Seriously, Libertarians…WTF?

Is it just me?  Or is anyone else tired of the supposedly impartial, self-proclaimed independently thinking Libertarians?  Seriously.  I am so utterly fatigued by these guys and their ever-shifting hypothesis in defense of their self-righteousness.

Now, before you of the Libertarian persuasion start rolling your eyes—or more likely—getting all tickle-finger and grabbing for your precious guns, let me give you some background and then explain my total exasperation with folks in your party.

I have a lot of friends and know a lot of people who are Libertarians.  And as people, I get along with them just fine; I’ve never had much issue with them, nor they with me.  But ever since the Newtown, Connecticut school shootings at Sandy Hook, boy ol’ boy, have I seen a new side of Libertarians.

Libertarians, I used to think, were in fact a third-rail party, whose members didn’t care for either Republican or Democratic governance—in fact, they didn’t seem to care much for any kind of governance.  And most of the Libertarians I knew were some of the most well-informed, often times more so than their Republican or Democratic counters.  However, something’s happened recently…and I’m somewhat disconcerted that I’m beginning to see the true face of Libertarians.

What is this new face?  Well, that despite their self-positioning on the political landscape and despite their claims of impartiality and independence, what they really are is a tool, a shill for the Republican Party, an accomplice for the extreme right wing Tea Party agenda.  And to be honest, they’re presenting themselves more and more to be a bunch of inconsistent, illogical hypocrites.

As I said earlier, the picture started to change right after Sandy Hook.  My Libertarian friends took to Facebook and started letting the entire FB universe know that their guns and their access to all kinds of guns (and tanks and helicopters and missile launchers and weapons of all kind) were not to be messed with, touched, even looked at in the slightest askew manner.

Now I can understand them wanting to defend what they believe is a personal liberty—the end all, be all concern for Libertarians.  But these are the same people who mocked me for years about “being a wussy, do-nothing liberal” because, supposedly, all I ever did was post crap on FB.  And now, here they are, doing the exact same thing.  But somehow, because it’s them, they’re changing the world by posting on FB and asking others to “share.”

“Let’s keep sharing and passing this important idea on, people!  We need to fight evil wherever it exists.”

Hmm…that’s interesting.  When a liberal does it, it’s a waste of time; when they do it, they’re fighting evil wherever it exists…

So then the NRA comes out with their “common sense solution” to gun violence—more guns and definitely start posting armed guards on school campuses.  Um, yeah.  What did my Libertarian friends (and by extension, all of their Libertarian friends and acquaintances on FB) do?  They praised the NRA for coming up with the God-send solution.

So I respond: “great idea—there’s too much gun violence in the country so the most logical solution is more guns.  By the way, heart attack is the number one killer of Americans.  Let’s induce more heart attacks as a way to solve the problem.”

Oh, the shit storm that I got… “troll,” “America hater,” “gun grabber,” “typical liberal scum,” “spineless communist,” etc.

One woman, let’s call her “Linda,” says that the only solution to school shootings is for parents to take up armed posts outside their children’s schools.

Seriously?  How many parents can actually afford to quit their full-time jobs and go stand post outside their child’s school for eight hours a day?  But, in my mind, that was a small hiccup in their overall indigestion of flip-flopping values.  I prodded her on a different point: “if parents actually started standing guard outside schools with weapons, you’ll start screaming about this being some kind of crazy, hostile takeover.”

And sure enough, three days later, a father who was a Marine took up armed post outside his son’s school.  To make the point that he was serious about the matter—and apparently that he’s a true patriot—he stood post in his uniform.  This lady did exactly what I predicted—she started screaming bloody murder: “See!  This is the beginning of government take over!  Patriots, get ready to defend your freedoms against government encroachment!”

And speaking of patriots and the military, I noticed that Libertarians post a lot of pro-military memes to FB.  When Navy SEAL and trained sniper Chris Kyle was killed on a shooting range, they all swarmed FB with posts about how he was a true hero.  They derided liberals as communists and America haters for even daring to point out the simple irony.  Apparently, in the Libertarian eye, saying something that is ironic, is ironic, amounts to being a traitor.  But they can call President Obama a monkey and a “Halfrican,” and claim that they’re not racists.

Back to Chris Kyle—“Linda” tells me to stop laughing at the tragic death of a true American hero.   I wasn’t aware I had been laughing…apparently Libertarians need more comprehension lessons.

So, Libertarians loves them some military.  But then they post a bunch of utter crap about needing military grade weapons to fight off “that eventual military invasion.”  I’m just curious how any of you praise the military in one breath and then in the next, spew all that ridiculous nonsense about the US government coming to impose Fascist America on you, by way of military cleansing.

Please, stop with your overactive imagination and your delusional paranoia.  Don’t project your nutty, self-aggrandizing “Red Dawn” fantasy on the rest of us.

Let’s check the score: Marine standing guard outside his child’s school is “government coming to get us.”  But you profess to love the military.  But you want the same weapons they get because you know the military—which you love—is coming to get you.

Riiiight.

My other favorite of these Libertarians is the trite and clichéd attack on President Obama.  They claim he’s a tyrant because he wants to regulate access to guns a little more in light of all the recent mass killings using guns.  But then they go and post all these memes about the crappy state of our economy and how it’s all Obama’s fault because he’s simply not a good leader.  He’s not effective; he’s can’t get anything done; he won’t compromise…hell, he’s not even a real American citizen.

And when Congress refuses to cooperate, especially the GOP-run House, and Obama uses an executive order or a signing statement, these Libertarians are all up in arms again about him being a megalomaniac.

“He’s a dictator, just like Hitler.”

“What a fucking despot.”

Hey, you guys forgot communist, socialist Muslim, Kenyan terrorist…without a birth certificate…

Let’s check the score again: Obama is a Fascist tyrant.  But somehow, this almighty tyrant can’t get anything done through the duly-elected government, can’t even get the intransigent GOP to budge in the least.  The government inaction is running this exceptional nation into the ground and Obama ought to do something to earn his pay.  And when he does go around the mud-stuck, fossilized Congress, he’s a Hitler-esque despot…

You know what this reminds me of?  Back during the Dark Ages, otherwise known as the Bush years, there were liberals who said Bush was a dumb ass AND yet attributed to him the amazing ability to pull off the biggest government conspiracy of all time—the inside job of 9/11.  But you know what?  We called these people what they were—nut jobs, conspiracy theorists, hypocrites, illogical…or just plain stupid.

And frankly, so did you.  You guys called these Libbies the same thing.

So then why is it a crazy conspiracy when others project their hyperactive imaginations but when you do, it’s suddenly, “only a conspiracy until it comes true…and believe you me, it’s going to come true real soon.”

It’s been 250+ years.  I’m still waiting for the US government to execute that all-out assault and enslave the American people.

You know what’s funny…and tragic at the same time?  You guys claim you aren’t conspiracy theorists; you see yourselves rather as Paul Revere, sounding the bell in advance, cautioning your fellow patriots of the impending Obama coup.  But then I see memes posted to your FB mocking the people who believed in the Mayan prediction for the end of the world.

Lastly, my Libertarian friends talk such a good game about individual liberties but said nothing when Bush rounded up American citizens and imprisoned them at Guantamo Bay.  They’ll post memes about Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 (Japanese Interment) and how that was a vicious, tyrannous act, but remain absolutely mute about Bush’s dragnet.  Worse yet, some of them cheerlead and applaud the dragnet as “defending the USA against evil-doing terrorists.”  Yet Obama, who killed Osama bin Laden is a terrorist sympathizer, life-time member of the Muslim Brotherhood…

Speaking of which, why is Bush a national hero and a patriot for getting Saddam Hussein, who had nothing to do with 9/11 or Al Qaeda, but Obama is still a subversive, perfidious terrorist lying in wait to execute…wait for it…”Obamanation 2016?”

And seriously, Libertarians, if individual freedom is so important to you, such a core belief of your party, then why are you guys not up in arms overzealously goading “REVOLUTION!” over the Supreme Court arguing Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is not relevant and not Constitutional?  Worse yet, why aren’t any of you threatening civil war over the racist comment of Justice Antonin Scalia calling the restoration and protection of the right to vote to African Americans “a racial entitlement?”  Isn’t the basic right to vote the absolute, quintessential, personal freedom that ensures individual liberty?

One Libertarian on one of these FB strands even had the nerve to tell me, “Voting is not a Libertarian issue; we are concerned with freedom and liberty, not voting.  Voting as a right is a liberal myth perpetuated by progressives.”  Uh, say what?

And please, trying to sound smart and intelligent by telling me to go back and read the originals, the greats, such as Rousseau, Locke, Paine or the Federalist Papers is completely useless and inane.  Firstly, you all call liberals “the liberal elite” because somehow, we like to live in an educated, fact-based world.  So if you don’t like our usage of our education, why would you condescend and tell us to go seek out “your education?”  If our education makes us elite in some kind of pejorative sense, why doesn’t yours?

And let’s face facts…you guys don’t own Rousseau, Locke, Paine or any of the Federalists.  I can just as easily flip open their works and find numerous quotes and ideas that support the liberal perspective.

I’m not sure what’s happened to the Libertarians as of late.  They seem to have gone from seemingly smart and informed to reactionary and all over the map, adopting whatever rationale is suitable to argue whatever their fancy—or fantasy—may be at that particular juncture in time, so long as it upholds their closeted defense of, and allegiance to, the right wing Tea Party agenda.

If you are Libertarian, and just want to give me crap as backlash, by all means.  Do so.  I’m ready for it.

However, if you are a Libertarian, and can explain this recent conversion to me in a way that is consistent in principle, and actually makes sense, please do so.  I’d love to hear from you.