Hello everyone, welcome to this interview of the Lotus Cetus. I'm very pleased today to be interviewing Austin Padgett.

Hello, Austin.

Hello, great to be on with you, Stelios. I'm a big fan. I've seen you guys around the internet for a long time, so it's fun to get on the Lotus Eaters.

Great, it's a pleasure for me to be interviewing you today.

And I want to say that I'm really interested in many of the things you have to say

because it seems to me that you are a libertarian who is a bit dissatisfied with the current

state of libertarianism, especially in the US.

And you're trying to...

Yeah, and you're also trying to develop a position along with some other people

that he described as libertarian nationalism.

Yes, that could work, you could describe it that way.

Yes, and also I have another good friend, Austin Peterson, who is trying to work in that area.

I'm really interested to find out more about what you think about it, because I will say, my heart is close to libertarianism, but I think that it lacks realism.

And I think that in some respects, especially in the U.S., there is even more of the opportunity

to have the sort of what I call libertarian illusion of, if I mind my own business, the government is

just going to leave me alone than there is in Europe.

But I really think, in a way I'm really attracted to the idea, but I would consider myself

a realist.

And in some respects, I want to essentially say, right, I want

libertarianism, but I may not be able to get 100%, may not be able to live in libertarian utopia.

So we'll have to make some pragmatic concessions in order to not lose everything. So if I don't

get 100%, it's not a 100 or 0%.

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