Down the slippery slope

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Libertarians usually claim that anything that is consensual ought to be permitted by law.

But some of them go beyond that, and claim that anything that is consensual is moral. That, I think, is an obvious mistake. In a Facebook discussion, I just offered the following example: A drunk who is killing himself with liquor and his enabler may, fully consensually, have the enabler supplying the drunk with oodles of liquor. While I would not want this made illegal, I have no problem declaring it immoral.



Comments

  1. Bob Murphy10:20 PM

    Yes, some of the social commentary by libertarians is ridiculous. "Hey, as long as they're not initiating aggression, don't criticize." Note that such a person is criticizing ME even though I didn't initiate aggression either.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. gcallah11:04 PM

      Yep, in fact the first principle is one I generally on board with. The second one is nonsense.

      Delete

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