> despise the self-righteousness of people who think a social contract overrides personal liberty

my reply to this bit is: Take your personal liberty to Libertarian Island.

That is fine if you do not care about your own liberty.

What is liberty? Is it freedom from vaccinations, or freedom from getting vaccine-preventable diseases?

Is it freedom to carry a gun, or freedom from getting shot?

Is it freedom to pollute, or freedom from pollution?

Is it the freedom to pay as little as possible, or the freedom from others pushing their tragedy-of-the-commons cost onto me?

Is it freedom to choose the ideal healthcare plan for me, or freedom from spending hours deciphering healthcare mumbo-jumbo and ending up in medical debt if you get it wrong?

Liberty is subjective and opinions differ. The social contract is society's collective détente.

Liberty is indeed subjective, but unless it is rooted in a consistent framework of consent and non-aggression, it risks becoming a mere euphemism for majority rule or state coercion. The social contract, if used to justify that coercion without consent, becomes problematic. Liberty should not mean trading one form of oppression for another under the guise of collective benefit. The social contract is a fraud: no one ever signed it, and the State enforces it at gunpoint. True contracts require explicit, informed consent - not mere residence in a geographic territory. Thus, the invocation of a "social contract" often becomes a rhetorical tool used to justify state coercion without genuine agreement.

Freedom to own a weapon is not equal to freedom to commit violence.

Pollution is an invasion of property rights, and should be treated as such under the law - i.e., as a tort or nuisance, actionable by the victims. In other words, pollution should be punished - not because the government says so, but because it constitutes an aggression against another's property.

Liberty means non-aggression and voluntary interaction.

If you want me to expand, please say so.

Reading a bit of the first paper...

In a Libertarian system what the remedy is for people whose lands have been polluted?

And what about CO2 pollution the affects everyone everywhere, not just the local river? What's the remedy then?

And if I own a factory is it not personal liberty to make a profit with it even if it causes pollution?