(Originally posted for /r/GoldAndBlack mid-2021)
Situation: The state is forcing private businesses to engage in discriminatory actions, threatening to close their businesses or strip their licenses if they serve those who are “Unvaccinated”
Response from some “Libertarians”:
It’s a PRIVATE BUSINESS! They can do what they want!
This is how fascism survives and thrives, and I don’t use that term in the “yay punch a nazi” sense I mean that in the “Third way” academic sense. If you make these arguments, whether you intend to or not, you’re directly aiding the case of some of the greatest enemies of liberty that there are.
Most of our lives we have argued in favor of liberty, some of us longer than others, but this current regime is by far the greatest threat to liberty that we’ve ever seen. This is the sort of stuff happens once a generation, this makes 9/11 look like mild detour by comparison.
To stick with the fascism metaphor, imagine you are living in Germany.
A business says, “No Jews Allowed”.
Do you go, “Well, it’s a private business! They can do what they want, they have EVERY RIGHT to deny customers!”
When another business says, “Jews may not enter without having their armband”, do you go, “Well, that’s just voluntary association!”
That’s what the Nazis relied on to spread their hate. That’s how they made it more and more palatable to round them up and put them in camps.
You think this is a wild comparison? You think this is crazy? You think there’s no chance that “Anti-Vaxxers” would be rounded up and put into camps?
Well consider this: You’re an anti-vaxxer now. You never signed up for the mailing list. You may get every vaccine that ever gets released. You may sign up for the mailing list to get early samples and hop onto the latest vaccination trends. You may have gone to a cow farm just to get yourself some Ringworm to savor the experience.
But you’re an anti-vaxxer. Why? Because you don’t believe in forced vaccinations, and that makes you an anti-vaxxer now.
You know what else you are? A potential domestic terrorist with extremist views. Why? Because you’re on this sub, and don’t buy the official narratives. When you joined us is irrelevant, but chances are if you’re reading this you saw the following:
You saw them say that masks didn’t do anything, and you saw people run their stores out of stock for toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
You saw them say, “2 weeks to flatten the curve in order for hospitals to prepare for the massive influx of ‘Rona patients”
You saw them silently extend that lockdown without a word.
You saw them drop the “Flatten the Curve” speak without any fanfare.
You saw them change the narrative and say that masks now work
You saw them go from “8 percent mortality rate” to “5 percent” to “3 percent” to “.03 percent”, and you saw them do that while simultaneously becoming more radical in their rhetoric against the out-group.
You saw them shame “anti-maskers”, you witnessed them terrorizing any shop that didn’t enforce a ban on unmasked people.
You saw them support mass looting and violence against peaceful people while calling it “Mostly Peaceful”, and saying that it was okay to break the lockdown if it was “for a protest”.
You saw them petition governments for stricter lockdowns, stronger punishments, and the rest.
You see them blow past a year of this bullshit without any exit strategy or endgame, you saw them introduce 3 “Vaccines” that are utter crap
You saw them go from “You’re a conspiracy theorist if you think it was a lab leak” to “We need to do something about China” as soon as the cheeto was out of office.
You witness ALL THIS….
… but somehow you think, “Meh, it’s a private business! They can do what they want! Right to discriminate and all that jazz!”
If this is you, sit down and start thinking about what exactly it is that you believe, and whether you’re just an “Academic” libertarian who supports a free society “In Theory” or if you’re an actual libertarian, here on Earth, in the real world, watching as a totalitarian government seizes all the power it can in order to stomp out any trace vestiges of individual liberty.
Here in New Hampshire, some libertarians stepped up. Some libertarians didn’t.
Some libertarians got the ‘rona fines refunded. Some said, “well there is a SIGN you don’t want to violate the rules of a private property if they have a SIGN”
Some libertarians blatantly and openly ignored those signs and carried on with their life, being the best example of a smiling face they could possibly be.
Some locked themselves in their houses.
Some opened their doors and hosted parties, even massive parties, in defiance of all lockdown orders.
Some complained that Porcfest was going to be a “Super Spreader Event”.
Some said, “I don’t care, I am going anyway, fuck you”.
Some said, “I oppose the lockdowns but you shouldn’t be gathering in groups”.
Some said, “They closed the state house, so let’s protest outside of the governors house”.
Some chose meek compliance. Some chose bold defiance.
Some did nothing and are losers.
Some did something and are heroes.
As a result of this, we know who we can trust, who we can rely on, and who is a true friend of liberty and a true enemy of tyranny.
Think about the shame that you’d feel knowing that, when Hitler came to power, you were arguing about whether it was ethical to bar Jews from a private business or not. Think about whether you want to die knowing that you fought for liberty, and won, or knowing that better libertarians than you did all the hard work while you threw peanuts from the sidelines. Do you want to share in our victories, or do you want to nurse your drink of “technically speaking” while not being invited to the parties of the real heroes?
The choice is yours, as are all your choices.