David Neiwert

22) Of course, in many ways this appeals to the American psyche. Steinbeck is credited (incorrectly, I gather) with the adage: “Americans never see themselves as poor, just temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” Whoever said it, it’s deeply true.

23) But it also appeals to authoritarian personalities. The first of the three behavioral/attitudinal clusters that define such personalities is Authoritarian Submission: The belief that in order to have secure civil society, we should submit to the rule of the Legitimate Leader.

24) The remaining two clusters are Authoritarian Aggression – directed at anyone who fails to appropriately submit, or any leader deemed illegitimate – and Conventionalism, the belief that people with their views represent the “real mainstream.”

25) These clusters combine to create a series of identifiable traits, many of which fit libertarians to a T, particularly in their real-life behaviors: Compartmentalized thinking. A high tolerance for bigotry, both in action and rhetorically. A tendency toward conspiracism.

26) But the defining trait of authoritarian personalities, both followers and leaders, is also a defining trait of libertarians: A contempt for the principles of equality, and a prevailing belief that inequality is the natural state of things, which should not be undermined.

27) This is where compartmentalized thinking plays an important role. This is the psychological device by which people are able to cope with the cognitive dissonance that naturally arises when a person holds two apparently contradictory beliefs simultaneously.

28) So now we have the spectacle of libertarians who ardently support an overt authoritarian as president, and are fans of a Russian premier whose authoritarianism is being spread throughout Europe in the form of anti-LGBT/anti-immigrant white nationalism.

29) We have anti-government militiamen who line up behind the same regimes and demand utter fealty to his government. We have far-right Proud Boys who violently respond to anyone who dares to exercise their own free-speech rights by protesting them.

30) This is all because compartmentalization produces a mindset in which only their point of view is deemed legitimate. It’s all “free speech for me, and none for thee.” Any objection to their views, or decision to deplatform their bigotry, is deemed an attempt to oppression

32) Peterson’s recent rants about how “it is only the individual who suffers” are a case in point. It’s abject nonsense. Families suffer, especially when one of their members do. Communities can suffer. Whole nations suffer during wartime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvBm0ZUfe7I …

33) This is simple, basic empathy, the foundation of all relationships and the communitarian values that have always sustained humans as a species. I mean, hasn’t Peterson ever listened to Sam and Dave? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T246rhSoHes …

32) Ultimately, libertarianism is a kind of grift, getting the rubes to focus on the shiny object of “individual liberties” on the one hand while hiding the deep, latent authoritarianism inherent in its incoherent philosophy.

35) Alas, we are awash in it – not just in the form of the radical right, but throughout American society. Libertarianism is phenomenally popular in the software world. It’s probably the dominant force in the modern conservative movement. Paul Ryan is a Rand acolyte.

36) You find it throughout media. Witness the recent dispute over Steve Bannon’s appearance at the New Yorker Festival, where his defenders posed it as a simple matter of the “marketplace of ideas”, as though fraudulent ideas are not bad goods that destroy that marketplace.

37) Mind you, I’m not entirely hostile to some of the ideas contained in libertarianism. I do value individual rights and initiative and think they’re important. I just believe they need to be balanced with the values of communitarianism and empathy and basic decency.