A Libertarian Walks into a Bear
by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling · first published 2020
13mentions
7recommended by
12HN commenters
2020–2025first – last mentioned
58% recommend42% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Narrative account of libertarians taking over the small New Hampshire town of Grafton to build a utopia; readers call it a fun, sympathetic, deep-dive read that shows how the experiment played out.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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For anyone interested in reading more about the libertarian movement in NH, A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling is an interesting read. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/50358538-a-libertaria...
on “Libertarians built a Bitcoin economy in a New Hampshire town, feds tore it down” ↗This reminds me of one of my favorite books from the past couple years, A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear. It’s a fascinating deep dive into an attempt to create a sort of libertarian utopia in a small town called Grafton, New Hampshire. The speed at which they arrive at “we need government services” after…
on “SVB shows that there are few libertarians in a financial foxhole” ↗You might like to read the book “A Libertarian walks into a bear”. It’s about a group of hardcore libertarians who took over Grafton New Hampshire with the goal to do a small town version of what you’ve described.
on “Why America can’t build quickly anymore” ↗This reminds me of “A Libertarian Walks into a Bear.” https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/libertarian-walks-int...
on “The Free State Project” ↗"A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear" is a surprisingly sympathetic recounting of the great New Hampshire takeover of a small town by libertarians from around the country. The best of intentions, passion and idealism - and yet "mistakes…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023” ↗…centralised one to a highly local one) infrastructure, education, consumer protections, healthcare, safety/security sound like a nightmare. Reminds me of thet libertarian utopia town with the bears (A Libertarian Walks into a Bear is a fun book). > (On libertrarians) House cats. They are convinced of their fierce independence while utterly dependent on a system they don't appeciate or understand. ~ John Spaulding
on “Telegram raises $210M through bond sales” ↗…tried (see Argentina who is currently looking for a bailout from the US because of their dumb economic policies that you likely support). There are plenty of failed "free town" experiments. The book "A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear" is an amusing story about exactly how this system ultimately turns into a trash heap city.
Do I infer correctly that by "extremely biased article" you are referring to the reviewed book "A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear", and the "he" refers to the author of the reviewed book, Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling? I ask because this HN posting links to article reviewing that book, authored by Elizabeth Austin, who is described…
on “Libertarians Took Control of This Small Town. It Didn’t End Well” ↗The article is based on the book A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling [1]: > A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear is the sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying tale of what happens when…
on “A New Hampshire libertarian utopia was foiled by bears” ↗A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) - Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
on “Supreme Court to Decide First-Ever Gun-Carry Case” ↗A few months ago, I wrote a review of the book A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear. The book describes the Free Town Project, a kind of offshoot of the Free State Project in New Hampshire, in which people moved to a particular town in order to try to reduce the role of local government…
on “Preparedness Paradox” ↗I think it was an imaginary scenario that Chesterton invented to illustrate a point. There are some preparedness-paradox stories in the book A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear where people who weren't used to living near bears pooh-poohed¹ precautions against them that other people said were necessary. Some of them had never before seen why those precautions might help anything.…
on “Ask HN: What was the purpose of the fence in Chesterton's Fence?” ↗Cf "A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear": https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/matthew-hongoltz-he...
on “Yurt Calculator” ↗