Nathan Larson

Nathan Daniel Larson (September 19, 1980 – September 18, 2022) where he was a cannabis reform activist.

Career After graduating from college, Larson became a member of the Libertarian Party. He ran for Congress in Virginia's 1st congressional district as an Libertarian during the 2008 election, running on an anarcho-capitalist platform. He became the Libertarian nominee since he wasn't contested in the primary, he received less than 2% of the vote in the general election.

As a convicted felon, Larson was barred from seeking state office in Virginia from 2009 until Governor Terry McAuliffe restored voting and candidacy rights to thousands of felons in 2016. The following year he stood as an independent candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates in the 31st district, again receiving less than 2% of the vote. Larson was expelled from the Libertarian Party of Virginia early that year.

In 2018, Larson again ran as an independent for election to Congress from Virginia's 10th congressional district, before withdrawing in August. He described his views as "quasi-neoreactionary libertarian."

Electoral history Date Election Candidate Party Votes % Virginia's 1st congressional district Nov 4, 2008 General L. Scott Lingamfelter Republican 12,658 44.2 Elizabeth Guzmán Democratic 15,46654.0 Nathan D. Larson Independent 481 1.7 Write-ins 39 nil Virginia's 10th congressional district Nov 6, 2018 General Barbara Comstock Republican160,84143.7 Jennifer Wexton Democratic206,35656.1 Nathan D. Larson Independent Withdrew Write-ins5980.2

Political positions and online advocacy

In his 2008 candidacy for Congress, Larson advocated doing away with government at all levels, saying, "All government functions could be better performed by the private sector". Endorsed by the Libertarian Party of Virginia, he stated in its newsletter that the primary aim of his candidacy was introducing libertarian ideas; he focused on transportation, proposing that the U.S. highway and rail systems be auctioned off to private owners who would compete to offer toll-based services, and also that private property rights be extended to Chesapeake Bay. In 2017, as a self-described "red pill Libertarian", his platform included legalizing child pornography protection of gun ownership rights, legalization of child pornography, legalization of incestous marriage, and repeal of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. One of his focuses on Wikipedia was reportedly his desire to make taboo or illegal topics, including child sexual abuse, culturally acceptable. Larson ran a large number of sock puppet accounts, which he used to promote positions such as decriminalizing child sexual abuse and argue against Wikipedia's child protection policy. He was blocked in 2008 and later banned from the site entirely; he first moved to Wikiversity, a Wikimedia Foundation project for learning tutorials and academic articles, then to the skeptic wiki RationalWiki. According to Haaretz, he may have been the first person to be banned from RationalWiki.

Larson also created Internet chat rooms for self-identified "incels" (involuntarily celibate men) and for pedophiles, incelocalypse.today and suiped.org (short for suicidal pedophile) , and wrote posts on the sites endorsing child rape and describing himself as a "hebephilic rapist". He was also creator and administrator of the website rapey.to (later .so.co, and .su) which had more than 7000 users and was outed and shut down by the efforts of hacker Ryan Montgomery. Larson told The Huffington Post in response to a question about whether he was actually a pedophile or merely wrote about it online, "It's a mix of both ... When people go over the top there's a grain of truth to what they say." He was sentenced to sixteen months' imprisonment and three years' supervised release; he served fourteen months. In March 2017, he described the letter as "an act of civil disobedience". In November 2015 a jury in Colorado denied him custody of the girl, and he announced the following month that he would seek legal termination of his parental rights. He eventually remarried. During a search of Larson's Virginia home, detectives found evidence suggesting that he operated a website encouraging, and facilitating sharing media of, pedophilia and child rape. A criminal complaint was filed against Larson on December 23, 2020, and he was indicted on multiple federal charges. Because the victim was a minor and Larson was not a family member, he faced a minimum of twenty years in prison on the kidnapping charge and up to life in prison on the charge of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity.

At his arraignment on February 25, 2021, Larson pleaded not guilty to the charges and requested to represent himself under Faretta v. California. He was initially represented by attorney Peter M. Jones; in March 2022, Judge Jennifer L. Thurston granted him pro se status and allowed him to represent himself. His pro se status was revoked on March 31 and Jones was re-appointed to represent him for all further proceedings.

Death Larson died in custody in an Arizona facility on September 18, 2022. On October 11, the indictment against him was dismissed. His cause of death was reported in 2023 as self-starvation.