EPISODE 93 · OCT 23, 2022 · 1H 20M
Jason Bassler The Free Thought Project
EPISODE 93 · JASON BASSLER
The Free Thought Project
Jason Bassler watched Occupy Wall Street unfold on his iPad in 2011 and saw police brutality for the first time. That lit the fuse. By 2013, he'd co-founded The Free Thought Project. By 2018, he'd built a social media empire of nearly 6 million followers, employed seven writers and three social media staff, and was running a fully ad-revenue-funded operation. Then Facebook and Twitter deleted all his accounts on the same day. Not suspended. Deleted. Four years later, he's still rebuilding.
Jason and the hosts move through libertarianism's three non-negotiable pillars, why police reform is impossible under a monopoly-on-force model, the CBDC control grid already being rolled out quietly, the MAGA shift that split the liberty movement in 2016, and the partnership parenting paradigm that refuses to separate NAP from the home. The through-line: you can't fight tyranny in the world while ignoring it in your own house. Sovereignty begins where you actually live.
- De-platforming as trajectory destruction Jason built The Free Thought Project to nearly 6 million followers across Facebook and Twitter — employing seven writers, three social media staff, funding the operation through ad revenue. Both platforms removed all his accounts on the same day in 2018. Not banned. Deleted. Four years later, he's still rebuilding. De-platforming isn't about one post. It's about destroying someone's ability to provide for their family while they're doing work the ruling class doesn't want done.
- Libertarianism's three core tenets Non-aggression principle (NAP) — no initiation of violence, regardless of circumstance. Self-ownership — you own yourself, your body, your production; nobody has legal or moral claim over you. Property rights — if you produce something, homestead land, or add value to something, it's yours by definition. These aren't negotiable. Apply them to parenting, policing, taxation, or COVID mandates, and the contradictions surface fast.
- Police as monopoly on force The problem isn't individual cops. It's the institution. Law enforcement is funded through taxation — a system that leaves no room to take your money elsewhere. Zero incentive for accountability, efficiency, or improvement. We've been protesting police violence for 140 years. Legislation won't fix what funding structures guarantee. The only path forward: voluntary consent to protection services without government apparatus involvement.
- CBDCs and the digital ID control grid Central bank digital currencies are already live in several countries. PayPal's $2,500 misinformation fine attempt. Canada freezing trucker convoy accounts. Jason's CBDC meme hit with two fact-checks — the establishment is already controlling the narrative. Digital ID will morph into social credit score. Collectivist framing: 'This is a human right, everyone needs access.' The actual agenda: programmable money tied to behavior compliance.
- The MAGA shift and financial incentive 2016 saw a visible portion of the liberty movement jump to the Trump train. Not because principles changed — because it was profitable. Grow your audience, catch the wave, walk the fine line of being on the right while claiming libertarian principles. It created a divide. Principled voluntarists and anarchists stayed the course. Others traded consistency for clout. Joel's observation: people want confirmation they're following the right path. They haven't grasped what voluntarism actually is.
- Partnership parenting vs. authoritarian parenting paradigm Jason's shift after interviewing Dana Martin: peaceful parenting isn't topical solutions in isolated moments. It's a full paradigm — treating your child as partner, letting them lead, giving them space to explore without worrying about how it inconveniences you. The authoritarian parenting model is the foundation for statism. If you believe in NAP but spank your kids, you're intellectually inconsistent. Self-ownership has to start in the home or it's just performance.
- Fighting external tyranny while ignoring internal tyranny Joel's observation during COVID: people so gung-ho on fighting government overreach while remaining ignorant to the tyranny in their own homes, relationships, parenting. Projecting the fight onto society's breaches because refusing to look at what's happening in their personal lives. Parenting is the mirror. It reveals the ways we were conditioned to subdue freedom in ourselves.
- Why people vote harder every four years Public school indoctrination beat it into our heads: all social ills are fixed by government. You are the government. You can participate. Cognitive dissonance keeps people believing they have control over their destiny through voting for the lesser of two evils. The extent of their thinking stops there. Jason's question: Will you ever magically vote in the right people? Will there ever be enough right people in government to make significant change? No. It's delusional thinking.
Standout
Quotes
"I saw injustice on my iPad screen. That's what lit the fire underneath me."
Jason Bassler
"Regulation doesn't leave a lot of room for people to take their money elsewhere. And that's ultimately the problem. Law enforcement has zero incentive to be accountable, to be efficient with our tax dollars, to be effective, and to ever improve."
Jason Bassler
"They're doing a good job rolling this out quietly behind the scenes. I mentioned it to a few colleagues recently and they're like, what's the CBDC?"
Jason Bassler
"I don't believe it's the individual cop that is the problem. I believe it's the institution itself. And ultimately, it boils down to being an economic issue."
Jason Bassler
"You believe in the non-aggression principle, but you totally discount that and don't apply it to your own family and your own children. So I think we have a lot of work to do, at least within our movement, as far as that goes."
Jason Bassler
"If I'm not giving my son an opportunity for himself to have self-ownership, then I'm a hypocrite."
Jason Bassler
"Everyone was just projecting all of that onto all of society's breaches of freedom and tyranny. Because of the refusal and the pain to actually look at what's going on in their own lives."
Joel Rafidi
"It's the highest claim of personal or private property — our body is ourselves."
Jason Bassler
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