True Libertarianism

Chris Clarke at Pandagon has a great post up about those pesky libertarians with some much-appreciated advice on how to talk to such strange creatures.

I especially appreciated this YES! moment in his post:

Libertarian Cranial Detonation Technique #3: Mentioning Libertarianism’s blindspot.

That accumulation of serious political power is the end result of the Libertarian political wankdream, and yet somehow boss-based coercion escapes the Libertarian scrutiny to which municipal zoning boards and feminist bloggers with itchy banning fingers are routinely subjected.

Look at it this way: what would you call a political system that regulates its subjects activities on a minute-by-minute basis; that often requires of its citizens prior restraint on freedom of speech; that controls where its subjects go, what they wear, and who they talk to; that restricts online reading material in a Beijing-style manner; that has a rigid hierarchy to enforce edicts from the upper echelons and do routine surveillance of the rank and file; that denies its subjects privacy even to the point of demanding the right to examine their urine; and that punishes infractions by permanent banishment?

Some people would call it a dictatorship. But many of us call it “the workplace.” Somehow, Libertarians never seem to object to restrictions of Liberty done by The Boss. “You can always get another job,” they say, as if that answers anything, as if the class of people who can leave a job blithely isn’t the same class that’s most likely to be able to pick up and move away from a conventional, state-based dictatorship. And as corporations extend their control to people outside their employ, with DRM and increasingly prevalent, shameless propaganda and their own armed forces and even co-optation of the nominal forms of governmental authority, the truth of our next useful sentence becomes ever more manifestly clear, that sentence being:

“Corporations are governments.”

Which is, of course, the libertarian socialist criticism of Libertarianism in soundbite form. I’ve never known a Libertarian to be able to answer that one without changing the subject completely, usually to a defense of Guantanamo from a Libertarian POV. At which point they’ve been made incapable of influencing anyone who’s not a fellow Libertarian, which means you can get on with your life. Try it and see!

McEwan has resigned too

Per Majikthise, apparently as a result of threats made against her by the good Christian supporters of the Catholic League. Jesus is presumably very proud.

Again, as I said yesterday, those selfsame supporters of the Catholic League probably shouldn't be breaking out the victory dance over this. Both bloggers are very effective advocates for their points of view and the controversy has only given them wider exposure. Their resignations, regrettable as they are, free them to speak with a force they never could have employed working for the Edwards campaign.

As McEwan said, there're no winners here, but strategically, I think Bill Donohue has made a very big mistake.

Marcotte leaves Edwards campaign

It had to happen, I think. I'm sorry to see John Edwards lose Amanda Marcotte, who would have been a great asset to his campaign, but this "victory" for the bigot Donahue and his minions causes me very little actual angst. That's because, as idiots so often do, Bill Donohue has fucked up royally with this little campaign. Marcotte on her own, independent, and able to write whatever she damn well pleases, is way more dangerous to the Donohues of the world than she ever would have been working for a political campaign where she'd have to constantly be catering to the tastes and prejudices of the so-called mainstream. She says "it's on" and I believe her. It should be fun to watch.

Plus, with all the media attention he's stirred up, Donohue has managed to introduce a whole bunch of people to Marcotte and her blog Pandagon. Some of those people are, of course, right-wing extremist bigots and idiots like Donohue, but many, many more are going to be people who will check out the site, love what they read there and become part of the regular audience for Marcotte's writings.

Plus, the backlash from the attack has struck directly at Donohue himself, highlighting the fact that he is a real bigot and a hypocrite too. Now, more people than ever know not to pay attention to a thing he says.

I'm sure Marcotte didn't want to leave the Edwards campaign, but I have to say I wish all right-wing "wins" could be this good for those of us on the left.