A Little Matter of Strategy

Hoppe’s realistic libertarianism and Rothbard’s right-wing populist approach

By Jakob Hörngren


Hoppe filled the void after Rothbard

When Prof. Hans-Hermann Hoppe in mid September 2017, took the stage at the Hotel Karia Princess, in Bodrum, Turkey, it was for the twelfth annual meeting of the Property and Freedom Society (PFS). Prof. Hoppe’s demeanor is calm, but yet determined as he addresses the room of PFS members. The topic for the day: Libertarianism and the Alt Right. Hoppe has throughout the years made it pretty clear that he has no patience for political correctness, just like his former mentor and associate, Prof. Murray N. Rothbard. Even though Rothbard passed away over 22 years ago as of today, his spirit was alive and well in the room, and channeled through Hoppe’s uncensored rhetoric. Prof. Hoppe’s academic aura could be interpreted as harsh, and his language as blunt when compared to the more amicable and outgoing style of Murray Rothbard. Nonetheless, there is nobody as Rothbardian as Hans-Hermann Hoppe, and he is the rightful heir of the Austro-libertarian torch holder position.

Murray N. Rothbard

A populist program

In January of 1992, Rothbard wrote a brief, yet notorious un-PC essay, on what he believed would be the best approach to advance libertarianism in a very non-libertarian friendly society. He was trying to come up with the best possible plan involving the segments of people who would be more likely to embrace the libertarian message, strictly concerning property rights. Rothbard, who had rolled up his sleeves, and sought to create coalitions across the ideological spectrum, even with the new left during the 1960, due to their initial credibility to be the new anti war movement, had now switched his attention to involve a right-wing populist approach. In Rothbard’s short essay, titled Right-Wing Populism, Rothbard explains to the readers what right-wing populism is in order to understand the movement better, and hence facilitate the initiation of a dialogue with individuals who identify as right-wing populists. Rothbard finally goes through the points, one by one, of what a right-wing populist program looks like, and why it should be possible for libertarians to create coalitions with groups of individuals who endorse such a program.

Bringing back Rothbard’s ideas to the table

In Turkey, Hans-Hermann Hoppe brought back Rothbard’s strategic advice into the libertarian limelight in front of a crowd who was receptive, but not as enthusiastic as the audience at the Corax Conference in Malta just a few months earlier, where he delivered the exact same speech. Hoppe points out in his speech how the “Hayekian strategy for social change”, a model of influencing the elites in the political class, in academia, and in the mainstream media, and then await the trickle down effect, “must be considered fundamentally unrealistic” for spreading the correct libertarian message. Rothbard states the exact same thing in his essay when suggests that “the ruling elite benefits from the current system” of the status quo, and therefore no significant change is to be expected from the top among the elites down to the masses. Thus, both Rothbard and Hoppe recognize that libertarian ideas are not welcome in the realm of academia or media. On the contrary, they are met with a greater and greater degree of hostility, every day. Furthermore, we have witnessed what happens to libertarian leaning candidates in politics once they assume a position in office. They either, sell out and become part of the problem, or they get ostracized, marginalized, and most of the time ignored, if they choose to hold on to their principles.

Focusing on the disenfranchised

Hoppe recognizes this as an undisputable historical fact when he claims that the libertarian strategic approach needs to be a populist one. In other words, Hoppe says, the “libertarians must short-circuit the dominant intellectual elites, and address the masses directly” in order to arouse the contempt for the ruling elites within the most disenfranchised group of people in society, and awaken their disdain for the class of ruling elites. Rothbard was also very clear when mentioning that, “ripping the mask off elites is ‘negative campaigning’ at its finest and most fundamental”, and to make this happen, Rothbard further suggests, libertarians ought to focus their attention on the “groups who are the most oppressed and who also have the most social leverage”. Given the limited amount of resources for outreach, and knowing what it takes to convert people to the libertarian message, I think it is safe to say that we need to focus primarily on specific subdivisions of demographics in society. Hoppe and Rothbard have both proposed a strategy for targeting the most victimized groups; that is, those who do not have any protective status label accorded by the state, and those who are most likely to be taxpayers as opposed to tax consumers. From a libertarian perspective then, considering property rights to be the only existing legitimate rights, then anyone who has protective status in form of affirmative action, and other non discrimination laws implemented by the state, is the person who on average will be the least likely to support our cause.

Identifying likely supporters

In his speech, Hoppe specifies which group he believes will be the most likely supporter of the libertarian creed: Bourgeoisie, married, heterosexual, Christian couples, with children, who also happen to be taxpayers. First and foremost, if you are Caucasian of European ancestry, then you are not part of any protected class of people as determined by the state. It follows then, according to the egalitarian leftist narrative, that if you are not part of any protected group, then you must be part of the oppressing group. Why? Because if other groups need to have a protected label on them then there must be a group of predators, or else no protection status would be needed and granted by the state’s ruling elites. This means that Christian, white, heterosexual males, have been unjustly labeled as the oppressing class, and are therefore bound to be the most exploited group of individuals in society. However, as Hoppe correctly identifies, “it would be a serious strategic error to make whiteness the exclusive criteria on which to base one’s strategic decisions”, which some factions of the alt right have done, reprehensibly. Libertarians must recognize that white men are the people who make up the ruling elites within the state apparatus, and who have awarded all the legal privileges to different groups of the population via coercive affirmative action legislation. Hoppe accurately indicates this group of white men in control of governments, as perhaps the biggest problem that libertarians face. Nevertheless, if it so happens that the majority of taxpaying, married, heterosexual, Christian couples, with children, happen to be white, then so be it. It is not the ethnicity, but rather the cultural life style that matters in this case, according to Hoppe. This must remain a strategy of colorblindness, as Hoppe wisely recommends, although we can, and should expect backing primarily from the afore-mentioned demographic.

Strategy matters

We finally arrive at the libertarian strategy that Hoppe laid out, which bares striking resemblance with Rothbard’s right-wing populist program from 1992. Hoppe’s strategy is a ten-point strategy: Continue reading “A Little Matter of Strategy”

Missing the Point and Importance of Hoppe’s PFS Speech

By Michael Tabone


Recently, Hans-Hermann Hoppe gave a speech. It was an important speech. Not because it covered anything new, unraveled a mystery of economic insight he had never explained before, or because he had an amazing power point.

What was great about the speech was that it was a condensed, easily understandable, and brief explanation of how and what libertarianism is, and what are a few bad ideas (including the alt-rights views), and some strategies for Libertarian/Anarcho-Capitialism going forward.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Libertarianism and the “Alt-Right” (PFS 2017) – Video

Now like Hoppe or not, the most important point of his entire speech was overlooked by almost all who listened (or didn’t listen but pretended to have an opinion of his speech regardless).

The most important part of this speech was that he is proposing ideas which push the understood boundaries of libertarianism/anarcho-capitalism. Hoppe is amongst the few people who is not debating with people over the use of a term, the political flavor of the year, or a presidential election, or whatever minor and insignificant prattle holding down most libertarian infighting. Continue reading “Missing the Point and Importance of Hoppe’s PFS Speech”

Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Libertarianism and the “Alt-Right” (PFS 2017) – Video

Ladies and gentlemen. It’s here! HHH’s speech at the PFS recently in Turkey.

Hans Hermann Hoppe; the greatest libertarian thinker of our time delivers a greatly anticipated and striking speech on the Alt Right, Libertarianism, and society’s issues as a whole and offering a strategic social solution, also while identifying many issues even amongst libertarians themselves.

We’ve posted a few articles on the site recently to help clarify some of the confusion on his thought.  Well, let’s just say Hoppe is perfectly capable of defending himself, so to speak.

The page listing those articles can be found here:

So To Speak – The Misunderstood and Misrepresented Thought of Hans-Hermann Hoppe

[UPDATE]

Apparently this speech was too hot for YouTube and got taken down.

Too Hot for YouTube!

The video player above will allow you to download the video file if you wish.


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TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE BELOW THE FOLD Continue reading “Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Libertarianism and the “Alt-Right” (PFS 2017) – Video”