By Michael Torrice
Referred to as the Libertarian salon.com, liberzine.com establishes
a vehicle to express opinions on the current state of politics and
society from a Libertarian prospective. Like most web zines, liberzine.com
is put together by a small number of people and relies on the contributions
of outsiders to submit articles. The site features articles that are
published on a weekly basis and an archive of all articles previously
published. It also allows readers to discuss the articles in a sparsely
populated discussion forum.
Although it does not contain eye-popping media features, its basic
streamlined appearance allows its content to be radical. The net is
often congested with the fight between "conservatives" and
"liberals", liberzine.com cuts through the congestion to
present ideas based on reason and liberty. From stories defending
the Bush tax cut to denouncing Republican attempts to censor video
games, liberzine.com offers an alternative viewpoint on today's political
and social issues. Whether you agree with their principles or not,
the site offers articles written to defend positions and not to start
flame wars with the opposition.
Unfortunately, a site can not just exist with good ideas if it does
not have a good distribution plan. Although it is limited by its size,
liberzine.com could stand to make the site more accessible to the
public. The problem which becomes apparent when one examines the site
is its lack of links to other sites. Besides links to news agencies
for top news stories, there are no links to other Libertarian based
sites. Libertarians are in favor of rugged individualism, but this
web isolationism borders on craziness. There are plenty of other publications
and organizations on the web that would offer those interested in
the Libertarian standpoint more information. Reason magazine, Capitalism
Magazine, the myriad of Objectivist web sites, and even the Libertarian
party's main page would be excellent links for this zine. By associating
with other similar minded sites, it could present its ideas to a larger
audience. Liberzine.com needn't add more flashy features to improve
its web presentation, it just needs to do a better job of becoming
accessible to people.