[erdos4d]

Small-government libertarians in my experience are really ok with big-defense. They are the sort who fund NSA and it's incessant attempts to vacuum up all internet data, spy on all people, etc. They rarely understand that those same powers might be turned against us all as easily as flipping a switch. It is a blindness that has always baffled me, especially since we have more proof everyday that that switch has already been flipped.

[toyg]

> It is a blindness

It's very much not a blindness. They just look out for n.1 first and foremost; everything else is a philosophical veneer to justify their instincts.

[asdff]

Because what small government really means is eliminating social safety nets and publicly beneficial programs, and focusing on protecting corporate profits above all else.

[erdos4d]

This exactly.

[chroma]

> Small-government libertarians in my experience are really ok with big-defense.

I don't know who you're talking to, but the national Libertarian Party has always been against domestic surveillance and foreign wars. Unlike the Democrats or Republicans, it is the official position of the Libertarian Party that FISA courts should be ended[1] and that the CIA should be abolished.[2] The Libertarian Party also wants to pardon Snowden[3] and Ulbricht[4].

1. https://www.lp.org/libertarians-congress-stop-government-spy...

2. https://www.lp.org/news-press-releases-libertarian-party-cal...

3. https://twitter.com/lpnational/status/1037392054559690753

4. https://www.lp.org/free_ross/