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Stefan Molyneaux
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He has plenty of critics. Case in point:https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Vlad wrote: "Stefan Molyneaux gives libertarians (including myself) a bad name.
He is a cult leader, recommending people "de-foo" their family, or completely cut them out of their lives. "
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Vlad wrote: "You didn't address what I wrote at all, specifically the part where Molyneux recommends his followers to "deFOO" from their family, or completely cut them out of their lives."Because I had no idea what you were talking about. Now that you have expanded on your point, I do. I'll have to follow up on the sources cited in the Wikipedia article. I know from personal experience that Wikipedia articles about controversial topics and personalities can't be taken without a large dose of salt.
Wiki in italics, source articles in bold, of which only two are actually about him.In 2009, Molyneux was called the leader of a "therapy cult" following Freedomain Radio community member Tom Weed breaking off all contact with his family.[5]
The confessional tone, the devoted loyalty of the supporters, their estrangement from their family, Mr. Molyneux's unaccountable role, all this have led aggrieved parents and former members to charge that FDR is a cyberversion of a therapy cult.
If you follow that link in the article you will see that there are only a handful of people making that charge in an anonymous web forum.
In April 2008, Weed had called in to the show asking about his veganism and his feeling of disgust towards people that eat meat.[49] Molyneux suggested that this disgust could have come from witnessing an authority figure that was cruel to animals.[49] Weed responded by describing memories of his father being verbally and physically cruel to the family cat, causing him to feel intimidated by the father, and then described his emotional detachment toward his mother and the rest of his family.[49]
The following month, Weed left a note stating he no longer wanted contact and left home. It was reported that, of the 50,000 regular listeners at the time, about 20 FDR members had also "deFOOed", and that many families chose not to come forward to avoid alienating their children further.
Although they discuss their problems over the internet, Ms Weed is one of the few "defooed" parents to speak to the media - many of the others believing that doing so will further alienate their children. She is fatalistic about her chances of being reunited.
If by "one of the few" you mean "only", then yes.
A representative of the British Cult Information Centre said they were following FDR, and noted that one sign of cults was that they cut people off from their families. Molyneux responded by saying that had he advised a wife to leave an abusive husband, he would not be accused of being a cult leader."[49]
Mr Molyneux, who spoke to The Times on condition that the entire interview was recorded, says that he has been portrayed as a "brain-tentacled ogre manipulating people through the internet". But he is not surprised by the reaction to his ideas. "When feminists first began to speak about abuse within marriage, every abusive husband started screaming 'feminazi'," he said. "If I advised a wife to leave an abusive husband, there would not be articles about how I am a cult leader." Ian Haworth, of the Cult Information Centre, has been following Freedomain Radio. He says that one of the first signs of a cult is that it cuts people off from their families.
But in other ways, the definition is less of a good fit. The website is just that - a website - and has no physical existence. Although Mr Molyneux makes money from it, he does not get rich from it, and most of the estimated 50,000 users are not regulars. As Mr Molyneux points out, only 20 of those users have "defooed".
The only outside observer they could find to "quote" was Ian Haworth, who didn't actually say that FDR was a cult. I'm trying to find an email address for Ian Haworth or the Cult Information Centre so I can just ask him straight, but I can't actually find one on his website.
So yeah, the "cult" charge is being made by Ms. Weed and that's pretty much it. I'm not impressed.
Stefan Molyneux is the author of two novels, "Revolutions" and "The God of Atheists," as well as eight non-fiction books on relationships, government and religion.
Stefan Molyneux is an outspoken atheist and self-identifies politically as voluntaryist, anarchist, or libertarian. He is highly critical of Leftist atheists who he says have replaced worship of a deity with worship of government.
The core of his self-described philosophy is the study of morality of virtue. Instead of a religious foundation, his core principle is the "non-aggression principle" popularized by Ayn Rand and Murray Rothbard.
Stefan Molyneux is passionate about many issues besides atheism and capitalism, the two biggest of which are probably ending the drug war and ending social acceptance of child abuse, which for him includes spanking and circumcision.
He is also a proponent of a non-religious system of ethics he authored which he calls "Universally Preferable Behaviour" or UPB, which he offers up as an alternative to things like Objectivism.