There are two kinds of libertarians. One kind is the conspiracy theorist-he spends time watching documentaries written by Alex Jones, notices something sinister in how his SpaghettiOs spell out “CIA” one afternoon and ultimately believes members of the Illuminati secret society are out to get us.
The second kind of libertarian is the realist, the group into which I categorize myself. We see the same things occurring, but the realists take in everything differently. To differentiate various libertarians, I recommend asking their opinions on 9/11. The former group will start talking about how the buildings collapsed awkwardly, how specific metals can’t melt under the certain pressures, et cetera.
The realists will provide to you the definition of blowback . We’ll discuss the history of military relations in other nations, explain how foreign aid ends up in the hands of dictators, and most importantly, clarify 9/11 happened exactly how the government said it did, including when it listed the primary cause as U.S . intervention overseas.
Perhaps we realists are simply less creative.
“Why is he telling us this?” you may be asking. The easy answer is I’ve noticed a clear pattern among the libertarian sphere: whether I agree with individuals on specific details of public policy or disregard their conclusions as insane, every single person I meet has an excess of information running through their minds.
Information overload is a symbol of our generation. It used to take weeks for newspapers to get from one location to another. Nowadays it takes the click of a button and the same amount of information can present itself across entire continents.
Even though any idiot with a connection can publish so-called news online, two swift hands on the keyboard have the ability to tear down misrepresentations in one swoop. Without hyperlinks and search engines, I couldn’t have convinced you it’s not best to fight Ugandan war criminals by donating money to people who enjoy furious masturbation sessions in public. I also couldn’t have proven to you that a campus anti-smoking bill was being shoveled through student government under false pretenses.
We on the internet have learned to welcome immediate cynicism as a natural response to breaking news, yet we still manage to filter everything before it reaches televisions and newspapers. The phenomenon tends to cause confusion between us and older generations. For example, the Stop Online Piracy Act was first introduced to the Internet in October 2011; the first time it was mentioned to me in person was in January 2012.
Everyone shuddered at last week’s news of 16 Afghan civilians being massacred by rogue soldiers. But I was actually surprised by the public’s sudden interest in the case, if as they weren’t aware of these things continually happening to civilians via the Obama administration’s frequent drone strikes in Libya, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.
And that’s when I realized-maybe most people really weren’t aware of these events. I still don’t expect them to be; I wouldn’t waste the time, either, if this weren’t my job.