libertarianism

What it means

1. countableuncountableeconomicsA political philosophy maintaining that all persons are the absolute owners of their own lives, and should be free to do whatever they wish with their persons or property, provided they allow others that same liberty.

   The peculiar brand of libertarianism in vogue within technology circles means a minority of members—a couple of outspoken misogynists—can disproportionately affect the behavior and mood of the group under the cover of free speech.

   2014, Astra Taylor, chapter 4, in The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   Nevertheless, advocates of individual freedom not only continue to exist, but are increasing in number. Refugees from the Old Right, the Old Left and the New Left, they are organizing independently under the New Right banner of libertarianism.

   1971 January 10, Stan Lehr, Louis Rossetto, “The New Right Credo–Libertarianism”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Isaacson reports that Musk’s fractured relationship with Jenna, who is trans, partly led to Musk’s rightward turn toward libertarianism and questioning what he considers the “woke-mind-virus, which is fundamentally antiscience, antimerit, and antihuman.”

   2023 September 12, Paul Glader, “Four takeaways from Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk”, in CNN

2. countableuncountablehuman sciencesThe doctrine of free will, as opposed to necessitarianism.

In a sentence

Nevertheless, advocates of individual freedom not only continue to exist, but are increasing in number. Refugees from the Old Right, the Old Left and the New Left, they are organizing independently under the New Right banner of libertarianism.

1971 January 10, Stan Lehr, Louis Rossetto, “The New Right Credo–Libertarianism”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Where it comes from

From libertarian + -ism.