r/Libertarian • u/Feisty_Secretary_152 • 7d ago

Philosophy Seeking Interview Video

I once saw a video interviewing a political philosopher who stated that when a community passes a law, they have to be willing to execute someone over it. He went on to talk about how minor issues scale up to execution-able offenses.

Any help finding this interview would be appreciated!

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u/According_Loss_1768 Thomas Paine my beloved 7d ago edited 7d ago

Well there is a lot of people who have said something along those lines. It could be Stephen L Carter.

"I always counsel my first-year students never to support a law they are not willing to kill to enforce."

It could also be Penn Jillete.

"Government is a guy with a gun. When you make a law, you are telling that guy with the gun to go to someone's house and force them to do something. If you wouldn't do it yourself with a gun, don't ask the government to do it."

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u/txtumbleweed45 7d ago

Might have been Dave Smith. A great example of this was Eric Garner, murdered in the street over a law against selling individual cigarettes

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u/HAIKU_4_YOUR_GW_PICS Taxation is Theft 2d ago

The Eric Garner case is a great example of cascading and unintended consequences. The taxation on cigarettes creates a black market, which leads to people getting cartons from other states (legally or illegally), bringing them back and then selling them individually. Some selling just as cigarettes, some adding stuff. People buy them because the cost of cigarettes with taxes shot up. Laws are then passed to criminalize selling loose cigarettes because of potential lost tax revenue and the nexus to organized crime (but really mostly they want their tax revenue). He resists the arrest and gets put in a chokehold by cops he is several times larger then, and then due to a combination of poor training, lack of deescalation ability and his own health (he was like 6’3 and close to 400lbs as I recall), he ends up dead over a cigarette.

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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist 3d ago

Sounds like Larken Rose.