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the_dunk_tank
It's the dunk tank.
This is where you come to post big-brained hot takes by chuds, libs, or even fellow leftists, and tear them to itty-bitty pieces with precision dunkstrikes.
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You left out the best part?
If I want to be charitable this even sounds like someone that is more lost on the sea of ideological garbage of the internet i.e no access to anyone or anything that would educate them towards socialism or even the obvious critiques of capitalism so they defaulted to the standard American ideals until it personaly affected them, then they realized "wait this doesn't quite make sense". They could be saved if they were lucky to have someone waste time educating them, but most likely just become a conventional lib instead.
Yeah, I feel like "libertarian" is just vibes-based for dudes of a certain age, and not really an ideology. Like "centrist" it's a way of signalling to each other that they stand above politics, and don't get involved in the petty bickering of people who care about things.
When the rubber hits the road, and they start interacting with the world, they'll settle into their actual politics. Usually it'll break toward resentment-based fashy stuff, like "centrists," because the vibe coming from a place of "I'm better than that," to begin with. But it can go the other way too if it's coming from where you were at, or if they start being personally affected/targeted by their allies.
I think this was through intentional propaganda: stuff like framing that stupid political compass as two Freedom - Authoritarian axes and South Park's detached contrarianism. The end goal is to get these people to vote for conservative causes and convert some of them to ideology.
They found out that American "libertarians" are just Republicans except they want weed to be legal. There's a reason why the Cato Institute, the Libertarian Party and other garbage institutions are funded by the Kochs and other powerful figures: because they pose no threat to the establishment and having a fake third party around is useful.
I WANNA BE ABLE TO OFF-ROAD ON PUBLIC LAND! BUT I ALSO DONT WANT THE GUBERMENT TO HAVE ANY MEANS OF HOLDING ME ACCOUNTABLE IF I RUN OVER A MOUNTAIN BIKER!!!