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It just gets frustrating at school when people just tell me Libertarianism is anarchy. It's not.. and they don't know what they're talking about..

Discuss.

Well, some Libertarians are Anarchists, but I am a Minarchist, not the same thing. Libertarians are a diverse party. There are tons of different kinds.
PS first post in this guild.

Libertarians do believe in the rule of law. Laws that protect the citizens' rights are especially important and also laws that punish those who violate the rights of others. Libertarianism is about minimal government interference not the absence of government. Anyone who can't grasp this concept can't be very bright.

Libertarianism, at least as I understand it, is basically saying that having a little bit of government is good, but having more definately isn't better. According to libertarian principles, the government should be serving the citizens, not the other way around.
Most libertarians would probably agree, for instance, that criminal law should be limited to those things which directly hurt other people (IE:theft, murder, rape) rather than matters of lifestyle and personal choice (IE: sodomy laws and drug use).

isnt that what community and state governments are?

i believe that libertarian views can only survive with a healthy dose of anarchy. just enough for the people to take care of themselves. the united states was founded on that. the people were to take care of their communities, taxes, schools, etc...

its true that the locals are the only ones who can take care of themselves properly. i live in the country in ohio, we dont need someone in los angeles telling us how to run our farms, and the same goes for us telling them how to run their citys affairs. just like we dont like it when some other country tells us what we should do, compared to we shouldnt be in another country telling them how they should live.

anarchy gets a bad rap, too many people hear anarchy and think of graffiti and unruly kids looking for a fight. if people got to know real anarchists they would find different.

Libertarianism is not anarchy. rather, it is what is known as "minarchy" ...that is, minimalism of government. minimalism of government has a great many advantages, both to the government, and to its citizens. these advantages include (but are in no way limited to) great personal freedom and less expensive government (equating to less, or possibly no taxes)

there are, of course, drawbacks to this. One of the greatest drawbacks is less support from the government. In order for the government to support you, it must in some way limit or encumber you. the opposite of this, one of the principles of libertatianism, is not to limit or encumber you, and in order to do so, it has to support you less. We're not children. We do not need the support of parents (or an Uncle named Sam, as it were).

I forget to mention this but I should have. There are many different kinds of Libertarianism, even some forms of Anarchy are encompassed in Libertarianism, Market Anarchy being one. There is really no one school of thought in Libertarianism just as in Liberalism or Conservatism and so on.