The Sun Rises over Porcfest 2012
I tendered my resignation from the Free State Project today after being informed that they have decided to prohibit me from their events, the Porcupine Freedom Festival and Liberty Forum. My name was still on the membership rolls after their announcement, so I removed it, wishing the FSP the best.
With the banning, I became the latest inducted in the elite club of people like Christopher Cantwell and Zack Bass who have been similarly politically excised from the FSP organization.
It was a good run, but all things come to an end. I’m grateful for my more than a decade of helping to promote the Free State Project, and look forward to 20,000+ liberty-loving people coming here to New Hampshire and working toward freedom.
I know people have said they won’t be attending Porcfest this year due to the FSP’s decision, and I appreciate their sentiment, but to anyone who doesn’t feel as strongly, you should still attend the Porcupine Freedom Festival this June.
If you love liberty, join the Shire Society and move to NH.
Porcfest will be a great event with or without Free Talk Live, and other LRN.FM shows that are not attending in protest of the FSP’s decision. I will always have fond memories of the event that I broadcast from for nearly a decade.
For anyone who is interested in moving to get active with more libertarians per capita than anywhere in the world, and are looking for alternatives to the Free State Project and their yearly events Porcfest and Liberty Forum (which are great events), here are some to consider:
- The Shire Society encourages you to declare your personal independence and move to New Hampshire. (You can sign anonymously by printing the declaration and keeping it.)
- Keenevention is a convention in its fourth year that features NH activists discussing the wide variety of activism happening here. It happens this November 4th-6th and tickets are just $50 for the whole weekend. Keenevention is an intimate event and only 100 tickets are available in advance.
- AMP Program – You can help us spread the ideas of liberty, bitcoin, and moving to New Hampshire around the globe via LRN.FM, the 24/7 audio network featuring pro-liberty talk radio online and intercontinental via Ku-band satellite. You can AMP and get perks like the AMP-only podcast and facebook group, for as low as $5 per month.
- The Shire Society Forums – before there was facebook, there were forums and this one is still here, with new people joining the forum every month. If you are a signer of the Shire Society declaration, you are welcome to sign up and introduce yourself.
Since the FSP cited my beliefs about age of consent in their notice posted to their blog today as the reason for my banning, it should be known that I’ve been public about my views on age of consent for a long time. Despite some vicious rumors, I don’t support sex with children and call that reprehensible twice in the video being propagated by my haters featuring excerpts from my radio show. I do support young people being able to decide to emancipate themselves, including sexually. I don’t come from the position that sex is dirty or bad, but there are plenty of people who do – and some of them call themselves libertarians.
This week, five local liberty activists met at the Sanctuary for Love And Peace to record the second episode of “Fuck it, we’ll do it live!” which featured five different libertarian perspectives on age of consent for more than an hour, including mine. Here’s a full video of that conversation:
I don’t agree with you on the issue in question, Ian, but the way the FSP acted is way overboard. Dissolving a business relationship is one thing, but then making it personal? That’s another.
Man I wasn’t kicked out a few years ago. I guess I am underachieving. 🙂
Here is Ian Bernard in his final spin against the FSP. You are a spineless waste of breath. Good for you FSP getting rid of this deviant and his friends that support him.
That’s called level headed thinking.
To call someone “spineless” because they refuse to back down from believing what they believe regardless of the consequences is to invite the question “What exactly does the word spineless mean to you, because we seem to be working from different dictionaries?”.
Oh Richard Paul is here from his winter hibernation, at the KAC, I mean the S.L.A.P, or whatever deviant name you call it nowadays. Your time is up. What I see here from Richard Paul is doing damage control . I work with and I am around lots of people, from all walks of life, and when I show them the ideas and mind set of the people from free keene, the IMMEDIATE response I get is “who are these delusional people think their helping”, and they laugh at you. I applaud the FSP for cutting you off, because they… Read more »
Well since the 20k goal has been achieved, should not the FSP dissolve?
At this point I’d say fuck the FSP, but apparently it’s not old enough.
“Tendered your resignation” ? Nice attempt at some spin, but the truth is you got kicked to the curb by the FSP; you had no say in the matter.
Nice to see the FSP is cleaning house and getting rid of the weirdos and degenerates like Bernard here. It’s about time.
It’s nice to see people who have no stake in this matter blathering on like a couple of idiots.
I rescinded my FSP mover pledge, etc. after they kicked Cantwell. I’m not a Cantwell fan (quite the opposite, in fact, especially since he outed himself as a racist authoritarian), but their reasoning was just so completely wrong that I didn’t want to be associated with FSP any more.
This development confirms that I made the right decision. There’s still a distinct possibility that I’ll eventually move to New Hampshire, but if so I’ll be looking to Free Keene, not the FSP, for allies.
Actually if you excised yourself, then you’re more like me in that regard than you are like Cantwell or Bass. So, congratulations on that score.
A good alternative to PorcFest might be this event called FeenFest Somolia, which just happens to be taking place at Roger’s Campground on the same dates as PorcFest. 😉
Ian! My brother! You remain humble in the face of injustice, such grace. FSP served a great purpose, but that purpose has been fullfilled.. I think any organization that out lives its design becomes self sabatoging in some ways. The people are coming! Rejoice! The bazillion non-FSP opportunities were created for new movers and are waiting for their arrival. Bless those of you who paved the way to make this happen. Leave FSP in the dust, rise above, become something greater. Power. Love. Respect.
You’re a disgrace to this movement and it’s a long time coming. Good riddance.
I’ll say it again: Ian has media. So hes different;not like everyone else. There’s alot of going into the weeds in the video. There’s alot of intellectual theorizing lol.
This is just a damage control rant. The FSP kicked him out. Now Ian Bernard is trying to manipulate the truth. Your views regarding children having sex with adults is your down fall. Yes they are children you are talking about. Yes you had a relationship with a 14 y/o girl. Yes she has 22 years to file a report for statutory rape. You can cry foul but you have been busted out right. Your video is pathetic. Even the title clearly shows you people are not taking the rape of children seriously.
If you want to take rape seriously, then stop pretending that its definition could plausibly including “having sex with anyone whose age is lower than a number drawn out of a hat by a gang of politicians.” REAL rape has a victim. It’s quite clear that Ian, like all sane people, agrees that rape includes having sex with someone who, for reasons of immaturity or another, is incapable of meaningful consent. But drawing a number out of a hat is not a reasonable way of determining ability to meaningfully consent. The burden of proof should be on the prosecution to… Read more »
Congratulations Keene! You’re becoming the outpost for those so low in the social order that even the FSP rejects them.
@RichPaul -“To call someone “spineless” because they refuse to back down from believing what they believe regardless of the consequences is to invite the question “What exactly does the word spineless mean to you, because we seem to be working from different dictionaries?”.”
Would you characterize Ian’s reluctance to engage in civil disobedience because of a suspended sentence as backing down from one’s principles because of the consequences those actions would result in?
If so, then you’ve got your answer.
If not, you’re being disingenuous.
You’re engaged in the fallacy of the excluded middle here. “Spineless” would mean never doing anything that might entail risk. You’re claiming that everything not the complete opposite of that IS that.
You people are just plain sick. Ian states that he believes CHILDREN should be able to emancipate themselves sexually.. Well you moron, if someone at the age of 14 can and should be able to consent to sex with a fully grown adult, then when the inevitable happens, like pregnancy, then that fully grown man should take complete custody of said 14 year old. Because if they are old enough to make grown up decisions then the parents shouldn’t have to continue supporting that 14 year old and the baby that comes with pregnancy, financially or otherwise. But I don’t… Read more »
Mainstream liberty got huge news this week.
Walter Block has endorsed Donald Trump and formed a group Libertarians For Trump.
@ThomaSLKnapp – Ahh, no, I never mentioned “never doing anything that might entail risk”- you injected that into the discussion. Clearly, there are degrees of risk and I wasn’t referring to doing “anything”. My statement referred to doing something that someone strongly believes in (in Ian’s case – civil disobedience) and the significant risk (revocation of a suspended sentence and jail time). I’ll state it clearly for you (and this is in accord with the law of excluded middles) – when someone fails to do something that person strongly believes in because there is a significant risk, that is acting… Read more »
My definition of “spineless” would be “not showing any spine.”
Yours seems to be the fallacious “never shows anything but spine.”
Holy Hannah, Ian! Don’t you know that the government rightfully owns all people until they reach whatever age our overlords decide upon? You’ve obviously had a bit too much to think.
@Richard Bauman Didn’t Ian get that suspended sentence by engaging in civil disobedience?
My definition of spineless would be a politician, but take Robert Anson Heinlein’s opinion on the topic:
“It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier.”
He’s quite spot on, decades after his death.
I wonder if James thinks he’s fooling anyone by not using his name in all his troll posts.
Having said that, I would like to address this nonsense about spinelessness.
If a person holds a strong belief, that doesn’t require them to act to their detriment to any degree. If the consequence was death, would you call him spineless for backing off? What if the consequences were the death of his family and friends?
Spine or no spine is a subjective matter, and I personally don’t fault him.
well B Matt Schmidt , considering your stupid delusional self getting your ass ripped apart by kissinger in Superior Court it seems the spineless one is you waking up 6 month olds at 12 midnight yelling out your window ( GET A JOB) or blowing your horn early in the morning waking up little kids and disturbing families . Delusional and spineless huh. You have a CONFIRMED active Superior Court Restraining Order against you and you and your wife still went to JPs hearing for his kids . You still go by his house full of children and blair your… Read more »
Jumping Quacks or Gregg Duhaime from Hate Group Stop Free Keene whos founder Husband has a felony conviction recent , of over 28,000 dollars of theft from TD Bank North ( Case found NH Superior Court Cheshire Counts State of NH VS Whitcomb . Or his other buddy Matt Schmidt also from hate groupm Stop Free Keene who has a Superior Court restraining order against him (CONFIRMED to be ACTIVE) see Phillips vs Schmidt Cheshire Superior Court or Jennifer Schmidt also from hate group Stop Free Keene accused recently of brandishing a Knife to a mentally Disabled child also 14… Read more »
Whos stephanie Schmidt from JamesTown now in Quincy mass. Oh yeah the former wife you abandoned and left with her kid and cheated on with Jennifer which prompted you to run to NH like the deadbeat coward you are . JUST SAYIN…
I see the FSP has endorsements from David Nolan and Dr. Ruwart who would basically agree with Ian. They make a big thing of their Objectivist connections, but I know for a fact that Ayn Rand though age of consent laws were idiotic and at best guidelines for courts to review each case. Some High-IQ are capable of consent at 7, others low-IQ not at 30, and where people are on the subject is basically an IQ test. Shouldn’t FSP take down those endorsements as well and ban Big-L Libertarians and High-IQ people from participating?Plus I don’t see that Ian… Read more »
Ian is a pedo. I hope you get lots of video games in prison.
This kind of thing certainly tests one’s commitment to non-aggression. If I was taking the abuse Ian is taking, I’d be tempted to shoot one of the the “Ian’s a pedo” trolls in the face and see how many of the rest wanted to keep playing.