Third Post

Here is a half-formed thought.

The thing that’s genuinely new in our culture, that has caused the seemingly out-of-control spiral on both the left (“wokism”) and the right (“trumpism”), is the near-universal approbation of vigilantism. This new acceptance of vigilantism has been emergent for many decades (from Dirty Harry through Batman through Blacklist), but I think it must have reached some kind of consensus-level acceptance in the popular culture within the last decade – in a similar process to the acceptance of gay marriage, though much more insidious. Once vigilantism becomes morally acceptable, even accepted, then everyone becomes an enforcer for their particular moral code.

Author: JL Jones

I live in a rural part of a “red state” in the western USA. Most of my local friends, neighbors and coworkers are unabashedly Trumpist. At worst, they are openly racist, gun-hoarding xenophobes, and at best, they are anti-government, Randist “libertarian” or “prepper” types. Most of them are also weirdly quite kind and generous. I came to my current political position as a self-described libertarian. I am sympathetic to libertarian ideals, but the question I have is: if libertarianism is advocating maximum liberty, exactly what sort of liberty are we speaking of trying to maximize?