Quote (majorblood @ Sep 7 2016 04:47am)
What Gary Johnson says in the video is more important than whoever made the video.
Yes ofc hes said some bad things from a libertarian POV. I'm not happy with him either.
He also has a large array of libertarian positions and is better than the other candidates on most things.
Some things included in the video are trivialities or subjective/superficial cultural oddities used to bash him anyways, not actual libertarian issues.
The video was made as a hitpiece and purposefully removed context from some of it, ignored mitigating factors and possible justifications, and sometimes outright lied about his positions to put him in the most unflattering light possible.
It was very dishonest. Cut half a sentence here and claim hes the biggest government supporter of this and that.. when in reality hes not actually in favor of what was said or his position is nuanced.
He accused him of wanting to 'give the government the power to forcibly inject your children at gunpoint', when Johnson is explicitly opposed to federal mandatory vaccinations and has said so in recent interviews.
He also falsely equated GJ's support of anti-police brutality/CJ reform sentiment in the BLM movement as being essentially pro-marxist.
Yes there are some things related to that topic there that I would disagree with him on, but its not a core libertarian issue and the association was absurd.
He mentions the TPP as some sort of globalist boogeyman when in reality the issue is very complicated and there are anti-libertarian aspects of both sides. Many oppose it because they want trade to be heavily restricted. (Sanders, Trump). GJ is not in that camp.
The first thing he said when asked was that he is a 'real skeptic when it comes to these trade agreements' and went on to discuss several potential cons, and hesitantly supported it under the condition that it would do more to advance freer trade and under advisement he believes it would do so . Somehow that got conveniently left out.
You could argue that he should oppose the deal anyways because its not perfect, but thats not what Watson does. He pretends its the worst thing ever.
Watson pretends if GJ is not on board with his extreme anti-immigrant/refugee views then its "not libertarian!", when that too is a very complicated and debated issue from a libertarian POV.
A libertarian position could justifiably be in favor of refugees with certain caveats. Watson is unconditionally and completely opposed. Scary brown people are too dangerous to him.
Triggered baby Watson is more concerned about culture wars and being anti-anything-similar-to-SJW and pandering to that breed of people than actual libertarian positions and honest criticism.
Watson is the xenophobic anti-libertarian protectionist here.
He also tries to knock him as "not libertarian" for the debt going up in NM.. when there was a massive 60% democrat majority driving that.
GJ's actual actions were radically opposed to spending/taxes and he vetoed tons of measures along the way. Thats libertarian.
He concludes the video by calling anyone who votes for GJ an idiot, despite GJ clearly being the most libertarian choice available.
Bashing GJ for not being a hardcore libertarian and then eagerly bending over for Trump's brand of bigger statism and brutish idiocy on a daily basis isn't a consistent or admirable position.
From the looks of it you are in the same camp.
This post was edited by cambovenzi on Sep 7 2016 04:43am