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Many libertarians have the same opinions as us on non-economic foreign policies of the West (seeing through “human rights” claims as hypocrisy to justify war that is waged for resources and geographical control, what coups/assassinations/terrorists are ClA ops, etc.) because these are all state activities and they are anti-state, at least in the current form in the West
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Blumenthal’s opinions on the situation of vaccines in USA is very libertarian
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Clearly not a communist given he has never spoken positively about any AES and never explicitly supported enemies of the West
Yea idk that’s all I got lol
I gotta disagree on some points.
From all the libertarians I’ve interacted with, I think some communists give libertarians way too much credit. Sure, some of them claim to be anti-war, but not out of genuine concern for those affected or the “good” reasons. Not saying all libertarians are like this, or that libertarians can’t eventually become communists, just something to be aware of.
Most libertarians only want to “bring the troops back” so the military can arrest, kidnap, extort and murder brown people and leftists and protect the money and property of the capitalists that libertarians believe they will become one day. Some libertarians I’ve met are even explicitly pro-war. They only pretend to not be pro-war as long as the government supports a war. As long as capitalists support war, they are all for it.
While probably not explicitly, Max Blumenthal seems to have praised China in how they have handled the COVID-19 pandemic and Xinjiang reeducation facilities.
I used to support Max Blumenthal, and I try not to accuse people for any reason of this, but he’s lost my respect for being an anti-vax and a grifter.
Ben Norton on the other hand has my respect.
While I do not think Max Blumenthal is a Libertarian, I absolutely do think that he is way less politicized than people give him credit for, that his politics are hyper confused and without a solid root other than reflexive anti-americanism (and I say that because to be anti-imperialist one must also theoretically understand imperialism, which necessitates a solid political base in materialist and marxist thinking).
This ideological confusion of his allows his thought to be riddled with contradictions, and a MAJOR one is a certain commitment to “freedom”, in the ways in which it is pushed hegemonically in the west in general. Call it latent system pushed individualism, ig. The extreme of that is capitalist libertarianism, so I understand why one would jump the shark and call him a libertarian. This is too hasty, but it is not cooompletely incorrect.
And this is what imo, tied to more “base” interests (such as financial, his switch to anti-vax is bringing a lot of cash and vastly expanded the grayzone’s audience), is what explains the shift.
Ben Norton always was a bit more politically coherent, and he turned towards clearly marxist and ML movements early on, and a certain humility so to speak to listen (really listen) to analysis done by marxists leninists and anti-imperialists. This is also why Ben Norton actively listened to the analysis of the communist party of canada about the ill called “trucker” convoy up here, and why Blumenthal did not. Norton correctly saw the CPC canada as accurate, that the movement was a petit-bourgeois one, with a leadership with deep ties to fascist elements, and one that is to the direct opposite of proletarian interests. Blumenthal on the other hand, saw it as a potentially progressive movement to be worked with, and he entered head first in the culture war thinking he was bashing back against it, engaging in nonsensical conspiratorial crap, and actively attacking organized working class elements such as fucking unions and communist parties in Canada.
Tl;DR Blumenthal is what happens when a mf has no dialectical materialist analysis. Sorry for long comment.
I think some communists give libertarians way too much credit.
Polish ones are often ancaps, racists and antisemites and many have the weird mix of nazism-ancapism-monarchism taken from Korwin. They are actively working on being as little connected to reality as they can.
Who is Korwin? I feel like jumping into some rabbitholes.
Janusz Korwin Mikke, first clown of polish politics, famous for praising Hitler every now and then and getting kicked from several political parties he founded. He also courageously fought against EU by sleeping all the time after being elected to EU Parliament. His career started when during the famous 1980 strike in Gdańsk shipyard he came to tell the workers about the wonders of capitalism - they listened to him and they locked him in shed because they though he is police provocateur. Also a verifable stud, but, very surprising for a libertarian, not a pedophile.
In reality he’s very successful grifter who live a comfortable life for over 4 decades now by preying on teenage libertarians pocket money. Also he’s actually quite useful, since for all this time he is making libertarianism be ridiculed by most people.
