General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Glenn Greenwald is an asshat for his support of Ron Paul. [View all]MFrohike
(1,980 posts)You can waste all day attacking his social positions and it really won't matter because he say "freedom" a thousand times and that's all that will be heard. You could choose to attack his "economic freedom" policies and show that they will consistently and demonstrably produce the reverse of the brave new world he claims to want to create. The beauty of attacks on the economic side is that they will bolster attacks on the ridiculousness of his lolbertarian ideology. How can you actually create a free society when you empower large private groups to make far-ranging decisions to the benefit or detriment of all when those groups have no real accountability? One can babble all day about the accountability of the market, but, using history as our guide, the market has shown no tendencies to truly hold those groups accountable. Rather we've seen herd behavior and a herd mentality guided by perverse incentives all combined in a concerted effort to destroy our economy for personal gain and undermine our public institutions through the hypocrisy of whining about direct government outlays with nary a word on the subterranean world of tax expenditures.
I know Ron Paul is a wackjob. I've spent more time than I care to admit arguing with friends wrapped up in his cult of personality than I would care to admit. I don't much care about delineating his social positions because I know people obsessed with the gold standard highly correlate with unreconstructed racism and hate for "others" in general. I think it's much wiser to attack him ON HIS PERCEIVED STRENGTHS because that will open up a world of opportunity to argue economics in general.
As for his positions on Iraq and Iran, I've stated what I know. If he's out cheerleading for more wars, I've seen no evidence of it. Honestly, I don't care. I'd rather spend my time showing that his insane desire to emasculate government to the benefit of unaccountable corporations will produce a far more dystopian nightmare than the one he regularly attacks.