My political philosophy, as with many reflective people on the right, is characterized by a fundamental and irreconcilable tension between libertarianism and conservatism.
I am, in most ways that matter for policy, a libertarian. The fancier phrase is classical liberal, but this is primarily a label that grown-up libertarians use to distinguish themselves from adolescent (or adolescent-brained) libertarians. More precisely, people use “classical liberal” to signal that they have libertarian impulses, but are also not unreflective about the role of the state in providing a stable business environment, investing in infrastructure, providing for the national defense, and the like.
Fundamentally, I view the state as a kind of tragic necessity, something we must merely tolerate, because without it, no civilization we can conceive of is possible. I think it is possible AI will change this—that “AI,” very broadly conceived, may one day be able to conduct enough of the core functions of the state that new architectures of civilization will become possible. As a “classical liberal,” I am intrigued by this.
