{"id":4384,"date":"2013-08-23T22:23:18","date_gmt":"2013-08-24T03:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/?p=4384"},"modified":"2013-08-23T22:23:18","modified_gmt":"2013-08-24T03:23:18","slug":"i-define-the-terms-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/?p=4384","title":{"rendered":"I define the terms here"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ross Kaminsky<\/a> holds that the popular appellation “libertarian populist” (see Ross Douthat’s recent column<\/a>) is a contradiction in terms.\u00c2\u00a0 In short, because ‘libertarian’ is about freedom, and populism has “nothing to do with freedom”.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, first, that’s not yet a contradiction.\u00c2\u00a0 So when I say that Bill has a brown dog, it’s not an oxymoron, even though being a dog doesn’t have anything to do with being brown.<\/p>\n

But Kaminsky’s argument is more for contradiction than for irrelevance.\u00c2\u00a0 First, he opens by defining ‘populist’ from the dictionary.<\/p>\n

A standard definition of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153populist\u00e2\u20ac\u009d includes supporting ordinary people over the elites.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So far, that’s perfectly consistent with libertarianism.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, very much consistent with the commitments of libertarians – these elites think they know better than the average Joe, and coerce him this way or that.\u00c2\u00a0 So Kaminsky shouldn’t have a problem with the populist brand of libertarian, right?\u00c2\u00a0 Wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s because Kaminsky means something different by ‘populist’:<\/p>\n

Getting away from the dictionary, I have always understood \u00e2\u20ac\u0153populist\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to mean \u00e2\u20ac\u0153demagogue\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or to be a synonym for various adjectives modifying the word it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s connected to. Adjectives such as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ersatz<\/em><\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153-lite\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but not fully adhering to its principles\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153shrill.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whuh? Look, I’m no great fan of the dictionary for definitions of controversial terms, but the more controversial term is ‘libertarian,’ not ‘populist.’\u00c2\u00a0 Not respecting common usage is the first sign of Humpty-Dumpty Semantics<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Moreover, I still don’t yet see why this new stipulated defintion is inconsistent with libertarianism, either.\u00c2\u00a0 How is demagoguery inconsistent with the exercise of freedom?\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t that exactly what demagogues invoke when they talk to folks (especially here in the States)… how we love our freedom? Moreover, why is being an ‘ersatz’ X inconsistent with being an X?\u00c2\u00a0 Or how is ‘ersatz X’ an oxymoron?\u00c2\u00a0 And, by the way, does he really mean ‘popularizer’?\u00c2\u00a0 Seriously, it’s pretty sad when you can’t even stipulate your way to a contradiction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ross Kaminsky holds that the popular appellation “libertarian populist” (see Ross Douthat’s recent column) is a contradiction in terms.\u00c2\u00a0 In short, because ‘libertarian’ is about freedom, and populism has “nothing to do with freedom”.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, first, that’s not yet a contradiction.\u00c2\u00a0 So when I say that Bill has a brown dog, it’s not an oxymoron, … Continue reading I define the terms here<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,11,95],"tags":[1725,1723,1724],"class_list":["post-4384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-category-mistake","category-equivocation","category-fallacies-of-ambiguity-fallacies-argument-problems","tag-humpty-dumpty-semantics","tag-libertarianism","tag-stipulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4385,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4384\/revisions\/4385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}