@Azuaron @InkySchwartz @ianepperson @pluralistic what you have to understand to really get why ancaps are like this is that they have *redefined the concept of freedom in terms of property rights.* So when they say "property rights bring freedom" or that you could "maximize freedom by respecting property rights," it doesn't make sense to you because you have a definition of freedom that's actually derived from existing in the world and understanding what it feels like to be actually free, whereas for them it's just a circular tautological statement that's true by definition because they've rewritten the definition of freedom. So yeah, you're precisely right, they're removed from reality entirely. You see, for Rothbard all that matters is constructing a gigantic edifice of rational logic to serve as his workview. So anything that can't be perfectly specified in simple and clear classical logic has to be redefined or it has no place in his worldview. And so, of course, by this continuous process of redefinition and abstraction, he one by one annihilates all the things tethering him to reality and replaces them with hollow and self referential logical constructs, until he's created this entirely artificial logical construct to inhabit with no way out, like a hall of mirrors. It's classic Thomism really. Talk to a Jesuit sometime, they're just like this lol