Topics of discussion include Johnsons’s 2016 plans, the rise of Trump, the fall of Paul, and how Gary learned to like anarchists.
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November 10, 2026
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Topics of discussion include Johnsons’s 2016 plans, the rise of Trump, the fall of Paul, and how Gary learned to like anarchists.
Comments are closed.
Agreed on both counts.
ac: But he handled it OK, and managed to give an answer that wasn’t overly alienating to either the general public or the vocal AnCaps in the party/movement.
me: Yes, once he stepped in it, he wasn’t terrible.
on anarchy he was asked if he liked anarchists…
I would have said sure some of them are good people and some aren’t, pretty much like the rest of the human population. but I don’t have to agree politically with someone to like them. and just because I agree with them politically doesn’t mean I am going to like them.
I think like most people the interviewer thinks of “anarchists” as Black Bloc anarchocommunists. Which is historically what anarchism, as political movements, have been. I doubt viewers thought this, but I thought Johnson was just creating confusion between anarchocapitalists and the vast majority of self identified anarchists who are anarchocommunists. But I will say that in the US the ancaps have been successfully moved the word libertarian from it’s historical basis as a Leftist term. But I think it will be much more difficult for ancaps to successfully appropriate the terms anarchy, anarchism, anarchists. There are just too many kids in black breaking windows in the nane of the circled A. I’m not an anarchocommunist. Maybe a libertarian socialist, but I think open source socialist is a more useful and I do think you all have successfully appropriated the word libertarian. At least here in the US.
I thought Malzberg seemed kind of ridiculous for thinking that “anarchists” attending a political convention in NYC to listen to an ex-Governor speak, would be violent criminals. He sounds like some pearl-clutcher hyperventilating about Burning Man being a Communist plot to instill Cultural Marxism. I don’t think popular perception of the word is nearly as strongly negative these days as all that. Not net positive, but not the synonym for “terrorists” that he made it out to be. If somebody calls themselves an anarchist, people are more likely to think them eccentric or naive (or fans of punk rock) than dangerous.
I agree Gary could have avoided it by not mentioning the a-word when explaining that LibertyFest wasn’t a partisan Libertarian event. But he handled it OK, and managed to give an answer that wasn’t overly alienating to either the general public or the vocal AnCaps in the party/movement. Allegations of anarchism, or consorting with anarchists, have been raised against most Libertarians at some point, so even if it could have been avoided in this instance it’s good that he has a decent answer ready.
B+
Boy did he step in it about “anarchy.” To be avoided as a subject for obvious reasons.
I say that as a theoretical asymptotic anarchist/applied lessarchist. Anarchy is still associated with violence, and this was not the venue to attempt to explain what it REALLY means, especially because GJ isn’t an anarchist.