For almost 50 years, the Koch brothers have been the bte noir of the left. Their influence over conservative politics and policies has been significant, even if not to the levels they are given credit for by their opponents. But the Koch family, as a political brand, are aging out. One brother is gone, and the other seems more interested in philanthropy than in Trumpism. But there is a new kid on that block to fill the void: tech billionaire Peter Thiel
In this weeks WhoWhatWhy podcast, we talk with Bloomberg editor, reporter, and Thiel biographer Max Chafkin. He explains that from Thiels time at Stanford, as the creator of an early alt-right publication, to his mentoring of Mark Zuckerberg in the techniques of disruption and libertarianism, to his support for Donald Trump, he has been setting the stage for his own rise as a political Midas.
One of the first Silicon Valley executives to support Trump, he was the leader, years ago, of what has been called the PayPal Mafia: a group of his Silicon Valley disciples who have tentacles into everything from MAGA to Facebook, from Tesla to LinkedIn to dozens of other technology companies.
Chafkin draws a Venn diagram in which Thiel is linked with vast wealth, Silicon Valley power brokers, and a growing right-wing ecosystem.
According to Chafkin, Thiel found Trump appealing not only for his political views, but also because his anti-establishment attitude was right in line with how Thiel sees the world.
The man who took down Gawker and drove both the publication and its owner into bankruptcy is picking up where the Kochs left off. Except that Thiel is even further to the right and a lot meaner in how he does it.
Full Text Transcript:
(As a service to our readers, we provide transcripts with our podcasts. We try to ensure that these transcripts do not include errors. However, due to a constraint of resources, we are not always able to proofread them as closely as we would like and hope that you will excuse any errors that slipped through.)
Jeff Schechtman: Welcome to the WhoWhatWhy podcast. Im your host, Jeff Schechtman. When most of you think about who have been the key players in financing the rise of the right in America, the Koch brothers in their efforts to buoy the right and push all sorts of buttons on the left are front and center. But the fact is that the Koch brothers are aging out. One is gone, the other seems to be unsure of where he currently stands. The Koch family in many ways represented an old-school view of the world, just as their money was from an old industrial model economy, things like paper, plastic, pipelines, and textiles.
So as the Kochs fade away, who will carry the mantle? Who will represent funding for the modern right in the postindustrial economy? More and more the answer to this seems to be Peter Thiel. A legend in Silicon Valley, the man who took down Gawker, and one of the Valleys most important venture capitalists, with tentacles into everything from MAGA to Facebook to the military-industrial complex. Peter Thiel is already shaping elections in 2022 and 2024, even as he continues to move forward in Silicon Valley. But who is Peter Thiel, and why should we care?
The answer lies in the pages of a new book by my guest Max Chafkin entitled The Contrarian. Max Chafkin is a features editor and tech reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek. His work has appeared in Fast Company, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times, and it is my pleasure to welcome Max Chafkin here to the WhoWhatWhy podcast to talk about Peter Thiel, and his new book about Peter Thiel, The Contrarian. Max Chafkin, thanks so much for joining us.
Max Chafkin: Yes, thanks. Thanks for that intro, Jeff.
Jeff: Certainly, Silicon Valley is filled with iconoclasts, a lot of strange people that weve watched come and go over the years. Why is Peter Thiel different? Why should we care?
Max: Well, I think the framing that you just set up, the comparison with the Koch brothers, is a really smart one. Thiel has had this incredible impact on Silicon Valley. If you look around and say how did Silicon Valley go from being an economic sideshow, a curiosity, something that people were interested in, to being the economic focal point for the world? Where the worlds largest and most powerful companies are located. Where the global culture, to an increasing extent, is being created. Where even politically theres an increasing amount of engagement. I think you would say Peter Thiel is one of those guys, along with a very small handful.
Whats really interesting about Thiel, who co-founded the company PayPal, he co-founded Palantir, this surveillance company and military contractor, and was an early investor in Facebook, is that he also created what I think of as the dominant Silicon Valley ideology, and that is the ideology of disruption. Its what says companies, tech companies in particular, tech billionaires, are this privileged class of people that in order to make the future happen should be trying to grow as quickly as they possibly can, scaling their companies with no regard for the consequences, and should be willing to break the rules.
That breaking the rules, disrupting the status quo, isnt just something that happens by accident that youre allowed to get away with. Its something that you actually should do. And so all of those things make him a really interesting figure in the world of tech. But as you said in the intro, hes not just playing in tech. What hes doing is trying to create this new political movement and to play kind of a patron role to the far right; the Trump movement as it were. So he was in 2016 one of the first executive types to come out and support Donald Trump, he was a major donor to Trump, and post-2020 has really emerged as one of the key financial backers of far-right candidates.
Jeff: To your point about disruption and move fast and break things, and well come back to that and talk about Thiel and Zuckerberg, its interesting in reading your book that PayPal at the time and we forget about this was viewed, at least Thiel viewed it, as something akin to the way we view crypto today.
Max: Yes, absolutely. And PayPal in so many ways had this huge influence thats partly a credit to Thiels personality and the force of his ideas, but also to just the impact of this company. So, when Thiel was promoting PayPal in the late 1990s, he was talking about it not just as, Oh, this is going to be a way for you to buy stuff on the internet, which is of course what it is and how people understand it, but this idea of having digital money as a way to free people to get out under the thumb of government. Thiel talked about that this would help destabilize nation-states. That it would be the equivalent of a Swiss bank account in your pocket.
Its like libertarian sort of philosophy that I think now people are really used to hearing about crypto. But it actually began during those PayPal years, and the company never really got there but those ideas were influential. And they continued and Thiel continued to develop them. And the idea is basically just that rich people should have a way to shield their assets and to shield their lives from the regulations as they see it can help overly aggressive regulations of the US government. Which obviously can take you to some very out-there places when you take it to its logical extreme.
Jeff: Talk about PayPal in terms of the PayPal Mafia, the people that were involved with Thiel and that company, and the tentacles that they have today, the influence they have today, in Silicon Valley, and in turn in all of our lives.
Max: The PayPal Mafia, its not literal mafia, but it is this influence network where a bunch of early executives of PayPal, these are mostly people who were close friends of Peter Thiel at Stanford and who were ideologically aligned with him, although there are some exceptions to that, have now proliferated in Silicon Valley, and have invested in each others companies, have moved money around, and also moved talent around. So, its really common for people who work for one PayPal Mafia company to jump to another within this network. Loyalty is a huge thing. Loyalty both to Peter Thiel but also to these companies.
And these people have in general, again, worked together to promote each others interests. And the universe, the number of companies theyve touched, is just enormous. Elon Musk is attached to the PayPal Mafia, even though he and Thiel disagree on a lot of things. Hes the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, Thiels a major investor in SpaceX. Reid Hoffman, close friend of Thiels from Stanford, started LinkedIn. You got the YouTube guys. You have the guys who started Yelp, the rating site. And then you have a bunch of lesser figures who have ended up putting money into pretty much almost every Silicon Valley company that anyones heard of. So Thiel has his hooks in a whole lot.
Jeff: And of course, his hooks are also in Facebook as one of the first outside investors, and also was a longtime mentor to Zuckerberg.
Max: Yes, absolutely. So Thiel was the first outside investor in Facebook. Reid Hoffman is a close friend of his. Another PayPal Mafia member was involved in that, Thiel as well. And Thiel was really the first person, not just the first investor, but really the first person to see promise in Mark Zuckerberg. To realize that this little piddling company started by this guy from Harvard, who had gotten a lot of attention for basically hacking an aspect of the colleges software system, actually had something special. That he was going to be this force of nature. That somebodys going to run a really successful business.
Thiel is the one who sets up Mark Zuckerberg in the role that hes currently in. So, Mark Zuckerberg right now controls Facebook but does not own more than 50 percent of Facebook. But because of the structure that was set in part by Peter Thiel, controls the company. Hes essentially the absolute dictator of this media platform that is bigger than any media company in human history. Three billion users, just an enormous amount of reach and influence. And thats Thiel; thats Thiels work. And then Thiel became this mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, both as a business mentor.
And you can see the PayPal ethos and the Thiel ethos in the way that Facebook expanded, in the way that Facebook was willing to disrupt things and sometimes take a lot of flak for, say, not being careful enough with users data or whatever. And you also see it in the politics of it, which came out much later. But Zuckerberg seems to have absorbed at least some of Thiels libertarian values. And those, I think, we saw coming from Facebook, especially during the 2016 and 2020 election.
Jeff: What seems unique about Thiel? And you talked about this at the outset. About the libertarian streak that certainly has long been part of Silicon Valley. And Thiel to a large extent embodies that, and as you write about, has driven it. But theres also a cultural side to Thiels conservatism that is out of place and different from the Valley. Talk about that.
Max: So, Thiel is a cultural conservative, and somebody who has spent a lot of his career really focused on the problem as he sees it of political correctness. And by that what he means is the extent to which institutions have bent over backwards to cater to the needs and feelings of women and minorities primarily. So, Thiel wrote a book in the mid- 90s called The Diversity Myth, basically railing against Stanfords efforts to be more inclusive. And he has seen political correctness as this scourge. If you were to rank the biggest problems in the world that would be one of them.
And that seems really, as you said, out of step with the values of Northern California and the tech industry, which in general these companies are very inclusive and they include a lot of immigrants. But on the other hand, you can see why that might have happened. So, one thing is Thiel loves these troublemakers and this need to disrupt, and you could see political correctness again as being opposed to that.
And I think it also helps explain why did Peter Thiel back Donald Trump. There were a lot of questions asked in 2016 like, Why does this gay immigrant with two Stanford degrees, whos all about technology, embrace a nativist New Yorker who wears his crassness as a credential, who brags about not using technology, and whos putting forward a reactionary platform? And I think the reason is Trump was one of these people who was willing to say the unsayable.
Thiel has been getting close to and doing so himself, making these statements and promoting these statements that go right up to the line of what is considered racist or sexist, or many times cross that line. And Trump is the same thing. A key part of his appeal was he was the one whos going to stick it to the liberal establishment, say the unsayable things. Trump would rail against political correctness. So, I think that was a place where they connected, and thats ultimately why Thiel supported Trump, is because of that fact.
Jeff: Why didnt Thiel play a bigger role with Trump ultimately?
Max: Well, thats a really good question. So Thiel, because of the speech he gave at the Republican National Convention. Then he makes a donation in mid-October 2016, not long after the leak of the Access Hollywood tape where Trump was caught on tape seeming to endorse sexual assault. That support, which came at a really crucial moment for Trump, puts Thiel on the inner circle. Hes on the transition team, he has a huge portfolio during the early days of the presidential transition and has a lot of influence in the White House early on.
Now, what did he do with that influence? Well, he pushed for a lot of very far-right and were just really out there figures. I talked to Steve Bannon for the book, and Bannon said, If you thought we were crazy you shouldve seen what Thiel was doing. He was putting forward people who were really too far out there even for Donald Trump. And its easy to say, Okay. Well, that looks like a huge mistake, right? He totally screwed up. He wasnt able to maximize his influence.
On the other hand, despite not having a huge influence on the Trump administration, he did manage to get quite a lot of access, and access not just for him but for people in his inner circle. So there was this meeting in December 2016 where Thiel brings in the founders, CEOs of the biggest tech companies in the world. And its all the big names, all the companies youve heard of. And then one that you maybe havent heard of, which is Palantir, which was tiny compared to the other ones. But the Palantir CEO, good friend of Peter Thiels, Alex Karp, gets in the meeting and is able to pitch his services to Donald Trump.
And from there you cant draw a straight line. We dont know exactly what procurement decisions were made and why, but Palantir gets a huge series of government contracts, more than a billion dollars in government contracts, over the next few years. And that really propelled the company into a new class where its valuation soared, it goes public, Thiels net worth goes way up.
So, theres an extent to which yes, Thiel failed maybe politically, but he didnt fail in terms of business; his net worth went up. And I would even argue that what looks like a political failure may not be clearly so. And I say that because of course, the Trump administration didnt end super well for Donald Trump or for many of his allies, but Thiel, because he had sort of lost his juice in the White House a couple of years earlier, doesnt end up taking responsibility for any of that.
So, hes able to keep his credibility as this hard right, Steve Bannon-esque ideologue without taking any of the blame for the obvious failures of the Trump presidency, including the impeachment, the slow response to COVID-19, and then the January 6th failed insurrection. None of that stink really gets on Peter Thiel, and instead, he comes out of this as this very ideologically pure money man who is now promoting this new generation of candidates, spending more money than hes ever spent before.
And theres a real chance that Thiel could have four people. Hes got two candidates in Senate races right now, and then there are two candidates who hes done a lot to support who are already in the Senate: Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley. But he could be close to four Republicans in a Republican-controlled Senate after 2022. And I think if that happens, youre not going to say, Oh, it was a total failure, you would say, Well, he was setting himself up for this higher level of influence.
Jeff: Whats more important to Thiel, the money side of it or the political side of it?
Max: I really liked that introduction about the Koch brothers. When I was working on this book I read this book Kochland, which I recommend. Its a profile of Koch Industries, and it describes the way that Koch Industries, the business project was inseparable from the political project. These two things were working together. And I think thats absolutely how you should look at Thiel.
So, its not like, Oh, hes an idealogue who also does tech investing, or, Hes a tech investor who happens to just have some of these crazy right-wing ideas. These things are all connected. And his ideological standpoint, this hard libertarianism, the idea that tech billionaires are this privileged class, that ends up both feeding into the tech companies and supporting them. I think those two things are inseparable. Thiel is doing work in politics because it helps his business. Hes also doing business because it helps fulfill his ideological project.
Jeff: In many ways because of the libertarian side of it, because of the disruptive side, the one thing that doesnt always seem to fit neatly into the package is what he did vis--vis Gawker. Talk about that.
Max: Well, I think there are lots of ways in which Thiel is not really a libertarian. And as soon as the book has come out, Ive actually gotten some notes from other tenants like, Thank you for saying that because our honor is being Peter Thiel, he does have some libertarian values, but he is not a libertarian in the conventional sense. He started a major data mining and defense contractor, obviously not usually a libertarian thing to do to the extent you care about privacy, and he masterminded this litigation that ultimately destroyed Gawker Media. And in both cases, there is some justification.
There are people who defend Peter Thiel. And I think if you had Peter Thiel on the show, he would make the case that actually Palantir is consistent with libertarianism because even though theyre data mining, theyre doing a good job of it. And that the Gawker litigation is consistent with libertarianism because Gawker was a singularly bad actor. It had to be stopped, it had to be destroyed to keep the press free. Which I think is kind of an Orwellian argument, but it is the argument that he would make, which I think is interesting.
But I think its also worth saying that the Gawker litigation, it didnt just destroy Gawker. It created a new framework and a new playbook, where in addition to destroying this company that Peter Thiel regarded as a bad actor, it sends a message to anyone else whos going to try to write about Peter Thiel, or any source who is tempted to tell a journalist what theyve seen or what theyve heard, and not just with respect to Peter Thiel, but with any billionaire. People keep saying to me Are you scared of Peter Thiel? Hey, he destroyed Gawker. Hes not going to like the author of a book about him.
And I say, Well, yes. I mean of course, but Im scared of any billionaire because thats the Thiel playbook. Theres nothing stopping somebody else from doing the exact same thing that Peter Thiel did. Hes created both an example and a permission structure for anyone to pursue similar litigation.
Jeff: But in many ways the Gawker case reveals, I would think, Peter Thiels glass jaw, because what hes most unhappy with is being an outcast in that way. He wants to be an iconoclast, but he doesnt want to be an outcast, and theres a fundamental difference.
Max: Yes. So, I think its important to say that the inciting action that led to this litigation is blog posts that Gawker published that outed Thiel as gay. Thiel had been out to colleagues and to friends but not to the larger public. I think that post was bad, and I think most editors now would not have published it. Im an editor and it makes me uncomfortable as a journalist.
But I think we can say that while also saying that the destruction of a media outlet through secretive litigation that took eight years and that resulted in a judgment that was more than $100 million, that caused the personal bankruptcy of the owner of the company, that caused 100 people or more to lose their jobs, that that was not an appropriate response to what had happened. And then its a response that could have had really harmful side effects. And I also think youre right. There is a tendency where the crowd that is railing about cancel culture and political correctness and complaining that were catering too much to minority groups or whatever, theyre asking for their own safe space.
Theres something strange about it. And it starts to feel like theyre not actually railing against identity politics, theyre just talking about a different kind of identity politics, and its a white identity politics, which is not a phrase you see very often. But I think it does describe both Trump and Trumpism and use Trump as candidate, and to some extent, what Peter Thiels pushing, which is this fear that some central aspect of white culture is being destroyed by multiculturalism. And that I think can lead you to some really, really dark places.
Jeff: And Thiel has been on that same course, as you say, from the time he was at Stanford, and even worked for Bill Bennett in the Reagan administration.
Max: Yes, absolutely. Thiel was very early in recognizing the alt-right, this very extremely online group of far-right activists, was a force. And one of the reasons he was early there, one of the reasons he saw it as powerful, one of the reasons he supported it, is because those people were very similar to the kind of person he was in college. And really like Thiels newspaper and these political troublemakers that he funded at Stanford, some of whom are really some of the most influential people in Silicon Valley.
The editor of the Stanford Review rape issue, which does not express I think the views are pretty out of step with todays understanding of sexual assault hes a big-time venture capitalist now. David Sacks, hes an ally at Thiel. As I said, these guys were very far out there, and I think in many ways prefigured the rise to alt-right.
Jeff: Is Thiel in it for the long run? What do you think his longevity is?
Max: Well, there is some question there because, of course, anyone who was closely connected to Trump or closely connected especially to the events of January 6th has seen their star fall a little bit, including, of course, the former president. But I think Thiel has navigated this pretty well, and I dont think hes suffered much. I think hes definitely well set up to continue to play this political role, maybe to have even more power over the next decade than he had in the previous decade. Hes continuing to play this big role as an investor, as a behind-the-scenes player in the tech industry.
And one thing about that, its not just that Thiel is playing this role. There are dozens of people, more, hundreds of people who styled themselves, were like miniature versions of Peter Thiel, either because they work with him directly and theyre actually literally managing his money, moving his money around, or because they just have read his books and watched his YouTube speeches and drunk in this ideology.
Hes got a huge following, and so whether or not Peter Thiel himself continues to play this role, this Thiel-ism is not going away. And knowing Peter Thiel, having studied him and talked to 150 people whove worked closely with him or his friends or whatever, I really think that this is somebody who is incapable of not trying to be that provocateur, not being that bomb-thrower. So I think it would be very hard to see him just riding off into the sunset with his $10 billion now. Hes going to want to continue to be making waves, and then were going to all be reckoning with the results of that going forward.
Jeff: Max Chafkin. The book is The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valleys Pursuit of Power. Max, I thank you so much for spending time with us.
Max: Jeff, thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.
Jeff: Thank you. And thank you for listening and joining us here on the WhoWhatWhy podcast. I hope you join us next week for another Radio WhoWhatWhy podcast. Im Jeff Schechtman. If you liked this podcast please feel free to share and help others find it by rating and reviewing it on iTunes. You can also support this podcast and all the work we do by going to whowhatwhy.org/donate.
Link:
Peter Thiel Is the New Koch - WhoWhatWhy
- Opinion | 100 Days of Javier Milei - The New York Times - March 27th, 2024 [March 27th, 2024]
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. flirts with the Libertarian nomination - POLITICO - March 27th, 2024 [March 27th, 2024]
- RFK Jr. in talks to run on the Libertarian Party ticket to ease ballot challenges - Washington Examiner - March 27th, 2024 [March 27th, 2024]
- One Hundred Days of Libertarian Populism in Argentina - The American Conservative - March 27th, 2024 [March 27th, 2024]
- Bylaws and Rules Committee and Platform Committee Survey (Part One) - Libertarian Party - March 27th, 2024 [March 27th, 2024]
- When Will the Libertarian Party Have Its Moment? - Econlib - March 27th, 2024 [March 27th, 2024]
- RFK Jr. in talks to run on the Libertarian Party ticket to ease ballot challenges - Colorado Springs Gazette - March 27th, 2024 [March 27th, 2024]
- RFK Jr. aligned with the Libertarian Party on capitalism stance - NewsNation Now - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- RFK Jr. fuels talk of switching to the Libertarian Party - Fox News - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- RFK JR still flirting with Libertarian Party run? Third parties seek ballot access - The Hill - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- RFK Jr. sparks speculation of switch to Libertarian Party for greater ballot access - Washington Examiner - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Nate Silver: Libertarians Are the Real Liberals - Reason - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Even immigration is no free lunch - Washington Examiner - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Interview with NC Libertarian governor candidate Shannon Bray - Fox Carolina - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Libertarians Call for 'Food Freedom' in Response to Amos Miller Farm Search - Lancaster Farming - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Where Does the Term Libertarian Come From Anyway? | Jeffrey A. Tucker - Foundation for Economic Education - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Here are the 10 Libertarian candidates in the 2024 NC Presidential Primary - Fox Carolina - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- 2024 Presidential Primary Information: Ballots Have Other Races, See Where to Vote - Watertown News - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Argentina's libertarian President Milei warns parliament that he will govern 'with or without' political support - Le Monde - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Madison County Introduces First-Ever Libertarian Primary on Super Tuesday - BNN Breaking - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Musician and libertarian writer who works for 'The Blaze' arrested on Jan. 6 charges - NBC News - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- RFK Jr. says he didn't read Alabama IVF ruling, won't say when life begins - The Washington Post - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- Argentina touts libertarian social justice to Blinken before Javier Milei visits CPAC - Washington Examiner - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Delicate Dance: Navigating Reproductive Rights and Libertarian Principles - BNN Breaking - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- Javier Milei and the Spanish Tradition of Liberty - Quillette - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- The Weekly Wrap: Poilievre proves hes more than a live-and-let-live libertarian - The Hub - February 26th, 2024 [February 26th, 2024]
- Why have authoritarianism and libertarianism merged? A political psychologist on 'the vulnerability of the modern self' - The Conversation - January 5th, 2024 [January 5th, 2024]
- Argentina's Javier Milei what are his plans and will they work? - MoneyWeek - January 5th, 2024 [January 5th, 2024]
- Tucker Carlson Issues Scathing Indictment of 'Libertarian Economics' - Reason - December 20th, 2023 [December 20th, 2023]
- Tucker Carlson: "Libertarian Economics Was A Scam Perpetrated By The Beneficiaries Of The Economic System" - RealClearPolitics - December 20th, 2023 [December 20th, 2023]
- A Legacy of Resistance to Unjust Taxation - Libertarian Party - December 20th, 2023 [December 20th, 2023]
- The Croatian Invasion of the Micronation of Liberland - Reason - October 9th, 2023 [October 9th, 2023]
- As RFK Jr. Readies an Announcement Monday, Speculation Is ... - The New York Sun - October 9th, 2023 [October 9th, 2023]
- The libertarian think tank that helped build the 'No' case - The Saturday Paper - October 9th, 2023 [October 9th, 2023]
- Fox Chapel Area voters will choose among two candidates for District 3 school board seat - Yahoo News - October 9th, 2023 [October 9th, 2023]
- Far-right party may hold keys to next Polish government, sets tone in talks with Ukraine - Yahoo News - October 9th, 2023 [October 9th, 2023]
- Aella: Is Porn Too Pervasive? - Reason - October 9th, 2023 [October 9th, 2023]
- Massie: McCarthy Speakership Showdown a 'Referendum' on ... - Reason - October 9th, 2023 [October 9th, 2023]
- ESPN's Pablo Torre explains how Harvard classmate Vivek Ramaswamy was 'That Guy' in school - Yahoo News - October 9th, 2023 [October 9th, 2023]
- DeFi has not followed through on its privacy promises yet - Blockworks - October 9th, 2023 [October 9th, 2023]
- At 50, 'The Machinery of Freedom' Remains an Anarcho-Capitalist ... - Reason - October 9th, 2023 [October 9th, 2023]
- Building the World's First Private Libertarian City - Reason - July 13th, 2023 [July 13th, 2023]
- Libertarian candidates say they were not asked for money to run - Buenos Aires Herald - July 13th, 2023 [July 13th, 2023]
- David Schmidtz and My Dad on Asking the Right Questions - Econlib - July 13th, 2023 [July 13th, 2023]
- Indiana governor's race grows more crowded with addition of ... - The Statehouse File - July 13th, 2023 [July 13th, 2023]
- Revealed: The EU lobbying of the so-called 'Consumer Choice Center' - EUobserver - July 13th, 2023 [July 13th, 2023]
- Why do voters have to pick a Republican or a Democrat in the US? - kinyradio.com - July 13th, 2023 [July 13th, 2023]
- Review: Choose Your Own Adventure in 'American Futures' Book - Reason - July 13th, 2023 [July 13th, 2023]
- Twitter users slam Kamala Harris for airplane bathroom demand amid the ongoing border crisis: 'Really?' - Yahoo News - July 13th, 2023 [July 13th, 2023]
- Fundraisers revel in gutted N.J. pay-to-play law - POLITICO - July 13th, 2023 [July 13th, 2023]
- Utah Gov. Spencer Cox wants to spare kids from their phones - Salt Lake Tribune - July 13th, 2023 [July 13th, 2023]
- Kari Lake in Tucson: "I'm actually eyeing the Senate race" - KGUN 9 Tucson News - July 13th, 2023 [July 13th, 2023]
- Q&A with Gary Swing | Veteran minor party candidate advocates for ... - coloradopolitics.com - July 13th, 2023 [July 13th, 2023]
- Jonah Goldberg: A NeverTrumper's Take on the 2024 Election - Reason - July 13th, 2023 [July 13th, 2023]
- Gov. Lombardo one of few republicans to sign abortion protections ... - KTNV 13 Action News Las Vegas - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- Review: 'Land and Liberty' Charts Henry George's Influence - Reason - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- Polish ref cleared of wrongdoing, will take charge of Champions ... - TVP World - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- The Taliban 20's McCarthy Red Line - Puck - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- Morris: Property: Imagine it anew - Greenfield Daily Reporter - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- Weekend Reading on Women's Representation: Stereotypes Can ... - Ms. Magazine - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- Fox Business Shuts Down Kennedy, Will Replace With Kudlow Reruns - Yahoo Entertainment - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- The 11th commandment | News | vcreporter.com - Ventura County Reporter - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- The Long Afterlife of Libertarianism - The New Yorker - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- Can McCarthy Pass the Debt Deal and Keep His Job? - The New York Times - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- McCarthy-Biden Debt Limit Deal Clears First Hurdle in Key House ... - The New York Sun - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- Libertarian Party of Wisconsin: Libertarians to voters: Let's go ... - WisPolitics.com - April 25th, 2023 [April 25th, 2023]
- How the pandemic challenged libertarianism | Canada's National ... - Canada's National Observer - April 25th, 2023 [April 25th, 2023]
- Colorado falls to 43rd in national highway ranking - The Durango Herald - April 25th, 2023 [April 25th, 2023]
- Are We Stuck In a Plutocratic Formal Organization? An Analysis of ... - Trincoll.edu - April 25th, 2023 [April 25th, 2023]
- Why Is Tucker Carlson Leaving Fox News? - Reason - April 25th, 2023 [April 25th, 2023]
- Despite SCOTUS Ruling Limiting Its Authority, EPA Tries To ... - Reason - April 25th, 2023 [April 25th, 2023]
- Biden's "freedom" pitch and the coming political realignment - The.Ink - April 25th, 2023 [April 25th, 2023]
- Informal dollar reaches AR$497, Fernndez and Massa blame ... - Buenos Aires Herald - April 25th, 2023 [April 25th, 2023]
- Crack-Up Capitalism by Quinn Slobodian review the economic anarchy of Liz Trusss dreams - The Guardian - April 25th, 2023 [April 25th, 2023]
- 2024 Libertarian Presidential Candidates - Who's Running in 2024? - March 2nd, 2023 [March 2nd, 2023]
- 5 things the Libertarian Party stands for | The Hill - February 18th, 2023 [February 18th, 2023]
- Most Libertarian States 2022 - worldpopulationreview.com - December 25th, 2022 [December 25th, 2022]
- Gun Ownership | Libertarian Party - December 25th, 2022 [December 25th, 2022]
- Libertarian Party | History, Beliefs, & Facts | Britannica - December 18th, 2022 [December 18th, 2022]
- The Education of a Libertarian | Cato Unbound - December 18th, 2022 [December 18th, 2022]