Richard Spencer is NOT An Ally to Libertarianism

I recently wrote a piece titled Libertarians Who Side With Leftists Are Tools For Their Marxist Agenda, in which I argued that siding with leftists where there is common ground only serves to further their agenda, and rarely a libertarian one. The same is unequivocally true of those who side with notorious alt-right agitator Richard Spencer.

Libertarianism can succinctly be defined as a philosophy which promotes self-ownership, non-aggression, property rights, and free market economics.




Spencer, on the other hand, is an avowed white nationalist who makes identity politics the backbone of his philosophy. Race and culture are the crux of his mantra, and he lambasts the defining principles of libertarianism as much as any staunch leftist does.

A quick scroll through Spencer’s Twitter feed will reveal his disdain for libertarianism and prove why libertarians who side with him are utter fools.

Last summer, Spencer expressed concern that Infowars was infiltrating libertarianism into the alt-right movement.

Once Spencer grew in prominence, he attacked Alex Jones and Paul Joseph Watson from InfoWars for being classical liberals.

White supremacist mainstream media darling Richard B. Spencer attacks Alex Jones & myself as “classical liberals”.

Damn right I am. pic.twitter.com/4SrZyUDOTF

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) November 22, 2016

He recently criticized Trump’s Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, for wanting to decentralize education, calling it “failed libertarian urban planning.”

After getting ejected from the hotel which sponsored the International Students for Liberty Conference a few weeks ago, Spencer took to Twitter to exclaim “Libertarianism wants all the freedoms I will never practice and preserves none of the freedoms I would die for.”

Students at the conference also reported that Spencer called John Locke one of the worst philosophers in history, and when asked if he believes an ethnostate can be created voluntarily, he answered “no.”

Spencer’s philosophy is diametrically opposed to libertarianism, and right-libertarians would be exceedingly foolish to side with him just because they’re against the left. Spencer has much more in common with the far left than he ever will with libertarians, and those who side with him only serve to further his own goals, and not ours.

Image: Tim Goessman/The New York Times/Redux