Throughout the years, I have met a number of libertarians who were, growing up (and, uh, are still...)"Comic Book Geeks." I don't know if there have been any statistical surveys correlating"Comic Book Geek" beginnings and libertarian ends. But you might want to take this test or this test to examine your own"Comic Book Geek Purity."

There are a few CBGs among us at L&P, including Roderick Long and Aeon Skoble, the latter of whom is the central focus of my Notablog post today:"The Comic Book Geek Revolutionaries."

Common Sense - 9/16/2005

As a libertarian who enjoyed comic books and dungeons and dragons from ages 12-14, my guess is that there is a strong correlation between longtime LP membership and adult-onset comic-book geekdom, star trek geekdom, dungeons and dragons geekdom, forty-year-old-virgin geekdom, Ayn Rand geekdom, and, for that matter, hairy-palm geekdom. Not that there's anything wrong with these things.

Common Sense - 9/16/2005

It shouldn't be too suprising that a genre geared toward unrealistic fantasies has a great deal of overlap with dogmatic libertarianism.

Sincerely,

A non-dogmatic libertarian

Jason Kuznicki - 9/15/2005

I do enjoy movies. But I don't have to <em>read</em> them while watching them--at least not in the languages I know.

A comic book is a lot of the same annoyance as a subtitled move to me, with the added bonus that you never know where the subtitle is going to be next, and that you don't know which picture you're supposed to look at afterward, and that you often don't even know who said what when.

Aeon J. Skoble - 9/14/2005

Well, different strokes for different folks, but... do you enjoy movies?

Jason Kuznicki - 9/14/2005

I have never been able to get into comic books. I find the blend of words and pictures distracting to no end--almost totally unreadable, in fact.

csciabarra - 9/14/2005

Yes, Jesse, you can be a Comic Strip Geek. I love comic strips too. :)

Anyway, good points made by Stormy, and you're welcome, Aeon. :)

Jesse Walker - 9/14/2005

Is it possible to be a comic strip geek? Or am I a species of one?

Stormy Dragon - 9/14/2005

American comics are incredibly individualist in nature. There very idea of a superhero is predicated on the belief that the best engine for change is individual action.

It shouldn't be too suprising that a genre geared toward individualists has a great deal of overlap with libertarianism.

Aeon J. Skoble - 9/14/2005

Thanks for the kind words, Chris. I have a comment on your other blog.