Mediaboss Marketing

With the recent release of BackWordz debut album and its success, it dawned on me that a part of libertarianism that was missing is just now beginning to bud into something. That something is taking our ideas and putting them into pop culture.

The ideals of libertarians have been stuck for decades in the academic realm because of the influences of economists, philosophers and historians. While this is great for defending those ideas with other intellectuals, it makes the literature and discourse explaining them and very dry and less accessible.

Frankly, its hard work to learn about free markets, non-aggression, and individualism because these are not widely expressed in popular media. This doesnt mean principle must be sacrificed to spread the ideology, but it might be time for libertarians to leave the lecture hall in favor of the concert venue or movie theater.

What makes the ideologies of the major parties (and even the more left leaning third parties) so rampant, is that their views have had their own music, movies and other pop culture influences for even longer. The 1960s saw the rise of music protesting the government and preaching the need for Civil Rights.

Country Joe Mcdonald wrote I-Feel-Like-Im-Fixin-To-Die-Rag and Creedence Clearwater Revival released Fortunate Son in 1969, both in protest of the Vietnam War.

Art was more geared towards drug use and sexual experimentation. An article from History Now describes the culture as youth counterculture, it carved out new spaces for experimentation and alternative views about what constituted a good society. While a new left, made up of civil rights and anti-war activists, developed as the war in Vietnam dragged out and became increasingly bloody, confounding, and ultimately unpopular.

Patriotic songs like Ballad of the Green Berets by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler and Merle Haggards Okie from Muskogee also did well as songs supporting the war. Vietnam was the first time that the nations music clearly reflected a division of political views in the country. The tradition of political music has expanded and continued since this era.

The lovers of liberty who would eventually become the Libertarian Party were just beginning to form in response to the war and the Nixon administrations lifting of the gold standard, so supporters of the major parties had way more time than the would-be libertarians to focus on music and art to express their views.

Today, the major parties also have more high profile celebrities, from Leonardo DiCaprio giving a speech on the environment while accepting his Oscar, to Arnold Schwarzenegger becoming Governor of California. Thebiggest libertarian celebrities, outside of economists and philosophers, include Drew Carey, Vince Vaughn and Clint Eastwood, who are not necessarily current A-listers.

Conservatives and liberals also have popular TV shows that support their narratives. Duck Dynasty, and 19 Kids and Counting come to mind when one thinks of conservative shows, while the left has shows like Dear White People, and Modern Family. The closest thing to a libertarian TV show is the greatness (personal opinion) of Ron Swanson in Parks & Recreation.

Libertarianism is just beginning to make its own pop culture and its spearheaded by music groups like BackWordz, and Freenauts, as well as websites like Anarchyball.

Clothing that contains messages of individual and economic freedom are becoming easier to acquire thanks to sites like Libertarian Country, and Threads of Liberty, and sites like Etsy and Zazzle that allow independent producers to sell their products.

This is just the beginning.

In the future, there could be libertarian music festivals, film festivals, art galleries and clothing outlets. What I hope to see is libertarian ideas to begin seeping into more and more pop culture until the values of individualism and non-aggression have become mainstream and more easily able to be adopted.

Like Loading...

Excerpt from:
Pop Culture is the Next Step for Libertarians - Being Libertarian

A 'popular libertarian' might ... feel all that needs to be done to bring the world to justice is to institute the minimal state now, starting as it were from present holdings. On this view, then, libertarianism starts tomorrow, and we take the present possession of property for granted. There is, of course, something very problematic about this attitude. Part of the libertarian position involves treating property rights as natural rights, as so as being as important as anything can be. On the libertarian view, the fact that an injustice is old, and, perhaps, difficult to prove, does not make it any less of an injustice. ... We should try to work out what would have happened had the injustice not taken place. If the present state of affairs does not correspond to this hypothetical description, then it should be made to correspond. ~ Jonathan Wolff

Libertarianism is a political philosophy which advocates the maximization of individual liberty in thought and action and the minimization or even elimination of the powers of the state. Though libertarians embrace or dispute many viewpoints upon a broad range of economic strategies, ranging from laissez-faire capitalists such as those who dominate in the US Libertarian Party to libertarian socialists, the political policies they advocate tend toward those of a minimal state (minarchism), or forms of anarchism, and an insistence on the need to maintain the integrity of individual rights and responsibilities.

See the rest here:
Libertarianism - Wikiquote

Zoo owner Joe Exotic is one of the Libertarian Party candidates for governor in 2018. He spoke Thursday at the Oklahoma Capitol.[Photo by Dale Denwalt, The Oklahoman]

Joe Exotic, the animal handler who owns a zoo and dipped his toe briefly into politics to run for president last year, is one of two announced Libertarian candidates for Oklahoma governor.

Exotic, whose name is Joseph Maldonado, joined other Libertarian Party candidates at the Oklahoma Capitol on Thursday.

Also running for governor is Rex Lawhorn, a small business management consultant from Tulsa. If they both file for office, they'll face each other in the 2018 primary election.

Maldonado, who owns Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, said he went on food stamps before running for governor to show how broken the system is. At one point, he held up the card.

To show you how desperately it needs overhauled, I ride around in a limousine and I choose not to get paid, while the state of Oklahoma gives me a SNAP card, he said, referencing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The program is funded by the federal government but administered by the states.

He criticized other state politicians, saying that lawmakers at the state Capitol don't have a clue.

I have some of the most amazing plans to overhaul some of these programs, he said. If we're going to keep up with the rest of America, we have to legalize marijuana. Even though I don't smoke it.

Maldonado also referenced the Oklahoma Highway Patrol's practice of parking in construction zones to slow traffic, saying he could save the state millions by, among other things, hiring a private security firm to sit in their cars with emergency lights on.

Lawhorn said the state's budget situation should have been fixed two years ago.

The example is in this building right now of why you need us, he said of the Libertarian Party.

He said when he walked into the Capitol, he looked up. On the inner ring of the Capitol dome are names of individuals, families and companies that helped pay for the dome's construction.

That disgusts me. That horrifies me that our government has corporate sponsorship, he said. That is the exact reason you cannot vote for a Republican. You cannot support the Democratic Party. They're the reason we got into this situation.

Excerpt from:
Libertarian candidates visit Oklahoma Capitol | News OK - NewsOK.com

Being Libertarian

Jake Dorsch Being Libertarian Jake Dorsch is a libertarian activist, bank teller, investor and aspiring future economist from Green Bay, Wisconsin that is pursuing a bachelor's degree in both political science and quantitative economics at Drake University. He is currently on track ...

Follow this link:
Jake Dorsch - Being Libertarian

Despite being cited for misdemeanor assault on a reporter yesterday (which leaves him open to a possible six months in jail), Republican Greg Gianforte won handily in Montana's special House election today over Democrat Rob Quist.

As of posting time, Gianforte has a 50-44 lead.

Mark Wicks Facebook

As FiveThirtyEight pointed out, despite this apparent huge win for the Republicans, in comparison with the weighted average win for the GOP in the last two presidential elections which would lead one to predict a 21 percent win, and with former Rep. Ryan Zinke's last victory of 16 percent, this 6 percent win isn't the best news Republicans could hope for looking forward to 2018 and first national election in the age of Trump.

Gianforte also has a $5 million lead in outside spending against Quist. The 53 percent turnout today was very close to this decade's general pattern for non-presidential elections for Montana.

Libertarian Mark Wicks, a rancher, came in with 6 percent, his raw vote total (21,332 as of time of posting) nearly beating the spread between them.

Since the Republican won, Wicks will likely not be accused of "spoiling" the race for the loser. Wicks' total, says Libertarian National Committee chair Nicholas Sarwark via email tonight, means "that there's a solid block of Libertarian voters who control the balance of power in elections."

Wicks beat the result for the L.P.'s 2016 presidential candidate Gary Johnson in the state in percentage terms (though not in raw votes, given smaller turnout). Wicks spent less than a dollar per vote, Sarwark says. (Wicks' campaign got a rare $5,000 donation from the LNC.)

In the last three Montana House elections, no Libertarian got more than 4.2 percent. In 2012, Libertarian Dan Cox in Montana's federal Senate race got over 6 percent, far wider than the spread between winning Democrat Jon Tester and losing Republican Danny Rehberg.

Wicks had the rare distinction for an L.P. candidate of appearing in a televised debate with his major party opponents.

In it, he seemed to be trying to appeal more as a change agent for those dissatisfied with major party sclerosis in general rather than a hardcore freedom guy, though he tipped his hat to the Constitution. He was solid on gun rights, but made sure the viewer knew that though he supported marijuana legalization he did not feel the same about harder drugs.

He said he believed in a border wall in certain places, and spoke out twice against sanctuary cities and expressed a fear that unmanaged immigration could lead to another 9/11. His solution for medical drug price inflation was suggesting a law forbidding American drug makers from selling their drugs overseas for any less than they sold them here (rather than, say, allowing Americans to buy them at cheaper overseas prices and import them).

As the Libertarian he was of course asked if a vote for him was "wasted." Wicks replied that "we've been doing the same thing over and over and getting the same results," that "the people in Washington are not doing what they are supposed to" and are "beholden to special interests and taking lobbyist money and not doing what's best for Montana" while criticizing the media for ignoring him.

He called on Montana's historical distinction as the first state to send a woman, Jeanette Rankin, as a representative to Washington in 1916 and asked them to do the same for the first Libertarian.

That didn't happen. But Wicks said on his Facebook page this evening, "Next go around we'll be ready to go further."

Read the rest here:
Republican Gianforte Wins Montana House Race Despite Assault Charge; Libertarian Mark Wicks Pulls 6 Percent - Reason (blog)