re: Can anyone defend being a libertarian anymore?

I've come around on some tariffs. I believe in the free market as much as possible, but it's impossible to ignore the market is not free. I would argue that throwing money at developing countries for cheap, government forced labor is a bigger hit against libertarian philosophy than tariffs on our side are.

As for Canada, don't care at all about Canada as their government is loaded with freedom hating assholes.

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problem though is if something closer to the libertarian ideal is achieved it is destined to be short lived, because the minimal involvement live and let live attitude is ripe to be taken advantage of by your enemies,

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liberalism is ultimately incapable of self-defense

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"Libertarianism means the government can't do anything".

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That's kind of what it means. The more government you propose, the less libertarian the policy stance is. Tariffs are more government.

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Gender and sex are the same thing.

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That's the Leftist argument

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Do you think when we constructed women's prisons we were thinking that people who like pink, dresses, and played with dolls while kids will be housed here? Or do you think the intention was to house people with vaginas there?

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You're giving examples of why your above adoption of Leftist insanity is stupid.

Prisons were build around sex, not gender.

Leftists destroying language making them the same reason is why the absurdity above occurs. If we kept the terms separation, that silliness isn't possible.

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I would argue that throwing money at developing countries for cheap, government forced labor is a bigger hit against libertarian philosophy than tariffs on our side are.

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I never understand this. We benefit greatly from this.

The "cheap goods" boogeyman only works when they use it as a loss leader to overtake markets with the end goal of raising prices. With these developing countries, we see market forces where when they try that (sometimes it's a plan but more often it's just their society developing like China), we move to the next one (Vietnam, Bangledesh, soon to be Africa, etc.).

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Libertarianism is a great philosophy, but a shitty party platform

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I totally agree. And it's not black or white. Politicians believe in varying degrees of libertarian philosophy. Some are close to zero. Guys like Rand Paul are very high.

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This is more of a big-L issue. I used to call it the Nino Brown problem back in the GMorgan era.

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Nah. What he’s saying is a big E issue. As in the enlightenment and subsequent classical liberalism.

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This is more of a big-L issue. I used to call it the Nino Brown problem back in the GMorgan era.

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I'm not sure that it is. I think Libertarianism is particularly inept here, but I think putting up a neutral tenet against something with a much sharper edge is going to see neutrality erode eventually, it's just a matter of how long it can hold out. Inherent in the neutral idea is the requirement that it permit the more forceful idea to proliferate, so I don't see how it can possibly be anything but self-defeating in the long term.

In the shorter term I do think it can be wildly successful but it's highly dependent on the character of the people to which it applies.