Rothbard is a Nazi

[Originally published in The Voluntaryist, article by Matthew Dewey]

“Rothbard is a Nazi, someone punch him” might be something heard today if he was still alive. Despite the fact that Murray Rothbard is one of the most influential Anarcho-Capitalist advocates to ever live, today’s misinformed and economically uneducated youth aligning themselves with the regressive Left would be calling for a violent silencing of him.

Murray Newton Rothbard was born March 2, 1926 in New York City and became one of the most widely known libertarians, as he was a prolific writer with over twenty books on political theory, revisionist history, and economics. He is considered the founder and leading theoretician of anarcho-capitalism and who was heavily influenced by the Austrian school of economic theory. One of Rothbard’s most important influences is Ludwig von Mises, who wrote Human Action, who also praised Rothbard’s work [1]. He also became friends with and influenced the greatest living libertarian, Hans Hermann Hoppe, when they were colleagues at the University of Las Vegas, where Rothbard held the title of S.J. Hall Distinguished Professor for Economics. Hoppe described Rothbard’s existence as on the fringe of academia, but acknowledged that Rothbard attracted a large number of “students and disciples” through his writings, thereby becoming “the creator and one of the principal agents of the contemporary libertarian movement” [2]

If he were alive today and giving speeches, or hosting a web based media channel, the regressive Leftists of Antifa and the like would be gathering outside the venues to riot, destroy random property, or flooding the comment sections with half-truth based opinions and irrational unwarranted insults. Rothbard understood, as far back as 1992, that Leftism is the biggest threat to civilization. He wrote an article titled “Right Wing Populism” in which he said,

“Left-wing populism: rousing the masses to attack ‘the
rich,’ amounts to more of the same: high taxes, wild
spending, massive redistribution of working and
middle-class incomes to the ruling coalition of: big
government, big business, and the New Class of
bureaucrats, technocrats, and ideologues and their
numerous dependent groups.”

He goes on to explain why the Leftist media and academia attack anything that threatens big government:

“The problem is that the intellectual elites benefit from
the current system; in a crucial sense, they are part of
the ruling class.” [3]

If alive today Rothbard would be supporting people like Kyle Chapman (Based Stick Man), Christopher Cantwell, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Augustus Invictus, along with organizations like The Proud Boys and the Alt-Knights who advocate right-wing ideology and take defensive actions to protect free speech, even if he disagreed with them in other areas.

“The basic right-wing populist insight is that we live
in a statist country and a statist world dominated by a
ruling elite, consisting of a coalition of Big
Government, Big Business, and various influential
special interest groups.” [3]

The Left is advocating communist ideals politically and pushing cultural Marxism in the heavily Leftist media. Rothbard knew why communism implodes,

“Because in the end the system was working so badly
that even the nomenklatura got fed up and threw in the
towel. The Marxists have correctly pointed out that a
social system collapses when the ruling class becomes
demoralized and loses its will to power; manifest failure
of the communist system brought about that
demoralization. But doing nothing, or relying only on
educating the elites in correct ideas, will mean that our
own statist system will not end until our entire society,
like that of the Soviet Union, has been reduced to
rubble. Surely, we must not sit still for that. A strategy
for liberty must be far more active and aggressive.” [3]

“Hence the importance, for libertarians or for minimal
government conservatives, of having a one-two punch
in their armor: not simply of spreading correct ideas,
but also of exposing the corrupt ruling elites and how
they benefit from the existing system, more specifically
how they are ripping us of . Ripping the mask of elites
is ‘negative campaigning’ at its finest and most
fundamental.” [3]

If exposing regressive Leftists includes not only exposing their intellectual contradictions, but also making the cost of their oppressive campaign so high that they become demoralized and lose their will to rule, and as Rothbard’s most famous protégé, Hans Hermann Hoppe, explains, that physical removal is justified where libertarian order is established. Exclusion and physical removal from private property is simply the only way to absolutely be sure that those who don’t align with libertarian thought aren’t pervasively destructive toward the freedom of libertarian ideals. Exclusion and physical removal ensure that those seeking to destroy libertarian society and ideals are not going to pose an issue towards the future of libertarian thought.

Murray Rothbard understood that the battle for humanity is the battle between totalitarian government and total human freedom of an anarcho-capitalist society, and is one of the intellect and requires physical defense. The regressive Left has been escalating their violent intentions in the face of a rising sentiment for right-wing freedom of association and if Murray Rothbard were alive today he would be speaking at events with a group of right-wing populists like the Proud Boys and the Alt-Knights guarding his right to do so. Leftists and cultural Marxists would no doubt be perpetrating their violence trying to silence him and he would have found sanctuary with the right-wing populists of today. He would be organizing the right wing, making friends, alliances, and business relationships with anyone right of center. An anarcho-capitalist at heart, Rothbard, would see the value in setting up profit seeking businesses and seeking contracts solely with those individuals that have expressed in words and deed that they believe in, uphold, and defend private property norms.

[Matthew Dewey is the CEO of RWDS Corp; Arbitral Tribunal at Murray’s Market]

[1] “The Essential Rothbard” by David Gordon (2007); [2] “Murray N. Rothbard: Economics, Science, and Library” by Hans Hermann Hoppe (1999); [3] The Irrepressible Rothbard, “Right Wing Populism” by Murray Rothbard edited by Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. (1992)