I Apologize to My Fellow Americans

[Bob Butler 54]

(01-28-2017, 03:34 AM)Galen Wrote:

(01-27-2017, 06:30 PM)taramarie Wrote: and when i say infringe on others rights i mean other Americans rights. Say in the case of the religious baker who did not want to serve gays. That is what i mean. But dismiss me if you want. I know what i stand for.

A libertarian, other than Gary Johnson, would say that was his right to choose who he does business with.  I would say he is being stupid but again libertarians in general don't see any particular need to protect the stupid from themselves.  Customers can also choose to boycott this baker over the issue and libertarians wouldn't have any particular problem with that either.

Prior to the awakening, especially in the south, overt blatant prejudice was hard wired into the culture.  People of color could not stay in many hotels, eat at many restaurants, use many sanitary facilities, drink at certain water bubblers, etc...  The sit in at the Woolworth lunch counter where blacks were refused service became a symbol of this sort of behavior.  The Supreme Court and various laws passed by Congress made this sort of overt prejudice illegal.  Many have come to understand that if one offers a service to the public, one has to provide that service to the People.  

The law can be rigid.  Once a principle has been laid down, one should not make exceptions.  There are many who will say denying service at a lunch counter due to race is different than denying bakery goods to someone with different sexual preferences.  Others do not see the difference.  I'm one of the latter.  Prejudice is prejudice.  Bigotry is bigotry.  The legal principles favoring equality set down during the awakening should be extended.

In practice, wearing the bigots down is a long slow tedious process.  It happens in fits and starts.  After a wave of progress, the progressives are tired of fighting and the bigots get stubborn.  One celebrates the Confederate flag coming down, the rainbow flag going up.  A new status quo is defined, and for a time might be accepted.  The bigots will accept that certain lines have been breached, but cling to the next line down for a decade or more.  The US is currently going through a progressives tired bigots stubborn phase.

Now, I would disagree that Gary Johnson is the only libertarian who is not a bigot.  It is possible to believe in the financial notion of unencumbered free markets and the political principle of small non-interfering government without being a bigot.  In this, I believe Galen should speak for himself.

But I'm tired of and disgusted by the double think.  The current generation of bigots is openly promoting a right to practice overt segregation.  There is no such right.  When such a bogus right is advocated, it is time to call a bigot a bigot.