5. Sociologically, libertarianism is a very white political formation: in one survey 94% of self-professed libertarians were white.
-
-
Replying to @HeerJeet
6. What's whiter than libertarianism? Maybe polo shirts? Lawrence Welk fan club? (To be fair, Welk was quite ethnic).
1 reply 7 retweets 3 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
7. I'm emphasizing the sociological whiteness of libertarianism because that is in tension with supposedly colorblind philosophy.
2 replies 5 retweets 3 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
8. @Progeny_Omega: "only those who grew up under the blanket of white privilege would be naive enough to think libertarianism works."
1 reply 11 retweets 12 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
9. Step back & think historically: in Western civ, idea of freedom didn't emerge abstractly pure: exists in contradistinction to slavery
3 replies 2 retweets 8 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
10. More specifically: American freedom is the sibling of American slavery.
2 replies 2 retweets 5 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
11. “How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes? Samuel Johnson, "Taxation No Tyranny" (1775).
3 replies 9 retweets 6 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
12. Johnson's Tory critique of the American Revolution hit a nerve that is still raw: liberty was conceived of as liberty for some, not all
2 replies 3 retweets 3 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
13. The slave owner did not see himself as a feudal master, but as heir to Locke, Jefferson & Jackson: a free man.
2 replies 2 retweets 4 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
14. The defense of slavery drew heavily on Lockean notions of property rights: to abolish slavery meant ending a kind of freedom.
1 reply 6 retweets 7 likes
15. Again, sociologically & not in the abstract, white Americans pre-1865 knew they were free because they weren't black slaves.
-
-
Replying to @HeerJeet
16. Notions of freedom weren't abstract but gender and racially specific: not the free person but the free (white) man.
2 replies 1 retweet 3 likes
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.