2020 Lockdowns

From "The Post Libertarian Moment Defined"

The next few Monday’s will be reprints of the sections that make up my new essay The Post-Libertarian Moment Defined which you can download in full by visiting postlibertarianmoment.com. I consider this essay of vital importance to anyone who calls (or as the case may be called) themselves “libertarian.”

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2020 Lockdowns

I can still remember sitting at my desk, trying to work. Really, like everyone else, I was waiting for the governor to decree whether people would show up to work on Monday; it was then I learned my work was deemed “essential.” Lest we forget, what began as “15 days to slow the spread” has lasted over 600. Millions will go to their grave believing that mass lockdowns and disruptions to everyday life was warranted by the novel coronavirus. Those of us sensitive to government overreach¹  found a new resistance when we disagreed with government mandates. 

Disagreement online was not perceived as a nuisance of Facebook, but a threat to the very survival of humanity. Of course, the media narratives surrounding issues like climate change, microaggressions, and so on had cleared a path to this moment. Speaking out against growing government tyranny² in the age of covid has shown the path of “tolerance” for left-wing progressives is the road to hell paved with  “good intentions”.³ Where micro-aggressions could be considered hyperbolic, not wearing a mask means you’re trying to kill someone. That’s what the TV told progressives, and millions bought in.

Whether they are correct, or whether they are participants in a mass delusion is not my point. These are the times libertarians find themselves in. The libertarian movement that began⁴ with a few academics in the 1960s had expanded into a popular movement in 2008, with the third largest political party in the “freest” country in world bearing its name. Yet in 2020 we could do nothing to stop the government from going tyrannical. . .

1. this is to say, libertarians

2.  if it needs to be established, this would include the shutting down of “non-essential” business, any mandates that required mask wearing, any policy that interrupted the normal course of business, any decree that limited the ability of people to assemble freely. Now we face the implementation of vaccine mandates and “passports” required for entry within a country. This is merely the governmental overreach, the larger media propaganda effort is part and parcel to the post-libertarian moment. . .

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To read the whole essay download your copy at postlibertarianmoment.com

3.  “if we can only save one life” comes to mind “don’t kill grandma!” is another

4. the roots trace back farther, but this is where the sapling emerged from the ground