30% of Less Wrong being libertarian. Yes I think that is an example of radical views.
30% of LessWrong are liberals, 30% are socialists, and 30% are libertarian. 3% or so are conservative.
That’s the progressiveness of LessWrong showing—even if we stupidly use the sides in American politics (where libertarians are weirdly considered allied to the Republicans) that’d a 60% that would vote Democrat vs 33% that would vote Republican.
But I wouldn’t want to use the sides of American politics—the world is NOT the battleground for a fight between Republicans and Democrats and the stupid politicals alliances of America needn’t be our concern. Libertarianism is the ideology that says “stop throwing people in jail because they smoked marijuana”. I think that’s a very fine thing it says right there. Even finer than gay marriage (which I also support) btw.
And I’m saying this as someone who called himself a socialist in that poll. And who has voted for libertarians in the past also. If you’re seeing a right-wing bias in LessWrong, despite only 3% calling themselves conservatives, then you’re suffering from seeing everything through the prism of American parochialism where Only Two Sides Exist.
Libertarianism is the ideology that says “stop throwing people in jail because they smoked marijuana”.
Libertarianism as defined in the LW survey question says more than that. I agree we should stop throwing people in jail because they smoked marijuana but I still answered “socialism”. (IOW it doesn’t generically refer to the bottom half of the Political Compass plane but to the bottom right quadrant specifically.)
As I already said above, I also answered “socialism”. My point was that “the stupid political alliances of America needn’t be our concern”. My own politics of interest are such that I consider libertarianism is allied to progressivism in the issues that I’m most concerned about—Sophronius however seems so focused on the American political alliances, that, because by historical accident rightwingers in America are currently allied to libertarians, he sees this as evidence of rightwing bias.
30% of LessWrong are liberals, 30% are socialists, and 30% are libertarian. 3% or so are conservative.
That’s the progressiveness of LessWrong showing—even if we stupidly use the sides in American politics (where libertarians are weirdly considered allied to the Republicans) that’d a 60% that would vote Democrat vs 33% that would vote Republican.
But I wouldn’t want to use the sides of American politics—the world is NOT the battleground for a fight between Republicans and Democrats and the stupid politicals alliances of America needn’t be our concern. Libertarianism is the ideology that says “stop throwing people in jail because they smoked marijuana”. I think that’s a very fine thing it says right there. Even finer than gay marriage (which I also support) btw.
And I’m saying this as someone who called himself a socialist in that poll. And who has voted for libertarians in the past also. If you’re seeing a right-wing bias in LessWrong, despite only 3% calling themselves conservatives, then you’re suffering from seeing everything through the prism of American parochialism where Only Two Sides Exist.
Libertarianism as defined in the LW survey question says more than that. I agree we should stop throwing people in jail because they smoked marijuana but I still answered “socialism”. (IOW it doesn’t generically refer to the bottom half of the Political Compass plane but to the bottom right quadrant specifically.)
As I already said above, I also answered “socialism”. My point was that “the stupid political alliances of America needn’t be our concern”. My own politics of interest are such that I consider libertarianism is allied to progressivism in the issues that I’m most concerned about—Sophronius however seems so focused on the American political alliances, that, because by historical accident rightwingers in America are currently allied to libertarians, he sees this as evidence of rightwing bias.