Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Let people do what they want with their own bodies and property
Reason Magazine ^ | June 7, 2016 | Nick Gillespie and Joshua Swain

Posted on 06/07/2016 11:10:48 AM PDT by OddLane

"The experience of having everybody around me on campus say the left is the way to go and then...seeing communism collapse made me think maybe the libertarians have a better handle on how these things work," says Todd Seavey, author of the new book Libertarianism for Beginners. "While the Soviet Union existed, the Marxists on campus were rooting for the Soviet Union."

A New York-baseed comic-book writer, one-time producer for TV's own John Stossel, and a contributor to Splice Today, Seavey found his way toward libertarianism while attending Brown University in the late 1980s.

His new graphic book, Libertarianism for Beginners, argues that the core message of libertarians is to "keep the government small and let people do what they want with their own bodies and property."

(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: homosexualagenda; libertarians; stossel; toddseavey
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-63 next last
To: TheStickman
Remember, more freedom is always better.

Methinks you misrepresent "freedom."

21 posted on 06/07/2016 11:48:07 AM PDT by fwdude (If we keep insisting on the lesser of two evils, that is exactly what they will give us from now on.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

Maybe “productive” referred to his cough.


22 posted on 06/07/2016 11:49:26 AM PDT by fwdude (If we keep insisting on the lesser of two evils, that is exactly what they will give us from now on.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Olog-hai
Seems to me that arousing God’s wrath with one’s private (mis)behavior is infringing on the rights of others.

Just remember that "private homosexuality" was the cause of the death of MILLIONS from AIDS, many of them innocent.

23 posted on 06/07/2016 11:51:01 AM PDT by fwdude (If we keep insisting on the lesser of two evils, that is exactly what they will give us from now on.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: OddLane

A key tenet of Libertarianism is that you can do what you want as long as you’re NOT infringing on someone else’s rights. Of course, most Americans believe that the mere THOUGHT that people are doing those things is infringing on their rights. And so we have the Nanny State.


24 posted on 06/07/2016 11:55:06 AM PDT by Wolfie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Romulus; TheStickman
There are massive social costs associated with your insistence on using cannabis.

Please list the massive social costs associated with TheSTickMan's use of cannabis.

25 posted on 06/07/2016 11:56:49 AM PDT by Wolfie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: OddLane
I have heard the phrase 'it is my body, or my life and I can do with it what I want' from many an obnoxious fourteen year old. Usually stated with lips curled in a sneer. No idiots there are many sacred ties to others.

The moron who held the cops at bay by holding a shotgun under his chin. He waited until his fiver year old came who from school and then said to her "Good Bye Honey" and pulled the trigger. A real case morons.

Yes, one can enjoy the use of his property. However, he cannot use his property to damage others. Like the idiot street racer who loses control of his car and drives it into another innocent driver or house.

26 posted on 06/07/2016 12:12:42 PM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TheStickman

Well, I’m paying for with worthless neighbor to sit around and smoke pot.


27 posted on 06/07/2016 12:16:05 PM PDT by Fido969
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Wolfie
Bullets are expensive.


Shot 60 Times: Arizona SWAT Team Kills Marine In Botched Marijuana Raid

28 posted on 06/07/2016 12:22:22 PM PDT by Ketill Frostbeard ("Go not a step from your door unarmed, travel armed for war, you may at any time need a spear." ODIN)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Paladin2

That’s why they are politicians.


29 posted on 06/07/2016 12:23:20 PM PDT by OddLane
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Wolfie

BTTT.


30 posted on 06/07/2016 12:23:44 PM PDT by OddLane
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: fwdude

Public nudity and sex on the sidewalk aren’t simply about peoples’ own bodies. Those acts cross the line into the public square and affect everyone.


31 posted on 06/07/2016 12:28:32 PM PDT by Boogieman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: fwdude

Frisco already had laws for public nudity news showed them setting at cafes guess the hacks think people minded setting in a chair where someone had post anal drip.


32 posted on 06/07/2016 12:35:16 PM PDT by Vaduz (women and children to be impacted the most.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: OddLane

All fine and dandy but the pervs demand the government force everyone to fund and accept their delusions.


33 posted on 06/07/2016 12:51:00 PM PDT by Organic Panic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Wolfie

Long term, there are public health costs, as cannabis has been shown to be impair cognition. Yes, it makes people stupid.

short term, there are costs arising from the fact that some very dangerous criminal elements are involved with the production, distribution, and retailing of cannabis.

You will object that the criminal problems are artificial and will be mitigated or eliminated with decriminalization. That does nothing to solve the fundamental and uncurable objection, that the stuff is bad for you. You will object that we allow alcohol and tobacco, both of which can do harm if abused. The answer is that alcohol use is governed by millennia of custom in every culture, so that the human race has developed standards for use that are socially enforced. Moreover, even the occasional abuse of alcohol usually imparts no lasting damage to health. Worldwide, tobacco use is declining in developed countries as its risk to health comes to be better understood. There is no good reason to sanction the artificial mainstreaming of a recreational drug non-native to every successful culture on earth.


34 posted on 06/07/2016 1:01:50 PM PDT by Romulus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: OddLane

Once upon a time I thought libertarianism was a good idea. Then I met some libertarians. Sheesh.
Conservatives rightly believe that, in the public interest, certain behaviors should be prohibited and policed in the public square.
The state and its police are in turn restricted by laws pertaining to privacy, probable cause, prior restraint, etc. IOW, people can still choose to engage in those activities—dope, prostitution, whatever—but they’ve got to keep it “in the closet”, behind closed doors, and away from other people’s children.
The left wants everything in your face, anything goes. Nobody is safe, nobody has any privacy, or any right to refuse participation.


35 posted on 06/07/2016 1:11:25 PM PDT by mumblypeg (Make America Sane Again.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Romulus

“There are massive social costs associated with your insistence on using cannabis.”

Name one.


36 posted on 06/07/2016 1:15:09 PM PDT by TheStickman (Trump will be the 1st Pro-America President since Ronald Reagan)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Fido969
Well, they want to bugger each other all day long - but I’m supposed to pay for their AIDS. They want to smoke pot - but I’m supposed to support them while they sit around on the dole because they’re too stoned to go to work. Some “freedom”. Sounds like I’m the slave, here.

I won't talk about the controlling attitude of today's Libertarian Party, which appears to have drifted away from its roots. Originally, the philosophy of libertarianism was about equal measures of personal freedom and personal responsibility.

You could do as you want with your body, but nobody should be forced to pay for your lack of judgement. Libertarianism would do away with the dole, with "free" health care, etc.

In the past, what kept bad behavior in check was the lack of governmental safety-net. The people who insisted on becoming alcoholics died on the streets, and removed themselves from the gene-pool. Women who had sex outside wedlock found themselves with kids without support, and men unwilling to marry them and support another man's bastards.

The way to get back to morality, is to remove the safety net which facilitates immorality.

37 posted on 06/07/2016 1:22:35 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 (Big government is attractive to those who think that THEY will be in control of it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Fido969

“Well, I’m paying for with worthless neighbor to sit around and smoke pot.”

There are worthless people who get paid to sit around & smoke cigarettes, drink beer, wine, whiskey, overeat, watch porn, make babies with multiple women & go without bathing or brushing their teeth.

Should they get paid for this? Of course not. Hopefully 8 years of President Trump can move things in a direction where it ceases to happen. Also, Trump thinks the states should decide whether cannabis should be legal or not.

Vote Trump 2016


38 posted on 06/07/2016 1:27:27 PM PDT by TheStickman (Trump will be the 1st Pro-America President since Ronald Reagan)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: PapaBear3625
You could do as you want with your body, but nobody should be forced to pay for your lack of judgement. Libertarianism would do away with the dole, with "free" health care, etc.

The "Libertarian Party" has become the opposite - do whatever you want, and don't be held responsible for anything.

39 posted on 06/07/2016 1:28:31 PM PDT by Fido969
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: OddLane

Libertarianism is a theoretical construct that can only work in a perfect world populated by perfect people. How do you make a libertarian? Take a conservative and remove all common sense.


40 posted on 06/07/2016 1:28:48 PM PDT by SVTCobra03 (You can never have enough friends, horsepower or ammunition.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-63 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson