Posts Tagged ‘libertarian’

There is one primary difference between the Political Left and the Political Right on Social Media

Posted: December 5, 2024 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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Over and over again I have been bullied and harassed on social media by individuals who inhabit the political left.  All I have to do to trigger an onslaught of mean-spirited and abusive comments is to post something on Facebook that goes against official progressive orthodoxy. 

Whenever I encounter posts from my progressive friends that I do not agree with, or that I know are incorrect, or that I know are pure bovine excrement, I simply scroll past like an adult.  My liberal friends rarely return the favor.  There have been times when I’ve had to do battle with 4 or 5 angry leftists at the same time. Each time this happened I felt very much I was ambushed by a pack of rabid dogs.

None of my Conservative or Libertarian friends engage in the same type of bullying and harassing behavior that progressives engage in regularly.  Just about all of my right leaning friends have been tormented by hoards of angry liberals.  Just about all of my progressive friends have bullied and harassed me.  That is the primary difference between the right and the left when it comes to social media.

It took me quite a while to figure out why liberals constantly engage in this holy war against posts that they do not agree with.  Their goal is to bully and harass individuals who do not share their beliefs into silence.  We are heretics to them.  Freedom of speech is not a two-way street to leftists.  They label posts that go against progressive groupthink as misinformation, or hate speech, or both.  Then they declare all-out war on those individuals that dare think for themselves.

The only way I found to fight against this bullying and harassment is to unfriend those that attempt to bully me into silence.  I tried to engage in rational debate and a respectful sharing of views and opinions.  That was not well received at all.  They responded with insults and tantrums.  The bullying only escalated. 

I firmly believe that every individual has a right to believe whatever they wish to believe, and to give voice to those beliefs however they wish.  I firmly believe that no individual has the right to force their beliefs on any other individual.  Sadly, those on the political left do not share these beliefs.

The Ten Best Robert Heinlein Novels

Posted: October 10, 2024 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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For more than four decades I have been a huge fan of the Science Fiction author Robert Heinlein.  There are three primary reasons why this is true. 

Robert Heinlein wrote extremely imaginative stories, most often with very unique plotlines.  Over and over again I’ve read the description on the back cover of one of his novels and said to myself that can’t possibly work, only to be proved wrong after being thoroughly entertained.

Robert Heinlein was not an ordinary science fiction author.  He was one of the pioneers of science fiction.  All of his novels and short stories were infused with exceptionally accurate science.   Science was the mainstay of all his works.

Robert Heinlein was a Libertarian in the truest sense of the word.  I’m not talking about the pseudo-libertarian tripe peddled by the Libertarian Party.  In just about every novel or short story he championed individualism and vilified collectivism.  He was not heavy handed about his libertarianism in his works.  Most often one of the main characters served as a spokesman for libertarian beliefs.

If was extremely difficult for me to select just my ten favorite Heinlein novels, out of the 40 plus I read.  I enjoyed every single one, with the exception of those written after 1980.  Beginning in 1980 Robert Heinlein suffered a series of mini strokes. These strokes, as he put it himself in an interview, scrambled his brains.  The five novels written after 1980 of his that I read were all lousy.

During his career Robert Heinlein wrote 13 juvenile novels.  These are among his best works.  They are only juvenile in the sense that the main characters are high school aged.  He did not talk down to his target audience.  The science is not watered down at all.

10. Space Cadet:  I know you are skeptical of this one based on the title.  I was too.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable juvenile novel about a group of teens who attend a service academy for the space patrol

9. Sixth Column: This novel is about a war where the United States is invaded and conquered by communists.  The strategy used by a small band of rebels to gain victory is truly imaginative.

8. Between Planets:  The plotline of this juvenile novel is impossible to describe because it is such a unique story idea.

7. Red Planet:  This juvenile novel starts off as a simple story about human colonists on Mars.  It ends up being a story about a battle for independence

6. The Puppet Masters: This novel is all about individualism versus collectivism.  Amoeboid alien creatures take total control of human beings

5. The Star Beast:  This juvenile novel about a teenaged boy and his truly unique alien pet is a most enjoyable roller coaster ride with so many plot twists.

4. Have Space Suit Will Travel:  In this juvenile novel, the main character is obsessed with traveling to the moon.  He eventually gets there and travels far beyond.

3. Starship Troopers: The movie based on this novel got one thing right, a war between humans and alien bugs takes place.  In the novel Progressive policies destroyed every nation including the US. Veterans fixed things, they alone took responsibility.  Because of this only veterans were allowed to vote and hold office. Many claimed that Heinlein sold out to the military industrial complex when he wrote this.  That is most untrue. 

2. Stranger in a Strange Land:  This is a philosophical treatise wrapped in a very unique and imaginative story.  With this novel Robert Heinlein proves that he is even more of a libertarian than I am, which is saying a lot.  He advocates for tearing down not only the state, but all societal norms such as monogamy and traditional Judeo-Christian values on sex.  The fact that I do not agree with everything he has to say here does not take away from my enjoyment of this novel.

1. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress: This novel is a libertarian and a science fiction masterpiece.  The moon is a penal colony controlled by an oppressive earth federation. With the help of a sentient computer the moon gains its independence.                                                                       

The Libertarian Party went totally woke and that is good news for Trump

Posted: May 30, 2024 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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I have never been a fan of the Libertarian Party.  Actually, I rather despise them.  They give true Libertarians like myself a bad name.  Most of the Libertarian Party’s platform is asinine, having very little to do with actual liberty.  Only a small percentage of the membership are true Libertarians. The rest only identify as Libertarians because the think that word sounds cool.

This past week Donald Trump spoke at this year’s Libertarian Pary convention, hoping to possibly garner their endorsement.  A sizable percentage of those in attendance behaved rather childishly, they booed and raised a ruckus with kazoos that were passed out by convention organizers.  That was nothing compared to the immaturity the membership demonstrated when they chose their nominee.

For decades, the Libertarian Party was the edgier conscience of the Republican Party. It was louder and prouder about wanting a small government rather than the behemoth that Republicans helped birth.  However, libertarians still recognized that smaller government must be grounded in the Constitution and morality. For example, Ron Paul’s pro-life stance reflected the fact that constitutional liberty starts with the first spark of life. This year, however, the Libertarian Party abandoned the Constitution and nominated a presidential candidate indistinguishable from the most radical people in Biden’s base. That’s good for Trump.

There has often been animosity between Conservatives and Libertarians.  Here is one of the primary reasons.

Frankly, most people really don’t think about the Libertarian Party. Depending on their political orientation, they either resent or celebrate it when the 2-3% of votes it gets in every election harm a Republican candidate in a close race.

This election I believe the Libertarian presidential candidate will steal more votes from Biden than Trump for this reason:

Now, the Libertarian Party has gone even further down the path to irrelevance because of its chosen presidential candidate, a guy named Chase Oliver. Oliver is essentially a rehashed far-left Democrat. Indeed, he was once a Barack Obama supporter. He is gay, pro-trans, pro-abortion, pro-open borders, pro-drugs, and pro-Hamas. However, he’s all in for big government when it comes to masks, vaxes, and lockdowns.

In other words, Oliver is indistinguishable from any other member of the Democrat party. He’s not supporting a small, moral, pro-American government; he’s just a radical leftist who’s found a welcoming new niche.

This article documents the radical positions held by Mr. Oliver.  I read thru the article and came to the conclusion that he is fine with all forms of tyranny as long as the tyranny is perpetrated by private groups rather than by governments.  This includes forced masking by businesses and liberal mob rule in the form of transgender ideology.

The Babylon Bee wrote a perfect satire article summing up this farce.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Libertarian Party has concluded its convention and nominated its latest presidential candidate: a 20-foot-tall, rainbow-colored, glass bong.

The gay, oversized marijuana smoking device edged out candidates RFK Jr., Donald Trump, and Sparklepaws the Transgender Furry to secure the coveted nomination to run for President this November.

The squabbling between Conservatives and Libertarians is disheartening and unnecessary

Posted: September 22, 2022 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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In some Conservative circles Libertarians are not too popular. The reverse is also true.  For quite a while I’ve been at a loss for why this is true.  I’ve studied both political philosophies in great detail, and they are very similar.  The adherents of both camps share more than 90 percent of the same key beliefs. 

Individual Rights and Individual Liberty are cornerstones of both Libertarianism and Conservativism.  That is the direct opposite of all leftist philosophies, whether it be Liberalism, Progressivism, Socialism, Fascism, or Communism.  All those Collectivist philosophies place thr supreme value of the State over the individual.

Free Market Capitalism is another cornerstone of both Conservatism and Libertarianism.  Contrast that with the socialist economic policies of the Democratic Party.

Both Conservatives and Libertarians truly value the Constitution and founding principles of the United States.  Democrats despise both of these.

Rather than unite against our leftist common enemies, we Conservatives and Libertarians seem to be engaged in a low level guerilla war on social media.  This has bothered me for quite a while.  Just the other day I finally realized why this is taking place. 

At the root of this conflict is the fact that far too many individuals who identify as Libertarians have no idea what the word actually means.  Some identify as a Libertarian because they think the words sounds cool.  Others identify as Libertarians because they have a distorted understanding of this philosophy.

Many who identify as Libertarian believe that it a watered down version of Liberalism or Progressivism. That is most untrue.  If you plot all political philosophies on a graph, Libertarianism is even further to the right than Conservatism because Libertarians place more of emphasis on individual liberty.

The concept of liberty is at the very core of the Libertarian philosophy.  Liberty does not equal freedom, although freedom is at the root of liberty.  If you combine responsibility with freedom, then you get liberty.

The framers of the Constitution defined liberty as the freedom to do as you wish as long as you do no harm to any other individual, or interfere with the rights of another individual.  It is freedom with the responsibility to do no harm to others.  Libertarians must respect the rights of all other individuals.

The framers of the Constitution considered Individual Liberty to be the very bedrock of our constitutional republic.  Our Constitution was written to protect the liberty of every individual American. 

A true Libertarian believes that protecting the lives and liberty of every individual are the only valid powers of any level of government, if governments do more then they will trample the liberty of individuals.

To prevent a libertarian society from descending into violence and chaos, individuals must restrain themselves.  Christian morality was believed by the framers of the Constitution to be the perfect mechanism to achieve this, as long as no individuals were forced to join a religion.

For a society to functions and thrive there must exist social and cultural institutions.  Libertarians believe that governments must play no role in these institutions, they must be voluntary.  According to what I’ve seen, Conservatives believe that governments and laws should play a role in protecting institutions.  It is a minor issue of disagreement.

The family is one of the most important institutions.  Anything that is harmful to the family must be discouraged and fought against.  Libertarians and Conservatives should make this a common cause.

Progressivism is about using all levels of government to force their beliefs on everyone.  That violates the liberty of every individual.  The belief system of progressives is extremely hostile to the social and cultural institutions that are necessary. Conservatives and Libertarians should join forces to preserve these social and cultural institutions, especially the family.

The Transgender Ideology of Progressives is one of the belief systems that Progressives are using all levels of government to cram down the throats of all Americans.  It is a belief system that is harmful to social and cultural institutions.  It is most harmful to children who are being indoctrinated into believing they are the wrong gender. 

As a Libertarian I believe individuals have a right to identify as what ever they want to.  However, no one has a right to force me, or any other individual, to play along with any other individual’s delusions.  Using government to force all of society to play along is wrong and anti-liberty.

I’m almost 100 percent sure that single sex bathrooms, and similar facilities, were set up by social compact, and then later codified into laws.  It was done for the safety, privacy, and modesty of the female sex.  Progressives are using government force to overturn this, against the wishes of the vast majority of individuals.

I am a true Libertarian.  I have a great many Conservative friends.  I constantly talk politics with them.  We agree well over 90 percent of the time.  When we don’t we both respect each other’s point of view.  We are united against Progressivism, and all other collectivist philosophies.  With the Democrats destroying the United States, I suggest other Conservatives and Libertarians should follow my lead. 

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