Kibbe on Liberty

Following a series of highly visible (and highly embarrassing) congressional hearings with the heads of major universities, the debate over what speech should be permitted on college campuses has reignited. Matt Kibbe sits down with Greg Lukianoff, president and CEO of FIRE and author of "The Canceling of the American Mind," to discuss cancel culture and the hypocrisy of college administrators who are fine with allowing vocal anti-Semitism while also maintaining a “speech is violence” attitude toward more conservative opinions.

Israel is the new Ukraine! As Congress shifts its interest from funding a war against Russia to funding a war against Hamas, there are few people in Washington willing to push back against reckless spending, even though our own national debt is spiraling out of control. Thomas Massie is one such voice, although his principled commitment to fiscal responsibility has earned him plenty of animosity, including but not limited to accusations of antisemitism. He sits down with Matt Kibbe to defend his votes, and highlight how America’s overspending is the greatest threat to our own national security.

Are the teachings of Christianity compatible with libertarianism? Economist Deirdre McCloskey thinks so. At the Mont Pelerin Society conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, she sits down with Matt Kibbe to lay out her vision of a Christian libertarianism that values the individual over the collective, embraces markets, and demands that we treat each other with kindness, humility, and love. These lessons are more important than ever in a time when politics is dominated by division and hatred.

In the second of a series of interviews conducted at the Mont Pelerin Society in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, Matt Kibbe is joined by Daniel D’Amico, director for the Stephenson Institute of Classical Liberalism to discuss the much maligned and abused L-word. Liberalism in its classical sense conveys a respect for individualism, personal freedom, and limited government. Despite its co-option by progressive leftists, it remains a better word, both etymologically and aesthetically, to describe the kind of world those at the Mont Pelerin Society are fighting for. While many people are enamored with more collectivist ideas like socialism these days, liberalism remains the standard by which countries are judged. If you go looking for justice, prosperity, freedom, and happiness, you will find it in those societies that are the most liberal in their construction.

Political polarization in the United States has never been worse. At least, that’s what we’ve been told by a media culture that feeds on sensationalism and fearmongering. But it turns out the truth is somewhat more complicated. In their new film, “Undivide Us,” Kristina Kendall and Benjamin Klutsey bring Americans together to have the kinds of difficult conversations that we’re told we can’t have any more. What they find is that, far from being too tribally entrenched to hear one another, most people are actually eager to hear other points of view and to humanize viewpoints besides their own. In this conversation, Matt Kibbe and his guests explore the idea that we can disagree without being disagreeable and that we can use our differences to make social progress rather than to simply attack one another.