Cannabis Culture Interviews Lindy "No-Knock Raid" Vopnfjord

Over at Cannabis Culture, Peter Jaworski interviews Lindy about his politics and his problem with SWAT teams. Excerpt:

Peter Jaworski: What motivated you to sing about no-knock raids?

Lindy Vopnfjord: I stumbled upon Radley Balko's raid map one day and I was astonished. Also impressed how much work he had done on his own trying to expose what he called an epidemic of isolated incidents. The more the stories came to life in real time I was compelled to write a song about it. It just came out one day. The loss of life under this failed policy is nothing short of catastrophic both in terms of civilian and law enforcement casualties. […]

PJ: How would you describe your political views?

LV: Libertarian […]

PJ: Being libertarian makes you fairly rare amongst indie musicians in Canada and, I guess, artists in general. Do you get any flak for your libertarian views? What's it like being a libertarian in the music scene?

LV: I usually try to avoid talking about certain topics with other artists. Opinionated people don't like having their views challenged. It can spoil a dinner party.

I find it equally surprising how conservatives ignore all the facts about prohibition and that left-liberals ignore the facts about economic liberty and free markets.

PJ: Can you be more specific about left-liberals? What significant fact or facts do they ignore when it comes to economic liberty and free markets?

LV: They forget that socialism was an utter failure. That hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty because of economic freedom and trade liberalization. Those numbers don't lie.

PJ: If you had to rank them, what are the three most important liberty-related issues in Canada? Put differently, if you could change just three policies in Canada, which ones would you change?

LV: 1. End the drug war. 2. I'd make government monopolies on goods and services illegal and end all tariffs and barriers to trade between provinces. 3. I'd shut down extra-judicial entities like "human rights commissions" because they are actually injurious to human rights.

Whole thing here. Song and video below:

Comments

[fish]

Shit....what's not to like here! (no snark)

Are we sure this guys Canadian! He makes way too much sense!

[Brett L]

This still doesn't make up for Justin Bieber and Alanis Morissette.

[Amakudari]

You can tell by his beady eyes and floppy head.

[mikedmoon]

It's always nice to learn about another libertarian in Canada...we are a rarity.

[rts]

No kidding.

And this guy is spot on with #3.

[Episiarch]

Is this song any good? I haven't the time or privacy to listen to it. At least the sentiment is good.

[sarcasmic]

It's like a Radley nut-punch squared.

[Warty]

It could use more double bass drumming, but it's not bad. I was afraid it would sound like Canada's national bard Bryan Adams or something.

[Episiarch]

So it sounds like Celine Dion?

[Warty]

More or less.

[Matrix]

as long as it doesn't sound like Nickelback.

[Citizen Nothing]

Anne Murray

[Sean]

He doesn't seem to have made much effort to use a consistent meter throughout the song, which bothered me.

[Lindy]

The song was recorded to a click.

[WixyRooey]

Wow that is indeed some really cool stuff. Wow.

http://www.total-privacy.se.tc

[emerson]

Someone please elaborate on #3. I am genuinely curious as to the libertarian position on this.

[SugarFree]

Libertarians are wary of prosecuting thoughtcrimes. Thoughtcrime is not rule of law, but rather rule of men--capricious, arbitrary, and based in identity politics.

[Warty]

We like free speech. How could we not be against anti-speech horseshit like "human rights commissions"?

[Episiarch]

How can you be at all curious or unsure about the libertarian position on this? Have you zero understanding of libertarian thought at all?

[Citizen Nothing]

Epi is the poster child for libertarian evangelism.

"Join us, you fucking idiot!"

Which is exactly how it should be.

[Citizen Nothing]

Actually, I think I mean "iconic image" more than "poster child".
I was confused because I can picture Epi on a poster a la Uncle Sam, in a white beard and red, white and blue stovepipe hat and the words "I Want You Fucking Idiots to Join Us Libertarians."
In fact, I'd pay to have those posters distributed.

[T]

And flipping the bird, of course.

[Episiarch]

Only one problem, dude: I'm not a libertarian. I guess, as an individualist anarchist, I can be loosely termed that, but at the end of the day, "joining us", from my perspective, would mean abandoning the state entirely. JOIN ME! (flips bird)

[SugarFree]

JOIN ME!

I'm not interested in joining your collective.

[Citizen Nothing]

"I Want YOU Fucking Idiots to Fuck Off!"
Actually, I like that better.

[Episiarch]

You weren't asked, and besides, it's an anarcho-syndicalist commune.

[Citizen Nothing]

Ah. Now we see the violence inherent in the system.

[Citizen Nothing]

"I Want YOU Fucking Idiots to Join Us Libertarians, or Anarcho-Capitalists, or Individualist Anarchists, or Whatever the Fuck You Want to Call It!"

(I think the printing costs are going to be higher than I first anticipated.)

[Warty]

The Warty campaign slogan has long been, "Fuck you, vote Warty". I'm thinking the picture on my posters should be this.

[?]

Only one problem, dude: I'm not a libertarian

Right. You just caucus with them.

[SugarFree]

Just like you're not a troll, you just say the same whiny shit they do all the time.

[Warty]

You're just afraid to troll because you know you'll lose, SugarFree. PWND

[sarcasmic]

Positive rights are anti-freedom.

[Justin Cases]

You know, I think you'll find that most of the everyday conservatives are not that anti-prohibition on the topic. Then again, neither are they prudish nor religious, but that would just spoil the narrative.

[Justin Cases]

Sorry, that should read 'overly religious'.

[sarcasmic]

In my experience most conservatives want the government to enforce morality, and they consider drug use to be immoral.
So I must disagree with your statement.

[Justin Cases]

What morality has the government tried to enforce? Forcing people to Church? Made being gay illegal? I'm not talking about the odd nutball here, I'm talking about core principles shared by GOP, elected republicans and the base alike.

Go cruise mainstream conservative blogs and see how many match up to the conservative stereotype (start at ace of spaces bwahahah) and then cruise on over to the liberal blogs and see how many share the liberal stereotypes.

Take into account the moron in office and I think you'll find that the liberal stereotype is more accurate than the conservative one.

When a Republican is elected, I worry they won't do what they say they will. When a Democrat is elected, I worry they will do what they say, (See Obama, Barack)

[sarcasmic]

"What morality has the government tried to enforce?"

Drugs are bad. M'kay?
They're bad because they're bad. M'kay?

We can't allow people to use drugs because drug use is immoral. M'kay?

If we allow people to use drugs, then who knows what other immoral things they will do. M'kay?

M'kay?

[Justin Cases]

I meant how does a Republican government enforce its morality more than a Democrat government which also prohibits drug use?

Again, democrats have a national platform of mostly mythical moralistic thought crime that they are enforcing.

In terms of mandating behavior, we could only wish that the Democrats were half as bad as they claim Republicans are.

[Jim]

Plus, you should check out the Texas state GOP's official platform. Not sure if you count that as a "blog", but it contains such gems as 1) recriminalizing sodomy, 2) outlawing flag burning, 3) outlawing "altering" any "symbols of America" or some such nonsense whose exact phrasing I can't remember right now.

They are anti-freedom.

[The Boston cockstrangler]

Anything that would eliminate clothes made with American flag patterns can't be all bad.

[Justin Cases]

Yeah, I'd say that's a load of crap.

Flag burning I can only agree with based on consideration of the types of a-holes that would do such a thing and why.

Regardless, this is at a state level and not at a federal level. While I disagree with it for the most part, you still have to marvel at the notion of being able to marginalize these kinds of whackos into a state where you can choose to move elsewhere the same way you could marginalize some blue state that wants to provide welfare for all @ state tax rates of 90% (incidentally, its odd how that never happens in these really blue states and goes to show, they really know what would happen if they did).

[zoltan]

Flag burning I can only agree with based on consideration of the types of a-holes that would do such a thing and why.

Laws should only apply to certain people?

[ClubMedSux]

Music-wise, I still prefer the New Pornographers and Broken Social Scene when it comes to Canadian indie rock, but this guy definitely wins when it comes to politics. Fucked Up comes in second (though I suspect they might be anarcho-collectivists rather than actual anarchists).

[Full disclosure: I have no fucking idea what the New Pornographers' or BSS's political philosophies are.]

[Colin]

"Shut up and sing."

[Tman]

It's so depressing to read his list of the three most important liberty-related issues (in Canada or anywhere for that matter) and realize that a list like this is considered radical.

GODDAMMITSOMUCH.

[Citizen Nothing]

Whenever he sings, the terrorists win.

[Null Void]

The one line I liked was his policy when dealing with politics on the music scene; he simply avoids talking about it. I mean, by discussing politics in a non-political setting, one inadvertently contributes to the politicization of society. So, yeah. I like his dig at both the left and right here. It's good.

All in all, I wish the guy luck.

[Joshua Corning]

I obviously support the spirit of what Lindy is doing...

Still that song is horrible.

"KGB and CIA" WTF?!?!

[cynical]

Some of the lyrics need to be... reworked. There's enough horrible shit without blowing things out of proportion (and the video should probably note that all the background imagery is real, not staged).

[Jillian Galloway]

On June 17, 1971, President Nixon told Congress that "if we cannot destroy the drug menace in America, then it will surely destroy us." After forty years of trying to destroy "the drug menace in America" we still *haven't* been able to destroy it and it still *hasn't* destroyed us. Four decades is long enough to realize that on this important issue President Nixon was wrong! All actions taken as a result of his invalid and paranoid assumptions (e.g. the federal marijuana prohibition) should be ended immediately!

It makes no sense for taxpayers to fund the federal marijuana prohibition when it *doesn't* prevent people from using marijuana and it *does* make criminals incredibly wealthy and incite the Mexican drug cartels to murder thousands of people every year.

We need legal adult marijuana sales in supermarkets, gas stations and pharmacies for exactly the same reason that we need legal alcohol and tobacco sales - to keep unscrupulous black-market criminals out of our neighborhoods and away from our children. Marijuana must be made legal to sell to adults everywhere that alcohol and tobacco are sold.

[Nike Dunk High]

thanks