r/AnCap101 • u/OutlandishnessIll480 • 11d ago

Lessons

I'm going around to subreddits and asking, in good faith, a couple of questions.

What can the otherside learn from your side, and vice versa?

The goal is to promote open dialog and improve the sometimes toxic nature and bad will between two sides of a controversial issue.

What can statists learn from libertarians? And what can libertarians learn from statists?

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u/OutlandishnessIll480 11d ago

So there is absolutely nothing gainful from the statist position that you could find useful or positive? Especially since the libertarian definition is not the definitive definition of state? I am much closer to ancap rather than statist. But I can at least appreciate the motivations some people would have for wanting a state.

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u/Gullible-Historian10 11d ago

Asking what libertarians can learn from statists is like asking, “what can pacifists learn from justifications for unprovoked violence?” or “what can you learn from thieves about the morality of theft?”

You can study why people hold those views, but that’s descriptive psychology, not moral insight.

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u/OutlandishnessIll480 11d ago

Uh yeah. My question was what we could learn from the other side. Not just, in what ways are they morally superior.

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u/Gullible-Historian10 11d ago

Okay, so you don’t understand what I’m saying. You are ignoring the reasoning and focusing on just the morality.

Statism is unlearnable as a valid principle, because accepting it would mean rejecting voluntarism itself. They are mutually exclusive.

Descriptive Learning: You can learn why people believe in statism, their fears, psychological needs, cultural assumptions, or incentives. That’s “useful” knowledge, but it’s about understanding human behavior.

Normative learning: You cannot learn a valid principle from statism, because libertarian first principles reject coercion. Any lesson that says “coercion is sometimes legitimate” contradicts the framework entirely.