Zwolinski Doubles Down (Left-libertarian in action)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 21, 2025

“Global energy means a great deal to me. And climate change denialism is a major problem in both the libertarian and Republican parties.” (- M. Zwolinski)

Yesterday’s post, “Denialism? Zwolinski Punts on Climate Science, Policy (statism on parade),” raised the wrath of its subject, whose emotions and temper (and statism!) are now on display. In an open social media post, he intellectually cheated and got caught. And now he has made it worse.

“Global energy means a great deal to me” he stated to one and all. “And climate change denialism is a major problem in both the libertarian and Republican parties.” Wrong and wrong. Matt Zwolinski does not know much about energy or about the climate debate, it turns out. Yet he smeared a vast section of intellectuals and the public with a statement that is anything but free market, classical liberal, or intellectually respectful (he is an academic in pursuit of the truth, remember).

Just to show how this left-libertarian tenured academic thinks, here is our exchange from yesterday, verbatim.

Zwolinski: I see you’ve turned our private correspondence into a blog post, without bothering to ask permission. Classy move.

Or was that just the comments on the public post? If so, my mistake. Still weird though. You tried to start a conversation with me on my FB wall, I said I wasn’t interested. Most people would just move on! What’s your deal?

Bradley: No, it was public. (Did you block to try to make it private?) Respond as you wish, but you really should back up your ‘denier’ charge rather than hit and run.

Zwolinski: Read what I said again. Not only did I not call you a denier. I explicitly told you that I did not call you a denier. I have no idea what your views are. I just think denialism is a problem. You asked. I answered. I have no obligation to debate the issue further with you, nor do I have any particular interest in doing so. Why can you not accept that?

Bradley: You said: “And climate change denialism is a major problem in both the libertarian and Republican parties.”  That says it all. And why are you even in touch with me on this only to say that your hit-and-run sticks.

Zwolinski: That doesn’t answer my question. You showed up on MY Facebook wall, uninivited. You asked me to debate, and I declined. And now you’re blogging about it, months later. That’s weird dude. Like, stalker weird. Move on with your life.

Bradley: I wanted to run it last month, but too much was happening with Trump/energy.

This is now part of the historical record. You first claimed to be interested in climate and energy and then threw out a holistic smear toward critics of climate alarm/forced energy transformation. A double problem. You do not know enough about climate and energy and took a Left Libertarian default position. That is of note. Turns out that this is not your area, and you can’t back up your claim. Feel free to comment on the post for the historical record.

Zwolinski: You have some serious social problems dude. Is this what you do to Lynne [Kiesling] too? Weird man. Really weird. Seek help. For the “historical record.” lol. In the meantime, try wrapping your head around this. The reason people don’t want to talk to you isn’t that they’re afraid of your massive intellect. It’s because they don’t like you.

Bradley: Are you familiar with Lynne’s central planning electricity market and ‘virtual power plant’ idea?  Statism on stilts, since you brought it up.

At this point, Matt Zwolinski blocked me from his LinkedIn account. Too late.

Final Comment

Dwell on Matt’s repeated ad hominem (he just should have said that no, energy and climate is not my area, and I was too off-the-cuff with my “denier” remark). But no. He doubled down with anger and emotion, even attracting these warnings from LinkedIN (no, I did not report it):

It is timely and illustrative to document the contradictions and emotions of the Left libertarians who hit-and-run on the very important climate/energy issue, not only Zwolinski but also Jerry Taylor, Jonathan Adler, and Lynne Kiesling. Let the historical record take note and the debate continue!

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