By: Drew Rush

Cory Massimino of Students for Liberty wrote about what he considers an important need within the libertarian community: safe spaces. He calls them “areas designed for marginalized people to feel free from… intolerant social norms, bigoted harassment, and general persecution…”

I think this is a great idea, except that I would change it to the following: areas designed for all people to feel free from intolerance, bigotry, and persecution. There is, of course, no single place on Earth that could serve as such for all people. It seems that a critic exists for every single action a person can take.

Yet, that’s the beauty of libertarianism: we don’t all need to attend one big libertarian safe space meeting to get the world working toward freedom. The world will never be totally inclusive, but it does not have to be — only inclusive enough to tolerate the choices individuals make to associate with each other.

So if Massimino wants to create a safe space for any group of people, and also wants to be a good libertarian, he can simply buy property and exclude anyone who wants to make it unsafe for his guests. It’s his house. He can be as arbitrary or censorious as he wants. You point to someone who says he doesn’t have that right and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t identify as a libertarian. (Mutualists don’t count. I don’t even think they can count.)

The trouble is, Massimino doesn’t just want to have his own private safe spaces. He wants to make it so that everyone else creates safe spaces on their own property that fall in line with what he thinks is reasonable and socially just. It’s a pipe dream. As long as private property exists, people he doesn’t like are going to continue being libertarian and calling themselves libertarians and it’s not a bad thing. He’s going to have to accept it or keep throwing public tantrums.

Or he can do what leftists typically do when all else fails and pass a law.

There is, actually, one other recourse. He can claim the ideas he finds reprehensible, like not wanting to hang out with gay people, are actually not libertarian at all. That’s fine and technically he’s right: there’s nothing libertarian or unlibertarian about it. He can claim that all he wants as long as he does it using his own property, but he’ll never realize his totalitarian pipe dream of making all of libertarianism one big safe space of his choosing.