Instead of throwing women under the bus, in a misguided attempt to appeal to anti-abortion people,

[JHan]

29. my experience with that is..

I used to be libertarian leaning so I am familiar with the type, most of the young libertarians I know are exasperating privileged dudebros. I got out of the trap in the nick of time.

Libertarians sell the fallacy that Democrats and Republicans are the same. That's their selling point to distinguish themselves from both parties. It's a lie.

Libertarians are Republicans without the Jesus juice which is why I get antsy when we make arguments for them that equate democrats with republicans.

I laid it out recently in a thread: We believe social institutions are key in solving problems. Thus education, affordable healthcare, social safety net, good schools and environmental protections are concerns for democrats. We believe Government can do good, we believe the system can produce good outcomes. And we take responsibility for those outcomes. Libertarians/Republicans are the anarcho-capitalist enablers who typically believe that the market will solve everything while taxes and regulations are seen as intrusions. Any benefits observed in society is attributed to the market or "the Invisible Hand". Anything that cannot be solved by the market, should not be interfered with by Government and must remain a problem until the market fixes it. They do not believe it is morally right for the state to interject itself in affairs for the sake of service to citizens. What this means is that Libertarians opt out of taking responsibility for outcomes whether those outcomes are increasing unemployment, environmental devastation, illiteracy, poverty/destitution/economic displacement.

I think the best thing is for people like us who are passionate about politics to spread that passion and our belief that the system can do good. Libertarians and republicans have poured billions into demonizing government, with great success. The effect has been less engagement in politics by the electorate and high levels of civic disengagement and ignorance - people not understanding how a bill is passed, what the different branches of government do, the limits of presidential power thus unable to detect when a president overreaches by executive fiat, FEC Laws and truly understanding how to change campaign finance laws as they currently stand, how to connect to activist groups in your community or make a difference locally. Literacy rates don't help either.

We're also in an information war where moneyed interests like the Mercers, the Kochs, are happy to weaponize AI and inflict harm through emotional exploitation - that is using people's cognitive errors against themselves. The Tea Party movement against "socialized medicine" was a good example of this, funding anti-climate, or climate "skeptic" think tanks and linking those views to "liberty" or "freedom from government" is another sleight of hand they've employed to devastating effect.

We have to create better memes, not employ rhetorical blunders that spite our efforts and keep our eyes on the prize. We're gonna have to fight like we've never fought before because this RW regressive shit is now global.