Matt Zwolinski
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mattzwolinski.bsky.social
Matt Zwolinski
@mattzwolinski.bsky.social

Philosopher. Co-author of The Individualists: Radicals, Reactionaries, and the Struggle for the Soul of Libertarianism (Princeton, 2023), and Universal Basic Income: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford, 2023).
Http://bleedingheartlibertarian.substack.com .. more

Political science 55%
Sociology 11%
Pinned
My book with John Tomasi, The Individualists, is now out in paperback.
If you’re interested in an intellectual history of libertarianism that shows how it went from radical supporters of abolitionism and women’s rights to a party that threw its weight behind Donald Trump, this is the book for you.

Thank you very much!

Reposted by Matt Zwolinski

Reposted by Matt Zwolinski

Thank you to @mattzwolinski.bsky.social for this typically thoughtful and generous review of "The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism" from a libertarian standpoint....

www.independent.org/tir/2025-fal...
Book Review: The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism, Matthew McManus
In 2022, the Pew Research Center published a report that caught many conservatives and classical liberals by surprise. Socialism, the report revealed, is
www.independent.org

Abundance theorists are right to focus on the importance of building things. But by ignoring public choice theory, they miss the risk that state-driven growth will benefit the elite rather than the masses. My review of _Abundance_ and _Why Nothing Works_, at Econlib.
www.econlib.org/library/colu...
The Cost of Building Progress - Econlib
Book Review of: Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress–and How to Bring It Back by Marc J. Dunkelman,1; and Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson.2 Vera Coking and the Cost of Progress In 1961, V...
www.econlib.org

Companion website here with sample quizzes, tests, and writing assignments. Plus extensive study questions for every reading in the book.

routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/_a...
Companion Website - Landing Page
routledgetextbooks.com

Out today! The new and massively revised third edition of Arguing About Political Philosophy, co-edited with the fantastic @mjuarezgarcia_ . Perfect for courses in political philosophy or PPE.
Truly wild photos coming in from Los Angeles right now.

This is a really great interview, Berny. You did a fantastic job of letting her get her point of view out while still really pushing her where she needed to be pushed. 👏👏

Reposted by Matt Zwolinski

Careful guys, if you don’t control migration you might turn out like <checks notes> the greatest, wealthiest city in the world.

Trump channeling his inner Thomas Carlyle for Juneteenth.

“Quashee, if he will not help in bringing out the spices, will get himself made a slave again…and with beneficient whip, since other methods avail not, will be compelled to work.”

Feels like a good time to repost this.
Homan and Miller are heading into the Trump administration, and people need to read Kukathas.
His point: you can’t limit freedom of immigration without severely limiting the freedom of citizens. Restricting their freedom means restricting our own too.
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Immigration and Freedom
A compelling account of the threat immigration control poses to the citizens of free societies
press.princeton.edu

Ya think?

Oh geez. Just noticed the typo! My head hangeth in shame.

Picking up on a distinction introduced by the late great Steve Horowitz, I argue that libertarians make a mistake when they equate being anti-state with being pro-liberty.
To Fight Authoritarianism, Libertarians Need to be More Pro-Liberty, Not Just Anti-State
Blogger Noah Smith’s praise for libertarianism comes at an odd time but offers an opportunity to clarify the side that has contributed to human freedom and flourishing
open.substack.com

Thank you, Eric!

Page proofs are in! Coming your way this July.

Reading @anneapplebaum.bsky.social's excellent, _Autocracy, Inc._. I can’t recommend it enough as a guide to understanding the rising tide of 21st century authoritarianism. And some of what she describes sounds eerily familiar…

Reposted by Matt Zwolinski

WH has now confirmed: this is insane nypost.com/2025/04/02/u...

Reposted by Matt Zwolinski

"The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism" is on sale at Routledge. $10 bucks off.

www.routledge.com/The-Politica...
The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism
McManus presents a comprehensive guide to the liberal socialist tradition, stretching from Mary Wollstonecraft and Thomas Paine through John Stuart Mill to Irving Howe, John Rawls, and Charles Mills. ...
www.routledge.com

Oh, can I get an early copy?

Reposted by Matt Zwolinski

There is no reason to doubt that this man speaks for the administration. Read it and consider where we are.

I find the second and third of those reasons more compelling than the first.

But we don’t generally get to control our creations in that way. If someone gets an idea from my writing and then uses it in a novel way to create something new, they’re entitled to make money from that creation. They don’t need my consent for that, nor do they owe me any compensation.

Not all differences are relevant differences. So the question is whether it should matter that it’s a machine rather than a human, and why. That’s what I haven’t seen articulated yet.

Well, they *are* learning. Whether they count as “minds” or not seems at least unclear to me, philosophically speaking. But functionally, they certainly behave more and more like minds.

But is consent necessary in such cases? If art is placed in the public sphere, and a human beings observe it, learn from it, and use what they have learned in their own creative work, that's not theft. That's just how culture works. I'm not clear on why it's different in the case of AI.