818: Creating a Culture of Freedom - Grassroots Activism Done RIGHT

Brian Nichols  0:44  
surround yourself with people who share your values, your goals, your interests. That's what we've been talking about here in The Brian Nichols Show for two years, three years now at this point, especially during the COVID Insanity, but where do you where do you think you can actually go where we're in the United States? Is it the United States that you can possibly move to? I moved to Indiana, there's another state up in the Northeast. That's saying, Libertarians both big and small this place could be your home, the Free State New Hampshire? Yeah, let's talk about that. Instead of focusing on winning arguments. We're teaching the basic fundamentals of sales and marketing and how we can use them to win in the world of politics, teaching you how to meet people where they're at on the issues they care about. Welcome to The Brian Nichols Show. Well, hey there folks, Brian Nichols here on The Brian Nichols Show. And thank you for joining us on a fourth color control episode. I am as always your humble host joining new from our cardio Studios here in lovely Eastern Indiana. The Brian Nichols Show is brought to you and powered by amp America really excited to be part of the amp America team by the way if you're watching today's episode before our awesome Twitter X spaces we have coming up here today we're gonna be talking about our brand new little doc not Docu series but little little series we have over amp America, the extremist files that it was created by Seamus Seamus Coughlin There we go, yes, Seamus Coughlin from Freedom tunes, who he just does some amazing work. So with that amp America, go ahead, check out all the awesome stuff we're doing over there news, news articles, opinion pieces, culture, all that and more. So one more time, Aunt America very excited to be part of the amp America family. And also I am personally very excited to be powered by cardio miracle our studio sponsor, and folks I've been using cardio miracle for well over half a year now. And I gotta say, I've seen that for myself. The cardio miracle difference is 1,000% real. Now, if you are suffering with Heart, heart issues, if you're looking to lower your blood pressure, you're trying to increase your pump at the gym and you just get a better night's sleep. Cardio miracle is the answer to your prayers. It has a secret ingredient that is nitric oxide, actually a Nobel Prize winning supplement and with that nitric oxide helps lower your blood pressure give you that better pump at the gym give you that more restful sleep at night. I'm actually heading to the doctors tomorrow morning for a checkup. 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So head over to the show notes again Brian Nichols show.com or cardio miracle.com Wherever it's easier take advantage of this awesome awesome offer to our amazing audience here at The Brian Nichols Show and I guarantee your heart will thank you cardio miracle.com The best heart health supplement in the world Alright, that's enough about heart health supplements and making your your ticker better. How do you make your mental health better and specifically where you live right I told my story back a few years ago I was miserable. I lived in Philadelphia PA for about seven years. All of a sudden COVID hits and the insanity that followed thereafter and watching time and again people you thought were at least sane, rational, logical thinking people though, emotions fear just hits them like a ton of bricks and all sudden they're willing to do whatever the heck they're told to do. And that's a little scary. So it's important right to surround yourself with people who share your values. You share your principles who share your goals and that's what I did. I moved to Indiana but is Indiana the only place you can move to of course is not the only state. We had our good friend McHale, Thorpe, he's talking about going out and building, building your experiences and your home abroad, doing the expat approach to living but what if you don't need to go overseas? What if, believe it or not, there's a state up in the Northeast I know the northeast of all places. That's actually a free state and is standing there as a beacon not just to Big L libertarians but small l libertarians alike to discuss all of that and more from the Free State of New Hampshire. Mark warden. Welcome to The Brian Nichols Show. How are you?

Mark Warden  5:33  
Right, it's great to be here. I'm honored. Like like your work, and you have some great guests. I'm proud to be one of them. Great

Brian Nichols  5:40  
to have you on the show. Mark, you're doing amazing work up in New Hampshire, because not only are you being an advocate for folks that come to the Free State, but you're actually helping sell them some houses so they have a place to live when they head up there. But before we go ahead and dig into that, and I put the cart before the horse, of course do me a favor. Let's introduce yourself here to The Brian Nichols Show audience but specifically Mark, what is it about this liberty world that got you so focused and so onboard to the point you found yourself up in New Hampshire selling all these libertarians? You were heading your way a bunch of houses mark the floor is yours.

Mark Warden  6:13  
Well, thank you. I found libertarianism in my mid 30s. So sort of a late adopter compared to a lot of young people today. And it was living out in Las Vegas, Nevada, wasn't really involved in politics didn't think much about that or ideology. But somehow I bumped into the Libertarian Party folks there. They invited me in which some meetings, they said here read this book, I read out there slow shrug, read 101. You know, Henry, Hazlitt, economics, one easy lesson and things like that. And I just gained all the knowledge, I could talk to people learning more about it. And it really spoke to me, its whole idea of living let live leave people alone as long as you're not hurting them or taking their stuff. Even though I'm just like socially a little bit more conservative. I started to learn more and more about the non Aggression Principle about social libertarianism, whether that's smoking pot, or conservative fiscal libertarianism, and not taxing people so much. So even though I started out on more than low tax side of things, I quickly learned to appreciate all the other aspects of this theory and this ideology. So I after a few years out in Las Vegas, I started get more interested in politics. I actually ran as a candidate under the Libertarian Party mantle, just as on a lark, you know, for fun back in 2000. But as I did, I got more interested in the process and how somebody who's involved in politics might really be able to make a difference in people's eyes and public policy, but quickly learned that just banging your head against the wall to run as a libertarian, no matter how bright the ideas might be, people just aren't ready for that in our two party system. So the next time around and ran as Republicans are delivered liberty, Lady Republican, and last in a primary, but it gave you the taste of it. And I got the bug to get more involved in politics. This is early 2000s. And right around 2004 2005. I heard about the Free State Project, which is this sort of mass migration of people moving to New Hampshire with the idea of attract attract libertarians, anarcho capitalist constitutionalist, classical liberals, Monarcas, all those all those labels you want to give it to anybody who wants to just be left alone, wants less government and more individual freedom, or even concentrate these folks in the small state of New Hampshire. It was really an amazing idea. And I cogitated on it for a couple years my my job was going great. My career was doing really well on Las Vegas had a lot of friends there. But it after this festered you know, I got a red pill, and mixing 2007 I made the move, I packed up all my belongings, rented out my house, quit my job and moved to New Hampshire. So fast forward, I've been here since 2007. The amazing part has been been with so many like minded people, I built a business we can talk about if you'd like. And it really was there was never a better example of this tribe of this community than during the COVID lock downs and all the mandates where we were acting pretty normally among our group of like minded people, middle of summer 2020 And we it was masked, dance, social distancing, you know, wiping things down with the sanitizer, but we're still going to regular social events among our own group groups, going to parties, weddings, hugging, shaking hands, all that stuff. So that's where we are today.

Brian Nichols  9:44  
So I'm going to ask Matt Edwards this question tonight on the the X spaces, the Twitter spaces we're doing and we're talking about the new AMP America show the extremist files, and that is the importance of building a small l libertarian culture. Now, if we go back to the late, great, Andrew Breitbart, he had the quote, politics is downstream from culture, I firmly 1,000% agree. And what we've done here on the show, is we've embraced that approach, but also with the understanding that there's kind of like this chain of events, right? In order to change politics, you have to be able to change the politicians, in order to change the politicians, you have to change the folks who are nominating those those elected or those those politicians in order to change the folks who are nominating those, or those folks running for office, you have to change the folks in the seats that are in those respective political parties and to change the folks who are in the seats, you have to change the minds of folks within those areas, which goes back to step one changing the culture and culture is it sounds easy, right? Oh, just go ahead and have a libertarian movie, start a libertarian book club, all these little things that we think, Well, that's the easy answer. But maybe it is for our little circle of libertarians. But beyond building culture, it's more than just the ISM, right? Mark, I want you to maybe articulate this for the audience, because I see this, and I'm not picking on anybody in particular bouches at the Libertarian Party of Indiana state convention here, and I heard a lot of folks who they live and breathe the ISM that is libertarian ism. But they seem to really miss the mark, when it comes to building something beyond the ISM building, something that transcends politics, transcends the philosophy and actually build something culturally significant. So Mark, you guys have done something very, very cool up in New Hampshire, and that is building a small l libertarian society, but you're doing so through culture. And I want to hear from you what you're seeing is successful means to build culture. And frankly, what the heck can we do differently outside of New Hampshire in these other 49 states to have the success you guys are having?

Mark Warden  12:05  
The first step is always to be a good example, if your neighbor, a great parent, a good friend, a good co worker, employee, employer, live your values, maybe even articulate your values. But those are secondary to behaving well. So there are many paths to liberty, as you mentioned, culture is a big one. And a lot of libertarian types are more logical, meaner and do tech, math, I think pretty logically, they don't get they don't like these emotional arguments the most Politico's us. But we have to realize that not everybody resonates with those, we see how popular politicians are, who just appeal to people's emotions, to their fears. And we need to do a little bit better job of that as we promote liberty. So I like to tell people, many paths to liberty. One is through politics, when through the legal system. One is true education, you know, do homeschooling send your kids to private schools offer tutoring, to maybe other kids in a neighborhood where we can steal some of our pro Liberty values or classical liberal values in others. So they're not just hearing the indoctrination they get at the government schools, also build businesses, right, the stronger we can get in our own economic and cultural ecosystem, the better we are going to be prepared to extend our power and our influence and our reach in the future. So let's look at all these ways and you have to do what works for you as an individual activist. I've been involved in sales for many, many years sales and marketing in the real estate business, and prior to that, and industrial equipment. So for me, it's easy to talk to people and try to be influential, and encourage them to see things a different way. But maybe somebody else it's about growing food, being a farmer, or doing outreach that way, or just being a good employee, or raising your kids and you're chatting up the moms, the other moms at soccer practice script, I define it as do what works for you, and just get out there and people and tell others the way you think,

Brian Nichols  14:19  
you know, Mark, you're you're painting the picture here. And for folks who are listening, I'm sure that they're hearing this this rhyme right that the meet people where they're at on the issues, they care about how how frequently we hear libertarians both big and small, who they will go through and they're convinced that just because I know the principles, I know the philosophy that that's that's all I have to tell people that once they hear this great idea. That's all it takes. They're going to be on board but much like you articulated mark, you know, you go into the world of sales. It doesn't matter how good your product is like I work in the contact Senator space. And there are some customers out there a competition that's out there. And they tout a phenomenal, phenomenal technology. But it doesn't matter if they don't know how to sell it. And we see this time and again, with libertarians, we have a great, beautiful philosophy. But just having that great, beautiful philosophy, it's not enough, you have to be able to then bring that and yes, sell it to believe it or not, folks, I know this is hard to hear folks who aren't libertarian already. I know, I know, sit down I heard you all collectively stand up getting ready to walk out the door. But believe it or not, in order to grow our movement, we have an obligation to reach people outside of our circle meaning outside of our libertarian echo chambers and actually talk to people who aren't libertarian. So with all that, Mark, you're up in the Free State you've been there now for going on 20 years. I'm sure I'm almost guarantee that not everybody in said free state is in fact either a big L or small l libertarian heck, you're a small l libertarian, and you you ran for office as a big our Republican so there is it seems like some yin and yang when it comes to New Hampshire and the cultural arena, when it connects to the political arena. How has New Hampshire embraced libertarians? Or are you guys experiencing maybe not so warm of a welcome? What's that look like?

Mark Warden  16:19  
It's a little bit of both, and it's a mixed bag. But we like to say the New Hampshire has history and a culture of liberty. Now people may not call it libertarianism, they might just call it leave us alone is um, but a good example is the state model of New Hampshire is live free or die. And we love that it's on every license plate and sundry flag. So people will say that there's been a long standing Second Amendment freedom here. Pretty good, low taxes, it's a very low tax state with no income tax, no sales tax. So these are already good places to start for the libertarian movement. But in general, in this state, the vast majority of people have never heard of the Free State Project. And that's fine. The politicos people are super interested in politics certainly know about us, the more conservative types who want less government, they love what we're doing. In fact, we've been empowered because of their support, we've been able to join forces in this perfect storm of small government activists, farmers, rural people, and appreciate project that really sort of made our presence more impactful. And of course, you have those on the other side, the lefties, the Democrat activist, who call us extremists. In fact, there's even a hate group that follows everything we do and appreciate project, they put us on lists, they call us extremist. So we wear that as a badge of honor. But to your earlier point about, you know, the speak to people and not just you know, bash them over the head with libertarianism values. Initially, I neglected to mention I do after I came here, I did run for office, I was elected to the planning board. I also got elected to the state legislature four different times and served eight years. And when I go door to door meeting voters, I don't just you know, say hi, we'd like to talk about the non Aggression Principle. We started out just with a friendly smile, a handshake. And I wanted to hear from them what what things are interested, interesting then or what their, their concerns are. And to be honest, most voters talk about local issues like the pothole front, or the crappy schools, which aren't impacted that much by what the state legislature does. But you know, it's a good conversation starter and an icebreaker. And as long as you're nice to them, and they remember your name, you stick a flyer in their in their hand, say, hey, remember you on voting day, that's proved to be very successful. And then when in office, when I'm up in the legislature, of course, I'm very true to my libertarian pro Liberty beliefs, and have a very good voting record. That's, you know, that's been recorded by certain groups. So that's how you do it to be successful.

Brian Nichols  19:16  
If you were at the Libertarian Party of Indiana state convention last week, and you basically heard me in the three hour session, I did take what Mark just said, in 15 seconds and build it over a three hour period that that is at the end of the day when it comes down to right meeting their voter where they're at on the issues they care about which predominantly ended up being not the national, the national or even at the state level conversations or issues, but quite literally the most local issues possible. There's potholes outside of my house, the garbage isn't getting picked up on time. Homelessness is everywhere. Those are the issues that actually resonate to people and I don't know Mark, like, do we get in our own ways, and I'm going to ask you, this is a liberal Aryan because I see this happen time. And again, we, we want people to come into our movement. And yet we end up being the most like exclusionary group of folks, when we realize that the people we're bringing in, starting out aren't libertarian, and we're confused by that. And we ended up I think, with our dogma pushing folks away, is that something you're seeing? Or is maybe New Hampshire doing things a little bit differently up there?

Mark Warden  20:24  
I think that's omnipresent. I think you'll find that in every voting district, in every state around the country, where the more involved you get in any kind of organization, certainly a political organization, there's gonna be a lot of infighting, everything's his or her way is the best. And we quibble over, you know, the 5% of the 2% things we disagree on, instead of celebrating and pushing forward and, and 95% of the things we agree on. So I think that's just the nature of the BS people who get involved in politics, like many ways that that power and influence. So all we can do is keep spreading the gospel that let's work together, let's do more outreach. Let's get to the masses who still don't know our message, and let them learn about it in a friendly way.

Brian Nichols  21:13  
Mark, if libertarians are interested in moving up to this free state now, by the way, I'm going to preface this question with a statement and that is in two weeks, we're gonna having new executive director of the Free State Project and good friend of the show and good personal friend Eric brakey, here back in the program, and he's gonna make his case of why I need to leave Indiana to move to the great state of New Hampshire. But do me a favor, Mark helped make the case beyond what Eric's going to make in a few weeks, to the folks in the audience. How does one start to make that move up to New Hampshire? And I mean, if they need to buy a house, I don't know even where they would start their mark. What do you think

Mark Warden  21:52  
over the effect I don't even see one side over their shoulder but I sold three houses for Bitcoin in New Hampshire. So we're we're trying to do all the things libertarian here and put our money where our mouth is and do things right. But certainly start out by going to the website, which is fsp.org, Free State project.org. And we really encourage people to come out for a visit. And the best time to do that is the summer when it's just gorgeous in New Hampshire,

Brian Nichols  22:21  
everything so it's not in the middle of the winter when it's negative 30. Some

Mark Warden  22:26  
people like that year to skiing and snow, snowboarding but coming to summer, it's all at that at mid 80s lush green everywhere and we have a huge week long festival we call porcupine freedom Festival. It's pork fest for sorta pork fest.com And we get nearly 2000 people attending this week long conference. Imagine the Mises Institute in Mises Institute meets meets with a big year, I don't know music festival or something like that Woodstock, it all just really an amazing thing with hundreds of speakers, Hutchins, little groups, we also have people doing playing live music, and kids doing the kids Olympics, playing sports, playing Frisbee, just hanging out having a beer, solving all the world's problems, but you have all these, it's very family friendly. It's a great way to tour of the state of New Hampshire, meet a lot of us early movers and really get a better feel for the diverse group that we have. Over 6000 people have moved to New Hampshire because of the Free State Project and are considered part of our group if you're a hard tribe. So come out, meet them see what we're doing in real life IRL, to to advance liberty in our lifetime.

Brian Nichols  23:42  
We've had a lot of folks here on the show from from the Free State folks, folks, spokes, folks, that's a new one. I like that spokes spokes for for FSP. We've had Carla Garrick on the show, we've had Eric on the show. Heck, we've had Jeremy Kaufman on the show. We've had all the folks in between here on the show from from New Hampshire. And you know what I will say this mark, like the diverse group of libertarians up there in New Hampshire, it really does speak to this is this is the way right to channel my inner Mandalorian. This is the way and if we want to, you know, this will be my final thought and I'll turn things over to you for your final thought. But we talk so much and we hear the debates of you know that the pragmatists, you have the principled folks in the libertarian movement. Do we want to win elections? Do we want to win over hearts and minds? Do we want to educate people? What's the approach that wins? What you're doing in New Hampshire is the approach that wins and here's the reality folks. It's not a a one size fits all approach. It is a combination of approaches that will lead to long term viability and success and that is exactly what states like New Hampshire are doing. Heck, I'm gonna go ahead and out of state like Indiana, Indiana has done a phenomenal job at building the libertarian In party and the libertarian culture to become one of the leading ideas or mentalities here in the state, from a cultural perspective, and we, we got to reiterate the importance of the culture, right, you can't build a libertarian political system, unless the people in that system are on board with Liberty. So that's why when we built the show, right, we talked about the importance of the principles that are over over my shoulder over here, educate, enlighten, and inform. It's not just a matter of saying Here, read this book, like, okay, reading the book is great. But your average person isn't going to take your offer of reading this 400 page, Murray Rothbard book, they're just not they're a mom, they're going to the grocery store, to hope that you know that the $100 that they have for groceries that week is going to be able to maybe fill the cart, three quarters, half, maybe if they're lucky. Those are the things that people actually worry about. So looking at what you're doing in New Hampshire, what we see work here in Indiana and some other more pro, small l Liberty states, there is a path and I just want to say to folks out there who feel that man yes, we're facing this Leviathan of a state Democrats and Republicans, nobody's paying attention. No, it's not that people aren't paying attention. It's just it. They're not paying attention the way you want them to. And sometimes we have to take a step back and realize that it's not a matter of people meeting us where we are, but rather we have to meet them where they are. That's my final thoughts for today. Mark, what do you have on your end? Well,

Mark Warden  26:31  
people to remember that community is important. And one of the things to keep in mind for everybody in the other 49 states is that when you get together with other libertarians, you're lucky to get 20 or 30 or 50 people in a room at the same time. We have that all the time in New Hampshire, with over 6000 people spread statewide. mean, every Tuesday night here in Manchester, there, which is a city of about 120,000 people, we'll get together for burgers and beers on a Tuesday night. And usually 20 to 30 people will come regularly. Out on the sea coast, they'll have Bitcoin meetups with a dozen people. And then when we have our big events like pork fest, or New Hampshire Liberty forum, we'll get hundreds together. And this is important. It's nice to have people that have your back. We have when we do a protest, we'll have 50 100 people show up when we go to the statehouse testify we have doesn't show up. If you have a court case, if you're trying to fight the man, you know, we have seen, I've seen us pack a courtroom with 50 supporters of our friends. So this kind of thing is something you're not going to experience anywhere else in the world. If you're a libertarian, so come check out your

Brian Nichols  27:42  
mark Warden, I cannot agree more. And that's a great call to action for folks in the audience. So please go ahead and give mark some love also porcupine realestate.com If you are interested in checking out the great state of New Hampshire and you know what, maybe you checked it out and you say, Hey, honey, I think we're gonna make the move, give mark a call. And heck, if you had some bitcoin there, they've been holding on to for 1520 years, it might just go ahead and buy a house. So make sure you go ahead and give mark some love. And when you do, please let him know that you heard him you are over here on The Brian Nichols Show. So I know my guests love to hear that folks heard them on the show. And give mark some love. I know that a we love to share, share the love here at The Brian Nichols Show. So what did you learn on the episode? Folks, we want to hear it go down below into the comments. And by the way, where what what comments are am I talking about? Well, we have a couple different versions of the show Mark, we have video as well as audio. So you want to go to the videos and you want to leave those comments. Let us know your thoughts. You can go to your traditionals YouTube rumble, we also upload our videos in their entirety to Twitter x.com, as well as Facebook. And folks, if you go ahead and check us out over there, like I said, hit that subscribe button, hit that little notification bell and head below down in the comments. Let us know your thoughts. Did you move to the great state of New Hampshire? And if so what's been your experience? Or are you living in a maybe not so free state? What would it take to get you to take the step to actually move to New Hampshire we want to hear so and by the way, I'm sure Mark and Eric brakey there from the Free State Project gonna want to hear as well because they kind of want to get you to move up there. So with that being said head below in the comments, let us know your thoughts. Or if you're a podcast type of person who's like listening to these types of shows. I get you on the exact same way. So we're a podcast as well. Apple podcast, Spotify, YouTube music, I like podcast addict, wherever it is you get your podcast is do me a favor, frankly, do yourself a favor, hit download all unplayed episodes. And here's the reason why, since 2018, we in The Brian Nichols Show, we've been talking about meeting people where they're at on the issues, they care about leaving folks educated, enlightened and informed. And with that, we have over 115 episodes of The Brian Nichols Show, digging through economists, elected officials, we've had entrepreneurs, we've had activist authors, all of that and more and I guarantee of those episodes, you're gonna Fine, dozens of folks, dozens of conversations that will leave you members of the audience, educated and enlightened and informed. So yes, hit download all unplayed episodes, check out some of our past conversations with some other amazing folks from New Hampshire, like the aforementioned Carla Garrick, or Jeremy Kaufman or Eric brakey, or even today, Mark ward. And so, folks, we really appreciate the love and support we get from you in the audience. And also, I know when it comes to how we keep the lights on here it is that love and support that keeps us going. But unfortunately, the love doesn't pay the bills. So if you want to help support The Brian Nichols Show, help us keep having phenomenal conversations with folks like Mark I mean, goodness, folks, we're over 815 episodes here at the show. As much as I do the kindness and love that I have of my heart for this this topic in this conversation. I need help. So if you could please support the folks who support us and that is our sponsors. Yes, I would love a one time donation from you but I want you to have something that you can actually tangibly get in return so whether it's our our sponsors over at cardio miracle evil CBD liquid freedom energy T blood of tyrants of BNC technology advisors, heck, we have our awesome friends over at proud libertarian where you can go ahead and get your good ideas don't require force snapback like I'm rocking here today. You can use all that and more, just do me a favor, use your discount code TBS at checkout $10 Off 10% Off 15% Off here all over the place, just please go ahead and support the folks who support us at The Brian Nichols Show. I think that's all I have for us today. Mark any final words for the audience as we wrap things up? Ryan,

Mark Warden  31:32  
thank you very much for your time and let's do all we can to keep on living free.

Brian Nichols  31:38  
Amen. can't agree more. And with that being said one more time porcupine realestate.com. Mark warden has been an absolute pleasure really looking forward to my conversation in a few weeks with Eric brakey. I got to tell him that you're you're going to be the New Hampshire real estate guy. So anybody had number two, the great state of New Hampshire, please give mark a call. Make sure you have your bitcoins ready. But with that being said, all we have for you today Brian Nichols signing off here on The Brian Nichols Show for Mark warden. We'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai