What was Hunter S. Thompson closer to being politically?

[Eraserhead]

Option 1 but I've heard people argue for the other option before.

[dead0man]

Depends on ones definition of "liberal" and "libertarian".  He clearly wasn't your typical American "liberal".

[Lunar]

probably anarchist...so libertarian.  he was way too cynical of everything to be a good liberal

[dead0man]

Damn it!  Anarchist doesn't equal libertarian!  I want police, courts and a military thankyouverymuch.

[Eraserhead]

probably anarchist...so libertarian.  he was way too cynical of everything to be a good liberal

Anarchist? The guy basically loved George McGovern and Eugene McCarthy.

[Lunar]

Of course he did, he hated the Vietnam War didn't he?

Damn it!  Anarchist doesn't equal libertarian!  I want police, courts and a military thankyouverymuch.

anarchist ... well, I really meant "anti- The Man"

[Eraserhead]

Yeah, but he also seems to have strongly agreed with most of their economic and social policies. Read Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72.

[Lunar]

I've read it.  Maybe he's a bit of a personal anarchist while ideologically Democratic, so "liberal" could be right. 

He certainly didn't show much care for laws or authority throughout his life and he did like guns I think. 

[dead0man]

He loved guns, like all good hearted people.

[Eraserhead]

He loved guns, like all good hearted people.

Yet he didn't seem to care very much at all about ''bans'' on them from what I've read.

[Lief 🗽]

Wasn't he a fan of Che Guevara?

Lunar's right that he was very anti-authority, but I don't think that necessarily translated for him (or for many American liberals, actually) into being anti-government intervention in the economy.

[Eraserhead]

I'll just note that I don't think he considered himself to be a liberal or a libertarian. I'm sure he wouldn't like either label being placed on him but I still think he fell left of center on the vast majority of issues.

[© tweed]

he was too bright to fit into any retarded label that we throw around.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

he was too bright to fit into any retarded label that we throw around.

This.

Personally I think alot of his admiration for McCarthy and McGovern was due to what he felt was their 'humanness' and their perceived decency and that they weren't typical politicians.. and were against Nixon. But I don't think HST was particularly interested in politics-as-ideology. He greatly admired 60s San Fransisco hippies after all. Politics was a blood sport he watched for entertainment in large part. Same as most of us.

[they don't love you like i love you]

Damn it!  Anarchist doesn't equal libertarian!  I want police, courts and a military thankyouverymuch.

That doesn't mean you have to be a big cheerleader for them. I thought it was rather ridiculous seeing a "Libertarian" defend police brutality.

[Scam of God]

Left-libertarian, very vaguely; probably distributivist, and certainly not your orthodox free-market radical. He's therefore much more interesting, politically speaking, than run-of-the-mill libertarians.

[Scam of God]

probably anarchist...so libertarian.  he was way too cynical of everything to be a good liberal

Anarchist? The guy basically loved George McGovern and Eugene McCarthy.

I love George McGovern and Eugene McCarthy.

[jokerman]

Thompson was generally apathetic regarding economic issues; Fear and Loathing has very little commentary about them, esp. other than as strictly relates to campaign stylistics.  He was genuinely passionate about social and cultural liberalization, though, it seems.

[Mechaman]

probably anarchist...so libertarian.  he was way too cynical of everything to be a good liberal

Anarchist? The guy basically loved George McGovern and Eugene McCarthy.

I love George McGovern and Eugene McCarthy.

So do I.
Abortion, Amnesty, and Acid would've sold any hardcore libertarian.

[Mechaman]

Left-libertarian, very vaguely; probably distributivist, and certainly not your orthodox free-market radical. He's therefore much more interesting, politically speaking, than run-of-the-mill libertarians.

Also agree on this point.

[Mordecai]

He was an anarchist and anti-authoritarian, and he loved his guns and drugs, but he was a liberal. Just an extremely cynical one. Remember that he was friends with George McGovern and John Kerry, and endorsed Kerry for President in 2004.

[DemPGH]

He was a decided far left liberal who loved guns but did not care very much for gun culture. Anti-corporatism is laced all through his work, most especially The Rum Diary (which is brilliantly funny) and his critique of capitalism in Las Vegas (probably the book I've read the most times) leaves no doubt that he was NO Libertarian. He also repeatedly despises "high rollers." It's possible to argue in his later years that he kind of "sold out" and accepted that he had become a kind of brand, but he was no Libertarian. He viewed capitalism without restraint as a clear form of outright degeneracy.

He was also a perfect example of a person who existed at the zone where madman and genius intersect.

[Potatoe]

A bada**terian.

[Meursault]

he was no Libertarian. He viewed capitalism... as a clear form of outright degeneracy.

So do Actually Existing Libertarians.

[TNF]

he was no Libertarian. He viewed capitalism... as a clear form of outright degeneracy.

So do Actually Existing Libertarians.

By Actually Existing Libertarians, I assume you are referring to actual libertarians, i.e. class struggle anarchists or anarcho-syndicalists, or any variety or shade of anarchism that tinges the black with the red?