Why you are not a conservative

Libertarians sit nowhere on the left-right map (dispute on how to use the government's monopoly of violence)

• right > wants to use violence to support 800 U.S. bases abroad
• left > wants to use it to boss poor people around.

• libs > world ordered by people having a go within a loose framework of honest rewards
• cons (and socialists, and eveything in between) > top-down order, as in a loving or authoritarian household.

• cons > admires evolution up to a couple of decades before the present, fearful and angry about recent/future evolution
• socdem > does not admire evolution and wants you to give up stuff and liberty, for your own welfare, ça va sans dire
• lib > admires some old evolution (not femme couverte) and looks with confidence to future of unforced evolution, bottom-up, not top-down

Adam Smith's liberal plan of [social] equality, [economic] liberty, and [legal] justice inspired ordinary ppl to have a go, govt was mainly an obstacle, enforcing slavery and Jim Crow, imposing regulation and planning, marshalling armies to clash.

Liberalism is an ethical convinction, no one should 'force people to do things', no men over women, masters over slaves, politicians over citizens, it is about a 'negative liberty': to be left alone, not a so-called 'positive liberty': to be benefitted by a tax or protection extracted by governmental violence from other people

"Chances are almost 100 percent that you act like a libertarian.…You don't hit other people when their behavior displeases you. You don't take their stuff... Congratulations. You've internalized the basic principles of libertarianism"

Golden rule:

• "Do not do unto others what you would not want done unto yourself." > masculine, guy-liberalism, a gospel of justice
• "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." > gal-liberalism, a gospel of love, placing on us an ethical responsibility to do more than pass by on the other side.