Wednesday, July 30, 2014

...to be you and me

The Abigail Hernandez case is not the kind of thing I enjoy writing about, and generally I don't. But aside from certain mercies (the victim surviving) and petty pleasures (confidence that I would have avoided Nathaniel Kibby like the plague) there are things to learn here. First:
He was found guilty then of assaulting a female student by grabbing her while she tried to board a school bus. That same year, he faced charges for using false information to buy an “AK-47 type weapon,” according to a police report.
Then:
Kibby later protested the bail conditions in a court filing, saying his firearms were “of immense equitable value” and that he was not a threat because he lived by an “objectivist libertarian moral code.”
I wouldn't say that Kibby is representative of people who call themselves libertarians, but he is illustrative of the fact that the word "libertarian" need not mean much of anything. The most meaningful definition of freedom allows for it to be compatible with the same amount of freedom for all others. It obviously does not support depriving others - specifically women and young girls - of their most basic rights. And yet Kibby thinks he's for freedom. None so blind.

2 comments:

susan said...

I hadn't heard about this case until I read the article you linked to that gave me the impression the police had just recently raided his property and rescued the girl. What a bizarre story. You're right that the guy has a completely skewed version of the meaning of freedom.

Ben said...

Yeah, I was relieved that she was returned to her family relatively all right. Relatively. I'm sure there's some damage.

On the lookout for a happier bizarre story!