Kibbe On Liberty

Matt Kibbe sits down with Carol Roth, author of “The War on Small Business,” to discuss the many ways in which government policy favors huge corporations and makes life hard for the independent business owner. For all the talk about small business being the backbone of the American economy, it would be hard to design a set of policies more hostile to small businesses. Considering everything from COVID lockdowns, to Wall Street bailouts, to Obamacare, to the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve, it’s clear that the rich and powerful have a seat at the table that is denied to the rest of us, and that translates into a playing field that is anything but level. The War on Small Business: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0063081415

Matt Kibbe is joined by Stanford University epidemiologists Jay Bhattacharya and John Ioannidis to discuss the interaction between science and health policy. The COVID-19 response was one-sided and dictated from the top down, which not only led to many disastrous policies, but also undermined the public trust in science and medicine as institutions. In the future, what is needed is a more humble approach to policymaking that admits its own ignorance and allows the public more opportunities to participate in the decision-making process.

Matt Kibbe talks with Gene Epstein, director of the Soho Forum, about the economy, inflation, and whether or not the United States is set to experience a severe recession. Kibbe argues that between lockdowns, rampant spending, and an unwillingness of the Biden administration to take its foot off the gas, we could be in the midst of a perfect storm for economic downturn. Epstein, on the other hand, thinks that the economy is more resilient than that — based on the rapid recovery we saw after lockdowns were lifted. While we can certainly expect some degree of economic hardship in the near future, how severe it will be is still very much an open question.

Matt Kibbe sits down with Jenin Younes, litigation counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance, to discuss the lawsuit filed by two attorneys general against the federal government over online censorship. There is a mounting body of evidence that the Biden administration pressured social media companies into removing certain content, and the suit alleges that this is a clear violation of the First Amendment. If major platforms like Twitter and Facebook are acting as an arm of the federal government under threat of punishment if they disobey, the basic principle of freedom of speech and of the press is severely compromised, replaced by a regime of aggressive censorship and propaganda.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Lou Perez, comedian and author of “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore,” to talk about the future of comedy in a world where taking offense has risen to the level of a competitive sport. As comedians abandon college campuses and risk having their social media presence destroyed by saying something controversial, comedy has become the vanguard for free expression and the war against censorship. Without jesters to poke fun at the powerful and cloak important truths in humor, society becomes a stagnant, humorless morass that tends ever closer towards authoritarianism. That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637582455

Matt Kibbe sits down with Heather Wilson and Jacob Wells, co-founders of GiveSendGo, a crowdfunding website that doesn’t discriminate based on differences in ideology. After several high-profile cases where crowdfunders have blocked campaigns for the Canadian truckers or businesses refusing to comply with vaccine mandates, people are looking for an alternative solution to support companies that are willing to stand up for their values. As cancel culture and deplatforming are interfering even with people’s ability to make charitable contributions to support freedom, competition and entrepreneurship are more important than ever in providing an escape from the woke mob.

Matt Kibbe sits down with economist David Friedman, one of the original advocates for a stateless society, where all services are provided by markets rather than government. He called this system anarcho-capitalism, and in the nearly fifty years since the publication of his seminal book “The Machinery of Freedom,” his ideas have become extremely influential among the libertarian movement. Friedman discusses his philosophy of a free society and the ways in which he tries to persuade skeptics that his system would be preferable to the one we have now, or to similarly revolutionary proposals by socialists.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Kyle Mann, editor in chief of the Babylon Bee, to talk about the ways in which laughter can cut through the constant anxiety that news outlets and political partisans demand we feel at all times. The evidence that this works comes from the overt hostility displayed to the Babylon Bee’s innocent satire by fact-checkers and social media platforms. The mere act of bringing people together through humor has become a threat to the endless divisions that keep us fighting among ourselves.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor of health policy at Stanford University, to talk about the continued hesitancy of the mainstream media and government scientists to acknowledge the immense harm caused by COVID lockdowns. As one of the authors of the “Great Barrington Declaration,” Dr. Bhattacharya has been subjected to a relentless smear campaign designed to discredit him, yet the evidence is clear to anyone willing to look: Not only did lockdowns throw millions into poverty, but they were made possible by the extremely dangerous gain-of-function research that allowed the virus to spread in the first place. The hostility toward lockdown skeptics is largely an attempt by those responsible for COVID to cover their tracks and shift the blame to others.

Matt Kibbe sits down with three members of the New Hampshire Libertarian Party to talk about the Free State Project and the pro-liberty trend in New Hampshire politics. As members of the Mises Caucus, which recently took over the Party's leadership, they are adamantly opposed to lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and other authoritarian responses to the pandemic. They attribute their success not only to the power of their message, but to the strong community bonds that characterize the libertarian movement in New Hampshire.

Matt Kibbe sits down with Jordan and Daniel Harmon, co-founders of Angel Studios, to talk about their new model for financing and distributing movies and television shows. The Hollywood machine has become so expensive and so difficult to break into that it has become all but impossible for independent filmmakers to find an outlet for their creativity. The problem is compounded when you want to make films with different values from those of the studio elites. Angel Studios is solving this problem through crowdfunding and has already demonstrated success with its popular shows “The Chosen” and “The Tuttle Twins,” based on the successful book series.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Adam Andrzejewski, CEO of Openthebooks.com, to discuss the complex web of payola that exists between major pharmaceutical companies and scientists at the NIH. Many of these government bureaucrats, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, receive royalty payments for products they work on. Now that they are in a position to regulate, and even mandate, the use of certain treatments, this creates a major conflict of interest. We can’t trust those in the government to pick winners and losers in the marketplace when doing so allows them to enrich themselves at the expense of the American taxpayer and even at the cost of public health.

Matt Kibbe sits down with Clint Russell, host of “Liberty Lockdown,” to talk about how the lockdown policies of the last two years have created the infrastructure to implement a nightmarish regime of social control to rival China’s social credit system. Under the guise of promoting environmental protection, social justice, and good governance, those who control the nation’s financial systems will be able to aggressively police individual behavior. Anyone who doesn’t behave “correctly” will find their access to society cut off, including the loss of their bank accounts. And the scariest thing is that it’s not just the government implementing these policies, but nominally private businesses acting on the government’s behalf.

Matt Kibbe sits down with Magno Karl, executive director of Livres, to discuss the recent political changes in Brazil, the country's liberty movement, and the prospects for a freer, more open Brazil in the near future. Karl explains the difference between Brazil's multi-party system and America's two-party one, warns against the dangers of electing a populist strongman, and urges libertarians from all countries to stop bickering with each other in order to more effectively unite in creating a better world free of power-hungry dictators.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Rachel Ferguson and Marcus Witcher, authors of “Black Liberation Through the Marketplace,” to discuss the ways in which free markets and free people have done more for racial justice and equality than any top-down government program. While acknowledging that minorities still face real problems with structural racism in the United States, Ferguson and Witcher point out that in most cases these structures are imposed by the government rather than eliminated by them, and the largest reductions in racist policies have come during periods of deregulation. While the social justice crowds tend to demand more and more intervention by the state, they ignore the fact that slavery, segregation, eugenics, and all of the other racially motivated programs were products of a large central government, not of ordinary people. Black Liberation Through the Marketplace: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637583443

Matt Kibbe sits down with Leopold Ajami, founder of Novel Philosophy Academy, to talk about the philosophy of Ayn Rand and how it can be applied to improve people’s lives in a tangible way. Rand gets a bad rap for her defense of terms like “selfishness,” but in essence her philosophy is all about self-respect and the pursuit of happiness. In an era when young people are surrounded by prosperity and yet feel miserable and oppressed, Rand’s ideas can perhaps provide an antidote to the pessimism and fatalism that are dominating the culture experienced by America’s youth.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Jesse Ramos, community engagement director for AFP-Montana, to talk about the ways in which individuals can make a difference in local politics. So often, our conversations revolve around national institutions like the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court, but it’s really at the local level where we can best hope to effect real change. Issues like education, property taxes, and the lockdown policies implemented by local health departments can have a dramatic impact on people’s lives, but we can improve those outcomes simply by showing up to city council meetings and getting involved.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Republican congressional candidate Lily Tang Williams to talk about her experiences growing up under Chinese communism and the ways in which the United States is starting to be influenced by the same kinds of authoritarian policies. Mao Zedong’s socialist experiment resulted in 45 million deaths, but young people today have barely even heard of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The lockdown policy during the coronavirus pandemic originated in China, and now the American government is openly pondering a system of vaccine passports that looks a lot like the Chinese social credit system. This is a totalitarian policy that gives the government total control over the degree to which citizens are allowed to participate in their own society.

Matt Kibbe sits down with conservatarian journalist and commentator Olivia Rondeau to talk about the Biden administration’s obsession with fighting alleged disinformation. While lies and propaganda have always been part of public discourse, the sudden focus on policing speech might have more to do with plummeting poll numbers, skyrocketing inflation, the devastation of COVID lockdown policies, shortages, unemployment, and all the other consequences of a backward policy agenda that has left voters high and dry. As a young black conservative woman, Rondeau is in a position to see through all the nonsense of identity politics and game playing leading up to the midterm elections.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to discuss the causes and solutions to the current shortage of baby formula in the United States. It’s mainly the result of an absurd regulatory regime that hinders competition and prevents producers and distributors from meeting the needs of consumers. But rather than dismantling or scaling back those regulations, the administration is engaging in cheap political stunts — including the use of military planes to air drop baby formula from Europe into swing states. The whole incident is a perfect illustration of the inability of a central government to effectively distribute goods in the same way that a free market is capable of doing. The senator also discusses his new book, “Saving Nine,” about the Democratic effort to pack the Supreme Court.