A kid wrote an op-ed for my newspaper (here) calling Ron Paul a dangerous pacifist. I love how many comments there are shredding his column to pieces.
haha… dangerous pacifist… just like Athens thought that Socrates was a dangerous pacifist, or how the British thought that Gandhi was a dangerous pacifist…
I thought that pacifists are dangerous a few years ago. I thought pacifists are utopian dreamers who opt for a feel-good ideology instead of facing the real world. Like: “If we are nice to them they’ll be nice to us.” In short, those right-wingers think that all pacifists are deluded hippies. Since those people actually exist, it’s easy to think libertarians fall into that camp. I think libertarians can convince anti-pacifists, but they have to hear the right arguments and actually think about it.
Btw. I don’t think that pacifism works once you already pissed off the enemy.
Well, I don’t think libertarians are pacifists at all. There’s a very thick line between pacificism and non-aggression.
Yes, because if you’re not threatening people with force - you’re a pacifist.
If this “kid” thinks the US has a duty to garrison the world to keep the “terrorists” or the “Chinese” from taking over the world why is he wasting his time typing while there’s a war going on? He should have headed for the local recruitment office many moons ago.
There’s a difference between opposing pre-emptive wars (committing the agression) and being a pacifist (not even reacting after an agression against you).
Libertarians want non-agression, but do believe (strongly) in reacting to violence.
dangerous pacifist
I am a left-of-center guy, but I’d ally with Ron Paul on foreign policy so fast it’d make your head spin. He’s one of the only people I know of in the federal government who has a record of consistent opposition to U.S. interventionism and playing World Cop. When I saw him in a presidential debate talking about how Iranian ‘aggression’ is largely traceable to the U.S.-led 1953 coup against Mossadegh, I knew he was the real deal on foreign policy. Contrast that to some of the most left-leaning members of congress, like Bernie Sanders, who calls himself a socialist, but voted for ‘humanitarian’ (!) bombing of Kosovo in the 1990s.
Anyway, here’s my question: I am well plugged-in to the leftist anti-interventionist and anti-imperialist web sources, but I’d like to get more plugged-in to those coming from the libertarian side. I already read antiwar.com, which spans the right-left divide. Can anyone recommend some libertarian sites/blogs/fora which are consistently critical of and firmly stand against the “interventionist consensus” of the political mainstream?
Thanks
Yeah, that was just sloppy semantics. The point being that right-wingers think everyone who wants non-aggression is a pacifist, which hurts the libertarian argument.
Agreed. I agree with a large part of Pauls foreign policy recommendations but the last thing I would call myself when it comes to defense is a pacifist. That ‘thick line’ as you say is one that unfortunately isn’t seen or heard from by most people. One of my few complaints about Ron is how his commends are directed and come accross whne it comes to national defence. A lot of times, his focus will get lost on niche topics in the discussion and his great stance lost by those fringe comments or focus.