- How conservatives won the law Steven Teles (interview), Wall Street Journal
- Libertarians in the Age of Trump Ross Douthat, NY Times
- Political theory for an age of climate change Alyssa Battistoni, the Nation
- Nationalists versus empire: A brief history of the African university Mahmood Mamdani, London Review of Books
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Notes On Liberty 
“Like most interesting churches, libertarianism is a diverse and fractious faith, and FreedomFest brings together all its different sects…” Heh heh. I may have to revise my opinion of Mr. Douthat.
What was your original opinion of Douthat?
I thought he was a sometimes interesting douche. I may upgrade him to intermittently interesting douche.
#3. The piece by Battistoni, a PhD candidate in political theory at Yale and an editor at the communist publication Jacobin, is especially interesting.
Left-statists are a lot like right-statists in that their theories for a better world now rely on catastrophes. In order for their policies to be undertaken, ecological disaster has to occur (or, in the case of right-statists, financial collapse). The whole socialist program depends on the world coming to grips with “man-made climate change” going horribly wrong. Assumptions speak volumes about ideas.
As for Douthat, it always nettles me when someone refers to libertarianism as “right-of-center” or as a “form of conservatism.” I suppose, like most interesting churches, libertarianism is something that outsiders consistently fail to comprehend.
I must admit that if some church member is going to quote scripture at me I prefer Rothbard to Leviticus.