Libertarians ret-conned Adam Smith's definition of "free market" to mean "complete absence of regulation". And they use this appeal to authority (as well as the

Libertarians ret-conned Adam Smith's definition of "free market" to mean "complete absence of regulation". And they use this appeal to authority (as well as the naturalistic inevitabilism that originates in evo-psych) as a cudgel to push for the permission of exploitative practices. We are becoming more and more aware as a society of the effects of this campaign, which is heartening, but reactionaries stand at arms to defend their ideological convictions to the death. For the record, what Adam Smith actually meant by "free" was "everyone is free to participate -- barriers to participation are controlled for and mitigated to the best ability". This requires regulation to discourage and ideally eliminate monopolistic behavior.