It’s not my fault that I’m years ahead of you. Back in December 2009, I wrote a Quickie! that asked, “So, is this ‘FDR II, The Sequel‘?”
In that little post, I traced a quick history of the Freedomain Radio community before ending with this observation:
…I’ll use a Godfather II analogy. Doesn’t it seem like FDR has suddenly moved to Vegas and is trying to be legit? I’ve already noted that many of the more embarrassing “psychology” documents and podcasts (along with evidence of any involvement of his wife Christina) are being rapidly purged from the site. And now Molyneux has his web radio show where he interviews libertarians of more significance than himself (and who don’t really have a clue who he is) in an attempt to lend their credibility to his.
But his original followers? They’re quickly becoming a minority and maybe an embarrassing one at that. A greater percentage of newer donating FDR members appear to have bought into the myth (for now) that Molyneux advocates defooing only in the most extreme situations, greatly outnumbering the original True Believers—the ones who learned in Molyneux’s early essays that defooing is an essential step for every virtuous ancap.
You know, the ones who actually built his “community.”
Well, it’s pretty interesting to see the home page of FDR these days!
The first thing you see is a long list of academic and libertarian luminaries and semi-luminaries (along with a few crackpots) that Molyneux has interviewed.
Now, it would be snarkily beneath me to point out that undoubtedly almost none of them actually had a clue who Stefan Molyneux was before he interviewed them. (Actually, I did just mention that in the article above. Did you get my joke? Nothing is snarkily beneath me! Fooled you!)
Anyway.
Assuredly none of them know that (as I’ve noted in several places on this site) Molyneux has declared Ludwig von Mises a failure, writing on Prison Planet a waste of time, and the entire pursuit of academia a close-minded exercise in cronyism (especially those academic bastards who earn their income at state-supported schools, with salaries extracted from citizens at gunpoint)!
In other words, directly or indirectly he has previously insulted or implied to be corrupt in one way or another many of those he is now interviewing! (And don’t forget, more than a few of them are parents! And we all know what beasts those people are.)
And—above all—I kinda suspect he has kept hidden from all of them the role he’s played in helping to convince many of his True Believers to defoo.
I dunno. Is it just me or does it seem as if the bright lights of fame just evaporated a few principles?
Welcome to Las Vegas, Mr. Corleone.
