NHPR’s Feature Piece on Free State Project (& Free Keene) + Full Interview Audio

Thanks to New Hampshire Public Radio reporter Taylor Quimby (originally from the Keene area) for his detailed and well-researched report on the Free State Project, which delves into the history of the project, the diversity of opinions of its movers, their effectiveness and impact in New Hampshire, including plenty of focus on Free Keene – one of the top blogs in NH that chronicles the NH Freedom Migration, focusing on Keene.

The audio version of the report is excellent, with audio that doesn’t appear in the printed version. Both editions are lengthy, so settle in for a good long read or listen.

Besides a few minor quibbles, Taylor’s reporting is fair and the audio version is quite entertaining. I laughed out loud a few times.

In case you were curious, I’ve uploaded the full hourlong interview Taylor did with me where we discussed the Keene 420s, how I found the Free State Project and its early history, the start of Free Talk Live, my early discovery of libertarianism, Robin Hooding, the NH freedom migration, Shire Society, Forkfest and schisms in the movement, the Shire Free Church, Porcfest, cryptocurrency in NH, the FSP-FTL breakup, decentralization, and the (in my opinion) success of the Free State Project:

One of the quibbles I have with the NHPR report is the audio used as evidence of the Robin Hooders‘ supposed bad behavior is actually audio of hater Rev. David Berman when he was haranguing Robin Hooder Graham Colson. To my knowledge no Robin Hooder ever behaved like Berman and purposefully invaded the Parking Enforcers’ personal space (and the Enforcers under oath in the case never said the Hooders ever did such a thing).

The other audio in the piece that deserves some perspective is that of pre-racist-days Chris Cantwell giving a Parking Enforcer a piece of his mind. Cantwell was never “officially” a Robin Hooder – the video of him was a one-time outing for him (he fashioned himself a libertarian comedian at the time). Though, as the NHPR piece points out, in a decentralized movement, you can’t control who shows up and claims to be something. The city in their laughable legal case, also played those Cantwell vids, but of course didn’t include him in the suit. (He wasn’t even in Keene during the prime Robin Hooding over which the suit was filed anyway.)

Some might complain that the NHPR piece focuses too much on secession, but that’s one of the schisms within our movement. Some libertarians think it’s a bad idea, but there are lots of us libertarian-types, including both FSP board member Carla Gericke and me (two of the featured interviewees in the NHPR piece) who are open advocates for New Hampshire declaring independence. It’s a real aspect of the NH Freedom Migration and deserves media attention.

I’m grateful to Taylor Quimby for the pretty excellent reporting.