Freedom Philosophy: Never Felt More Libertarian

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Never Felt More Libertarian
Photo Credit: Vox.com

Never have I felt more libertarian than when I watched Trump’s speech on Islam.

I sat down to watch it with my girlfriend, who’s Iranian, and was mostly interested to find out whether or not her friends and family are about to have bombs dropped on them. We turned to CNN to hear their commentary before his speech. Their left-leaning commentator was chiefly concerned that Donald Trump, after his campaign of a Muslim ban, would give a speech on Islam in Saudi Arabia – her charge was that this would be highly offensive. Donald Trump, of all people, was speaking on Islam and this cannot stand.

It was reminiscent of the 2016 presidential campaign. The left was incensed that Trump had mocked a disabled reporter (after all it was offensive) but these same people ignored the fact that Barack Obama assisted the Saudis as they bombed a hospital – filled with disabled people; the ultimate triumph of rhetoric over substance.

They were incensed that Trump made offensive comments about women, and ignored the fact that Hillary Clinton had obliterated women’s rights in Libya.
The left is increasingly concerned about cultural appropriation, yet they praise the previous president whose war crimes in Yemen (against the Zaydi Muslims) are so severe they fit the legal definition of genocide, which does far more damage to a culture than appropriation.

I’m not merely levying the charge that the left has degenerated into all rhetoric with no substance – my claim is that they have manipulative rhetoric with inhumane substance.

There is rhetoric that claims to be loving, but while what they say is peaceful, what they actually deliver is Hell on Earth. While their rhetoric is analyzing something as superficial as Donald Trump being offensive to Muslims (for the record, the Sunni leaders appeared to love him) they themselves go about murdering Muslims.

When the bloodshed in Yemen became too much for even Obama’s tastes, he backed out of the brutal war.

On top of this current conflict, Yemen is in a hellacious period. They have endured multiple civil wars. They are the poorest country in the Middle East. Yemen is preparing for a brutal famine when 2.1 million children are already starving.

The accusation of genocide stems from the fact that the Saudis are allowing humanitarian aid for the Sunnis and the not the Zaydis, thus Sunnis are fed while the Zaydis are being starved to death and if a people group is targeted for destruction the accusation of genocide is legitimate.

Given that Obama, Trudeau, and May are complicit in arming the Saudis they’re actually complicit in genocide.

Trump’s speech didn’t provide much solace when he decided to take an interventionist stance himself, and praise the Saudis for their work combating terrorism in Yemen by waging war against the Houthis (the supposedly Iranian-backed Zaydi rebels that have taken over Yemen’s capital).

In a sense, I understand the concern as the Zaydis have rampant anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric. But there is an ironic element that speaks to U.S. self-interests because the substance of the argument is that they have never attacked America.

The irony is that Safa Al-Ahmad, a BBC documentarian, discovered that the Saudis were working with Al Qaeda to fight the Houthis in Taiz (a city near one of Yemen’s key ports) when she was covering the war. Trump’s generals have been suggesting reopening the American involvement with the war against these people, and if he does America will actually be allying itself with Al Qaeda!

There are massive human rights concerns with this war. I’m not just put-off by the leftist commentator concerned about what happens to appear offensive. I’m put off by starving children. I’m put off by Americans who don’t understand that when they kill someone’s child they’ve created another terrorist.

I don’t identify with the left who’s chief concern is who is offended rather than who died. They are stricken with rhetoric in the same way the right is terrified by anti-American rhetoric and willing to march off in pursuit of Wahhabi interests rather than their own.

I have never been more proud to be a libertarian. I have never been more willing to abstain from the question as to who is offended while having never been more concerned about dying children. I will not identify with the left or the right.

I support the right for people to be offended and their right to not be killed. The failure of the dichotomy between left and right has never before called me to this extent to the high ideals of liberty.

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Brandon Kirby

Brandon Kirby has a philosophy degree from the University of New Brunswick and is a current MBA candidate finishing his thesis. He is an AML officer specializing in hedge funds in the Cayman Islands, owns a real estate company in Canada, and has been in the financial industry since 2004. He is the director of Being Libertarian - Canada and the president of the Libertarian Party of Canada.

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