I'm not sure whether I qualify as an anti-idiotarian in all respects, but I know I'm an Independentarian. It's like being a libertarian, but not supporting a lot of self-destructive and harmful "rights" and emphasizing independence, as distinguished from liberty and freedom.

The principles, which I learned from writers like Thomas Jefferson, Barry Goldwater and Robert Heinlein, is that citizenship has to be earned, and that independence consists of not allowing yourself to be dependent, self-reliance, hard work, education and obedience to the law. Those who promote all rights, all the time, are willing to allow society to become corrupted in the name of individual rights. I think that societies have to protect themselves from corruption by insisting that their members maintain some standards.

This is a slippery slope argument that they don't like, but freedom is like walking along a ridge with slippery slopes on both sides. If you get off too far on either the government power side or the individual rights side, you'll have a society that you don't want to live in. It's Iraq, Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia on one side and Sodom and Gomorrah on the other.

I live here too. And I don't think that I or my family should have to endure a hostile envronment of drugs, obscenity and freakishness everytime we step out of our home. Communities should have standards and be free to enforce them within limits, but stripping them of that power has become the coventional wisdom, and it will lead us the way of Rome and the Greeks and every other great civilizations throughout history.

I also believe in tolerance. Free speech is fine, but obscenity is not. I saw a kid working at the grocery store the other night wearing a teeshirt emblazoned with "Eat Beaver! Save a Tree" If it had been my store, he'd have been told to ditch the shirt while at work or find other employment. I don't think that the Nazis had a right to march through Skokie, Illinois, although I wouldn't have objected to their marching in Grant Park in Chicago. If the KKK wants to burn a cross at a rally, let them. But not on public property or in the yards or neighborhoods of people whose familes and friends have been lynched in the past. People should be able to feel save and to have a place, not just their own property boundaries, where they enjoy living.

My thoughts on all this are evolving, so I will probably continue to post on this. It's not a bright line philosophy. It takes balancing between freedoms of individuals and the reasonable expectations we have from living in society. I think that the pendulum has swung too far, because of groups like the ACLU and a compliant media.

Update: I am against elites of any kind. Some people have the wealth to buy power and influence, and we can't prevent that without violating theirr own fundamental rights, I'm opposed to it whether they're pushing gun rights or gay rights. I don't like the realities of campaign fundraising or campaign finance, but I think that it would be worse than campaign finance reform laws. Everybody has to respect everybody else, including Christians, prudes and bluenoses.