Friedman avoided the label libertarian to shield himself from anarchist associations

Evidence

The word “libertarian” might have seemed a natural choice, but as early as 1957 he had determined to avoid it whenever possible. His problem with the term was purely “semantic”: “It seems to me to lend itself greatly to confusion with the word ‘libertine’ and gives the impression of an anarchistic kind of a view.” Friedman sympathized with anarchism and admitted that he “would like to be a zerogovernment libertarian,” but he believed that a society with no government whatsoever was not “a feasible social structure.” He was also highly conscious of a need to distance himself from anarchism in order to maintain credibility in public debates, and was constantly forced to defend himself against respectable opponents— like Senator Joseph Clark of Pennsylvania— who dismissed him as a “neoanarchist” who would be “a fi ne candidate for president of the John Birch Society.” — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 443

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the larger MPS/naming-history thread — ‘neoliberalism’ as a contested label across the Colloque Lippmann and later, matching Burgin’s earlier chapters on the movement’s terminological instability. — connects to: Libertarians distinguish their non-interventionist politics from neoliberal interventionism despite shared economics. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2086; Friedman abandoned the label neoliberal by the late 1950s — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 443
• DEFINE: Clarifies the contested terminological terrain of the free-market revival — why ‘libertarian,’ ‘conservative,’ and ‘liberal’ each failed Friedman as self-descriptors.

Broader Connections

• Friedman abandoned the label neoliberal by the late 1950s #expands (0.72) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 443
• Libertarians distinguish their non-interventionist politics from neoliberal interventionism despite shared economics. #expands (0.70) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2086