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What do anarchists think about Ron Paul and libertarianism in general?

–3 votes
If anarchism is the ideal society, libertarianism (or minarchism, even) is just a few steps away from that.
we obviously don't live in the ideal society, and most people don't want to live without some authority telling them how to live, so in light of that, wouldn't it be best to join up with whoever's working to make government smaller? shouldn't it behoove anarchists to work in solidarity with libertarians since they want to take society in the direction of less authority?

Should anarchists work with libertarians? why/ why not?
by (150 points)
i dont know how to answer this question right now, but heres something that might help you along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky49ltgeXRU
by (2.3k points)
Because they are opposing viewpoints, Anarchists will probably avoid working with right-wing libertarian capitalists. You seem to think Anarchists are into creating a limited government, confusing anarchy101.org with libertarianrepublicans101.org.

From what I understand, Anarchists are opposed to Capitalism and the State in its totality among other Authoritarian problems, I hope you will understand this if you delve further into Anarchism or into the idea of Anarchy.
by (8.2k points)
edited by

3 Answers

+5 votes
No, it would not behoove us to work with Libertarians* (or minarchists, etc) any more than it might behoove us to work with any other statists. Which means maybe, at times, in certain cases and on certain projects, sure, it would make sense to work with certain libertarians, but not across the board, and not because they are striving for a smaller government, because generally that isn't all they are striving for.

Most Libertarians that I've encountered are rabidly pro-US and pro-capitalism, many right-libertarians (including Ron Paul) are both religious fundamentalists and quite reactionary as far as their actual views on individual liberty (see for example, Ron Paul's opinions on abortion) which places them firmly outside of the realm of allies to any anarchists that I am friends with.

*I'm capitalizing Libertarian to imply statist, pro-capitalist libertarians, since the term is older than that and in many places and at many times is synonynous with anarchist. I would actually argue that the Libertarian Party-types are actually misusing the word.
by (22.1k points)
Great answer, ingrate.
by (8.2k points)
+2 votes
Ron Paul is popular among stormfront.org/David Duke types. There's good reasons why... "States' Rights" is less about decentralization and more about local White Power structures. They love the USA but just think its not run by Hetero-norm White Males like it used to be.

All the talk about the "Federal Reserve" is not about critiquing capitalism but about this mythical "Illuminati/Jewish-run" structure, which is a popular idea among White Supremacists/Nationalists, Constitutionalists, Far-Right Conspiracy theorists, and the fake philosophy known as "Anarcho-Capitalists" (aka extreme capitalist assholes).

If you poke an "Anarcho-Capitalist" too many times, they'll reveal themselves to be one of these Ron Paul Worshipers.
by (8.2k points)
edited by
+2 votes
anarchism has amongst its goals the elimination of the nation-state. nevertheless that is not its main goal but the overall goal is the destruction of social hierarchies in general and capitalist hierarchies are many times worse than state ones or many times capitalist hierarchies can control the state to their own ends.

So that is why anarchism is full of criticisms of private property and it has tended to state that alongside the elimination of the nation-state there has to be a massive expropriation of the bourgoise/capitalists. Ron Paul and the "libertarians" are on the contrary staunch in the defense of capitalist private property and the deregulation of it without limits to personal or small group accumulation of wealth.

As such it is rather pointless to collaborate with pro-capitalist "libertarians". There have also been voices that have manifested that anarchists should collaborate with fellow anti-capitalists such as maoists for example. Also anarchism in some way shares with fascism a criticism of plarliamentary democracy. The difference with such superficial "agreements" of sorts in a single issue with some ideologies such as stalinists, pro-capitalist libertarians and fascists is the radically different ends of them all as oppossed to anarchism.

It seems to me that pro-capitalist libertarianism is more or less being applied in african countries where there is almost no regulation of corporations (whether labour or environmental ones), they almost pay no taxes, and things like mining companies have gone as far as hiring private armed militias to advance their goals. Thats is as far from anarchism as for example a police state like Stalin´s russia of China or North Korea. In fact some have argued that that kind of rule and overwhelming power of capitalist enterprises over people is just another kind of state (a privatized state) in place of the one´s we have today.
by (3.3k points)
edited by
Thanks! it turns out I was missing the point about private property
by (150 points)
iconoclast, could you direct me to some reading about the idea of a privatized state of capitalist enterprises?
by (2.5k points)
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