My Breakup with the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus

Silly me, I thought Libertarians supported people believing whatever they wanted to as long as they followed the non-aggression principle.

The Red Pill Diaries are my unvarnished, sometimes offensive, slightly narcissistic observations on my red pill journey.

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I’ve been involved with the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus for two years.

I used my platform and resources to promote them and cover their efforts to take over the Libertarian Party and expose more people to the ideas.

Anytime someone said “the Libertarian Party is too woke, Karlyn” I would say “You don’t understand, the Mises Caucus is going to fix that.”

I paid thousands of dollars out of my own pocket to attend the convention in Reno to support the takeover.

I’ve participated in countless Spaces on Twitter coordinated with the Mises Caucus to expose people to new ideas.

I even wrote about the Mises Caucus in my book.

And now I know I’m not welcome in the Mises Caucus…because of my spiritual beliefs.

Last night, I was told by the Mises Caucus National Coordinator, Jeff Douglas, that I had never been with the Mises Caucus and that I was bad for the brand because I dared talk about my spiritual beliefs online in a way that doesn’t hurt anyone but that stupid people found offensive.

Then that information was spread to every Mises Caucus organizer via the private Discord.

And the information from that private discord was shared in a group with almost 6,000 people.

This happened two days after Jeff Douglas called me and gave me a big speech about how I needed to “step up” and help them in New Hampshire by becoming an organizer for the Caucus.

That’s right, I’ll repeat that: Jeff Douglas CALLED ME to ask me to step up and be an organizer. And then, when I didn’t say yes right away, proceeded to shit-talk me to multiple people and lie about me to every Mises Caucus organizer in the country.

And he’s doing this with the full support of Michael Heise, who tells me I’m just too controversial of a figure because of my spiritual beliefs and that I should get over it because “Jeff was really pissed” when he did it.

I don’t like being lied about.

I especially don’t like being lied about by people I have supported.

So, let’s set the record straight about what really happened.

And yes, I have screenshots.

But first, to understand how we got here, let’s back up.

I’m a member of the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire. I used to be very proud of that membership. I’ve made a ton of good friends in the party.

The LPNH Twitter is the focal point of the party. For a while, I was on the communications committee that ran the Twitter. I never had direct access to it and didn’t write any of the tweets, but I could suggest things or offer input to people who did.

Around July of last year, I started to have a lot of misgivings about the way the LPNH Twitter was being run.

Don’t get me wrong, I like strong messaging as much as the next person. And I will never bend the knee to an outrage mob, even if I don’t personally agree with the tweet they are outraged about, because an outrage mob is not about right or wrong…an outrage mob is only about authoritarian control.

But the reality is that I didn’t like all of the messaging. I thought it was way too pro-Russia (my suggestion was to say that our position should be that the US would stay out of it). I didn’t like the holocaust insinuations about $6,000,000 being too high a number. I loved the #HappyHolidays tweet that many found controversial, but some of the others just didn’t hit the mark for me at all and seemed needlessly inflammatory.

I can forgive some mistakes. When you’re trying to do bold messaging, you’ll screw up sometimes.

But more than that, the people running the Twitter were more interested in drumming up outrage on the platform than they were in promoting things relevant to the party, to building membership, to supporting candidates, etc...

Internally, it was made very clear to me that criticism of the Twitter was not welcome. I tried here and there to raise points where I could, but they always fell on deaf ears. Eventually, I left the communications committee because it was very clear to me that my input wasn’t valued.

I’m not the only one who tried, I’m not the only one who was rebuffed in the same way, and I’m not the only one to exit the communications committee.

Now, at the same time this was happening, the National Mises Caucus was also upset with the tweets coming out of the LPNH account. Michael Heise, Dave Smith, Angela McArdle and others had meetings with the communications team running the account begging them to tone it down.

In one of those meetings, Michael Heise made an off-the-cuff remark about removing Reed Coverdale from the Twitter, and said that the comms committee chair Erik Sawyer could go too if he didn’t like it.

Well, this set off an anti-Mises Caucus firestorm in the LPNH after it was spread through the party by the then-Chair and members of the comms team who were on the call. They told everyone that Michael Heise had demanded to control who was running the party’s Twitter and eff the Mises Caucus, they were all leaving. Eventually, this led to the formation of a New Hampshire first strategy in this new thing called the Free State Based Caucus. More on that in a moment.

I don’t think that Heise was actually demanding anyone be removed - it was an off-the-cuff remark - but the story articulated to the community was that the Mises Caucus was trying to butt their nose into New Hampshire’s business. This drove a lot of negativity toward the Caucus.

Even though I was less than impressed with the comms team at the time, I was also just as annoyed as anyone about the MC trying to insert themselves into our business.

However, unlike so many others, I never left the Mises Caucus. I expressed disagreements here and there, but I never left. I was in awe of what Michael Heise had built with it, wanted the Mises Caucus to control the party and wanted to support that effort because I felt it was the only way the Libertarian Party would become viable.

So, I mostly just stayed out of it. But all of the bullshit really led to me starting to disengage with the MC and from the LPNH. The toxicity levels in the LPNH were also growing by the day and, after the midterms, I chose to leave the groups associated with the party to escape it. It really seemed like no one was interested in doing anything practical; they just wanted to screw around. I would pop back in here and there only to be met with the same levels of toxicity, and I would leave again.

I wasn’t the only one who this was happening to.

People in the LPNH will claim that no one disagrees with the Twitter, that everyone is on board, and that the Twitter is supporting the party’s goals.

None of this is true.

Many people started dropping out of the groups because they didn’t feel welcome anymore. Engagement with the party is low. Most people don’t believe the party has any purpose other than to tweet…and most of the people leaving or disengaging do not agree with the Twitter strategy.

Then, a few months ago, the women in the LPNH created a new group that was just for women called the Free State Bitches Anti Cock-Us. This group was a breath of fresh air! Everyone was nice to each other, no one was fighting, and there was no drama. We even have a woman’s only movie night coming up tomorrow which none of the men are allowed at.

And it was because of this group that I learned that the men in the LPNH had gotten so out of control since I left the groups that they had, essentially, started removing women from the Free State Based groups, or not allow them to join in the first place for not being “based enough”, or had driven them away by making them feel uncomfortable until they left.

And most of the men involved in those groups that are driving the women away are the same ones running the LPNH Twitter.

Then a few weeks ago, there was an internal coup against the Chair of the LPNH.

The LPNH annual convention was held at the end of January and we elected a new party chair. He’s a really good, level-headed guy who had a plan for growing the party and running more candidates in local races.

I also knew that he wanted to be more strategic about our use of Twitter and other social media, and I was welcoming the day when he would make changes to the communications committee.

Well, before he got a chance to do that, the LPNH account tweeted this:

Some might frown upon a political party saying that they will never win, and the new Chair of the party certainly did.

He proceeded to lock the Twitter account, reset the password, and take away access to the people running it. And this set off an internal shitstorm that resulted in the entire executive committee revolting against the party chair, forcing him into a corner where he almost resigned over it….less than two months after he was elected almost unanimously at the state convention.

All because the people currently active in the LPNH are ADDICTED to the Twitter.

Two of the main people running the party Twitter resigned from the committee when their precious was taken away, declaring that the LPNH Twitter is the only successful thing happening, not only in New Hampshire but in the entire Libertarian Party.

I didn’t take nor originally share this screenshot, but it was circulated in New Hampshire and is public enough, so I feel comfortable posting it here:

It should be noted that the party chair was fully within his rights to do what he did. The communications committee reports to him.

And that’s why an internal coup was necessary to get conrol away from him - they are all so obsessed with the Twitter that they couldn’t go a few days without having access to it and instead decided to try to overthrow the newly elected chair of the party to get it back.

It got to the point where the Chair of the party called for a new convention to potentially elect a new chair:

Because I had removed myself from all the groups, this announcement was the first that I heard about what was going on.

I began asking around (the women’s group was adamant that they didn’t want to talk about it because it was going to bring their husband’s bullshit into our quiet, peaceful group) and eventually I got added to one of the other groups where conversations were taking place.

As soon as I was added there and asked what was going on, I was immediately attacked by the men in the group.

When I defended myself, I was removed from the group.

And that’s when I posted this response in a party group they can’t ban me from:

And I got attacked for that too, predictably.

I was also told by members of the executive committee who led the internal coup that I just didn’t understand all the facts, that the chair of the party had gone mad! How dare he take away their Twitter!!!

I’m going to have to respectfully disagree that I don’t have all the facts, because I’ve talked to no less than a dozen people outside of the executive committee about all this and all of them seem to be saying the same thing.

Eventually, a compromise was reached….a compromise that would mean the Chair of the party would give up his control over the communications committee and the executive committee who staged the internal coup against him would be able to control everything. In return, he would get to serve out his term as chair and not be forced to resign…but he wouldn’t really be able to accomplish anything or make any decisions because now the entire party strategy would be based around the Twitter.

What that means is that the people who were running the Twitter will be voted back onto the communications committee they resigned from by the rest of the executive committee, and nothing will change. They’ll get their precious back, and that’s all that matters.

So, at this point, I started communicating with other people in the party who had become disillusioned with the state of affairs and basically said “does anyone actually want to work on something productive that is more inclusive of diverse viewpoints???”

And yes, it turns out that more than a few people do want to work on something productive.

We started having conversations about what that could look like and are hatching a plan that I am not ready to discuss at this time.

And that’s when Jeff Douglas from the Mises Caucus reached out to me.

Jeff is the national coordinator for the Mises Caucus, and the story that Jeff is peddling around the internet right now is that I begged him to be a state coordinator for the Mises Caucus.

The reality is that Jeff called me and begged me to be.

I got this message from Jeff on Facebook on Monday:

I was on a meeting with my coach Joshua at the time and I ended up calling him afterwards.

Jeff gave me a long speech about how screwed up the situation in New Hampshire is (I agree) and how he wanted me to “step up” and become a state organizer.

I was less than enthused about this. I have no idea what a state organizer does. But Jeff told me they have all these lists that they can give me of people who expressed interest in the Mises Caucus and there’s materials in Vermont they can get me to use and all I have to do is make phone calls to people and talk to them and organize them to attend the next annual convention and take back the party from the people running the Twitter.

I told him that I had to think about it.

The reality is that the Mises Caucus brand is pretty toxic in New Hampshire because of the story that has been peddled about Heise demanding people be removed from the comms team and I didn’t know if there was any way to rebuild that. The liberty community in New Hampshire is small. People talk. Rumors and gossip spread. It’s hard to unring that bell.

So, I thought about it. And I made some phone calls to the people to ask them what they thought and I ultimately decided that gaining access to the organizing apparatus of the MC would be useful in supporting this other idea to do something productive that I was already talking about with people anyway.

So two days later, I texted Jeff back and told him yes.

And then he told me that he already had confirmation from two “hardcore Micaucs” that they didn’t need me anymore.

I asked him who he had.

He refused to name names.

I knew he was lying.

The reality is that I know for a fact there are not two “hardcore Micaucs” in New Hampshire that are still affiliated with the caucus that would be willing to take on the role. They have cycled through almost every single person who would agree to be an organizer, and they have all left.

And sure enough, I was right.

When I later found out the names of these mystery “hardcore Micaucs,” I gave one of them a call. It turns out he wasn’t even aware that he was going to be offered the position as an organizer and wasn’t interested in it anyway.

I strongly suspect the other one will also back away, because it is an impossible job. And Jeff was about to make it even more impossible…but more on that in a moment.

Back to my conversation with Jeff. I was very annoyed that he offered me the position of organizer just a few days prior and, after I had already had conversations with multiple people about how I could make it work, tells me “thanks but no thanks” and then lies to me about why.

And Jeff refused to get on the phone to discuss why.

So I started pushing: Who are the names? Do they have a plan? What changed? He refused to answer.

So I already told him I had another thing started and already had people involved and we were moving ahead regardless and that our goals may or may not align with the Mises Caucus.

All that is true.

I then wished him the very best of luck trying to find two “hardcore Micaucs” who would out-organize both me and the people running the Twitter in time for convention.

What can I say…I was feeling spiteful.

In return, Jeff said “I know you weren’t with us” which I found deeply puzzling because I had been very involved with the Mises Caucus for two years and had never waivered.

That last part, of course, went unacknowledged.

And remember, there are not hardcore Micaucs who are willing to step up. That was a flat lie and gaslighting.

I sat there thinking about how much I had pushed the Mises Caucus to my audience, all the time I had spent preparing for the takeover, making sure I understood the dynamics and the players, making sure I understood Roberts Rules, the money I had to spend getting to Reno, including over $2000 out of pocket on the way there because American Airlines canceled my flight mid-trip and I had to rebook on another airline to get there on time.

I thought about how I had stuck with the MC even after so many people in New Hampshire had left, participated in Twitter spaces promoting it, how I had a good relationship with their social media person and had hoped to expand that.

And now I’m being told by the national coordinator that I was never with them, and then lied to because he thinks I’m so stupid that I can’t see right through it.

Then Jeff sent this screenshot of a comment that is being used against me as a part of a smear campaign from an article I wrote on my spiritual website. You can read the full article here.

And now it was clear.

Jeff was engaging with a smear campaign against me, as any “honorable” person would. Party of principle, indeed.

The context of this is that I believe that no one’s life is destroyed just because something traumatic happens to them in childhood and that there are millions of people who experience trauma in childhood that channel that trauma to helping people later in life.

And as I told Jeff, Jordan Peterson literally teaches the exact same thing.

But none of that matters.

The Mises Caucus, apparently, doesn’t care about principle, it only cares about brand and fundraising.

It doesn’t care about doing the right thing.

It doesn’t care about protecting someone’s ability to engage with whatever spiritual practice they see fit, and have conversations about those beliefs.

Why would I support an organization that doesn’t want to allow me to have my own spiritual beliefs and will use them against me to smear me?

Jeff wants people to be victims in the world. He wants people to believe their life is worth nothing because of something that happened to them in childhood that was out of their control.

I’m sorry, but I just don’t believe that and I refuse to say that I do.

But it didn’t stop there.

Jeff then texted another person in the party that I’m working with to badger them about working with me and telling them I’m unhinged. And I know because that person sent me the screenshots.

Now, to be really clear, the initiative that we are working on is separate from the party and is not about out-recruiting anyone….but I do think it will be far more compelling for people in New Hampshire to align around than the Mises Caucus, all things considered.

The project we are working on is around articulating a more diverse libertarian message about New Hampshire than what is currently being articulated by the LPNH. We do not want the toxic Twitter crew to define us and what New Hampshire is anymore. And I think that’s a cry that more people will rally around than the MC. Maybe I’m wrong, but we’ll find out.

Jeff also removed this person from the Mises Caucus over working with me…a person who has literally always supported the Mises Caucus (they’re not the only person Jeff removed from the MC. We’ll get to that in a minute).

The person Jeff texted told him they would work with anyone in New Hampshire who was willing to do productive things, that I was doing that, that they would vouch for me, and that Jeff was making a mistake in how he was handling it. They hoped Jeff would reconsider regarding me and that the MC brand was pretty toxic, and they didn’t know of anyone else willing to take on the role but that if the MC wanted to play nice, perhaps we could work with them.

To be crystal clear, Jeff was offered a chance to have communication and alignment if he wanted to behave productively.

But Jeff didn’t want to behave productively and responded, “No, we’re starting over.”

I’m not showing the screenshot of the person Jeff texted because I don’t want to out them, but you can see Jeff’s response:

What happened next is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen in my life.

Jeff summarily kicked everyone in New Hampshire out of the Mises Caucus.

This is a screenshot of the Mises Caucus signal group, and this occurred at the same time that Jeff was speaking to me and the other person involved:

Prior to this happening, Jeff had been arguing with the people in the chat who were trying to reason with him about how to work in New Hampshire. Jeff basically told them all they were wrong and they were working against him and was extremely argumentative instead of listening to the good advice they were giving him.

Yes, I have screenshots of that….but there are A LOT of screenshots and I don’t want to violate the privacy of the people involved.

So, since we all got kicked out of the Mises Caucus, and since it is not possible that Jeff found any “hardcore Micaucs” in New Hampshire to be his new organizers, I decided to fill everyone else in on what was happening and made this post to the Mises Caucus Facebook Group to see what they would do.

They ended up banning me from the group for posting it.

Everything I said was true. There were people who were willing to work with the Mises Caucus in New Hampshire. But the Mises Caucus didn’t want that.

So, I messaged Michael Heise and thanked him for not wanting to associate with me over a spiritual belief that Jordan Peterson literally teaches after I had been supportive of the Mises Caucus for two years. I also told him that Jeff’s actions had driven everyone over to the toxic Twitter group.

The next day…

I woke up the next day (today) feeling really disappointed and sad about the entire situation.

I was disappointed and sad that I had given two years of my life to something that was really unappreciated.

I was disappointed and sad that people who agree on policy are being torn apart over a Twitter account.

I was disappointed and sad that I was being judged for a spiritual belief that isn’t even controversial UNLESS it is taken out of context and twisted by bad actors on the internet.

And then I spoke to Michael Heise.

Michael gave me a call and asked me what I thought was going on. I told him everything I’ve written in this post.

He told me that they wanted to smooth things over with me, that Jeff was just trying to protect him, and he had made a stupid and rash decision that he probably regrets.

Michael also told me the names of the two mystery “hardcore Micaucs” that I later used to confirm that Jeff lied because at least one of those people had no desire to be an organizer and hadn’t even been asked.

I told him that Jeff needed to apologize.

Michael told me not to expect that, which left me thinking that if you don’t care enough to apologize then you don’t care enough to want to mend fences. Adults apologize when they’ve done something stupid.

It was an OK phone call that had left the door open. I meant what I said about wanting the MC to be successful.

Then, I spoke to the MC social media director, who is a really great guy. He told me he was advocating for me, that he valued our relationship and that he wanted to see it continue. I agreed.

I heard from others that I’m not going to name saying “this is stupid and I’ve told them to mend fences.”

I was starting to feel like maybe there was a chance to work something out in the future, but knowing that I wasn’t going to count on it and was going to focus on my project of advancing diverse liberty voices in New Hampshire to hopefully balance out the Twitter.

And then I saw the screenshots from the Mises Caucus Discord.

Jeff and Michael Heise had flat out lied about me and what had happened in New Hampshire to all of the Mises Caucus organizers. I don’t know how they thought I wouldn’t eventually find out about this.

I will explain how they are lying below. The person who sent this message is Michael Heise:

1. It is not impossible for anyone in New Hampshire to know who is serious and who are shitposting. It is only hard when you are outside of New Hampshire and you refuse to listen to anyone who is in the state. There was absolutely no need for Jeff to purge the group. He probably did it because he was drinking and not thinking straight.

2. I never asked to be an organizer. Jeff asked me. This is a text I sent my coach after I talked to Jeff stating what happened on the call:

   

And yet, in the organizer discord, Michael Heise is making it seem like I went to them and was “freaking out” when they told me no. That is not remotely what happened.

But I’m really glad that the chair of the caucus that I publicly supported for two years, even when many of my friends backed out, thinks I’m so terrible for the brand because I have a spiritual belief that he disagrees with.

If anyone was freaking out, it was Jeff. He was freaking out that his bluff had been called and then proceeded to literally purge everyone in New Hampshire from the Mises Caucus as a result.

When I outted them and publicly posted what happened, I was lied about to every organizer in the country. How very principled.

Here are the other screenshots from the discord so you can see the full conversation unfold:

(It is true that the Free State Based caucus stole the NH Mises Caucus Twitter and rebranded it, something I had nothing to do with and didn’t even know about because they had blocked me from seeing the Twitter for disagreeing with them. I also question where the FSB caucus got the money for the tent they are hosting at Porcfest, but I digress).

In the screenshot below, Jeremy Slottje (who I adore and think is a really good guy) is not correct: There are many people in New Hampshire who are not on board with the Free State Based stuff that are not Nick Sarwark and Kevin Kahn. It’s a growing list every day because of the toxicity coming from a few members of that group.

Those people are simply too afraid to be vocal about it, but are talking about it on the down low in private where they won’t be attacked for it.

In this screenshot, Jeff is calling everyone who was in the New Hampshire Mises Caucus haters, rats and do nothings. This is not true. There were a lot of good people in that chat and there were absolutely still people who supported the Mises Caucus.

Jeff, who has barely even spoken to anyone in New Hampshire, seems to take credit for everything that was done in New Hampshire. That is also not true - while the Mises Caucus certainly brought people together around a common enemy, the reality is that a lot of people here have worked very hard on their own separate from the MC.

And while Jeff’s critiques of the Twitter are true enough, his shitting on the Free State Project won’t win any confidence from the community here because many of us believe the Free State Project is the only thing actually driving liberty in New Hampshire and that we’re blessed to have them.

All those screenshots were posted to a group called Libartarism At Night, which has almost 6,000 people in it.

I am writing this piece about what happened because I have now been lied about to thousands of people because of Jeff Douglas after I tried to help him and he spit in my face.

So, that’s that.

It never occurred to me that I would live in a reality where I would be persecuted and smeared for having spiritual beliefs that people disagreed with, and it particularly never occurred to me that it would happen by people claiming to be Libertarians.

I’ve had my spiritual practice for the better part of my adult life, and it was never a problem for anyone. It has served me very well, I believe it makes me a better person and allows me to create a more fulfilling experience for myself while I’m on this planet.

And yes, it helps me deal with trauma I experienced in my childhood, knowing that trauma made me the person I am today and empowered me to help people.

I will not apologize and I will not pander to people who are hell-bent on taking things out of context to smear me.

It’s very clear to me that the leadership of the Mises Caucus is not tolerant of people who have spiritual beliefs that say God loves everyone unconditionally, there is no hell, and that our traumatic life experiences can lead to positive outcomes.

I don’t know why anyone would be intolerant of that, but that’s their business.

I refuse to give up my spiritual beliefs to pander to people that have lied about me to God knows how many people when I have done nothing but support them.

And I have better things to focus on in New Hampshire, where we desperately need more diverse messaging that is not Twitter insanity.

/fin

P.S. I’m still a member of the LPNH and the Libertarian National Party, and that will not change, so best of luck to all the people who are about to gaslight saying I left another party. No, I didn’t. I, along with everyone else in a single state, got purged out of a caucus that many of us still supported. It does not mean we left the party.