See http://www.isil.org/resources/introduction.swf for a short video that does a fair job summarizing the philosophy.

To be sure, in political discussions, political libertarians often set aside social matters. But that's because they think political means are inappropriate for the achievement of social goals. Maybe right-wing libertarians in 20th century America have tended to see social matters as unimportant, but the main historical streams of libertarianism are not like that.

There are many ways in which societal pressure may feel coercive. But that shouldn't mean all taboos and social stigmas are wrong and should be eliminated (particularly through legislation). There's a role for shaming people into good behavior, and it's much nicer to do it that way than legislating them into good behavior.

At some point, people can decide to resist social pressure and do what they want anyway. Which is what legitimizes social pressure as a non-coercive means of affecting social policy; that you CAN choose to resist it, but that other members of society have a right to impose that pressure when it is in their interest. People can choose not to associate with you if they believe something you are doing is wrong, and you have to be willing to make the sacrifice to accept that other members of society maybe aren't going to accept you.

This is a bit like the political correctness debate. There's a lot of social pressure on college campuses to conform to a particular code of conduct, in order to relieve others of social pressures (I.e. gays, racial minorities). But at some point, conformity becomes coercion. So we end up arbitrating between which social group is pressuring which other group and what the right degress and kinds of social coercion are acceptable.

Isn't it better to stay out of it altogether, and accept that part of life, and part of attaining freedom, for onself, is going to be resisting the pressures imposed upon you by peers, family, and society at large? I've always felt that one must “overcome” those kinds of things (at the very lest) in order to be truly free.

That allows us the possibility of affecting social change through non-statist mechanisms (peer pressure), while also permitting all members of society the freedom to choose to resist that pressure. Which makes social evolution ever more truly a matter of persuasion rather than force. We can't forsee what is the “correct” social norm, but we can allow various norms to do combat in a field of battle unregulated by state intervention.

Since then, anti-discrimination laws have been interpreted to cover even many private clubs. Do you think that is justified?

Continuing on the theme of anti-discrimination laws, how do you feel about cases like this or this where there seems to be a conflict between a right to choose who to live with (presumably a more fundamental liberty than the right to employ anyone of your choice) and anti-discrimination laws?

What do you think about hate-speech laws (the kind that exists in Canada and much of Europe)? For instance, would you agree with this decision?

(Sorry for asking so many questions: I am trying to get a more concrete feel about where exactly you differ with standard libertarian views as far as policy prescriptions are concerned)

I don't think it's unclear. But, it has a style and a character that makes you do a little more work than usual, sometimes. There's usually enough of a payoff to make it worth it, though.

“These libertarians are also notoriously guilty of pretending that their favorite kinds of coercion aren’t. “

Huh?