By Scott Tibbs, August 27, 2015
As I have opposed the proposal to ban plastic bags in the city of Bloomington, Leftists have attacked me for being a "hypocrite" in arguing for individual liberty in the ability to choose how to gather up groceries and take them home. My alleged "hypocrisy" is that I am opposed to abortion and have advocated for laws making it illegal, and that I have opposed state recognition of same-sex "marriage."
Let's tackle abortion first. When I said that banning plastic grocery bags is "too much of an intrusion of government into private choices," an anonymous (naturally) poster called me a "misogynist hypocrite" because of my opposition to abortion. But this is actually a very simple distinction. I believe that consenting adults should be able to do pretty much whatever they want unless they cause harm to someone else. As you can see from photographs of aborted babies, abortion does harm someone else. Using a plastic bag, in and of itself, harms no one. So there is no hypocrisy here.
You want to use a plastic bag to take your groceries home? Go for it. You want to smoke marijuana? I wish you would not do that, but I do not think it is government's role to put you in jail for it. But if you want to kill a baby, you should not be permitted to make that choice. Limited government is not anarchism, and indeed cannot be. Limited government assumes there is some sort of government to limit.
Bringing up same-sex "marriage" is a fundamental misunderstanding of my position on that issue. I am not in favor of having the state restrict anyone's choices. I have said in the past, and I still believe, that government should not pass laws banning sodomy. If a same-sex couple wants to go to a "church" that will perform a "wedding" ceremony, they should be allowed to do that. However, the government should not recognize that as a marriage, legally. People can live as they choose without an endorsement from the civil magistrate.
It is highly instructive, though, that Leftists start whining about abortion and same-sex "marriage" every time I argue for limited government an individual liberty on a topic that has absolutely nothing to do with either of those issues. That is because sexual libertinism is the sacrament of liberalism, and no dissent is allowed on that whatsoever. The fact that Leftists whine about abortion and sodomy in a discussion that has absolutely nothing to do with either demonstrates their mentality and how they are slaves to their lusts.
