Is Firefly libertarian?
I am referring to the Jos Whedon science fiction show that went off the air after eight (?) episodes. I now have watched the available corpus of eleven episodes available on DVD. Many call it libertarian, I see the implicit politics as suggesting the following:
1. Don’t expect much from armed rebellion, the bad guys often win.
2. A galaxy devoid of the rule of law is not such a fun place.
3. Smuggler heroes are noble, but most smugglers are not heroes.
4. Economies of scale matter, and secession is a hard life.
In other words, it is actually Burkean conservative.
One of the heroines is a "companion", so I wonder if the series endorses legalized prostitution. We are told repeatedly that she is "registered" (legally, in the form of a cartel?), and she seems to look down on garden-variety you-know-whats, who presumably also engage in price shading.
Alina Stefanescu offers Firefly commentary; see Rod Long as well. Dan Drezner describes his conversion to the series, plus offers his usual excellent links. Jacqueline Passey is another avid fan.