There is something about the Balkans and libertarians – maybe it’s just that new governments are being formed so it’s a way in? Or just Russian proxy tankie shit?
When I was younger and dumber I was a card-carrying Libertarian. The last straw that made me quit my membership was their exuberance over being chosen to help form a government for Republika Srpska, a new political entity in the former Yugoslavia founded and run by Serbian war criminals. I can’t find anything online, but I vividly remember the LP paper mailers that I used to get with all kinds of libertarian plans to help craft the new government there in the early 90s. The retirement plan was going to be like the Chicago Boys’ Chile, and other such things. I figured if they were going to work with war criminals, maybe this thing wasn’t so great.
Define “scam”? Who is trying to scam who in this situation? The Liberlanders feel more like a LARP group than any sort of pyramid scheme, and it’s not like there was any serious risk of them actually receiving recognition and depriving the actual nations nearby of the (as you point out) worthless land.
whenever I see LARP in any context but literal live action roleplaying (nerds doing nerd shit in the woods, and even then it can be iffy) what follows is the worst fucking take I’ve ever seen. is LARPing just how libertarian fuckheads cover for their illegal militia shit these days?
The libertarians do know how to write not that sympathetically [edit: but they are not the only people who suck at writing]. They seem to care more about ‘our equipment!’ than the personal property of people who used to live there (While funny here, it still sucks ass the cops wrecked so much shit, I know they pull (in various countries) the same shit with unhoused people). Wonder how this will radicalize more libertarians further right.
(Amusing they also have created a sort of ‘money pinata’ for the local Croatians, as they vow to rebuild using local resources again. Region doing badly? Just send in the cops to smash the gentrifying weird westerners so they spend more).
(Orangists doing a ‘wow from first principles countries are weird’ is also funny)
I submitted this link too but removed it as a duplicate, and it’s really a category error from the Liberland people. They are writing from their perspective - they are a sovereign state with citizens, and the raid by Croatian authorities is a literal invasion. However, from the point of view of Croatia, international law, and everyone normal, they are squatters who are illegally constructing buildings on land controlled by Croatia.
A lot of the HN commentators sympathetic to Liberland would have a fit if a group of Mexicans set up an enclave in Texas and started constructing buildings. These hypothetical Mexicans might have their own spin on the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which they spun out of reading too much Wikipedia, and their claims are just as valid as Liberland’s.
There are a lot of neocolonial echos in the Liberland post too:
Liberland has the ability to bring significant investment, jobs and tourism to this economically depressed region.
Yeah sure, you can do a lot within the framework of existing Croatian law to bring investment, there’s no need to set up a LARP country on a floodplain to do so.
To be honest, I think it would be hilarious if Texas were annexed by Mexico, even just a little bit. Texans deserve a competent government who will invest in them and conduct reasonable diplomacy, and they’re not getting that from Texas.
