Turn Down For What? The Weekend Vigilante - January 10th, 2015

Hello from Anarchapulco Bay,

This is going to be, perhaps, painfully blunt.  That, actually, is very hard for someone who grew up in Kanada in the 70s and 80s where politeness was driven to the extreme… to the point where not holding the door open for a woman who was literally 20 metres away from the door would result in a beating.  Yes, that kind of weird politeness.

That, actually, is what makes what I am about to say seem so bizarre.  For, the craw in my nutsack, or whatever that saying is, is about another Kanadian, Stefan Molyneux.  Or, at least, he lives in Kanada… anyway, that’s just geography.

I am known for my calm demeanor.  No matter what happens I am mostly sitting quite stoic, usually puff on a cigarette, pipe or cigar and when asked about something that has recently happened my usual response is, “Well, let’s think about it for a while before rushing to conclusions”.

And I have done that now for months with Stefan Molyneux.

Before I get into it I want to say that Stefan has been a guest on my podcast Anarchast twice and also gave me a very nice start in my latest career as The Dollar Vigilante very early back before I regrew my hair and once again stopped wearing fake diamond earrings.  I appreciate all those things greatly.  On top of that, some of his videos have literally changed the world for the better.  Ones like this are at the top of the list to awaken brainwashed slaves.

However, it started around a year ago that he started to try to go more mainstream.

Of course, in the world of YouTube, where he has tens of millions of views, the incentive can be to try to toe the mainstream line somewhat in order to get more views.  And, quite possibly, Stefan needs income from views to survive so it is actually some-what understandable if he talks less morally sound in order to get more views.

He started with the “Truth about” series of videos.  Where, bizarrely, he actually, unapologetically, tries to pass off reading mainstream government and media press releases as being “the truth”.

Worse, however, he began defending many government scourges and overreach implicitly as though it was just, “the truth”.  I let it slide.  There are much bigger problems in the world than one anarchist who seems to be confused about what is mainstream media “news” and what is the truth.

Then I saw him on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast where he was called out about a few weird and strange activities of his and did not apologize and even lied in the face of the real truth.

To briefly go over it, Joe confronted him, rightfully so, about two incidents.  One was on an issue where his wife, a psychologist, had some issues with an industry review board over her practice.  Not a big deal, really.  Most industry review boards are bureaucratic, collectivist absurdity.  But, rather than saying that he said that, to paraphrase, “It didn’t happen”.  To add to this there is also an old recording of Stefan saying that he used to listen to her talk to her patients/clients through the ventilation ducts and mock them and actually say, like a ghost from within the ducts, that they should donate to Freedomain Radio!

That was weird at the very least!

He then was confronted about his very morally sound belief that intellectual property (IP) is not actually property and that government should not regulate it… and how he had used government IP laws to remove a YouTube channel that was anti-Molyneux.  Rather than apologizing for this clear lack of sound principles which he often espouses, which would have been fine… we all make mistakes in heated moments… he danced around the issue.  He could have even mentioned that it was the manager of his channel who did it and he had not thought completely through it.  But, he didn’t.

Soon after, being a big fan of Joe Rogan and his very open mind, a number of people close to Joe had spoken to him about having me on his program, which I think would have gone really well.  They stated, to paraphrase again, “After Stefan Molyneux Joe doesn’t want any more of these anarchists on.”

I didn’t take it personal nor against Stefan but it was another straw that began to make me question what Stefan was doing based on the results.

Then, recently, he made the bizarre statement that, in the case of Eric Garner, the man who was executed on the streets of New York for selling untaxed (unextorted) cigarettes that Garner was engaging in a real crime by victimizing those that do get extorted by undercutting them.

By now many of my liberty loving friends were looking at me how they look when someone had just punched your mother in the face five times in a row.  That look of, “When are you going to do something about this!!!”

Again, being quite stoic, I said I would take it into consideration and I pondered upon it for weeks.

A recent show of Molyneux’s had a perplexed caller call in and question him about his statement.  I was thrilled.  Perhaps Molyneux would now say, “You know, I apologize, I run a talk radio show for hours every day and in the moment I was just searching for a way to say something interesting and I said something I didn’t really mean and I apologize again.”

However, Molyneux essentially stuck to his original premise.  That, yes, Eric Garner was engaging in a crime for which there were victims by selling cigarettes that had not been extorted and approved by the overseers.  As he put it, to paraphrase again, “Those shop owners spent a lot of money and paid a lot of taxes to have their store so Garner was actually victimizing them”.

That, of course, is completely ridiculous.  There was only two crimes involved with that incident.  The first was that a group of thugs (government) were extorting people (taxes).  The second was when men in black costumes killed Eric Garner.

Those who know me know that I rarely talk in a derisive or conflicatory manner with anyone including delusional statists.  I always look to show the positives and avoid the negatives in these situations.  And, “libertarian infighting” has been a cause celebre for many who are noticing that not every single anarchist in the world agrees with every single anarchist in the world… which should be blatantly obvious, as obviously not every statist in the world agrees with every other statist… not even close, by a long shot.

So, when some of us anarchists have a disagreement it gets blown all out of proportion.  You anarchists should agree on everything if you are so anarchist, they say!

I’ve avoided it constantly even having very derisive anarchists on Anarchast like Cathy Reisenwitz and Julie Borowski on to many catcalls and finding them to be very rational and morally sound when questioned about their views.

But unless Stefan Molyneux admits some of his errors or explains that he is changing his message, and his principles, in order to grow a bigger audience I am now out of the Molyneux defense camp.

We all make mistakes.  I’ve made, roughly guessing, 85,000.  But I always admit when I do and ask forgiveness from those I am involved with who through my mistakes I have harmed.  I always re-analyze why I made the mistake and show why I made the mistake in the certain circumstance… and show why, most people, given the same information and circumstances would likely also make that mistake.  But, at the end, I always apologize.

But, not to end this dispatch on a negative note I want to mention a few positive things.  I really do dislike negativity and confrontation.

Our upcoming conference, Anarchapulco, is really taking off.  We’re adding speakers from around the world daily now, musical artists as well, and the whole concept seems to have scratched a much needed itch as, literally, every day I receive an email from someone who is booking a one-way ticket here.  It’s actually feeling a little overwhelming at the moment trying to manage the growth… but we’ll manage!

I recommend checking out the latest from the Angel Clark Show, filmed on the beach above Anarchapulco this week to catch a bit of the vibe.

Many of the world’s most interesting free thinkers are coming to the event and I should say that I emailed Stefan Molyneux numerous times about coming to it without response.  That is absolutely not the reason for my discourse today but it just adds another tick in the box against him that he wouldn’t even reply.  He seems to be moving into a different sphere.  Who knows, maybe he’ll become another mainstream Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck by moderating his message.  If so, I think that would be a good thing in general as he is far less statist than the mainstream bunch that still garner listeners from the statist baby boomers who want to hear why their Socialist Insecurity checks are being inflated away and how voting more can stop it.

In the end I had this thought.  Should I also turn down my very morally sound and blunt honesty about what I believe to get more viewers/listeners?  It took about 0.1 seconds for the response to come back.  Never.  Fucking never.

The Dollar Vigilante is a free-market financial newsletter focused on covering all aspects of the ongoing financial collapse. The newsletter has news, information and analysis on investments for safety and for profit during the collapse including investments in gold, silver, energy and agriculture commodities and publicly traded stocks. As well, the newsletter covers other aspects including expatriation, both financially and physically and news and info on health, safety and other ways to survive the coming collapse of the US Dollar safely and comfortably. You can sign up to receive our FREE monthly newsletter, our Basic Newsletter ($15/month) or our Full Newsletter ($25/month) with specific stock recommendations and updates at our Subscriptions page on our website at DollarVigilante.com.