In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss the libertarian support for Putin and other authoritarian regimes. They explore the libertarian movement's decades-long sympathy for evil regimes, its anti-state, anti-American foreign policy, and how the movement's rejection of morality has led to sanctioning tyrants.

Among the topics covered:

Recent libertarian defenses of authoritarian regimes;

How these libertarians are primarily anti-state, not pro-liberty;

Murray Rothbard as the spokesman of the libertarian movement's anti-state, anti-American foreign policy;

Rothbard's positive view of dictatorships as flowing from his rejection of morality;

Altruism — not imperialism — as the cause of the US engaging in self-sacrificial wars;

How the "big tent" approach to liberty explains the prevalence of the worst ideas within libertarianism;

How Objectivism can appeal to the best people within libertarianism.

Recommended in this podcast is Peter Schwartz’s essay “Libertarianism: The Perversion of Liberty” in Ayn Rand’s The Voice of Reason.

The podcast was recorded on April 28, 2023. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://youtu.be/vAp-aQCxg1E

Podcast audio: