When people stumble upon libertarianism, they realize they’ve discovered a great truth about humanity and this great truth can bring about the best possible world if only enough people became aware of it. They walk around for a long time in a constant state of blown-mindedness and the deeper they dig, the more their minds are blown. They get excited to share what they’ve found with others. They need to get the word out! It’s the human way. They’re soon surprised and later frustrated to find that people are resistant to accepting what is obviously true, even after hearing compelling logical arguments highlighting both moral and practical facts. They assume that, even though these arguments seem undeniable, they need to refine their messaging and try to make even more effective arguments. They need to improve their reach so that more people hear the message. If they can do that, people will see the light that they’ve seen, accept libertarianism and the world will become a better place.

But there are three things they’re missing.

1. Only certain people, and a very small quantity of people have the characteristics necessary to accept and internalize libertarianism. If you don’t have these characteristics, you will probably never it. No matter what. These characteristics are:
   1. The desire for knowledge as a strong personal value.
   2. The curiosity to find the truth of things.
   3. The ability to reason through that which one’s curiosity has uncovered.
   4. A basic practical, conceptual understanding of how the world works.
   5. The wherewithal to deprogram yourself.
   6. Most importantly, a weak tribal survival instinct.
2. The reason libertarianism is so compelling as a solution to social ills is because it describes the natural human social order. Libertarianism is already the way the way that the vast (99%) majority of humans interact the vast (99%) majority of the time. The disconnect is that libertarians confuse social order and political order. The social order is already libertarian. It’s the highly disruptive and destructive political order that libertarians see, rightfully, as a problem. They attempt to fix the problem of the chaotic political order by applying the rules of the harmonious social order. Both the political and social order are the result of the actions of humans, so it’s natural to assume that the same rules can apply to both. That’s not true. The political order is dominated by the Political Class; predatory, pathological personalities who are dedicated to exploiting the productive and dependent classes through manipulation, intimidation and even outright violence in the pursuit of power and wealth. These are people with genetic defects that result in anti-libertarian, pathological behavior. These defects can’t be fixed and these people will never accept libertarianism and will, in fact, fight against it if they feel they need to.
3. People don’t care that much about logical arguments. In fact, people don’t really care that much about truth. They care about social status. Their tribal survival instinct is compelling them to adopt the ideas and beliefs of the political elite. Humans have evolved, as a social species, to seek to improve their chances of survival and reproduction by improving their standing in the tribe. One of the most effective ways to do this is by adopting the ideas and beliefs of the tribal elite, who, after the agricultural revolution, have been replaced by the political elite. This is a genetically derived impulse, selected for by millions of years of evolution. It cannot be displaced.

Libertarians are, indeed, in possession of a great truth, but that truth applies only to the natural human social order and does not apply to the political order. This is why, even though for decades or even centuries, libertarians have won all the debates and proven their practical and moral ideas over and over, they still haven’t succeeded in advancing the acceptance of libertarianism in the mainstream and they likely never will.

Humans are genetically programmed to accept the ideas and beliefs of the tribal elite.

The tribal elite were replaced by the political elite after the agricultural revolution.

The political elite tend to be predatory, anti-libertarian people seeking to exploit mankind for their own purposes.

People adopt the ideas and beliefs of the political elite, which are designed to enable the exploitation of the people who adopt them.

This is the nature of the political order and this is what libertarians don’t get.