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by dTal 1523 days ago
>Then entire selling point of libertarianism is that the opinions of others are irrelevant

Beautifully put. It should be on a t-shirt.

But then, the very concept of a "right" is defined by mutual agreement. Who is to say what "rights" you do or don't have?

1 comments

You need a constitution to define rights and to stick to it.

It is a contract and can't be whittled down or imposed on by public opinion. If own the rights to land, you can do with it what you want. If you want to put a garbage dump next to a playground, that is their problem if you aren't physically hurting them.

Libertarians absolutely believe in laws that uphold rights, and legal precedent describing how rights interact.

What happens when there's no immediate "physically hurting them", but instead long-term damage that is not immediately obvious?

I ask because dumping waste could potentially be "not hurting others" in an immediate sense, but still e.g. contaminating the dump area.

There isn't a single position, but one is can contaminate the land forever if it doesn't affect your neighbors.
Interesting