Means and Ends (Joshua Cohen & Glenn Loury)

[TwinSwords]

Originally Posted by Unit

What's wrong with any of those two statements?

Hi Unit. Hope you are doing well.

I think miceelf and Stephanie have already answered this better than I can, but I'll just add a couple thoughts:

TNC made the "drug war" quip in the context of Ron Paul and his defenders' recent suggestions that Ron Paul can't possibly be a racist, because he's in favor of legalizing drugs. That's a preposterous -- and, more importantly, dishonest -- argument.

For one thing, the opposition to the drug war has nothing to do with concern for black people; in fact, to suggest otherwise would contravene a (supposedly) sacred libertarian principle -- that they don't see "groups," because that's collectivism, they only see individuals. Libertarians are opposed to drug wars on philosophical grounds; they don't believe the government has the right to regulate private (individual) behavior. This has nothing to do with blacks; if there were no black people in existence, the libertarian position on the drug war would be exactly the same. Libertarians have been advocating for drug legalization for a long time -- long before they ever thought to utilize the position as proof of their love for black people.

What's surprising is that libertarians don't realize how transparently dishonest their argument is in this case.

To the broader, more general questions you raised: There's nothing wrong, per se, with saying you have black friends, or with saying you're against the drug war. It all depends on the context. If you've just gone on and on about how lazy blacks are or how they are genetically inferior to whites, saying "I have black friends" is a thin defense against the charge of racism.