Leo D.M.J. Aurini - May 04, 2017


The Personality Conflict Within Libertarianism

Hosted by
Leo D.M.J. Aurini
Mentioned
Rothbard Ron Paul
Lust, Chastity, and Winning a Wife What You Believe is Who You Become： Narrative and the Self

Episode Stats


Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

118.35

Word count

1,639

Sentence count

109

Harmful content

Toxicity

19

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The problem with libertarianism is not that it's stupid, it's that it doesn't work. And that's because there are two very different types of libertarianism, and they are very different from each other in every facet of our political discourse.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Thank you.
00:00:30.000 And so, libertarianism, it's a constant bugbear around these parts.
00:00:39.840 On the one hand, it is so bloody sensible and tempting and you want to agree with it. 0.98
00:00:49.220 And yet, at the same time, it is so ridiculous and destructive and annoying and frustrating. 0.96
00:00:56.020 And so, maybe I should write a bloody book about the problems with libertarianism.
00:01:04.440 But in this video, I'd like to focus on one particular aspect of what's going on in our
00:01:10.960 political discourse that makes libertarianism such an attractive option and yet such a dead
00:01:16.760 end.
00:01:17.400 And it has to do with individual temperament and the sort of people who become libertarians.
00:01:25.440 Now, the big five personality traits, I'll link to them down below.
00:01:34.980 It's the best description, the most solidly backed up by experimental data definition of
00:01:44.000 what the dimensions of personality are.
00:01:46.140 There's five dimensions to personality, but there's two in particular that I'm going to
00:01:54.680 be looking at because these two personality traits are very, very, very strongly correlated
00:02:00.400 to your political views.
00:02:02.360 The other three, barely correlated at all.
00:02:04.880 And those traits are conscientiousness and openness to new experience.
00:02:14.560 Now, conscientiousness is how organized you are and how prone to being disgusted you are.
00:02:24.660 So if you are high in conscientiousness, you hate filth, you hate vermin, spiders, snakes, you
00:02:39.920 clean frequently and you avoid disease, you keep your stuff all together.
00:02:44.360 If you're low in conscientiousness, you're going to be more disorganized, more chaotic, more
00:02:52.400 kind of experimental with all of that.
00:02:58.200 Now, openness to experience is a different trait entirely.
00:03:03.840 Soldiers, for example, tend to be very, very conscientious.
00:03:07.700 They have all their kit sorted out, but they're also very open to new experiences.
00:03:16.560 Whereas people that are closed to new experiences, they want a predictable,
00:03:21.600 easy-to-understand environment. 0.97
00:03:26.820 So the classic Republican, the archetypal Republican, is somebody that's very strict, even anal, about 0.97
00:03:38.760 everything. 0.94
00:03:40.020 You know, everything needs to be organized and clean and, you know, nothing unpredictable there,
00:03:46.040 but also no new experiences.
00:03:47.520 So the archetypal Republican is that fuddy-duddy living in suburbia that gets upset whenever
00:03:54.940 the kids are listening to the new music and tries to pass bylaws all the time.
00:04:00.880 The archetypal Democrat, very low conscientiousness that they're very disorganized.
00:04:10.480 They don't have high hygiene standards.
00:04:12.580 Like, they don't mind being in a dirty neighborhood.
00:04:16.360 And they absolutely love new experiences.
00:04:19.940 They're always looking, oh, let's try, like, sushi.
00:04:23.280 Let's try raw fish.
00:04:25.460 You know, that would freak out the Republican, because raw fish sounds like you can get disease.
00:04:30.000 And it's, like, from one of those weird yellow people cultures. 1.00
00:04:34.800 You know, the liberal is not afraid of disease, or less afraid of disease, and loves the fact
00:04:41.480 that it's from a foreign culture.
00:04:43.200 So those are the archetypal extremes. 0.99
00:04:47.400 The fuddy-duddy and the dirty hippie. 0.86
00:04:49.500 Now, there's two variations, two variants, that you get on these personality traits.
00:05:00.160 There's the person that is very high conscientiousness, but very open to new experience.
00:05:08.000 Like I said, this would be the soldier.
00:05:11.200 Very open to new experience, but very, very disciplined.
00:05:17.740 Likes everything being sorted out and kitted away.
00:05:22.140 The inverse of that is the person that is terrified of new experiences.
00:05:29.020 Doesn't know how to get along with the hippies.
00:05:31.940 All right, the hippies are always doing all this new stuff, and that scares the crap out of him. 0.97
00:05:36.640 But at the same time, very low in conscientiousness, very disorganized, very messy.
00:05:48.800 And so what happens is that these two completely opposite personalities both become libertarians.
00:05:58.320 Because if you are, if you seek out new experiences, if you are entrepreneurial, if you are artistic,
00:06:07.900 you're not really going to fit in with Republican circles all that well.
00:06:13.080 And actually, like, if you look at the entire, the manosphere and the alt-right,
00:06:17.720 these are generally people that are, they're very open to new experiences.
00:06:22.480 They like hanging out with, even with the hippies sometimes.
00:06:25.560 At least the hippies are doing something interesting once in a while.
00:06:29.200 Even if they're dirty, you've just got to clean your hands afterwards.
00:06:34.020 New experiences, but still very disciplined.
00:06:37.120 Like, we need some rules to keep people sorted out.
00:06:44.780 The other type of libertarian is terrified of new experiences, but very disorganized themselves.
00:06:52.280 And so this is what is colloquially called the autistic libertarian.
00:07:04.800 See, the sort of people, the heroic libertarians that are held up there,
00:07:09.500 as like, look at this great entrepreneur doing all these crazy, wonderful things.
00:07:12.980 That's the sort of libertarian that, you know, if they're working in Silicon Valley,
00:07:21.300 they don't like wearing a suit.
00:07:22.700 You know, like, they're a millionaire that doesn't wear a suit.
00:07:26.100 That was the thing, at least.
00:07:27.580 Now it's become standardized.
00:07:29.080 Whereas the autistic libertarian loves to go to these conventions that mimic Republican conventions, 0.99
00:07:35.980 right?
00:07:36.840 But they don't have to be just, they don't have to be organized.
00:07:39.040 So what they tend to talk about libertarian-wise is how there's not going to be any rules to
00:07:46.300 govern them whatsoever, because they're disorganized and they don't want to be told to be organized. 0.99
00:07:51.740 Like, if they try and hang out with Republicans, Republicans will say, hey, get your shit together. 0.98
00:07:59.780 Whereas the upper form of libertarian, they hang out with Republicans, 1.00
00:08:04.560 and the Republicans will say, stop listening to that new music.
00:08:09.960 What, what, why are you dressing differently than us?
00:08:13.100 That's, that's new and strange, and it makes me afraid.
00:08:21.900 You know, this person goes and hangs out with the Democrats, with the hippies, 0.67
00:08:26.000 and, you know, he's like, hey, I like what you hippies are doing, 0.98
00:08:29.060 I like all this cool stuff, but why can't you guys get your shit together? 0.84
00:08:31.660 You know, the, the lower form hangs out with the, the hippies, 0.78
00:08:37.240 and he gets upset because they're all, he doesn't know what's going on,
00:08:42.820 they're always doing new things, and he's not comfortable doing new things,
00:08:46.000 even though they accept him for being a disorganized mess.
00:08:49.940 And so you, when you get these two groups of people together,
00:08:55.960 and they're both calling themselves libertarian,
00:08:58.400 you know, the, the entrepreneurial libertarian says, you know,
00:09:01.180 I want less restrictions on me being able to do my, my thing,
00:09:07.020 because I don't need society looking out for me.
00:09:10.040 You know, I, I want to go be an entrepreneur, I want to go explore,
00:09:12.980 I want to go adventure.
00:09:13.760 The other one's saying, I don't want society forcing me to follow society's rules,
00:09:20.120 because I like being a hot mess.
00:09:22.620 You know, but I also want the security offered by society.
00:09:26.780 So I want to go to conventions that are just like the conventions I've seen on TV.
00:09:31.500 I want all of my, everything being affirmed.
00:09:34.760 You know, I want this safe, predictable environment,
00:09:37.360 where I'm not held to any standards whatsoever.
00:09:44.940 And so this, this latter form, the degenerate libertarian,
00:09:48.840 because they don't like new things,
00:09:51.160 they are the ones that constantly reread, reread, and reread Rothbard,
00:09:57.600 or Mises, or whomever, because it's comfortable for them,
00:10:01.280 because it's in the past.
00:10:03.300 So it's, it's comfortable for them.
00:10:04.940 Whereas the entrepreneurial libertarian,
00:10:07.160 they'll read some Rothbard and some Mises,
00:10:09.020 especially when they're younger, and say,
00:10:10.060 hey, there's some really good ideas in here.
00:10:11.740 They'll read a bit of Ayn Rand, and say,
00:10:13.060 hey, yeah, these are some cool ideas.
00:10:14.900 Okay, I've read that.
00:10:16.480 I'm bored with it.
00:10:18.840 What can we do with this?
00:10:24.380 So the reason the libertarian party fails,
00:10:26.340 it's twofold, and it comes from these opposite personalities.
00:10:29.240 The first of, first of them, 0.55
00:10:31.480 is that on a fundamental level,
00:10:33.400 these two personalities are in complete disagreement,
00:10:37.780 even though they're ostensibly saying the same things.
00:10:41.600 The entrepreneur wants less legislation
00:10:44.300 so that he can go out there and win.
00:10:46.680 He doesn't want to be blocked and,
00:10:48.620 and prevented from doing things
00:10:50.960 because the fuddy-duddies say,
00:10:52.480 we've always done it that way. 0.96
00:10:54.600 The degenerate libertarian says,
00:10:56.860 I don't want to be held to any standard.
00:10:58.260 On the surface, they're sort of saying the same thing.
00:11:02.520 We want less legislation, less bylaws.
00:11:05.760 But they're doing it for completely opposite purposes.
00:11:11.880 The entrepreneurial one, he already is kidded away.
00:11:14.380 He doesn't need rules to tell him to be kidded away.
00:11:17.740 The degenerate one just doesn't want to be kidded away.
00:11:20.400 And the second issue is that the entrepreneurial libertarian,
00:11:29.100 he's always doing something new.
00:11:31.440 He doesn't want to go to a conference and talk about Rothbard 0.78
00:11:34.200 for two frickin' hours. 0.51
00:11:36.460 He's got no interest in that. 0.80
00:11:37.640 That's boring.
00:11:38.160 And so the people who dominate within the libertarian party
00:11:44.980 are the ones that are most comfortable
00:11:47.880 with a system, with a structure, that doesn't change.
00:11:58.520 And so the funny thing about libertarianism
00:12:00.400 is that you get really exceptional people,
00:12:03.760 you know, that excel at something.
00:12:10.200 But they don't go to libertarian events.
00:12:12.100 They just tweet Ron Paul.
00:12:15.120 And then you get the bulk of the libertarian party
00:12:18.000 that quickly devolves into gamma maleness.
00:12:23.800 And they become hostile.
00:12:26.220 Like, both sides are going to be hostile to one another.
00:12:29.540 But they're going to be the ones going to these conventions
00:12:32.560 and holding a grudge.
00:12:34.360 Whereas the person that likes new experience
00:12:36.240 but is very disciplined
00:12:37.200 will move on from it and go do something amazing.
00:12:42.540 And so unfortunately, the center of gravity
00:12:45.180 of the libertarian party
00:12:47.060 winds up being the misfits 0.89
00:12:50.400 that don't want nobody telling them not to look at porn,
00:12:54.440 don't want nobody saying they can't use their drugs,
00:12:57.200 don't want nobody saying
00:12:59.540 that, you know, you'd better, you know,
00:13:02.000 clean your apartment
00:13:02.880 and mow your lawn
00:13:04.860 but at the same time are terrified of doing anything new
00:13:08.400 or actually winning.
00:13:11.140 Because in failure,
00:13:13.960 they remain content.
00:13:17.780 Day is volt, folks.
00:13:20.360 Irini out.
00:13:20.920 We'll see you next time.