There’s another discussion going on currently on the forum entitled ‘People I like who aren't necessarily libertarians’ & it somewhat disturbs me.

The reason such a question disturbs me is that its like somebody saying ‘People I like who don’t happen to be British’ because it smacks of negative prejudice. Okay there’s an awful lot of difference between being prejudice against an accident of birth & an opinion which an individual might, hold as an individual can change their opinion but obviously can’t change where they were born or the colour of their skin or their sexual orientation. Thing is just because somebody holds a political opinion which differs from your own doesn’t invalidate their opinion nor does it make them a bad person.

Libertarians talk of individuals having the right to free opinion, but then when an individual freely expresses an opinion that differs from one formed by libertarian dogma they can find themselves on the receiving end of a verbal whipping; you’d hear what I’m talking about if you just listen to an average night of FTL when any caller disagrees with Ian Freeman’s perspective of how things should be. It certainly doesn’t go for every libertarian but with many it feels more then your opinion is invalid if it doesn’t fit exactly with what can often be a narrow minded view of liberty, it feels as if you’re a bad person to think differently.& I believe that is somewhat wrong.

Sure I think is utterly wrong if somebody is intolerant & full of hate towards individuals on the basis of their skin colour, ethnicity, sexual orientation & etc, for which I adopt an attitude of being intolerant towards intolerance. I just thing hatred upon crap people can’t help is beyond the pale, but it’s the only thing I’m utterly intolerant about where as it feels many libertarians are intolerant towards anybody who might happen to disagree with their opinion.

Libertarians might think they win the intellectual battle but they never win the political one. One reason I believe is that libertarians haven’t learnt humility or the art of compromise. I might politically lean towards, smaller government, lower taxes & individual liberty, which I will generally fight hard to obtain; but I’m a realist as realise sometimes there are times when that ain’t going to be possible, because I’m not the type who wants to pull the rug from under the feet of average folk 7 I especially don’t want to hurt the vulnerable in society any further then they already get hurt.

Fine libertarian fundamentalists can call me a statist for the opinion I hold, they can spit on my grave or whatever, but by doing so they’re just proving my point about being intolerant. Often when I hear a libertarian call somebody a statist the way its said iit feels like thry’re calling somebody a shithead.