Honorable Mention: Judy Shelton is introduced as “one of us” … and is happy to accept that label.
Before we get to the countdown, I had to include this moment somehow.
Economist Judy Shelton was nominated to the Federal Reserve Board back in 2020, and then her name popped up on the shortlist for chair of that board during this past election season.
We’ll see what Donald Trump does from here, but Shelton’s recent book is titled Good as Gold and she’s taken heat from CNN for her “radical” solution to solve inflation, which was: “Why not just go all the way and make it zero?”
Point is: She’s a voice of reason within the (too) powerful inner circle of top-down banking and economics. And when our Ethan Yang introduced her to a salon packed full of classical liberals, for their conversation about inflation, fiat money, and the Federal Reserve, he said: “In short, she’s one of us.”
Then when she started speaking, her first words were: “I’m honored to be considered one of you.”
It was a fun, earnest moment — and a hopeful one for the future of liberty.
5. Bryan Caplan and Daniel Di Martino hug it out.
Here’s the truth: Most of the time you see a “debate” promised, it’s more likely to be a cordial discussion; a conversation, rather than a contest. So that’s what I expected on the main stage on LibertyCon’s opening night.
But, perhaps inspired by the Emergent Order rap battle video that introduced the immigration debate, Bryan and Daniel got into it, right away. They interrupted each other, corrected each other, pushed each other (intellectually) and, basically, had a real, knock-down, drag-out debate.
And then, when it was over, you know what they did? I found it fitting because I take pride in the fact that we classical liberals can argue until we’re blue in the face without taking offense or getting our feelings hurt. That’s right: They hugged, and in doing so reaffirmed that what matters — and what will win or lose out, in the end — are ideas and truth, not bluster or rhetoric or volume or violence.
4. Dan “Taxation Is Theft” Behrman and Peymon Mottahedeh meet for the first time.
Ever wonder what it was like when Oppenheimer met Einstein, or when Proust met Joyce? Ever wish you could have been a fly on that wall?
I no longer have to wonder. Let me explain.
Dan “Taxation Is Theft” Behrman is a character. If you’ve ever been to a LibertyCon, you’ve probably seen him: He wears a tall, yellow hat that reads TAXATION IS THEFT. At LibertyCon in Miami, 2023, we had an interactive exhibit that gave attendees the chance to put stickers in the box that described them politically. I spent hours trying to find out who had put a solitary, red sticker ABOVE all the boxes — literally off the map.
And, well, see my interview with Dan:
Meanwhile, this year’s LibertyCon was the first time I’d met Peymon, a Jewish-born, Iranian immigrant who has not filed or paid income taxes for more than 30 years, according to his LibertyCon bio.
I attended his session, a deep dive into the 16th Amendment and the IRS’s Internal Revenue Code. He made some compelling points, backed up with well-documented legal history and evidence, to suggest that only residents of Washington, D.C., and some other U.S. territories like Guam are obligated to pay the federal income tax.
He’s also a character: A fast, loud, charismatic speaker who exudes passion with every syllable.
Anyway, these two must be the most unabashed tax evaders of all time … and they had never met! (They’d heard of each other, of course, and maybe exchanged emails back in the day, but that’s it.)
I happened to be at Peymon’s table in the exhibition hall when Dan wandered over and introduced himself. I kid you not: It felt like … Mozart meeting Beethoven, or Spider-Man meeting Batman.
They chatted for a few minutes. I worked up the courage to ask a question: “Do you two consider yourselves to be in competition with each other, or to complement each other?” They agreed on the latter: Dan’s primary goal is to show people the disastrous effects of taxation, while Peymon wants, actively, to show people how to avoid paying taxes.
Ok, so maybe it wasn’t quite Oppenheimer-Einstein. But for Libertyland, it was pretty darn cool.
3. Aimable Manirakiza wins Alum of the Year award — and accepts it in person.
If you need a smile, look no further.
Aimable, from Burundi, joined African Students For Liberty in 2015 and soon became Regional Director of SFL in French-speaking Africa after the leadership and communication training he received with SFL.
He went on to reach more than 10,000 students in Burundi, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo with the message of limited government. For his efforts, he won the prestigious Student of the Year award in 2017 … but because his visa application was denied, he was not able to accept the award in person at that year’s LibertyCon.
Can you imagine how bittersweet that moment must have been?
Since he won that award, he has founded and become CEO of the first think tank in the Great Lakes region of Africa — comprising Burundi, Rwanda, and the Congo — to champion the principles of free markets and free societies. The Centre for Development and Enterprises Great Lakes conducts research on how to maximize economic and agricultural growth and efficiency. It also provides online courses to expose adults in French-speaking Africa to the ideas of liberty, often for the first time in their lives.
And now, almost a decade after winning STUDENT of the Year, there’s no bitter, only sweet; Aimable won ALUM of the Year and this time was able to join us in Washington, D.C. to accept the award and deliver an acceptance speech in person.
During a weekend in which thousands of great student and alumni stories were told and shared, Aimable’s full-circle journey stood out.
2. Friday night’s tribute to David Boaz.
David Boaz chose last year’s LibertyCon to deliver his final, public remarks.
He passed away last June, and so the Friday night tribute to his memory — as a colleague, mentor, champion for liberty, and friend — was especially emotional.
The panel that shared memories of Boaz and recounted his achievements could have gone for hours, but what moved me was the short introductory video, where young Boaz and older Boaz were juxtaposed.
I mean, look at that photo. That photo shows a man who decided to dedicate his life to liberty, when he looked like that. And then, a few seconds later, you saw a man who looked like this:
Think of all the frustrations and outrages and harassment he must have faced in that time, both personally, as an openly gay man, and professionally, as a libertarian (not to mention the physical struggles cancer threw at him). That entire time, through all of it, he made it his mission to advance pro-liberty ideas and initiatives.
I’d like to think that someday, you’ll be able to show two photos of me and say the same thing. I’d consider that a life well lived.
1. Daryl Davis unfurls the flag its former owner no longer believes in.
Silence — and I mean absolute, total silence — fell across the room when Daryl Davis, an African-American musician who played with Chuck Berry, showed us some artifacts from his OTHER career: having open, honest conversations with KKK members and neo-Nazis.
He showed us the hoods, robes, and flags of former klansmen he had befriended, and who subsequently left the klan … but for me, the swastika was the showstopper.
It was not easy to look at. (I couldn’t believe my eyes at first; I wanted to look around the room to see the expressions on other people’s faces, but I couldn’t look away.)
The silence was so total, the experience so transfixing, I think, because most of the time we see that symbol, it implies hatred and violence. But here, the fact that Davis had it was a testament to love, to understanding, and to the human capacity to change. Weird, isn’t it, how much context matters?
Davis attributed his success — he’s known as “The Klan Whisperer” — to understanding that everybody wants these five principles:
-To be loved
-To be respected
-To be heard
-To be treated fairly
-The same things for themselves and their families that you want for yourself and yours
“I did not get this through fighting,” he said of the Nazi flag its former owner no longer wants. “I did not get this through violence … If you have an adversary with an opposing point of view, allow them to express their views. You don’t have to believe their views, but allow them the opportunity to express them. And then converse about them … I did not respect what [klan leader Roger Kelly] had to say. [But] I respected his right to say it. You understand the difference, don’t you?”
We do, Daryl. Freedom of speech — even, maybe especially speech we disagree with — is one of our most cherished values, and we’ll never stop fighting for it.
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