Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 362.

I was a guest on California Gold #6, with guest host Matthew Sands. From the shownotes:

Stephan and Matt covered a wide variety of libertarian themes, including property rights, self-ownership, the Non-Aggression Principle, intellectual property, Hoppean Argumentation Ethics, Georgism, Objectivism, utilitarianism, deontology and much more. Stephan was hosted by Matthew Sands of the Nation of Sanity project (http://www.nationsofsanity.com/), which aims to promote the Non-Aggression Principle as a universal peace agreement, hosting for California Gold for the first time.

https://youtu.be/_usiT5Z2JXY

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 361.

A nice young man, self-described as "generally an anarchist? But also a statist (monarchist? ie 'the kingdom of heaven') in the spiritual sense" had some questions for me since he doesn't have a lot of people to bounce his ideas off of. I agreed to do it if we could record it, in case anything interesting came out of it. You be the judge.

A variety of topics came up, primarily his interest in the problem of "oaths" as the root evil in the modern world, and related/other issues like the nature of contracts, usury as evil, Pournelle's "iron law of bureaucracy," Jesus, and the evils of the Uniform Commercial Code (something to do with Babylon), and Galambos.

Transcript below.

https://youtu.be/EEj137ADBzY

TRANSCRIPT

Libertarian Answer Man: Oaths: With Kent Wellington

Stephan Kinsella & Kent Wellington

Oct. 17, 2021

00:00:03

STEPHAN KINSELLA: Okay, hey, this is Stephan Kinsella, Kinsella on Liberty.  This is another one of my episodes where someone asked to talk to me about something.  And I said yes, if I can record it in case there’s anything of interest to listeners.  So this is Kent Wellington who briefly informed me he’s not exactly a libertarian but just has some questions.  I don’t really know what you want to talk about, but Kent, why don’t you introduce yourself, however you want to do it, and then we can start?

00:00:27

KENT WELLINGTON: Hey there.  My name is Kent Wellington, and I just have been very anti-IP since I was a child really.  And when I realized that Mr. Kinsella was the one who wrote one of my favorite books, Against IP, I was really taken aback.  And then I was like, wow, I should reach out to him and just try to have a conversation with him because I’ve sort of been in the – what do you say – I’ve just been up in the towers on these topics for a long time, like my whole life.

00:01:14

And I’ve never – I never really get to talk about these topics with anybody one on one, and I just saw his – that he puts his email out there, so I was like, I’ll just email him, see if he’ll – he’s willing to talk to me for even a minute.  So that’s what we’re doing right now, and I have some very different takes, I guess, what I think are some novel takes but maybe aren’t, and I’d love to be proven wrong, or I just wanted to throw some things at you regarding contracts, IP, anarchism, a few different things.  Mainly, I guess my main hypothesis is – so I’m very into the quotes from Jesus on oaths, and I believe that, without – so I think that oaths are the key social mechanism of the state.  Do you – what do you think about that?  Are oaths not the key social mechanism of the state?

00:02:41

STEPHAN KINSELLA: Oaths?  O-A-T-H?

00:02:44

KENT WELLINGTON: Yes, oaths, yeah.

00:02:46

STEPHAN KINSELLA: I’m not sure I know what that means.  What do you mean?

00:02:51

KENT WELLINGTON: So oaths are – if you want to become a doctor in the US, at least a professionally recognized doctor, you have to take the Hippocratic Oath.  Others are – so our whole professional society is filled with oaths, which are really these sort of mystical activities, and our secular world is filled with these oaths.  To become a lawyer, you need to take the bar oath.  To become a politician, you just swear in.  You need to take an oath of office.  There’s a bajillion oaths you need to take in modern society if you want to partake in modern society.

00:03:42

And so Jesus – and I’m not necessarily getting religious here.  You can just say that in one of the most popular books in the world, which the Bible is, well, the biggest guy, the most important guy in the book, in the New Testament, Jesus, in his biggest speech, the Sermon on the Mount, he says take no oaths at all.  Instead, just say yes or no.  Anything beyond this comes from the evil one.  So my interpretation of that is that anything beyond you giving your word,

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 360.

https://youtu.be/eC4g0vVepeI

Isaac Funderburk sent me this email:

Hello, Mr. Kinsella! I'm an economics student in Tennessee looking to get involved in the discourse around Austrian economics and libertarianism, particularly through culture change and academic organizations. Would it be possible to talk for a few minutes sometime this weekend or next week?

I'm currently working with Turning Point USA as a social media manager and event organizer for a local ambassador, and I am involved with the Libertarian Party in the area. I've been familiar with Austrian economics for years now, but I had the good fortune to get an Austrian economics professor this semester and he has influenced me to pursue connections within the Mises Institute. I came across the many Mises Institute lectures and articles, and realized this is something I could get behind.

I've recently spoken to Dr. Jonathan Newman, Mr. Jeff Deist, and Dr. Patrick Newman. I'm interested in understanding contract theory on a deeper level and found your lectures on intellectual property to be insightful.

Would it be possible to arrange a brief phone call this week? Thank you for your time.

We talked about college and what a libertarians goals should be, activism, careers, publishing, and economic and libertarian issues such as intellectual property.

Related:

Advice for Prospective Libertarian Law Students

Reading Suggestions for Prospective/New Law Students (Roman/Civil law focus) (March 3, 2021)

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 359.

Update:  See The Universal Principles of Liberty (Aug. 14, 2025).

From the recently-concluded Fifteenth Annual (2021) Meeting of the PFS, Bodrum, Turkey (Sept. 16–21, 2021).

For others, see the links in the Program, or the PFS YouTube channel, including the growing PFS 2021 YouTube Playlist. Additional media of the proceedings will be released presently. Also re-podcast at PFP231 | Stephan Kinsella, State Constitutions vs. the Libertarian Private Law Code (PFS 2021).

https://youtu.be/hPPC9OfzHgI

For a similar talk, see KOL345 | Kinsella’s Libertarian “Constitution” or: State Constitutions vs. the Libertarian Private Law Code (PorcFest 2021).

The followup panel discussion later that day is here:

Related:

Structural Safeguards to Limit Legislation and State Power

Constitutional Structures in Defense of Freedom (ASC 1998)

Randy Barnett’s “Federalism Amendment”–A Counterproposal; and related posts

How to Fix the US

KOL345 | Kinsella’s Libertarian “Constitution” or: State Constitutions vs. the Libertarian Private Law Code (PorcFest 2021)

KOL359 | State Constitutions vs. the Libertarian Private Law Code (PFS 2021)

My notes are below:

State Constitutions vs. The Libertarian Private Law Code

Notes

Stephan Kinsella

Property and Freedom Society Annual Meeting

Sep. 19, 2021 – Bodrum, Turkey

 

Joke: I’ve prepared a libertarian constitution, and I hope to cover as much of its 18 parts and 45 pages as possible in the next half hour.

Part I, Section A, Subsection 1: “Definitions.”

Just kidding. I’m not going to read it. I haven’t even finished it yet. My wife said “is this what you geeks think is funny?” I said we’ll see. Half of them may be relieved, but some of them will be saying “Oh damn, I wanted to hear a Libertarian Constitution read to me.”

Tell Hoppe Porcfest choking joke.

I’m going to talk about the idea of constitutions and libertarianism—whether the idea makes sense at all.

Since I’ve been a libertarian in the early 1980s, I’ve seen various utopian libertarian projects, many of them scams, most of them failures—

[UPDATED list at Libertarian Nation and Related Projects]

Tipolis—"creator, owner and operator of a global portfolio of International Cities characterized by a high degree of autonomy": Free private cities/charter cities movement

Próspera—a charter city on the island of Roatán, Honduras (wikipedia; official site; Próspera's e-Governance Portal; Prospera legal code; Próspera ZEDE; Official ZEDE Statute, Unofficial English Translation, and Commentary)

Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)—a special economic zone in Dubai adopting common law—wikipedia; Laws and Regulations in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC); The DIFC’s Affirmation of English Common Law into its Statutory Framework

Principality of Seborga—village in Italy claiming micronation status

cruise ship nations, now seasteading (Blueseed);

Oceania—The Atlantis Project

Same people: Project Lifeboat: “From the people who brought you the Oceania project so many years ago comes the Lifeboat project. An attempt to create a spaceship for the purposes of saving the human race from the singularity predicted by Vernor Vinge.”

crazy guys homesteading abandoned oil rigs and declaring sovereignty;

private justice, arbitration, and common law groups:

The “Creative Common Law” project (Jamin Hubner), an anarcho-capitalist project in which I was enlisted as an advisor, only for it to later turn from “Creative Common Law 1.0: Anarcho-Capitalism” to “Creative Common Law 2.0: Anarcho-Socialism/Syndicalism”

Always be wary of “Waystation libertarians”

Tom Bell’s “Ulex,” or “Open Source Legal Operating System”;

LiberLand, which I helped draft an early constitution for

see “The Voluntaryist Constitution”

Galt’s Gulch Chile, a scam that ended in disaster;

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 358.

I was interviewed by Marc Victor and Andy Marcantel of the Live and Let Live project about libertarianism.

https://youtu.be/N0Mqp9Di_z8

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 357.

I was a guest recently on Peter Quiñones' show Free Man Beyond The Wall, Episode 631 (Sept. 15, 2021). From his shownotes:

Pete and Stephan discuss the Constitutionality of Biden's vaccine mandate and then get into discussions about Hoppe's plan for local politics and how it can fight against overreach by the Feds.

I post this from Bodrum, Turkey, at the 2021 PFS meeting, watching Saif Ammous talk about bitcoin. The internet is wonderful.

Grok shownotes:

In this episode of the Free Man Beyond the Wall podcast, host Pete Quinones welcomes back patent attorney and author Stephan Kinsella to discuss pressing libertarian issues, starting with Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate announced in September 2021 (1:00-3:39). Kinsella critiques the mandate as unjust and potentially unconstitutional, predicting a 60% chance it survives legal challenges, though it may be struck down as illegal under current OSHA rules. The conversation explores the broader implications of federal overreach, contrasting it with state-level responses like Florida’s resistance under Governor DeSantis, which Kinsella views as strategically preferable despite its own libertarian shortcomings (5:02-9:20). They also touch on the cultural mania surrounding COVID policies, with Quinones expressing shock at public compliance and Kinsella noting the temporary nature of these measures compared to enduring state injustices like war and taxation (15:01-20:05).

The discussion shifts to deeper libertarian strategies, drawing heavily on Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s ideas of decentralization and covenant communities as a path to liberty (22:00-39:46). Kinsella advocates for nullification and secession as bold responses to federal mandates, emphasizing the importance of local politics and natural elites in fostering decentralized, voluntary societies (8:25-9:58, 44:42-47:37). They critique the left’s egalitarian chaos versus the right’s hierarchical order, aligning with Hoppe’s view of natural hierarchies as essential for a free society (41:15-44:37). The episode concludes with reflections on global COVID responses, particularly Australia’s authoritarian measures, and the potential for secession movements in the U.S. as federalism persists (30:58-36:04). Kinsella and Quinones also briefly address contentious libertarian topics like intellectual property, abortion, and borders, underscoring the need for anarchist solutions to resolve these intractable issues (49:19-50:38).

Transcript and grok analysis/summary below.

https://youtu.be/jFYMO6wzO8c

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transcript

0:00

people people people richard Grobe is starting season six of his autonomy

0:05

course and you really should be there i don't think I could have gotten through the last 16 months of this world without

0:14

the skills that Richard Grove gave me so head on over to freemanbyondtheall.comutonomy

0:22

check it out there's two links there one's to an overview of the course another is to a 19 skills PDF download

0:29

go check out that video sign up for the course and get on Richard's level thank

0:35

you [Music]

0:49

[Music]

1:00

hello everyone i want to welcome you to the Free Man Beyond the Wall podcast this is your host Pinz i invited Stefan

1:06

Consella to return to the show stefan is a patent attorney and he wrote the book

1:13

against intellectual property i asked Stefan to come on and answer some

1:19

questions about Joe Biden's mandate how constitutional he thinks it is what he

1:25

thinks is going to happen with it does he think that states are going to nullify it and then we're just going to

1:31

start talking about a host of subjects we're going to get into some hapa we're going to get into some local politics

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 356.

I was interviewed by Caleb Brown on the topic of IP--explained what it is, its origins, how it's a type of crony capitalism, and how it emerged historically and acquired the name "intellectual property." Recorded Sep. 4, 2021.

https://youtu.be/E4_oafovCyY

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 355.

I was a guest today (Aug. 20, 2021) on The Bitcoin Group.

https://youtu.be/cZXCDRpXVCQ

Shownotes:

Featuring… Joshua Scigala (https://twitter.com/Vaultoro)

Dan Eve (https://twitter.com/cryptopoly)

Stephan Kinsella (https://twitter.com/NSKinsella) and

Thomas Hunt (https://twitter.com/MadBitcoins)

THIS WEEK:

Crypto Price Prediction: Bitcoin Could Be About To Soar To $100,000 And Ethereum To $5,000 As Cardano And Solana Suddenly Surge https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybam...

Cade Cunningham Partners With BlockFi, Will Be Paid Sign-on Bonus in Bitcoin - The Street Crypto: Bitcoin and cryptocurrency news, advice, analysis and more https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/bitc...

US Mortgage Giant To Accept Bitcoin This Year, Considers Other Cryptocurrencies https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-mor...

Coinbase will buy $500M in crypto and invest 10% of all future profits in digital assets https://cointelegraph.com/news/coinba...

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 354.

Libertarian Nicholas Sinard asked me to field some questions about the referenced issues, so we did so.

Update: some of these issues also discussed in Libertarian Answer Man: Restrictive Covenants and Homeowners Associations (HOAs) and Libertarian Answer Man: Restrictive Covenants, Reserved Rights, and Copyright.

https://youtu.be/54pMdixfWTI

Relevant links:

No, Libertarians, We Should NOT Abolish the CDA §230 and DMCA Safe Harbors!

Hello! You’ve Been Referred Here Because You’re Wrong About Section 230 Of The Communications Decency Act

Hello! You’ve Been Referred Here Because You’re Wrong About Intellectual Property

Is Macy’s Part of the State? A Critique of Left Deviationists

Michael Rectenwald, Who Really Owns Big Digital Tech?: "By now it should be perfectly clear that the most prominent Big Digital companies are not strictly private, for-profit companies. As I argued in Google Archipelago, they are also state apparatuses, or governmentalities, undertaking state functions, including censorship, propaganda, and surveillance."

Walter Block, "A Libertarian Analysis of Suing for Libel," LewRockwell.com (Sep. 5, 2014)

Causation and Aggression (with Patrick Tinsley), The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, vol. 7, no. 4 (Winter 2004): 97-112

Jeffrey Tucker, Backdoor Censorship through Libel Law;

Techdirt Podcast Episode 266: In Defense Of Section 230 & A Decentralized Internet

A Libertarian Theory of Contract: Title Transfer, Binding Promises, and Inalienability, Journal of Libertarian Studies 17, no. 2 (Spring 2003): 11-37

Hoppe on Property Rights in Physical Integrity vs Value

“Aggression” versus “Harm” in Libertarianism

Youtube transcript as cleaned up by Grok:

Transcript: Stephan Kinsella and Nick Sinard Discuss CDA 230 and Libertarian Issues

Stephan Kinsella (0:02): Okay, hey, this is Stephan Kinsella with a different edition of Kinsella on Liberty. One of my internet acquaintances, Nick Sinard—is that the right pronunciation?

Nick Sinard: Yes.

Stephan Kinsella: He's joining us. You wanted to chat about something today. I forgot what it was. I did two Tom Woods episodes last week, and things are blending together, so I'm forgetting what we were gonna talk about, but I'll let you bring up whatever you want. Go ahead. Introduce yourself too, if you don't mind.

Nick Sinard (0:29): I'm just Nick Sinard, been a libertarian for like eight years. I got a few businesses and stuff, but maggotsnicksart.com, you know, I put some libertarian stuff up on there, but it's been a while since I've updated it.

Stephan Kinsella (0:50): For some reason, I thought you were a foreigner, an outsider, a Frenchman or something with that name, but you sound Southern to me.

Nick Sinard: Yeah, it is French, but yeah.

Stephan Kinsella (1:01): What state are you in or from?

Nick Sinard: Tennessee, close to the Great Smoky Mountains.

Stephan Kinsella: Alright, two Southerners on the line then. Let's try to keep the IQ level, the total IQ level, above 100 if we can. It'll be a challenge, I know. Now, I guess I want to talk about mostly three things I think are all pretty interrelated. One you're starting to see more is that libertarians are starting to act like or say that Facebook's a part of the state.

Nick Sinard (1:26): Oh no, yeah, I see that more.

Stephan Kinsella: Another one I think that's related is kind of the Section 230 thing, or even libertarians will bring that up. And then I've seen, it's not as popular as it used to be, but terms of service violations as aggression. I've seen a few libertarians make that, but I think that's just confusion on liability and contract.

Nick Sinard (1:50): I haven't heard that one too much.

Stephan Kinsella (1:58): I don't recall ever hearing that terms of service are aggression. You could argue that they're not a binding contract,

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 353.

Some twitter users were confused about IP and whether stealing someone's document from their safe implied damages greater than stealing a blank document, and whether this difference implied IP, etc. So I did an impromptu zoom and a few people joined to ask questions about this and other matters. Unpolished. Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/NzXyZb9XaR4