A Visit From My Libertarian Brother-in-Law
I know everybody has one of these in their family, but I have to rant.
So my wife’s sister and her husband, my dear brother-in-law, came to visit us this week. Now there’s a mixed blessing.
Rob is a one of those guys who always voted Republican, and now considers himself to be a libertarian. He's been slowly going off into the deep end of the pool over the last few years. Here’s a guy who probably hasn’t paid Federal income tax (he lives in a no income tax state, of course) in at least thirty years, and yet bitches incessantly about taxation. He pays property tax, and when he has to, sales tax. Period. If he could figure out how to get out of those, he would. Taxes are for suckers, according to Rob.
I generally tune him out, or try to. I don’t watch MSNBC, let alone Current TV, when he’s around. I basically de-news the house, so I won’t have to listen to his comments/rants.
This time I actually tried to figure out what he was thinking and tried to listen to what he was trying to say. It boils down to this:
He wants no government. Not limited government, NO government. He claims we don’t need it. We could police ourselves, put out our own fires, teach our own kids, and generally get by just fine, thank you, without any form of government at all. According to Rob, all governments, everywhere, throughout history were corrupt, thieving and unnecessary.
He says he just wants to be left alone. He completely and utterly rejects the Social Contract. He just simply doesn't give a crap about anyone or anything but himself. He is the epitomy of "I've got mine".
This is a guy who is so angry at everyone and everything, it comes down to that he entirely rejects society, and thinks that this “idea” would work out just fine.
Oh, his kids went to public school, and were eligible for two years free tuition at college. He drives on public roads. The cops and firemen protect his business and equipment and his home, but he doesn’t want to pay for any of this. When wildfires threatened his house earlier this year, and the BLM and Forest Service put the fires out, he didn’t pay a dime. Not one dime. His drinking water is clean, and he breaths clean air, because the guy who owns the land behind his house cannot open a smelter, because the EPA won’t let him Rob didn’t pay for that, either. In fact, he wants the EPA (and every other state and Federal agency) to go away.
Somehow, and he never says just how, he could take care of everything quite well on his own, if "they" would just leave him alone.
So when you get to the bottom of Rob, the real nitty-gritty core, what you’ve got is an angry, greedy, white guy who has ideas so cynical, irrational, impractical and juvenile as to defy imagination.
Now that I fully understand what he’s getting at, I will be able to tune him out just fine.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Have you ever asked him why he isn't living in Somalia? No functioning government there...
Sounds like he's still a republican. 
After all, that is just legitimizing their power! 
Seriously, though, hope he doesn't vote. Its people like him who make life harder on themselves and everyone else.
