Fire Chief Moonlights as an Agorist Moonshiner

Discovery Channel, in case you haven’t heard, is doing a show called Moonshiners. It will come as no surprise that it’s about people down south making moonshine. What’s interesting for us is that this is counter-economic (agorist) activity. Making moonshine is illegal and a state agency actively pursues these entrepreneurs.

Well, if you can believe Discovery that is. Many viewers are convinced it’s fake because, get this, the lead moonshiner, Tim Smith, is also the local fire chief. Stay tuned for how fascinating that detail gets.

Smith says it’s all real. The show was recorded 5 years ago, he’s stopped making moonshine and due to legal technicalities, he can’t be convicted of moonshining today. The state of Virginia is understandably a little upset about this. The show could encourage more people to exercise their liberty openly. The state’s enforcement resources could be exhausted. Oh and they’re losing tax revenues. What’s not to love?

But it might also get Smith’s volunteer fire department a new ambulance. Imagine providing a product people want, at a price lower than the state-controlled market does and it funds a volunteer fire department. This can’t possibly be an outcome of libertarian ideas!

Comments surprisingly run both ways.

DId you see tim stop what they were doing in the middle of the night when they were setting up?? he risked another trip away from the still site,possibly exposeing it to run a fire call. He has guts, and is a man

As a former law enforcement officer, I am highly offended that there is even a perception of Chief Tim Smith operating outside the boundaries of the law. Even if it is a hobby!

The validation that bootleggers and moonshiners help found and sustain the government and is part of our heritage is later debunked with their evasion of reported income for taxes, violating the property of others, destroying the environment for personal gain, and constantly placing their community in a position of risk rather than health.

This show is trash! Anyone in a position of leadership and entrusted with the responsibility of the safety of others should not be allowed to demonstrate the poor judgment Mr. Tim Smith has shown. Firefighters very often work hand in hand with law enforcement. Officers should not have to worry if the poor judgment of Mr. Tim Smith and his subordinates are victimizing those in need of assistance (i.e. stealing from a home during a fire).

Mr. Tim Smith is a poor example to all firefighters out there and Discovery should be ashamed of their contribution to this criminal enterprise!

9/11 did a lot to show the sacrifice our first responders like myself make day in and day out. Mr. Tim Smith does not deserve to be among those charged with these duties.

(It takes a lot of skill to sneak September 11th into a totally unrelated issue.)

Agorist Lessons

Here are some lessons I’ve drawn from watching a couple shows and reading some reactions.

• Nicknames are very cool and a good security practice.
• Consider videotaping all but the illegal parts of your counter-economic activities as a way to gain public acceptance for agorism.
• If you have the balls for it, you can do anything.
• Rational argument won’t change a thing. Getting out there and living your principles in a consistent and honorable way while showing that you value other human beings just might.
• Agorists who fund the government are digging their own graves. In one of the episodes, “Tickle” says that folks like him funded the first US governments. And now the moonshiners are almost extinct because of those same governments.

There are a lot more lessons to be learned from this. Here’s a playlist of all the episodes I can find. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments.