Tom Woods: 'My Goal as a Libertarian: To Oppress People'

Source:Being Libertarian- Don't have to convince me

"This person works at a D.C. think tank where a dislike of people like us, and me in particular, is literally company policy: nobody is allowed to cite me, go on my cruise, or even retweet me.

That's an actual policy at an actual institution.

("Institution" being the key word.)"

The rest of Tom Woods here

Source:Tom Woods: Todd Seavey- 'By Popular Demand: Libertarianism 101' - Their definition of libertarianism?

Todd Seavey, author of Libertarianism for Beginners, joins me for a discussion that beginners and advanced students alike will enjoy. We go from the foundations, to real-world applications, to problems for libertarianism, to left and right and libertarians. Much to learn from and enjoy. Subscribe to the Tom Woods Show:"

From Wikipedia

"Libertarianism (from Latin: libertas, meaning "freedom") is a collection of political philosophies and movements that uphold liberty as a core principle.[1] Libertarians seek to maximize political freedom and autonomy, emphasizing freedom of choice, voluntary association, and individual judgment.[2][3][4] Libertarians share a skepticism of authority and state power, but they diverge on the scope of their opposition to existing political and economic systems. Various schools of libertarian thought offer a range of views regarding the legitimate functions of state and private power, often calling for the restriction or dissolution of coercive social institutions.[5]

Libertarianism can be a term for a form of left-wing politics. Such left-libertarian ideologies seek to abolish capitalism and private ownership of the means of production, or else to restrict their purview or effects, in favor of common or cooperative ownership and management, viewing private property as a barrier to freedom and liberty.[6][7][8][9] Left libertarian ideologies include—but are not limited to—anarcho-communism, anarcho-syndicalism, mutualism and egoism, alongside many other anti-paternalist, New Left schools of thought centered around economic egalitarianism. Modern right-libertarian ideologies, such as minarchism and anarcho-capitalism, co-opted the term in the mid-20th century to instead advocate laissez-faire capitalism and strong private property rights such as in land, infrastructure and natural resources."

There are times when I really love social media and feel that I almost have to be on it for the sake of my life and personal welfare, ( which might sound slightly overdramatic and a slight exaggeration ) especially Twitter, because you can see things and get into debates, and learn about things and people that you couldn't otherwise, unless you spent all of your time reading and researching online and at other places.

I couldn't find the source of the tweet that this anti-libertarian person ( probably some crazy, whacked out leftist ) that attacked Tom Woods for being a Libertarian. The source of the tweet is not even on Tom Woods blog but if there are people who hate Libertarians and libertarianism for what they believe and stand for, it would be the Far-Left in America, ( Democratic Socialists and Communists ) because in believing in almost complete individualism and individual choice, Socialists are collectivists ( obviously ) and want the state to be in control as much as possible with the responsibility and power to look after everyone else's welfare, especially Communists.

Libertarianism, like every other political philosophy is hard to officially define because you have competing factions in each of it to the points that you'll have competing factions that don't sound like each other at all and the only thing that they have in common is that they call themselves Libertarians. I know this all to well as a Liberal, ( or Classical Liberal, if you prefer ) because you have a lot of people who call themselves Liberals, even though they tend not to support liberal values like liberal democracy and if anything are very illiberal as far as their own politics. Like really strict limits on free speech, personal freedom, property rights, anti-pluralist, etc.

Progressives, have the same issue where you have people who call themselves Progressives, even though a lot of what they believe is actually very regressive. Like believing the perfect is the enemy of the good and being very uncompromising, when progressivism is actually a very pragmatic philosophy.

But libertarianism at least as I define it and how I've viewed the last 20 years or so ever since I became an adult, is the belief in property rights and that property rights extends to one's personal body. That people should have the complete freedom and personal responsibility for their own lives and bodies, just as long as you're not hurting innocent people with what they're doing. You're not physically attacking innocent people, attacking someone's personal property, stealing from them, kidnapping them, forcing them to do something they don't want to do.

So under my definition of libertarianism at least, Libertarians actually do believe in government and even a national government, but that it should be limited, decentralized as much as possible, and there to protect the rights and individual freedom of the people: not there to run people's lives for them by controlling most of their money, or telling them what they can and can't do with their own personal lives, not telling people what they can think and say, etc.

But to get back to my first point about how different political philosophies get mistaken for other philosophies that sound nothing like the political philosophy at hand, liberalism being mistaken for socialism, progressivism being mistaken for socialism, conservatism, being mistaken for Christian-Nationalism and nationalism in general: you have people who call themselves Libertarians, who are actually Right-Anarchists. ( Right-wing Anarchists ) People who are actually Anarcho-Libertarians, who again sound like Anarchists and don't want government at any level to basically do anything, but who call themselves Libertarians.

So at least under my definition, you can see why Socialists ( to be frank ) would hate libertarianism and Libertarians go out-of-their-way to attack Libertarians whether it's Tom Woods or anyone else, because Libertarians believe in the opposite of what Socialists believe. Libertarians, believe in individualism. Socialists, believe the world is a complicated place and that people tend to be stupid ( especially Americans ) and that you need Uncle Sammy ( or whatever the country is ) big enough to manage the lives for all of his nieces and nephews for them. Because libertarianism at least in it's classic form, is the direct opposite and arch-rival of socialism.