Who gives a shitdarn what they think?

Over the past few days of web-crawling I keep getting directed to a Forbes article from some guy named Bruce Bartlett, whom I've barely heard of, but who has apparently outraged Libertarians from sea to shining sea. This sunny, cool Sunday morning I was having coffee and Lew Rockwell and came upon this:

Bartlett's remarks were truly maddening and contorted. He separates libertarians into the unsophisticated rednecks and rubes who are only interested in not paying taxes, and in survivalism and gun culture; and effete, unprincipled, cosmopolitan metro-libertarians who don't mind paying taxes and who are not very career-oriented.

What a bizarre dichotomy. First, despite some unsavory characteristics of some metro-beltway libertarians, even most of them are in fact against taxes, and many of them are actual gun owners. And it is natural for think-tank and beltway types to be less "career-oriented" than typical professional working people. As for the anti-income-taxers, as noted, many of them are in fact metro-libertarians, but even outside the beltway, many of us are in fact sophisticated, educated, and professionals, and we are very principled and interested not only in tax abolition but in abolition of a depressingly wide array of state policies that violate rights.

Yes, you're ugly and your mother wears army boots. Seriously, while I haven't kept a journal or anything, I must have seen this guy Bartlett's article come up half a dozen times in the past three or four days and I don't even follow the sort of discussions that would normally notice its existence. Which means that the actual "Big-L" types must be immolating themselves in protest on Bartlett's front lawn.

But people. Read the first paragraph of this blasphemous article:

I recently attended a dinner with a group of prominent liberal and libertarian bloggers to see if there is a community of interest that might lead to closer cooperation on some issues.

Prominent bloggers.

Hm. Just how many "prominent bloggers" are there in this plane of reality, and how much influence do they actually wield? IOW, who really gives a shitdarn (sorry; it's Sunday) what "prominent bloggers," or Bruce Bartlett for that matter, say or think about anything? I know I live in a bubble and all, but is this really a serious concern?

People get wadded up over the darndest things. How're your preps coming?