Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

I frequently look back on the days when I wasn’t sure where I stood on the political spectrum. I wasn’t sure whether I could call myself a conservative, since I was prochoice, pro-gay rights and pro-Marijuana legalization. Of course, at the time I didn’t know that there wasn’t an exact set of requirements that one had to abide by to be a conservative. The one thing that I did know was that I wasn’t a leftist. I know that many discovered libertarianism through the works of Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard and even Robert Heinlein. My inspiration came mainly from L. Neil Smith. You could say that the late J. Neil Schulman, the late Aaron Zelman and even Vin Suprynowicz, also had a hand in guiding me down that path. Though it was L. Neil Smith who first gave me inspiration with Mitzvah and Hope both of which he co-wrote with Aaron Zelman. I would later find the same inspiration with Smith’s other novels, The Probability Broach and The American Zone. It was also through him that I discovered The Libertarian Enterprise, the place where my work would be published for the next thirteen years.

It’s not to say that I have agreed with every position that L. Neil Smith has taken over the years, but at times it feels as if I have a psychic connection with the man. One of those times was when he reversed his long-held position on immigration. His reasons for changing his position actually reflect the same qualms that I have with the idea of open borders. His reasons for supporting Donald Trump are the same as mine. The same goes for Neil’s reasons for rejecting the movement to defund the police.

A few months back Neil published an article that actually struck a chord with me. It was titled Burning the Right Books where Neil spoke about his experience at an anti-censorship event where people did a reading from a banned book. He detailed the hypocrisy he experienced from the liberal women at this event who glared at him when he chose to read from the book, Story of O. If Story of O easily triggered these hypocrites, I can only imagine how they would react to something like The Turner Diaries . Don’t get me wrong. The book is hateful, bigoted trash that amounts to nothing more than porn for white supremacists. Yet, if you believe that it should be permitted to exist, then you truly believe in freedom of expression.

I remember the days when we were told that it was religious fanatics on the right that wanted to censor tv shows, movies, video games and even the internet. Now, it seems as if they have been replaced by extremists on the left. Not that this should really come as any surprise to anybody. Afterall, it was centralist democrats such as, Tipper Gore, who raged against the content of hard rock albums and Bill Clinton who blamed movies and video games for school shootings. I first learned about this hypocrisy when a leftist close to me actually said that she didn’t believe in censorship until Larry Flynt created the famous “Spread Eagle” shot for Hustler magazine. The sad part is that she actually thought that it made sense. I wanted to ask her if she thought that Larry Flynt was going door to door with a .45 in his hand forcing people to look at the centerfolds in his magazine. It seems to me that if you want something banned just because it offends you, then you missed the whole point of free expression. I find it funny that she thought the “Spread Eagle” shot was so offensive, when Hustler now features women urinating. Since, I have no desire to see something that disgusting, I simply avoid the magazine. It seems like a simple concept.

The problem is that modern leftists use this same flawed “I have a right not to be offended” logic to censor all kinds of views that they don’t like. That is what the Brownshirts on college campuses use to justify shouting down guest speakers or starting riots to silence opposing views. If you take offense to me comparing the fanatics on college campuses to that of the terrorist wing of the Nazi party, remember that their tactics come right out of the Nazi playbook, which does include shouting down speakers with opposing viewpoints. It is also what the “Masters of the Universe” who run Google, Twitter and Facebook use to justify the censorship of conservative and libertarian users. Before anybody moans about these tech companies being private organizations that a have right to censor any content that they want, I will say that these tech companies need to give up any benefit that they get by calling themselves “Public Forums” before playing the “Private Company” card. Let us not forget the Antifa pansies that use every cowardly trick in the book to silence anybody who isn’t on the left of Stalin. If anybody has a problem with my analysis of Antifa, don’t even bother complaining to me because I already know what side you are on.

This represents the major problem that I have with the left. Back in the day it seemed as if the left was just arrogant about their ideas. Now, it seems as if the left is not only arrogant, but so righteous that they think that they are now morally justified in using any means necessary to shove their ideas down people’s throats, which includes violence. I guess it shouldn’t come as any surprise, considering that most of the modern left’s strategy’s come straight from the playbook of Sal Alinsky, who was a firm believer in the morally bankrupt philosophy of the ends justifying the means. I used to think that the disciples of the left where just lousy at getting their ideas across. I would later come to the realization that they don’t believe that their ideas need to be defended since they are on the side of right, which makes any form of debate impossible. I will say that conservatives are far from perfect, but it is much easier to have an adult conversation with just about anybody on the right than most of the so-called intellectuals on the left. What the left doesn’t realize is that it actually shows that their long-cherished beliefs have little to no substance. It also shows that deep-down they know that their beliefs are complete bunk. That is why they want to keep such a tight hold over the media and academia and why they are now resorting to violence. It is because deep-down the left knows it can’t really win in a free market of ideas.