The Dream City of the Libertarians
Geeks enjoy being Libertarians for two reasons. First, it allows them to be Conservative without having to belong to one of the two mainstream parties that the regular sheep are part of. Second, it gives them a political party that is just as self-absorbed as they are. Conservatives don’t care if you think they’re selfish pricks. Libertarians wonder why you don’t admire them for it.
Since many geeks are unable to care about or even imagine the existence of the feelings of anyone other than themselves, the fact that Libertarianism ignores the unpleasant reality that we live in a society that requires certain things to function is not a problem to them. As far as geeks are concerned, society is lost anyway since it refuses to respect the geeks as the superior members. (The collapse of society is perfectly fine with the geek since it would allow him to act out his post-apocalyptic fantasies in which he would be a dune-buggy driving, grenade launching warlord, in defiance of all the evidence that demonstrates a more probable outcome.)
Libertarianism assures the white male upper-middle-class geek that he has gotten where he is solely because of his big brain and amazing talent for knowing the entire history of Middle-Earth. It assures him that he is the master of his destiny, the only force responsible for his fate. He owes no favors nor allegiance to anyone else. He is his own ideal. Most geeks reading that paragraph are now re-reading it slower and will soon achieve orgasm.
Of course, the other benefit to Libertarianism is that it doesn’t come with all that religious baggage that the Republicans come with. Geeks love not being Christians (Spoiler!) so the Libertarian Party is a better fit for them. It also doesn’t hurt that since the Libertarians never win anything, they can be an actually reviled minority instead of a pretend one like the Conservatives.
Some famous Libertarians are Penn Jilette, Matt Stone, Trey Parker, Robert Heinlein, Ayn Rand, Matt Drudge, and Howard Stern. Possibly related is the fact that all of the above are also assholes.
A political affiliation where they are the smartest people on Earth and everyone else can go screw themselves? No wonder geeks LOVE Libertarianism!
Brilliant! That is the greatest summation of Libertarianism I have ever read. You should really use this as a springboard for a book on the subject.
The only odd libertarian trait you left out is the fact that they almost never breed, which is probably because if they did they could no longer bitch about paying taxes to fund public schools. That and they either don’t vote or they voted for Bush twice.
What I find out about Libertarians is their claim to be Jeffersonian. Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t Jefferson design things so they could adapt and change with the changing needs of the future population? So by wanting to undo all these changes, they are actually anti-Jeffersonian rather than Pro…
I dunno: South park’s had it’s moments
I’d disagree Jenny. Being an asshole is in no way an impediment to being funny or occasionally making a good point.
I’m pretty damn sure Parker is an asshole.
The article is quite close to the mark, but it totally leaves out the fact that geeks have been the object of public scorn long before they grew up into self absorbed Libertarians.
Geeks were picked on by people whose ruthlessness and disposition towards violence was and is far more dangerous to society than geekish selfishness is now. Geeks faced far more criticism and ridicule than those among them who were flunking out of school and who were getting in trouble with the law. As for pot? Jesus, people. You have rich people smoking powder but hey, we’re gonna spotlight a few geeks for smoking the odd reefer or two? C’mon now. Most of the people ridiculing geeks were binge drinking by high school, for God’s sake. And some were also driving intoxicated. But since, to this author, geek is the new swarthy, we’ve got to blow their all too human flaws up to monstrous proportions.
I don’t know of too many geeks responsible for 9/11, the war in Iraq, the Subprime collapse, or coal fired power plants. As a matter of fact, I’m not sure I know of any geeks who have committed forcible or statutory rape – and I’m sure there are some geeks out there somewhere who do this – but not as many, per capita, as, say, jocks, soldiers, or even law enforcement personnel.
Libertarianism is a defensive thing for geeks. They’re reacting to generations of being demonized without cause, being made fun of, and being generally marginalized for no good reason.
My bets are that the article writer dated people with worse failings than those of the average geek.
Geek libertarianism is the symptom, not the cause, of a greater societal problem. A problem most likely fueled by the writer of this article when they were a kid taking part in the virulently Machiavellian and militantly anti-intellectual feeding frenzy that is typical school age life.
Or: people alienated geeks as kids. What in God’s name makes them obligated NOT to be alienated from YOU now?
Me? I am a geek, too. I got into a LOT of trouble punching out bullies who tried to prey on me. It ended when people realized I did not care about the law as much as I cared about [i]being left alone.[/i] I shunned the anti-intellectualists, I shunned the druggies, I still abhor sports and despise jocks (I only paid for a sporting event once, and that was women’s pro basketball, and they had quite a hill to climb against decades of sexism), I shunned their entire world. I even spent some time as a Republican. But you know what? This geek fell off the truck at the gates of Libertaria. I’m fairly close to the profile of the geek this article is badmouthing, except I don’t care if anyone admires what I stand for. I do what I want and if you don’t like it, kiss my ass. Yet I realized that there are boundaries and, because of that, society just can’t work with Libertarianism. However, unlike the article writer, I also know you can’t go around alienating geeks. They’re the cause of society’s technological evolution, and why we’re not still chiseling porno pictures onto cave walls.
Incompassionate, unempathetic judgementalism. This article oozes it. It is certainly a core element of the Religious Right, and I sincerely doubt the article writer wants to have much in common with them…
I think someone’s had a hard time letting go of high school.
I think someone named Ken is running his mouth without thinking.
[...] Libertarianism « Stuff Geeks Love – It#039;s funny because it#039;s mostly true [...]
Bg:So it’s wrong that I enjoyed the South park film, imaginationland,and the passion of the jew episodes of the show?
I think someone named “Le Jacquelope” took the article way too seriously, indicative of someone consumed by rage and bitterness at his life, incapable of self-reflection and self-mockery, and in desperate need of a target for his wrath.
All who oppose him should thank their Invisible Sky Daddy that he’s not there to “punch them out” like all those hordes of bullies back in the day.
He’s probably good with a bow staff too.
And Jenny…if that’s wrong I don’t wanna be right.
yeah, leftofzero, join the occasional south park lovers club.
Jenny: no, it’s not wrong that you occasionally enjoy South Park. As Bg said, “Being an asshole is in no way an impediment to being funny or occasionally making a good point”, and South Park is both funny and occasionally makes a good point. Doesn’t mean Stone and Parker aren’t assholes.
lol at Le Jacquelope, son you need to release some of that frustrated tension
I suggest compulsive masturbating until you are 45-50
[...] still has not become comfortable with the idea of homosexuality, and the middle-class, white, right-libertarian tendencies of the geek are well documented. There is no realistic other option for a group for them [...]
With this obsession with their lifelong history of persecution (so ably demonstrated by thie Jackalope person), it’s a constant wonder to me that geeks are as anti-semitic as they are. I suppose they want to believe THEY are the chosen people.
I know this is an old entry, but I gotta agree that this is the best summation of Libertarianism I have ever seen.
@Tom, since when are geeks antisemitic?
This piece is a classic. You nailed it. Spoken as a geek who was once infatuated with Libertarianism, and has since reformed.
Everyone votes their self-interest. As a moderate libertarian, I’m in favor of the government only funding a few things like education and health care ’cause it would benefit me.
In this respect, we geeks are no different than the Cheeto-eating, reality TV-watching, IQ-of-50-having dumbfuck who either votes for “reelijus valyews” (perceived self-interest) or gummt cheese (real self-interest). We vote self-interest.
And, hey, yeah, I’m fully aware that society isn’t driven strictly by people who create vaccines and rockets and Internets and whatnot. The 20 percent with brains can hold 80 percent of the wealth, and the remaining 80 percent can, well, bag our groceries. I have absolutely no problems with this arrangement whatever.
speking as a geek, my only real problm with this ariclie is the idea that “many geeks are unable to care about or even imagine the existence of the feelings of anyone other than themselves” there are asshole geeks but they make up a minority. or at lest they do in my experince. i think your spot on about libertarians though