We're reaching the end of another Cycle of Awful. It goes something like this:
- The pseudo-libertarian strain centred around figures like Woods, Deist, Rockwell, Hoppe, etc. cosy up to and promote extremist far-right loons under the "libertarian" umbrella, on their persistent late-Rothbard theory of building a strategic alliance with "right-wing populism."
- The figures and organisations they've embraced and promoted (past examples include Chase Rachels, Chris Cantwell, Stefan Molyneux) inevitably drop the pretence of being even ostensibly libertarian-ish as they got more openly bigoted and authoritarian. They start saying the quiet part out loud a bit too often, and then they start screaming it.
- Eventually the monsters they've created become too much of a liability and are quietly dumped, often with inconvenient old podcast episodes and blog posts deleted.
- Our Dr. Frankensteins, offering zero remorse or contrition or acknowledgement of the error of their ways, then demand a show of unity and being admitted back into polite company in the movement, all the while denouncing anybody who calls them out on what they've done as divisive infighters.
- Repeat with a new batch of nasty far-right loons.
We've gone through this cycle probably four or five distinct times since it started in the mid-to-late 1980s. It usually takes around six to eight years or so, though that can vary.
A good way to separate the genuinely getting-better from those who are definitely just going to do the same thing again, is to observe how they react when questioned on that history. Those who are getting better will acknowledge it and show remorse. Those who are going to do the same thing again will angrily attack you as a mentally-ill low-IQ pansy who must just hate freedom.