If Liberals are on the Left...and Con-servatives are on the Right...

[Syn_Dem]

Where do Libertarians and Anarchists lie? I know theyre not in the middle or "Moderates" so do they have their own direction?

[CWebster]

1. They are all over the place

most of the ones i've encountered are on the hard right and practice a religion of barbarism.

[sirshack]

2. My thoughts

Libertarians are mor generally further right...though there are things in terms of social philosophy that would endear them towards the Left....but I would put the traditional, run-of-the-mill libertarian even further towards the right.

Anarchists could go a few ways. I think the economic system favored by the self-proclaimed anarchist (anarcho-capitalist, anarcho-syndicalist, etc etc) could put him at either end.

Moderates are nowhere, because the term "moderate" is so vague. Strictly for example: I can favor gun control, oppose abortion, oppose nationalized health care, and favor a weaker military....Someone else can have the exact opposite opinion....and we'd probably both be consider "moderates" based on the mix of left and right philosophies. Yet, we don't agree on a single issue.

[Az]

3. They are republican proxies

The essential thread that ties them together is their distrust of government. There are libertarians that are on the left (social libs). But the economic libs are generally angry at the government. This plays into the repuke theology as they hate the regulations a strong fed places on corporations. The more distrust and suspicion they can sow about government the more people will tear it down.

[CWebster]

4. That would be the

gubbermint.

[CWebster]

5. that would be the

gubbermint. ;-)

You see, on the second one I am winking.

[not systems]

6. use a graph not a number line

http://www.politicalcompass.org/

Has a better way of viewing the political spectrum
than as a number line.

Libertarians and Anarchists fall both on the left and right.

The libretarian axis in the political compass is
not the same as the American Libertarian party which
is on the neoliberal axis ie. right wing economics.

A person can also be an economic and/or social moderate
and be an anarchist by being anti-authoritarian on both
the right and left. I think Orwell would fit this as
would many great thinkers.

[damnraddem]

7. Who says that Libertarians and Anarchists lie? They may be truthful. ;-)

Anyway, Libertarians are firmly on the right, although most tend to not be socially conservative.

Anarchists, who used the term 'libertarian' for themselves ('socialist libertarian') long before capitalist libertarians took the term over, are firmly ensconced on the left.