As one would expect, to reach their conclusion–that these two diametrically opposed political philosophies both inevitably lead to societal collapse–the authors rely either on willful ignorance or deliberate prevarication. Since Liu was a speechwriter and policy advisor for Bill Clinton, you can guess which way I’m leaning.

First of all, they define “radical” libertarianism as “the ideology that holds that individual liberty trumps all other values.” Communism, on the other hand, is defined as the “ideology of extreme state domination of private and economic life.”

While these statements do reflect the real world consequences of these ideologies, the actual definitions of libertarianism and communism concern how each deals with private property.