So if you have a paranoid libertarian friend that refuses to wear a mask when entering a hospital or other public place that has a mask policy, the best thing to do is to agree with them…oh absolutely don’t wear a mask when you go in. Wearing one would mess with the facial recognition software big time.
Not wearing a mask is what they want you to do. They want your kind to die from the disease they unleashed.
Yes, but preying upon their innate paranoia may create an internal conflict: on the one hand, no one tells ME what I have to wear, but on the other hand, wearing a mask is nearly as effective as wearing tinfoil on one’s head in keeping THEM from identifying you and your thought crimes.
I misread the title as “giving one’s librarian friends a hard time” and was going to talk about that brand new Tom Clancy novel I checked out thirty years ago and never returned…sorry!
Stranger
This post has been reported…to the American Library Association. I suspect not even SOAT can stand up to their power, especially as they are mobilizing in the face of new waves of book banning and other attempts at censorship. That is, they are spoiling for a fight.
I mean, it was Debt of Honor, so I was really doing some tiny amount of good by keeping one copy out of circulation…
Stranger
I will be interested to see how the ALA responds to this call for mercy, which I personally support–it is a compelling case, imho
Hmm. Are there any actual libertarians out there, who have publicly decried things like abortion bans or voting restrictions, since, you know, they are against everything that a True Libertarian would putatively believe in? Or is it a case of people who keep on using that word, when it is clear it does not mean what they think it means?
Would a real libertarian have friends at all? Acquaintances, perhaps, slaves and servants, no doubt, maybe even employees, as badly treated as they are paid, but friends? I don’t see that.
What if the friendship was of a purely transactional nature?
OK, maybe a libertarian would call this friendship, I don’t know. Ask the libertarian if you know one. I would not call a purely transactional relation “friendship”.
But would the libertarian’s friends be Scotsmen (or would the libertarian)?
During the period when I required a mask to enter my business, I had a handful of people refuse. Those people were told to leave my property. A few of them told me I’d be hearing from their lawyer. So far all I hear are crickets.
Apologies for continuing the hijack, but this is very interesting news. Shortly after the PATRIOT Act was passed (so, more than 20 years ago already? oookay, universe) I somewhat accidentally attended a party at an ALA convention (long story), and…
Wait, I already told you guys this story (August 2002, geez):
That ALA link is broken two decades later, but there are lots of resources on the site that discuss ALA resistance to censorship and invasion of privacy. When librarians are spoiling for a fight, watch out.
(Sorry, that really is a hijack of the intended purpose of the thread, ignore me! But I was interested…)
I’m not really sure what ‘Libertarian’ means nowadays. Is it even a useful term any more?
There seem to be more flavors of ‘Libertarians’ than you can shake a stick at.
Let me please show you why I believe the obligatory “No true Scotman”-falacy refutal does not apply in this case.
Would you accept that the Scotsman argument does not apply to behaviour that can be chosen, like, for instance, what one eats? Would you then accept that the statement “no true vegan would eat meat” is correct? Now substitute “vegan” with “libertarian”, “eat meat” with “have friends” and tell me in a way even I can understand why the statement changes from true to false. Because I believe it does not.
Of course, if you believe that the political convictions a person has are indelebly stamped upon them at birth, like Scotishness, and that those can never change neither by education, experience, coercion or conviction, come hell or high water, then your objection could be true. But I don’t think that this is the way people are wired.
Don’t shake a stick at a strawberry-anarcho-capitalist. They take the whole “An armed society is a polite society,” mantra very literally, and they really like dual-wielding compact AR ‘pistols’ that you don’t realize they are concealing under the large black overcoats they often affect.
Stranger
You’re assuming libertarians are inherently paranoid, but that’s not really part of their doctrine; they just favor liberty. What you’re thinking of are the conspiracy theorists who believe that COVID isn’t real and mask mandates are/were implemented for no reason other than to get the populace used to being compliant/subservient.
Why then does it seem (anecdotally to me at any rate) that a high percentage of self-described libertarians subscribe to the behavior and beliefs you described? Coincidence? Confirmation bias?
The academic library side of ALA has a conference next week. We might get to this topic. The full ALA conference isn’t until late June, so there’s still time for it to be on that agenda.