TPM Writer ‘Disproves’ Political Theory in Blog Post!
Leftist-troll-extroardinaire Amanda Marcotte has a new article in TPM Cafe in which she suggests that the recent controversy at Reddit proves that libertarianism is not good for people or freedom-enhancing. Marcotte concludes her article by analogizing libertarianism to a mafia-protection racket for bigots: “The only thing libertarianism is good at, it appears, is running protection for the bigots of the world, but it doesn’t do anything to improve freedom—or markets—for the rest of us.”
A charitable interpretation of Marcotte’s argument would be that Reddit proves libertarian systems do not always self-regulate without intervention. Reddit adopted a libertarian ethos, management did not regulate the awful sub-reddits, and sexism and racism remain pervasive at Reddit. And that seems like a pretty decent argument actually. Marcotte’s concluding line, however, suggests that she thinks Reddit is really, really compelling evidence that libertarianism just does not work. And that is just insane. Libertarian policies have been tried in many forms, in many different places. Saying Reddit disproves Libertarianism is rather like the idiotic-inverse of saying Prohibition proves libertarianism correct. It’s a complex world, and libertarian policies will work in some contexts and not in others. Even scientific theories are rarely “disproved” by one piece of evidence; political theories are often even less subject to empirical critique because the content of the theory relies on ethical claims that cannot be tested. Libertarianism describes a broad category of political thought, but at its core is the belief that “liberty” is intrinsically valuable. Many libertarians acknowledge that libertarian policies may generate undesirable consequences, but believe the “intrinsic” good of liberty outweighs the potential negative effects of libertarian practices. So even if there was some sort of pure natural experiment that proved libertarianism generated bad consequences, we still might have good reason to favor libertarianism: it enhances liberty, which is a good thing. This is not some mere abstract consideration. Let’s take a concrete example. Some economists think that the economic actions of Pinochet in Chile benefitted people of Chile, outweighing even the negative effects of his repressive actions. They marshall economic evidence to make this claim. But even if their empirical case were very compelling, the stunning and complete loss of liberty in Chile under Pinochet could be viewed as just intrinsically bad, even apart from the adverse consequences that loss of political freedom generated.
Talking Points Memo is often enlightening, but it occasionally veers into smug-partisan banter, bankrupt of thought and care - this was a low moment for a generally impressive publication.
- BLN
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/reddit-controversy-ellen-pao-libertarians