I saw a recent review that called Surveyor “Far Right/Libertarian Propoganda.” I had to wonder at the reviewers political knowledge level, as the two political entities are miles apart.
As a refresher, Libertarians believe you, the owner of your own body, have complete and total control over it. Any external control without your consent violates the non-aggression principle, which states: aggression, defined as initiating or threatening any forceful interference against either an individual, their property or against promises for which the aggressor is liable and in which the individual is a counterparty, is inherently wrong (sourced from Wikipedia).
That’s pretty much it. Libertarians want to be left alone to pursue their dreams of life without some authority pushing laws onto them. Some libertarians want to go full on “no government at all” and scream “taxation is theft”. I believe the Libertarian motto goes something like “diligently plotting to take over the world and leave you alone.” To those who know little about libertarianism, I recommend reading more (as a primer) at Libertarianism.org.
The Far Right, on the other hand, is the opposite of libertarian, just as is the Far Left. Both the Far Right and the Far Left want to push their ideals on others (which violates the libertarian non-aggression principle). Those on the Far Right are usually nationalists (which isn’t necessarily a bad or good thing), while those on the Far Left push for a more “diverse” society (one that embraces diversity of color/culture/sexual orientation, but not political thought or opinion). More importantly, and the defining trait that separates them from libertarians, is that they are authoritarian. Some examples of far right are Fascists (think Mussolini’s Fascist Italy, Hitler’s Nazi – National Socialists – Germany, or Franko’s Spain) and the KKK. Examples of Far Left include anything communist (Soviet Union, China, North Korea). Basically, those places that killed millions to support their political ideology. If you have to kill people to make your ideology work, it’s not really a good ideology, is it?
You can read more about the Far Right in Wikipedia, but in the US, it boils down to nationalists who are also prone to be white supremacist racists. You will also see the Far Right pushing their version of Christianity on others, and being anti-Semitic, anti-Islam, anti-immigration, anti-gay, anti-transgender, anti-anyone other than them.
So, the key points are: libertarians support freedom through the non-aggression principle; the Far Right believes in authoritarianism that pushes their nationalist racist agenda. Know the difference.
James S. Peet, Author, novelist, and all around good guy! 
In your comments you seem to Ignore that very conservative people are not by definition racists or fascists. One is not required to lead to the other. A raging left winger can also be racist as are the Russians and Chinese generally.
Communism and fascism are two sides of the same coin. They both lead to an authoritarian gov’t.
Libertarianism has a lot going for it. It’s weakness is in dealing with bullies.
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Far Right and conservative are two separate entities. I didn’t ignore it, I just didn’t address it (conservatism and liberalism are different than the extreme left and right, which, as you point out, are authoritarian).
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See thats the problem in today’s political climate. You know and I know that conservatives and libertarians are not far right and are not the same. But we all get lumped in together by the far left. And currently that far left has the
MSM so we anyone right of Lenin is considered far right.
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Therein lies the problem – uneducated people making unfounded assertions.
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So how do we fix it? And that is an honest question, not sarcastic. We as a nation have become so divided that no one is listening to the other side anymore. There is no debate. So what do you think we should do?
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Again, another problem. The good thing about problems, though, is there is usually a solution (or more than one). Do what I do – whenever you see somebody refer to libertarians or conservatives as “right wing” or “Nazis”, call them out, but in a positive way (honey attracts just as many flies as shit, but tastes a whole lot sweeter). Push their political knowledge and educate them.
For example, whenever I see somebody wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt (you know the type – usually red with his bearded visage looking up from under a beret), I calmly ask the wearer, “Do you actually support mass murder?” That starts the conversation, as most are unaware that Guevara was a mass murderer, and then that leads into a conversation about the 150 million plus killed by communists. I had an old high school friend unfriend me on Facebook when I posed that question to him – he didn’t want to hear the truth.
If somebody says “Right Wing/Libertarian propoganda,” I respond with a blog posting, which shows up on my Amazon author page. You might want to address it by simply writing letters to the editor for the local newspaper highlighting differences between the Far Right and Conservatives, Conservatives and Libertarians, etc.. When doing so, though, it’s best to point out the symbols of the Far Right, which now seem to include the Stars and Bars (the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia during the War of Rebellion).
Another issue is that those on the far left view anyone to the political right of them as Nazis (including Libertarians). You can’t argue/debate/logically discuss with them – they’re zealots. Don’t bother. The key thing is to address these issues with moderates (liberals and conservatives) and just point out to the far right/left/authoritarian crowd just how wrong they are (got to kill people to force your system on them – then it’s not a good system).
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Good answers. I don’t have so much of that problem here in rural southern Oklahoma but I asked that with the thought that someone else might see these comments and wonder what they can do. I agree that most moderate people can be reasoned with however I do disagree that we should just not debate or try to logically speak to the zealots. One, they need to be called out on their crazy. Two, you never know when you might get through to them.
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I try to get across to people “right wing, left wing – same bird” (statism, authoritarian, government is mostly a/the solution- if they want to listen), whereas “libertarian – different bird” (different axis, freedom/liberty meanings, government mostly a/the problem).
But then I’m a novel-length communicator in a bumper sticker world :-).
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