From: Richard Gaylord
Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2020 10:25 AM
To: Walter Block <[email protected]>
Subject: The Insidious Libertarian-to-Alt-Right Pipeline

I came across this while searching

“The paleo-libertarian seed that Ron Paul, Murray Rothbard, and Lew Rockwell planted in the 1990s has come to bear some really ugly fruit in the last couple of years as elements of the alt-right have made appearances in various libertarian organizations and venues,” writes Steve Horwitz, an economist who writes at Bleeding Heart Libertarians.

Dear Richard:

Thanks.

I’m not a big fan of Gillespie’s:

“It’s ironic that some of these people start off calling themselves libertarian, but they are the antithesis of everything that the libertarian project stands for—which is cosmopolitanism versus parochialism, individualism vs. group identity, and libertarianism or autonomy versus authoritarianism,” Nick Gillespie, editor in chief of Reason.com tells me.

Why not? Take a peek:

November 1, 2016. NYC.  Soho Forum  https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/debate-reasons-nick-gillespie-trump-president-slavery-nytimes/ Gene Epstein [email protected]

go here, http://www.thesohoforum.org/; then here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNHcqc6jNrg (the debate starts at the 19 minute mark) Resolved: “Libertarians should vote for Donald Trump for president.”

Debate: Walter Block, Loyola University New Orleans versus Nick Gillespie of Reason magazine;  https://twitter.com/skycorridors/status/793580125488943105 (the debate starts at around the 24 minute mark; the comedic introduction starts at about the 18 minute mark);

http://141.164.71.80/exchange/walterblock/Deleted%20Items/Good%20job.EML/1_multipart_xF8FF_2_walter%20vs%20douchebag.jpg/C58EA28C-18C0-4a97-9AF2-036E93DDAFB3/walter%20vs%20douchebag.jpg?attach=1; http://sohovote.com/;

https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/upcoming-speaking-engagements-youre-town-cmon/; http://reason.com/blog/2016/10/25/should-libertarians-vote-trump-nick-gill. www.thesohoforum.org. Tickets can be reserved here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-soho-forum-debate-walter-block-vs-nick-gillespie-tickets-26140849986;  http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?499611-Nick-Gillespie-debating-Walter-Block [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] November 1, 2016. NYC.  Soho Forum (http://www.thesohoforum.org/) Debate: Walter Block, Loyola University New Orleans versus Nick Gillespie of Reason magazine; Resolved: “Libertarians should vote for Donald Trump for president.”  https://twitter.com/skycorridors/status/793580125488943105; (the debate starts at around the 24 minute mark; the comedic introduction starts near the 18 minute mark)

http://141.164.71.80/exchange/walterblock/Deleted%20Items/Good%20job.EML/1_multipart_xF8FF_2_walter%20vs%20douchebag.jpg/C58EA28C-18C0-4a97-9AF2-036E93DDAFB3/walter%20vs%20douchebag.jpg?attach=1; http://sohovote.com/; http://reason.com/blog/2016/11/02/walter-block-nick-gillespie-debate; https://twitter.com/SkyCorridors; http://www.targetliberty.com/2016/11/last-nights-walter-block-nick-gillespie.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TargetLiberty+%28Target+Liberty%29; http://reason.com/blog/2016/11/02/walter-block-nick-gillespie-debate; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNHcqc6jNrg; http://www.targetliberty.com/2016/11/the-debate-walter-block-vs-nick_3.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TargetLiberty+%28Target+Liberty%29; https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/walter-block-demolishes-dishonest-nick-gillespie-debate/; http://reason.com/blog/2016/11/03/video-nick-gillespie-and-walter-block-de

Here is my summary of the debate, with reasons why I think I won:

1. Dr. Nick Gillespie has his own central planning industrial policy: factory jobs are bad.

2. He thinks the supreme court is unimportant. So what that Hillary will appoint more pinkos

3. He denigrated free association as unimportant. So what that the baker had to pay a fine of $130,000 for refusing to service a gay wedding

4. In his view, the rust belt had nothing to do with labor unions

5. He kept interrupting me all throughout the debate

6. He refused to rank Hillary vs. Donald

7. He’s a thick libertarian: if you’re not wildly enthusiastic about inter-racial marriage, you’re really not a libertarian, in his view

8. He dismissed as any problem at all the rape-fugees now plaguing Sweden, Germany.

9. He supports political correctness

10. Most egregious, he refused to apologize in the venue he did this for repeating without demur the NYTimes smear that I think actual slavery was “not so bad”

I would have been DELIGHTED to patch things up with Gillespie and shake his hand. The first time he apologized to me, it was in front of 3 other people. I said that the apology had to be a public one, and in the same venue as the offense took place (he wrote it in a Reason communication). The second and third times he tried to apologize, I again said the same thing. In none of these cases did he ever LISTEN to me. Instead, both privately, in front of the three people, and in front of the big audience, he kept interrupting me, saying he didn’t really owe me an apology since he was only quoting the NYTimes, and never got through his head that I wanted (just merely the promise of) a WRITTEN, not just a spoken apology. It is difficult to talk to people who keep interrupting you, do not listen to you.

Epstein, Jim. 2016. “Should Libertarians Vote For Trump? Nick Gillespie vs. Walter Block.” November 2; http://freedombunker.com/2016/11/02/should-libertarians-vote-for-trump-nick-gillespie-vs-walter-block/;

Epstein, Jim and Nick Gillespie. 2016. “Should Libertarians Vote For Trump? Nick Gillespie vs. Walter Block.” November 2; https://reason.com/blog/2016/11/02/walter-block-nick-gillespie-debate

Gillespie, Nick. 2014. “Will Rand Paul Mainstream Libertarianism on the Way to White House?” January 26; http://reason.com/blog/2014/01/26/will-rand-paul-mainstream-libertarianism

https://www.meetup.com/nycancap/photos/27395354/

Target Liberty. 2016. “The Debate: Walter Block vs. Nick Gillespie on Donald Trump.” November 3; http://www.targetliberty.com/2016/11/the-debate-walter-block-vs-nick_3.html.

Here is the takeaway quote: “It is shocking that Reason, the supposed magazine of Free Minds and Free Markets, did not follow up the NYT story with their own interview of Block. Apparently Reason is happy to let its readers believe that Block supports slavery and that the Mises Institute is a bogeyman that the libertarians who read that magazine should avoid. So I’m back full circle that Gillespie should apologize in print to Block and give him an interview in Reason to update on his libel case against the NYT and to set the record straight. It’s one thing for politician Rand Paul to evade and avoid ‘gotcha’ questions from nasty journalists about slavery, but entirely different for Reason magazine.” Reason Magazine, and Reason Foundation, are one of the pre-eminent libertarian institutions. The fact that even they spread the nasty rumor that I think slavery was not so bad is devastating to my reputation in the libertarian movement.

Best regards,

Walter

The Best of Walter E. Block