[sigstoat]

> That's why they get classified as right-wing by most everyone except themselves.

"libertarians are always classified as X" reliably identifies a person as opposite-of-X.

if you hit up the conservative forums, you'll find libertarians regularly described as dope-smoking lefty hippies, and whatever else.

[wbxrs]

You have a point, I guess I had never seen it that way.

[iron0013]

That hasn't been my experience. On most conservative forums, most people--clearly conservative--describe themselves as "libertarian". Look at elected officials: who's more likely to describe themselves as a "libertarian", Republican politicians or Democratic politicians?

[sigstoat]

you're talking about self-description. i wasn't.

[iron0013]

What? I don't follow. Why would conservatives, who describe themselves as "libertarians", call libertarians "dope-smoking lefty hippies"? I'm saying your account of how conservatives describe libertarians rings false.

Conservatives don't consider libertarians to be "them", they consider libertarians to be "us"--that is, they don't make a distinction between conservatives and libertarians.

[thebooktocome]

It wasn't too long ago that Paul Ryan was considered a libertarian, and a positive direction for the Republican party.