More than a decade ago, there was a debate initiated by Jeffrey Tucker about types of libertarianism, with Tucker advocating for “thick” libertarianism, as opposed to the “thin” variety espoused by the likes of Robert Wenzel, David Gordon, Lew Rockwell, and many others.

The thin libertarians were also dubbed brutalists by Tucker. They were crude, barbaric and content with formal libertarianism, said Tucker, whereas the thick, humanitarian libertarians were concerned with actual libertarianism. In effect, this meant the thickists were departing from traditional libertarian axioms to adopt more liberal-leftist, if not downright Marxist, positions, complete with explicit social justice goals.

The debate got quite nasty, with one of the supposed thinnists, Christopher Cantwell, turning out to be a provocateur, I believe.

Tucker’s manifesto was obviously serving notice that there would soon be a purge among the libertarian ranks, with those not making his cut relegated to the fringes populated by conspiracy theorists, truthers, birthers, clingers, and others of the untermenschen.

And so it has been.

Now the ranks have been thinned further.

I just learned of the death last year of Bob Wenzel. Wenzel was not only a thinlib, he was also vocal in his opposition to mandated vaccinations.

This year, Bill Sardi also died. While he was not part of the libertarian divide, he was an outspoken opponent of the Covid fraud and a Christian to boot, and the circumstances of his passing were somewhat suspicious.

Besides Sardi, Becky Akers, another vociferous Christian libertarian voice at Lew Rockwell, and Gary North, one of the best-known and oldest Christian paleolibs around, also passed away this year.

I cannot help but feel something uncanny in the fact.