(For criticism of Leiter's substantive point, see this post by Michael Rappaport).Īnd it's not just bloggers who create libertarian strawmen. I happen to think that Leiter's argument that American public schools are "underfunded" is risible, but he should have the courtesy of waiting until I state my support for vouchers, and my reasons for that support, before attributing views to me. Leiter then goes on to argue against vouchers, responding to arguments I never made (again, read my post yourself). Meanwhile, Brian Leiter acknowledges the correctness of the sole point I made in a post on vouchers, which is that the extensive funding of vouchers would lead to a proliferation of private schools. Nor is it a logical implication of my contention that as a civil libertarian organization, the ACLU should prefer constitutionally protected civil liberties to antidiscrimination laws when there is a conflict, which there often isn't. Responding to an excerpt from my You Can't Say That! book posted at about the ACLU's abandonment of civil liberties in favor of antidiscrimination concerns, Mithras states: "According to Bernstein, nothing about fighting discrimination in employment, in housing, in public accomodations, or in education can possibly require government action." Read the excerpt for yourself I never make this argument, nor do I make this argument elsewhere in the book.
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But in a couple of recent instances, bloggers have criticized arguments I never made, setting me up as a libertarian strawman. Straw Man Criticism: Blogging, and being involved in public debates more generally, leaves one open to criticism, and sometimes the critics even turn out to be right.