Though perhaps gay marriage is a better example than the drug war of the contrast between social liberal and libertarian thoughts on the role of unfairness vs. maximization of individual freedom in reaching a similar position.
Gay marriage is an increase in individual freedom for the pro-marriage side. Although I guess a hardline libertarian position would be civil unions for everyone, even though many people who call themselves libertarian were completely against gay marriage for some reason, I guess they were more “anti tax and free land” western anti-government libertarians.
While some hardcore leftists may be anti-freedom when it comes to political correctness, most calls for civility are not anti-freedom: the worst they do is use the bully pulpit to call people out and do not call for a decrease in freedom of speech.
But what happens after the actual wedding ceremony itself? Most liberals want same-sex marriages to have the same level rights of governmentally granted privileges and rights. Most libertarians want to take away all those privileges and rights from all married couples (the ‘government shouldn’t be in the marriage business’ stuff).
I disagree (and I tend to not be on the side of many on my ‘team’/party here) - there are plenty of examples of speech codes, especially on college campuses but also in the corporate world, that have been used to take action against people for boorish statements. The reason being because it is seen as harming minority students / employees, etc.
Conservatives can accuse liberals of pushing for political correctness. But are there examples of actual laws being enacted that would make some words illegal? There may be some instances somewhere but, if they exist at all, they’re rare. Speech crime certainly isn’t part of the mainstream Democratic Party platform.
But conservatives aren’t relying on mere social pressure to mold society they way they want. On issues like abortions and same-sex marriage, they’re calling for constitutional amendments and other laws. The same is true with things like drug use and gambling and prostitution.
On social issues, the divide seems to be that when liberals object to something, they tell you you shouldn’t do it; when conservatives object to something, they make it illegal.
True. But it doesn’t particularly have any bearing on liberals vs. libertarians, as generally libertarians aren’t making those things illegal either.
But libertarians go too far in the other direction. If liberals are trying to trying to turn society into a nanny state then libertarians are trying to turn society into a gladiatorial arena.
What’s wrong with a safety net? Does the ideal of freedom require that we let people starve to death in the streets? I want a system that has a lot of personal freedom and some social welfare.
Well yes. We are discussing the potential differences between libertarian ideas of ‘social liberalism’ and liberal ideas of ‘social liberalism’ - which includes where those differences stem from, which also shines a light on where some similarities in goals start to diverge.