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The most dangerous thing you can do on the Internet is to send your banking information to a mysterious Nigerian prince. The second most dangerous thing you can do is to write even the most tepid criticism of libertarians. I recently wrote piece about my trip to Hondurasand how conditions in that country reminded me of a Libertarian Utopia. I was inspired not only by the trip but also from reading many articles that have outlined a failing libertarian experimentin that country, hereand here,for instance. I focused on just this one small factor when, of course, I also realize that the problems of Central America are historical, entrenched and, above all, complicated. From the reaction online you would have thought I personally kicked Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek square in his wrinkled, decomposed sack.

Reaction was swift and personal, including widely circulated factoids that Im both fat and bald (guilty on both counts). Some called for my utter, personal ruin. Fair enough. But there were comments that went too far, such as those that addressed my parenting skills or that examined my decade-old divorce. I was unprepared for the fire hose of rage and invective. In fact, its hard to overstate just how furiousand proud of itthis segment of America seems. I could provide links, but Id rather not send them traffic. If you are compelled to see for yourself, feel free to take a refreshing dip into the libertarian cesspool, but try not to get any in your mouth.

Im tempted to avoid this group altogether, but I think it would be chicken shit of me to back away because of some name-calling and an epic temper tantrum. Every badly written blog and hysterical, spittle-flecked Internet video only further proves the point that these people have serious problems.

I often write about libertarianism from my own personal journey through it. The biggest criticism Ive heard while writing various pieces is that I was never really a libertarian. I was a Ron Paul delegate in Nevada and wrote about it for the Reno Gazette Journal (see above), and I supported other libertarian candidates and policies for years. The overuse of the no true Scotsman fallacy raises the question of what level of commitment is required to be considered a libertarian. Must I be branded or tattooed? Does it require ritualistic testicular shaving (nod to Dr. Evil)? Libertarians demand a level of unexamined commitment unmatched by any institution except perhaps church, which makes sense because the movement is less about what is good for society and is more a series of articles in an indefensible faith.

Although not all libertarians hate, a sizable number make the movement look both angry and unstable. They rage against the smallest loss of unearned privilege in society, while screaming about a meritocracy. Those who get ahead in our country do so more often from connections, family money and privilege than from any innate goodness or intelligence, and libertarians gloss over all questions of class, race and privilege in the hope of a return to a pure market ideal that has never existed. The history of America is an unending fight between untamed market forces and human beings, and when the free market gets out of hand, real people suffer, as so many did in the Great Recession of 2008.

I know that I do things that piss off libertarians, because I would have been infuriated by my own observations just a few short years ago. Most of all, I employ the shorthand of using conservative, libertarian and Tea Party interchangeably. Some libertarians think this is unfair to pure libertarians, but in reality the lines between these groups have grown fuzzy to nonexistent. They battle for the same insane voting bloc and bad ideas. Despite the constant demand for purity, individual libertarians hold divergent and even contradictory opinions in every imaginable topic. This leads to the troubling trend of otherwise decent libertarians giving intellectual cover for some of the most awful, mean-spirited ideas on the right.

Libertarians argue for eliminating Social Security right in the party platform, for instance, and this idea has been hijacked by far more aggrieved and intellect-free groups like the Tea Party. The only benefit I see to this unholy alliance is that there might be entertainment value in the war between social conservatives and libertarians over control of the Republican Party. The debate itself squeezes libertarians into an ever-shrinking, rage-filled, political ghetto.

I have often remarked that libertarians get a few things right, such as social issues. Yet this cross-pollination with other parts of the right has hurt their credibility, forcing them into cowardice or capitulation on some issues. My favorite example is gay marriage. Instead of supporting freedom to marry many offer this gem: the government should not be in the marriage business at all! This is not the party line for some libertarians, but Ive heard it firsthand from too many. Aside from showing deep cowardice, it lets conservative-minded libertarians have their cake and eat it too.

I used to enjoy libertarian books and lively discussions. As time passed, I noticed the philosophy and resulting policy suggestions were miles away from the reality that I lived every day. Along with conspiracy theories and an increasing disconnect with reality, I saw growth of unreasonable rage. Purity is bad enough, but when you add levels of impotent, unquenchable rage, you create toxicity that has become the libertarian brand.

It was inevitable. Rage defines all right-leaning movements in the Obama era. The existence of this hate, vitriol and disgust is beyond dispute. You see it on Fox News, in talk radio and permeating the internet. When they lose, theyre angry and even when they win theyre still pretty pissed off. Some random liberal writes a little article for Salon and libertarians release a torrent of hate articles, personal attacks, and rage filled podcasts. What a burden it must be to walk around so furious all the time. Its almost a shame, because diversity of ideas in a democracy is a good thing, but when they are poisoned with hate, they cant be taken seriously.

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My personal Libertarian hell: How I enraged the movement and paid the price

In this March 15, 2015 photo, demonstrators take part in a protest march demanding the impeachment of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, over an alleged scheme of corruption that siphoned money from the state-owned oil company Petrobras, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The March 15 demonstration was the largest Sao Paulo had seen in more than three decades, since 1984 protests demanding democratic elections after a long dictatorship. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)(The Associated Press)

In this March 18, 2015 photo, anti-government protest leader Kim Kataguiri poses for a picture in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The grandson of Japanese immigrants, Kataguiri is a social media star whose quirky videos skewer Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff and the ruling partys social welfare policies. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)(The Associated Press)

In this March 15, 2015 photo, demonstrators take part in a protest march demanding the impeachment of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, over an alleged scheme of corruption that siphoned money from the state-owned oil company Petrobras, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The March 15 demonstration was led by Kim Kataguiri, a 19-year-old college dropout, and other young Brazilian activists inspired by libertarianism and conservative free-market ideals. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)(The Associated Press)

SAO PAULO Microphone in hand and standing atop the sound truck, the raspy-voiced protest leader jabbed his finger into the air shouting for the ouster of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, igniting wild cheers from the crowd below him.

"What Lula and Dilma have done shouldn't just result in their being banned from politics. It should result in them being in jail!" Kim Kataguiri yelled, denouncing Rousseff and her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The March 15 demonstration was the largest Sao Paulo had seen in more than three decades, since 1984 protests demanding democratic elections after a long dictatorship.

But more surprising than the crowd of over 200,000, according to the Datafolha polling and statistics agency, was the fact it was being led by Kataguiri, a skinny, 19-year-old college dropout, and other young Brazilian activists inspired by libertarianism and conservative free-market ideals.

The grandson of Japanese immigrants, Kataguiri is a social media star whose quirky videos skewer Rousseff and the ruling party's social welfare policies. His ascent as a protest figure has been rapid. Two years ago, when protests erupted across Brazil over corruption and poor public services, Kataguiri was a high schooler who avoided the unrest.

Today, he is the public face of the Free Brazil Movement, a growing force that is more focused than the 2013 unrest that expressed a wide range of middle-class anger. Brazil's new wave of protests are seen as a right-leaning movement clearly channeled against Rousseff and her Workers' Party.

A widening kickback scandal at Petrobras, the state oil company, is one of several complaints undermining the administration. Kataguiri and others are striking a chord with Brazilians fed up with soaring inflation, a high and growing tax burden, and those who blame government intervention for hobbling Brazil's economy, which grew just 0.1 percent last year and is expected to shrink in 2015.

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Teen libertarian is parlaying YouTube videos into role as face of Brazil's anti-left protests

The Canadian Libertarian #39;s first ever video and introduction.
This is my very first video for the Next Gen News and Views YouTube Channel. I go by the username Canadian Libertarian. I plan on making relevant videos on a regular basis to cover all aspects...

By: NextGen NewsAndViews

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The Canadian Libertarian's first ever video and introduction. - Video

Twenty years ago, the conditions facing the technology industry were not unlike those today. A burgeoning consumer market, declining manufacturing costs and easy access to venture capital had begun to inflate the dot-com bubble. Cryptographers were at war with the government over whether encryption tools should have back doors for law enforcement. And a new generation of Internet activists both feared and welcomed the impact of pending government regulation; in this case, the period equivalent of net neutrality was the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Even as Silicon Valley began to capture the countrys imagination, the tech elite were souring on their government. They accommodated it where they thought they needed to telecom firms, for instance, enabled surveillance by acquiescing to records requests from the intelligence agencies and they received tokens such as start-up tax breaks and STEM investments in return. But eventually the predominant attitude was alienation: The Internet was theirs, not Big Brothers. That feeling only deepened over the past two decades and, thanks to the revelations of Edward Snowden, tech executives now feel emboldened to challenge government surveillance with lawyers and encryption. Meanwhile, they routinely compare their corporations to city-states or call for the secession of the San Francisco Bay Area.

To understand where this cyber-libertarian ideology came from, you have to understand the influence of A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, one of the strangest artifacts of the 90s, and its singular author, John Perry Barlow. Perhaps more than any other, its his philosophy which melded countercultural utopianism, a ranchers skepticism toward government and a futurists faith in the virtual world that shaped the industry.

The problem is, weve reaped what he sowed.

Generally the province of fascists, artists or fascist artists, manifestos are a dying form. It takes gall to have published one anytime after, say, 1938. But A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace was an utterly serious document for a deliriously optimistic era that Wired, on one of its many valedictory covers, promised was a long boom: 25 years of prosperity, freedom, and a better environment for the whole world. Techno-skeptics need not apply.

Barlows 846-word text, published online in February 1996, begins with a bold rebuke of traditional sovereign powers: Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather. He then explains how cyberspace is a place of ultimate freedom, where conventional laws dont apply. At the end, he exhorts the Internet to be more humane and fair than the world your governments have made before.

The declaration struck a chord. It wasnt the first viral document, but it was one of the periods most pervasive and influential, appearing on thousands of websites within months of its publication. Barlows ideas were invoked, practically as a form of ritual, by many of the industrys influential thinkers Web guru Jeff Jarvis, Wired founder Kevin Kelly, virtual-reality inventor Jaron Lanier. It led to the authors writing (whether journalistic dispatches for Wired or essays outlining his political vision) becoming widely anthologized; The Libertarian Reader, published last month by Simon & Schuster, includes a Barlow thought experiment on the future of government.

More than that, the language and sensibility suffused Silicon Valley thinking. When Eric Schmidt describes the Internet, however misguidedly, as the worlds largest ungoverned space in his book The New Digital Age, he is borrowing Barlows rhetoric. When tech mogul Peter Thiel writes, in The Education of a Libertarian, that he founded PayPal to create a currency free from government control and that by starting a new Internet business, an entrepreneur may create a new world, its impossible not to hear Barlovian echoes.

All this was an unlikely achievement for a man who personified what the British theorists Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron called the Californian Ideology. Barlow wrote songs for the Grateful Dead, tended to his parents Wyoming ranch in the waning days of family farms and eventually helped co-found the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy organization.

To Barbrook and Cameron, the Californian Ideology reflected a new faith emerging from a bizarre fusion of the cultural bohemianism of San Francisco with the hi-tech industries of Silicon Valley. It mixed the free-wheeling spirit of the hippies and the entrepreneurial zeal of the yuppies and drew on the states history of countercultural rebellion, its role as a crucible of the New Left, the global-village prophecies of media theorist Marshall McLuhan and a profound faith in the emancipatory potential of the new information technologies. Adherents of the California Ideology many of them survivors of the Me decade, weaned on sci-fi novels, self-help and New Age spiritualism forsook the civil actions of an earlier generation. They thought freedom would be found not in the streets but in an electronic agora, an open digital marketplace where individuality would be allowed its fullest expression, away from the encumbrances of government and even of the physical world.

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Column: Libertarian Roots and Ideals of the Internet Have Come to Naught

Gary Johnson on Libertarian Strategy
Gary Johnson on Libertarian Strategy. I am an original free stater working with Jason Sorens more than 10 years ago to create a liberty strategy known as the free state project. Here I tell...

By: Jan Helfeld

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Gary Johnson on Libertarian Strategy - Video