Today’s Tom Woods Letter, which all the influential people receive every weekday. Be one of them.
If I didn’t know for a fact you all were lying when you said you weren’t interested in libertarian gossip, I wouldn’t periodically share some with you.
First (I’ll get to the gossip in a second), today I had jury duty. I could have kept quiet about my views on jury nullification, but in practice that was easier said than done.
The judge asked the 56 of us something like, “Are there any of you who, no matter how silly or stupid what I tell you may sound when giving you [legal] instructions, would have any hesitation in following those instructions?”
I couldn’t just sit there.
So I raised my hand — the only person to do so.
The judge was not confrontational or unfriendly, but when he asked me about this, I explained that I believed juries had the right to judge both the law and the facts.
As we went into recess, I was approached and told I had been dismissed.
No matter how silly or stupid, will you obey? Yes.
We have lots of work yet to do.
OK, here’s the gossip.
I kicked off the Mises Institute’s Mises University program this year with a talk called “What I Learned From Murray Rothbard.”
I talked about all the history and economics I’ve learned from him, what his specific contributions were, and his willingness to look all over for the truth — even to people with whom he otherwise disagreed.
Nicholas Sarwark, the chairman of the Libertarian National Committee, didn’t bother to listen to the speech before retweeting it with a little lecture:
Of course, I uttered not a single word about political strategy in the speech. Those of you who have listened to it know that.
I gave a speech celebrating everything about Rothbard that no libertarian worth the name could deny.
After all, why would somebody, given the chance to discuss the brilliant Murray Rothbard, want to waste time on anything other than his areas of specialty: economics, history, philosophy?
You think Sarwark, who tweets out safe, boring, chic-libertarian crap all day long, has read any of that?
And why should we take advice on political strategy from — of all people! — the chairman of the Libertarian National Committee?
Now Woods, why the infighting? you say.
Well, when someone misrepresents me to the point of saying up is down, I respond.
Plus, it’s fun.
Sarwark takes no position on anything that isn’t at least tacitly approved by the New York Times.
Any libertarian who falls outside the libertarianism-is-all-about-pot axis he attacks and ridicules.
“Please, Mr. Good Newspaper Editor, sir, understand that I’m a good and safe libertarian who keeps safely on the 3×5 card of allowable opinion that you have so wisely laid out for us!”
Blech.
For what it’s worth, our friend Michael Malice gave the LP National Twitter account a severe beatdown the other day when it celebrated North Korea for its marijuana laws.
Nobody emerges from a fight with Malice unscathed, so the LP withdrew the Tweet.
(Well, I escaped unscathed when I debated Michael on Alexander Hamilton in an Oxford-style debate before a live audience in New York, and beat the daylights out of him, but….)
Incidentally, I spoke at the Libertarian National Convention last year, and I’ve spoken at numerous state conventions. So the people seem to like me even if daddy-o doesn’t.
Anyway, if these virtue-signaling ninnies are making you lose heart about libertarianism, join me in my private Facebook group when you become a Supporting Listener of the Tom Woods Show, and you’ll have great discussions and form wonderful friendships with some truly outstanding folks.
But I warn you: we don’t spend time announcing that we’re against slavery, or cancer, or whatever. And we don’t ask you to, either. We don’t assume you’re guilty until proven innocent.
Join our subversive and truly amazing group: