Comments Elsewhere

From Gina Luttrell: http://thoughtsonliberty.com/why-do-women-hate-freedom “Let me ask y’all a question. In the last 30 days, how many of you have talked about gender discrimination? What about LGBT discrimination? Sexual harassment? What about rape? Here’s a good one. What about doulas or midwives? Now, out of those of you who talked about those issues, how many of you said that the issue wasn’t a problem at all? Or perhaps shifted the focus of the conversation onto women in general, maybe by saying that the gender wage gap was a myth, or that differences in occupational representation was due to personal preferences, or that, dare I say it, most rape cases were in some way preventable by the person raped? This, after sexism [within the movement], is the second biggest thing that keeps women away from liberty my friends. Libertarians either don’t know, don’t care, or don’t “believe” in problems that affect women’s liberty. . . . And libertarians don’t take these problems seriously. So much that we just don’t seem to care. These are significant barriers to women’s liberty in our country. They are facts of women’s lives that significantly, substantively, visibly affect the quality of life and quality of freedom of women in the world, and libertarians would rather talk about marginal tax rates and agricultural subsidies. . . . “The takeaway here is this: Don’t assume that people move through the world the same way you do. Just because an issue isn’t a problem for you doesn’t mean it’s not a problem. The world libertarians are selling right now is a world in which women will be tossed under the bus, and all libertarians will do is throw up their hands and say, “Freedom of association. Not my problem.” But how could such a society be free when its citizens cannot all participate according to their individual will, when some get advantages from the setup while others are cast out? From a woman’s perspective, libertarians are selling a society that isn’t free to them at all. And we’re surprised that they don’t rush to sign up for it? I’m not. No amount of marketing can fix a product that looks rotten.”