WEBVTT 00:05.330 --> 00:10.830 Alright, show of hands, how many people here, when you heard that I was going to be speaking 00:10.830 --> 00:17.310 at a political convention, said who on earth would invite that guy to speak at a political 00:17.310 --> 00:18.030 convention? 00:18.670 --> 00:18.990 Anybody? 00:19.470 --> 00:22.090 Well, my hand is up because that was my response. 00:22.450 --> 00:24.910 You want me to speak at a political convention. 00:25.270 --> 00:27.710 You know what I'm going to say, right? 00:29.690 --> 00:31.030 So here we are. 00:32.930 --> 00:38.690 And you were warned in the way Drew described it, that this is not going to be entirely polite 00:38.690 --> 00:39.210 and nice. 00:39.770 --> 00:45.270 Now, I fully understand the pragmatic idea that some express that the Libertarian Party 00:45.270 --> 00:50.530 needs to win people over and so needs to tone down the rhetoric, to cater to the masses, 00:50.850 --> 00:55.810 to appeal to a more mainstream audience, to avoid sounding fringe or extremist. 00:55.810 --> 01:02.010 And the people who take that approach, I would respectfully respond, get stuffed, you spineless 01:02.010 --> 01:02.710 pansies. 01:03.590 --> 01:09.630 Morality doesn't depend on what the majority thinks and it doesn't depend on what people 01:09.630 --> 01:10.850 want to hear. 01:11.090 --> 01:17.970 And having actual principles is the exact opposite of modifying the truth in order to 01:17.970 --> 01:20.450 appease people who have crappy belief systems. 01:23.430 --> 01:30.250 Now, it is perfectly possible to deliver the same message in a more polite and civil way 01:30.250 --> 01:31.970 rather than being nasty about it. 01:32.050 --> 01:37.230 I've done plenty of both criticizing statism the nice way and the nasty way. 01:37.350 --> 01:40.430 Tomorrow I'll be hanging out at the convention being nice. 01:43.010 --> 01:44.650 Tonight we'll see. 01:44.650 --> 01:50.650 But there's a difference between delivering the same message in a gentler way and watering 01:50.650 --> 01:53.530 down the message until its meaningless slop. 01:54.150 --> 01:56.110 Allow me to illustrate the difference. 01:56.310 --> 02:02.090 Let me whisk you back to a debate in Mississippi, say 1837. 02:02.530 --> 02:08.810 On one side we have an abolitionist, someone who openly and zealously condemns the abominable 02:08.810 --> 02:10.090 institution of slavery. 02:10.090 --> 02:16.770 And on the other side we have the equivalent of a modern day moderate, reasonable, libertarian 02:16.770 --> 02:17.350 candidate. 02:17.890 --> 02:20.090 So first the abolitionist. 02:21.150 --> 02:24.430 Slavery is evil and must be ended by any means necessary. 02:25.670 --> 02:29.330 And now the reserved, reasonable and moderate candidate. 02:30.430 --> 02:35.690 Now I know people have different views on this topic and I and my party while respecting 02:35.690 --> 02:40.750 all other points of view think that yes slavery is less than ideal or at least more abusive 02:40.750 --> 02:41.470 than it should be. 02:41.570 --> 02:47.170 So we are running on a platform that if elected we will propose a legislative agenda whereby 02:47.170 --> 02:51.510 in the coming years certain policies might be enacted that we can gradually phase in 02:51.510 --> 02:56.630 certain provisions that would for example require slave owners to whip their slaves 02:56.630 --> 02:59.630 20% less often than they do now. 03:01.710 --> 03:02.230 Dude. 03:04.270 --> 03:10.330 And set certain standards concerning how many hours a day slaves can be forced to work, hopefully 03:10.330 --> 03:13.550 getting that down to what the hell is wrong with you. 03:14.190 --> 03:18.970 Slavery is evil, it doesn't need to be tinkered with, it doesn't need to be gradually phased 03:18.970 --> 03:23.610 out it needs to be ended by any means necessary as soon as humanly possible. 03:24.430 --> 03:30.890 Now we can agree to disagree but we can keep this civil and there's no reason to get judgmental. 03:31.690 --> 03:37.810 If some demented bastards think they can own other people it's not time to be civil it's 03:37.810 --> 03:39.450 time to be judgmental. 03:40.150 --> 03:45.870 Okay I'm sure we can find a compromise that we can all agree on somewhere between the 03:45.870 --> 03:52.210 extremes so that over time so for now if some bastard wants to own people you're 03:52.870 --> 03:53.650 okay with that? 03:54.450 --> 03:59.570 Well I'm sure we can all agree that we need to work within the system we have. 04:00.470 --> 04:05.370 No we don't the system's bullshit we shouldn't wait around for the damn politicians to fix 04:05.370 --> 04:05.690 this. 04:06.410 --> 04:10.990 Okay but I'm sure none of us want to advocate violating the law. 04:11.970 --> 04:12.790 I do. 04:13.230 --> 04:13.870 Fuck the law. 04:14.150 --> 04:15.270 The law is wrong. 04:15.510 --> 04:16.090 It's evil. 04:16.330 --> 04:16.770 End it. 04:17.750 --> 04:23.750 Now now your rhetoric is getting rather militant and surely we don't need to talk about resorting 04:23.750 --> 04:24.810 to violence. 04:25.980 --> 04:32.250 Yes we do this injustice is inherently violent and it should be forcibly resisted. 04:32.890 --> 04:37.730 But wouldn't it be better to abolish slavery in a more civilized peaceful and orderly 04:37.730 --> 04:41.290 way by way of the lawful channels afforded to us? 04:42.170 --> 04:44.810 No fuck you you spineless pussy. 04:44.810 --> 04:45.750 Come on. 04:46.690 --> 04:47.910 End the scene. 04:49.450 --> 04:56.030 As a fun fact the word pussy the derogatory insult derives from the word pusillanimous meaning 04:56.030 --> 05:01.450 weak timid lily livid and so on so when for example I call certain political libertarians 05:01.450 --> 05:06.830 pussies I'm not implying that they are genitalia I am implying they are spineless 05:06.830 --> 05:12.330 unprincipled cowardly wusses just to work clear on that and if that offends anyone 05:12.330 --> 05:23.010 here I'm sorry that you're such a pussy surely he's not comparing our modern political system 05:23.010 --> 05:29.990 to slavery actually surely I am now in severity and open brutality now they don't compare 05:29.990 --> 05:36.650 not even close but consider the underlying principle those in the party of principle 05:36.650 --> 05:41.890 ought to be able to do that for starters what are taxes that's when those who wheel 05:41.890 --> 05:47.550 political power demand money from people is it a polite request nope the demand is backed 05:47.550 --> 05:54.130 by a threat of violence and who decides the tax rates do you get to decide how much you 05:54.130 --> 05:59.010 can afford to give them nope the politicians decide I mean they make you fill out stupid 05:59.010 --> 06:04.170 forms and do the math but they decide through the legislative process how much money 06:04.170 --> 06:08.350 you must hand over to them in order to avoid the nastiness that they will inflict 06:08.350 --> 06:15.450 upon the disobedient there's another way to describe that you can either say that politicians 06:15.450 --> 06:21.650 decide how much you have to give them or you can describe it as the politicians decide 06:21.650 --> 06:29.750 how much of what you earn they will let you keep allow me to state the bleeding obvious 06:29.750 --> 06:34.870 if someone else gets to decide how much of what you earn they will let you keep 06:35.190 --> 06:49.340 you are their slave by definition but courageous libertarians want tax cuts okay sounds nice until 06:49.340 --> 06:56.420 you realize that the underlying message of that is we accept that it's up to the master to 06:56.420 --> 07:01.800 decide how much of our earnings we should be allowed to keep but we're gonna pathetically 07:01.800 --> 07:08.720 beg him to please let us keep more ill no free human beings people who are not slaves 07:08.720 --> 07:19.300 don't need someone else's permission to keep what they earn but this nicer slave master might let 07:19.300 --> 07:25.800 us keep 60% of what we earn this means they master will only let us keep 50% okay so you've 07:25.800 --> 07:30.260 conceded that you are and should be somebody else's slave now you're just hoping to be 07:30.260 --> 07:35.720 the property of a slightly more permissive owner we're not slaves because we're allowed 07:35.720 --> 07:40.900 to vote and there's a political process and a legislative process and we can petition and 07:40.900 --> 07:46.220 there are checks and balances and there's a house and a Senate if someone else gets to decide how 07:46.220 --> 07:53.440 much of what you earn you will be allowed to keep you are their slave no matter how much 07:53.440 --> 08:00.920 convoluted bullshit excuses they try to use to make it sound like something else actual 08:00.920 --> 08:07.760 libertarians understand that lots of political libertarians if they can even comprehend it don't 08:07.760 --> 08:14.620 have the balls to say it because they don't want to sound fringe as some of you may know I spent 08:14.620 --> 08:20.820 just over a year in a cage for the heinous crime of not helping the federal extortion racket to 08:20.820 --> 08:26.920 rob me wasn't even tax evasion it was misdemeanor failure to file so I don't even get the 08:26.920 --> 08:35.000 street cred of being a felon which at least would sound cool no I'm merely a misdemeanant 08:35.000 --> 08:42.140 which is a term nobody's even heard of anyway while sitting in a stupid box for a year writing 08:42.140 --> 08:47.080 books that the ruling class doesn't like I also happen to read the works of Frederick Douglass 08:47.080 --> 08:53.720 and one particular part made me almost fall out of my prison chair having grown up as a 08:53.720 --> 08:58.460 slave at one point Frederick Douglass had a master who decided to let him work somewhere else 08:58.460 --> 09:04.360 sometimes and would like even let him keep some of what he earned how kind and generous of the 09:04.360 --> 09:10.820 master from Frederick Douglass his own words quote I was to be allowed all my time make all 09:10.820 --> 09:15.360 contracts with those for whom I worked and find my own employment and in return for this 09:15.360 --> 09:21.740 liberty I was to pay him $3 at the end of each week this arrangement it will be perceived was 09:21.740 --> 09:27.480 decidedly in my master's favor he received all the benefits of slave holding without its 09:27.480 --> 09:34.340 evils while I endured all the evils of a slave and suffered all the care and anxiety of a 09:34.340 --> 09:41.700 free man how dare Fred not be grateful to be allowed such freedom and all he had to 09:41.700 --> 09:47.960 do was pay an income tax now this next quote you might have heard quote I have 09:47.960 --> 09:53.240 found that to make a contented slave it is necessary to make a thoughtless one it is necessary to 09:53.240 --> 09:59.100 darken his moral and mental vision and as far as possible to annihilate the power of reason he 09:59.100 --> 10:04.800 must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery he must be made to feel that slavery 10:04.800 --> 10:10.760 is right and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man how many of you 10:10.760 --> 10:15.840 heard that quote okay a lot of you might not have heard what came next quote I was now 10:15.840 --> 10:22.880 getting $1.50 per day I contracted for it I earned it it was paid to me it was rightfully my 10:22.880 --> 10:27.540 own yet upon each returning Saturday night I was compelled to deliver every cent of that 10:27.540 --> 10:33.360 money to master Hugh and why not because he earned it not because he had any hand in earning it 10:33.360 --> 10:37.680 not because I owed it to him nor because he possessed the slightest shadow of a right to 10:37.680 --> 10:43.580 it but solely because he had the power to compel me to give it up the right of the grim 10:43.580 --> 10:51.160 visage pirate upon the high seas is exactly the same end quote pay your fair share Frederick 10:52.160 --> 10:58.680 ungrateful mal content but here comes the part almost made me fall out of my chair quote when I 10:58.680 --> 11:03.240 carried to him my weekly wages he would after counting all the money look me in the face for 11:03.240 --> 11:08.940 the robber like fierceness and ask is this all he was satisfied with nothing less than the 11:08.940 --> 11:17.580 last cent oh so an IRS audit he would however when I made him $6 sometimes give me six cents to 11:17.580 --> 11:23.140 encourage me it had the opposite effect the fact that he gave me any part of my wages was 11:23.140 --> 11:28.920 proof to my mind that he believed me entitled to the whole of them I always felt worse for 11:28.920 --> 11:33.860 having received anything for I feared that the giving me a few cents would ease his 11:33.860 --> 11:40.740 conscience and make him feel himself to be a pretty honorable sort of robber end quote wow 11:40.740 --> 11:47.380 doesn't sound like this literal slave was a big fan of what was essentially an income tax 11:48.020 --> 11:53.640 sort of sounds like he thought it was almost more insulting and offensive than simple direct 11:53.640 --> 11:59.420 open slavery so if you don't like me comparing an income tax to slavery you can take it up 11:59.420 --> 12:06.240 with Frederick Douglass so where does the party of principle stand on taxation well first of all 12:06.240 --> 12:13.320 what's the foundational principle of libertarianism all together now the non-aggression principle 12:13.320 --> 12:18.740 okay and what does that principle say as the name implies it says that committing aggression 12:19.260 --> 12:22.580 starting a fight using force against someone who wasn't harming anybody else 12:22.580 --> 12:28.680 is wrong unless people press buttons and booths and then politicians do weird rituals 12:28.680 --> 12:31.740 and scribble stuff down and proclaim that certain aggression is legal legitimate and righteous 12:33.780 --> 12:38.480 now you might not have heard the last part of that principle before you might just think the 12:38.480 --> 12:44.240 non-aggression principle means don't commit aggression but if that were the case why would 12:44.240 --> 12:50.680 libertarians be running for office trying to get elected talking about legislating new policies 12:50.680 --> 12:58.060 unless that status voodoo bullshit somehow alters or outranks the idea of don't commit 12:58.060 --> 13:04.140 aggression don't commit aggression unless some people vote a few robbing and assaulting people 13:04.140 --> 13:10.300 is wrong unless some weird pseudo religious political rituals happen beforehand being an 13:10.300 --> 13:16.940 attacker bad defending against an attacker good you'd think everyone who identifies as libertarian 13:16.940 --> 13:24.840 would be able to grasp that but is that actually the message of political libertarians allow me 13:24.840 --> 13:29.980 to give an example the free state project and their porcupine freedom festival also known as 13:29.980 --> 13:36.500 pork fest which i attended for many years before it became more of a give me the ring of power 13:36.500 --> 13:42.940 event one year many years back the organizers let it be known in no uncertain term that they 13:42.940 --> 13:48.760 didn't want any speakers talking about the use of defensive force against state thugs because 13:48.760 --> 13:54.960 talking about that might spook the peasants talk of trying to stop violent thugs of the state from 13:54.960 --> 14:00.880 assaulting innocent people we can't have that was that because it's wrong to forcibly resist violent 14:00.880 --> 14:07.500 thugs if they have badges no the event organizers know for well that's justified they just didn't 14:07.500 --> 14:13.020 want us talking about it even though the ideal is absolutely fundamental to the concepts of 14:13.020 --> 14:18.060 non-aggression and libertarianism but there was an extra twist because the event invited 14:18.060 --> 14:23.800 the number of political candidates to speak candidates who very much advocate the use of 14:23.800 --> 14:29.860 violent aggression by the state in the form of taxation and legislation robbing people and 14:29.860 --> 14:36.300 forcibly controlling nonviolent behaviors so as i gently pointed out to the organizers it wasn't 14:36.300 --> 14:40.480 that they weren't going to allow anyone to condone the use of brute force they would 14:40.480 --> 14:45.760 absolutely allow people to condone immoral state violence they just weren't allowed 14:45.760 --> 14:52.700 anyone to talk about using force against state violence party of principle my ass 14:54.120 --> 14:58.960 party of water down lukewarm sniveling unprincipled state of slight bullshit they should put that on 14:58.960 --> 15:05.080 their logo i told you i wasn't going to be nice tonight as another example that just showed up 15:05.080 --> 15:10.680 a few days ago while i was writing this chase oliver libertarian now running for governor of 15:10.680 --> 15:17.800 georgia made a post boldly saying we should seek to abolish ice sounds good as long as you don't 15:18.280 --> 15:23.800 think too much about it yeah the ice Gestapo shouldn't freaking exist but what does it mean to 15:23.800 --> 15:30.700 seek to abolish it it means trying to get the ruling class to pass legislation to stop having 15:30.700 --> 15:38.020 their thug of gang of thugs do evil crap shouldn't a libertarian know that such thuggery 15:38.020 --> 15:44.980 even if legal is still immoral and psychotic and therefore should be disobeyed and resisted 15:44.980 --> 15:51.960 why imply that we should play stupid political games in the hopes of getting the masters 15:52.730 --> 15:59.800 to decide to be slightly less evil why only speak of the tyrant approved way of opposing injustice 16:01.040 --> 16:05.920 so back to the concept of taxation lots of libertarians including some people in this 16:05.920 --> 16:13.400 room tonight like to say taxation is theft okay good yes it absolutely is what do libertarian 16:13.400 --> 16:21.200 candidates say sometimes they say that but do they all condemn and oppose all legalized extortion 16:21.580 --> 16:27.840 in principle do they say that disobeying and resisting such extortion even if possibly hazardous 16:28.280 --> 16:34.400 is moral unjustified or do they kind of flounder around with lukewarm evasive evasive bs 16:34.400 --> 16:38.420 talking about how we need to change the laws and repeal this repeal that 16:38.420 --> 16:44.120 and if you'll just give them the ring of power they'll try to let you keep more of what you earn 16:45.360 --> 16:52.240 mostly the latter if you think i'm being unfair in 2016 the libertarian party was having its 16:52.240 --> 16:57.940 conventions and primaries to choose their candidate for president of the united states and in 16:57.940 --> 17:03.780 pennsylvania will all me had the privilege of being one of the panel members asking the candidates 17:03.780 --> 17:09.560 questions so i asked this do you think the constitution is compatible with the non-aggression 17:09.560 --> 17:17.440 principle particularly the taxing clause when it came to gary johnson some of you know who he is 17:17.440 --> 17:24.260 here was his answer verbatim quote well i do believe in the non-aggression principle but i also 17:24.260 --> 17:28.840 think that and i'm not picking on the question at all but this is one of those questions where 17:28.840 --> 17:35.780 america or me anyway it just goes over my head and i'm sorry but it does it's it's just it's not 17:35.780 --> 17:41.420 something i engage in conversation with people and if i do they just glaze over so the fact 17:41.420 --> 17:46.620 that government should not be engaged in force how that's relative to the constitution i really i 17:46.620 --> 17:52.040 can't i can't answer the question i'm not smart enough to answer the question end quote 17:53.500 --> 17:58.840 you can still find that on youtube if you think i'm making it up at that point a friend of mine 17:58.840 --> 18:04.780 who you may know is josey the outlaw who was also on the panel chimed in to say the non-aggression 18:04.780 --> 18:09.300 principle is a basic libertarian principle if you're going to run as a libertarian candidate 18:09.880 --> 18:14.700 you should be able to answer that question to which gary johnson responded i know i should 18:14.700 --> 18:23.320 but i can't by now half the audience was laughing at his lame bs so as a follow-up i reiterated and 18:23.320 --> 18:30.700 clarified the question saying as someone who spent a year in a cage for not paying tribute to the irs 18:30.700 --> 18:35.800 can you tell me whether you think the constitution is in line with the non-aggression principle 18:36.480 --> 18:42.500 gary johnson's response quote no i hear what you're saying i mean i hear your frustration 18:42.500 --> 18:48.660 but but at this these are the questions that i think get people is is you knee jerk the answer and then 18:48.660 --> 18:54.340 you end up you end up having to explain something you can't explain i can't obviously fervently 18:54.340 --> 18:59.180 believe in what you're asking but it's not something i relate to i'm sorry it's just not it just goes 18:59.180 --> 19:07.120 right over my head end quote gary johnson ended up being the libertarian candidate for president 19:07.120 --> 19:18.020 of the united frigan states in 2016 holy crap by the way that's the same gary johnson of bake that 19:18.020 --> 19:23.220 cake fame who opined that government violence should be used to force private businesses 19:23.220 --> 19:31.760 to serve people they don't want to serve so pro freedom so libertarian but besides being a yammering 19:31.760 --> 19:37.720 stammering moronic dunce he made a pretty amazing admission in there he referred to my simple basic 19:37.720 --> 19:44.680 question as the type of question that might get people because you might knee jerk the answer and 19:44.680 --> 19:51.180 then end up having to explain something that you can't explain so of course he knew the answer no the 19:51.180 --> 19:55.740 taxing clause is obviously not in line with the non-aggression principle but he didn't want to 19:55.740 --> 20:02.300 say that because then he might have to stick to the principle he pretended to believe in 20:02.300 --> 20:09.680 spineless weasley politician bitch party of principle my ass 20:12.680 --> 20:18.420 then we have the frauds who love to say well i'm libertarian on some issues good for you dumb 20:18.420 --> 20:27.200 ass so is literally every other human being on the planet in some cases i don't advocate violent 20:27.200 --> 20:33.380 government aggression how noble courageous and virtuous i don't think people should be murdered 20:33.380 --> 20:38.640 for wearing purple socks and i think it should be legal for people to play the accordion 20:38.640 --> 20:45.540 those are libertarian positions yeah and saying you're libertarian on some issues is like 20:45.540 --> 20:52.900 a serial killer saying he's a pacifist on most days there's a term for people who are 20:52.900 --> 20:59.960 libertarian on some issues that term is statist that ranks up there with the meaningless label of 20:59.960 --> 21:06.420 minarchist i only want the minimum necessary amount of violent extortion and subjugation of 21:06.420 --> 21:14.220 mankind how only the necessary amount so you're exactly like every other stages on the planet 21:14.220 --> 21:19.460 you might disagree about what you think is necessary but every status thinks that the 21:19.460 --> 21:25.960 authoritarian bs he wants is necessary and the minimum government needs to do 21:26.480 --> 21:32.000 which makes every status the minarchist so you can drop that bs and stop pretending 21:32.000 --> 21:38.780 necessary enslavement is a thing quote necessity is the plea for every infringement 21:38.780 --> 21:45.680 of human freedom it is the argument of tyrants it is the creed of slaves end quote william pit the 21:45.680 --> 21:52.000 younger then there are conditional libertarians i may be approaching some of the people in this 21:52.000 --> 21:58.340 room well i would be in favor of freedom in this area if only then you're not your anti-freedom 21:58.340 --> 22:04.240 you're not a libertarian well i oppose the initiation of violence as long as i think certain 22:04.240 --> 22:08.100 other things are going to happen or unless the state violences for something i think is really 22:08.100 --> 22:14.380 important or unless i get really scared of of germs or foreign brown people or drugs or then you're 22:14.380 --> 22:22.240 not a libertarian and don't give me the no true scotsman bs words mean things if you don't advocate 22:22.240 --> 22:27.340 the non-aggression principle you're not a libertarian period and having long-winded convoluted 22:27.340 --> 22:34.900 excuses for being an unprincipled bootlicker doesn't change that and given the current state of 22:34.900 --> 22:41.180 fascist affairs going on in this country right now can't really leave out the ever popular 22:42.060 --> 22:47.540 well as long as there's a welfare state then we need border controls so as long as there is 22:47.540 --> 22:55.580 authoritarian evil you're going to personally condone other authoritarian evil gee what could 22:55.580 --> 23:07.700 possibly go wrong and for any of you who think that you have the best libertarian argument 23:07.700 --> 23:14.500 for why politicians should have the final say who can set foot on my property and your property 23:14.500 --> 23:23.860 and everyone else's property maybe just shut the fuck up you're not libertarians i'm not 23:23.860 --> 23:31.620 widespread state violence just say so admit it be yourself embrace and celebrate the cowardly 23:31.620 --> 23:36.080 state worshiping mental slave that you are maybe you can have a statist pride parade 23:40.080 --> 23:45.080 then there are those who think we should phase out evil violent aggression the 23:45.080 --> 23:50.820 eventual libertarians well that's the ideal and maybe we'll get through eventually but for now 23:51.540 --> 23:56.440 i'm going to cheer for the authoritarian enslavement of mankind to be practical and realistic 23:57.310 --> 24:02.460 you know saying you don't think we're going to have a free society tomorrow is fine yeah we're not 24:03.150 --> 24:09.540 but if you advocate non-freedom and your excuse for doing that is because well it's 24:09.540 --> 24:17.660 unrealistic to advocate actual freedom you suck well ideally there would be no murder 24:17.660 --> 24:22.740 but that's unrealistic so i'm going to advocate just a moderate reasonable amount of murder just 24:22.740 --> 24:30.040 the minimum necessary amount of murder and i love it when people try to make having principles into 24:30.040 --> 24:38.920 an insult oh you're one of these purists or even better your purity spiraling oh no if this 24:38.920 --> 24:44.760 continues i might plummet into the hopeless abyss of advocating that no one be forcibly 24:44.760 --> 24:54.020 enslaved the horror the horror then of course there's the ever popular but if we didn't have 24:54.020 --> 25:00.400 government warlords would take over and enslave and impress us so we might end up with government 25:01.100 --> 25:07.880 you think we need government in order to avoid ending up with government you might want to 25:07.880 --> 25:14.440 think that through a bit more but now given where we are let's look at the very concept 25:14.440 --> 25:21.460 of a libertarian political party and why that's inherently bonkers no offense or a little bit 25:21.460 --> 25:28.120 of offense whatever for starters what would the ultimate goal be if libertarians won all the seats 25:28.120 --> 25:32.740 all the offices and all the governments what would that mean what would a libertarian 25:32.740 --> 25:39.800 government look like it would look something like an abolitionist slave owner or a pacifist 25:39.800 --> 25:45.200 serial killer in other words it wouldn't look like anything because the idea is oxymoronic and 25:45.200 --> 25:51.760 makes no sense now it's only fair since i'm being mean to all sorts of people that at this point 25:51.760 --> 25:57.020 i make fun of my own former self once upon a time you would have heard me saying what a lot of 25:57.020 --> 26:02.940 status dupes have said and it would go something like this a legitimate government is one that only 26:02.940 --> 26:09.220 protects the liberty and property of people and otherwise leaves people in freedom such wisdom 26:09.220 --> 26:15.580 such virtue as long as you don't think about it too much now when i spouted that bs i felt 26:15.580 --> 26:20.040 like i was in pretty good company hell the declaration of independence says that governments 26:20.040 --> 26:24.760 are instituted among men in order to secure life liberty in the pursuit of happiness 26:25.420 --> 26:30.980 many of our founding fathers have said the same thing in different ways too bad it's complete 26:30.980 --> 26:41.280 bullshit government is an entity that exercises authority which means the right to rule over a 26:41.280 --> 26:48.980 certain territory that's what the word means so it's a ruling class no matter how much euphemistic 26:48.980 --> 26:56.340 bs you sprinkle on top of it so how exactly do you coercively dominate and rule over an area 26:56.340 --> 27:03.380 without violating the non-aggression principle you don't that's why actual libertarianism 27:03.380 --> 27:10.180 completely rules out any possibility of government entirely so actual libertarians are automatically 27:10.180 --> 27:16.460 anarchists and it was my own gradual realization of this disturbing but bleeding obvious fact 27:16.460 --> 27:22.500 that made me eventually fall off the political spectrum entirely 30 years ago here is a super 27:22.500 --> 27:28.520 abbreviated reenactment of my own learning curve that took me an embarrassingly long time to go 27:28.520 --> 27:34.860 through it started with my ideal government would tax people only to fund the enforcement of 27:34.860 --> 27:43.000 righteous laws that would just protect individual rights i'm so smart oh wait a minute taxes are 27:43.000 --> 27:47.720 demands for money under threat of force and forcing people to fund something even something good 27:48.280 --> 27:54.020 lots of moral aggression okay so my ideal government would politely ask people to voluntarily 27:54.020 --> 27:58.620 donate to fund the enforcement of righteous laws that would just protect individual rights 27:58.620 --> 28:05.100 i'm so smart oh crap what if somebody else wants to protect individual rights some other way not 28:05.100 --> 28:11.820 by way of my awesome government do i send thugs to beat them up that would make me an 28:11.820 --> 28:19.120 authoritarian jerk so there goes my government's monopoly on defensive force well maybe i would 28:19.120 --> 28:26.020 let other people also enforce my laws my my laws why should anyone else defer to whatever i think 28:26.020 --> 28:31.700 the laws should be i mean i think i'm right what kind of narcissistic megalomaniac would call 28:31.700 --> 28:38.340 his own opinions law and imagine that everyone else should feel obligated to obey them i sure 28:38.340 --> 28:43.960 as hell wouldn't defer to some other bozo decide what i think is right and wrong dang so okay uh 28:43.960 --> 28:47.960 not gonna tax people not gonna force people to use my version of protection and defense 28:47.960 --> 28:52.380 not gonna call it law wait now it just sounds like i'm a guy offering protection services 28:53.160 --> 28:58.040 to whomever might willingly pay for that which might be nobody and anybody and everyone else 28:58.040 --> 29:04.940 could do the exact same thing uh well oh well no more contradictions no more violations 29:04.940 --> 29:11.600 of the non-aggression principle nope i finally whittled government down to its ideal legitimate form 29:12.220 --> 29:17.980 which has no authority and no right to rule and no special rights at all and no power to tax and 29:17.980 --> 29:22.960 no power to legislate no monopoly on force and no reason anyone has to pay any attention to it 29:22.960 --> 29:27.280 and no reason for anyone to call it government since it's completely indistinguishable 29:27.280 --> 29:31.120 from normal people doing the same crap that everyone already had the right to do 29:32.360 --> 29:40.600 okay well that's what i advocate but that is not government and if i'm not advocating any government 29:41.360 --> 29:56.800 that makes me wait there's a word for it that makes me an anarchist meanwhile the libertarian 29:56.800 --> 30:02.640 party is forever playing the game of if we can just add our own clown to the circus we can save 30:02.640 --> 30:09.540 the day maybe if we join the mafia we can improve the system from the inside no you can't 30:10.180 --> 30:14.320 by the way i think i think i have the perfect candidate for the libertarian party to run for 30:14.320 --> 30:19.420 president next time around which would be burrow mirror the guy from lord of the rings 30:20.380 --> 30:25.620 nay political power is a gift a gift to the foes of tyranny why not use it 30:25.620 --> 30:29.240 give libertarians the weapon of the enemy let us use it against them 30:30.100 --> 30:36.720 i mean would that be any worse than gary the non-aggression principle goes over my head johnson 30:38.780 --> 30:47.100 or bob bar bob friggin bar former cia cheerleader for the war on drugs voted for the patriot act 30:47.100 --> 30:51.880 voted for the war in iraq but don't worry he also pretended to have some pro freedom issues 30:51.880 --> 30:57.240 who i'm libertarian on some issues and flip flopped on marijuana prohibition when he thought 30:57.240 --> 31:02.720 he could benefit from it and then when he pretended to be when pretending to be libertarian failed 31:02.720 --> 31:09.320 he went back to being a republican libertarian party sure seems to have a lot of opportunistic 31:09.320 --> 31:13.960 grifters who think they can make a name for themselves and get support and get attention 31:13.960 --> 31:20.640 and get money by pretending to be libertarian and look how many of those jumped right on the 31:20.640 --> 31:27.620 nationalist bandwagon the moment they thought that that might get the more attention and support 31:27.620 --> 31:33.800 and money incidentally that's also why it's a problem if your political party tries to have a 31:33.800 --> 31:40.520 bigger tent approach by not having actual principles because then lots of state 31:40.520 --> 31:44.940 worshiping jackasses will happily swagger in and crapple over your tent 31:47.600 --> 31:53.660 yeah a number of libertarian candidates number of whom i actually like have said good stuff which 31:53.660 --> 31:59.020 as far as i can tell they actually meant sometimes they even expressed actual principles consistent 31:59.020 --> 32:03.820 with libertarianism and then ran for office trying to get their hands on the ring of power for 32:03.820 --> 32:09.500 themselves thus sending a completely confusing self-contradictory message anyway no masters 32:09.500 --> 32:13.500 and no slaves but also if you make me master i'll fix everything 32:16.200 --> 32:21.440 when i asked google to name some well-known libertarians part of what it barfed out at 32:21.440 --> 32:30.020 me said quote and contemporary activists and writers like glenn beck ben chapiro and rand paul 32:30.020 --> 32:38.420 no none of them are libertarians now rand paul rand not ron spends lots of time bashing 32:38.420 --> 32:44.520 even bigger states than himself but he in no way advocates actual freedom and glenn beck 32:45.270 --> 32:49.180 and that weasley genocide apologist ben chapiro 32:49.180 --> 32:59.800 but at least we have dav smith dav i support mass deportation smith because nothing says 32:59.800 --> 33:05.920 i love the non-aggression principle more than cheering for huge numbers of nonviolent people 33:05.920 --> 33:11.880 to be forcibly kidnapped for the heinous sin of standing on a certain piece of dirt 33:11.880 --> 33:25.770 without the permission of the political scumbags in dc and of course dav and number of other 33:25.770 --> 33:31.290 fake-ass libertarians also acted as cheerleaders for trump for a while which brings me to something 33:31.290 --> 33:40.330 that is truly babel on b level of absurd who here recalls the amazing spectacle when the 33:40.330 --> 33:45.930 orange furor himself self-worshipping war criminal best buddy of jeffrey apstein 33:45.930 --> 33:54.130 narcissistic creep and wannabe dictator was invited to speak at that huge libertarian party event 33:54.130 --> 33:59.990 and stood up there and told everyone why he should rule the world as he stood in front of that 33:59.990 --> 34:17.420 huge banner behind him that said become ungovernable what the actual fuck and i still hear some fake-ass 34:17.420 --> 34:21.420 libertarians say well i still think i did the right thing voting for trump because he pardoned ross 34:21.420 --> 34:29.000 olbrecht i'm glad ross's out but uh just to be clear you helped empower a demented megalomaniac 34:29.000 --> 34:33.920 who has pushed multiple war crimes murdering dozens of people out in international waters 34:33.920 --> 34:38.120 not to mention terrorizing assaulting kidnapping and occasionally murdering people 34:38.120 --> 34:43.820 on the streets of america in broad daylight week after week but it's okay because by giving a 34:43.820 --> 34:49.140 psychopathic terrorist the power he wanted you managed to get him to release one political 34:49.140 --> 34:56.880 prisoner after ross spent the entire four years of mango mousseline his first term 34:56.880 --> 35:03.360 in a cage showing that trump never gave a crap about him he just viewed ross the way he 35:03.360 --> 35:11.120 views everything as something to use to increase his own power and so many libertarians helped him 35:11.120 --> 35:17.460 do that so i guess to all the people whisked off without trial to be tortured in foreign slave camps 35:17.460 --> 35:23.460 to the people murdered in yemen people murdered in venezuela people that trump helped the nutty 35:23.460 --> 35:30.440 yahoo murder in gaza well fuck all of you because we wanted this one guy to be set free because 35:30.440 --> 35:32.880 were the party of principle 35:35.240 --> 35:44.940 what do you mean to the people who vote for libertarians they mean well and at least they're 35:44.940 --> 35:50.760 doing something have you ever seen those pictures of the huge throngs of excited enthusiastic 35:51.360 --> 35:59.120 politically involved people cheering on stalin mal hitler they meant well and at least they were 35:59.120 --> 36:05.820 doing something how did that turn out come on now you can't compare communism to libertarianism 36:06.840 --> 36:13.680 oh can't i let me ask you something what was the best attempt ever to create a 36:13.680 --> 36:19.500 kind of sort of libertarian government was it the u.s constitution this ruling class will 36:19.500 --> 36:24.720 just serve the people and protect individual rights and the adi adi adi okay and what was the actual 36:24.720 --> 36:30.780 real world outcome of that did it in fact create the most powerful authoritarian empire in the 36:30.780 --> 36:37.340 history of the world yes it did did it create the most massive imperialist standing army the world 36:37.340 --> 36:43.380 has ever known yes it did did it create the most enormous intrusive and abusive extortion racket 36:43.380 --> 36:50.520 in the history of mankind yeah best attempt ever at having a libertarian government now 36:50.520 --> 36:56.640 why exactly would anyone want to try that again i mean you have zero chance of doing that anyway 36:56.640 --> 37:02.020 but even if you could why the hell would you expect it to end any different any better than it 37:02.020 --> 37:09.080 did now with the mess that we're all here objecting to right now we are living the inevitable result 37:09.080 --> 37:15.940 of the best attempt at libertarian government ever and you want to do the same thing again 37:18.800 --> 37:24.220 they didn't do it right sorry i couldn't hear you over the cliche communist excuse 37:25.700 --> 37:32.320 that wasn't real limited government yeah it must just be bad luck that every time it's ever been 37:32.320 --> 37:38.780 tried the result was authoritarian oppression when it works in theory to all communists and 37:38.780 --> 37:43.960 political libertarians if your theory when applied to the real world always results in 37:43.960 --> 37:55.320 complete catastrophe maybe your theory is shit this guy thinks he knows everything well instead of 37:55.320 --> 37:59.340 just being critical why don't you run for office and show us how it's done smarty pants 38:02.460 --> 38:06.980 okay here is what my campaign speech would sound like if i were to run for office 38:07.940 --> 38:12.580 my name is larkin rose and i'm running for the office of president governor mayer whatever 38:13.180 --> 38:19.240 now you might be wondering of all the candidates running why you should vote for me well you 38:19.240 --> 38:24.940 shouldn't first of all how much of a colossal bonehead would you have to be to try to put me 38:24.940 --> 38:31.260 into a position of power over you when my entire stinking messages stop giving other people power 38:31.260 --> 38:37.180 over you like a bunch of slaves listening to an abolitionist cheering for what he said and 38:37.180 --> 38:43.320 then saying we want you to be our new slave master and if you were hoping that i might get 38:43.320 --> 38:49.160 elected and then change the magical politician scribbles and legislate some legal permission 38:49.160 --> 38:54.020 for you to be a little bit more free there was any chance of me being able to actually do that in 38:54.020 --> 38:58.640 any significant way they would shoot me in the head and then repeal whatever i had done 38:58.640 --> 39:05.500 the very next day but way more importantly than that as long as you think that you 39:05.500 --> 39:11.640 need the legislative permission of the ruling class to be free you're already a slave inside 39:11.640 --> 39:19.500 your own damn head and maybe you should focus on that instead of thinking that somehow you're 39:19.500 --> 39:25.900 going to win the insane and evil game called democracy a game by the psychopaths of the 39:25.900 --> 39:31.900 psychopaths and for the psychopaths i'm just a guy if you were stupid enough to put me into a 39:31.900 --> 39:37.580 position of political power i would still just be a guy i still wouldn't have the right to rule you 39:37.580 --> 39:43.140 whether some stupid laws get repealed or not you still would have no obligation to obey those 39:43.140 --> 39:50.240 political bastards or pay tribute to them so all voting for me could possibly accomplish is briefly 39:50.240 --> 39:56.540 giving you a little false hope in a political solution when there is no such thing never was 39:56.540 --> 40:02.680 such a thing and never will be such a thing if you vote for me it's because you're still a brainwashed 40:02.680 --> 40:15.440 dupe so think that's a winning campaign speech all right let me wrap things up here before i get 40:16.060 --> 40:21.380 before the pitches and pitchforks and torches come out let me wrap things up by being clear 40:21.380 --> 40:28.360 about a few things i am not saying for example i'm not saying that the libertarian libertarian 40:28.360 --> 40:33.740 party is completely worthless and doesn't accomplish anything it's so much worse than that 40:35.420 --> 40:43.200 it accomplishes less than nothing its mere existence is mostly just an obstacle to people 40:43.200 --> 40:48.260 learning about libertarianism because of some poor schmuck disillusioned with the atrocity 40:48.260 --> 40:54.480 that is mainstream american politics here's tell of some weird ideology called libertarianism 40:54.480 --> 41:01.820 and decides to look into it what will he find oh there's a libertarian political party sounds like 41:01.820 --> 41:07.560 the place to learn about libertarianism huh they think taxes are theft and they think that 41:07.560 --> 41:14.240 people should be robbed less if we can get the politicians to agree to legislate that 41:14.240 --> 41:20.260 but they think aggression they think aggression is wrong and that if thugs of the government are 41:20.260 --> 41:26.760 initiating violence against innocent people we should well mostly beg and wine a lot and 41:26.760 --> 41:33.600 ask the political psychos to please be nicer well but but they think that as long as people aren't 41:33.600 --> 41:38.560 committing force or fraud they should otherwise be free to live their own lives however they 41:38.560 --> 41:44.260 choose and they seem to think that the way to achieve that is to continue to vote for a 41:44.260 --> 41:51.480 political party that never friggin wins they also sometimes cheer for authoritarian thuggery 41:51.480 --> 41:56.800 and say that in the long run that will have pro-freedom results party also kind of seems 41:56.800 --> 42:02.180 like a magnet for opportunistic lying creeps trying to make a name for themselves who don't 42:02.180 --> 42:07.000 really seem to understand or advocate that non-aggression print principled well if that's 42:07.000 --> 42:12.620 what it means to be libertarian perpetually whiny spineless inconsistent confused status 42:12.620 --> 42:21.640 begging for scraps from political psychopaths no thanks now to be clear i'm also not saying 42:21.640 --> 42:26.720 that the libertarian party sold their souls in exchange for power because if they had 42:26.720 --> 42:33.660 sold their souls in exchange for power they would have some fucking power and they don't 42:33.660 --> 42:38.260 they gave their souls away for free for nothing after half a century they still have no real 42:38.260 --> 42:44.180 influence no coherent message and accomplish damn near nothing except to keep decent people 42:44.180 --> 42:51.400 focused on the pointless hopeless ritual of trying to appoint a nicer slave master which 42:51.400 --> 42:58.780 never works anyway but we don't want to sound extreme or fringe by talking about things like 42:58.780 --> 43:05.020 disobeying and resisting the sort of things that people do if they actually believe in freedom 43:06.760 --> 43:14.180 holy crap people no the answer is not in fact a new slavery light party or the old slavery 43:14.180 --> 43:20.160 light party the answer is not politics at all the answer is people understanding freedom and no 43:20.160 --> 43:25.740 longer talking and acting as if the worst people in the world have the right to rule them 43:26.420 --> 43:34.660 the libertarian philosophy is great for that the libertarian party not so much 43:36.920 --> 43:44.520 and lastly i'm also not saying that the libertarian party is controlled opposition i assume most 43:44.520 --> 43:50.180 people involved are actually trying to serve the cause of liberty kind of sort of in a largely 43:50.180 --> 43:57.620 demented incoherent counterproductive sort of way however if i was an evil tyrant trying to confuse 43:57.620 --> 44:04.100 people trying to divert and waste the time energy money and hope of people who want freedom i would 44:04.100 --> 44:20.160 absolutely create something that looks almost exactly like the libertarian party who here 44:21.960 --> 44:26.680 i'll let you in on a little secret here the character noah the slave who makes a feeble run 44:26.680 --> 44:33.680 at being elected plantation manager he represents the libertarian party so it seems fitting that i 44:33.680 --> 44:40.240 end my talk here with a little excerpt from the novel the jones plantation which i wrote while we 44:40.240 --> 44:45.360 were filming the movie so i could put back in a bunch of stuff that doesn't fit in a normal 44:45.360 --> 44:51.140 length movie you can imagine how long the script would have been long winded me it had his way 44:51.940 --> 44:56.900 the setting is good old noah well intentioned guy trying to make a difference just gave his 44:56.900 --> 45:02.960 somewhat pathetic campaign speech and now the conspiring slime balls smith jones and johnson 45:02.960 --> 45:10.460 are behind closed doors discussing it i still don't think we should let him criticize us like that 45:10.460 --> 45:16.400 jones complained i could hear what noah was saying from in here they still need an outlet for their 45:16.400 --> 45:22.060 frustration smith replied allowing them to moan and complain lets them release a lot of anger 45:22.060 --> 45:27.840 and resentment if you try to bottle that up eventually something will break also allowing 45:27.840 --> 45:31.720 them to state their grievances allowed lets us know what needs to be dealt with and when 45:32.220 --> 45:36.700 before there is any threat of them doing something more serious but more importantly 45:36.700 --> 45:41.180 if you limit what a man can think you don't have to limit what he can say 45:41.900 --> 45:48.020 i can see what they think jones grumbled and i don't like it one bit what exactly did you see 45:48.020 --> 45:54.020 smith asked him directly yes they are frustrated are they talking about running away or refusing 45:54.020 --> 46:01.820 to work no they think that this election is the proper civilized way to try to change things 46:01.820 --> 46:09.080 they think that this gives them some control over things here we are creating something to deflect 46:09.080 --> 46:14.940 and diffuse their resentment so it doesn't become something more problematic their focus and their 46:14.940 --> 46:22.020 mindset are exactly where i want them to be okay but what if no it doesn't win johnson spoke 46:22.020 --> 46:27.220 up then this whole charade years collapses now has no chance of winning smith opine with 46:27.220 --> 46:32.840 complete confidence with a dismissive wave of his hand how could he be so sure jones asked they 46:32.840 --> 46:38.840 seemed to lack what he was saying aside from having my spies who will let me know exactly how much 46:38.840 --> 46:43.680 support noah has at any given moment i have a dozen different ways to make him lose smith 46:43.680 --> 46:48.740 responded and if all else fails we bribe him or threaten him or kill him don't worry about it 46:48.740 --> 46:55.380 we need him running that's why i made it happen there was a brief pause in the meaning of smith's 46:55.380 --> 47:01.960 sunk in what johnson asked in surprise was your idea to have him run and to say all that 47:03.020 --> 47:08.120 absolutely smith admitted everything that happens here happens because i wanted to 47:08.120 --> 47:13.180 a few of them out there still weren't going to be appeased by choosing between you two 47:14.020 --> 47:20.280 we can either have those few sowing seeds of discontent and rebelliousness among the others 47:20.280 --> 47:26.280 or we can bait them into playing our game a game they are forever doomed to lose 47:27.020 --> 47:33.440 smith still saw a trace of skepticism on the others faces we let noah join in the spectacle 47:33.440 --> 47:38.860 a few of the workers will get excited about it will feel a surge of hope will give it their 47:38.860 --> 47:45.540 all and will fail and then they will meekly slink back into line we choose for them an outlet 47:45.540 --> 47:51.560 for their frustration an outlet which will accomplish nothing other than occupying their 47:51.560 --> 48:00.700 attention just long enough to tire them out and break them down enjoy your political convention 48:01.420 --> 48:02.700 don't forget to vote