THOM HARTMANN - Countering the Attacks on American Democracy

Can You Name One Successful Libertarian Country? Sure.

 

Lambton Harbor, Wellington, New Zealand

Thom Hartman asks: Can You Name One Successful Libertarian Country? This clearly shows, at the very least, the failure of libertarian messaging, and the importance of clear semantics.

Can you name one successful libertarian country?

If you mean minarchism, which isn't actually libertarianism as such, but rather one rather shallow, ideological, right wing strain of libertarianism, then none.

But if you mean maximizing economic and individual liberty, ALMOST ALL OF THEM.

Most of the most successful countries on earth generally have the most freedom -- are the most "libertarian."

According to the Human Freedom Index, these are the most libertarian countries: New Zealand, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Estonia, and Germany and Sweden (tied in 9th place).

I would say they're pretty successful (Honestly not sure about Estonia yet -- noobs). While not a direct correlation, there is enough correlation between liberty and success to imply at least partial causation.

That's practical, pragmatic, real world libertarianism and its effects.

Anyway, libertarianism is not really what Thom is implying, but right wing ideological libertarianism has crashed and burned in part on what he is describing, and that rotten shell of Randian/Hayakian thinking is another piece of the puzzle of what wrecked the right and helped create Trumpism.

This thinking was promoted by people like the Kochs giving money to every right wing cause, and helped foster the libertarianism-to-fascism highway.

It has been promoted by the LP, and is partly why they see little difference between the neo-fascist Republican Party and the social democrat Democratic Party.

People are just not communicating and are just not looking outside of their own bubbles.

Beating Trump's Fascism! (w/ Prof. Jason Stanley)