I have to admit that I’m terribly disappointed with the reality of Libertarianism. I guess it’s natural and normal to encounter these ideas early in life and find them sympathetic. As I child learning about Libertarianism, I thought, “Gee, this is just the Golden Rule. That’s an easy one to understand – treat people the way you want to be treated. It’s very reasonable” Of course soon after that I learned (a) not everyone wanted to be treated the way I did, and (b) not everyone gave a damn about how I wanted to be treated.
Individual freedom is a wonderful thing, but there is a very natural, understandable tendency to ignore the deep responsibility that must accompany it in order to make Libertarian principles work the way they were intended. Considering that there’s also a very natural, understandable tendency for wealthy people to ignore responsibility simply because their wealth insulates them from consequences, the juxtaposition of corrupt Libertarianism and wealth is practically unavoidable.
So we can add Libertarianism onto the heap of ideas that sound good under ideal conditions – e.g. both Communism and Capitalism – but that usually cause great pain when attempts are made to apply them. In my experience, scratch anyone calling himself a Libertarian and all you find is a Fascist who doesn’t admit to the term.
I’m sure that the “Libertarian” Thiel quietly believes that as well. Since the alt-right is a populist movement, though, he and his ilk have to peddle an aspirational version of this garbage to non-wealthy rubes based on white entitlement (similar to the GOP’s appeal since the Southern Strategy got underway). In the end, as you say, they’ll be serfs under that whites-only Libertarian “paradise”, but as Lyndon Johnson said:
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
It’s something many who flirt with it in their teens and early '20s outgrow, in large part because it is a rather childish and fantasy-based ideology when subjected to a close examination. The remainder either stick with it or embrace various racist/classist/sexist exclusionary versions of it where the only people who can handle living by Libertarian principles just happen to be people exactly like them. It seems that many of the latter who are white and male drift into the alt-right from there.
It’s a lot easier when you think that a society’s freedom level can be discerned from its capital gains tax rate.
This position seems to crop up a lot among the sheltered and abrasive souls who think that the IRS is the epitome of state violence because they’ve never seen the real thing; much less had it aimed at them.
According to the article I posted above, he works the so-called “race realism” angle to draw people into the alt-right:
Stefan Molyneux, a YouTube commentator, is also best known for amplifying scientific racism. Among his videos with titles like “Human Biodiversity and Criminality” and “Race, Genetics, and Intelligence,” he argues “skills and abilities have not been distributed evenly by mother nature between various ethnicities,” and multiethnic societies are a “problem” because “the blacks and the Hispanics, they don’t end up acting the same as the white population.” He’s also done a show with [Jared] Taylor, titled “An Honest Conversation About Race,” that one respondent said they were “able to use” to help their friends and family “open their eyes.”
“These programs I think are the first steps,” they wrote.
The prolific Molyneux has attracted more than 770,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, adding up to more than 230 million views of his videos. He relies largely on charisma, delivering ill-researched and scientifically unsound lectures with a degree of confidence that eases viewers into accepting his arguments.
Molyneux, one TRS poster explained, “remains a great stepping stone between the alt-light and the alt-right.”
“Gavin [McInnes] à Moly à AR [Alt-Right] is common,” another wrote.
Palantir! The Deep State’s best friend. Who needs NSA surveillance when Planatir can (undoubtedly) access Facebook data and resell it to the government.
Paranoid delusion? Likely! But I’d love to see proof that I’m wrong.
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
