Recently a friend of mine said that libertarians, and he includes himself, are anti-social.

This comment reminded me of something I wrote many months ago, in January of 2009.

Tom Knapp liked it and had this to say about it.

On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 2:51 AM, Thomas
Knapp wrote:

Douglass,

I'd like to call your particular attention to the following parts of Jim's
reply:

First:

"The people in the freedom movement are full of piss and vinegar. If that offends you, or others, so what? If I choose to tone it down, as I often do, someone else will ramp it up. We are ornery and cussed and rugged and individualistic. If you don't like us that way, too bad. Perhaps if we weren't constantly being attacked by those in power, we'd be more pleasant. Perhaps if anyone in power ever listened to our concerns, we'd be more pleasant in expressing ourselves. And perhaps we're just unpleasant people who expect to have the same freedom to express ourselves as every simpering toady who appeases
and pleases and thanks with every other word."

Second:

"The party is the members who show up. The discussion is the messages people choose to post. I showed up. I'm not going away. I post messages. I'm not going to stop."

If the party had a physical headquarters, and I had money to spare, I'd have the two paragraphs above chiseled into a granite monument and placed in the lobby.

And if I had a nickel for everyone who ever said "I won't do X because so-and-so said Y," I'd have the money to build that headquarters (if I wanted us to have one -- I don't) and to get that monument made.

I don't always agree with Jim. I don't always like what he says, or the way he says it. But I'm sick and tired of this "I'd do something to advance freedom if only Jim Davidson (or someone else) wasn't such an asshole" stuff. It's just an excuse. If they hadn't found this one, they'd have found another one --even though they don't NEED one (except for purposes of garnering credit for putative intentions rather than for real deeds) and even
though we really shouldn't waste any time on whatever one they do find.