Written by LibertyFest NYC is an event marketed to libertarians which takes place yearly in New York City since 2010. Like many such events, it started off oriented toward advancing a cause, and then rapidly descended into little more than an effort to sell overpriced drinks to people who were dumb enough to buy tickets. Aside from the futility of spreading liberty in a place where carrying a handgun legally is damn near impossible, cigarettes are up to $15 a pack, and the mayor tried to ban soda, a far worse plague has befallen the event and its organizers. Social justice.
I had spoken at the event in 2011, and 2012. In 2013 the event started off with quite the lineup, before the organizer changed his name on social media and parked the domain. The event was delayed, and when it came back, he had ditched all his high profile speakers, replacing them instead with an all female lineup, including Cathy Reisenwitz. This had been pitched as a way to highlight what women were doing to advance the cause of liberty, but I knew the organizer personally, and it was nothing more than an effort to make up the shortfall in fundraising.
You can imagine what a miserable time an all female libertarian speaking engagement would be like, but financially it was a success. Thirsty libertarians who were not big on substance were all too happy to buy tickets, the female libertarians were all too happy to gain some recognition, and social justice warriors cheered the event as a breakthrough for gender equality. Thus began the decline of LFNYC.
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