Is a "socialist libertarian" a thing?

[Deepak]

How much does it really matter to you?

Personally I've never met anyone of any political stripe who described themselves as belonging to some ism without the inevitable string of caveats.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Socialist libertarian is an oxymoron.

Libertarianism is about keeping government out of one's life as much as is feasible.

Socialism requires major intrusion by government into one's life.


The "socialist libertarian" position seems to be basically about leaving me alone but taking from others to provide me with as much as possible of the necessities of life.

Yep. the position would be libertarian with a hypocritical stance on health care.

Note that I describe myself as a moderate libertarian--I recognize there are cases where the libertarian approach falls down.

I'm still only for the minimum needed state intrusion, unlike the liberals.

 

[Tammuz]

The problem is that implementing universal anything (which is impossible) requires a very strong centralized government. As governments become powerful, they generally start trying to force their social agenda.

I see your point, but I don't think that HAS to happen. I think Canada has done pretty well on that front. We have universal health care, but not universal basic income. We have a pretty free society. Women can go topless in Ontario in public if they want, or they can wear burqas. Prostitution was recently made illegal (which I fought against) but marijuana laws are loosening up (which I also fought for). There is currently an election issue of whether or not women should be allowed to wear Islamic face coverings while taking the oath of citizenship, and all but one party is against a ban on it. I think there is hope here that we could become what I envision. I also agree with RavenSky that Bernie Sanders seems to be pushing for the same in the US.

"Democratic Socialist" is Bernie's term? Maybe that is what I am.

I find it very perplexing that someone like you, who generally approves of the Canadian system, that has much lower taxes than we have in Sweden (almost as low as the US), refer yourself as a "socialist".

Personally I think Canada seems like a great country.