Sheldon Richman | The Libertarian Institute

TGIF: Reverse Scapegoating in the Immigration Debate

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 15, 2024 | Featured Articles, Justice, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

In the controversy over immigration we can spot a phenomenon I call "reverse scapegoating." According to Merriam-Webster, the scapegoat is "one that bears the blame for others." With reverse scapegoating, others bear the blame for one. Both are unjust. Reverse scapegoating is clear in the demagoguery about "migrant crime," occasioned most recently with the murder Laken Riley. As the Associated Press shouted in a recent headline, "Killing of Laken Riley is now front and center of US immigration debate and 2024 presidential race." The 22-year-old Georgia nursing student's body was found after...

Celebrating the Gaza Onslaught: Is There No Shame?

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 14, 2024 | Blog

To Israel's supporters: are you not ashamed when you see the videos that IDF soldiers make to celebrate the death, destruction, and humiliation they're inflicting on the people of Gaza? Some would call those soldiers "my people." We're talking about Abu Ghraib stuff here.

Something to Agree on?

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 13, 2024 | Blog

Can't we all at least agree that this was an extremely clumsy sentence from Academy Award-winning Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer that invited misinterpretation? Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza. I assume he meant that they repudiate (why would this British guy say "refute"?) Israel's hijacking both Judaism and the memory of Hitler's victims in a cause that has produced such...

Now an Audiobook: What Social Animals Owe to Each Other

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 9, 2024 | Blog

My book What Social Animals Owe to Each Other is now an audiobook. It's on YouTube here. And here's an MP3. What? You need an MP4? Okay, here. HT: Spencer Hayek

TGIF: Is Israel Mad?

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 8, 2024 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

Has Israel gone mad? Or has it always been mad? What is the country thinking? The collective nouns seem reasonable in light of the widespread support in that country for the Israeli government's appalling military assault on the people of the Gaza Strip for the last five months. How can Israel -- and its outside supporters -- cheer on the bombings (compliments of coerced Americans), the ground attacks, the mass starvation, the terror, and the rest of the crimes that we witness every day? The death toll is pushing 31,000, most of them infants, children, women, and old men, not fighters. So...

Coming to Palestine Now an Audiobook!

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 7, 2024 | Blog

My book Coming to Palestine is now an audiobook. You can listen to it on YouTube. The audiobook is also here.

My Guest Appearance on the Bob Murphy Show

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 3, 2024 | Blog, Libertarianism

Podcaster and economist Bob Murphy and I recently talked about my life as a libertarian, the outlook for liberty, and Israel. Watch it here.

TGIF: Immigration in an Nth-Best World

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 1, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

We live in an nth-best society. It's neither fully libertarian (though libertarians disagree over exactly what that would mean) nor totalitarian like the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Maoist China, or North Korea. It's somewhere in between, closer to libertarian than many other places but not close enough. One challenge for libertarians is knowing which proposals to favor and which to oppose in an nth-best society. Merely reciting the nonaggression obligation is not enough if our goal is to persuade many people that the freedom philosophy is both right and practical. A mixed...