Most of what I’ve seen sounds like Libertarians are actually anarchists who’ve been misinformed by the dominant culture about what anarchism really is.
What would you say is the reason you identify with libertarianism over anarchism?
For me, it’s a matter of practicality. Because sure, I’d love a perfect system in which everything operates entirely on voluntary cooperation, feel free to toss in a spherical cow with zero air resistance as well. But I don’t believe such a solution to be a practical option in reality, at least for the foreseeable future. Its basically a giant instance of the prisoners dillema, just at the scale of state militaries and nuclear weapons. And at that scale, I find it significantly more desirable to hedge our bets against bad actors than to rely on near universal acceptance of an ideal solution.
Anarchists are historically left. Libertarians are historically right. At least in USA.
Stop right there: Anarchism means that there is no state or anyone that has any competence over you. Libertarians on the other hand support a minimal state that is just there to protect the core rights. Anarchism therefore means in it’s essence that you are responsible for managing and protecting your property all by yourself. However most Anarchists tend to accept some forms of deliberate power distribution.
This hardline distinction that you’re drawing between libertarians and anarchists is ridiculous and not rooted in reality. Many libertarians are and have been anarchists. Murray Rothbard and Lysander Spooner are two well-known examples.
So now we are using anarchist and libertarians as synonyms or what? It’s just what anarchism means. We can discuss how you interpret this term but you can’t change what it means. One is despises aany governmental structure whereas the other thinks a minimal state is necessary. Simple as. Of course these are extremes but I hate it when people say libertarians are right wing anarchists. Rather its the anarchists that are somewhat libertarian.
“Libertarian” is an umbrella term which can describe many anarchists as well as statists. Again, one of the most popular libertarians is Murray Rothbard, who was an anarcho-capitalist.
Exactly but as an umbrella term it’s by far more than anarchism. But you are right I have to change my wording.
Every anarchist I’ve ever discussed the matter with has embraced magical thinking as the mechanism for sustaining anarchist decision-making (e.g. rule by consensus) despite threats to the status quo (like an invading despot).
Libertarians, on the other hand, routinely seem to acknowledge that some public goods, e.g. national defense, must be handled by a state actor. Minarchy rather than anarchy.
Also in a radically anarchist state people would completely depend on themselves. As this is impractical they will eventually form connections and cooperate with each other more intensively which in turn obviously needs some rudimentary guidelines. And that’s just the beginning of a small state.
It’s weird whenever I see people talking about anarchy they always seem to forget that humans have family and friends and choose to work together to make things happen without needing an authority creating rules.
There is an authority though, one or both parents, or more dominant friends.
