The assumption is that things are only political if they explicitly involve a political office or ballot measure. This view ignores what lies below the surface: The political climate from which campaigns spring or which they try to appease or co-opt.

Radley Balko brings a useful counterpoint when he says “I’d like to thank the Koch brothers for six years of funding my right-wing, corporatist work on police abuse and criminal justice reform.” Cato also hosted Roderick Long’s Corporations Versus the Market article. There is more to the story than the pursuit of corporate profits.

Of course, Samuel Konkin, who invented the word Kochtopus, talked about this thirty years ago in New Libertarian Manifesto and elsewhere.

The story reminds me of politicians who conflate their personal interests (exercising power) with the common interest.

And it is pronounced “Coke-topus.” “Cock-topus” is the lovable mutant who pulls the strings at Thinking Liberty. His henchman is a bear from Canada rumored to be an ultra-rich marijuana tycoon.

Speaking of individuals, my August feature (the last regular c4ss.org feature I’ll be doing for a while), Social Individualism and Solidarity explores these concepts as foundations of a free society.

My first commentary of the week, And Real Criminals Go Unpunished is on the charges Ahlam Mohsen faces for throwing a pie into the face of a senator, and how ruling elites get away with murder. Mohsen has been released on bail since the article was published, but is still facing charges and investigation.

I wanted to emphasize a positive example of liberty moving forward or non-authoritarian organization in my second commentary of the week, so in Breaking the Information Monopoly I took a look at how the current information landscape is both breaking up established power and also provides an inkling of a free society in action.

And yes, there is a fundraiser. If you like what we’ve been doing to get more radical libertarian voices heard and more ideas examined, why not throw in some funds to help us focus on the important work we’re doing?

darianworden.com/archives/presentations.html

There you can find the final version of my notes for the practical anarchy talk I did at the Drexel Student Liberty Front Summer Retreat. They don’t entirely correspond to what I said. Some qualifiers and additional sentences were added here and there. Also I started the talk by walking to the podium and saying “I’m Darian Worden, and I’m here to talk about anarchy!” I then asked how many people in the room considered themselves anarchists. The vast majority of the audience (which totaled 15-20 people) raised their hands. I had written it for a mixed minarchist-anarchist free market libertarian crowd. But even the seasoned anarchist should be able to at least pull some talking points and ideas out of there.

The notes were posted at Center for a Stateless Society.

There was video taken, but it might not have recorded fully. I’ll probably record an mp3 of the talk at home – it’s only about 30 minutes anyway and I won’t be agitated from being caught in traffic for an hour.

In Video Provides Look Into Policing, I analyze a Liberty on Tour video documenting aggressive police behavior.

If cops will not hold other cops accountable for bad behavior, that will encourage more bad behavior by police. If external pressure is exerted on police forces through videotaping and public commentary, that might compel positive actions.

In Steven Slater and Narratives of Conflict, I take a look at how New York Times coverage characterized Slater’s actions, and offer an alternate explanation.

With constant submission to petty power trips, occupations that could be adventurous, instructive, or otherwise interesting ways to make a living become processes that reduce the worker to an automaton. Causing a scene and grabbing a drink on your way out the emergency chute might just be a rational way to deal with that kind of nonsense.

Check out the full articles at c4ss.org.

In True Economic Liberty: Not a Conservative Idea, I use a Students For Liberty post as a springboard to discussing the idea that conservatives support “economic liberty.”

Unfortunately McCobin’s article, like many free-market libertarian works, does not look deeply enough into the assumption that conservatives support economic liberty. Are conservatives in general really in favor of a free economy?

PA School Encourages Sexual Assault is based on a story so ridiculous, I had to keep reading it over again because it was so hard to believe that I got the right idea from it.

After a Pennsylvania high school student told administrators that another student had raped her, the school principal’s response was to use her as “bait” to catch students he suspected were having consensual sex on campus. The alleged perpetrator was not pursued and is now accused of raping the same student later that night.

Yes, you read that right. Not only was a serious crime not investigated, but the alleged victim was forced to take part in a sting operation to catch non-criminals. And then she was raped again.

How could something like this happen?

I also did my regular two news commentaries this week.

In No Boondoggle Too Costly I take a look at what Governor Christie’s support of funding the Meadowlands Xanadu complex says about the mentality of government.

Even a self-styled reformer rules by the logic of government: “We’re digging ourselves into a hole, so let’s get more shovels.” Climbing out of the hole would make you look like a quitter.

It’s easier to dig when you can use taxation to make others pay for the shovels. Government is not funded by individual choice. It is funded through coercion based on the choices of those making the rules.

Liberty For All Means Immigrants Too is a response to people expressing concern for liberty while advocating government restrictions on the liberty of immigrants.

Immigrants should not be seen as a threat to liberty, but as potential allies in the fight for liberty.

Liberty means nothing if the freedom of any group is placed above individual liberty. And people do not stop being individuals if they are born in a different country.

Thinking Liberty is live Tuesday nights from 8-10pm on ThinkingLiberty.net. Archives can be downloaded from ThinkingLiberty.net. We’re also on iTunes, the Liberty Radio Network and PatriotRadio.com.

In Anarchy Road, I give some examples about how roads might be maintained without government.

A question often asked of anarchists is “How would roads be built in anarchy?” The short answer is “Roads would be built and maintained in as many ways as people found to work.”

In a previous column, I responded to the question of roads in anarchy by asking Who Would Maintain Roads Worse Than the State? But focusing on the failures of the state left little room for describing some examples of how roads might work in a stateless society.

In What Will Johnny Rotten Do in Israel? I take a look at cultural boycotts and cultural exchange.

Although pickets and boycotts that are made in the pursuit of freedom and do not infringe on anyone’s liberty should not be condemned, that doesn’t mean that they must be endorsed.

If you like what you see, chip in to support more work like this.