This quietism marks another divergence. Rothbard insisted on moral resistance to the state, viewing taxation, conscription, and regulation as forms of aggression that must be named as such. Daoism often counsels indifference or retreat instead. It undermines authority culturally, but does not articulate a right to oppose it.
The most accurate characterization of Daoist political philosophy is therefore not “proto-libertarianism,” but ethical anarchism, grounded in epistemic humility. Daoism rejects rule because it cannot work, not because it violates rights. Its anarchism is negative rather than juridical: it dissolves authority by denying its competence and moral necessity.