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Jack Graham

Jack Graham writes and podcasts about culture and politics from a Gothic Marxist-Humanist perspective. He co-hosts the I Don't Speak German podcast with Daniel Harper. Support Jack on Patreon.

6 Comments

  1. bombasticus
    April 6, 2018 @ 9:49 pm

    “extreme libertarian anti-New Dealers such as Garet Garrett and H. L. Mencken”

    Two names beloved of Aleister Crowley, needless to say.

    Reply

  2. John F Kosanke
    April 7, 2018 @ 1:58 am

    Is there a racist Rothbardian quote somewhere in this magnificent diatribe?

    Reply

  3. eve
    April 7, 2018 @ 6:08 pm

    There was quite a bit of this kind of rhetoric in the 1700s. John Randolph of Roanoke said, “I love liberty and hate equality”, because he knew that his liberty was founded on some other guy getting the shaft. Thomas Jefferson said the same thing: Liberty means MY freedom founded on YOUR slavery thank you very much.

    Reply

  4. Jesse
    April 13, 2018 @ 11:55 pm

    I’m all for criticizing the reactionary elements of Rothbard’s work, but for most of his career there were clear radical elements too. So it’s odd to see sentences like these:

    Whereas many of today’s libertarians and ‘classical liberals’ like to present their doctrine as somehow above or beyond the left-right divide (even as they enable fascists and agree with everything they say), Rothbard indulged in little such pretence. He was cynical and opportunistic. He was inconsistent and incoherent. But he wasn’t confused. For him, libertarianism was, essentially, a reiteration of what he called ‘the Old Right’.

    Well, no. He styled himself as right-wing at the beginning of his career, and again when he veered sharply to the right at the end of the ’80s. But in-between, he wrote a long and influential essay arguing that libertarianism is properly conceived as a movement of the radical left (and took the exact opposite position on police brutality and some other issues you raise here). He wrote nostalgically of the “Old Right” in this period too, so it gets complicated; but your characterization really isn’t accurate.

    He then goes on to praise John C. Calhoun, possibly the most fanatically pro-slavery politician of the pre-Civil War era, for pointing out the horrific injustice of… er… taxation. Rothbard never mentions slavery in the essay.

    Rothbard’s class analysis drew on Calhoun’s distinction between taxpayers and tax-eaters, even in his left period. But he saw slaveowners as part of the ruling class, and indeed argued for reparations.

    Reason Magazine…recently gave a flattering review to Milo Yiannopoulos’ silly book Dangerous

    Speaking as the books editor of Reason: I have no idea what you’re talking about.

    Reply

    • Jesse
      April 16, 2018 @ 11:49 am

      Speaking as the books editor of Reason: I have no idea what you’re talking about.

      Seriously: Please point me to this “flattering book review” of Milo Yiannopoulos that I allegedly ran.

      Reply

      • Jack Graham
        May 1, 2018 @ 8:07 am

        You’re right, there was no positive Reason review of Dangerous. My fault. Sorry. Article amended.

        Reply

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