Catch my hilarious and poignant opening speech at Liberty Forum 2023, where you will find answers to questions like, did Carla accidentally murder the world’s funniest libertarian writer, and can you fight City Hall?
In the Media
The 8th Episode of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of New Hampshire is out. WATCH NOW!
From NBC: “One of the early experiments of the Free State project was the Free Town Project, a libertarian migration to the small community of Grafton, NH. And with the libertarians….allegedly came the bears? Or did they? This episode explores the controversies a small town navigated as they became the focus of this libertarian political trial run.”
NBC Boston Docuseries About the Free State Movement: First 7 Episodes Out Now
The first 7 episodes of NBC Boston’s docuseries on the Free State movement is out! Check out these short, 13 minute episodes, and then feel free to drop me questions below!
Still trying to fix this. In the meantime, these episode links work for full screen:
— Shira Stoll (@ShiraStoll) February 20, 2023
1:https://t.co/sy4Gc39tnn
2:https://t.co/Eu4QI6x954
3:https://t.co/kWXgu1Pn0J
4:https://t.co/wTbScTW2eg
5:https://t.co/1pq80tdWAf
6:https://t.co/FIJF9N16Uz
7:https://t.co/cnFCHKNVVd
A few things you should be wondering about while watching:
Who funds Granite State Progress? (Soros/and…?)
When did Zandra Rice Hawkins moved to New Hampshire to spread socialist programs? (After me)
Why won’t ZRH allow Free Staters to attend their “public” events?
How come NH public schools cost double ($18,000+) what private schools do ($9,000)?
What is more democratic than putting hard questions to voters?
Isn’t it GREAT that Free Staters are inspiring so many people to get involved as is required for good local government?
NBC Boston has been working on a docuseries about the Free State Movement for more than half a year. The trailer dropped.
Take a look HERE.
My initial thoughts are THIS LOOKS AWESOME! Can’t wait to see the rest. Of course, they will attempt to paint us as weirdos and troublemakers, but many people are actually looking for answers to the issues of the day, and I believe those people will see what we are doing for what it is: A SOLUTION to a problem that has grown too large to solve in any other way!
While politicians pay lip service to “reforms” and “changes,” we ALL know nothing is changing, improving, or happening… In fact, things are getting worse and worse. We are getting poorer, people are suffering, and the government is rankly incompetent, and, at this stage, has possibly actually tipped to being EVIL.
As I watched the trailer, I was also thinking, who are these naysayers? Besides Nick Sarwark, who has probably put the final nail in his coffin as a Free Stater with this–he should switch to the Democrats–I recognized Zandra Rice Hawkins (the one with the beanie on the playground) and Brodie Deshaies (an outspoken critic of the proposed Constitutional amendment to peacefully leave the Union and become an independent country; he was voted out in 2022).
Ironically, Zandra Rice Hawkins, who works for an organization called Granite State Progress that is funded by progressive billionaire George Soros, moved to New Hampshire after I did, and openly admits she wants New Hampshire to become “more progressive.” When one hears people like her criticizing the Free State movement, you must ask yourself, who is actually trying to change the culture of the LIVE FREE OR DIE state? I contend it is people like her, not us.
I once attended a public meeting Zandra hosted, and gave the following speech in response to hours of inaccurate and propagandist trash-talking from her. What a monster I am!
Last month, I was interviewed by the BBC for their series on Autarky. In Episode One, around minute 21:50, I mention being an early Free State mover (2008) and how New Hampshire could be poised to become its own successful, peaceful and prosperous country, like a Switzerland or Iceland.
Lifetime achievement unlocked.
Although totally NOT how I imagined it going down.
Every writer who completed their MFAs with me at City College probably also fantasized about being in The New Yorker. THE NEW YORKER!!!
Which, this week, I am, but not as a fiction writer, but for my political and socioeconomic views. I know it sounds like hubris, but I am in New Hampshire for a reason: To save one spot on Earth for individual liberty, property rights, and the freedom to be yourself. Live free or die! Those are the stakes.
So, sometimes when you are trying to get radical ideas across, you end up sounding… well, a bit bonkers, like this. But still, look Pa & Ma, The New Yorker called me “cheerful and energetic”!
On the plus side, the Free State Project gets ink and this means new people will learn about how great NH is and join us!
I’ll make an episode about the interview and subsequent fact-check call, but briefly, here’s some nuances:
Anti-vax/mandate was lost on them.
The discussion about self-ownership, which justifies my position on abortion. I think it’s wrong. I wouldn’t do it. But I don’t own you, so other than sharing my opinion with you–free speech–you need to be free to do what you want because reasonable people disagree on when life starts.
The discussion about independence being a strategic hedge against federal overreach. A discussion about why I oppose almost all federal laws, when state laws make do just fine, i.e. federalism and states’ rights.
Definitely read the whole article! Notice at the end the real reason for it all… Democrats pivot on messaging and literally steal Trump’s platform. Go look. For reals. It’s pretty remarkable.
Free Staters are NH allies
To the Editor: The vitriol against Free Staters must stop. I’m receiving death threats, Democrats are calling for our “extermination” — Twitter took weeks to remove this — and I received a letter at my house calling me the C-word and telling me to get the F-word “out of our state.”
Whose state? About 70% of the Legislature were not born here. Individuals moving here to bolster the New Hampshire Advantage, as well as thousands of Granite Staters who now self-identify as Free Staters, are allies not enemies.
Like you, Free Staters want limited government, low taxes, no income tax, and school choice. We subscribe to the non-aggression principle, the ethical stance that you cannot force someone to do something: “Don’t hurt people and don’t take their stuff.”
We believe you are the best steward of your life and money. We believe the economic prosperity and quality of life found in the “Live Free or Die” state is worth preserving.
Sometimes, granted, the methods employed to reverse the harm being inflicted by Democrats and RINOs won’t appeal to all. On the flipside, they locked you down and called you “non-essential.” As a student of history, this is much worse than using the democratic process to try to cut a school budget or reform a government-owned ski resort.
Free Staters come in peace. We’re building a consent-based society in strong communities focused on a brighter future. If you are against Free Staters, you support the control and subjugation of your neighbors. Be a Free Stater instead!
CARLA GERICKE
Durette Court, Manchester
Boston Globe: “Free Staters Seek to… ” [Run for Office and Get Elected (Sometimes)]
MANCHESTER, N.H. — The doormat outside Carla Gericke’s house carries the warning “Come back with a warrant.” It’s a stark reflection of her broad distrust of government bureaucracy, an attitude that is the driving force behind the Free State movement, which has led thousands of like-minded people to move to New Hampshire on a quixotic quest — to build a libertarian utopia.
Gericke helps lead that movement, and her agenda is broad and unapologetically radical. More than 6,000 people have relocated to New Hampshire since the effort was launched 21 years ago, according to its organizers. And while some dispute that claim, legislators on both sides of the aisle in Concord agree that Free Staters have come to wield outsize political influence.
Inside her home, Gericke explained why an independent New Hampshire is a good idea, why its public schools are hopelessly broken, why Washington, D.C., is pervasively corrupt, and why Free Staters who believe big government is the enemy of personal freedom are determined to turn society upside down.
“I’m a problem-solver, I’m a solutionist, I am an innovator, I’m a visionary,” said Gericke, a former corporate attorney who moved to New Hampshire from New York in 2008 as part of the Free State movement. “I want to take a swing at making one place better, and this is the place I picked.”
But where Gericke and other “porcupines” — a nickname Free Staters have adopted— see a blueprint for shrinking government and protecting the rights to privacy and private property, critics see a back-door assault on democracy itself.
Their end game, detractors say, is to infiltrate New Hampshire government at all levels — from select boards to the State House — with the aim of dismantling it. State support for public schools is a priority target. Read more…