I was wondering if someone here has managed to turn a marxist over to libertarianism.
I’ve just saw one case on another forum where I met a nice ex-marxist that now believed in liberty and capitalism.
That’s got to be quite a feat.
there is the curious condition called “libsoc”. many continental anarchists profess to be “libertarian”, but they are also Marxist communists. But if you’re talking about a marxist becoming a capitalist libertarian, I’ve never heard of such a thing.
I imagine that the divide is like that between anarchism and statism. Have you ever heard of a serious anarchist who just decided that he would be a Republican? Neither have I. Sure, maybe there are some guys out there who listened to too much Sex Pistols and Dead Kennedys when they were in high school, who considered themselves “anarchists” during Junior year in High School, but I don’t think that counts 
Hoppe.
Thomas Sowell
It depends very much on your definition of “Marxist”. If you mean a strict adherent of the form of Socialism preached by Marx and Engels, whose core is “class warfare”, you won’t find many, for the simple reason they are dying out and are desperately trying to find new classes to pit one against the other: immigrants vs residents, women vs men, young vs old etc.
On the other hand if you mean a generic “Socialist” you’ll be surprised to see how many libertarians or very similar come from the left. I am myself one though I’ve always struggled to fully understand Mr Marx’s cryptic writings. [;)]
Walter Block maybe? I know he was a socialist.
I was a socialist.
Me, too. It’s not hard to conceive the errors in these political theories once you put your mind to the task.
Interesting. Did Hoppe ever write about his conversion experience? I would be interested to read it.
you know it is interesting how many leftists become libertarians when I think about it. For instance, mises was a socialist and hayek was too. The only people who were rightists were murray rothbard and like, me.
I’ve seen a hardcore socialist turned anarchocapitalist. He had an article recently on the front page. And he’s one of my “students”. Anton Batey.
It turns out to be much easier to convert any kind of ideologue to libertarianism than to convert a political partisan to an ideology. Ideologues are interested in facts. Politicians are only interested in their own power.
I recall that it was reading Bohm-Bawerk’s Marx and the close of his system that turned him.
I was first introduced to political philosophy in my high school econ class in the form of milton friedman and monetarist economics.
Later I became a socialist, but upon looking back I can see I was trying to recreate the market inside the state.
I found hayek and eventually found mises. I’m not a libertarian now but I’m far from socialist.
I have never heard of a libertarian turning into a socialist.
Haven’t read it, but From Marx to Mises by David Ramsey Steele.
Wasn’t Hayek simpathetic to socialismo til he read the pwonage of Socialism by Mises?
That’s actually about the economic calculation argument–and it’s pretty good. I say that having actually met David and have been to his apartment in Chicago’s Loop for a couple of libertarian get-togethers.
Francois Tremblay. There are more mutualists I suspect are more socialist than libertarian. I don’t know for sure, because you can’t pin one down in debate to get definitive position statements. Cowardly bunch (NOMD)
Mencius Moldbug turned from a libertarian to a reactionary.
Hayek was a socialist until he started attending Mises’ seminars.