Another libertarian lie

Libertarianism's big draw is its anti-government stance. But that stance is pure pretense: Once a capitalist achieves sufficient power, he is usually quite happy to become "as one" with the state. To such "liberty loving entrepreneurs," State power is acceptable when it can be used to keep the unruly proles in line (in this country or elsewhere). State power is unacceptable only when it inconveniences the mega-affluent.

Case in point. As you read the piece on the other end of that link, keep one thing in mind: Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos, generally classified as a libertarian. He gives a lot of money to the folks at Reason.

President Obama is now considering whether to order the Central Intelligence Agency to kill a U.S. citizen in Pakistan. That’s big news this week. But hidden in plain sight is the fact that Amazon would be an accessory to the assassination.

Amazon has a $600 million contract with the CIA to provide the agency with “cloud” computing services. After final confirmation of the deal several months ago, Amazon declared: “We look forward to a successful relationship with the CIA.”

The relationship means that Amazon -- logoed with a smiley-face arrow from A to Z, selling products to millions of people every week -- is responsible for keeping the CIA’s secrets and aggregating data to help the agency do its work. Including drone strikes.

Notably, Amazon did not submit the low bid for the $600 million contract. The firm won the deal after persuading the CIA of its superior technical capacities in digital realms.

Amazon is now integral to the U.S. government’s foreign policy of threatening and killing.

Bezos is often described as a "libertarian Democrat," an animal as mythical as the jackalope. True, he has donated to Democats like Patrick Leahy -- for the same reasons, I suspect, that lots of other ultra-rich personages have greased the palms of lots of other politicians.

Bezos also pretends to be a liberal, but his "liberalism" is all on social issues.

In the past, I've referred to GLIT -- the Great Libertarian Infiltration Tactic. Whenever libertarians realize that they've taken an unpopular stance on (say) Social Security or protecting the environment, they always switch the topic to something like gay marriage or pot legalization. It's easier to seem cool if your message is "Smoke joints!" instead of "Put your 87 year-old grandma back in the work force!"

Bezos is no Dem and certainly no liberal. He's just another billionaire libertarian, skilled in the ways of GLIT.

The better libertarians are against drone strikes and covert interference in other countries. But those libertarians don't have money.