Martin Luther King is ritualistically held up by the schools, media, and political establishment as the icon of the New America they’ve worked to create and are still working to create. To be a non-conformist today is to question MLK propaganda and challenge the egalitarian agenda that it represents.

If you are an advocate of a smaller, less powerful federal government and full freedom of association, which entails the right to discriminate on any grounds, then it is obvious that MLK was not an advocate of freedom — not in the negative sense of freedom to which libertarians are supposed to adhere. But if you feign belief in the socially reinforced view that MLK’s political program was one of liberation, that’s social conformity.

The urban decay along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in St. Louis can be found in other major American cities, from http://t.co/7S6DZLaaCG
— Libertarian Realist (@GetRealist) January 20, 2014

Now if you happen to believe in King’s socialist political agenda on principle, that’s different. If you would be championing King and his ideas even if they were widely regarded as socially deviant, then you aren’t necessarily conforming by celebrating MLK day. MLK represents your actual political convictions.

Thomas E. Woods, 33 Questions About American History You’re Not Supposed to Ask

On the other hand, if you are a libertarian or a conservative who believes in free markets and rejects forced association and rejects government programs aimed at engineering equal outcomes, then you are betraying your own values by celebrating MLK.

As the Cato Institute does.

Happy MLK Day from the @CatoInstitute & @libertarianism! RETWEET to wish your followers. #tcot #tlot #p2 #MLKDay pic.twitter.com/N5rsAm3hPo
— Cato Institute (@CatoInstitute) January 20, 2014