I am going to make the case for being a middle-of-the-road libertarian, but not in the sense that one might think.  I am proudly a radical libertarian when it comes to political issues.  And there is absolutely nothing wrong with being radical if you are taking the correct and moral position.  I am radically against murder.  I am radically against war.  I am radically in favor of peace and prosperity.

I want to make the case of being a middle-of-the-road libertarian when it comes to judging other people.

There are some libertarians who are incredibly naïve and think that all other people who aren’t libertarians are just misguided.  Maybe they make a few exceptions, but not many at all.  These people think that if Joe Biden’s advisors would only give him some good advice, then we could steer our country on the right track.  They think if only their congressman would read an economics book that he would realize the harms of the minimum wage and then would vote the right way.

Some libertarians even had these thoughts on COVID.  They thought that Fauci was doing his best to keep people safe, but he might have been going about it the wrong away.

These types of people have trouble recognizing that there are some deeply evil people in the world, and it tends to be widespread at the top.  Even outside of direct politics, they have trouble seeing that some people, in what are deemed noble professions (doctors, teachers, military, police), respond to incentives more than any moral compass and will do things that may harm other people.

I probably leaned more in that camp in my younger days.

The other camp of libertarians consists of people who throw their hands up in the air and proclaim nearly everyone evil who is not on their side.  Maybe this is an exaggeration, but you see the people I’m talking about.  They see no redeeming hope in mankind and just think everyone who isn’t a hardcore libertarian as either evil or part of the sheeple class.

I have probably slightly leaned more in that camp in more recent years.  I do recognize though that there are different degrees of evil.  I was also somewhat sympathetic towards people who fell in line with certain things during COVID hysteria because they were just trying to survive.  I tried to never judge someone who was forced to take a vaccine to keep their job and pay the bills.

I recently saw two videos that put me more in the middle-of-the road camp in judging other people who are clearly not libertarians.

Meghan McCain

I saw an interview that Michael Malice had with Meghan McCain.  I am not a regular watcher of Malice, but I was surprised when I saw her as a guest on his show.  I couldn’t help myself and watched the whole interview.

Meghan McCain is the daughter of the late John McCain.  She is a war hawk like her father.  I had probably seen a total of 15 minutes of Meghan McCain before watching this video.  I had seen some clips of her on The View.  I knew she was a war hawk and did not like her.

I was surprised that she was friendly with Michael Malice.  In the interview, she was still a war hawk, but maybe not quite as bad as I had originally thought.  It seemed like there was some room to convince her to at least be a little better on the issue in general.

There is one hilarious part of the interview where Malice asks McCain with a straight face if The View is a government psyop to try to repeal the 19^th Amendment.  Meghan McCain answered the question seriously and said, “No, I don’t think so.”  I don’t even know if she knew what the 19^th Amendment is.  She didn’t know that Malice was asking a sarcastic and funny question.  It is at about the 8:00 minute mark if you want to watch.

This moment actually made Meghan McCain go up a notch in my eyes.  (She was at the very bottom before.)  It showed that she could be kind of stupid at times.  I’m sure she is very smart in other areas, and she was mostly well-spoken in the interview, but she has some major blind spots.

The reason it elevates her in my eyes is because I just thought she was evil before.  Now I think she might be more dumb than evil.  That’s a good thing.  I would much rather be in the company of someone who is dumb in some areas.  At least there is hope.

If McCain were just evil, it means she would never change her position on war.  If she has been propagandized and is just taking a stupid position, there is always hope of her changing her position.

So, I’m glad that Michael Malice interviewed her and allowed me to see a different side.

As a side note, I once put Michael Malice in the naïve libertarian camp.  It is hard to believe because he is so intelligent and so quick-witted.  I remember when Dave Smith was interviewing Malice during COVID hysteria and Malice made a reference to Andrew Cuomo, who was the governor of New York at the time.  Malice said that he is probably losing sleep at night over all of the people dying of COVID.  Dave actually questioned him on this.

This is where I fall into the other camp and think Cuomo is more evil than stupid.  He wasn’t lying awake at night worrying about people dying of COVID except in how much it would impact his political career.

Howie Mandel

There was a recent interview of Robert Kennedy Jr. talking to Howie Mandel.  They were discussing the so-called COVID vaccines.  RFK was going deep into the Pfizer trials.

https://rumble.com/v47hzpl-rfk-jr-schools-howie-mandel-on-mrna-covid-vaccines.html

RFK pointed out that, in the trials, there was one person in the vaccinated group who died of COVID.  There were two people in the placebo group who died of COVID.  That’s where they came up with the vaccines being 100% effective.

Then he pointed out that there was one person in the placebo group who died of a cardiac arrest.  There were five people in the vaccinated group who died of cardiac arrest.  (I will also note that more people died overall in the vaccinated group than in the placebo group, which should have instantly meant the vaccine was not safe to go to market, at least until more testing.)

Howie Mandel could not wrap his head around what RFK was saying.  Even if Mandel is evil and trying to shill for the vaccines, he did not have a coherent response.  I think Fauci would have come up with something better.

Howie Mandel was extremely confused.  He seemed to understand that the COVID vaccines were supposedly effective at preventing death because one extra person died in the placebo group (double the number).  But then when you look at deaths due to heart problems, he seems to not understand the significance of that.

Maybe he was just playing dumb, but I really got the impression that he was dumb.  Again, I’m not saying he is dumb with everything in life.  He has had a successful career in comedy and entertainment.  But in this part of the interview, he came across as really dumb.  And I really want to believe that he is dumb on this topic.

If he is dumb, that means there is a chance he could be corrected.  He might see the light and change his views.  If he is evil, then he will never be convinced because he will only take the position that is most beneficial to him.  He won’t ever consider it from a logical standpoint or a moral standpoint.

Conclusion

Politics can make some otherwise intelligent people really dumb.  Going back to Michael Malice, he said it is easier to train a smart dog.  I knew a lot of intelligent people who bought into all of the COVID and COVID vaccine propaganda.

Joe Biden is evil.  Nikki Haley is evil.  You can usually count on the heads of the FBI, CIA, and NSA to be evil.  There are a lot of evil people at the top.  But it is good to step back and realize that there are a lot of people who aren’t evil but just get things wrong.

There is also the courage factor.  Some people are afraid to go against the grain.  Sometimes they are rightfully afraid because it could hurt them or their family.  Sometimes it is just a matter of not wanting to take criticism or be seen as an outcast.

Perhaps there is a point where a lack of courage is evil.  But there is obviously a lot of nuance there.  I wouldn’t have blamed Edward Snowden one bit if he had never blown the whistle on the U.S. government’s spy program.

This is my call to being a middle-of-the-road libertarian when it comes to judging others.  Some people really are evil.  Some people are just dumb.  Sometimes you have to give people the benefit of the doubt and get to know them to know where they are coming from.

Tucker Carlson once favored the Iraq War.  Now he is a vocal opponent of U.S. wars overseas.  People change.  If someone is not evil, there is always a chance they can be persuaded to take a more moral position.