To use a phrase from Nick Gillespie, I consider myself a “squishy libertarian.” As in, I certainly have principles, but I’m unwilling to let principles get in the way of productive policy/discussion. In other words, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

I don’t want to be a moderator, and I will happily give up my spot once I find someone willing to take it on. In general, I believe moderation should be extremely light, and I’ve pushed back on heavier moderation on Reddit. However, I will also not tolerate bigotry or any kind of intolerance. In general, I agree with this post about Beehaw, and I’d like to have this community run similar to the high-level ideals of that post.

In general:

• I’m 100% okay with “taboo” topics, but only in the sense that I believe the best way to combat intolerance is to debate it in the open, not shut it down
• no-one is above criticism - I will never ban anyone for criticizing me, and I will probably upvote it for visibility; I expect the same for everyone
• no ad-hominem attacks - this is something I do think should be removed because it’s completely unproductive
• there’s no such thing as off-topic discussion - the idea is to facilitate discussion from a libertarian perspective, not limit it to libertarian policies

This is my first time truly running a community like this, and I’m very new to Lemmy in general, so please be patient as I figure out what everything means.