Reason.tv: The Libertarian Youth Movement - Q&A with Michelle Fields of Students for Liberty

Do college students dig libertarianism? Which libertarian issues play well on campus?

Michelle Fields is the campus coordinator for the Los Angeles chapter of Students for Liberty. She sat down with Reason.tv's Tim Cavanaugh at Libertopia to discuss the state of libertarianism on college campuses.

Approximately 3 minutes. Camera by Zach Weissmueller and Adam Hawk Jensen. Edited by Weissmueller.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

At about the four minute mark Cavanaugh quizzes his subject about her take on libertinism, focusing on easing social mores with respect to cross-generational hookups.

[Mike in PA]

She's pretty hot - I'd ease some social mores with her!

[any girl]

Sorry, I don't do mouth breathers

[SugarFree]

Being born with a deviated septum isn't his fault, you harpy.

[Koch Head]

Neither is a cocaine addiction.

[harpy]

So this Is the Revenge of the Nerds site! I've been searching all over for it.

[Hundocumented]

legalizing dope and gay marriage but, right now we're focused on economic issues. as soon as the economy turns around we'll get our dope in the end.

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[Lost_In_Translation]

As a whole, college students are borderline libertine communitarians. They care less about economics and politics and more about in-crowds and feeling good*. I'd say it reflects society at large about the same amount, just with less experience.

* read: drugs and sex (rock and roll is merely a header or footer in the pages listed)

[Mango Punch]

"What would be something other than condumns that students would be interested in getting?" -TC

Really, Tim? Really??

*obviously 4Loco

[prolefeed]

Apparently Reason columnists are allowed to softly hit on hot chicks.

[Wind Rider]

Softly? That might be all the 'game' he's got. . .

[Colin]

+1

[SIV]

"Republicans...they're more receptive to ideas of liberty..."

They're cool with drug legalization but not positive rights...hmmmm.

[SIV]

The only SFL chapter in SoCal is at:

Welcome to Pepperdine University
Pepperdine University is a Christian university committed to the highest standards of academic excellence and Christian values, where students are strengthened for lives of purpose, service, and leadership.

[dbcooper]

We had an active campus libertarian movement at Berkeley.

[Episiarch]

At Johns Hopkins, no one gave a shit about politics; people were either there to become doctors and make a shitload of money, or to...well, that was really about it.

[dbcooper]

It was about 70% that (including serious career science/engineering academic types) and 30% to be annoying and treat people you actually meet shoddily while opining about saving the world etc at UCB.

[Barry D]

All these years, and he's been right here on Reason, posting stuff...

[Mr Whipple]

I went to their regional Conference at Drexel a few months ago. Speakers were; Stefan Molyneux (Freedomain Radio), Ed Hudgins (Atlas Society), Matt Harrison (Prometheus Inst.), Samantha Harris (FIRE), and the keynote was David Boaz (Cato). There were about 150-200 students. Mostly from Drexel and UPenn (which is right next door.) Everything went smooth. I enjoyed it.

The International Conference is Feb 18-20, in DC. Dr Tyler Cohen (George Mason U) is the keynote.

[The Gobbler]

"Do college students dig libertarianism?"

That college students are idiots renders this moot.

[AA]

Be easy on us. We have a pretty big SFL group here at Arizona Sate.

[SugarFree]

College students are a mixed bag. It's hard to grasp economic libertarianism until you have to make your own way in life. Although, around here, I see far less outright socialists than other campuses I've been to.

My new favorite joke is the hand them a huge "portable" cassette recorder from the 70s and tell them it's a Soviet iPod.

[Wind Rider]

In Soviet Union, iPod downloads YOU!

[SugarFree]

By the way, could you guys have paused that on a worse spot? LIBDURRTARIANISM!

[Dagny T.]

Cavanaugh's zombie fixation rears its unsavory head once again.

[ziggy]

say what, a fuckable girl that's a libertarian?
she's actually cute...

On a side note, I notice more among my generation (under 30) take a liking to libertarian ideals. Not sure if it will lead anything but I notice much more people into it than just 3 years ago.

[Barry D]

3 years ago they still believed in the O.

[nekoxgirl]

The former liberals did. The former conservatives started going libertarian after 2004. At least in my circle of friends.

[Sy]

Same here, but where I'm located, you tend to get more of the militant christian-right mixed in with a sprinkle of the social-injustice-du-jour progressives.

[nekoxgirl]

Speaking as someone from the same age group, I have noticed that trend too.

[stepherz]

I am a college student, and I read this blog all the time. Some of the girls on my dorm floor seem to have libertarian tendencies, too. But I have to remember that I am at a engineering college; geeks tend to like liberty more.

[Barry D]

An engineering college, and "girlS" on your dorm floor?

Things HAVE changed...

[stepherz]

The student pop is still 23% girls the rest boys lol. My dorm building has 11 floors and only two are for girls. But I like the ratio. More boys to choose from. "The odd are good, but the goods are odd."

[Barry D]

AFAIK when my MIL went to CalTech she still had to walk halfway across campus to find a Women's room. Not a joke.

"The odd are good, but the goods are odd." LOL True elsewhere, too. 🙂

[Alan]

That's what the women said at McMurdo, too.

[Alan]

That's what the women said at McMurdo, too.

[Vermont Gun Owners]

SWE scholarships. The girls get tons of money.

[stepherz]

I only got 500 dollars a year for lacking a y chromosome and having the word "science" in my major. The college did court me however. There was a girl's night where you spent the night in a dorm room and got an awesome breakfast

[Barry D]

"There was a girl's night where you spent the night in a dorm room and got an awesome breakfast"

Uh, oh, never mind...

[stepherz]

??? Was there something weird about what I wrote?

[Kroneborge]

Not really, but some/most minds on here will turn anything into inudendo.

[Barry D]

"Inudendo?"

You're really not helping anyone not to do that, Kroneborge!

No, nothing weird, stepherz. Funny, though, that the college courted you, had you spend a night in its dorm room, then fed you breakfast. Certainly, the college experience has become more intimate lately, though. 🙂

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

When I was in college, I would have bought a girl breakfast if she spent a night in my dorm room.

[SIV]

"Title IX For Science"

I'm not driving over any new bridges in a few years.

[Legate Damar]

Geeks tend to engage in system-level thinking. This trait tends to force them towards the edges of the political compass. And since many geeks are wary of the politics of popularity (see High School, Geeks in) that tends to point them towards the libertarian edge.

[Barry D]

I suppose also that women at an engineering school have already self-selected against going to USC, majoring in Sociology and rushing Mom's sorority.

[Rhayader]

Two good points. +2.

[Barry D]

Where were the cute libertarian chicks when I was in school?

[SIV]

In the College Republicans or YAF?

[SugarFree]

The only girl I knew in the College Republicans had a clit big enough to fuck you with.

[Barry D]

And you found this out when...

[Dagny T.]

Why do I feel like this isn't the first time we've heard about the huge clit girl? Or is this a different one, and you are just a magnet for strange genitalia?

[SugarFree]

Same one. From the thumb-dick and pinky-clit debacle.

[JW]

I swear that there was this amazingly hot girl who was into me, back in my college days, simply because I was a loud-mouthed libertarian in my gummint & politics classes. She was a wonky type and I guess I was the bad boy from the outside with my radical viewz.

Being so hot as she was, it never occurred to me that she was dropping all of these subtle hints to make the sex with her, until my Gomer Pyle-level psyche finally caught on, too late, and by then she had lost interest. "You want us to study in your bedroom? All of your roommates are just outside the door, so, OK, I guess."

Such is my life.

[DD Driver]

I'm 80% sure that this never happened.

[JW]

Really? I make up stories of how dim I could be in my yout and how I didn't get laid by this hot chick?

You got me. I should have known better than to try and get one past you, nameless lurker.

[Odarious]

Lol, I can't believe that a guy didn't get laid. There's just no fucking way.

[SugarFree]

JW,

I believe in your sexual ineptitude. Who cares what anyone else thinks?

[Cyto]

She's obviously a Koch created astroturf being pushed by the Kochtopus on a Koch-funded website. Therefore, her views are suspect.

[Wind Rider]

You're just all tingly that you got to type "Kochtopus" on this particular thread.

[Clich? Bandit]

If she is a bond villian for liberty does that make her "Kochtapussy Galore"?

[Robert]

Other than that it's around now and they're not, does SFL have any advantage over Students for a Libertarian Society or the Libertarian Student Associations that existed on some campuses? Or over SIS, which AFAIK still exists?

[shrike]

Libertarian means "libertine" when you are in college.

When you hit 50 it means a 35% top marginal tax rate.

[Jordan]

Yeah, taxes are all Reason ever writes about. Time for your meds, statist.

[shrike]

I'm fine with Reason Magazine.

But its you fucking conservative Jim DickMint loving posters that only care about tax rates I object to.

Until we shitcan the SoCons this country will only stagnate.

[Mr Whipple]

...Jim DickMint loving posters

+ 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

conservative Jim DickMint loving posters

Are you conflating those people with libertarians again?

[Trespassers W]

Conflating is shreik's superpower.

[Jordan]

But its you fucking conservative Jim DickMint loving posters that only care about tax rates I object to.

Like I said, time for your meds, because you're obviously hallucinating.

[Mr Whipple]

Yes, her name was Libertine.

[Brandybuck]

A few years ago I was talking to some UCB students, and they were amazed I was a libertarian. Their experience with libertarians on campus had led them to believe that they were all angry randroids thumping the Atlas Shrugged Bible.

But that was then. I suspect today they think all libertarians are 9/11 Troofers who think reptilian aliens are spraying us with chemtrails.

[Barry D]

That's what they're taught in class, isn't it?

[Trespassers W]

reptilian aliens are spraying us with chemtrails

THAT'S what the secret message says. I think my decoder ring is busted.

[Nash]

Not reptilian. They are amphibious. I saw it when they used the NYC sewer system to take down the WTC.

[Joe C]

You're way off on this one. I'm part of the only libertarian organization at UCF, one of the largest universities in the nation. They're primarily anti-statists who are well read in the area of economics.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Which libertarian issues play well on campus?

I'm guessing the sex and drugs part.

[Mongo]

She'll turn Dominionist Republican as soon as she marries Cash McCracker, Esq.

[Cash McCracker, Esq.]

I prefer them submissive, but I'll take her anyway.

[Mr Whipple]

I knew a "Mongo" years ago. He was the Regulator (President) of the Pagans Motorcycle Club, Gloucester City Chapter. He past away about 12 years ago.

[The Bearded Hobbit]

"And you, sir, are no Mongo."

There, finished it for ya.

... Hobbit

[Alan]

As others have mentioned, she *is* cute.

But, in fact, I have met a couple cute libertarian girls before.

[Becky Chandler]

I don't know Daddy-O

[DW]

CAVANAUGH NEEDS A CLASS IN INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE. THIS WAS A MESS...AND NO TIMMY, SHE HAS ABSOLUTELY 0 INTEREST IN YOU

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