The So-Called Liberty Movement
There is a relatively large group of people world wide that self identify as “the liberty movement”. They are quite diverse in their philosophy, their goals, their strategies, their life styles, their talents, their wealth and social status, their levels of education, their understanding of how the world works, and their levels of self discipline. They are also diverse in their levels of honesty and gullibility.
That last line is glaringly obvious if you spend very much time around them while using an honest approach to judge their behavior.
The vast majority of people calling themselves “the liberty movement” are good people with the best intentions. However they allow to remain among their ranks, a very small dishonest element made up of out-right thieves, con-men, bullies, and even some violent sexual predators and at least one murderer. As is usually the case, the scum tend to rise to the top, and they have done so in “the liberty movement”. These scum tend to have all the classic tendencies of a sociopath, and therefore often surround themselves with devoted followers who view them as a hero of sorts.
The good people within the movement seem so desperate for members that they, on a whole, refuse to keep their ranks clean of these parasites. Which, of course, makes their whole movement look bad. It also divides them into squabbling cliques that blindly and fiercely defend their hero against anyone from within the movement or without, that points out the deeds of these sociopathic scum.
I must tread carefully here, as I don’t want to sound bitter or angry, because I am neither. I tried very hard to help the good people of “the liberty movement”, but they are determined to protect and maintain the parasites that feed upon the movement. So for this reason I had to separate myself from “the liberty movement”, as I couldn’t maintain a clean conscious while associating with people who embrace such vile creatures.
There are proven cases and even court documents showing that prominent and respected libertarian leaders, famous politicians, public speakers, and internet personalities, have been guilty of rape, violence, theft, extortion, threats, election fraud, bribery, and lies. Money scams have been uncovered that generated millions of dollars, in several cases draining good people of their life savings, and yet the perpetrators remain in good favor among “the liberty movement”.
Instances of bigotry, hate speeches quoting Adolf Hitler, and respected libertarians having co-membership in racist hate groups, have all been uncovered, yet “the liberty movement” still embraces these vile people and continues to financially support them and pay them to give speeches at their events. Freedom cannot be achieved by embracing or even tolerating such people.
In early 2019 a young activist was organizing a liberty/anarchy event to compete with a much larger liberty/anarchy event that was operated by a known con man in the same Mexican city. Gunmen arrived at the young activist’s home and shot him dead, while injuring another activist. The known con man immediately jumped in front of the media and declared the shooting a drug cartel related event, even though everyone close to the situation knew drug cartels had nothing to do with the killing. Still, prominent “leaders” or “celibertarians” as they are known within the movement, attended the con man’s event in the shadow of the murder. Apparently so long as the speaking fee is high enough the celibertarians will step over the blood stains to get their honorarium check.
The typical criticism of police in the US today revolves around the argument of the “bad apple”. When an incidence of police brutality or corruption is revealed the police supporters claim that cop is just one bad apple and the rest should not be judged based on him. However that indicates they don’t understand the principle that one bad apple spoils the whole barrel. This saying is very old and is a true statement based on placing apples in a barrel for long term storage. If you allow just one infected apple in the barrel it will, in time, infect every apple in the barrel. The same is true with police. They protect their fellow police and in doing so they are all infected by his misdeeds.
Libertarians are very good at explaining the bad apple principle when it applies to police. However due to the rampant hypocrisy within “the liberty movement” they fail to apply the principle to themselves. It seems they have no problem shining the light of truth on the blemishes others, while failing to look in the mirror to check their own infected face.
T.E. Lawrence, in the classic movie Lawrence of Arabia, said, “Sherif Ali, so long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people – greedy, barbarous, and cruel, as you are.” I have said the same about “the liberty movement”. However the infighting is a symptom of the bigger problem of allowing and protecting the bad apples. Until “the liberty movement” cleans its own house it has no rightful place in criticizing anyone else, and it most certainly has no ability to lead a movement toward freedom.
Editor’s Note: Ben sent me this and told me to do with it what I wanted. After the recent events regarding Anarchapulco, I figured this could further elaborate my thoughts, in addition to providing some valuable perspective.
