Live Webathon Edition of the Reason Podcast!

Nick Gillespie, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, and Matt Welch take your questions.

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Live Webathon Edition of the Reason Podcast!

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Join Nick Gillespie, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, and Matt Welch for a live webathon edition of the Reason Podcast. Post your questions in the comments here at Reason.com, YouTube, or at Facebook—we'll answer as many as we can during the show.

Donate Now!

Do you want to know what Reason's top editors really think about U.S. foreign policy, the national debt, net neutrality, Donald Trump, and personal drug use? Then this is your time, kind readers. Put questions in the comments here. The show will also be livestreamed at Reason's Facebook page and YouTube channel.

We did this last year with Matt, Katherine, and Nick, and it was a good time, filled with insight, laughter…and just the right tinge of bitterness. With Peter joining us, it will better still.

So tune in. And remember, this is Reason's annual webathon week, when we ask readers to support our efforts to bring you news, politics, culture, and ideas from a uniquely libertarian perspective. The world is in many, even most ways an infinitely better place than when Reason debuted in 1968, but we've all got miles to go before we sleep when it comes to creating a freer, fairer, and more fun world. Your tax-deductible contributions entitle you to some great swag (see below) but, more important, will help us to keep being your voice in fights over "Free Minds and Free Markets."

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'Hard Boiled' by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under CC BY 3.0

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

My power was out for a whole day before I finally hooked in my generator. I didn't throw out the margarine from my refrigerator. Am I going to die?

Also, how much of these donations are going to the trappings of wealth and power in the Reason offices? AUDIT THE RAG!

[LibertarianJRT]

Yes because margarine is a garbage industrial waste product that is toxic to the human body and is therefore not fit for human consumption.

The fact that it was slightly warm just means it was easier to spread on your toast.

[Brandybuck]

all of the above PLUS books by Reason authors

Wait! Reason editors have written some books? How come I never knew?!?!

[Shirley Knott]

How about you talk about server squirrels, web site behavior and performance, and such?
Things the commentariat might care about and yet not degenerate into inter-personal squabbles.

[Coke Zero]

What topics do you just not care about and wish would never come up in discussions that you're a part of again?

[Quixote]

Here the answer is plain: the topic of the outrageous "First Amendment dissent" of a single, isolated, so-called judge in our great nation's leading criminal "parody" case. See the documentation at:

https://raphaelgolbtrial.wordpress.com/

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Wish I could view the event live! Guess I'll have to settle for the replay later.

But if I could ask a question, I would ask, what do you think is the single most important thing that ordinary libertarian-minded people could do to advance the cause of liberty, both in their own lives and in the form of activism on some level?

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Donate to Reason, duh.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

I do believe you have the correct answer!

[The Last American Hero]

It's a tie between smoking a joint and having ass sex with a Mexican.

[Carlos Diablo]

It seems to be standard Reason dogma now to feel that borders should be completely open and unchecked. Do you feel that this is a radical notion, and do you feel that this should at all be tempered given the complications for this implemented by the ever growing social safety net?

[$park? The Misanthrope]

Do you read the comments and laugh and laugh about the idiocy of the bulk of the commenters? Follow up, do you have a Wall of Hate where you pin up the really vile comments directed at you?

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Holy shit, where have you been?

[$park? The Misanthrope]

Reading the articles. It's not really worth it to participate in commenting anymore. It's just 99% dickheads yelling at each other these days with a few humorous things to be found.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

While I mostly agree with you, I am hoping it is a phase. But perhaps I am wrong, this is the new reality, and I will give up soon.

[Cry more]

Just leave already, your sycophantic fuckboy schtick doesn't work when the people you slurp don't post anymore. Join them in irrelevant oblivion.

[Cry more]

"Holy shit, where have you been?"

Sockpuppeting but he'll lie about it.

[Cry more]

"Do you read the comments and laugh and laugh about the idiocy of the bulk of the commenters?"

Ha! Just and you immediately start bitching!

Lololololol god you are a fucking loser!

[Krishnan Chittur]

Q1: Given that the deficit (and so debt) keeps increasing and both the parties are reluctant to (or do not care) can you all suggest approaches to solving this problem? Suggest some ideas (say three) that may appeal to politicians (whose only interest is to spend and get elected), voters (whose only interest is in getting money for them) and special interests (corporations, small/large businesses whose only interest is the next quarter.

Q2: Spending on healthcare is about 18% of the US GDP - What are some free market ideas to keep quality high, support R&D and yet control the rate of increase to the spending on healthcare? (this may help in part answer to my Q1/medicare, medicaid)

Thank you.

Krishnan

[chemjeff radical individualist]

I guess I have another question, now that I think about it:

There seems to be two mentalities towards libertarianism at least on the forums here.

One mentality recognizes that important problems exist, but that they should be solved via non-collectivist, voluntaryist means.

But the other mentality either refuses to recognize that these problems exist, or if they do, refuses to contemplate doing anything at all about them, even with voluntary methods.

Take immigration for example. With the former type of libertarian, whether he/she is for open borders or not, nonetheless, this person will tend to recognize that migrants do have concerns and problems that ought to elicit *some* type of response, hopefully via purely voluntary means. But with the latter type of libertarian, this person will tend to simply say "screw the migrants, they are not my concern at all".

How do we get these two classes of libertarians to engage in constructive dialogue with each other?

[Nardz]

The right of anybody and everybody to enter and dwell within US borders isn't libertarian, its international communist

[loveconstitution1789]

No thanks.

[Sizemo]

It seems like Democrats and liberals have decided they're no longer under any obligation to convince people that their candidate/viewpoint/policy is the best one, and instead think they're going to be successful just shaming people that don't agree with them into supporting them. Republicans and conservatives do similar things, but you don't agree with them, you hate America. What's the best way to return political discussions to anything remotely resembling a discussion of ideas and away from the "if you're not with me, you're racist/unpatriotic" style of debate we have now?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Complain that everyone else isn't a real Libertarian if they don't align with your own views 100%.

[Per Kurowski]

Has anyone of you in Reason been able to figure out why regulators believe that what bankers perceive as risky is more dangerous to our bank systems than what bankers perceive as safe?

http://subprimeregulations.blo.....s-for.html

[Maggie]

What's everyone drinking?

[newlife3.0]

Best comment imo

[GreenLantern]

Libertarians seem doggedly opposed to Trump's nationalism, but he seems to represent, in my almost 50 years as a libertarian, the only effective opposition I have seen to the progressively socialist and now globalist state. How can libertarians view Trump as a anti-libertarian and dangerous authoritarian threat while the Libertarian Party is an embarrassing disaster and there is no other effective opposition not only to Marxist Democrats, but to jingoist Neocons like (the late) John McCain and Max Boot? Why are libertarians aiding and abetting the big government Republican't "never-Trumpers"? What's your alternative, more Gary Johnson?

[Espada8]

We all need Peter's mug. Where can we get it?

[TLBD]

That is literally the worst mug in the podcast.

....oh, you mean his coffee cup?

[TLBD]

Q: Do you guys ever plan on doing more investigative journalism?

[Chris Hudson]

Are there any subjects Reason's intentionally tried to avoid (now or in the past) to not alienate your audience/supporters? #Webathon2018

[J-wal]

I've listened to the podcast for a couple years, but this is the first time I've seen what you all look like, and I am amazed to say that you are, largely, how I imagined you would look.

[TLBD]

I knew what the rest looked like, but I always assumed Suderman to be a skinny, blonde haired, a slightly pock-marked face, and a little greasy.

[Raging Statist]

Given the right and left seem hellbent on moving away from anything resembling libertarian thought (in different ways), what will the future look like?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

More European.

[The Buddhist Libertarian]

How do you explain the public's enduring optimism in the possibility of designing/electing an incorruptible government? Is it fundamentally different from our unshakeable optimism in the market?

[Joe Clave]

Do you see it as a victory when republican pundits and politicians self-identify as libertarian or libertarian on issue 'x'? Or is it a watering down/bastardization of libertarianism?

[Joe Clave]

Thank you KMW for the comprehensive answer.

Matt - "clave" as in the afro-cuban rhythm, pronounced "kl??ve?". But now I am considering past tense of cleave...

[Quixote]

Is there some way we can get outrageous "opinion" articles like this one by a left-wing academic

https://forward.com/opinion/385050/

banned from college libraries? Same question for the "First Amendment dissent" of a single, isolated, so-called judge in our great nation's leading criminal "parody" case. See the documentation at:

https://raphaelgolbtrial.wordpress.com/

[bgcharles]

QUESTION: With the rise of socialism among millennials - and many suburban, soccer moms I know - why don't libertarians spend more time teaching/marketing the genuine advantages of capitalism? Have you thought about touring college campuses to espouse those virtues, as well as the virtues of libertarianism?

[bgcharles]

I mean free-market capitalism, not the crony capitalism that so many people mistake as the real thing -

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

QUESTION: Do you think yokel libertarians have more in common with conservatives, or with cosmo libertarians? Do cosmo libertarians have more in common with liberals, or with yokel libertarians?

[TLBD]

Cosmo libertarians have more in common with progressives.

Real libertarians have more in common with classical liberals.

Conservatives are more classically liberal than today's progressives and self-described liberals.

Does that answer your question?

[lap83]

Who knows what any of those words are supposed to mean. But as an AFAB, cisethnic, genderfluid, brocialist, otherkin level 6 paladin, you're all just a bunch of problematic white men to me.

[TLBD]

Thomas Massie is way better than Amash.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

^ yokel virtue signal

[Trevor Ewen]

Why has school choice not caught on (broadly) with Democrat & Democrat-ish people in the Northeast? I know that local politicians are entirely in the grip of school unions, but this seems like an obvious thing for individuals to get behind and change the broad coastal, liberal consensus.

I live in New York. I have yet to meet a single parent that is happy with the general quality of public schools. If they do happen to like their local public school, then they hate the high cost of living and exclusivity of the school. School choice seems like an obvious thing to get behind. Why do we see such little momentum on this issue in the elite zeitgeist? This is, of course, aside from Eva Moskowitz and those critically involved in this movement.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Is Reason going to post the video from this? I want to know if I got any answers. (I've dialed 9 and 1 and am waiting to see if I need to finish.)

[Eddy]

Anything, eh? Can I get ___ to _____ ___ __?

[SamHell]

Man I want a job where I can get sauced at work.