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The Libertarianism-to-Fascism Pipeline [NR acid reflux alert]
National Review ^ | 24 August 2017 | Michael Brendan Dougherty

Posted on 08/24/2017 2:20:00 PM PDT by oblomov

n 2002, I got it into my head that I wanted to attend what was then described as the “Old Latin Mass.” I had been reading in the dingy corners of the Internet, which is always dangerous, and these Latin Mass people seemed able to explain some of the gap between the grand ideas I was studying in a medieval-theology class at my college and the worship at most Catholic parishes, which, to me, seemed little different from the Lutheran services I’d seen as a teenager. One Sunday morning I got in my car, and life has never been the same.

For most of the people I met there, the Old Mass was the one quixotic cause to which they were attached. They knew that the local bishop didn’t like this movement, and that it placed them outside the mainstream not only of their culture but of their own Church. But they believed.

The price for their conviction was that they had to put up with the others – the people for whom the Latin Mass was just the first or the latest in a long line of disreputable fascinations and commitments. One of these folks told me that every bishop and cardinal and even the pope himself was homosexual. Another let on that she frequently wrote encouraging letters to certain Bourbon descendants. And honestly, it was the freaks and conspiracy theorists who seemed more kind and generous with their time, and who generally were less discriminating in everyday ways. They might be worried that Freemasons in the government were spying on them, but they really didn’t notice bourgeois morality or care about what you did for a living.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: charlottesville; dontjustreadthetitle; dougherty; fascism; libertarianism; readthearticledammit
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I'll guess that Dougherty and his editors haven't heard of Bayes' Theorem.
1 posted on 08/24/2017 2:20:00 PM PDT by oblomov
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To: oblomov

Here’s my takeaway from this asinine article:

People who like the Latin Mass and Evangelicals are kooks, and Jason Kessler who is supposedly a Charlottesville neo-nazi was once an Occupy Wall Streeter

Therefore, Libertarianism is a pipeline to fascism.

Got it??


2 posted on 08/24/2017 2:29:41 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: oblomov

Interesting.

That a libertarian rag would equate libertarianism to fascism.

(Which ain’t that hard to do.)


3 posted on 08/24/2017 2:31:44 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: oblomov

There isn’t one. Fascism is anathema to liberty.

The author wishes it were so.


4 posted on 08/24/2017 2:32:42 PM PDT by Hugh the Scot ("The days of being a keyboard commando are over. It's time to get some bloody knuckles." -Drew68)
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To: oblomov

How NR has fallen. That was the most incoherent piece of gobble de gook I I have bothered with in a long time


5 posted on 08/24/2017 2:33:33 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: PGR88

The author is an idiot. They whole Latin Mass prelude was disjointed, unnecessary and added NOTHING to the main arguments.

Other than that.... “Libertarianism is a pipeline to fascism”.


6 posted on 08/24/2017 2:33:50 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: Responsibility2nd

NR would probably claim to be conservative (which they haven’t been in a while) rather than libertarian (which they definitely are not).


7 posted on 08/24/2017 2:42:52 PM PDT by oblomov (We have passed the point where "law," properly speaking, has any further application. - C. Thomas)
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To: oblomov

The author of this thing must have drunk when he wrote it.


8 posted on 08/24/2017 2:43:52 PM PDT by Ikemeister
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To: Responsibility2nd
Dougherty is one of the "new breed" of conservative-ish writers who originated as collegiate bloggers.

The gist of their perspective seems to be, "I'm conservative, but I'm not a conservative."

9 posted on 08/24/2017 2:47:00 PM PDT by oblomov (We have passed the point where "law," properly speaking, has any further application. - C. Thomas)
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To: PGR88
True, this is a lousy article that doesn't prove its claim. Dougherty's examples don't fit together very well with his main point or with each other.

But there have been people who moved from libertarianism or quasi-libertarian isolationism to Holocaust denial to something close to fascism or Nazism, or from libertarianism to neo-Confederatism to racism, so he's not entirely wrong.

Somebody else would have done a better job making the argument, but they'd do better to figure out just what was going on with this Jason Kessler dude. He was never a libertarian, so far as I know.

10 posted on 08/24/2017 2:48:01 PM PDT by x
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To: oblomov

There were what? 100% Never Trump last year? Or only 90%?


11 posted on 08/24/2017 2:48:10 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: oblomov

The only commonality I see is that Fascism and libertarianism both reject egalitarianism. That’s not a lot to go on, really. I guess you could say they agree that the means of production should be privately owned, but even that is pretty sketchy, with Fascism holding that the state can and should dictate what gets produced. Of course there is the “everyone I disagree with is the same type of poopyhead” theory of politics, which seems to be in play with this NR piece.


12 posted on 08/24/2017 2:50:51 PM PDT by cdcdawg
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To: Responsibility2nd

At least 95% NeverTrump. Victor Davis Hansen and Deroy Murdock are the only exceptions I can think of.


13 posted on 08/24/2017 2:53:24 PM PDT by oblomov (We have passed the point where "law," properly speaking, has any further application. - C. Thomas)
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To: Responsibility2nd
That a libertarian rag would equate libertarianism to fascism.

(Which ain’t that hard to do.)

I guess you'll leave that "ain't that hard to do" task as an exercise for the reader?

I thought so...

14 posted on 08/24/2017 2:53:51 PM PDT by sargon ("If we were in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, the Left would protest for zombies' rights.")
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To: PGR88
I stopped at the relation between "dingy corners of the web" and "Latin Mass".

Just another leftist trying to widen the net, so that no "non believes" escape.

They do the same thing with every new contrived outrage that sticks to the wall for more than 2 days.

15 posted on 08/24/2017 2:56:56 PM PDT by NativeSon ( Grease the floor with Crisco when I dance the Disco)
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To: cdcdawg

Your last sentence seems to be the default mode of discourse at NR, and this has been true for several years.

We should be careful; Jonah Goldberg might read our comments in this thread and mock us with a “Courtship of Eddie’s Father” allusion.


16 posted on 08/24/2017 2:57:34 PM PDT by oblomov (We have passed the point where "law," properly speaking, has any further application. - C. Thomas)
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To: x

I am going to use this author’s logic to create my own theory:

Libertarians are fringe ideology, not accepted by the main-stream. Because I was in a Lutheran church for 15 years and some of them are my spiritual friends, I don’t want them to think I am insulting them even when I really am.

Flat-earthers, who wear khaki pants and often eat cheese, deny the moon landings. Some may believe the moon is made of cheese They too are a fringe ideology

Because there are self-proclaimed neo nazis like Christopher Cantwell, Richard Spencer who are also fringe ideologies - we can therefore state that Libertarians, who also often eat cheese, are neo-nazis who don’t believe in the moon-landings


17 posted on 08/24/2017 3:02:49 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: Responsibility2nd
That doesn't make them L/libertarians. Trump's politics are a lot closer to libertarian than NR's.
18 posted on 08/24/2017 3:32:43 PM PDT by FredZarguna (And what Rough Beast, its hour come 'round at last, slouches toward Fifth Avenue to be born?)
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To: oblomov

An interesting array of facts, anecdotes, and theorizing, leading me to believe that the author had a column due but put off writing until it was too late to produce anything decent.

C+. It has decent sentences, and there is a thesis with support, even if I don’t buy it.


19 posted on 08/24/2017 3:33:53 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("Defensive weapons are not 'provocative' unless you're an aggressor." ~Gen. Mattis)
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To: oblomov

This article is logical contortions. So many strawmen.


20 posted on 08/24/2017 3:35:38 PM PDT by Fred Hayek (The Democratic Party is now the operational arm of the CPUSA)
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