United Liberty
Lew Rockwell: Bad For The Liberty Movement, Period
Mon, 09/10/2012 - 11:57am | posted by Jeremy Kolassa
Over the weekend, I wrote a powerful rant on my personal blog about Lew Rockwell and his destructive influence over the liberty movement. I’m not going to lie, it is filled with obscenities and is generally NSFW (though the only image is one of Lew’s face.) I wrote it so…colorfully…because I have been incredibly frustrated with a man who paints himself as the patron saint of libertarianism, the prelate of so-called freedom who is so quick to excommunicate anyone who disagrees with his own idiosyncracies. (I was also inspired by a NFL kicker’s letter to a Maryland state senator over the topic of same-sex marriage…among other things.)
There have been a few who are interested in a less avant-garde takedown of Rockwell, though, one better suited for polite company, and I am only too happy to oblige. I really feel that a man like Rockwell does not deserve such treatment, but I’m in the market of ideas, and I have customers to support.
The item that sent me on a tirade was a blog post on the Lew Rockwell blog calling Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson a “warmonger” because he dared to say thanks to our military. Now you can have legitimate criticisms of the military and their unwavering, blind support from a large number of Americans, but calling Johnson a “warmonger” is too far and uncalled for. But it wasn’t even that; it was that the blog post labeled 9/11 a false flag operation.
In other words, Lew Rockwell’s blog is now the home of 9/11 Truthers. (Or Troofers.)
What incenses me so much about this is that Lew Rockwell is (in my view, wrongly) considered to be one of the leading lights of American libertarianism. When such a thing is posted on his website, it is not just associated with him. Oh no. Forget about methodological individualism for a moment here, my compadres. When some average Joe sees that, and has a connection to libertarianism in his head, he’s going to think that all libertarians are crazy conspiracy theorists with their heads planted firmly up their behinds. We are guilty by association with his man. You can imagine how that helps our credibility. (Oh, did I mean help? I meant ruin. My bad.)
This is after ten years of scientific analysis from every corner of the globe showing that there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that the US government did it. None. Zip. Nada. Nullius. Every theory floated that has the government as the perpetrator has been thoroughly and unequivocally debunked. Yet here is Lew Rockwell’s website, peddling that same conspiracy theory nonsense. From late 2001 to maybe mid-2004, I could see it. But this is 2012. And if anything, the last twelve years have proven that the government is far too incompetent to even be able to tell it’s butt from a hole in the ground. (It’s ironic LRC would say things like this too, considering they also feel the government is beyond incompetent on just about every other issue. So, 99.9999999% of the time, they can’t fix a toilet…but that .0000001% of the time, they manage to pull off an attack on US soil against US citizens without anyone knowing and keeping the majority of the public in the dark? Okay, buddy. Might be time to put the bong down now.)
But it’s not just 9/11 Trooferism that causes me to have a conniption. There are myriad other things that come from Lew Rockwell’s direction that are damaging our movement. The racism and the racist newsletters. The bigotry, the demand for uniformity rather than a celebration of diversity. The homophobia. The defense of the Confederacy, an institution specifically created to defend human slavery. (And really, if you go that route, how can you in your right mind call yourself a libertarian?) Lew Rockwell’s site is chock full of insanity on just about every subject.
The man is not really a libertarian. He’s just a contrarian.
I am constantly told that “Lew Rockwell is a great man” and that “He’s done more for the liberty movement than you’ve ever done.” As I am a humble man, I will open myself up to the possibility the latter statement is true, but I must ask: What has he done? This usually results in the answer of, “He founded the Mises Institute.” So what? What has the Mises Institute ever done for the libertarian movement? Have you ever see a Mises Institute scholar in the news? No; they sit in their campus in Auburn, Alabama, far away from any halls of power, writing blog posts and essays about Austrian economics and praxeology and their one true god, Ludwig von Mises, and his only begotten son, Murray Rothbard. (Seriously, some of their posts really do sound like religious texts.) They engage in armchair economics and armchair philosophy, but don’t actually produce anything that goes anywhere.
And as for Lew Rockwell enlarging the liberty movement, he did so in the 1980s by going to the far right and pandering to the types who supported Pat Buchanan. (Rockwell actually endorsed Buchanan’s presidential bid, briefly.) Steve Horwitz explained this last year in a BHL post about the Ron Paul newsletters, and it’s something that needs to be reread constantly. This was the paleolibertarian strategy, a strategy that brought in a number of people—but not libertarians. It brought in a lot of those opposed to gays and multiculturalism, but not libertarians.
So as far as I can see, Lew Rockwell has done nothing for the movement.
Wait, that’s not true. He has done something: damaged it. I’m out here, trying to tell people about liberty and freedom, and all the time something comes up about how Ron Paul is a racist or that libertarians believe in crazy stuff or whatever. It hurts. It makes it difficult to spread the message of freedom to the country. And that’s what we have to do, you know: we have to convince others to join us, to educate them that it’s okay to hold onto their money and to have a small government (or no government at all, in some cases.) But how can I do that when I got Lew Rockwell sitting over my shoulder muttering something about how the Confederacy was the greatest thing on Earth, and how because I don’t have a paleo diet I’m not really a libertarian and thus nobody should be listening to me?
Come on.
It’s time that libertarians around the country—minarchist, anarchist, or what have you—stand up and say “ENOUGH.” We have a hard enough time as it is trying to effect change here, we don’t need someone like Lew making it even harder for us. If Lew was really concerned about advancing liberty, he wouldn’t be allowing this stuff to fly and would instead be directly trying to get people to understand how liberty betters them, and how it relates to contemporary problems. Instead, he spouts conspiracy theories, inane BS about the Confederacy, dips into a bit of racism and homophobia, and tops it off with a heavy load of Austrian economics lecturing that nobody cares about.
We don’t need him. He’s not helping. Neither are his ilk. So let’s ditch these guys and get back to doing what we should be: promoting liberty, not stupidity. Lew Rockwell, go get your own movement.
Great post and a wonderful enumeration of the failings of Rockwell and his hateful band of troglodytes. His “advancement” of the liberty movement has essentially resulted in mainstream America arriving at the conclusion that libertarians are a bunch of racist, conspiracy-minded, gold bugs rather than the party of logic and reason. With friends like that, who needs enemies?
Let me take this chance to repeat my praise from last night’s Skeptical Libertarian comments, because if that was any indication you are not going to have much of a chance to hear positive reinforcement (though I was really impressed with the mix of defenders vs. detractors). I have never understood why you can’t criticize Rockwell, Rothbard or Ron Paul for that matter without getting the ration of shit about “without them where would we be?” and then promptly being told that you are not a true libertarian. How and why do they get to be the sole gatekeepers, especially since as you have pointed out, there is a raft of completely untenable notions and positions dealing with anarchy, the Confederacy and conspiracy theories. I am trying to get something out by tomorrow about 9-11, because so much of that just makes no sense to me as a rational individual, and that there is the huge undercurrent of it within the movement, mostly emanating from the LRC, making it so difficult to carry on a discussion with someone about reforming the state or increasing liberty. We all just get painted, fair or unfair, with the same crazy or naïve label.
So, enjoy the next 12 or so hours where not only will the legitimacy of your parentage certainly be questioned, but you will get a full measure of: How can you accept the official report?; What about Building 7?; What about thermite residue?; My Great-to-5th power Grand Father did not fight for slavery!; Lincoln violated the NAP so he is the one in the wrong!; Did you actually read Rothbard you illiterate fucknut?; Who the hell are YOU to question ____? Who do you think YOU are? - and many other fun and innovative insults to you character and intelligence, which will never really get around to the issue: If Rockwell and his group happen to be in the wrong on Issue X, Y or Z, why can’t you call them out on it without losing your libertarian decoder ring?
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I guess haters gotta hate - LRC is one part of the “liberty movement” and like it or not, he has done quite a lot.
Get over it.
Gee, double standards, much?
The irony of Redmond’s comment should be immediately apparent. Rockwell is the preeminent “hater,” as witness calling Gary Johnson a “warmonger” for calling for a more peaceful foreign policy. Rockwell has indeed done “quite a lot,” but to undermine the libertarian movement, not to promote it. He is a “hater” to his core.
Yes, I guess the fact that LRC is the number one libertarian website in the world means Rockwell has done little to nothing for the movement. Or the fact that the Mises Institute is sought by people willing and able to learn sound e onomics makes it somehow irrelevant.
This rant was a bunch of unsubstantiated claims based on old rumors and wild claims (I have never seen anyone, let alone Rockwell, claim someone isn’t a libertarian who isn’t paleo).
Its pretty obvious Rockwell thinks of slavery as abhorrent. To claim he wanted the confederacy to stay intact and maintain it is pure idiocy. Let me try my own Kolassa-style reply: obviously Kolassa wanted Lincoln to invade the South, destroy the the republic in favor of a strong national government, and wanted a full scale war to end slaver rather than allow it to end peacefully as it did everywhere else in the West. Yeah, real libertarians support Lincolnand his Clay-inspired mercantilist waron behalf of northern industrial interests.
Aren’t vague, fabricated assumptions fun!
First off, the paleo diet thing was a joke.
Second, have you actually read any of his crap? The guy extols the Confederacy. Whether or not he really thinks slavery is abhorrent doesn’t matter. The fact remains that this guy is defending and embracing an institution that was created solely to defend and perpetuate human slavery. There’s no defense of that, period. There is no excuse for this:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/civilwar.html
Third, I don’t think LRC is the number one libertarian website in the world, but let’s say it has the most hits. That still doesn’t make it number one. That’s because the guy is peddling inherently unlibertarian crap, and most of his readers aren’t really libertarians, but rather right-wing anarchists.
But keep deluding yourself.
Lews article on the civil war is great. Thanks for heading me over to it.
That is a pretty good article on the civil war period. That stuff isn’t really that controversial, or shouldn’t be among libertarians anyway … even if you have an axe to grind. That’s a pretty good article. Thanks for the read.
I have read Rockwell for years and it’s obvious he, as well as many Rothbardians, see the South as a justified secessionist movement. Slavery was obviously wrong but so was forcing a group of men to remain under the authority of a government they didn’t want. You buy into the juvenile idea that the Civil War was only about slavery when there were far more economic matters at hand such as the continuation of tariffs.
LRC is usually tracked to show it has the most hits of every libertarian website (as of right now, from what I have just looked up, it may have fallen to number 2). That was my mistake but even if it still was the number one most visited site, that’s what I was referring to. There is no “number one” site in the sense you refer to. Remember, all values are subjective.
Not sure what you think libertarian means but many see it as an adherence to the non-aggression principle, which would then make right-wing anarchists fall into the classification. Please explain what you think libertarian means because any other explanation seems to fall categorically into the view that using force against the innocent is wrong.
No, the Civil War was not entirely about slavery, but that was the major issue. Yes, there were state power vs. federal power arguments, the tariffs, etc., but slavery was still the number one issue of the day. In fact, most of those economic issues come back to slavery in the end anyways.
I too agree with the non-aggression principle, but think about this for a second. The Confederacy was an institution built upon human slavery. It was literally built upon using extreme force against the innocent. How then could Rockwell defend it so? It’d be one thing if he said “I think the Civil War was wrong, but both sides were evil.” That I could get behind; I personally think the Civil War was rather unnecessary, and that slavery would have died out by the 1900s. Rockwell, though, doesn’t say that; he fawns over the CSA. As Jonathan Blanks of Cato says so well, you have to defend secession on moral grounds, not legal ones. And if you’re seceding so you can keep other humans in bondage, well, that’s really not a moral justification.
Rockwell is still wrong.
Jeremy,
I think you are a fool, as is anyone who buys the last two loads of crap as libertarian-speak.
Oh, I’m sorry, I thought that voluntary association was an essential part of libertarianism. Silly me.
Oh, wait, it is.
Here’s a tip: The so-called “9/11 truth movement” is full of all kinds of viewpoints. You can be a 9/11 truther and NOT automatically believe GWB and Dick Cheney pulled it off. Who doesn’t want 9/11 truth or to be a “truther” about everything, for that matter.
Other than that, decent article.
The only viewpoint that I have ever heard come out of the “9/11 truth movement” is that the US government did it, a US government led by Bush and Cheney (and maybe Rumsfeld). If there are “other viewpoints,” they amount to 1% or less, so calling the 9/11 truth movement as I have is is accurate.
Here’s a good (but no longer updated) source for more on Rockwell and the Auburn crowd: http://rightwatch.tblog.com/
Jeremy, I’ve read both your anti-LRC posts and agree with your conclusion (Lew Rockwell is an armchair hack who doesn’t produce anything, and is damaging to the liberty movement).
Rockwell has done a fantastic job to trick people by appearing on YouTube with his cheap podcasts, RT, Infowars, rubbing elbows with Ron Paul, and rigging Google search results with his own site.
However, your responses to criticism and your ranting tone on both posts come off as juvenile and immature. You also seem to be focused on labels and generalizations. Not to mention full of anger and some of your words portray you as an intellectual snob and elitist, just like Lew Rockwell is.
This makes you less believable, and some may still be on the fence about Lew Rockwell after reading your emotional arguments and personal attacks.
However, your responses to criticism and your ranting tone on both posts come off as juvenile and immature.
Hey, guess what, this is the Internet. I’m entitled to rant once in a while. And that in no way makes me “juvenile and immature.” If that was my only content, sure, but it isn’t. Sometimes, you need to blow off steam. With Lew Rockwell, there’s a lot more to blow off than just steam, but you catch my drift. So this argument has no merit.
Not to mention full of anger and some of your words portray you as an intellectual snob and elitist, just like Lew Rockwell is.
Full of anger? Yes, I am pissed off at Lew Rockwell. That’s my right. You would be too when you read his BS. As for “intellectual snob and elitist,” pray tell, cite your evidence. Put it right here where I am being an elitist snob. I want to see it.
This makes you less believable, and some may still be on the fence about Lew Rockwell after reading your emotional arguments and personal attacks.
As for personal attacks: Lew Rockwell is an asshole. That’s just an observation.
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