Kibbe On Liberty

In this special election edition of "Kibbe on Liberty," Matt goes solo, unleashing an epic ramble-rant about the big political realignment happening right before our eyes and the opportunities for libertarians working to free America from the tyranny of lockdown authoritarianism. While Donald Trump openly courts the libertarian vote, a New Resistance is forming, motivated by a reverence for free speech, skepticism of endless foreign wars, and a desire to make America healthy again. With old-school liberals like RFK Jr., Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, Nicole Shanahan, and Bret Weinstein now joined together, what kinds of new coalitions and alliances might we help create or join — together? 

As trust in the government school system plummets, more and more parents are stepping up and taking a more active role in their children’s educations. Now, those parents are representing a major voting bloc in the swing states, and they will have to decide which candidate will better support their rights. Matt Kibbe sits down with Corey DeAngelis, author of “The Parent Revolution,” to discuss how issues like school choice and parental rights will impact the election and whether the actions taken by administrators and teachers’ unions during the pandemic will create blowback for Democrats.

Four years after the COVID-19 pandemic and the disastrous lockdowns that accompanied it, we’re still looking for answers on who to blame for the millions of deaths as well as the countless livelihoods destroyed. Since the corporate press has failed to do its job in holding government officials accountable, independent journalists have had to pick up the slack. Matt Kibbe sits down with Christian Britschgi, associate editor at Reason magazine, to discuss the role that Dr. Anthony Fauci played in funding the gain-of-function research that likely led to the release of the virus and then covering up his involvement to protect himself and his allies. While most people only learned who Fauci was in 2020, he has been a major player in researching bioweapons for decades.

As Hurricane Helene brought devastation to Asheville, North Carolina, and surrounding communities, it’s been remarkable how ineffective FEMA and other government agencies have been at helping victims. More galling, government bureaucrats are actually impeding private efforts to offer aid to those in need. Matt Kibbe sits down with Amy LePore, co-founder of Dissident Media, who explains how the centralization of emergency services after 9/11 has led to an obstructive bureaucracy incapable of responding to the needs of citizens.

The COVID-19 pandemic gave government authoritarians the opportunity to exploit the public’s fear to seize power. It was shocking to see how quickly many people were willing to abandon their principles for the promise of protection, but it’s hardly the first time this has happened. Matt Kibbe sits down with Logan Albright, head writer at Free the People and author of "Freedom over Fear," to discuss the history of the politicians and bureaucrats using the rhetoric of fear to consolidate their own power and strip the citizens of their civil liberties. From xenophobia during war and FDR’s economic fascism during the Great Depression to surrendering privacy in the name of anti-terrorism and moral panics about the corruption of children, both the political Left and Right will take any chance to scare us as long as we keep letting them. Pick up your copy of “Freedom Over Fear” here: https://a.co/d/6DrdFXX

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed a number of troubling truths about the role the pharmaceutical industry plays in shaping public policy and the financial incentives that politicians and bureaucrats have to push certain medical interventions onto unsuspecting citizens. Matt Kibbe sits down with Sharyl Attkisson, author of "Follow the Science," to discuss the hidden connections between the medical-industrial complex and the regulators who have the power to force you to take an experimental vaccine whether you want to or not. It’s impossible to have trust in the public health establishment as long as these blatant conflicts of interests exist and as long as there is no civil or criminal accountability for companies delivering products that have a high risk of causing permanent harm to those who use them.

The emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen in late 2019, and the ensuing investigation into its origins, revealed a dangerous lack of concern among bureaucrats and elected officials for biosafety and biosecurity. Not only did our government fund research to make viruses more deadly to humans, but it continues to do so, refusing to back down or admit any wrongdoing, paving the way for a future pandemic that makes COVID-19 look like the common cold. In his research for "The Coverup" series, which examines the national security apparatus’ involvement in the development of the COVID virus, Matt Kibbe speaks with Bryce Nickels, professor of genetics for Rutgers University and co-founder of Biosafety Now, to find out what we as a society should be doing to prevent the development and spread of future pathogens. Their conversation also serves as a preview of the upcoming episode of "The Coverup" featuring Dr. Richard Ebright.

Americans can’t seem to agree on how to handle crime. On the Right, we have the tough-on-crime, lock-’em-up mentality that prioritizes punishment and low tolerance for antisocial behavior. On the Left, we hear talk about compassion and rehabilitation, while thieves and vandals are allowed to loot and pillage our cities without consequences. Restorative justice constitutes a different way of thinking about criminal justice altogether, recognizing that the traditional prison model has failed to prevent recidivism, while the zero-accountability strategy implemented by cities like San Francisco has been a disaster for public safety. Matt Kibbe sits down with restorative justice professionals Kathleen McGoey and Lindsey Pointer to discuss their work in the field, as well as their new book, “The Little Book of Restorative Teaching Tools for Online Learning,” which gives practical instructions on how to implement restorative practices in your own community.

Most people think about taxation as a bite out of their paychecks, an extra expense at the grocery store, and a massive hassle around April 15 every year. All this is correct as far as it goes, but what we too often fail to appreciate are the massive ways in which tax policy shapes our lives and our decision-making. Matt Kibbe sits down with Scott Hodge, president emeritus of the Tax Foundation and author of the book “Taxocracy,” to discuss how taxation is used for social engineering by a government that wants to control and restrict your available choices. This concept is not limited to the so-called “sin taxes” on items like alcohol and tobacco but includes tax incentives for behavior deemed desirable by politicians and bureaucrats, such as buying a home or having children. Hodge argues that the use of tax policy to shape citizens’ behavior is fundamentally opposed to free will and the idea that we are the authors of our own destinies.

The quickest way for mothers to become politically activated is when their kids are threatened. This week, Matt Kibbe sits down with Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, to discuss the many ways in which the federal government is failing and neglecting America’s children. As a member of her local school board, Justice saw firsthand that teachers’ unions and school administrators consistently prioritized their own needs above those of the children. Then, during COVID lockdowns, the widespread school closures represented a callous disregard for the well-being of kids. At the same time, parents were waking up to school curricula filled with critical theory and gender ideology propaganda. In response to their activism, concerned parents were smeared and demonized by the federal government, labeled domestic terrorists for the crime of taking an interest in their children’s education. Moms for Liberty is holding its annual summit this week in Washington, D.C., with tickets still available for those wish

Merry olde England isn’t so merry these days, as its police force has been busy arresting citizens for posting “offensive” opinions on social media. One police commissioner even threatened to extradite Elon Musk, along with other Americans, for disregarding the United Kingdom’s anti-hate-speech laws. The American Bill of Rights drew many of its provisions straight from the tradition of English common law, which now seems so distant from the country’s censorious policies. Matt Kibbe is joined by Daniel Hannan, a Conservative Party member of the House of Lords, to find out what’s going on with our neighbors across the pond. Hannan argues that these speech regulations are a return to the prosecution of blasphemy that was once common, only with modern social justice tenets substituted for religious ones.

Every election cycle, it seems like our choices get not only worse but more limited. The two-party system consistently delivers poor candidates who resemble each other more than they differ. The reason for this is that there’s no competition. Matt Kibbe sits down with Christina Tobin, founder of Free & Equal, to discuss how we can change that. As things stand, it is practically impossible for independent and third-party candidates to get any traction, because the Democrats and Republicans control the process for obtaining ballot access and appearing in debates. After the success of independent candidate Ross Perot in the 1990s, the two parties locked down the debate process, continually increasing the requirements to qualify in order to shut out competitors. Free & Equal’s mission is to win back ballot access and debate exposure for candidates who seek to challenge the uniparty duopoly.

At 2024’s FreedomFest, Matt Kibbe catches up with John Mackey, the serial entrepreneur who founded Whole Foods and is now launching the new wellness company Love.Life. Mackey wants to empower individuals to take control of their own health in a way that is increasingly difficult in the American health care system. Despite these challenges, Mackey remains a long-term optimist about the future of liberty, pointing to the decentralized wisdom that spontaneously emerges from creative people working and cooperating to solve big problems. It’s easy to be gloomy about the country’s direction given the events of the last few years, but as long as there are entrepreneurs like Mackey building new systems, there is plenty of reason for hope.

At this year’s FreedomFest in Las Vegas, Matt Kibbe sits down with English comedian Andrew Doyle to talk about how comedy, and indeed art as a whole, has been impacted by woke identity politics and critical theory. Doyle is pushing back against a claim that a comedian’s race or gender is more important than whether he or she can be funny. He’s also firmly committed to mocking those with absurd ideas, and that includes activists who want to police speech and silence dissent. The unique advantage of comedy is that it can hold a mirror up to the society and expose the ridiculous and the hypocritical.

Modern pundits are fond of dismissing America’s Founders as backward slave owners with outdated ideas about government, but they were actually prescient about many of the issues that define today’s political landscape. At the FreedomFest conference in Las Vegas, Matt Kibbe sits down with libertarian influencer Josie Glabach, professionally known as the Redheaded Libertarian, to explore the truth about American history, her personal journey to libertarianism, and the ongoing lunacy of American politics in the 21st century.

In light of recent events, it is incumbent on all champions of freedom to denounce violence in all its forms. Reasonable people can agree that the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, were a tragedy that should never have happened. But this acknowledgement shouldn’t prevent us from seeking the truth about what really happened that day. Matt Kibbe is joined by independent journalist and BlazeTV contributor Steve Baker, who was at the Capitol on January 6 and captured most of that day on film. Among the many things that still require explanation is why the Capitol Police did not provide more security for the event and why certain members of the force have been caught lying in front of Congress.

When truth is treason in the empire of lies, sometimes it takes a court jester to say what everyone else is thinking. Matt Kibbe catches up with actor and comedian Rob Scheider at 2024’s FreedomFest in Las Vegas, to talk about how the formerly apolitical comic felt compelled to come out as a warrior for freedom purely by virtue of the fact that no one else would. Schneider is a reluctant intellectual, who would rather be making movies than talking politics, but he also believes that there comes a time when silence is a betrayal. In the wake of totalitarian COVID lockdowns, censorship, endless wars, and an increasingly corrupt political process, comedians may just be the ones who wake us all up.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans are reevaluating their relationship with the health care industry and the government bureaucrats who control it. Matt Kibbe sits down with Dr. Mark Richards, author of “Nobody Wants You Healthy,” to delve into the perverse incentives that drive Big Pharma into profiting off a country of the chronically ill, rather than actually promoting healthy living. From mandatory vaccines with unproven safety records to the media’s eagerness to silence medical dissenters, it’s becoming increasingly clear that we can’t rely on our institutions to tell us the truth about what’s really making us sick. To find out more or purchase a copy of "Nobody Wants You Healthy" for yourself, visit: https://www.nobodywantsyouhealthy.com.

In this second half of our retrospective look at one of "Kibbe on Liberty's" most frequent and entertaining guests, Matt Kibbe talks to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) about a wide range of topics, including food freedom, the surveillance state, foreign policy, and how the congressman became the most hated man in Washington. This special "best of" edition of "Kibbe on Liberty" also features clips from Massie's appearances with former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard and Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, as well as the remote interviews recorded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Be sure to check out Sassy with Massie (Part 1), if you missed it!

Making war is one of the things that government does best, but sometimes even the deep-state elites need a little help figuring out how to invade other countries, kill their people, and plunder their resources, all while propping up American defense contractors and keeping the voting public complacent. Thankfully, a handy how-to manual for all your global domination needs has just hit the shelves. Matt Kibbe sits down with authors Christopher Coyne and Abigail Hall to discuss their new satirical book, "How to Run Wars," which uses humor to shine a light on the bellicose evils of the perpetual war machine and those who seek to profit from it.