This article highlights how media pretends to have just discovered modern libertarianism as some sort of radical, new and dynamic force in politics but it’s a rehash that goes back decades and it’s a non-threatening “radical” politics (unlike genuine radical ideas, which threatens the rich).
Back in 1950, the House of Representatives Buchanan Committee held hearings on illegal lobbying activities and both Friedman and the earliest libertarian think-tank outfit as a front for business lobbyists, shills for the real estate industry. The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is generally regarded as “the first libertarian think-tank”funded and sponsored by a Who’s Who of US industry in 1946 which included: The Big Three auto makers GM, Chrysler and Ford; top oil majors including Gulf Oil, Standard Oil, and Sun Oil; major steel producers US Steel, National Steel, Republic Steel; major retailers including Montgomery Ward, Marshall Field and Sears; chemicals majors Monsanto and DuPont; and other Fortune 500 corporations including General Electric, Merrill Lynch, Eli Lilly and more. That is how libertarianism in America started: As an arm of Big Business. The FEE’s board included the future founder of the John Birch Society, Robert Welch; the most powerful figure in the Mormon church at that time, J Reuben Clark, a racist and anti-Semite after whom Brigham Young University named its law school; and United Fruit president Herb Cornuelle.
Libertarian originally was just another name for anarchism. Fake “libertarianism”, or to give it its more accurate label, “propertarianism”, is only opposed to GOVERNMENT hierarchy. It is fine with hierarchy in the workplace, in the military, and elsewhere. This fraudulent version of "libertarianism" is simply a way to justify the unbridled domination of the corporate sector over the rest of society. It opposes any institution or movement that stands in the way of such domination -- unions first among them.
Back in 1950, the House of Representatives Buchanan Committee held hearings on illegal lobbying activities and both Friedman and the earliest libertarian think-tank outfit as a front for business lobbyists, shills for the real estate industry. The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is generally regarded as “the first libertarian think-tank”funded and sponsored by a Who’s Who of US industry in 1946 which included: The Big Three auto makers GM, Chrysler and Ford; top oil majors including Gulf Oil, Standard Oil, and Sun Oil; major steel producers US Steel, National Steel, Republic Steel; major retailers including Montgomery Ward, Marshall Field and Sears; chemicals majors Monsanto and DuPont; and other Fortune 500 corporations including General Electric, Merrill Lynch, Eli Lilly and more. That is how libertarianism in America started: As an arm of Big Business. The FEE’s board included the future founder of the John Birch Society, Robert Welch; the most powerful figure in the Mormon church at that time, J Reuben Clark, a racist and anti-Semite after whom Brigham Young University named its law school; and United Fruit president Herb Cornuelle.
Libertarian originally was just another name for anarchism. Fake “libertarianism”, or to give it its more accurate label, “propertarianism”, is only opposed to GOVERNMENT hierarchy. It is fine with hierarchy in the workplace, in the military, and elsewhere. This fraudulent version of "libertarianism" is simply a way to justify the unbridled domination of the corporate sector over the rest of society. It opposes any institution or movement that stands in the way of such domination -- unions first among them.
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