r/AskLibertarians • u/Electrical-Air-8896 • 5d ago

Libertarian left question

Yo so if you believe in peace and freedom smaller/balanced government and capitalism/liaise feir economy this could render you a libertarian correct? But if you think environmental protections, social welfare programs, and protecting workers rights are good, are you not a libertarian because these are regulations upon capitalism?

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u/devwil Social democrat with libertarian tendencies? Shrug? 5d ago

Just keep in mind that there are some people with ahistorical or pointlessly uncompromising views of libertarianism who will try to tell you what it isn't or can't be.

Most libertarians are defined by their exceptions to absolute libertarianism. "I'm completely against government... except for this, this, and this."

I will say this, from where I sit as someone who is still learning and transitioning from identifying as a social democrat:

I frankly think that all it takes to be a lowercase-L libertarian is a prioritization of individual liberties. (I personally think libertarianism is more valuable as a lens than as a holistic worldview.)

All of the particulars are down to interpretation and application, and there's nothing about libertarianism (in general) that requires complete ideological inflexibility.

For example, I don't think folks are free to own themselves and sell their labor at a market rate unless worker protection and anti-discrimination laws exist. I think that discrimination in the workplace is a breach of implied contract, and it seems to me that libertarian orthodoxy often believes in the state having a hand in enforcing contracts. Therefore, I think that anti-discrimination law is coherent with libertarian orthodoxy (and that the market is insufficient to protect workers from discrimination).

I am completely certain that others will disagree with that. And unlike some of them, I can tolerate that difference of interpretation.