# Molestation (Libertarianism) In mid-20th-century libertarian theory, **"molestation"** meant something quite different from its modern, overwhelmingly sexual connotation: it named the **subversion of another person's will or property** — any coercive interference with a free individual. The term is most associated with [[Robert LeFevre]], and [[Dave Troy]]'s "[[The Big History Behind January 6th]]" Part 5 argues that the *drift* between the word's two meanings became a rhetorical weapon. ## The libertarian sense For LeFevre and allied thinkers, if one person has a cookie and another takes it, the taker has "molested" the owner. Taxation, regulation, conscription, or any government action was likewise "molestation" — an illegitimate initiation of force against a person or their property. The idea is a corollary of the libertarian **[[Non-Aggression Principle]]**: since only the *initiation* of force or fraud is illegitimate, any state action that subverts individual will counts as aggression. To a modern reader this usage sounds strange, but in the 1950s it was a normal part of hardline libertarian and early [[Paleoconservatism]] vocabulary. ## Troy's argument: the semantic weapon Troy's thesis is that the collapse of the two meanings — the libertarian "molestation of property" and the literal molestation of children and women — is politically useful. Framing central bankers, tax collectors, immigrants, or "culturally transgressive" enemies as *molesters* fuses an abstract property grievance with the most viscerally mobilizing accusation available. > [!warning] Read carefully > This page documents a **rhetorical genealogy**, not an equivalence. Actual abuse of children and women is real and inexcusable; the point is that a network exploited an old libertarian coinage to launder that emotional charge onto political targets — the move that runs through "[[Cancel Culture]]" discourse and the QAnon "pedophile cabal" mythology. As Troy puts it, once the frame is set, "who is willing to stand up in favor of molestation?" ## See also - [[Robert LeFevre]] · [[Non-Aggression Principle]] · [[Cancel Culture]] · [[The Octopus]]