{"article":{"id":253554,"heading":"The trojan horse of Ron Paul-style libertarianism","author":"Systemic Disorder","created":"2012-05-31 19:20:03","modified":"2013-11-11 01:10:51","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 08:10:51","article":"

The Occupy movement has brought together people from a variety of places along the political spectrum, generally somewhere on the Left. The main exception are Ron Paul followers.

But what is it that attracts Ron Paul followers who, in whatever disjointed fashion, align themselves with the Occupy movement and articulate what is perhaps the most basic Occupy critique: Corporations have far too much power.

Let’s start with the basic libertarian philosophy, which boils down to “government is always bad.” (Ron Paul followers thus would seem to be more at home among tea partiers or the business wing of the Republican Party, where indeed many gravitate.) To put a bit of flesh on the bones, libertarianism can be described as a belief in complete freedom of commerce, of minimal government involvement in the economy or social affairs, and of allowing the “market” to determine economic and social outcomes. An intellectually honest libertarian, then, would be against government laws interfering in adults’ personal lives.

The typical conservative opposes government regulations, but only when it comes to commerce; such beliefs suddenly vanish when it comes to social issues, and thus we have the towering hypocrisy of Republicans thundering against government simultaneous with demands that government control women’s bodies, regulate what happens in the bedroom and decide who can or can’t have a full legal partnership with the person they love.

Representative Paul is not consistent, either — he, too, believes that women are not capable of making decisions about their own bodies and thus opposes abortion. And his belief in ending military adventures overseas is based on old-fashioned isolationism, not on any notion of solidarity or of a common humanity.

It pays to check under the hood.

To read the full article, please go to http:\/\/wp.me\/p2cpPS-q<\/a>

<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/systemicdisorder.wordpress.com\/","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Sweeping away government means that the \u201cmarket\u201d will determine all outcomes. The \u201cmarket\u201d would mean concentrated corporate power would decide all outcomes, especially economic outcomes. That is what libertarians, Ron Paul included, would deliver if they actually were handed power.\r\n","numcomment":9,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2012\/05\/253554.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":253556,"heading":"thank you, S D","article":"at last a real critique on the duality of Ron Paul..\r\nThere is, at present, no 'free market'. There are powerful cartels which need a cop on the beat, as in a government watchdog w\/o the attendant conflicts of interests.","author":"good points here","parent_id":253554,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2012-05-31 20:17:09","modified":"2012-05-31 20:17:09","fileurl":""},{"id":253574,"heading":"I have a problem on this one","article":"hey now, I like it!\r\n"And his belief in ending military adventures overseas is based on old-fashioned isolationism, not on any notion of solidarity or of a common humanity."\r\n\r\nand you can read his mind now? I have no problem with non-intervention. Wall Street [ CIA ] needs to stop meddling in the affair of other nations. The military needs to come home and be healed, not slow killed with Uranium or blasted to bits with al-Queda [ CIA ] IEDs for a war that benefits only the banksters who run the UN, NATO and the American military.","author":"non intervention!","parent_id":253554,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2012-06-01 10:38:32","modified":"2012-06-01 10:38:32","fileurl":""},{"id":253587,"heading":"Haaaaaaaaaaaaw Haaaaaaaaaaaaw","article":"racist raaaaaaaawn paaaaaaaaaaaaaawl couldn't cover up his racist past, and now has officially LOST the repiglican !!!\r\n\r\ntime for the racist pawltards to commit mass suicide !!!","author":"slash your wrists, racist paultards !!!","parent_id":253554,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2012-06-01 19:17:54","modified":"2012-06-01 19:17:54","fileurl":""},{"id":253589,"heading":"wonderful news!!","article":"well, damn me, another four years.","author":"Obama 2013","parent_id":253554,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2012-06-01 20:11:30","modified":"2012-06-01 20:11:30","fileurl":""},{"id":253604,"heading":"racist pawltardian skullduggery","article":"thanks to the racist rawn pawltards, Mittens is now a shoe-in for the repiglican nomination.\r\n\r\nthanks a lot, racist @ssholes !!!","author":" 4 more years ?","parent_id":253554,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2012-06-02 19:05:53","modified":"2012-06-02 19:05:53","fileurl":""},{"id":253631,"heading":"well, yes!","article":"I mean, if the people were putting their hope in Dr. Paul they were about to be lured into another false hope as his Austrian economic, supply side, loot and run free; bereft of regulations kind of 'free market' would have been a great bummer.","author":"whew!","parent_id":253554,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2012-06-03 18:44:16","modified":"2012-06-03 18:44:16","fileurl":""},{"id":253633,"heading":"and don't forget...","article":"...all of the retawdz who denied decades of paultardian racism.\r\n\r\nHaaaaaaaaaaaaw Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw","author":"rawn pawltardian racism FAIL","parent_id":253554,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2012-06-03 19:29:19","modified":"2012-06-03 19:29:19","fileurl":""},{"id":253645,"heading":"easy to undestad","article":"the reason we keep having noise thrown at the awful austerity measures proposed by RP is that this is a forbidden subject which spans the political selections of the overclass.\r\nThere are no populist contenders allowed into the process; corrupt and controlled as it is.\r\nOnly the mass mobilization of the people will produce any pressure for repair of the civil society and its headlong rush into chaos.\r\nWe need a national full wage jobs program.To repair this nation.\r\nWe need to put the banking criminals into prison.\r\nWe don't need another zero.","author":"Mr. Write","parent_id":253554,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2012-06-05 01:15:08","modified":"2012-06-05 01:15:08","fileurl":""}]}