Description
Jeff Deist is president of the Mises Institute. He previously worked as a longtime advisor and chief of staff to Congressman Ron Paul, for whom he wrote hundreds of articles and speeches. Jeff also spent many years as a tax attorney advising private equity clients on mergers and acquisitions.
Jeff Deist originally came under controversy back in July 2017 when he gave an infamous speech, For A New Libertarian, at the Corax 2017 conference for Mises University. In this talk, which can be found on mises.org, can be summarized as arguing:
- Political liberation comes through political power structures, not technological advancement
- It is utopianism to claim libertarianism will work only when individuals and communities shed their anti-libertarian values and laws
- Libertarianism can work in the context of nationalist, religious frameworks
- Caring about universal political principles, such as legal freedom of gay marriage, leads to globalism which leads to centralized world governance.
- Nationalism is popular. People care about blood and soil. Libertarians should cater their marketing to these values or risk irrelevance.
This article has been condemned for pushing libertarians into alt-right nationalism and Rebel Rabbits agrees.
Additionally, in early 2021, text transcripts were leaked involving Jeffrey Tucker, who worked from 1997 to 2011 as editorial vice president and editor for the institute's website, Mises.org. In these transcripts, Tucker claims:
- The Mises Institute is an "onboarding institution for the alt-right"
- "These people [meaning Deist and others] have dabbled in very bad shit for a long time, but mostly in private"
- "I know exactly why Deist is prez... and it is not about libertarianism"
Further research by Rebel Rabbits discovered that Jeff Deist is a twitter follower of @VDare, a race realist non profit that promotes the work of white supremacists, anti-Semites and others on the radical right. While this is not damning in and of itself - many individuals and groups follow opponents - RebelRabbits feels it is noteworthy.
