Once there was a confusion about what “liberal” really means, so some people decided to call themselves libertarians instead. Now there is a confusion about what “libertarian” really means.
Seems to me we have some kind of ideology-name treadmill here, which works like this:
start a political movement
become popular
many people will use the name of your movement, even if they disagree with a few (or later: many) points
at some moment those people will complain that you want the definition to include you, when you are obviously merely a fringe member of this movement
And it’s not even universal in the US. Or at least, it wasn’t at some point. Noam Chomsky has often referred to himself as a libertarian, and he is certainly not a right-libertarian. Glenn Greenwald is also sometimes called a libertarian, and he doesn’t have right-wing economic views either.
I think the use of “libertarian” to refer to right-libertarian specifically is a mostly US thing.
Once there was a confusion about what “liberal” really means, so some people decided to call themselves libertarians instead. Now there is a confusion about what “libertarian” really means.
Seems to me we have some kind of ideology-name treadmill here, which works like this:
start a political movement
become popular
many people will use the name of your movement, even if they disagree with a few (or later: many) points
at some moment those people will complain that you want the definition to include you, when you are obviously merely a fringe member of this movement
And it’s not even universal in the US. Or at least, it wasn’t at some point. Noam Chomsky has often referred to himself as a libertarian, and he is certainly not a right-libertarian. Glenn Greenwald is also sometimes called a libertarian, and he doesn’t have right-wing economic views either.