Recently, politicians and others have expressed concern over so-called "paranoid libertarians"...

Look out: The libertarians are coming! The libertarians are coming! Never before have so many been so intimidated by so few, with so little political power.

Salon.com offers near-daily warnings about the libertarian threat:

It's corrupting progressivism: Don't ally with libertarians: Ideologues co-opt an anti-NSA rally.

It's even infecting your iPhone apps: The Secret Libertarianism of Uber and Airbnb.

Beware of Libertarians Bearing Gifts, the Center for American Progress admonishes: a bipartisan move against the NSA could kill the New Deal.

Anti-libertarian paranoia plagues our elected officials too: the anarchists have taken over, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., wails. This strain of libertarianism ... is a very dangerous thought," New Jersey Governor Chris Christie warned last summer in the wake of Edward Snowden's exposure of National Security Agency spying: I want [these critics] to come to New Jersey and sit across from the widows and the orphans (Pro tip: don't take the George Washington Bridge).

Im very nervous about the direction this is moving in, the governor added.

Recently, three prestigious academics have argued that you should be especially nervous about Paranoid Libertarians. Distinguished historian Sean Wilentz coined the term last month in a New Republic hit piece on Snowden and journalist Glenn Greenwald. These NSA critics despise the liberal state and want to wound it, he charged.

Picking up Wilentz's term, Harvard law professor and former Obama administration regulatory czar Cass Sunstein offered tips on How to Spot a Paranoid Libertarian. And, writing at Slate, the University of Chicago's Eric Posner warned that libertarian paranoia kills: in fact, the fear of government is far more serious than the fear of flying.

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'Libertarian paranoia' is the newest fad in politics