6 replies »

1. This was excellent. Should be required listening for anyone who visits ATS.

   Todd was good too.

   Most of my enemies? Libertarians. Period.

   My approach? Start with Marx.

   If you don’t know Marx—if I can’t sit down with you and talk dialectics, material history, the real foundations of power—then you’re not serious. Hegel’s deeper water, important, but Marx is the starting point. The baseline.

   My favorite is when US styled libertarians who are basically just radical Republicans deny privileged postering while telling me, “Don’t participate. Don’t engage. DON’T VOTE.”

   I’m not even allowed to vote.

   Reply

2. Libertarianism tried to blend radical classical liberalism with individualist anarchism. But, slowly it turned into a sort of republican/conservative movement, backed by corporate money

   Only Konkin managed to send it into anarchist domain.

   Libertarianism turned into Konkin style anarchism on the one hand, and republican populism on the other hand.

   Libertarians often don’t understand marxism, or any kind of leftist movement. A lot of the current libertarians disappeared in the MAGA nonsense. Because they thought that Trump and Musk are about free markets haha

   cake

   Reply

3. I don’t share a single instinct with American libertarians. The only time I meet them is on the internet, and that’s more than enough. Talk about a border dispute. I am literally on the other side of town. They don’t exist where I’m from.

   Reply

4. When i talked with libertarians online, i noticed they often don’t have an intellectual background. The ones that have, are often economists. And they base their theory on their economic assumptions and abstractions.

   I think their movement is done.

   It would have been better, if libertarianism had never replaced the Tucker/Spooner doctrine. Libertarianism only turned that Boston movement into something vague. I do think Rothbard had good intentions, but in the end it didn’t work out. And its in a way really outdated. It appeared, when everyone thought that any kind of leftism had become meaningless. It appeared just after the fall of the Berlin wall. Its as outdated as 00’s MTV shows, or something like that.

   In this period libertarianism has become a sort of MAGA bro culture. A part of ‘the manosphere’. Alienated insecure working class men, that fantasize about brute power and capital. Working class men, that praise Elon Musk and Andrew Tate etc. That want to be part of ‘the winners’ although they have nothing in common with them. In this country, there are some libertarians with a good heart (who have good intentions), but a lot of them are very bitter and agressive

   To me, only agorism is really anarchist. Konkin understood class, and the history of capitalism etc. His theory is a lot like what the Boston anarchists did. They also made black markets, for example

   Cake Sensei

   Reply

5. I think you’re dead on. Especially about libertarianism mutating into a hollow shell for alienated masculinity and weird crypto-capitalist fantasy stuff. And yeah, your historical read is solid. The shift from the Tucker/Spooner lineage to Rothbardian market fundamentalism wasn’t just a tactical detour. It was a total gutting of class analysis, of mutualist ethics, of any collective strategy worth anything. You’re probably also right that Rothbard probably meant well, but good intentions don’t stop you from laying the intellectual groundwork for Peter Thiel worship.

   Libertarianism used to feel like philosophy when I first encountered it. Now it’s closer to a self-help cult for alienated men who want to feel “sovereign” in a society that already discarded them. It promises freedom through markets but just ends up reproducing the very structures it claims to resist. And it’s almost laughable how easily it’s been absorbed into the broader right-wing culture war machine. It’s amazing.

   That part about intellectual background is important too. And when they do read, it’s usually some econ-theo shit where every aspect of life, morality, community, friendship, has to be justified through transaction. Honestly, I think economics is one of the most unserious “serious” professions out there. Listening to an economist talk about society is like listening to an FBI profiler make up a story about what the killer might look like based on a vibe. It’s total Bro Science.

   Which is why I get why Konkin stands out to you. He actually understood the terrain. Power. Class. The black market as resistance. The state and capital. Agorism at least tries to sketch a material strategy instead of just typing that taxation is theft from a luxury apartment in San Francisco.

   Reply

6. It’s total Bro Science.

   Yes, indeed

   The libertarian movement is 99 percent men. This is also a bit strange. Its like, the woke movement is mainly woman, the libertarian movement is mainly men.

   Libertarianism has become a tool, in the culture war. A vehicle, for the culture war

   But the culture war is not interesting for anarchism.

   Now on the libertarian forums here, they often complain about feminism etc. But im like, what has that to do with markets, or austrian economics, and all of that stuff?

   Libertarianism did got me interested in philosophy, when i was younger. So, they did had an impact on me.

   The libertarian fantasy, is a life as a digital nomad, who is into crypto, and who plays poker etc. A sort of James Bond movie, is what they imagine haha.

   I sort of understand why such a story is appealing. But in the end, none of these libertarian bro’s live like that.

   When the woke movement came, libertarianism turned into this bro culture vehicle. I even saw libertarians here reposting Andrew Tate video’s. All kinds of ‘advise’ from Andrew Tate haha. From Rothbard to Andrew Tate, in a generation. So, yeah, its done.

   But in a panarchist approach, libertarians could still have a place. As i wrote before, the more serious libertarians could live in something like Rojava, and using money and all of that. They will not be James Bond, but they could live there the way they want.

   The thing is, Rojava has a pretty woke/feminist identity, so i think thats the reasons a lot of them dont want to be associated with it. But technically, they could live there the way they want. they can have markets, guns, some private property etc.

   cake

   Reply