The Covid crisis led to vast confusion and silence in the libertarian world, for reasons I explain here, but I have little doubt where Murray would have stood. He was consistently opposed to the deployment of state violence to reduce the risk inherent in the natural world and was way ahead of his time on matters of forced medicalization.

In fact, he wrote in detail on the controversy over fluoridation. His analysis stands the test of time. A federal judge has finally ruled, three-quarters a century too late, that forced fluoride in the water amounts to an "unreasonable risk" to children. This decision could finally end the practice.

In 1992, Murray Rothbard spoke his mind on the topic back when doing so was considered crazy and cranky. Typical of him, he just could not resist digging into a topic and presenting his conclusions, even when they ran against the grain of prevailing political culture. His article holds up extremely well and presents some deep research into what happened to "public health" in the postwar years.

Let there be no doubt: Murray Rothbard was fully opposed to the deployment of government power to poison the public in the name of public health. He very precisely and presciently explained the source: "an alliance of three major forces: ideological Social Democrats, ambitious technocratic bureaucrats, and Big Businessmen seeking privileges from the State."

It is reprinted here in full.

Fluoridation Revisited
By Murray Rothbard

Yes, I confess: I'm a veteran anti-fluoridationist, thereby — not for the first time — risking placing myself in the camp of "rightwing kooks and fanatics." It has always been a bit of a mystery to me why left-environmentalists, who shriek in horror at a bit of Alar on apples, who cry "cancer!" even more absurdly than the boy cried "Wolf! ", who hate every chemical additive known to man, still cast their benign approval upon fluoride, a highly toxic and probably carcinogenic substance. Not only do they let fluoride emissions off the hook, but they endorse uncritically the massive and continuing dumping of fluoride into the nation's water supply.