Good Libertarians Wear Masks!

This author is calling himself a libertarian and he thinks he is making a “libertarian case” for capitulating to the mask nonsense. But he doesn’t even understand basic libertarianism. What an awful piece. Quote: (bold is mine)

But the anti-mask crowd now advocates eschewing one’s individual interest in favor of empty symbolic gestures — an example of the irrational behavior that statists use to argue against free markets. Conflating personal protective measures with government overreach all but guarantees that the latter will be necessary.

Gee, and I thought that wearing the mask *just because* governments and obedient businesses are making it mandatory, and the herd-mobs are demanding it, was the “empty symbolic gesture.” And also, “personal protection measures” are just that: they are personal (subjective) based on one’s own assessment of his or her state of health, tolerance for risk, and understanding of a mask’s usefulness (or lack thereof). And “individual interest” is determined by the individual, and whether a decision to act in a certain way is right or wrong in the end doesn’t matter – the individual has acted in his own interest according to his own knowledge and judgment.

I got news for Mr. Tenreiro: good ideas don’t have to be pushed via persistent propaganda; they don’t need to be mandated (forced on people); and they don’t need a shitload of cocked-hat commentaries in order to defend those ideas.

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4:25 pm on May 17, 2020