Ep. 327 No, Jacob Hornberger Does Not Belong In an Insane Asylum
Bob reacts to a recent exchange between Michael Malice and Angela McArdle, in which they described Jacob Hornberger as insane for his views on the Covid lockdowns and school vouchers.
Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:
- “Your Welcome” ep. 314 with Angela McArdle.
- The LP debate in Georgia. Clint Russell asks his question starting around 1h35m mark.
- Murray Rothbard in For a New Liberty giving tepid support for school vouchers, and ripping them (p. 51) from a 1971 article. Ron Paul’s ambivalent stance (quoted in the 11th bullet point).
- BMS ep. 248 with Jacob Hornberger opposing school vouchers.
- Help support the Bob Murphy Show.
About the author, Robert
Christian and economist, Chief Economist at infineo, and Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute.
thank you for standing on integrity here
Did you forget to post 2024-06-14-Tackling_Robert_Reichs_First_Two_Economic_Myths_.mp3
Here is covid in a nutshell: globalist conspiracy stuff like Event 201 / vaccine passport agendas, big pharma making billions from a mandated vaccine that doesnt work and has harmed people (which they lied about and covered up), millions of Americans who were fear mongered by corporate media to cheer for the unvaccinated to die, government illegally funding dangerous bioweapons (and lying about it), FBI/deep state collusion with big tech to violate the first amendment and silence/ban world renowned doctors and researchers who dissented from the approved narrative, banning people from attending church, etc etc and etc.
The McArdle camp correctly recognizes that all of these facts and stories surrounding covid are an absolute goldmine to educate / persuade people towards liberty and decentralized/limited government.
Hornberger, on the other hand, is an old dog who refuses to learn new tricks. He sticks to the same liberty arguments he was making 30 years ago, despite the fact that the world and common knowledge (about globalist conspiracies, the WEF, media corruption, deep state corruption, etc) has changed dramatically.
It is so blatantly obvious that the facts and stories surrounding covid are a goldmine for educating / persuading people towards liberty that I think it’s reasonable to call Hornberger insane. If I wanted to be a little more careful with language, I would say he is an intransigent case of an old dog that refuses to learn new tricks.
The counter argument is that the seperation of medicine and state is a position that doesn’t require you to prove a conspiracy to people who who can’t imagine malice.
As far as Malice goes’ let’s stop paying attention that little ‘libertarian’ torpedo. No good fruit comes from a bad tree.
When did Rechtenwald advocate lockdowns? To me it looks like a false accusation from the spawn of the false accuser.
It’s not a telephone game. It’s deceit.
💯
I think you’re missing some context on Hornberger. Angela referred to years of Hornberger’s conduct, especially towards her, since Covid, and I know he was often embarrassing himself on social media during that time.
Obviously, Malice and McArdle don’t literally think Hornberger belongs in an insane asylum. They just mean that he’s out of touch with reality, and from what I’ve seen with respect to COVID, I think that’s totally correct. He may not have advocated government-imposed lockdowns, but to have lived through all of that without noticing that everything the media said was an absurd lie, that most of the proposed mitigation measure were transparently ridiculous, that the experts were hysterical and untrustworthy….it just shows a total detachment from reality.
And when you have all of that context, an intelligent person can listen to that clip you played and understand what Hornberger was doing rhetorically. Unfortunately, having a keen academic understanding of the NAP is not enough to be a useful champion for Liberty. You have to see what’s happening in the world correctly to be able to distinguish aggressor from victim, murder from self-defense, “healthcare” from child abuse, informed consent from fraudulently engineered consent, etc. You can’t drink CNN koolaid and advance liberty at the same time.
Tyler wrote: I think you’re missing some context on Hornberger. Angela referred to years of Hornberger’s conduct, especially towards her, since Covid, and I know he was often embarrassing himself on social media during that time.
Can you give me an example? I realize social media might be hard to dig up, but can you point to an old article or interview to show what you mean?
>he’s out of touch with reality
They didn’t say anything. Angela made all the accusations. And, having researched her claims, they’re self-serving bullshit. Jacob did not ever support government lockdowns. She lied when she said that to manipulate the ignorant.
In reality, Jacob has been right in claiming that the LP is run by prags and Republican-lites who want to turn the LP into a tool of the Republican Party. Just look at how much Angela has been kissing the feet of Trump and patting herself on the back for getting a 90s era Progressive like Trump to talk at the LP convention. Opposing one Progressive and supporting another doesn’t do anything for the party or for liberty. She is a tool. Nothing more.
And she hates Jacob for telling the truth about her.
Angela made all the accusations. And, having researched her claims, they’re self-serving bullshit. Jacob did not ever support government lockdowns. She lied when she said that to manipulate the ignorant.
In reality, Jacob has been right in claiming that the LP is run by prags and Republican-lites who want to turn the LP into a tool of the Republican Party. Just look at how much Angela has been kissing the feet of Trump and patting herself on the back for getting a 90s era Progressive like Trump to talk at the LP convention. Opposing one Progressive and supporting another doesn’t do anything for the party or for liberty. She is a tool. Nothing more.
And she hates Jacob for exposing her.
In contrast, Jacob had consistently held true to actual libertarian philosophy and refused to sell out his integrity for partisan gain. In other words, he is the very opposite of Angela.
Jacob has consistently wanted to dissolve the entire state regulatory apparatus that made the lockdowns possible. To try and twist that into him approving of state mandated lockdowns is an outright lie at every level. McArdle really exposed herself for the lying snake that she is in that Malice interview.
Her entire campaign since the nomination convention has been to do everything she can to get Donald Trump elected using Oliver as a Leftist spoiler. This alone should get her removed from her position since she is clearly betraying her own party to benefit the Republicans. And it proves that Hornberger’s claims that she is just a LINO Republican-lite is spot on.
And anyone who supports Trump over Biden is genuinely stupid. Trump supported the lockdowns. Trump supported the jab. Trump supported the mandates. Trump printed trillions of dollars and destroyed the economy. Trump is a warmonger that led the slaughter of tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of men, women, and children. Trump is completely opposed to free trade and started a destructive trade war with China that has harmed every American.
It is this Progressive anti-human, anti-freedom sack of human feces that McArdle supports and is actively working to get elected. That isn’t incrementalism or pragmatism.
She has proven Hornberger right on his every claim about her. She is a traitor to libertarianism and the LP itself.
No one should ever taking this lying witch seriously ever again.
Watching that YouTube debate link, Jacob was 100% correct. Everyone up there was mouthing platitudes about the dangers of lockdowns while often defending the system that made the lockdowns possible. Jacob was the only one talking about a way to prevent them from ever happening again, tearing the system down entirely.
Of course people missed the point. Their response reminds me of how the Republicans booed Ron Paul for saying the solution to terrorism was a foreign policy based on the Gold Rule. They were too busy hacking away at branches while he was chopping at the root of the problem. Same is true of Jacob here. People want him to hack away at covid lockdowns while he is busy trying to destroy the roots that made covid lockdowns possible.
I guess we now know that the opposite to pragmatic must be axiomatic.
Hornberger is good at the basics, but has no idea how to relate that to real people in real world situations. It’s fine to explain the principles of Liberty … but hardly anyone will listen to basic principles … they only care when you explain how it effects their lives.
I think long ago, this complete lack of pragmatism might be regarded as a character flaw … but certainly not a mental health issue. These days, every kid gets diagnosed with something, and adults are struggling to overcome their invisible subconscious bias and secret phaux-phobias. So challenging to keep up with the crazy Joneses.