Reply #57: "Libertarian" is an ambiguous term, [View All]

[rman]

it is being claimed by both Left-wingers and Right-wingers as theirs.


"Libertarian" and "Libertarianism" have an entry in wikipedia (pointing to the same article) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian
where it is noted that
"The neutrality and factual accuracy of this article are disputed. See the article's talk page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Libertarianism) for more information."

The messages on the talk page shed some light on the controversy surrounding the term "Libertarianism"/"Libertarian" - not just on wikipedia but in general:


"You need to be clear about which kind of libertarian you are talking about at all times: Classical/anarchist libertarian or capitalist/market libertarian. (...) Just saying "Libertarian" is too vague and will lead to confusion. It also ignores the history of the word libertarian- you know the people who coined and used the term for almost 90 years before it was hijacked by a completely different ideology circa 1960.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Libertarianism/Archive2 (see link "4 ok...")


"The Right-wing Libertarians keep messing with this thing to keep people from finding out that Libertarians don't necessarily have to subscribe to capitalism.
A left-wing libertarian would argue that a true libertarian cannot subscribe to capitalism and a market economy, because within the capitalist system there are still hierarchies and authority, they are just not in the form of a traditional nation-state. A true libertarian would oppose all authority, weather it comes from a boss, corporation, king/dictator, government, or landlord. Right-wing libertarians only oppose governments and kings/dictators, but are strangely content with all forms of authority that exist elsewhere."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Libertarian


"There isn't much point arguing about the word "libertarian." It would make about as much sense to argue with an unreconstructed Stalinist about the word "democracy" — recall that they (Stalinists) called what they'd constructed "peoples' democracies." The weird offshoot of ultra-right individualist anarchism that is called "libertarian" here happens to amount to advocacy of perhaps the worst kind of imaginable tyranny, namely unaccountable private tyranny. If they want to call that "libertarian," fine; after all, Stalin called his system "democratic". But why bother arguing about it?" — Noam Chomsky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Libertarianism#Quoted_comment_from_a_libertarian


"Big L and small l
this is a really obvious example of why small-l "libertarian" and big-L "Libertarian" MUST be distinct entries. The same problem applies to "green Party" versus "Green Party". Thankfully there we have the big-P small-p to distinguish them..."
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"Think. How do people distinguish between capital and lower case words in speech? They use extra words to disambiguate."
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"Personally, I think using case distinctions for meaning is stupid and wrong, because English wasn't designed that way, but I recognize that some people do use that convention, so an encyclopedia article should explain the use of the convention."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Libertarian#Big_L_and_small_l