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Jeffrey Tucker

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For the American Olympic luger, see Jeff Tucker (luger).

Jeffrey Tucker
Tucker in 2017
Born
Jeffrey Albert Tucker

(1963-12-19) December 19, 1963 (age 60)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Author, CEO, publisher
Websitejeffreytucker.me

Jeffrey Albert Tucker (/ˈtʌkər/; born December 19, 1963) is an American libertarian writer, publisher, entrepreneur and advocate of anarcho-capitalism and Bitcoin.

For many years he worked for Ron Paul, the Mises Institute, and Lew Rockwell. With the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) he organized efforts against COVID-19 restrictions starting in 2020, and he founded the Brownstone Institute think tank in 2021 to continue such efforts.

As of 2021, he is Chief Liberty Officer (CLO) of Liberty.me.[1] He is an adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy,[2] a research affiliate of the Blockchain Innovation Hub of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technogy,[3] and an Acton Institute associate.[4]

Early life and education

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A son of the Texas historian Albert Briggs Tucker and Roberta Janeice (Robertson) Tucker, Jeffrey Albert Tucker was born in Fresno, California, in 1963.[citation needed]

He studied economics as an undergraduate at Texas Tech University and Howard Payne University,[5] where he first encountered the literature of the Austrian School. He later enrolled as a graduate student in economics at George Mason University.[citation needed]

Career

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Writer and editor

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While studying at George Mason, Tucker attended a journalism program in Washington, D.C., where he became a volunteer at the Washington office of the Mises Institute.[6]

In the late 1980s, he worked for Ron Paul[6] as an assistant to editor Lew Rockwell. During Paul's 2008 Presidential campaign, newsletters written on behalf of Paul became controversial because some contained statements against black people and gay people.[7] Tucker was said to have helped Rockwell write the newsletters.[7]

From 1997 to 2011, Tucker worked for the Mises Institute, of which Rockwell was a co-founder, as editorial vice president and editor for the institute's website, Mises.org. From 1999 to 2011 he contributed to LewRockwell.com.[6][self-published source?]

According to a 2000 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Tucker wrote for publications of the League of the South, a group the SPLC considers neo-Confederate and white supremacist. The SPLC report said Tucker was listed as a founding member on the league's website, but that Tucker denied being a member.[8]

In late 2011, Tucker was hired by Addison Wiggin as publisher and executive editor of Laissez Faire Books,[9][10] and worked in that capacity until 2016. As of 2017, he remains a contributor to LFB.[citation needed]

Tucker was appointed a Distinguished Fellow of the Foundation for Economic Education in 2013,[11] speaking at FEE's seminars and writing for its publication The Freeman. From 2015 to 2017, he was FEE's Director of Content.[12][13]

Tucker became Editorial Director of the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) in late 2017.[14] As of 2021, he is listed as an independent editorial consultant at AIER.[15]

Bitcoin advocacy

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In 2013, Tucker wrote a primer about the cryptocurrency Bitcoin called "Bitcoin for Beginners", in which he described it as solving the problems of double spending and single point of failure.[16] He has been interviewed on the subject by Reason at the 2013 Freedom Fest[17] and Fox Business Channel.[18] Tucker's 2015 book Bit by Bit is devoted to Bitcoin and other products of the "information economy".[19] In 2018 he became a research affiliate of the Blockchain Innovation Hub, a study center at RMIT University.[2]

In 2018, Tucker endorsed Liberland, a micronation claimed on a disputed sandbank between Croatia and Serbia that accepts the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum.[20][21]

Speaker

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Tucker has appeared as a speaker at conferences on Austrian school economics, and libertarianism[22] including FreedomFest conferences,[23] events of the Free State Project, and the 2016 and 2018 Libertarian Party national convention.[citation needed]

Social media

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In 2013, Tucker founded and became the CEO (under the title "Chief Liberty Officer") of Liberty.me, a "social network and online publishing platform for the liberty minded", which launched a successful Indiegogo fundraising campaign in 2013 and began operation in 2014.[1]

COVID-19 pandemic and Brownstone Institute

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Tucker blogged in opposition to social distancing measures and face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, framing them as subservience to "arbitrary and ignorant authority".[24]

In 2020, Tucker helped organize the Great Barrington Declaration, signed at AIER, which advocated the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.[25]

In 2021, Tucker founded the nonprofit Brownstone Institute for Social and Economic Research, a think tank that opposes various measures against COVID-19, including masking and vaccine mandates. Senior roles were given to Martin Kulldorff and Jay Bhattacharya, two of the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which Tucker also helped to organize. The institute has described itself as "the spiritual child" of the Great Barrington Declaration. Writers of Brownstone articles have included Sunetra Gupta, the third co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, Paul E. Alexander, a former Trump administration health official, and George Gilder, a senior resident fellow at AIER.[25][26] Science-Based Medicine has described the Brownstone Institute as spreading misinformation against vaccines and in favor of disproven treatments.[27]

Views

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Tucker has referred to war as an "alluring illusion" and has been critical of American interventionist foreign policy.[28]

In an interview for California Sunday, Tucker described his "vision of freedom" by recalling a view over São Paulo by night: "As far as my eyes could see, there were lights and buildings and civilization burgeoning — an awesome amount of human knowledge, energy, innovation, creative capacity right in front of me. I began to turn, and it was true over here, and over there, and in every single direction, and I thought, 'That’s it! This world will never be governed. It cannot be governed.' It was beautiful."[23]

Personal life

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Formerly a Southern Baptist, Tucker is a convert to traditionalist Catholicism.[29][30] He was managing editor of the Church Music Association of America journal Sacred Music from 2006 to 2014.[31][32]

Published works

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Books

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  • Henry Hazlitt: Giant For Liberty (with Llewellyn H. Rockwell and Murray N. Rothbard, 1994, Ludwig von Mises Institute, ISBN 978-0-945466-16-1): an annotated bibliography of the works of Henry Hazlitt. A Foundation for Economic Education review described the book, which "includes citations of a novel, works on literary criticism, treatises on economics and moral philosophy, several edited volumes, some 16 other books and many chapters in books, plus articles, commentaries, and reviews," as "an apt eulogy of Henry Hazlitt."[33]
  • Sing Like a Catholic (2009, Church Music Association of America, ISBN 978-1-60743-722-2): essays on church music
  • Bourbon for Breakfast: Living Outside the Statist Quo (2010, Ludwig von Mises Institute, ISBN 978-1-933550-89-3)
  • It's a Jetsons World: Private Miracles and Public Crimes (2011, Ludwig von Mises Institute, ISBN 978-1-61016-194-7)
  • Hack Your Shower Head: and 10 Other Ways to Get Big Government out of Your Home (2012, Laissez Faire Books, ISBN 978-1-62129-063-6)
  • A Beautiful Anarchy: How to Create Your Own Civilization in the Digital Age (2012, Laissez Faire Books, ISBN 978-1-62129-041-4): on the effects of small business regulation
  • Liberty.me: Freedom Is a Do-It-Yourself Project (2014, Liberty.me, ISBN 978-1-63069-032-8)
  • Bit by Bit: How P2P is Freeing the World (2015, e-book)
  • Advice for Young, Unemployed Workers (2015, pamphlet, Foundation for Economic Education, ISBN 978-1-57246-039-3)
  • Right-Wing Collectivism: The Other Threat to Liberty (2017): Addresses that the threat of collectivism comes from the right as well as the far left
  • Liberty or Lockdown (2020): Discusses the choice between liberty and COVID-19 lockdowns

In periodicals

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He has written for, among others, Journal of Libertarian Studies, The Wall Street Journal, The Journal of Commerce, National Review, The Freeman, Catholic World Report, Crisis, Sacred Music, Newsweek, and Chronicles.[citation needed]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Gillespie, Nick; Swain, Joshua (August 22, 2014). "Jeffrey Tucker on Liberty.me and How the Internet Undermines the Nation-State". Reason TV. Retrieved August 23, 2014.
  2. ^ a b ""Bio: Mr. Jeffrey Tucker." Mackinac Center for Public Policy. 2008". Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved February 26, 2008.
  3. ^ "Jeffrey Tucker". RMIT University. Archived from the original on March 8, 2019. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
  4. ^ "Acton University Faculty." Acton Institute. Acton.org
  5. ^ "Academic awards given". The Howard Payne University Yellow Jacket. Brownwood, TX. April 26, 1985. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
  6. ^ a b c Anthony Wile (August 12, 2012). "Jeffrey Tucker on Laissez Faire Books, Intellectual Property Rights and 'Beautiful Anarchy' (interview)". The Daily Bell (website). Retrieved May 24, 2016.
  7. ^ a b The Economist (January 11, 2008). "Democracy in America (blog): The Rockwell Files". The Economist.
  8. ^ "The Neo-Confederates". Southern Poverty Law Center. September 15, 2000. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
  9. ^ Addison Wiggin press release at Agora Financial website, owner of Laissez-Faire books, November 22, 2011.
  10. ^ "An Introduction to the NEW Laissez Faire Books (video: see information in the description)". Agora Financial. November 8, 2011.
  11. ^ "The Man in the Bow Tie". The Freeman. Foundation for Economic Education. May 2, 2013.
  12. ^ "Jeffrey A. Tucker". Foundation for Economic Education. August 7, 2015. Archived from the original on July 28, 2022. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
  13. ^ Chris Campbell (April 5, 2016). "What Do You Mean, Liberal?". Laissez Faire Books. Archived from the original on November 5, 2019. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
  14. ^ "Jeffrey Tucker, AIER Editorial Director". American Institute for Economic Research. Retrieved December 23, 2017.
  15. ^ "Jeffrey A. Tucker". AIER. May 2, 2021. Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  16. ^ "Bitcoin for Beginners". April 1, 2013. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
  17. ^ Welch, Matt; Fisher, Anthony L. (August 17, 2013). "How Bitcoin is Reinventing The Monetary System: Q&A with Laissez Faire Books' Jeffrey Tucker". Retrieved May 27, 2016.
  18. ^ "Nasdaq embracing Bitcoin technology". May 11, 2015. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
  19. ^ Weeks, Bob (October 5, 2015). "Jeffrey Tucker and Bit by Bit: How P2P Is Freeing the World".
  20. ^ "Welcome to Liberland, the nation that bitcoin built". Stuff. February 20, 2018. Archived from the original on November 21, 2018. Retrieved April 1, 2021.
  21. ^ Murphy, Margi (February 18, 2018). "Welcome to Liberland, the nation that bitcoin built". Telegraph. Archived from the original on August 9, 2023. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  22. ^ David Weigel (February 17, 2015). "Bow Ties and Slam Poetry: This Is Libertarianism in 2015". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
  23. ^ a b Chris Colin (January 31, 2019). "Freedom is..." California Sunday (magazine).
  24. ^ Kristian, Bonnie (May 6, 2020). "Why even mask skeptics should want to wear them". theweek.com. Retrieved August 23, 2020. The plaints against masking are several. Perhaps the most common (and distinctly American) is the idea that wearing a mask signals sheepish subservience to an overreaching state. "Adding to my post-lockdown predictions," libertarian author Jeffrey Tucker tweeted Saturday, "the face mask will be rightly regarded as a symbol of obsequious obedience and grotesque compliance with arbitrary and ignorant authority."
  25. ^ a b "New Institute Has Ties to the Great Barrington Declaration". www.medpagetoday.com. November 11, 2021. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  26. ^ "About Brownstone Institute". Brownstone Institute.
  27. ^ David Gorski (January 24, 2022). "The "spiritual child of the Great Barrington Declaration" promotes antivaccine misinformation". Science-Based Medicine.
  28. ^ "Why is War Such an Alluring Illusion? | Jeffrey A. Tucker". April 6, 2017.
  29. ^ Tucker, Jeffrey. "I Hate Converts (And I Am One)." Beliefnet.com.
  30. ^ Tucker, Jeffrey A. "Why I Left Protestantism for Catholicism." Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics. July 18, 1996.
  31. ^ "Profile: Jeffrey Tucker." Catholic Answers Archived January 18, 2013, at archive.today
  32. ^ Beattie, Trent. "Singing the Mass."[permanent dead link] National Catholic Register. December 30, 2010.
  33. ^ Peterson, William (November 1995). "Book Review: Henry Hazlitt: A Giant of Liberty by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., Jeffrey A. Tucker, and Murray N. Rothbard" (PDF). The Freeman. Foundation for Economic Education. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 12, 2022. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
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