Tom Woods defends Walter Block

[Occam's Banana]

Tom Woods' special resource page "Stand With Walter": http://tomwoods.com/walter/

Tom Woods' open letter to the President of Loyola University, New Orleans: http://tomwoods.com/blog/my-letter-to-the-president-of-loyola-university-new-orleans/

Jesuit University Attacks Libertarian Professor; I Respond
http://tomwoods.com/blog/jesuit-university-attacks-libertarian-professor-i-respond/
Tom Woods (10 February 2014)

Walter Block is being treated absurdly by faculty and the president at his university, where he has done more to recruit undergraduates than probably entire departments put together. Here’s the special resource page I put together with more background. But you will enjoy this short video, in which I stick it to the bad guys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZxh1_8LzZc

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Are you implying that Dr Block is "right wing", Tom? Da fuq? In my experience, "right wingers" dislike just about everything Block has to say.

If I get a chance, I'll participate in the support Walter campaign.

 

[ZENemy]

Tom woods is fantastic!

 

[Christian Liberty]

Are you implying that Dr Block is "right wing", Tom? Da fuq? In my experience, "right wingers" dislike just about everything Block has to say.

If I get a chance, I'll participate in the support Walter campaign.

I think its more convenient for us to claim to be "right" wing than "Left" wing in today's political climate, even though in reality I'd argue that we're neither.

I know its different with the politicians, but when it comes to individual conservatives that I know, most of them are at least willing to give Ron Paul's ideas a seat at the table, and most of them like Rand Paul. My conservative aunt was telling me recently that she really likes Greg Brannon and wishes someone like him was running in NYS. You don't get that from the left, or at least I don't. Most of them genuinely hate us.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

I think its more convenient for us to claim to be "right" wing than "Left" wing in today's political climate, even though in reality I'd argue that we're neither.

I know its different with the politicians, but when it comes to individual conservatives that I know, most of them are at least willing to give Ron Paul's ideas a seat at the table, and most of them like Rand Paul. My conservative aunt was telling me recently that she really likes Greg Brannon and wishes someone like him was running in NYS. You don't get that from the left, or at least I don't. Most of them genuinely hate us.

You should do greater investigation into the "left". The "Libertarian Left" (like the Center for a Stateless Society) have far more in common with the "Liberty Movement" than the Anglo-American "Right".

 

[Christian Liberty]

What's the center for a stateless society? Are they an-caps or an-coms?

I don't really know what these terms are supposed to mean, but I do know that people who would consider themselves "right wing" have more in common with us in my experience than those who would consider themselves "left wing." Still not nearly enough, but at least they don't think government should be able to do essentially anything like most lefties.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

What's the center for a stateless society? Are they an-caps or an-coms?

I don't really know what these terms are supposed to mean, but I do know that people who would consider themselves "right wing" have more in common with us in my experience than those who would consider themselves "left wing." Still not nearly enough, but at least they don't think government should be able to do essentially anything like most lefties.

It's a think-tank like the Mises Institute. See c4ss.org. WRT your second paragraph, you're just reasoning from parts to whole. I can make the same claim about self-proclaimed "left wingers" based on my personal experience with them, and it would be equally (in)valid.

ETA: from the "about us":

The Center for a Stateless Society (C4SS) is an anarchist think-tank and media center. Its mission is to explain and defend the idea of vibrant social cooperation without aggression, oppression, or centralized authority.
In particular, it seeks to enlarge public understanding and transform public perceptions of anarchism, while reshaping academic and movement debate, through the production and distribution of market anarchist media content, both scholarly and popular, the organization of events, and the development of networks and communities, and to serve, along with the Alliance of the Libertarian Left and the Molinari Institute, as an institutional home for left market anarchists.

 

[green73]

It's only okay to be a "kook" when it's not something within freedom's purview.

 

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

It's only okay to be a "kook" when it's not something within freedom's purview.

To authoritarians and Marxists, freedom is the definition of kook, an idea of bourgeois interest! They think themselves so much better, with their edicts, and plans, controls, and systems of authority.

 

[Henry Rogue]

Are you implying that Dr Block is "right wing", Tom? Da fuq? In my experience, "right wingers" dislike just about everything Block has to say.

If I get a chance, I'll participate in the support Walter campaign.

It's a think-tank like the Mises Institute. See c4ss.org. WRT your second paragraph, you're just reasoning from parts to whole. I can make the same claim about self-proclaimed "left wingers" based on my personal experience with them, and it would be equally (in)valid.

ETA: from the "about us":

It matters very little if a Free Market/Advocate of Statelessness identifies themselves as far right or far left, except to draw people to their views from those who identify with being either from the right of center or from the left of center (if a linear scale is the measurement you choose to use). If Tom Woods can convince people who view themselves as right wing to consider anarchism and you can convince people who view themselves as left wing to consider anarchism, then who exactly is wrong?

 

[Occam's Banana]

Are you implying that Dr Block is "right wing", Tom? Da fuq? In my experience, "right wingers" dislike just about everything Block has to say.

I don't think there was any such implication. He merely identified Block's critics as "leftists."

And he was not incorrect to do so - that's what they are (and would likely self-identify as).

It matters very little if a Free Market/Advocate of Statelessness identifies themselves as far right or far left, except to draw people to their views from those who identify with being either from the right of center or from the left of center (if a linear scale is the measurement you choose to use). If Tom Woods can convince people who view themselves as right wing to consider anarchism and you can convince people who view themselves as left wing to consider anarchism, then who exactly is wrong?

No one.

Folks like Tom Woods arrived at & approach libertarianism from a "rightist" perspective.
Others - such as Roderick Long - arrived at & approach it from a "leftist" perspective.
(Long BTW is affiliated with the Mises Institute, the Molinari Institute, C4SS, etc.)

There's nothing wrong with that. It's just a matter of framing & emphasis, topic & tone.

So long as it is all consistently & solidly pro-human-liberty, it's all good ...

 

[heavenlyboy34]

It matters very little if a Free Market/Advocate of Statelessness identifies themselves as far right or far left, except to draw people to their views from those who identify with being either from the right of center or from the left of center (if a linear scale is the measurement you choose to use). If Tom Woods can convince people who view themselves as right wing to consider anarchism and you can convince people who view themselves as left wing to consider anarchism, then who exactly is wrong?

Indeed. It has long been my hope that more people would understand the political spectrum as total liberty<--->total tyranny instead of this "right" and "left" nonsense. "Right" and "Left" are parliamentary terms designed to keep us from thinking creatively.

 

[Occam's Banana]

The Walter Block Scandal
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/02/no_author/catholic-commies-attack-walter-block/
Tom Woods (13 February 2014)

Readers of this site will be familiar with Walter Block, the prolific economics professor and libertarian theorist at Loyola University, New Orleans. In recent days Professor Block has been treated preposterously by the perpetually aggrieved, after his views were distorted by the New York Times. (Click here for the full story.) The college president, in turn, carried out the primary task of college presidents: cravenly currying favor with the loudest, most obnoxious, and least scholarly voices on campus by means of a pompous and question-begging official statement.

I myself responded with a letter to the president that you may enjoy. After reviewing the facts I asked the president how many other professors at his university had 400+ peer-reviewed articles or had collaborated with students to co-publish scholarly articles – not once or twice, but dozens of times. For that matter, for how many other Loyola University professors would anyone anywhere in the country lift a single finger?

My letter is online, and you can help Walter with a letter of your own.

Meanwhile, I think you’ll enjoy this letter by Rev. Larry Beane, a Lutheran pastor in Louisiana, who challenges Loyola’s president to defy all expectations of a college president and do something that is both unpopular and just. – Tom Woods

[ ... see link for the text of Rev. Beane's letter: https://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/02/no_author/catholic-commies-attack-walter-block/ ...]

 

[Barrex]

Nice.

 

[Occam's Banana]

Folks like Tom Woods arrived at & approach libertarianism from a "rightist" perspective.
Others - such as Roderick Long - arrived at & approach it from a "leftist" perspective.
(Long BTW is affiliated with the Mises Institute, the Molinari Institute, C4SS, etc.)

There's nothing wrong with that. It's just a matter of framing & emphasis, topic & tone.

So long as it is all consistently & solidly pro-human-liberty, it's all good ...

Speaking of which ...

How to Talk to Left and Right About Libertarianism
(Tom Woods Show interview with Anthony Gregory - 10 February 2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXEIbbV3VaE

 

[Occam's Banana]

More defenses of Walter Block ...

Slandering Walter Block: http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/stop-slandering-walter-block/

Block Heads: http://www.thebigquestions.com/2014/02/13/block-heads/
- h/t Tom DiLorenzo: http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/the-gang-of-angry-yahoos/

Wildes' letter assumed too much: http://www.loyolamaroon.com/2.6713/letter-wildes-letter-assumed-too-much-1.2856224#.UwATaMgo5ip
- h/t Tom DiLorenzo: http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog...s-president-of-loyola-university-new-orleans/

Facism University: http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/02/thomas-dilorenzo/enemies-of-freedom-and-tolerance/
- see this thread: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showth...m-University-Enemies-of-Freedom-amp-Tolerance