So we're going to bail out this wacko extreme libertarian—and, remember, the whole point of that philosophy is to get out of the way of markets—while US farmers and small businesses go under?
— Clara Jeffery (@clarajeffery.bsky.social) September 24, 2025 at 11:10 AM
===
Even worse: Argentinian farmers & ranchers are selling to China what China used to buy from the US.
— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) September 24, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Gil Duran, at The Nerd Reich — “Libertarianism, 13, Dies in Argentina Chainsaw Accident”:
… While it had been around for quite a bit longer, [libertarianism’s] basic concepts never progressed beyond the early stages of adolescent brain development. Libertarianism—which asserted that society would be better off with minimal government, laws, and taxes—succumbed after chainsaw-wielding Argentine President Javier Milei asked the United States for a massive economic bailout due to his catastrophic leadership.
Milei, a werewolf-clown hybrid in a suit who once hired a spirit medium to communicate with his dead dog, swept into office promising a libertarian-inflected miracle in Argentina. In an early preview of Elon Musk’s DOGE, he slashed government and social spending. Earlier this year, an essay published on the website of the libertarian Cato Institute mocked his critics as doomsayers who “warned that the profane self-described libertarian—who looks more like a still-touring ’80s rockabilly singer than the classically trained economist he actually is—would inflict on Argentina’s already-beleaguered economy ‘deep recession,’ ‘devastation,’ ‘economic collapse,’ and all sorts of other economic horribles.”
But the critics were correct. Instead of miracles, the self-described “anarcho capitalist” has delivered shocking disaster: collapsing institutions, chronic inflation, and the awkward realization that screeching about free markets doesn’t put bread on the shelves.
Born from Ayn Rand paperbacks, pulp science fiction novels, and Austrian School daydreams, libertarianism never matured beyond a sophomore debate-club rant. In the 21st century, it briefly experimented with cryptocurrency, “sovereign” sea colonies, and Ron Paul rallies. But it eventually burned out in a haze of political incompetence and incoherence.
Libertarianism is survived by Silicon Valley billionaires, a handful of “think tanks” funded by oil companies, several unmoderated Reddit threads, and Curtis Yarvin. It was preceded in death by conservatism, which fell to a terminal case of fascism in 2016…
(Back in the 1970s, I remember Argentina being widely described as ‘Texas, but as a sovereign nation.’ Wealth of/from natural resources, cowboy culture, and a ruling cadre of autocrats forever complaining that the plebes weren’t actually slaves, which would’ve made everyones’ lives sooo much simpler. Feel free to correct my impression… )
MattF
Ah. It really really really really really really really really really really is different this time. Good to know.
Baud
In fairness, my understanding is that Argentina has never had good economic leadership.
That said, for Trump to bail them out with no political blowback just confirms my position that Trump’s core support begins and ends with bigotry.
lowtechcyclist
Wonder what Cass Sunstein’s take is on this. ;-)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Libertarianism is not an ideology. It is a series of poses, an ethic of mooching off the commonwealth while simultaneously deploring it. It is fairly defined as “Free me from the shackles of that which I find bothersome.”
The libertarian belief that you can get something for nothing. It underlies pretty much their entire philosophy. So much so that they weaselspeak about personal liberty and personal freedom to cover up for the fact that they want all the benefits of living in a developed nation without actually having to pay to have a developed nation.
Also known as IGMFU.
Spanky
So, continuing from the last post, he wouldn’t happen to be a U of Chicago grad, would he?
Old School
Make Argentina Great Again!
MattF
A book on the subject.
lollipopguild
America First?????????????
Carlo Graziani
I wish we didn’t have to relearn this stuff every few years. Even in recent history, anyone could go look up Gov. Sam Brownback’s 2012-2017 libertarian Kansas Experiment, a massive Lafferian tax cut that rapidly led to credit downgrades, missed state payments, a degraded educational system, and to Kansas lagging behind neighboring states with similar economies in “nearly every major category: job creation, unemployment, gross domestic product, taxes collected.”
Soprano2
This is another great opportunity for Democrats if they take it. “FFOTUS is sending your tax money to bail out Argentina’s government while you can’t even sell your crops. He’s bailing out the farmers in Argentina who are selling China the crops you used to sell to China before FFOTUS put high tariffs on all of them”. Or something like that. Point out that your money is going to another country to bail them out while you suffer!
rikyrah
👑 Mr. Weeks 👑
@WonderKing82
Republicans lie on Democrats.
Independents lie on Democrats.
Third Party lie on Democrats.
Media lie on Democrats.
And we have some fake Democrats who use our funds and platform to lie on other Democrats. Russian designed it this way since 2015.
x.com/WonderKing82/status/1970910845296312809
SpaceUnit
Libertarians in my area have recently developed a great fondness for zoning restrictions, plus every sort of cap and moratorium that would prevent the construction of apartment buildings and other affordable housing.
rikyrah
so, is the President of Argentina a racist dictator?
is that why he’s getting support?
Baud
One of the core problems with libertarian dogma is that you need a state apparatus to enable the creation and growth of corporations.
Libertarians are corporate friendly, but it’s not possible to be corporate friendly without being state friendly.
So in the end, libertarians aren’t against government action philosophically, but against particular government actions that they don’t happen to like.
Soprano2
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Ask them how they would pay for public works like roads, bridges and sewers, and how they would maintain them. LOL
Baud
@rikyrah:
Agree. It’s endemic in society.
Soprano2
@rikyrah: I don’t know if he’s racist, but he’s definitely trying to be a dictator.
ETA – I met an Argentinian my sister dated. He was a polo pro who she hired to help her learn polo. It was interesting to talk to him; he really liked Obama and thought his country was a mess.
Captain C
To paraphrase Scalzi, libertarianism boils down to, “I got mine fuck you!”, “You’re not the boss of me!”, and “Get offa my lawn!” He also points out that everyone else has pretty much figured this out, despite libertarians pretending that’s not the case.
Captain C
@Soprano2: I’ve played with an alto sax player whose brother was a famous Argentine polo player; basically the David Beckham of polo (top level but not the best in the world, more famous than almost any other polo player). He also wrote (or had his name put on) romance novels, generally about polo players.
edited to clarify that the polo and sax players are Argentine.
oldster
” Feel free to correct my impression… )”
I’m not going to say you’re wrong, but I will say that the tango is far superior to the Cotton Eye Joe.
Betty
@lollipopguild: That was Elizabeth Warren’s comment.
Baud
@lollipopguild:
Trump recently confused Armenia and Albania, so maybe he confused Argentina and America.
zhena gogolia
OT, but RIP Maru. I just found out. He was 18. 🥲
Ten Bears
Republicans Smoking Pot just doesn’t have quite the zing, the barq it used to
I got kicked out of facebook for repeatedly asking “have you been drinking?”
rikyrah
FOR WHAT?
FOR WHAT?
Ken Dilanian
@DilanianMSNBC
Former FBI Director James Comey, for years the target of President Trump’s ire, is expected to be indicted in the coming days in the Eastern District of Virginia, where a prosecutor who opposed bringing the case was recently fired, three sources familiar with the matter told MSNBC.
The full extent of the charges being prepared against Comey is unclear, but the sources believe that at least one element of the indictment—if it goes forward–will accuse him of lying to Congress during his testimony on September 30, 2020 about whether he authorized a leak of information. The five year statute of limitations on that charge would lapse on Tuesday.
with
@CarolLeonnig
x.com/DilanianMSNBC/status/1970929330042593404
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Usually they say they want a “night watchman state” that just protects property rights, and the freedom and sanctity of contract.
And busts unions. Unions don’t count as “freedom of contract” for some reason.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Indictments aren’t necessarily a given with these clowns.
rikyrah
@zhena gogolia:
The OG Internet cat.
I watched many hours of Maru videos.
RIP :(
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Property rights and freedom of contract alone don’t get you corporations though. They need more from the state.
Yes. And worker agreements don’t count.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah: He was great. A friend brought me a Maru calendar from Japan, and it’s on my desk right now.
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: they don’t believe in public goods. You only get those things if you’re willing to pay tolls or subscription fees for them.
rikyrah
WITH BACK PAY!!
NBC News
@NBCNews
Hundreds of federal employees who lost their jobs in Elon Musk’s cost-cutting blitz are being asked to return to work.
x.com/NBCNews/status/1970911258435022973
rikyrah
Jemele Hill
@jemelehill
It’s interesting how conservatives have made all Black folks out to be leftists and Democrats. It shows me you don’t know anything about us. These Black students weren’t about to “debate” people who are telling to them to their face they are inferior. That’s not a political party thing. That’s a dignity thing.
x.com/jemelehill/status/1970858867040084384
The Republic of Stupidity
I’ve known one serious, self-described Libertarian in my life, and he was quite the self righteous pain in the ass to deal with…
He was all about free markets, and small government, and the evils of regulation… until a developer wanted to put up a much taller building right next to his one story house, and then he was begging people to sign his petition to stop the destruction of the neighborhood!
When someone tells me they’re a Libertarian, I generally assume they want to smoke pot, have loose sex w/ no ramifications, and not pay taxes… and that’s generally how far their value system goes…
Shakti
Oh lord why
remember this if you’re tempted to feel sorry for her
Just remember this if you’re ever tempted to feel sorry for her:
billcoop4
Barf.
BC in NY
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: Practically speaking – we’re not talking about legalities, here – it’s for the crime of being fucking stupid and arrogant enough to frag HRC before the 2016 election. If he’d just had the good sense – or good enough sense of self-preservation, anyway – to STAY IN HIS FUCKING LANE and keep his mouth shut when it behooved him to, he – and we – wouldn’t be living through this BS right now.
So, “sorry, not sorry” is my reaction to Comey’s current predicament.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Ah, I get to re-post one of my favorites:No Libertarians in the Seventeenth-Century Highlands
— Brad DeLong
[ETA I read “classically trained economist” and thought, ” where does one go for classical economics training?” Of course, U of Chicago!]
Captain C
@Shakti:
Does that mean he jumps aside whenever she tries to hit it?
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Captain C: a red cape is involved.
The Other Bob
@Baud:
Another core issue is their belief that folks should do whatever they want with THEIR private real property. Libertarians forget who records who owns what real property: The government.
If not everyone will start building castles to fight off property invaders.
iKropoclast
So he butchers women he has sex with? No wonder his wife is so amped up for his morning speeches. That’s safety right there.
Old School
@Captain C:
He’s known for killing the mood?
Captain C
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Normally I don’t kink shame, but I really don’t want to have any idea what goes on in the bedroom (or wherever) of Kasa Kapo.
Captain C
@Old School: I think we have a winner!
Mr. Bemused Senior
prostratedragon
This fits: “Milonga Loca”.
Maybe if Bessent, Mr. Subdeal, could dance to this, I’d — applaud his performance. And that’s all.
rikyrah
Ed Krassenstein
@EdKrassen
BREAKING: Oklahoma State Superintendent
@RyanWalters_
just announced that every single high school in the state will now be required to have a Turning Point USA chapter.
Ask yourself: how would the right react if a Democratic superintendent forced every school to host a Black Lives Matter club, a Sunrise Movement chapter, an ANTIFA club, or a Planned Parenthood student group? They would call it indoctrination — and they’d be right.
This is deeply concerning. Public schools should not be turned into mandatory recruitment hubs for any political organization.
x.com/EdKrassen/status/1970595596890210451
Bill Arnold
@Captain C:
She is not the bull in this scenario.
Just saying.
(Recall the three-way rumors. polycule? triad? Has anyone asked?)
Booger
@rikyrah: Yes, because telling High School Students what to do always works out so well.
iKropoclast
The way they react on a daily basis, I thought D officials were requiring that. I guess you can’t trust Republicans to accurately characterize what Democrats are doing.
prostratedragon
Whoops, there’s that liberal Hayek again.
Shakti
@Captain C:
Hi hat@Mr. Bemused Senior:
Well party city spirit Halloween also has a Dracula costume with a red cape@iKropoclast: She’s alive?
Katie is either lying
or
genuinely believes all these women want her husband. Her closest peer group is other horrible women so this tracks. I think she gets really turned on by Stephen’s whole deal, the cruelty, the sneering, the Nosferatu’ness. Who came up the people in chains ASMR?
She’s either doing serial monogamy or is in a disgusting throuple with Elon Musk and Stephen Miller. Elon is orders of magnitude richer but he seems weepier, which may be a real turnoff for her.
Captain C
@Bill Arnold:
Are we sure of this? I could see Kapo Miller having some very suppressed bottom tendencies.
Bill Arnold
@Captain C:
True!
iKropoclast
Believes/wishes…sometimes that line gets blurred. Maybe she just has a thing for dead, soulless eyes.
Peke Daddy
@Spanky: Freshwater flounder.
Geminid
@rikyrah: Thank you for reminding me of Mr. Weeks (Wonderking82). A perceptive man. Mr. Weeks grew up in in the Bronx in challenging circumstances, earned a degree at Hampton University, and then returned to the Bronx to work as a public school counselor.
Carlo Graziani
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
I miss Tom Lehrer. I wish he were composing songs for this moment.
Peke Daddy
@iKropoclast: Maybe she means Portuguese bullfighting.
Marc
@rikyrah: It’s OK If They Are White Clubs
iKropoclast
@Peke Daddy: I didn’t know there was a difference between Portuguese bull fighting and other bull fighting traditions.
Baud
@Shakti:
Watters sounds a little jealous.
Marc
@Carlo Graziani: I can remember our whole family watching him on That Was The Week That Was. That show was the prototype for The Smothers Brothers and eventually The Daily Show.
prostratedragon
@rikyrah:
Certainly possible. There have been such.
gene108
@rikyrah:
I’m torn between wanting James Comey to face conservatives for what he pulled in 2016 regarding Hillary’s emails, versus not wanting such blatant abuse of prosecutorial power.
Bill Arnold
@Peke Daddy:
Maybe a nerf-bandarilha is involved in the … ritual.
Spanky
@Bill Arnold: Actual CNN article right now:
prostratedragon
@Soprano2: They would give you some ridiculous answer involving “user fees,” i.e. taxes for thee but not for me, who can afford privatized services. ( I know: roads. Did I not say “ridiculous”?)
MisterForkbeard
@Captain C: He regularly gets impaled by bulls, maybe?
Baud
@gene108:
Better him that some poor schmuck who can’t afford to defend himself.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
He’s the darling of the Tech Bros like Musk and Thiel.
JML
Libertarianism is an outdated ideology that never produced functioning societies in the first place.
Now what’s being promoted as “libertarianism” is basically bro-culture nonsense from a bunch of plonkers who want to smoke pot, not pay taxes, and never be held accountable for saying deeply racist and bigoted things. Unsurprisingly, this modern brand of libertarianism is almost entirely white and male.
iKropoclast
My first response to this says that this is a world leader who invested heavily in cryptocurrency, so I check, and sure enough…
JBWoodford
@Marc: And the first rule of White Club is?
Geminid
@JML: The Libertarian Party crashed last November. Jo Jorgenson won 1.8 million votes on the Libertarian line in 2020, while Chase Oliver finished with less than 700,000 last year. I figure most of those million missing voters went to Trump.
iKropoclast
@Geminid: Stands to reason. Scratch the surface of any USian claiming to be a libertarian and you’ll find a deep well of authoritarian attitudes. You know, the opposite thing.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: It was the same day as CK. Maru was awesome.
Geminid
@iKropoclast: I expect the Trump campaign did some effective outreach to Libertarians on social media. Same with RFK Jr. supporters. They knew they had to reel in every voter they could, and they got most of them.
iKropoclast
@Geminid: From what I’ve seen from the libertarians in local gaming groups, it probably didn’t take much outreach. These fools were waiting for Trump.
Deputinize America
@JBWoodford:
Whine that you’re not getting to run everything.
Baud
@Deputinize America:
While running everything.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@The Republic of Stupidity: or they are from an area populated mainly by cows and snow and they hate stop signs for some inexplicable reason.
schrodingers_cat
@Shakti: No one cares. These people are legends in their own minds.
Booger
@HopefullyNotcassandra:
…and bears. Don’t forget the bears.
notoriousJRT
@Baud:
“…Trump’s core support begins and ends with bigotry.”
For realz.
iKropoclast
Elides ignorance, but close enough…
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: That he has the support of our elite media tells us something about them. None of it good.
Hoodie
@Baud: I thought the standing definition was Republicans who want to smoke weed.
dm
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
wow, takes me back. Is that our low-tech-cyclist in the comments?
Too bad comments were shut down one David Friedman entered the chat.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@dm: good question. I don’t know.
Captain C
@Geminid: IIRC there was a big schism not too long ago with something called the Mises Caucus taking control of the party machinery.
They’re more Ron Paul-no regulations on business-fine with private authoritarianism to protect their swag rather than pot smoking atheist sci fi enjoying types. Pushing the party more explicitly to the right, such as it is.
Geminid
@Captain C: I read about that, but I’m not sure the Mises Caucus retained control. I don’t think Chase Oliver was from that caucus. Maybe that’s part of why the Libertarian vote collapsed.
Soprano2
@Captain C: Cool. My sister probably would have known who it was. She got her polo ponies from Argentina. She went there for tournaments too. We had to have Thanksgiving early a couple of times because of that.
Craig
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: fine, let them bail him out.
Captain C
@Geminid: It’s hard to organize and keep your eyes on the prize when your philosophy is essentially “every man for himself!”
Geminid
@Captain C: Yes and as couple of commenters have pointed out, this is a predominantly male group. Patriarchy runs deep, and that is the well-spring of Authoritarianism.
Manyakitty
@Miss Bianca: fuck yes.
Gemina13
@Mr. Bemused Senior: She throws it over his face first?
Paul in KY
@Shakti: I am NEVER tempted to feel sorry for her.
Paul in KY
@Captain C: He sticks her with stuff for his jollies.