Re:What's a disease? Or: shoud fat/shy/alcoholic people be b...
by steveklabnik on Monday May 31, 2010 @11:00AM
(#1392620)
Thanks for the well-thought out response. You touch on a subject that I find to be really interesting, in a game-theory sort of way: words are always changing, that's the nature of language. Yet in order to have reasoned discourse, we need to nail down what words actually mean. There's a certain push and pull that goes on between those two sides, I guess, which is why it's so hard to talk about these things. Everyone has different meanings for everything.
You can cherry-pick various people or parties that have called themselves liberal or conservative and come up with all sorts of positions. It's a fun parlor game, but the only thing it proves is that people can take a simple idea and twist it into all sorts of things. Doesn't mean the idea is whacked.
Libertarian is the same as the rest of them.
I'll go with first line in the wiki article The term libertarian in a metaphysical or philosophical sense was first used by late-Enlightenment free-thinkers to refer to those who believed in free will, as opposed to determinism
Historically yes, it was grabbed by anarchists. And you can find examples of libertarian "thought" being used to justify all sorts of crazy stuff. But the point here is that if you are telling me that I am good or bad, you are applying deterministic thought which implies some sort of control. Better to say that we are both free agents acting in our own best interests. If I cut off my toe, you may get very upset. What a bad thing to do! But it was my toe, and if I didn't like it, it was my right to get rid of it. Your tendency to view my actions in terms of your morality is an attempt to layer your version of deterministic morality over my right to do things which may frighten or offend you. The next step would be for you to start labeling my toe-cutting a form of sickness that society would be justified in "fixing" for me.
It's exactly the same thing as the church did, it's just dressed up in science and medicine instead of religion and myth.