Inductivist

This Pew graph shows recent growth in support for private gun ownership. I suspect this is part of larger trend that favors maximum individual lifestyle freedom. Other examples include more people favoring legalization of marijuana and gay marriage. How nice it would be to see the acid of individualism attack minority race-loyalty.

I looked at GSS data to see what percentage of right libertarians are atheists. There is no ideal way I know of to isolate this political group. The best I could do was to focus on people who think marijuana should be legalized who also say that they are conservative on a conservative/liberal continuum. Belief in God looks like this (sample size = 3,239):

Percent

Doesn't believe 3.0
No way to know 5.9
Some higher power 10.2
Believes sometimes 4.3
Believes but doubts 20.6
Knows God exists 56.1

And among conservatives who don't want pot legalized:

Doesn't believe 1.3
No way to know 2.2
Some higher power 4.8
Believes sometimes 2.9
Believes but doubts 13.2
Knows God exists 79.6

While a higher percent of libertarians have less confidence in God's existence, the vast majority are not atheists.

Bruce Charlton has a great post up about why libertarianism is not the future. Here's a quote:

The libertarian ethic is that the highest value is each individual being maximally free to take the choices which best enable self-gratification. While the libertarian may sincerely *hope* that other people will exercise these choices in a way which promotes the greatest happiness of the greatest number (however that might be measured) it is a more direct route to personal gratification simply to seek gratification for oneself rather than for society. Even in the ‘perfect’ libertarian society it is always possible for an individual to further increase their own gratification at the expense of others – while some choices (e.g. to be the highest status, most desired, most creative) intrinsically entail the deprivation of others.

And if gratification is the goal of human life, because human life is unpredictable then *immediate* gratification – right here, right now - is vastly surer and more dependable than undergoing the risks and uncertainties involved in pursuing long term gratification. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Let's see if GSS data support the view that libertarians tend to be amoral, short-term hedonists. Two questions come immediately to mind: 1) do you ever drink too much, and 2) have you ever strayed. Here are the percent of whites answering yes by political orientation as I defined it in the last post:

Percent who drink too much (sample size = 5,431)

Libertarian 41.8
Conservative 28.6
Traditional Moderate 31.8
Permissive Moderate 51.6*
Traditional Liberal 34.1
Permissive Liberal 51.9*


Percent who've strayed (sample size = 3,806)

Libertarian 29.9*
Conservative 11.4
Traditional Moderate 12.1
Permissive Moderate 29.3*
Traditional Liberal 14.6
Permissive Liberal 26.2*

*significantly more than conservatives

Libertarians and especially people with a permissive orientation are more likely to drink too much and to have cheated on their spouses. A "do whatever you want" worldview might encourage a person to behave badly.

I would guess that libertarians are the most intelligent political category, but let's look and see.  I'll use two GSS questions to create categories. Participants were asked if they thought that marijuana should be illegal or illegal. They were also asked if the federal government spends too little, too much, or the right amount on improving education. There are six combinations possible. I label them as follows:

marijuana legal/spends too much = libertarian
marijuana illegal/spends too much = conservative
marijuana illegal/spends right amount = traditional moderate
marijuana legal/spends right amount = permissive moderate
marijuana illegal/doesn't spend enough = traditional liberal
marijuana legal/doesn't spend enough = permissive liberal

First, let's list the percent of the total white sample in each category (sample size = 2,440):

Percent  

Libertarian 1.7
Conservative 4.6
Traditional Moderate 17.3
Permissive Moderate 5.4
Traditional Liberal 47.2
Permissive Liberal 23.8
 
The most popular category, by far, is of people who favor more federal spending on education, but who are against legalization of pot.  Libertarians and conservatives, as I have defined them, are rare.  Now let's look at mean IQs:


Mean IQs--whites only 

Libertarian 102.5
Conservative 101.8
Traditional Moderate 98.6*
Permissive Moderate 99.3
Traditional Liberal 100.3*
Permissive Liberal 103.0

* significantly lower mean IQ than permissive liberal

I guessed wrong: permissive liberals have a slightly higher mean than libertarians (although the difference is not statistically significant). People with extreme positions tend to be smarter.

Moral minimalism is poison: Today, we see that the California State Supreme Court doesn't give a fig about what the people of California want.

In striking down the ban on gay marriage, the court said, "In contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual's sexual orientation -- like a person's race or gender -- does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights."

Complicit in this type of thinking are all the Republican elites who have been telling us for years that what people do sexually is their own business. Advancing the libertarian view, any kind of sex is hunky dory as long as it is consensual. Moral minimalism of this sort is bound to lead to things like gay marriage. Its logic should also bring about to the legalization of the family choas we see in the polygamist sect in Texas.

This belief, as common on the right as the left, that anything goes as long as its consensual is poison.