[boriscleto]

The Libertarian Con: Favorite 'Rebel' Ideology of the Ruling Class | Alternet

Calling yourself a libertarian today is a lot like wearing a mullet back in the 1980s. It sends a clear signal: business up front, party in the back. You know, those guys who call themselves “socially liberal but fiscally conservative.” Yeah. It’s for them.

Today, the ruling class knows that they’ve lost the culture wars. And unlike with our parents, they can’t count on weeping eagles and the stars ‘n bars to get us to fall in line. So libertarianism is a last-ditch effort to ensure a succession to their throne. Their hope is that the kids will nod along as wealthy elites spread austerity regimes across the world.

So let’s talk a little about this freedom they’re always going on about. Or, to paraphrase Lenin, the libertarian’s ultimate nemesis: freedom for who to do what?

Most American adults spend about half their waking hours at a job. And during that time, libertarians do not give a flying **** about your liberty. Instead, they condone the most brutal of tyrannies—Khmer Rouge in cubicles—all in the name of a private employer’s freedom.

Racial discrimination, verbal abuse, random drug testing, body-searches, sexual harassment, illegal termination, email monitoring, union busting, even withholding piss-breaks--ask any of them how they feel about workplace unfreedom and they’ll tell you: “Hey man, if you don’t like it, you have the freedom to get another job.” If folks are hiring. But with four-and-a-half applicants for every job, they’re probably not.

Here’s another thing libertarians always forget to mention: a free-market capitalist society has never and by definition can never lead to full-employment. It has to be made to by—you guessed it—the Nanny State. Free market capitalism actually requires a huge mass of the unemployed—it’s not just a side effect.

And make no mistake: corporate America loves a high unemployment rate.

When most everyone has a job, workers are less likely to take shit. They do nutty things like join unions, demand lunch breaks and better wages, and refuse to work off-the-clock. They start to stand up to real power: not to the EPA, and not the King of England, but to their bosses.

Well, ****. Better sign up for that Big Government welfare state they’re always whining about. Hey, don’t worry. You could always sell a little crack and turn a few tricks. Libertarians totally support that.

After all, that’s your freedom, dude!

At a time in which our society has never been more interdependent in every possible way, libertarians think they’re John ****ing Wayne looking out over his ranch with an Apache scalp in his belt, or John ****ing Galt doing...whatever it is he does. (Collect vintage executive desk toys from the Sharper Image?)

Their whole ideology is like a big game of Dungeons & Dragons. It’s all make-believe, except for the chain-mail--they brought that from home. Elves, dwarves and fair maidens for capital. Even with the supposedly “good ones”—anti-war libertarians—we’re still talking about people who think Medicare’s going to lead to Stalinism.

So my advice is to call them out.

Ask them what their beef really is with the welfare state. First, they’ll talk about the deficit and say we just can’t afford entitlement programs. Well, that’s obviously a joke, so move on. Then they’ll say that it gives the government tyrannical power. Okay. Let me know when the welfare-lovin’ Danes build a Guantanamo Bay in Greenland.

Here’s the real reason libertarians hate the idea. The welfare state is a check against servility toward the rich. A strong welfare state would give us the power to say **** you to our bosses—this is the power to say “I’m gonna work odd jobs for 20 hours a week while I work on my driftwood sculptures and play keyboards in my chillwave band.