Libertarian authors often point to historical examples of societies (or aspects of societies) that putatively approximate their political ideals. Some popular examples of polycentric or quasi-polycentric legal regimes and/or decentralized property arrangements include Anglo-Saxon England,¹ ancient and medieval Ireland,² the American frontier,³ and Iceland’s Free Commonwealth period,⁴ among others. My purpose here is not to…

The Kurdish people are the largest stateless nation in the world. An estimated 40 million Kurds live in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. Despite their common origins and cultural practices, these four states have denied the Kurds recognition of their identity or autonomy as a distinct minority with their own culture and language. At different…

After becoming a migrant in Europe, I’ve seen all kinds of people that the dominant culture and the state are blind to. These people are unwelcomed by a society that uses them only for dirty jobs. And I’m talking about the migrants and refugees in Europe who live to survive. They are the most endangered…

In the present South African political discourse, it is tragic how often elements of colonialist ideology crop up in the arguments of the very people who are most wont to insist that one cannot demolish the master’s house with the master’s tools — tragic because I want them to be right! The metaphor is nonsensical…

“The individual is increasingly deprived of the moral decisions as to how he should live his own life, and instead is ruled, fed, clothed, and educated as a social unit, accommodated in the appropriate housing unit, and amused in accordance to the standards that give pleasure and satisfaction to the masses.” -C.G. Jung, Civilization In…

I just finished reading The Conquest of Bread by the Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921). The book inspired Catalonia syndicalists in the Spanish Civil War, Magonism in Mexico, and the Occupy movement but still… I wasn’t expecting anything, I thought I’d be very bored because the book was written in 1892, I was sure it…

In the course of his 2006 Rothbard Memorial Lecture, Rothbard’s “Left and Right”: Forty Years Later, Roderick Long creates a beautiful device to illustrate package-deal anti-concepts in the Randian sense: “Suppose I were to invent a new word, zaxlebax, and define it as ‘a metallic sphere, like the Washington Monument.’ That’s the definition — ‘a…

From a 2020 protest against the Trump SCOTUS appointment: Even assuming the legitimacy of the state to begin with, the Supreme Court is not as it should be! Thomas Jefferson was correct when he wrote the following: “For intending to establish three departments, coordinate and independent, that they might check and balance one another, it…

I could not, in the course of a fifteen-minute internet search, find a definite first attestation of the expression “to go to town,” meaning to do something with great energy or exuberance. That a number of sources report a probable 19th-century American origin is not surprising given that the idiom rests on a metaphoric use…

There was not too long ago a tendency among South African artists, authors, and musicians to produce transparently derivative work, because they were not as uniquely privy to the arcane cultural gnosis which inspired them as they thought they were. Indeed I must confess that I am guilty of something like that at this very…

Recently, the Republican Party of Texas released a brand new platform stating that “Texas retains the right to secede from the United States, and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum consistent thereto” and calls “for the people of Texas to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert…

“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” – Emma Goldman Roe v. Wade has been overturned, allowing states to make abortion (i.e. any medical procedure that harms the “unborn” regardless of context) a felony. What other rights get taken away when the government decides a voluntary medical procedure that you agree to is now…

Did you take out a student loan from the government or a chartered bank backed by a government guarantee to cover the loan if you default? Do you, as a libertarian/market anarchist, feel morally obligated to repay the loan? If so, don’t. Why? Let me back up a bit here. Your deliberations about whether to…

Spooky has rightfully criticized me for utilizing obscene and ableist language in my article “Libertarianism vs Psychopathic Dumbfuckery.” I am deeply, deeply sorry to the neurodivergent community for the crass, thoughtless, and harmful language that I used. I’ve caused harm to people who are already marginalized in society, and there are no excuses for that. …

On May 21st, 2021, the Center published a piece by Andrew Kemle titled “Libertarianism vs Psychopathic Dumbfuckery.” The article discusses Rand Paul’s active role in the ongoing disinformation campaign against vaccination and COVID response more generally, focusing specifically on his promotion of conspiracies blaming eminent immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci and the U.S. government for “creating…

Is anarcho-capitalism a form of anarchism? The resounding cry from anarchists of all stripes—including myself—is NO! The debate rages on, but two questions are raised by this claim: why isn’t it anarchism and if it isn’t anarchism then what is it? I believe the answers are: because it fails to meet the deeper commitments of…

I cannot remember when I last saw a Von Dutch hat. I remember being offended twenty years ago, when for a time they were all over the place, on the heads of people imitating at third hand the ironic poses of other people who had never heard of Kenny Howard; who had no idea who…

Commentators criticizing authoritarian health policies from the mainstream left could turn more radical. I hope they do. Leftist critics of heavy-handed political responses to the Covid-19 pandemic have rightly noted multiple concerns. School closures risk decades-long damage to the most vulnerable students. Business closures harmed workers and employers even as they enjoyed substantial support from…

On February 4th, 2022, the Republican National Committee wholeheartedly endorsed the congressional inquiry into the causes of the January 6th, 2021 insurrection that delayed the certification of Donald Trump’s failure to be re-elected for another term. Actually I’m kidding. They not only opposed it but in the process censured the only Republican members of congress…

This week, attorneys with the CLDC successfully defended Eric King, a man whose heart is bigger than the walls it’s being kept in. A poet, yoga instructor, boxer, Nirvana fan, and anarchist, serving a 10-year sentence for a previous conviction, King was accused of allegedly assaulting a federal officer. The details of this case reveal…