Libertarianism for Me, Authoritarianism for Thee

I&#x27;m reminded of Frank Wilhoit&#x27;s one-off blog comment[1].<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;kottke.org&#x2F;21&#x2F;02&#x2F;conservatism-and-who-the-law-protects" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;kottke.org&#x2F;21&#x2F;02&#x2F;conservatism-and-who-the-law-protec...</a>

“poorer Americans have been subjected to over regulation, an increased state and police scrutiny, under the theory that individual liberty is collectively corrosive.”<p>That seems like the thesis of the blog post.<p>I don’t think “over regulation” or lack of individual liberty are the main problem. We’ve been socializing the bad and privatizing the good for a long time now, and now none of our remaining institutions are trustworthy anymore. Regulations are one of the only tools we have to hold corporations accountable, and we’re not using them for that because capitalism doesn’t incentivize accountability.

So to be clear, black communities want fewer police in their neighbourhoods? That sounds like a testable proposition… and one that’s false by a large margin: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pewresearch.org&#x2F;fact-tank&#x2F;2021&#x2F;10&#x2F;26&#x2F;growing-share-of-americans-say-they-want-more-spending-on-police-in-their-area&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pewresearch.org&#x2F;fact-tank&#x2F;2021&#x2F;10&#x2F;26&#x2F;growing-sha...</a>

While I agree entirely with the premise, particularly:<p>&gt; poorer Americans have been subjected to over regulation, an increased state and police scrutiny, under the theory that individual liberty is collectively corrosive<p>I&#x27;m not sure the author does a great job explaining how &quot;elites have gotten richer off the profits of a business community unchained and under regulated&quot; is connected, or why the implication seem to be we should equally over regulate and scrutinize the elites just like we do the poor. Couldn&#x27;t the implication also be just as equally valid that we should de-police and de-criminalize the situation for poor people, just like &quot;us elites&quot;?<p>I&#x27;m not sure I disagree, it&#x27;s just that the article seems to assume the the readers political position. If I have to choose between Libertarianism for all or Authoritarianism for all, I think I&#x27;d come down on the former, not the later, and this post seems to be missing that crucial direction.<p>At any rate, not to make a long comment longer, but I&#x27;m strangely reminded of an article about the late night cartoon &quot;Aqua Teen Hunger Force&quot;:<p>&gt; They represented a kind of dystopian future that had, by the turn of the millennium, become more and more plausible: a shabby suburban nightmare filled with boarded-up strip-malls and cheap franchise restaurants, covered in garish advertising for products that no longer exist. [1]<p>Having lived in one of these places - San Antonio has plenty of areas that look very much like the photos in this article or the shabby suburban nightmare described above - What you -do not- get the sense of is the maliciousness of wall street. What you get the sense of is having been <i>entirely forgotten</i>. You don&#x27;t need to invoke the callousness of capitalism to explain cold empty cities filled with pavement and mean police - that simplifies things to the point of stupidity.<p>1. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.avclub.com&#x2F;the-end-of-aqua-teen-hunger-force-marks-the-end-of-an-e-1798283745" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.avclub.com&#x2F;the-end-of-aqua-teen-hunger-force-mar...</a>

As a libertarian I really like this title&#x27;s framing, which is pointing out the rank power-hypocrisy that has permeated every level of our society. The ideas of individual liberty are so far removed from the most egregious victims of the authoritarian system, that talking about problems in an individualist framework simply doesn&#x27;t resonate.<p>Even in HN threads, where for the most part commenters are not staring down the worst abuses on a day to day basis, talking about issues like unaccountable police in the language of individuality, accountability, and law and order is generally ignored. The carrying narrative is instead &quot;more training&quot;, as if simply training criminals better is all we need to get them to stop committing crimes! And while I believe in more humane criminal justice approaches like rehabilitation, yet again it&#x27;s the worst abusers of the system (criminal police) who get the kind understanding approach, while everyone else is subject to the cruel stick.<p>I&#x27;m certainly not advocating that libertarian approaches are applicable everywhere, especially when applied naively or pathologically (eg the Party). But we have way too much single-perspective thinking about problems in general, and individual freedom is a strong analysis framework for pointing out just how bad this hypocrisy has become.

I thought libertarians tout smaller government? Are police not part of the government?