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...Before the word got co-opted by free market propagandists:

"Remember that the United States is out of the world on this type of thing. Britain is to a limited extent, but the United States is on Mars. So here, the term 'libertarian' means the opposite of what it always meant in history. 'Libertarian' throughout European history meant 'socialist-anarchist.' The worker's movement--the socialist movement--sort of broke into 2 branches, one statist, one anti-statist. The statist branch led to Bolshevism and Lenin and Trotsky and so on; the anti-statist branch, which included left-Marxists like Rosa Luxumberg, kind of merged with a big strain of anarchism into what was called 'libertarian socialism.' So 'libertarian' in Europe always meant 'socialist.' Here, it means ultra-Ayn Rand or Cato Institute or something like that. But that's a special US usage having to do with the--there are a lot of things special here."

Clip is taken from "Conversations with History: Noam Chomsky"

On this edition of Conversations with History, UC Berkeley's Harry Kreisler is joined by linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky to discuss activism, anarchism and the role the United States plays in the world today. Series: "Conversations with History" [6/2002] [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 6568]

Series: "Conversations with History" [6/2002] [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 6568]

Originally posted here:
Noam Chomsky on the original meaning of "libertarian ...