Way back in the olden thymes, my liberal friends would occasionally claim to be libertarian or “mostly libertarian.” They would usually bust that out whenever I was making sport of their hive mentality. When Bill Clinton was raping interns, it was great fun to mock the feminists who somehow managed to get past the rape business to support Clinton against those prudish inquisitors. That’s when they would suddenly discover their inner libertarian and say that what adults did on the floor of the oval office was no one’s business.

It was the Clinton years when I began to look at liberalism as a cult. Cult leaders always end up indulging in deviant behavior that their followers manage to overlook. It’s as if the charismatic leader crosses some threshold, where his strength of personality becomes more of a factor than his ideas. The proof of that is how his followers rationalize their leader doing things he allegedly opposes. Those who can do this become more committed, while those who can’t are boiled off and join some other cult.

Of course, one reason liberals think they may be “slightly libertarian” is they are in favor of legalizing weed. Liberals are the modern Roundheads so to them, this feels like a huge concession toward personal liberty. Their movement has been stamping out smoking, eating, sex, sloth and everything else that seems like fun for so long, they think it is radical to oppose the drug war. Those Puritan instincts tell them that even the most private of behavior must come under public scrutiny, so being OK with weed feels radical.

That and they obsess over their crotch. For whatever reason, the Left has an obsession with lady parts to the point of distraction. It’s an odd obsession that is in part a need to be vulgar. They associate probity with middle-class white culture, which they oppose, so being vulgar feels like rebellion to them. Therefore, indulging in sexual degeneracy, which would seem at odds with other aspects of their secular religion, is acceptable because it offends an enemy of their movement. It’s an exception that supports the cause.

I was thinking about this the other day when looking at the Lion of the Blogosphere’s latest pro-abortion rant. He has an obsession with cultural conservatives and therefore he dwells on abortion, thinking it is the opposite of decency. He is a guy who will occasionally try to pass himself off as libertarian which is a bit ridiculous. The HBD guys like him and they tend not to be liberal, but there’s no reason to think one excludes the other. In fact, an oblique form of race realism has always been at the heart of American radicalism.

Still, I wonder why it is some on the Left feel the need to play the libertarian card. It could simply be a part of their natural tendency to deflect. People are attracted to secular religions out of self-loathing. They seek to swap their hated self, for the identity of the group. Therefore they are always trying to avoid discussion of themselves, because that requires facing up to their nature. Playing the libertarian card is a lure to draw attention away from them onto something else, anything else.

Alternatively, we see conservatives in Progressive enclaves using the libertarian ruse to avoid conflict. Anyone who has lived in Massachusetts knows that child molesters get better treatment than conservatives. If you are at a social event and say something that violates one of their many taboos, you can be sure the screech owls from the local feminist coven will be trying to rip your flesh from your bones. For reasons I’ll get into another day, the Left does not view libertarians as a threat.

Of course, this suggests that libertarianism is not a real ideology or a real social movement, but rather a way station of sorts. Left-libertarians can code-switch between liberalism and libertarianism, depending upon their situation. Right-libertarians can do something similar, in order to avoid the wrath of lefty. That means as the divide grows, libertarianism will collapse, as it will be impossible to exist in both camps. That’s a topic for another day, but it means libertarianism is not a real thing.