Essential thread on the ongoing, severe misguidedness of Reason Magazine, which is busy worrying about the threat of the--God willing--upcoming Biden Administration while Trump and his Republicans continue their corrosive assault on the democratic transition of power. THREAD https://twitter.com/radleybalko/status/1326197701399224320

The problem is not just with Reason but extends to all major libertarian groups. Libertarianism has just far exceeded its recommended sell-by date. Start with the obvious basket of deplorables: Ludwig von Mises Institute, the Lew Rockwells and Walter Blocks, HH Hoppe, etc. 2

This is the expressly racist wing of libertarianism at the base of the libertarian to alt-right pipeline. You'd like to ignore them as racist cranks, but they've found expression in one of the greatest popular exponents of libertarianism in history: Ron Paul. 3

. @reason is typically more socially liberal, but its writers are reflexively anti-left, concerned more about trivial threats from the left (campus activism, etc) instead of institutional threats from the right. 4

Reason, like many libertarians, is hostile to democracy. As its staffers made evident in 2016 and 2020 with their decisions to either vote for the LP or abstain, they have largely failed to perceive the greatest actual threat to American freedom. @shikhadalmia was an exception. 5

As  @radley says, libertarians are supposed to be the *most* paranoid about government overreach, so they should be the loudest critics of Trump's power grabs, but Reason-tarians don't care about democracy, would rather scold Democrats, & are committed to their own irrelevance. 6

There are folks working on good things at Cato, esp. on immigration. But Catoites also maintain the libertarian hostility to democracy that is simply outrageous in the clear & present danger of an entrenched antidemocratic party. Cato also needs to update its ideas on racism. 7

The George Mason University crowd is a hotbed of antidemocratic thinking. @tylercowen could be a good state capacity-oriented neoliberal but for his strange attachment to Peter Thiel, an actual fascist, and his continuous pooh-poohing of Trump as an authoritarian threat. 8

The racism in the swampier parts of the libertarian movement has vividly illustrated how these (LvMI, etc) libertarians are largely just conservative populists. But the growing popularity of UBI has made another set of libertarians more comfortable with welfare states. 9

These soft-on-welfare libertarians can find a comfortable home in the nascent @ne0liberal movement, which focuses on things like liberal housing regulations, freedom of movement, and welfare states funded by efficient taxes. 10

Between the racists & antidemocrats on the one hand and the pro-democratic neoliberals--some of whom are quite comfortable with social justice policies--it's a legit question just what glue remains holding libertarianism together. What is the point of libertarianism today? 11/11

PS I had most of this thread drafted back when Balko's thread was current. I only dusted it off tonight after a certain parting of ways at Reason caused a splash earlier today.