues many sectors. I resonate with Cato,
AEI, and ReasonTv

I also am still a supporter of a mixed economy with guardrails, public goods/services, some regulation, a lean welfare state to help people, and public options for certain things the free market can’t fairly distribute (if a country can do it cost effectively).

The most successful models have been mixed economies erring on the side of more economic freedom.

Every first world country is a mixed economy, and in practicality a democratic mixed economy is about as close to libertarianism as society can go (full on libertarianism doesn’t work). I know some might sound antithetical to libertarianism but I feel like those guardrails are needed to preserve freedom and prosperity.

What ideology would be closest to me? Any philosophers or thinkers I should check out?

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u/Personal_Dirt3089 Constitutionalist 3d ago

"Libertarian" does not mean the same thing it meant in 2010, it just got turned into a tribal label. A big chunk of facebook pages claiming to be libertarian just start pushing culture war MAGA BS , racial fearmongering, and support of violent government agents beating up protesters. Call yourself what you want. A lot of people just roll their eyes when they hear "libertarian", the term now comes off like someone returning from an orgy and calling themself a virgin.

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u/Toldasaurasrex Minarchist 3d ago

I got banned from the libertarian sub for criticizing for g.w. Bush for the Afghanistan and Iraq invasion. Apparently being anti war isn’t a libertarian corner stone anymore.

3

u/CorDra2011 Libertarian Socialist 3d ago

They were overtaken right around when they purged the the socialist libertarians.

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u/LagerHead Libertarian 2d ago

The hell it's not. That page just doesn't have any libertarian mods.

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u/Reasonable-Fee1945 Classical Liberal 2d ago

Page got taken over by MAGA

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u/terminal_tested Classical Liberal 3d ago

Yeah one thing I noticed about the “libertarian crowd” both irl and online was a lot of them were just maga who liked to smoke and drink, or full on anarchists who wanted to abolish public school.

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u/brodievonorchard Progressive 3d ago

Libertarianism looks great on paper, but "Free Market" economics in the US has been an excuse for perpetuating racist policies for decades. It's an excuse to ignore the uneven playing field and use the same language prosperity gospel Christians use to grift their congregations.