link to original reddit post by /u/Anenome5
Hello, resident mod here, although I am speaking on my own initiative here, not in mod capacity. We have just had a very questionable submission from someone about transgenderism and it raised a question about the source that I think is worth bringing up to the sub at large.
This person claims that this article is necessarily libertarian in character just because it is posted on LewRockwell.com. Which, if you didn't know, Lew is a long-time famous libertarian from way back. Here is the article in question, which I am going to code out so I don't link directly to it:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/03/vasko-kohlmayer/why-transgenderism-is-immoral/
This is troubling, because this person immediately attacked us for removing his post saying:
Sorry its published by Lew Rockwell are you claiming you know more about what is and is not libertarian than Lew Rockwell?
Which is an appeal to authority. Frankly, we don't care who publishes what, if you put an article up that is anti-libertarian in character we're not going to accept it. Rule 4, no off-topic posts. We don't have to accept any conservative-entryism posts from anyone, and we do not want to subject to you, the sub's readers, bullcrap like is in this article full of right-wing reasoning and moral-panic without a drop of libertarian argument. The article is written by a non-libertarian christian right-winger, so the question now is why is it on Lew Rockwell's website?
This person then goes on to attack us as mods for blocking this post:
Transgenderism is just more lunacy from the left! Stop being thought police and banning free speech
First of all, we are a private space, you do not have free speech here. We use our mod powers to keep this space libertarian! Unlike so many others on reddit that have been overwhelmed by either left or right. This sub was originally created by myself and the other mods as a place for libertarians where neither the alt-right nor the left could invade.
And as for transgenderism, it may be an outrageous ideology being pushed by the left today, but they push it only through the power of the state. Without the state they would have nothing. It all comes back to the state being the problem, it's not transgender people nor transgenderism that is the problem. From a libertarian point of view, it's YOUR body to do with as you please, and transgenderism is hurting literally no one. Even if the left takes it to ridiculous extremes, even if the left forces transgender people to compete in sports with born-gender people, who cares. Your body, your choice.
And EVEN if you think that transgenderism is a harmful lifestyle, I got news for you, being a drug addict is a harmful lifestyle too, but libertarians want you to be able to shoot as many heroins into your veins as often as you damn want. And if you kill yourself doing so, that's no business of anyone else.
We also like to point out that it is the prohibition against drug addiction and drug use that so often has created these negative effects on people's bodies, and it's likely the same is true of transgender people, who might fare much better if they didn't face the kind of fear-mongering and hate that the conservatives are cultivating for them.
And here comes the kicker, he says:
If I didn't know better you mods are going to the left here
We don't agree with him so OF COURSE we must be huge leftists. I swear we mods get attacked like this every other day and it's hilarious. I know everyone on the mod team to be solid and hardcore libertarians and mostly ancaps.
Anyway, normally we mods would just shut this down and go about our day, but it is troubling for Lew Rockwell to be publishing an article like this on his website, and I thought it wise to bring it to the rest of you and show that Lew Rockwell seems to be going of the deep end here posting an article like this.
Rothbard too, in his later years, went off a similar deep-end, and we all pretty much try to ignore the last three years of his life where he was doing crazy things like reaching out to the racists of his day and trying to gain whatever tiny political victory could be achieved before he sadly passed away. It's possible Lew is in the midst of a similar shift in his old age.
It's something to watch out for in older libertarians who have fought the good fight their whole lives and begin to become desperate to see progress made before the end of their days. Rothbard called this phenomenon: "right wing opportunism" and even he succumbed to it.
Anyway, please check out the article and judge it from a libertarian perspective and give me some feedback here. If Lew's website keeps posting stuff like this we may have to begin questioning whether Lew Rockwell, of all people, is a libertarian anymore, and that's troubling.