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Guess What, Bill?
by Sean Gangol
[email protected]

Special to L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise

Not too long ago I heard Bill Maher go on a rant about libertarianism. He said that libertarians have gone insane with their recent obsession with free market capitalism, which he credits to their embrace of Ayn Rand or "Ann Rand" as he called her. Now Maher acts like he is the last sane voice of the libertarian movement.

Not that this is anything new since I am used to hearing Maher say things that range from asinine to down right idiotic. Thinking all the way back to the time when Maher said on his original show Politically Incorrect, "Guns don't kill people. The NRA gets people killed." Never mind that this is the same genius that moaned and groaned about not being able to get a gun during the riots in LA, which he later ended up having to borrow from a friend. Another great piece of intellectual wisdom came when Maher said on his recent show that he refuses to take vaccinations because he doesn't trust the government with his health. I would have much more respect with his line of reasoning if it weren't for all those times when he called 70% of the country stupid for not wanting Obamacare for the exact same reason.

Sadly these bouts of stupidity aren't nearly as aggravating as the times that Bill Maher has referred to himself as a libertarian without knowing what it actually means. If you support victim disarmament in any shape or form or believe that government controlled healthcare is a good thing, then you probably aren't a libertarian. While I can't speak for all libertarians, I am pretty that most of them do not belong to organizations like PETA who care more about the nonexistent rights of a lab rat then a child with cancer.

Nothing has shown Maher's ignorance of libertarianism more then his recent statements. If Maher had spent five minutes looking up libertarianism on Wikipedia, he would have known that free market capitalism has always been a vital part of libertarianism. The point of a free market is for people to enjoy the fruits of their own labor, without somebody using force to take it. He would have also learned that free market ideology predates "Ann Rand" and her Objectivist philosophy. Maher may have even learned that while Rand is thought of as one of the founding mothers of the libertarian movement, she actually rejected it and referred to its members as right-wing hippies. Of course, if he actually bothered to do any research, he would have known that her name was "Ayn Rand" not Ann Rand, but by now we should all know that intellectual laziness is what this man excels at.

Bill, buddy, I really hate to be the one to break this to you, but you are not a libertarian in any shape or form. I can't even call you a libertarian in the loosest sense. I can't even call you a "small l" libertarian. Hell, for that matter I can't even place you on the same level as people like Larry Elder, Neal Boortz or even Glenn Beck. All of whom have libertarian leanings, but still manage to fall short of being true libertarians. I would even go as far to say that Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh have more in common with the libertarian movement then you do Bill.

Not only are you a polar opposite of what libertarianism represents, you are basically the Darth Vader to our Luke Skywalker. The truth is that you are a statist plain and simple. With the exception of whether it is safe to voluntarily take vaccinations, you seem to trust the government with every other aspect of your life. The very fact that you support Obamacare, a mandate that forces everybody to purchase something they may or may not want, shows that you don't have any understanding of "The Zero Aggression Principle", which prohibits the initiation of force. This principle is center to the very notion of libertarianism. Apparently you are willing to use force to stop the average citizen from owning certain firearms. You would probably be willing to use force to stop cancer researchers from experimenting on lab rats, no matter how many lives the experiments may save. Do everybody a favor Bill, stop calling yourself a libertarian. Whenever you do, I feel more insulted then I did when you called me and the rest of the 70% of the population stupid.

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