[hellbender]

Wow. You've articulated my own beliefs, but better than I could myself.

I think a lot of hard-core libertarians are young and short on life experience (esp. in things like raising children). They are innately smart enough to realize that liberalism and socialism are crap, but they are handicapped by being raised in a permissive, selfish modern culture and educated by a subversive educational system which doesn't teach the old historical truths about the religious and cultural roots of American freedom. So they get their ideas from economic ideologues, and fiction writers like Ayn Rand or Heinlein. Thus adolescent mental tendencies, like the tendency to oversimplify and obsess, an addiction to fantasy, and the belief that "no one has a right to tell me what to do," dominant their thinking longer than they do in those of most people.

[frogjerk]

Excellent posts, both!

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

LOL, you are spot-on there. Libertarians are young....and inexperienced. I’m glad I’m a conservative who gets my political ideas from non-fiction works.

[Antoninus]

I think a lot of hard-core libertarians are young and short on life experience (esp. in things like raising children). They are innately smart enough to realize that liberalism and socialism are crap, but they are handicapped by being raised in a permissive, selfish modern culture and educated by a subversive educational system which doesn't teach the old historical truths about the religious and cultural roots of American freedom. So they get their ideas from economic ideologues, and fiction writers like Ayn Rand or Heinlein. Thus adolescent mental tendencies, like the tendency to oversimplify and obsess, an addiction to fantasy, and the belief that "no one has a right to tell me what to do," dominant their thinking longer than they do in those of most people.

Bingo. Libertarianism is the political ideology of the frat house. In the real world, it doesn't work out so well...