Why “Liberty Hangout” Sold Out
By Roman Garza
Originally published by Liberty Machine News under the title “Liberty Sellout”
For months Liberty Hangout (LH) has portrayed themselves as a right-wing libertarian platform that was favorable to the alt-right. They embraced Hoppean alt-right pundits and helicopter memes, while moving the overton window of the libertarian movement rightwards. They even had an implicitly pro-white editorial stance for a time, and pushed back against the anti-white propaganda put out by more mainstream outlets. I personally saw their platform as having a net benefit to the movement, which could help create an alliance between paleo-conservatives, the alt-right, Hoppean libertarians, and even some of those on the alt-light and center right.
The following is an account of how myself, Roman Garza, Chris Johncox (aka I, Ancap), and Tony Canzoneri, (both of whom are currently with The Revolutionary Conservative) were fundamentally betrayed by and unceremoniously removed from the supposedly conservative libertarian media outlet, Liberty Hangout, due to wrong think.
From Johncox’s and Tony’s account, some time around when Johncox had published his article, Top Ten Libertarians of 2017 for The Revolutionary Conservative, there had been an intellectual falling out with the Liberty Hangout editors and those at The Revolutionary Conservative. The reason for this seems to be the simple fact that they didn’t agree with or like those who were included in that list. The people on that list are intellectually honest and speak with integrity when tackling the hard and controversial issues facing Western Civilization today from a libertarian perspective. Last year, 2017, was the year when those included in the article took a stand and went forward with their radical agendas. Appearances be damned.
Chris Johncox had been negatively talked down to. He was being slowly, and increasingly ignored, his articles would not be published, his work would not be mirrored on Liberty Hangout. Johncox had done a short interview with Christopher Cantwell shortly after he turned himself into jail for defending himself at the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was a good faith interview to ask Cantwell some fair questions, some of which were submitted by the audience of Liberty Hangout.
Productions such as this were undoubtedly gaining some criticism and negative feedback. Nasty things were said of Johncox, but even though he was a fellow columnist for Liberty Hangout he was not defended by those he thought of as his friends. Going back to the “Top Ten Libertarians of 2017” article, by Canzoneri’s account, Johncox’s article was vetoed, they didn’t want to publish it, and they didn’t say anything good about it. Later, they made their own Top Ten list that was much more milquetoast and featured many of the old and tired celebritarians.
Tony Canzoneri submitted his resignation to Liberty Hangout shortly after, before the boot could come down on him, but his story is that Johncox and himself were being defamed by other so called “libertarians” and leftists for their various articles. All this time both him, Johncox, and The Revolutionary Conservative’s Top Ten Libertarians article still remained undefended by their allies at Liberty Hangout. Prior to this, Canzoneri attended the Unite The Right rally himself and documented his experience in an article.
He submitted the article, and after many major edits, Liberty Hangout had finally published it. After that experience, Canzoneri felt he was on shaky, awkward grounds with the LH editors. Canzoneri had to constantly take his work elsewhere because Liberty Hangout refused to publish it most of the time, giving him the run around.
The reason this is unsettling was because Liberty Hangout staff was seemingly favorable to our opinions. They also appeared to have the same outlook as this group of alt-right, Hoppean characters. Everyone, as far as I was aware, were professional and somewhat personal friends. What really brought the whole house down was the recent controversy with Christopher Chase Rachel’s new book White, Right, and Libertarian. There again, was another split for those who would not betray their friends or deny reality for fear of being called names. The faculty at the Mises Institute acted underhandedly, and in bad faith, mainly to keep positive optics to their donor base and to not be called ‘racist’ by leftists.
In this recent drama, there were splits amongst people who were originally perceived as agreeable friends. The Liberty Hangout staff had taken the side of the Mises Institute. It is reasonable to recognize that Liberty Hangout wants to remain non-controversial and favorable to its big name readers and to the Mises Institute itself, which they seem to have prioritized over remaining truthful to their audience and loyal to their friends and political allies (not to mention, the truth!). They had suddenly turned on their former allies, the alt-right leaning libertarians, becoming antagonistic to those who did not agree with them which led to arguments, tension, and eventually terminations, which in turn lead to this very article.
I was witness to this tear and decided I did not want to be associated with Liberty Hangout any longer, and I disengaged from the insider discussion groups. I believe that eventually this was noticed by the Liberty Hangout staff which lead them to dig up an excuse to fire me. Which is lame, but fair as I essentially quit, although not officially. What transformed them? What made the LH editors take a complete 180 on positions they originally held? Why did they begin to condemn the alt-right in just as blanketed of a manner as any other basic bitch libertarian would?
All of this culminated to me being called a Nazi and unceremoniously fired. I had posted in an invite only group that I believed the historical cause of Nazism was somewhat understandable given the circumstances. The Nazi’s, like all fascist regimes, rose as a counter movement to the revolutionary and communist Left. We’re talking order of preference here. Think what you like about Adolf Hitler, but anyone can see that the economic conditions were undeniably better in Nazi Germany than in any communist regime. Regardless of how bad the Nazi’s were, their crimes pale in comparison to the communist regimes of the 20th century. Agree or not, that’s simply my opinion, and once it’s looked into, it’s a fair opinion. I also said that in the same comment, explicitly.
You do not need to be a National Socialist to understand the Jewish question and take into account revisionist history of World War 2. This comment was screenshot and sent to me via TJ Roberts, a Liberty Hangout editor, who then stated that I was fired for violating a policy of advocating for socialism, but I think more plainly it was me saying “sympathize” and “Nazi” in the same sentence. However, I in no way advocated socialism of any kind.
I believe I was fired because of my affiliation with friends that the Liberty Hangout admins had burned bridges with. Not necessarily for my comment, of course I’m not sympathetic to what they define as socialism, but there was no inquisition to argue. I was just wiped.
Now Liberty Hangout will follow and tow the same line as Tom Woods and other no longer controversial libertarians. They broke to pressure, perhaps corrupted by a desire for status and more money, perhaps fearing possible negative repercussions of a continued association with the alt-right. Whatever their motivations were, it trumped their desire to frankly discuss the issues facing Western Civilization today in an open and honest manner. While I still think highly of the values they hold, as they’re certainly not Marxist/feminists, they definitely aren’t trustworthy allies.
Justin Moldow, Liberty Hangout, Liberty Sellout, Tj Roberts
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