Ship-Jumping Libertarians

Editor’s Pick. Guest post by Robert Higgs.

A message to former libertarians who jumped ship because of a perceived crisis (e.g., Islamist terrorism, immigrant “invasion,” Chinese driving the U.S. economy to ruin by flooding the country with cheap imports):

You have forgotten, among other things, what you used to understand about the injustice and destructiveness of the state. The state, however, does not shed these attributes in a crisis. Indeed, it expresses them in even greater degree because so many people, like you, are willing to throw down their remaining rights and liberties for the state to trample on in their midguided expectation that in the crisis the state will act as their savior rather than their oppressor. Entire books have been written on how this crisis-driven loss of liberties operates, with dire long-term consequences. You should read one or two of them.

Originally published on Facebook.com.

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Selected content picked by the editor of Everything-Voluntary.com.