Libertarians sometimes seem to be obsessed with advancing freedom, but actually their obsession is with the state, which is not the same thing.

Take the mask wearing 'controversy', for example...

Freedom to live and freedom to live in health are two of the most humanly profound ways to be free.

With Covid, your right to either is clearly placed under threat by a competitor: the freedom to not cover your face in enclosed public places.

But ask a libertarian...

More often than not the immediate villain of the piece will be the state, and there will be no recognition that real life brings rights and freedoms into conflict.

It was the same for drink driving, wearing seatbelts, and passive smoking.

In each of those cases, those who stood to lose their right to life or limb due to the actions of others were expected to go without any protection for their rights or liberty.

Why? Libertarians stop caring about your rights as soon as state or community action begins.

Libertarian validity can be debated all day, but the ethical blind eye it turns when individual rights are privately rather than publicly curtailed or infringed - this is a vein of hypocrisy that reveals deeper and fairly fatal contradictions.

I won't get Covid for your liberty.