In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss the libertarian support for Putin and other authoritarian regimes. They explore the libertarian movement's decades-long sympathy for evil regimes, its anti-state, anti-American foreign policy, and how the movement's rejection of morality has led to sanctioning tyrants.
Among the topics covered:
Recent libertarian defenses of authoritarian regimes;
How these libertarians are primarily anti-state, not pro-liberty;
Murray Rothbard as the spokesman of the libertarian movement's anti-state, anti-American foreign policy;
Rothbard's positive view of dictatorships as flowing from his rejection of morality;
Altruism — not imperialism — as the cause of the US engaging in self-sacrificial wars;
How the "big tent" approach to liberty explains the prevalence of the worst ideas within libertarianism;
How Objectivism can appeal to the best people within libertarianism.
Recommended in this podcast is Peter Schwartz's essay "Libertarianism: The Perversion of Liberty" in Ayn Rand's The Voice of Reason.
The podcast was recorded on April 28, 2023.
