None of these people are Libertarians today. Either their understanding of the world grew or they learned how nuts Ron Paul was, and they were done. I know a couple of self identified Libertarians now, one of which is simply uninformed. The other is a lefty Libertarian, and lets be real: the LP couldn't care less about them.
For a while on the forums almost everyone claimed to be "Libertarian". Years later, with hindsight, one could see this was a safe strategy: chose a political party that can mean anything, left or right, and the scammers could network with anyone without suspicion. It was like when everyone claimed to be Buddhist.
http://911blogger.com/news/2008-02-12/buddhists-question-official-reality-fri-8-feb-2008-002824-0000
http://911blogger.com/news/2011-02-08/graeme-macqueen-911-context-resistance-radio#comment-245642
http://911blogger.com/news/2006-10-29/constitution-party
I don't believe that liberty is "God-given" -- I don't believe it has to be "given" by any entity for us to have it, and for it to be our inalienable right. (I am not, incidentally, an atheist -- I am a Buddhist, and Buddhism is a non-theistic religion, as you may know.)Whatever... I know a real Buddhist and this isn't one.
It was an non offensive theism that could mean anything, and was easy to fake. In later years, they discovered Atheism, even easier to fake! But if anything was the theism of the "Truth" movement, it was Libertarianism. And it was the Libertarian Thinktanks who were responsible for much of the Anti-Semite propaganda in 911 truth.
Many criticisms of the "Truth" movement are valid, but usually incomplete. The James Randi Forums are famous for picking theories to death, (a laudable activity), but barely scratching the surface of who invents them and the political goals behind them. Part of it is cultural dissonance; there is a core of intellectuals who hold to "libertarian" ideals, and understandably are uncomfortable about what they'll find if the dig too far into the Libertarian party connections to the "truth" movement. Understandable, but unwise, especially for those noting the proliferation of Anti-Semite theories in 911truth. As it turns out, others have observed the Libertarian think tanks pushing Antisemitism, and the direct connection to the creation of 9/11 conspiracies:
Documenting Anti-Semitism Within the Libertarian Movement
Anti-Semitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. The term was coined by non-Jews in late 19th century Europe as a more scientific-sounding term for Judenhass ("Jew-hatred"). In recent years, as the libertarian movement has grown, so has the anti-Jewish movement within this clan of activists supposedly concerned with promoting liberty and freedom for all of humanity.
The word libertarian comes from the root word "liberty" and refers to individuals who favor less government intrusion and are distrusting of government power. In the U.S., the libertarian movement, broadly speaking, consists of think-tanks, Ron Paul activists and organizations, and those affiliated with the Libertarian Party.
The anti-Semitism in the libertarian movement has manifested itself in all three categories at alarmingly high levels. It's difficult to imagine how any libertarian activist or scholar can envision success for their movement with such anti-libertarian sentiment and malicious bigotry in its midst.
We learn about "alibi Jews", like Davide Cole and Gilad Aztmon:
And then we come to the main event: Blaming Jews for 911
The libertarian movement is ripe with Alibijude, or alibi Jews. Their job is easy: If someone is accused of anti-Semitism, the alibi Jew is brought in as a defending witness. In a movement with so few genuinely Jewish individuals, it is easy for the alibi Jews to get away with just about anything. They are free to bash Israel, defend anti-Semitism, promote the idea that a non-interventionist foreign policy would have been wise from 1939 to 1945, and misinform people about Jews and Judaism. It's an easy and worthwhile endeavor for the Alibijude, because they help anti-Semites get away with their crimes while warding off any anti-Semitic images within the libertarian movement.
Libertarian Think-Tanks and Anti-SemitismWhat's interesting about this screed is how it project the right wing militia psychosis on an entire group of people. Not even a nation, but the Jews.
Libertarian think-tanks are notorious for pushing an anti-Israel agenda. Of course, one can distrust the Israeli government while also holding no hard feelings toward Jewish individuals. But it is difficult to imagine that U.S. think-tanks would focus so much on Israel when one considers the small percentage that foreign aid constitutes in the United States federal budget. (Less than one percent of the federal budget goes toward foreign aid.) Three "libertarian" think-tanks do exactly that -- and much worse.
Justin Raimondo, the prime mover-and-shaker behind the antiwar.com website (and whose main source of income is antiwar.com), blames Israel for the attack of September 11, 2001. Of Jews, Raimondo says, "The savage mind, however, works differently. Shorn of what we would recognize as a moral sense, the savage glories in his capacity for pitiless violence. It's a survival mechanism: in his world, red in tooth and claw, instilling fear in your opponent means winning more than half the battle. As a survival strategy, it's like the one inmate who mutters ominously to himself while exhibiting all the characteristics of a violent psychotic: the other prisoners give him plenty of space because they think he's liable to do anything. So, too, in the case of the Israelis, who are signaling their willingness to go to any lengths in order to instill the fear of their wrath far and wide." He also calls Israel a racist theocracy and a "shitty little country".
No discussion about Libertarianism and conspiracies can be complete without Ron Paul, who has himself contributed amply to the anti-Semite propaganda machine:
The Ron Paul Movement and Anti-Semitism
Savvy readers already know about Ron Paul's long-time ties to neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers. It's no surprise, then, that the movement surrounding him has the same ties and conspiratorial ideas about Jews and Judaism. But the real question, asked by The New Republic's James Kirchick in 2011, is "Why Don't Libertarians Care About Ron Paul's Bigoted Newsletters?" Kirchick concludes that "the benefit of indulging in" the idea that the U.S. is on the verge of bankruptcy and collapse "is that it sets the stage for the arrival of a savior". Each libertarian think-tank, organization, or politician are setting themselves up to save the day. Conspiracy theories about the Federal Reserve, the bankers, Israel, and the Jewish Elders of Zion help fuel the narrative that the world is collapsing around us.
Ron Paul's long-time ally Justin Raimondo's problems with the Jews is outlined above. Another close associate of Paul, former chief-of-staff Lew Rockwell, now runs The Ludwig Von Mises Institute in Alabama. There, eager young students are indoctrinated in Austrian economics -- an anti-mathemics-based brand of economics that favors cultural conservatism, anti-interventionist foreign policy, and the gold standard. And Jew-bashing. The Ron Paul newsletters, approved by Paul and likely written by Rockwell, talk about Jewish conspiracy theories and Israel in newsletter after newsletter. Subsequently, these publications as well as fundraising letters from Paul were sent to mailing lists of the anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying mail list of Willis Carto's tabloid, The Spotlight. Willis Carto is one of the most influential American anti-Semitic propagandists of the past 50 years. Mr. Paul has never acknowledged or apologized for what everyone knows to be the truth. Lew Rockwell was paid as a Ron Paul staffer from the late 1970s until at least the mid-1990s. He was the operations man behind Paul's efforts to demonize Jews and Israel. Additional specifics about Paul's anti-Semitic activities are provided here.
Ron Paul's organization, a (c)(3) educational group called the Campaign for Liberty -- whose Board of Directors is comprised of various Paul family members that financially benefit from its successes -- permits its users to promote anti-Jewish conspiracy theories at its website. Campaign for Liberty activist Clay Douglas has been promoting "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", an anti-Semitic hoax purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination, at the organization's website since 2008.
It's like one pathetic train wreck of failure after another. But not to people invested in these ideas. Their goal has never been "911 truth" or ending the FED. And a winning third party is a pipe dream.
The cold fact is no third party is viable in the current political system. It's a numbers game and the math is brutal:
If Party A is lefty and Party B is righty
Then Party C will split the vote of whichever party it has the most political similarity to.
Ergo, Party C will always help the main party with opposing politics to Party C win.
Maybe I'll make a cute little diagram later. The point is in the current American political system, third parties will never win. And to make a system where a third party would be viable, would require changes moving to instant run-off voting and extreme campaign finance reform.
These all smack of "socialism" ; the irony is no organization fielding third parties would go for this. In this situation they'd be defeated sounder than the already are.
So what's the point of fielding them?
To build a base. In the case of the Libertarian party, a base for the far right.
It's not necessarily a base to vote for third candidates, though it's possible the brainwaves in the Libertarian thinktanks think so. More likely they're just as aware of the mathematics and are cynically exploiting their base's ignorance.
There's also the money making aspect. Funding from "money bombs", "donations" and other stunts
give the appearance of grassrootsyness. And even if the have a handful of big donors, they can keep up the facade of being a legitimate party if they can point to donations from all the little people they scammed.
And there's the propaganda aspect. They need an army of sheeple to spread these theories they invent in their super sekrit thinktank club houses. And at the base of the propaganda is blaming Jews for...well, anything.
I don't agree with Chelm's final assessment, that the goal is the destruction of Israel:
Jewish libertarians or classical liberals -- or others who are pro-equal rights (pro-decency, really) should refrain from further participation in the libertarian movement. It actively works against Jews. It is not concerned about liberty for religious minorities; rather, quite the contrary. Moreover, there is little doubt that the modern libertarian movement is dedicated to the destruction of Israel.
Knowing these frauds as I do, the Libertarian propaganda is just one of many fronts to recruit and rally a fringe right base. They are as dedicated to destroying Israel as they are to 911 "Truth" or "ending the FED". In other words only as far as it serves their political agenda. In the case of Israel, I doubt the people managing CATO or Von Mises would be happy if Israel disappeared: then they wouldn't have a target to rally the ignorant.
That in no way diminishes the danger of regular folks, Jews or otherwise, who cross paths with a loon hyped up on these conspiracies.
A final note on the Chelm article: More proof these toerags deliberately targeted the left antiwar movement to obscure their intentions and goals like many of the "truther" frauds:
antiwar.comGranted it was the Bosnian war, but I guess if it worked then, they figured the "pretend to be antiwar" meme would work for pushing anti Semite propaganda around the Iraq war:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiwar.com
The site was founded in December 1995, as a response to the Bosnian war. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation, operating under the auspices of the Randolph Bourne Institute, based in Atherton, California. It was previously affiliated with the Center for Libertarian Studies and functioned before that as an independent, ad-supported website.[2]They even claimed to be singing Kumbaya with the left, though admittedly they're honest about being Libertarians:
This site is devoted to the cause of noninterventionism, and we have many regular readers who are pacifists, leftists, "greens," and independents, as well as many on the Right who agree with our opposition to imperialism. But our own politics are libertarian: our opposition to war is rooted in the concept that war is the health of the state, as Randolph Bourne put it. With every war, America has made a "great leap" into statism. In 1952, Garet Garrett, one of the last of the Old Right "isolationists," said it well: "Between government in the republican meaning, that is, Constitutional, representative, limited government, on the one hand, and Empire on the other hand, there is mortal enmity. Either one must forbid the other or one will destroy the other." This is the perception that informs our activism, and inspires our dedication. Noninterventionism abroad is a corollary to noninterventionism at home.People just didn't understand what kind of Libertarians they were and the fact fringe right Libertarians can't coexist with any leftist.
The editors were active in the Libertarian Party during the 1970s; in 1983, we founded the Libertarian Republican Organizing Committee, to work as a libertarian caucus within the GOP. Today, we are seeking to challenge the traditional politics of "Left" and "Right." At present, none of the existing parties or activist groups offers an effective vehicle for principled libertarian politics. Yet, even in the absence of a party of liberty, we cannot abstain from the struggle. Since opposition to war is at the heart of our philosophy, and single-issue politics is the only avenue open to us, Antiwar.com embodies the politics of the possible.
Our dedication to libertarian principles, inspired in large part by the works and example of the late Murray N. Rothbard, is reflected on this site, and we make no bones about it. While openly acknowledging that we have an agenda, the editors take seriously our purely journalistic mission, which is to get past the media filters and make the truth about America's foreign policy as widely known as possible. Citing a wide variety of sources without fear or favor, and presenting our own views in the regular columns of various contributors, we clearly differentiate between fact and opinion, and let our readers know which is which.
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