Thursday, February 12, 2009

The libertarians speak

Will Wilkinson posts an unscientific poll of libertarians, and it turns out that most would rather live in a nation with a larger welfare state and legalized drugs than the inverse. Not sure what it means--maybe it means that libertarians value the social liberalism more than unfettered capitalism, or maybe it's just a reflection of drugs' centrality to the libertarian cause (not that the drug war isn't rightly a big focus--if not the most important focus--for libertarians). I walk a lonely road myself: I am a complete teetotaler in real life, but I support legalizing soft drugs and decriminalizing hard drugs as far as users are concerned, with a focus on treatment instead of incarceration.
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The Man, The Myth, The Bio

East Bay, California, United States
Problem: I have lots of opinions on politics and culture that I need to vent. If I do not do this I will wind up muttering to myself, and that's only like one or two steps away from being a hobo. Solution: I write two blogs. A political blog that has some evident sympathies (pro-Obama, mostly liberal though I dissent on some issues, like guns and trade) and a culture blog that does, well, cultural essays in a more long-form manner. My particular thing is taking overrated things (movies, mostly, but other things too) down a peg and putting underrated things up a peg. I'm sort of the court of last resort, and I tend to focus on more obscure cultural phenomena.