Porcupine Day

Last weekend, Free Staters gathered together to celebrate the Free State Project’s 5th Annual Porcupine Day. This sold-out event showcased the PBS documentary film about world-renowned economist Thomas Sowell, Common Sense in a Senseless World, and we were honored to welcome the president of Free To Choose Network, Robert Chatfield, as one of our speakers.

Porcupine Day holds great significance for me as a milestone because five years ago, under my leadership, we landed Edward Snowden to speak at Liberty Forum, and triggered the move, calling all principled libertarians home to the Free State of New Hampshire.

On Saturday, we celebrated the hard work necessary to take the musings of a graduate student in an online essay and turn it into a genuine, grounds-up libertarian movement, the one and only of its kind in the world! The reality of what we are building in New Hampshire is the global success story for libertarianism. Not only do Free Staters put the “move” in “movement,” we are not going anywhere, and, in fact, we’re growing like never before!

Vince Perfetto showed us some impressive numbers. In addition to significant measurable year-over-year growth between 2019-2021, Vince included a goal to increase the mover rate 50% in 2021, from 225 to 338. This is an exciting and aggressive goal, and he will need all of our community’s support to achieve this. How can YOU help activate a new mover?

You should support the brave vanguard that, frankly, every libertarian should be helping in some way, either by moving, donating, or telling a friend. Share our social media posts, sign up for the newsletter, get (and stay) involved!

Speeches were also given by some of our local allies. State Representative Herschel Nunez spoke on behalf of the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance, and Andrew Manuse of ReBuild NH gave us a run down of their ReOpen activities over the lockdown. Jeremy Kauffman of the Free State Project’s board floated a few new ideas for consideration, including what the definition of “free stater” should be now that we’re doing away with the formal pledge and pivoting towards simply marketing New Hampshire as “the best state for libertarians, period”. The FSP is also considering changes to our board structure and bylaws to create a more “shareholder/membership” based model to reward doers and donors more effectively. Want a greater say in the organization? Contribute to our success!

I spoke briefly about the history of Porcupine Day, the ridiculous year we had in 2020, and how totalitarianism helps us grow by allowing us to sell New Hampshire as a “libertarian safe space.” I plugged my recent appearance on The Tom Woods Show, thanked Porcupine Day organizer, Stephen Nass, for his excellent work putting together a successful event, and told folks about PorcFest XVIII being spearheaded by Dennis Pratt. I also unveiled the new Free State Passport, a unique initiative to help the groundswell of new movers we are expecting. The passport includes “visa” prompts inside to direct new movers to network more efficiently with the existing community. The goal is to have a scaleable way to assist new movers in order to better integrate into the existing community. I will post more information about this “Passport to Freedom” in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

You can read the full speech I delivered back in 2016 to announce that the move had been triggered in my collection of award-winning work, The Ecstatic Pessimist, but you can catch some highlights from this post, A Free State: An Idea Whose Time Has Come. As I said in 2016, the ability to freely use the internet has always been crucial to our success, and back then, I told the Statists to keep their grubby little paws off OUR internet… At the time, I never thought de-platforming and cancel culture would become the norm we see today. It is clear to me (having just come off my own 30 day Facebook ban) that we are losing the battle for free speech, and need to push back even harder. On the plus side, as government overreaches more and more, more and more people are waking up, and we already know, you can’t put the liberty genie back in the bottle once you know what liberty looks and feels like…

So… long-term, we will win, but I fear it is going to get worse before it gets better, and it’s going to take time and treasure, and reinforcements… It is going to take… YOU!

Come join the fun! Not ready to move quite yet, but curious? Come to the 18th Annual Porcupine Freedom Festival, aka PorcFest, taking place June 21-27, 2021 in the White Mountains. Join thousands of like-minded people for a weeklong celebration, with confirmed speakers like Tom Woods and Jeffrey Tucker. This year, we are putting ourselves front and center, and showcasing our incredible community of incredible free staters doing incredible things. Learn more at PorcFest.com. It’s going to be the greatest year ever, so don’t miss out! Get your ridic cheap $30 tickets TODAY because prices will go up! You also need to book your accommodation with Rogers, and sites are selling out. Don’t wait. This year is going to be BANANAS!!!