I believe the issue of vaccine mandates is one of the most important issues of our time.  And if you can’t get this issue right, I have no use for you.

It has shocked me how many self-identified libertarians are promoting the COVID vaccines, while remaining mute (or worse) on the mandates being pushed or imposed by the state.

On a personal note, some of my old friends come from the local Libertarian Party, and they were never hardcore radical libertarians in the first place.  Maybe this just shows why it is so important that you have to be anti state in every way.  If you waver on the non-aggression principle, then you are prone to going astray when it counts the most.

When confronted (mostly on Facebook these days), some of them will say that they oppose forced vaccination by the state.  But that’s only because they were pressed on the issue.

Some of these people will constantly push some variant of “get the damn vaccine”, while they say nothing about many countries and some cities (most notably, New York City) within the United States making vaccines mandatory to participate in society.

This is rather odd for someone who calls himself a libertarian.

The dictatorial mayor of New York City has decreed that you must show proof of vaccination to dine in a restaurant, go to a movie theater, attend a comedy show, or participate in any of the other many cultural activities in the city.  As of right now, I think the unvaccinated are still allowed to pick up groceries so they can eat.  And this is happening in the largest city (by population) in the United States.

Meanwhile, the federal government is telling all military members they have to get the jab or face court martial.  Most federal workers will be required to get the jab.  Workers in nursing homes where they accept Medicare or Medicaid (which is most) will be required to get jabbed or lose their job.

Now that the FDA has granted full approval for the Pfizer shot, these mandates are flooding in.  Meanwhile, corporate America, under the thumb of Uncle Sam, is going full speed ahead with mandates.

The FDA had no problem for the longest time withholding possible life-saving drugs from the market for 5 or 10 years while testing and bureaucratic form filling was done.  But somehow, the FDA managed to grant full approval for the Pfizer jab in the matter of months.

I cannot stress enough the importance of this issue.  These are the times that try men’s souls.

Libertarian Infighting

Within the libertarian community (party or otherwise), I have heard about infighting for nearly two decades, and I’m sure it went on long before that.  I would hear some people say that we all share a common goal, and we shouldn’t get distracted by the little things.

While I agree with this sentiment to some degree, I disagree with the premise.  It never has been about the little things.  I didn’t not support Gary Johnson because he had a nuanced position on immigration, or because he prioritized one libertarian issue too much over another.  I didn’t support him because he was not against the state.  He supposedly wanted to tinker around the edges and make the government a bit smaller.

2020 and 2021 are really exposing all of the fake libertarians out there.  People were told to stay at home.  Businesses deemed non-essential were forced to shut down.  In many cases, you weren’t allowed by the state to take your kids to their daily activities.  And now we are faced with showing your papers in order to participate in society, and this may just be the start.

Hello, so-called libertarians – tyranny has arrived and you have nothing to say.

If you completely trust Bill Gates, Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden, the big drug companies, the CDC, and the FDA, and think the vaccines are wonderful, then go ahead.  But when you constantly preach for others to get vaccinated in order to get our freedom back, that is creepy, and it certainly isn’t libertarian.

“Just follow what the government tells you to do, and maybe you can have your freedom back.”

Let’s say that someone with a big platform starts saying something most people find stupid or hateful, but it is no way threatening violence of any kind.  There is discussion nationwide about banning this person from speaking in any way, or just throwing the person in jail for hate speech.  What would your reaction be?

I wouldn’t start spouting off on social media about how these things are hateful and should never be said.  Maybe I would say that as a disclaimer, but at that point I would be more concerned about the widespread call for throwing the person in jail for saying something that others don’t like.

I certainly wouldn’t suggest that people just shouldn’t talk this way and then we don’t have to worry about the state cracking down on free speech.  Yet, this is what some of my libertarian “friends” are saying now about vaccination.

I find it incredibly creepy, and demoralizing to some extent.

This is why I don’t buy the argument about how libertarians should stop the infighting.  As long as these people exist and they continue to call themselves libertarian, then I will fully oppose them and try to embarrass them at every possible point.  I will oppose them more than regular people who hold similar views but don’t call themselves libertarians.

I’m sorry, but we don’t share a common goal.  Maybe they want some drug legalization and lower marginal tax rates.  But they are statists.  When it counts, they side with the state.

It counts more than ever now.  There is this crazy push to inject everyone with a supposed medical treatment.  The state, at all levels, is a major force behind this push, which now includes many state-imposed mandates.  Whatever happened to “my body, my choice” that so many so-called progressives liked to say and some libertarians liked to repeat?

The good news in all of this is that I think the libertarian movement has more sympathy than ever before because of the COVID craziness.  If you are a business owner who was forced to shut down, you want some allies.  When you are someone who chooses not to get vaccinated and are shunned from society for it, you want to find others who are willing to stand up for your rights.

I think the libertarian infighting should continue until all of these fake libertarians who creepily support the hard push for vaccination are driven out of the libertarian movement.  These people are not libertarians, and they shouldn’t be misusing the name.  When it counted, they failed to oppose state aggression.