When TDS Destroys a Decade of Brotherhood

By Ryan Thompson, Punk Rock Libertarian

In 2010, I met Tim Loe during the campaign for Initiative 1068 to decriminalize cannabis in Washington State. We were thick as thieves. He was an AR-15 toting, truth-telling, cannabis-growing outlaw from Spokane; I was working as an automation engineer at Talyst and spending my off-hours organizing for freedom. Together, we helped steer the ship of Sensible Washington, coordinating grassroots signature drives and leading statewide meetings. Tim had grit, guts, and a deep-rooted distrust of government overreach.

Fourteen years later, I barely recognize the man I once considered a comrade.

The Fall From Liberty

Tim and I used to talk about decentralization, voluntary exchange, personal liberty, and the right to say no to state coercion. Somewhere between the end of the Obama era and the Trump phenomenon, Tim transformed. What was once mutual skepticism of power mutated into a full-throated defense of government as long as it targeted Trump.

I’m not even here to defend Trump. What concerns me is the complete collapse of our shared principles. Tim didn’t just change his mind—he changed his entire outlook on liberty. Suddenly, free markets were dangerous. Private industry was inherently evil. Self-regulation was a myth. And anyone who disagreed? A “Trumpkin.”

I’ve seen this before. It's called Trump Derangement Syndrome. And it’s not just a meme—it’s a real psychological phenomenon. When someone’s hatred of Trump becomes so blinding that it overrides reason, facts, and formerly held values, that’s TDS.

Conversation 1: The Social Security Showdown

Reference to the full context: Click here

Tim Loe: “Maybe you should just take yourself out of the Social Security system entirely, if it is so corrupt and bad for the rest of us. Don’t bitch about what you get.”

My response: I never said “end Social Security.” I said don’t force me to participate. That’s a fundamental libertarian position: choice. I was forced to pay into a system for decades. I didn’t want to. But when I got injured in 2013, I cashed in on what was rightfully mine. That's not hypocrisy. That’s justice.

Tim’s take here? That questioning the system disqualifies you from using it, even if it was forced upon you. That’s not logic—that’s bitterness.

Conversation 2: Industrial Poison and the Death of Free Markets

Reference to the full context: click here

Tim Loe: “I don’t trust many industries to regulate themselves. Corporations like Monsanto and Dow have poisoned people.”

My reply: I get it. My family were downwinders—killed by government WMD tests in Utah. Cancer ran through my lineage because of radioactive fallout. But I don’t jump from corporate misconduct to central planning. We fix harm with transparency, not centralized force. Let people choose better, and let bad actors fall on their face.

Tim wants government to fix what government already broke. That’s not liberty. That’s learned helplessness.

Conversation 3: The Proud Boys Smear

Reference to the full context: click here

Tim Loe: “Let’s talk about the more modern incarnation: the Pride (I mean Proud) Boyz.”

My reply: Proud Boys aren’t neo-Nazis. They’re multiracial. They expelled real racists. My friend Nicholas Ochs, a Proud Boy, ran for Congress in Hawaii. You can disagree with their tactics or style, but painting them as white supremacists is a smear tactic, not an argument.

It was like talking to MSNBC.

Star of Babylon to Star of Statism

Tim once authored books under the banner of Star of Babylon Press. That was back when he opposed Empire. Now, he defends it. Back then, he published against the mainstream. Now, he parrots it. Back then, he wanted decentralization. Now, he wants federal oversight.

What happened?

Was it the trauma of illness in his family? The heartbreak of corporate abuse? The betrayal of institutions? I can empathize. But I can’t condone abandoning the principles we once shared.

What TDS Really Does

Trump didn’t break Tim. TDS did. The inability to separate the man from the movement, the policies from the personality, the cringe from the constitution—that’s what kills relationships.

TDS made Tim forget that the enemy isn’t Trump. It’s authoritarianism, regardless of who wields it. It's censorship, regardless of who it's aimed at. It’s tyranny, whether it comes in red ties or rainbow flags.

We can’t fix this country by turning on each other. We can’t restore liberty by endorsing censorship, coercion, and guilt by association.

A Message to Tim (and Anyone Else Suffering TDS)

Tim, you’re still my brother, somewhere deep in there. I know your heart’s been through hell. But the solution isn’t more government. The solution is more freedom. If you ever find your way back to voluntaryism, to principled skepticism of power, I’ll be here. But I can’t walk with you down this new road.

And to those who’ve lost friends to TDS, know this: it’s not about Trump. It’s about fear, control, and the seductive appeal of moral certainty. Be patient. Be principled. And never stop standing for liberty—even if you have to stand alone.

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