What changed for me is that I realized Libertarianism is just like Socialism in one important sense - They are both utopian concepts that fail in practice. But no matter how many times they fail, people keep believing they can be done better.
The blind spot of Libertarianism is childhood. Libertarianism would probably work if everyone was born a mature adult that understood the basics of cause/effect and how the world works. How to identify cults, how to be responsible with signing contracts/taking loans etc. But that's not how life is - for the first 25 or so years of life people are pretty dumb and liable to make dumb decisions.
When you are young you are particularly vulnerable to stuff like drugs and (as this post says) porn.
Kids, teens, and even into young adulthood - people need to be protected from themselves. If a kid has access to drugs at 14 years old it can cripple their life permanently. Same with porn. And if they are crippled like that, they never mature properly and in a Libertarian system that means they are totally screwed.
If by Libertarianism you mean government should be small and respect rights, then I agree, that's a great idea. But when you become so socially permissive that you've allowed kids to be exposed to all sorts of horrors of the world then you've made a big mistake.
I used to be Libertarian.
What changed for me is that I realized Libertarianism is just like Socialism in one important sense - They are both utopian concepts that fail in practice. But no matter how many times they fail, people keep believing they can be done better.
The blind spot of Libertarianism is childhood. Libertarianism would probably work if everyone was born a mature adult that understood the basics of cause/effect and how the world works. How to identify cults, how to be responsible with signing contracts/taking loans etc. But that's not how life is - for the first 25 or so years of life people are pretty dumb and liable to make dumb decisions.
When you are young you are particularly vulnerable to stuff like drugs and (as this post says) porn.
Kids, teens, and even into young adulthood - people need to be protected from themselves. If a kid has access to drugs at 14 years old it can cripple their life permanently. Same with porn. And if they are crippled like that, they never mature properly and in a Libertarian system that means they are totally screwed.
If by Libertarianism you mean government should be small and respect rights, then I agree, that's a great idea. But when you become so socially permissive that you've allowed kids to be exposed to all sorts of horrors of the world then you've made a big mistake.