Top Libertarian Musings of the Week — from Free Range Libertarians (Mainly Not Paid to Muse or Be Libertarians)

Julian Hassan ·

Washington, D.C./suburban Virginia

I think the country is pretty close to dictatorship. Now I don’t see it concretely happening just yet, but the spiritual requirements are almost in place…the spiral requirements of decay and servitude. We have a candidate that the public largely perceives as untrustworthy, but she is the most popular frontrunner. Then on the sidelines, there are the socialists cooing. Outside that, radio silence. Ask yourself, what can happen to such a society? What is left on the table? If the present state of affairs continues, will America the Brave preserve itself or descend further?

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Kathleen Jacob Wikstrom

Benton, AR · 

 

All the talk about transgender issues, with Bruce Jenner’s announcement in the news, has gotten me thinking. Could it be that wanting to change gender is a reaction to buying into gender stereotypes?

Jenner says he feels “like a woman,” but how does a woman feel? Since he’s not a woman, he couldn’t possibly know, but I am a woman, and I still don’t know. I only know what it feels like to be me. Perhaps he identifies more with other woman than other men. That’s fine, but being a man doesn’t keep him from doing that. Perhaps he prefers women’s clothing. Can’t he be a man who prefers clothing styles that are marketed to women? Women (and men) are defined biologically, but in all other aspects, they are a varied group (even if there are some characteristics that most women have and most men do not, and vice-versa). Some are more feminine than others. Some love shopping and fashion. Others love sports. Most women would fall into the “Feeling” category (as opposed to the “Thinking” category, where most men fall) on the Myers-Briggs personality chart, but about a quarter of women fall into the Thinking category, and about a quarter of men fall into the Feeling category. It seems to me that Jenner’s view bolsters the idea of gender stereotypes and suggests that men who don’t identify with the mainstream “male image” must not really be men.

I have generally identified more with men throughout my life, although I identify strongest with other “Thinking” women. I was a tomboy growing up. I like sports. I hardly ever cry. I like to be comfortable and prefer men’s clothing. (I hate the women’s t-shirts, that look kind of like men’s t-shirts with the comfort removed.) But I’ve never thought that maybe I’m not really a woman. I am me, who happens to be a woman, and I’ve never shied away from being the kind of woman I am, even if some people thought it wasn’t feminine enough.

I think anyone who wants to have transgender surgery should be allowed to do so, but I feel sorry for them if it is only because they have felt so locked into the stereotypes that they think they have to “fix” themselves to fit in.

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Reem Tahir

San Francisco, CA · 

This is going to offend many people in Liberty…But ‪#‎sorrynotsorry‬
 
My friend Joe McKinney asked, “What’s one unpopular belief among your social circles that you have?” Most of the responses were about policies and gray areas in our ideology. However here is my response:
[I think matters less what ideas we entertain and more so how we conduct ourselves especially in pursuit of spreading those ideas. Principles matter most. I fear most of us would rather take the easy route and allow the ends to justify the means]

Here’s a few:I do not Stand with Rand, he is a hypocrite. And btw once he started caving into statist policies I deleted anything I ever posted in support of him.
I don’t like the way certain so-called “liberty organizations” exploit interns/volunteers and then toss them aside when they are done (I will not name them, but I will also never work with them)- what value is being created?

I think the Liberty movement is a facade to perpetuate the Neo-Con agenda- we are foolish to think that compromising our founding principles will allow us to further Liberty in the long run. [They are just using us as cogs in the machine.]

I think it is disgraceful how we treat women in the movement- I hate how we [women] stay silent and don’t support each other just “for the good of the movement.”

I don’t believe we should adopt leftist-statist tactics lest we become oppressors ourselves. Fuck Rules for Radicals and other methods of coercing, manipulating and transgressing against our fellow man.
***And finally….let me share with you the single MOST reprehensible thing I ever heard. [It was literally so disgusting, that although I will always be Libertarian it made me reconsider being part of this “Movement”]:
You know how there are people who are passionate and knowledgeable about Liberty, however they lack social graces? I believe we ‘endearingly’ call them “aspies”, “derpatarians”, “asperger kids.” Well I heard that when these wonderful, well intentioned and often highly intelligent people give up their time and resources to volunteer…the way we “deal” with them is to “stick them in the back and make them lick stamps.”

These things are not why I signed up to be a Liberty activist….I came here to stop bullies, not to support them or become one myself. I think we need to stop splitting hairs about pie-in-the-sky ideas and focus more on actually honoring our principles in practice.

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Libertarian women’s history: Kathleen Wikstrom

Kathleen Wikstrom (née Jacob) (September 1, 1957 – ) became a libertarian activist while a journalism student at Michigan State University, and moved to Washington, D.C., in the early 80s, to edit Libertarian Party News.

Kathleen was president of the libertarian-oriented bookstore, Laissez Faire Books, from 2005 to 2007, as a division of the Center for Libertarian Thought. For 12 years, she served as managing editor/designer/layout artist for the Laissez Faire Books Booklist & Review, before taking over full operation of LFB and relocated it to Little Rock, Arkansas, in early 2003. CLT ceased operation of Laissez Faire Books in November 2007, transferring it to the International Society of Individual Liberty.

Kathleen has also operated FreeStyle Publications, a desktop publishing and editing business, since 1982. She also served on the Libertarian Party Platform Committee several times.  She became inactive in the party from the early 1990s until recently, when she was a delegate to the 2014 Libertarian Party convention in Columbus, Ohio (pictured).

Kathleen has been involved with her brother, citizen-democracy activist Paul Jacob, in miscellaneous political activities for many years.

Kathleen is the mother of three grown children, whose father is her first husband, libertarian writer Sheldon Richman, whom she married in the early 1980s.  All of her children were homeschooled until college. While they were growing up, Kathleen was very active in the homeschooling community. She operated a children’s theater group for the homeschoolers for more than ten years, directing and producing more than 25 productions.

In 2008 Wikstrom was executive editor of Balletopedia, the website developed by the Lucy Burns Institute.  She is currently the operations manager for Stossel in the Classroom.