Libertarian discourse and events are occasions to encounter “high systemizing and low empathizing” in one sense. I’m a woman who is quite comfortable in such environments — in fact, I’m far more comfortable in those environments than touchy-feely environments where people spend a great deal of time couching everything they say. I was at a libertarian event recently where a grown man got emotional on a topic we were debating and it was so atypical that I was uncomfortable for days. I’m far more used to libertarians having lengthy and even quite vigorous debates on some seriously outlandish ideas without anyone reacting emotionally.

But there’s a way of interpreting this data to suggest that libertarian ideas themselves aren’t supportive of emotional engagement and community involvement. And, unfortunately, most media presentation of libertarian ideas falls into that trap. That’s because media tend to be biased in favor of government action. A casual reading of any newspaper reveals a frequent assumption that government should be “doing more” in response to some problem. That assumption is presented as the compassionate choice, no matter how many decades of failed government programs we can point to. It’s just kind of an easy journalistic trope.