# What's wrong with Gary Johnson? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 7, 2016, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844 "2016-10-07T14:48:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wilson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@Wilson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wilson)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/21 "2016-10-07T19:06:38Z")
On top of everything else, up until last month, he wasn’t in favor of mandatory vaccines. He says he didn’t understand the issue until then. He’s an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/22 "2016-10-07T19:09:18Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > It _was_ a joke. Like Johnson. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/23 "2016-10-07T19:22:57Z")
Johnson is astoundingly ignorant. He didn’t know what Aleppo was; he could not name any world leaders. He lacks the depth of knowledge that is the necessary foundation for good judgment, and the fact that he either does know realize that or does not acknowledge that demonstrates a breathtaking arrogance. Here is a parallel. I have recently gone legally blind because of some weird auto-immune retinopathy; I can’t spell it because I don’t have my notes at hand. My father, with whom I have semi-reconciled (he can visit as long as he calls first and gets permission, and may not bitch when I say no, among other things) the other night suggested that I should try the eyedrops he is prescribed for his glaucoma, to reduce the pressure of his eyes. I told him that I don’t have glaucoma, that my problem is completely different, but he insists that his common sense tells lhim I should try it, that his common sense is superior to the judgment of medical professionals even though he does not know the difference between the two syndromes and, in fact, does not know what the words retina, vitreous fluid, or fibrous membrane means. Voting for Gary Johnson would be like taking my father’s medical advice. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/24 "2016-10-07T19:28:17Z")
He knows zero about the issues he doesn’t care about, and knows less than zero about the issues he does care about. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/25 "2016-10-07T19:34:27Z")
Pretty much most of the people who will vote for him are voting for him precisely because he has no chance of winning and is thus a generic wasted protest vote. If he had a chance they’d vote against him too. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/26 "2016-10-07T19:43:24Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > But I thought I heard a few quotes from Johnson about how he realizes that, if elected, he’d be working with a Congress that’s split between Republicans and Democrats. I.e. he knows he can’t “abolish the fed”, or even constrain it very much, without the support of Congress. The Freakonomics podcast recently interviewed him, and they asked him about those policies (end the Fed, etc.) and he was very clear that he didn’t expect to have the opportunity to put such ideas into law, since he doesn’t control what Congress does and they’re not going to submit a bill like that to him. But that if it were up to him alone, he would enact those policies and he thinks they are the right direction. I disagree with (many of) his policies, but there’s no indication that he doesn’t know how our system of government works. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/27 "2016-10-07T19:43:37Z")
He doesn’t help dispel the “crazy” accusations with interviews [like this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXhR41lsEJY). ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/28 "2016-10-07T20:07:20Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > He doesn’t help dispel the “crazy” accusations with interviews [like this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXhR41lsEJY). That’s just one of a couple I’ve seen. The guy is bat shit crazy! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/29 "2016-10-07T20:24:53Z")
**What’s wrong with Gary Johnson?** He’s a Libertarian. 'nuf said. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/30 "2016-10-07T20:28:07Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Voting for Gary Johnson would be like taking my father’s medical advice. 😃 This is a great analogy. In high school I flirted with libertarianism (and, let’s admit it, this cute libertarian), based in large part on their claim about themselves: they’re the only part founded on principle, viz., the principle of noncoercion. At the time it sounded real good. Later, I’ve realized that when you start from principle and try to make all the facts in the world match your principle, you’ve got a shitty principle. Instead, you gotta start with the facts in the world, and build principles that recognize those facts. There’s a reason why people talk about libertopia. It’s a place where libertarianism works, and it sure as shit isn’t this place. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/31 "2016-10-07T21:37:10Z")
I heard him on Penn’s Sunday School podcast. (Penn is a big fan.) He started by saying how much he hates hypocrisy. When Penn asked for an example of how he would handle international relations, he said, as an example, he would get together with China and the two countries would remove Kim Jung Un from power and place the Korean peninsula under Seoul. It would make things so much better, obviously China would jump at the idea. :rolleyes: Immediately after this, when asked what he really hated about the current foreign policy under both the Dems and the GOP, he immediately replied regime change. A nation’s citizens should be the ones to do that kind of thing, not foreign powers. I stopped listening right after that. > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Voting for Gary Johnson would be like taking my father’s medical advice. No, I think you’re father had a stronger grasp on medicine than Johnson does reality. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/32 "2016-10-07T22:09:15Z")
No libertarian has any grip on reality. They are all perpetual 13 year olds: selfish, stubborn and possessing a strong streak of “You can’t make me!” Deserving of a sound spanking, in other words. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/33 "2016-10-08T03:18:54Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > I really don’t want to defend him too much, since I agree that the libertarian economic policies are nonsense. But I thought I heard a few quotes from Johnson about how he realizes that, if elected, he’d be working with a Congress that’s split between Republicans and Democrats. I.e. he knows he can’t “abolish the fed”, or even constrain it very much, without the support of Congress. How does he phrase this selling-point on his bumper-stickers? **[INDENT][INDENT]Vote for Johnson[/INDENT] Even Congress isn’t stupid enough to enact my ideas! [/INDENT]** ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/34 "2016-10-08T04:04:06Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Johnson is astoundingly ignorant. He didn’t know what Aleppo was; he could not name any world leaders. He lacks the depth of knowledge that is the necessary foundation for good judgment, and the fact that he either does know realize that or does not acknowledge that demonstrates a breathtaking arrogance. This. It would only take a few hours of study to be able to answer most of the high-school level geopolitical questions being thrown his way. The fact that he can’t even be bothered to take a morning to do that, while he’s running for president, shows…ok you already said it: breathtaking arrogance. It’s actually a tough call to say who’s worse between him and Trump; both have insane policy proposals and no understanding of the world or government. …I guess Trump is still worse as he combines ignorance with a hawkish stance on conflict (although he’s not consistent on this). But there’s not a lot of space between them. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/35 "2016-10-08T04:22:11Z")
[feel the johnson](http://home.avvanta.com/~sydde/FtJ.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/36 "2016-10-08T04:22:26Z")
Mijin, have you tried to study while high? First, you have to get over the texture of the paper, then its smell, and have you ever looked at the photos in a newspaper? I mean, really look at them? They are just a bunch of dots! ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/37 "2016-10-08T04:31:10Z")
**dropzone** , Johnson says he smokes weed. He never said anything about mushrooms, peyote or acid. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/38 "2016-10-08T06:44:48Z")
> [@Lok](#): > > No, I think you’re father had a stronger grasp on medicine than Johnson does reality. I concur. Skald’s dad’s advice at least has an ephemeral linking thread of something like logic: this is eye medicine, you have an eye problem, try this medicine. Some of Gary Johnson’s policies are scarcely saner than let’s attack this giant snake-like incarnation of an ancient demon with hummus. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/39 "2016-10-08T16:42:12Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > **dropzone** , Johnson says he smokes weed. He never said anything about mushrooms, peyote or acid. You need better weed. Took an unexpected (what happens when your college experience consists of showing up the first day to get the syllabus and the days of the midterm and the final) midterm while high. If you are old enough to remember the smell of mimeographed test papers, it was magical that day. And the paper was still sticky. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844/40 "2016-10-08T19:34:31Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > That’s a theme with Libertarian Party positions: They position themselves as a wonky economic policy party, but their economic policy is founded on ignorance and proceeds to insanity. > > They have no intelligent solutions, only dogma which sounds good if you’re ignorant because it purports to explain everything in a math-light fashion. The problem is that economics is a math-heavy discipline; taking the math out of it is inimical to actually understanding it. You end up BSing your way through the field, arriving at answers actual economists know are incorrect based on the evidence we have. > > It isn’t just economics, of course; they apply that simple, dogmatic approach to everything, which is very appealing to people who don’t know how the world works. It’s a philosophy with all the answers and none of the ambiguity! The problem is that the answers are wrong, or simplistic, and the _world_ is ambiguous, so anything which removes the ambiguity is immediately suspect. So…basically the same as the other parties? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-gary-johnson/767844.md?page=3)