Journalists are often forced to oversimplify the blurry, confusing reality of the Keene libertarian movement due to constraints on time and newspaper space. Local liberty activists sometimes oversimplify, too– or are even misinformed themselves. This can create frustrating misconceptions, so it’s good to clarify the relationship between the different activists and organizations and activities every once in a while.
Last night’s WMUR report provides some perfect examples of possibly misleading simplifications. (Not to pick on them– I think they summarized the situation fairly, all things considered.)
WMUR claims that Free Keene is an “offshoot” of the Free State Project. Is it?
Well… sort of.
The Free State Project is an attempt to get 20,000 libertarian activists to move to New Hampshire, with the goal of creating a libertarian state. (Libertarians are a small minority on a national scale, so activism on the federal level is thought to be less effective.) The official Free State Project organization runs a website, buys advertising, and organizes two yearly events– PorcFest and Liberty Forum. That’s practically the entirety of what it does.
There’s a case to be made that Free Keene is an offshoot of this. The founder of the website is a Free State Project participant, and many of the bloggers and activists are Free Staters as well. I would guess that support for the Free State Project is unanimous among the Free Keene crowd.
On the other hand, I’m sure some Free State Project officials don’t want to have anything to do with Free Keene, due to disagreement with the controversial tactics promoted here. And on top of that, the overwhelming majority of Free Staters don’t even live in the Keene area, much less have any relation to Free Keene. There are even Free Staters in Keene who stay uninvolved.
To use an analogy– is Planned Parenthood an offshoot of the Democratic Party because their memberships overlap? Is NH Common Sense – an organization founded by a Free Stater, which promotes the reform of marijuana laws – also an offshoot of the Free State Project? My instinct is to say “no” to all of the above, though I can see how the opposite claim could arise.
The video also suggests that there are “members” of Free Keene. I think this is more straightforwardly false.
What could it even mean to be a member of Free Keene? Free Keene is only an internet site with a blog and a discussion forum. There is no official organization.
Does participating in the discussion forum make you a Free Keene member? I don’t see how. Many people in the forum don’t live anywhere near Keene. Others are local Keeniacs who basically oppose everything Free Keene promotes. And some activists, who either label themselves or get labeled as Free Keene members, never frequent the forums.
Does blogging at Free Keene make you a member? Not in any useful sense of the term. I’m blogging, yet I don’t fit the description given in the video at all, as I’m usually critical of the more controversial civil disobedience, and do my best to stay away from it. (Heck, I’m not even a libertarian, properly speaking– more of an independent with liberal and libertarian tendencies.) Nick, Brad, Josh, Chris, and Toby don’t fit the description, either. And a large portion of the activists who do fit the description don’t blog here.
So what’s the relationship?
I think it’s most accurately described with a Venn diagram:
I can think of people who fit into each of these spaces, as well as other local libertarians who fall outside all of the circles.
The most that can be said about Free Keene in this respect is that it serves as a focal point of local activism. Controversial events are often (though not always) organized in the forums. They are often (though not always) provided with positive reporting on the blog. They often (though not always) involve Free Keene bloggers.
All of this complexity practically demands simplification, for convenience’s sake. But confusing the simplification with reality can lead to bizarre results.
(I was once accosted on the street by an angry liberal woman, who recognized me from a Democratic event, while I was gathering signatures with Working Families Win. Working Families Win is a progressive organization, and the signatures were for a petition in support of the Local Jobs For America Act, which would have increased government spending for blatantly Keynesian purposes. She probably supported the act. “Oy vey, have you got the wrong Free Stater!” It was very embarrassing for both of us.)
Just something to keep in mind.
