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Comment by thecrow1213 | Hacker News Reader

Thanks for sharing, very interesting stuff. The more unbiased studies we have like this the better.

I wouldn't refer to the Cato Institute as anything but biased, as it's a neo-con libertarian think tank funded by the Koch Brothers but this particular study is fascinating simply because it IS a neo-con libertarian think tank funded by the Koch Brothers.

Neo-con libertarian? What evidence do you have to support the claim that Cato is neo-con?

Wikipedia cites Cato as being critical of neo-con foreign policy and the Iraq War.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute#Libertarianism....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute#On_foreign_poli...

Do you know what neo-con means? Serious question

I'm not terribly surprised that someone would think "neo-con" and "libertarian" were near synonyms. A lot of people seem to have it in their head that libertarians are just hardcore conservatives (and for some reason think neo-con just means an extremely conservative person).

How is that fascinating? Libertarianism as an ideology is overtly based on the theory that everyone ought to have extreme and full personal freedom to do whatever they like, so long as it does not affect anyone else. They have long advocated the full legalization of marijuana and all other drugs.

Neoconservativism and libertarianism are very different ideologies, by the way. Perhaps the out-group homogenity bias is at work? [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-group_homogeneity

> as long as it does not affect anyone else

Unless it's a big corp causing harm to people in which case they fight tooth and nail to prevent any kind of legislation that might fix the issue see discouraging tobacco smoking, global warming, coal pollution, fracking and so on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heartland_Institute

> this particular study is fascinating simply because it IS a neo-con libertarian think tank funded by the Koch Brothers.

Of course a libertarian think tank would argue for drug legalization; that's not surprising at all. (I say this as one who also supports drug legalization, whose politics are in many ways diametrically opposite to libertarianism.)

Cato is libertarian, but it's about as far from neocon as you can get. They opposed both Iraq wars.

I don't find it surprising at all that people with an agenda can still look at things objectively.

Especially since we all have agendas, and I like to think I'm fairly objective.

I thought noe-con usually meant big government / big buisiness / status-quo republican, which is pretty different from libertarian.

Honestly, what is your issue with the Koch Brothers?

They like things he doesn't like?

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