Thomas Massie

The problem with Thomas Massie

Thomas Massie’s predicament, as he fends off a Trump-backed challenger – and Trump himself – in the Republican primary for his seat in Congress, is symbolic of the vexed relationship libertarians have with the right these days. Massie was not only a Tea Party Republican when he was first elected in 2012, he was a Ron Paul Republican, inspired by the longtime, philosophically libertarian Texas congressman who made his second bid for the GOP presidential nomination that year. The Commonwealth of Kentucky had sent Paul’s son, Rand, to the US Senate two years before, and its 4th congressional district put Massie in the House. Libertarians are natural junior partners in

Thomas Massie

The Epstein files and the new Satanic Panic

I’ve spent the last few years building an audience of skeptics and – let’s be honest – more than a few conspiracy theorists who turned out to be right about some pretty big things. We saw #MeToo devolve into a moral panic where accusation equaled guilt and due process was something only rape apologists cared about. We watched Covid turn half the country into snitches who, drunk on their own righteousness, ratted out neighbors for having a barbecue. We talked endlessly on podcasts about groupthink, social contagion and mobs. And on some of the biggest questions – the lab leak, institutional corruption, “gender-affirming care” and the machinery of public manipulation