[free-sklyarov] Libertarian party is not our friends, they are no better then the democrats and republicans.

[Seth Finkelstein]

On Wed, Sep 12, 2001 at 12:15:22PM -0400, Declan McCullagh wrote:
> I wonder what the Democratic and Republican parties think of the DMCA? Oh, 
> that's right. They wrote it and unanimously approved it. :)

	Excuse me Declan, but didn't that unanimous approval include
Rep. Ron Paul, who WAS THE LIBERTARIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE in 1988?
That is, the closest thing the Libertarian Party has to having someone
in Congress, the person who was so senior that he was once the nominee
President on the Libertarian Party ticket, voted for the DMCA?

	Am I wrong? I'm sure if he was big opponent of the DMCA,
we'd hear it from you. Perhaps you could convince him to say
something against the DMCA. If not, why not?

	The above is what I call the Libertarian recruiting tactic of
"Fantasy vs. Reality". As I said the last time this topic came around,
it's contrasting what is less than a campaign promise, versus people
who have to do the things necessary to get elected. And getting
elected takes money. Lots of money. Money e.g. donated by MPAA and RIAA.

	I strongly agree with the earlier list-poster who had such a
negative view of the Libertarian Party. While indeed, every groups has
its lunatics, I have observed that Libertarianism is particularly
neurotoxic. It is better thought of as a religious cult than a
political party.

	And that reference to a religious cult is meant in all
sincerity. If you have dedicated Libertarians in your cause, very often
(not 100%, but very often), they will endlessly try to proselytize and
recruit everyone for Libertarianism, and attempt to drive away people
who oppose their evangelism. It is superficially appealing to be in
alliance with them, but I argue that overall, it's generally much more
tactically harmful than is usually realized.

	The true destruction come not from their "attitude", but from
the fact that their ideology replaces and suffocates an ability to
think about the real world. I've written an essay on this, it's at
http://sethf.com/essays/major/libstupid.php

	And I believe we are seeing the themes I articulate being
proven right now.

-- 
Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  sethf at sethf.com  http://sethf.com
http://archive.nytimes.com/2001/07/19/technology/circuits/19HACK.html
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