Libertarian Culture Wars | Tom Woods

Presented at the Mises Institute's 2018 Supporters Summit in Auburn, Alabama. Recorded on September 29, 2018.

[@philipkruseman8437]

Tom is an outstanding orator, he is measured, frank, honest and above all engaging. One of the strongest and most ardent defenders of liberty.

[@soapbxprod]

Listening to Dr. Woods for an hour is better than 10 years of psychotherapy. His ideas and his delivery of them bring peace and sanity to my heart and mind. Thank you once again, Tom- and thanks to all the great minds of the Mises Institute. PS- thanks to John Locke and Jordan Peterson too...

[@Samsgarden]

You must have seen a pretty bad psychotherapist

[@jamesedwards.1069]

"You must have seen a pretty bad psychotherapist" Like, is there any other kind? Dumbass?

[@jamesedwards.1069]

"Massive eye roll. Libertarian autism" I'm not a Libertarian. My autism is fully weaponized. I reject the NAP. I embrace the MAP, the Massively Aggressive Principle. Stupid dumbass.

[@libertyhog1428]

lmfao, the "MAP", that's really fucking funny. I'm still laughing at that

[@maverikmiller6746]

22:08 "Protesters were removed" Sips water coolly. "Physically" removed." Respect ensues.

[@letters_from_paradise]

🚁

[@KeeganIdler]

Equality of opportunity is the worst phrase the right has struck upon. It either is meaningless, or it means the opposite of what they are trying to say. If I grew up in a one parent household, I don't have the same opportunity as someone else. If I don't have money or health or anything else, I don't have the same opportunity. If you mean equality under the law, just say that.

[@mikedunn9310]

Tom may actually be better at giving speeches that he is at podcasting and he's good at podcasting. I really enjoy these.

[@ouss]

he should do a video podcast

[@TheIgnoredGender]

Always a pleasure to listen to Tom Woods speak.

[@longanddeadly]

This man is a national treasure.

[@EliW95]

Identity politics and politically correct people who call themselves ‘libertarians’ arent real libertarians

[@riblets1968]

I've been listening to Tom Woods speak since 2001 and he never disappoints.

[@CaryHawkins]

I'm with The Remnant!

[@donaldclifford5763]

You too? I feel better now, that I'm not alone.

[@Braylon18]

Make it three ✌🏽✊🏼

[@TheFinntronaut]

Brilliant explanation of why governments love unattainable goals like equality. It's like chasing the dragon that you'll never quite catch, with certainty that the next high of government power is finally going to allow you to catch it despite the evidence of past attempts going overwhelmingly against that intuition.

[@donaldclifford5763]

I always felt like a remnant. Now I actually feel good about it.

[@Panthersigma]

The only reason Tom Woods doesn’t get more attention is because he is a threat to status quo

[@WondyCoin]

If you go back and listen to the exchange during the debate with Paul and Rudy, you will see Rudy asked Paul to apologize for saying something he didn't. The phrase to which Rudy was referring came from the moderator, not Paul. It's crazy no one else seems to have caught this, and it's a damn shame Paul didn't catch on during the debate.

[@jamesambas6708]

I just abide by the philosophy that my freedom ends where someone else's face begins, and vice versa.

[@allie8442]

Tom Woods is a legend.

[@christinemarais9706]

Best and most accurate eulogy of Tokyo Rose... who never met a war he didn't love and obscenely profit from (pleonasm) and of whom Putin once said: "He was captured in Vietnam and kept in a hole for several years. Any person would have bats in the belfry after that".

[@MoncusB]

Rocking that beard

[@soapbxprod]

Maybe Tom and Bob Murphy are having a beard-off? :)

[@BlogofTheW3st]

Thank you Dr Woods. What a killer talk!

[@kmg501]

One of the best libertarian speakers ever.

[@donaldclifford5763]

Evangelical libertarian?

[@kmg501]

Neither Woods or myself have any fondness for Evangelicals.

[@donaldclifford5763]

Really? I'd like to think there's more than one kind of evangelist. My observation speaks to his style.

[@kmg501]

Okay, I don't find his style to be evangelizing but you are free to your observation. :)

[@cmares5858]

28:45 ... this whole thing reminds me of a story by Kurt Vonnegut called "Harrison Bergeron" ... basically in a future dystopia equality is forced by crazy means, if you jump higher, you are weighed down by a metal suit, if you are smarter you have to wear an electric helmet to slow you down.

[@AK_Vortex]

Well done presentation. I've been following & voting for Dr. Paul since 2008.

[@AK_Vortex]

@@FalconAndTrident did he really? When was this? What's the context. That seems really out of character for him.

[@AK_Vortex]

@@FalconAndTrident Not 'trying' anything. This comment was from five years ago. I've not paid much attention to Dr. Paul in that time. Get of your fucking high horse long enough for me to go find this information for myself.

[@AK_Vortex]

@@FalconAndTrident What? What does that even mean? Jesus how old are you? 12?

[@GauchoWoodworking]

Dr. Woods looking more like our beloved Mr. Rockwell.

[@thechapelperilous]

Tom Woods never phones it in. Really strong speech. 👌

[@donaldclifford5763]

Reminds me of a good sermon.

[@EarthSurferUSA]

Mr. Woods, talking of Ron Paul, when he went to Florida to speak about us needing to open trace with Cuba. I don't understand why we think lassiez-faire free market is compatible with communism. I look at the free market correctly, that it is part of our individual liberty, our opportunity, and the only way a individual can chase any dream of producing something that did not exist before, raising the standard of living like we have proven over 100 years ago. Opening trade with communist nations is orchestrated by governments, not by citizens. As we have seen in the last 35 years with China, one of the business partners in the deal loses, and that would be the nation based more on individual liberty. Proper capitalism is not compatible with communism, just like islam is compatible with anything else. Now if a communist nation will grant their citizens individual liberty, we can do business together as citizens, and become friends making money together. But other than that, with doing business with communist nations, we have seen nothing but international redistribution and more government interventions in our business, dissolving our liberty even more.

[@Braylon18]

His greatest speech, in my opinion

[@informeddave1]

Equality means no man or group of them have any kind of AUTHORITY over another. You can't even give that rite away. It's so obviously unlawful it's SELF EVIDENT.

[@Drumsgoon]

Great stuff, especially the Remnant

[@fborregoATBeyer]

THE "REMNANT" THANK YOU!

[@sb3424]

I texted "snowflake" to "33444" but it told me "service access denied"

[@TomWoodsTV]

Works only from the U.S. Otherwise you can get it at sanespacebook dot com

[@NotQuiteFirst]

Drinking game: take a shot every time he says 'remnant'

[@paulstrassel8326]

Woods is really in some ways second-rate and is something of an embarrassment for Roman Catholics who are often far, far better read.

[@monroecorp9680]

You may not want to be mean about the buckling lite-wing McChickain, but I do. The real hero; the real 'Maverick' - it was the tumour.

[@noyb154]

libertarianism is an ethical model, not a cultural model. culture follows ethics. cultures are a subset of ethical models.

[@soapbxprod]

Good point. Politics and Aesthetics are downstream from Ethics, as Ethics is downstream from Metaphysics and Epistemology

[@QED_]

@soapbxprod: I hope you actually mean "downstream from Epistemology and Metaphysics" . . .

[@plsegott]

​@Benjamin McMahon i live in sweden and these swedes loves theft through the state :) the government decides the school curriculum and forbids ccw. if this is not savagery, then what is? not as savage as the incas, I agree, but the West is not in any way "libertarian". only relatively libertarian, but it is still savage. there is no link that goes western civ = libertarian ethics. come live and sweden and u will see how respecting these nordics are of libertarian ethics :P it's a giant prison. unless u are swedish ofc. they hate liberty

[@BumbleGrundle]

is there a podcast version of these talks? if not there should be.

[@chancewilson6256]

I loved the Kant allusion like six minutes in!

[@nilricci4835]

u gotta love this fucker

[@Putt89]

Thank you Tom Woods

[@aidanmagill6769]

2021 and they're on the run. Nevada will be interesting today. Edit: Clean sweep for Micauc🍻

[@mattminer8948]

Amazing

[@MattiDwyer]

What about Dr. Peterson's tweet telling Kavanaugh to concede to the mob? If he has made an argument against Kavanaugh, I'm all ears, but to hear JBP suggest caving to hysteria was simply revolting and goes against his whole draw. I think he lost a lot of admiration with that one, plus he seems to get the Right/Left spectrum way off. He calls Nazism "right wing". I think he's dead wrong.

[@christianponicki9581]

The more layers of the onion you peel back, the flakier Peterson becomes. I know a lot of people feel like he's helped them, and they'll inevitably stick their fingers in my face and accuse me of sitting around complaining all day if I criticize him, but whatever. He's said (paraphrasing), "Why, of course there's a place for the Left! They stand up for the poor and underprivileged when no one else will! They've just gone _a bit too far lately_ ." As if. There's also his love of Jung, and his pervasive nihilism, e.g., "There's no such thing as romance, it's a silly fabrication of a 14-year old girl's mind." Then we're supposed to scratch our heads and wonder why he's such a miserable person (by his own admission). This one's more a matter of my personal experience, but listening to him for more than 5 minutes tends to sap the life right out of me - he's a "brutal realist" to such an extent that it's downright unreasonable. To sum up his worldview, "Learn your place, earn your feeble living, and you'd damned well appreciate it if you earn your way past your clerk job at Walgreens!" He'll kill your dreams before you're even aware they exist. If he's your role model, then... RIP.

[@owenbenjaminshapiro6285]

Boerboel 1652 if the right is hierarchy, the left egalitarian, where does the libertarian/anti-authoritarian fit?

[@spindillio]

Christian Ponicki I tend to agree with you. Like, where the energy? The hope? The optimism? He made some interesting points in his Lessons book but when I read it I can’t help thinking “why do I feel a little more depressed?”

[@superhoga]

He is a leftist after all. With some good input and I'm grateful whenever someone calls out stupidity, but he is still a leftist.

[@Drumsgoon]

He looks younger, but more tired?

[@spindillio]

TW never disappoints!!

[@deanna9437]

Love your work.

[@anderslarsen4100]

Great talk!

[@2046-b2o]

"Some libertarians say the traditional libertarian principle of nonaggression is insufficient. That is merely “thin” libertarianism, they say. We also need to have left-liberal views on religion, sexual morality, feminism, etc., because reactionary beliefs among the public are also threats to liberty. This is “thick” libertarianism. As a “thin” libertarian myself (or what in the past was simply called a libertarian), I reject the claims of the thickists. I see no good reason to expand the list of requirements people must meet in order to be admitted to our little group." Tom Woods, 2013 Hmm. Okay, Tom.

[@christianponicki9581]

Does the "thick" label only apply to libertarians with leftist social views, or does it apply to everyone with values that supplement the NAP?

[@christianponicki9581]

No, they erode it. Poor word choice, maybe, but whatever, my question still stands....

[@christianponicki9581]

So if I hold that "there's no such thing as truth, and there are no objective moral standards" - a typical leftist view - that's perfectly compatible with the NAP, which is supposed to be an objective, true moral standard?

[@2046-b2o]

@Boerboel 1652 Did you.... Listen to the video...? One of Tom's entire points in this video is precisely that there are cultural values (conservative ones) that supplement libertarianism or cohere better with it. It is a point made recently by Deist and Rockwell, and echoes points made by Hoppe and Rothbard. Yet it would seem to be a reversal of his "thin" assertions years ago, which is what we all were saying.

[@christianponicki9581]

"Thin" libertarianism never made sense - the ideology itself is rooted in prior assumptions, so the NAP can't be taken as a first principle anyway. The only time "thick" libertarianism is bad is when leftists do it and try reconciling the NAP with their pet social causes. Otherwise all sound forms of libertarianism will be thick, I think.

[@s0lid_sno0ks]

Tom "Got Lost Inna" Woods

[@EarthSurferUSA]

"Equality" When ever I see a car, (usually not a nice car), with that "Equality" sticker on it, (You know, the 3"x 4", approx., blue background sticker with a yellow "Equal" sign in the middle), I try to get an opportunity to tell them, (and this is my quote), "The only thing that be Equal, is Poverty!". Ain't that the truth.

[@EarthSurferUSA]

Much like when I was employed by somebody else, I never like the phrase, 'Human Resources", I don't think I like the term "Remanent" as I am in some kind of group. Our philosophies of Individualism are "Dominant", if we lived under them. I think Mises and the Ayn Rand institute should become friends, and see where it goes from there.

[@kathyfausett9301]

Andrew Wakefield is the Ron Paul and Jordon Peterson of the healing arts. His courageous stand on vaccines will eventually come to fruition in the healing arts.

[@morgellon9449]

Waste of time. Just some neo-conservative fan boy shit. Next video.

[@morgellon9449]

The most important stuff I've heard in Misus is the stuff on secession. The localization of government sovereignty should be the ideal we try to achieve. There's no reason why your vote thousands of miles away from where I live should have any significant impact on my life, as mine shouldn't on yours. I believe the free market and liberty can only thrive when the most powerful government is localized. If you don't like it where you live, go find a place where you do like it. Our current system attempts to squeeze us all into the same mold the world over, and that's exactly what the Soviets were doing. I've heard Tom Woods say many things that resonate with me. But here he's obviously just evangelizing to neo-conservatives or those with neo-conservative tendencies. Tom is talking about Jordan Peterson like he's actually some kind of revolutionary bastion of freedom. Peterson is a is just an opportunistic personality cult figure with no bearing on libertarianism whatsoever. To me he's like a "right wing" version of Whoopie Goldberg. It's stupid to praise Jordan Peterson- who is now essentially a spokesman for Monsanto, a massive corporation with obvious ties to big government and the military industrial complex- and also say elsewhere you're opposed to war and big government. Corporations in America essentially operate as analogs of the Soviet organs. It's hypocritical, and only weakens the integrity of his arguments. There is no free market in America, and big corporations are the institutions opposing the free market. Any entity that works in tandem with American beuracracy is not a capitalist entity, and ignoring the problem and working with the problem, especially when you're as popular as Jordan Peterson is the same as perpetrating it. And here Tom is endorsing the problem. Very sad.

[@briannxx]

You get property by military force historically thinking

[@MooShaka89]

And homesteading

[@thereisnospoon277]

One steals property by brute force. One earns property and holds onto it, by right, by homesteading it.

[@donaldclifford5763]

I see property as an intangible, giving value to matter by will of spirit, and dint of effort.