It is the revisionist aspect not the anti-semitic aspect that draws certain libertarians to historical revisionism - a scepticism of the current story told by 'the Man'. To believe otherwise is ludicrous - to read through a list of libertarian thinkers is to read through a list of Jewish names, including the ones who inspired the editors of Reason at that time - Murray Rothbard, Ludwig Mises, Milton Friedman, hell even that Friedlander fellow sounds like he's probably Jewish
Bearing in mind that I have no great interest in, or knowledge or, the history of American libertarianism, - but: isn't the writer's point not so much that every prominent libertarian he mentioned were directly racist themselves, but were willing to defend racists (or defend some of their policies) in the name of freedom and "it's not government's job to intervene" style arguments? And he certainly spent most of the time talking about American black/white race relations - not anti-Semitism.
By the way, I find many of the comments following the article, slagging off on American libertarianism, pretty amusing - I sorted them by "most liked" so I was more likely to get the better ones first.
It is the revisionist aspect not the anti-semitic aspect that draws certain libertarians to historical revisionism - a scepticism of the current story told by 'the Man'. To believe otherwise is ludicrous - to read through a list of libertarian thinkers is to read through a list of Jewish names, including the ones who inspired the editors of Reason at that time - Murray Rothbard, Ludwig Mises, Milton Friedman, hell even that Friedlander fellow sounds like he's probably Jewish
ReplyDeleteBearing in mind that I have no great interest in, or knowledge or, the history of American libertarianism, - but: isn't the writer's point not so much that every prominent libertarian he mentioned were directly racist themselves, but were willing to defend racists (or defend some of their policies) in the name of freedom and "it's not government's job to intervene" style arguments? And he certainly spent most of the time talking about American black/white race relations - not anti-Semitism.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I find many of the comments following the article, slagging off on American libertarianism, pretty amusing - I sorted them by "most liked" so I was more likely to get the better ones first.