Commissar Conservatives: How Laissez-faire Libertarianism Is Disturbingly Similar to Communism
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Book Overview
Frank Cocozzelli is a progressive liberal who got tired of being called a Marxist. So he did some research, and guess what he found? Movement libertarian conservatism is the actual threat to capitalism and democracy. He eventually turned his findings into a book - this book - that not only refutes that old-time redbaiting but also seeks to help jump-start the journey to a better world. He says,
"...it is neither socialism nor communism that libertarian conservatives fear. Instead, their nightmare is the emergence of a better capitalism, one that is made fair and just through reform; one that is less prone to the tyranny of those only interested in pursuing reckless, unreasonable self-interest."
Here are a few of Cocozzelli's provocative points:
- What really frightens the Right is not Karl Marx but a better-understood Adam Smith.
- What some people mistakenly think of as "the center" is actually a bundle of discredited laissez-faire economic theory.
- The path to authoritarianism does not run through progressive liberal economics but through libertarian conservatism.
- What freedom means to many libertarian conservatives is the freedom to oppress others.
- Today's libertarian conservatism has much in common with the worst of communist regimes because it embraces Austrian School economics and the disturbing teachings of Dark Enlightenment ideology.
- Such pressing matters as economic inequality, climate change, and voter suppression may be seen as spokes that extend from the hub of libertarian conservatism. Expose and disrupt the hub, and the spokes will collapse.
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