ProfileDave Smith

Disclaimers

At the time of this writing, Smith has 670 podcast episodes that usually run over an hour as well as thousands of tweets. The following write-up is based on the research in mid-November, which involved listening to roughly 10 cumulative hours of Smith’s Part of the Problem podcast reading Smith’s social media posts. The podcasts episodes were primarily ones where Smith had a guest. Equivalent time was given to episodes with guests that Rebel Rabbits either likes, dislikes, or doesn’t know. Rebel Rabbits acknowledges this is a small sample and requests users reach out to Concepts are Bricks with any updated information.

Additionally, many of Smith's "Part of the Problem" podcast episodes referenced on this platform are hosted behind paywalls and cannot be directly linked. In these cases, episode numbers and @timestamps will be provided.

Who is Dave Smith?

Dave Smith is a stand-up comedian and self-identified libertarian. He hosts a podcast, Part of the Problem, where he sometimes features guests who are either promoting or defending a controversial ideology.

In Dave’s Own Words

Smith bills himself as a libertarian whose primary goal is spreading the message of libertarianism to his audience. He believes a libertarian’s primary focus should be ending wars. From Dave’s perspective, focusing on issues such as racism— which he considers a minor issue, since 97 percent of the movement is white [POTP ep 557, @ 41:05].— is, at best, a very poor allocation of time and resources and at worst, harmful to libertarianism because it damages its reputation. Smith says he enjoys having “uncomfortable” and politically incorrect conversations because, as he says, doing so allows him to get to the truth of an issue.

Why Dave Smith is Here

If Smith really were merely an anti-war activist— libertarian or otherwise— this platform would support him. But that’s not the case.

In addition to his own comments about immigration, race, and antisemitism, Smith also uses his platform to praise fascists and other right-leaning authoritarians and give them a platform on which to defend their positions. Many of Smith’s so-called libertarian-leaning guests claim to favor non-interventionist foreign policies, but their ideologies are otherwise completely antithetical to libertarianism.

On his podcast, Smith hosts white nationalists, white supremacists, America Firsters and VDare contributors and defends his guests’ illiberal right-wing populism as an alternative to the “conservative establishment.” After guest Michelle Malkin gave several reasons why voting for Donald Trump in the 2020 election— including Trump’s very non-libertarian intolerance toward immigration— Smith praised her stance for bucking the “conservative establishment.” [POTP ep 557, @15min].

From Smith’s perspective, the range of acceptable opinions about most cultural issues is too narrow, and he wants to expand it. Smith says he wants to have “uncomfortable” and politically incorrect conversations in order to get to the truth of any given matter [POTP ep 624, ~33min]. To this end, Smith hosts people whom he refers to as “interesting.” These “interesting” people include multiple Unite the Right rally attendees and VDare contributors. On his show, Smith has told Holocaust deniers and other overt bigots that he doesn’t care about their personal bigotry or opinions on the Holocaust.  Instead, he finds those topics funny and takes joy in “melting snowflakes.” [ep 557, 0:45].

In addition to failing to meet the low bar for libertarian consistency of not praising or platforming authoritarians, Smith himself has expressed a fair number of anti-libertarian positions. Smith makes a point to avoid talking about racism against minorities, claiming that the only legitimate reason to discuss it is to virtue signal. On the rare occasion when he has broken his own rule and ventured into conversations about race, he’s made it clear where he stands: In his opinion, anti-white racism is the “real '' prevalent bigotry the world faces [1, 2]. He has also said that white people, on average, have higher IQs than black people [POTP ep 624].

Specific quotes and comments from Smith:

• Smith rebuffs concerns about Holocaust deniers:

  • Asks his audience [“Why is [Holocaust denialism] the most horrible thing ever?”](<* * https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4110&v=5LSAOUceQu4&feature=youtu.be>)
  • When interviewing America Firster and VDARE contributor Michelle Malkin:  (Ep 557) "Like, my gripes with the America First crowd...I don’t have the problems that everyone else has with them. I’m not like, 'oh they made a racist joke,' or you know, ‘they did this,’ or ‘one of them is a Holocaust denier,’ or something. I just don’t care about any of that stuff. Like, I’m very confident the Holocaust happened, but...if someone believes it didn’t happen, like I don’t understand why this is so consequential...‘Ok, you got one kind of goofy stupid view,’ or something. Whatever.” (31:30)
  • Called an infamous holocaust denial joke “hilarious”

• Dave believes white people are the real victims of racism:
  “I just think that there’s not really a huge problem of racism, certainly amongst libertarians. You could argue there’s a huge problem of racism in the country right now, but it’s pretty much all, uh, coming in one direction. And it’s not the one that you guys are thinking of.”

  • https://www.facebook.com/Fakertarians/posts/1292293714274625
• Asserts that there is no legitimate reason for libertarians to be vocally anti-racist.
• Says Twitter’s policy of banning accounts for exhibitions of transphobia is equivalent to hosting a “whites only sign.”
• Expresses serious concern over the “demographic consequences” of legal immigration [POTP ep 549 @~16:15, POTP ep 557 @~18min] and claims a closed-border position is just as libertarian as an open-borders position.
• As a strategy towards spreading the libertarian message, Dave seems to think that it is more appropriate or likely for libertarian on the right versus the left, “because the left will never accept you.” [POTP ep 557]

• In his interview with Nick Fuentes, Smith:

  • Compares private businesses’ practice of excluding and expelling bigots to the discriminatory behavior bigots themselves engage in.
  • Suggests that Holocaust denialism is relatively harmless.
• After the interview, Smith has both denied and then claimed ignorance of any dangerous behavior from Fuentes, who— at the time of this writing— is the subject of 32 targeted articles Right Wing Watch.

Aside from the discussions Smith platforms and participates in, the way Smith interacts with his different sorts of guests is telling. When he hosts mainstream libertarians— such as Spike Cohen, Jen Monroe, and Chris Spangle— Smith is more likely to debate with them and challenge (albeit politely) their positions. However, when he hosts right-wing populist guests, he almost never challenges their positions, no matter how authoritarian— or, frankly, antithetical to human rights— they are. When he hosted Malkin, his only quibble with her “America First” stance was that they don’t support a free market [Ep 557 @31:20]. When he hosted white nationalist and multifaceted bigot Nick Fuentes, he highlighted the commonalities that made them fellow travelers.

Dave Smith, In Conclusion

While Smith frequently says good things or reaches conclusions that are wholly consistent with ethical individualism and libertarianism, he also has a habit of platforming, praising, and persisting fascist propaganda. Smith challenges libertarians on traditional libertarian positions such as freedom of immigration and anti-racism. Dave dismisses traditional libertarian concerns about right-wing values, including transphobia, nationalism, anti-semitism, and systemic racism. Smith repeatedly validates his right-wing guests’ concerns about demographic change, immigration, widespread anti-white racism. He fails to challenge assertions that racial IQ differences are objective fact, 9/11 was caused by legal immigration, that discrimination against bigots is equally as objectionable as discrimination from bigots, and that the Left— which will never accept libertarians, anyway—  is the true enemy of the libertarian movement.