In the summer of 1776, after years of increasing abuse from their government, including an attempt to disarm by force the militia of Concord, Massachusetts, a group of wealthy, politically powerful men representing their individual colonies met in a hall in Philadelphia to commit treason. Fifty-six men committed a nation of about three million to an irreversible action with the promise of dire consequences. Perhaps a million of that population was in favor, a million opposed, and the third million ambivalent. Many of the 56 paid dearly for that decision, as did thousands of other colonists, but they birthed the most free, most wealthy and powerful nation the world has ever seen by increasing the liberty of ordinary people through the establishment of a new form of government dedicated to protecting the rights of individual citizens. What does Politifact want you to know about them? Most were slave owners.
Liberty has been defined as a right to act without control or interference by government or other power so long as those actions do not infringe on another’s liberty or property. “Liberal” used to mean “In favor of maximizing individual liberty.” No more.
The Western World in general and the United States in particular has gone, in the words of someone I respect*, “batshit fucking insane.”
Let us look at what has happened over the last few years:
- Let’s start with the thing that woke up a significant portion of our population: Whether you believe the 2020 election was stolen or not, if you’re intellectually honest you must admit that some very questionable things went on, some so blatant Time Magazine bragged about them. None have been adequately addressed. And we’re headed into another election that promises to be every bit as questionable.
- The U.S. Department of Education, established in 1980 in response to declining public school performance, has presided over a rapidly accelerating decline in those schools over the last forty years. No one is held responsible for this decline. 54% of the population is functionally illiterate. According to this paper: “One out of every five bachelor’s degree holders among employed college graduates ages 21 to 65 lacks minimum skills in literacy. For numeracy, the number is one in three.” Employed. College. Graduates. And these people vote. This was not accidental. The 1983 report “A Nation at Risk” warned “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.” Whoever they were, they won. (Hint: They weren’t foreign.) We’ve gone from mediocre to abysmal. This has made possible everything else I report on here.
- Mediocre male athletes now compete as women – and win competitions, and set records that are accepted by the sanctioning bodies. Objecting to this gets you called “transphobic.” We’re told that children should have the ability to choose their genders, up to and including hormone treatment and surgical sterilization, and their parents should have no say in it except to pay for it. Worse, some parents champion this.
- Government policies sold on the idea of “improving” the plight of the homeless – who are, by and large mentally ill, drug addicts or both – have instead exponentially increased the problem where they have been implemented. The result of this failure? They double-down. The philosophy cannot be wrong! Do it again, only harder!
- District Attorneys elected with funds from foreign sources, acting ostensibly for “criminal justice reform” have created chaos. Open-air drug markets, unrestricted shoplifting and rioting resulting in closures or relocations of dozens of businesses who can no longer sustain the financial losses, or whose employees fear to come to work. The result of this is the collapse of commercial districts serving the very people that “criminal justice reform” was supposed to benefit. The response? Do it some more, only harder!
- Multiple agencies of the Federal government have blatantly and unconstitutionally censored the speech of American citizens on social media and not just recently. It cost Elon Musk $44B to uncover the evidence. No one involved will pay any price for this, and the media has suppressed the story as far as possible allowing society to turn a blind eye.
- The government has been collecting data on the entire population – locations, emails, texts, phone calls – for decades. This was exposed by Edward Snowden. No one denies it’s being done. It hasn’t stopped. Snowden lives in exile in Russia.
- The Federal government in response to a pandemic essentially suspended civil liberties, put people out of work, cost them their businesses, forced minimally tested vaccines on the general population, and suppressed reports of severe adverse reactions. The idea of “vaccine passports” was seriously promoted -internal passports restricting travel of ordinary citizens. Again, no one will pay any price for this.
- Further, the government suppressed any alternative treatments. A viable treatment would negate the “emergency declaration” allowing the mRNA vaccines to be administered. All of this was done with the enthusiastic cooperation of the media that was itself censored.
- The pandemic restrictions resulted in the largest transfer of wealth in history. That’s a feature, not a bug. As Russell Brand said, “What the government want is control. What the corporate world want is money. What both of them want is power. What neither of them care about is you.”
- The job of Congress is to write laws, the Executive to pass and enforce them, the Judiciary to judge and administer them. Two hundred and thirty years of this has resulted in a U.S. Code that runs 53 volumes. The U.S. Code is the laws written by Congress and signed by the President. In addition to that is the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, an additional 50 volumes of regulations written by the various agencies created by the Executive branch authorized by the U.S. Code. We have reached the point where you cannot go an entire day without probably committing three felonies. And should the government decide to, any competent District Attorney can get a Grand Jury to indict a ham sandwich. What chance do you have when you can be indicted on a dozen felonies, any one of which can put you in prison for years? Is there any question why 98% of federal prosecutions result in plea bargains?
- The Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service have been weaponized against ordinary Americans. A two-tiered “justice” system protecting those politically connected and persecuting ordinary Americans has become obvious. Ordinary Americans have become the Enemies of the State.
- I don’t think anyone who has read it can honestly deny Prof. Angelo Codevilla’s (PBUH) observation that we have separated into a Ruling Class and what he called the Country Class – ordinary Americans. Our Ruling Class and the Ruling Classes of the West all share a common philosophy – they are in charge because it is their right to be in charge. They are the people who have accumulated vast wealth and power because of their superiority. Of course they should rule. They know best. We are merely ignorant peasants. We should eat the bugs, sleep in the pods, use only public transportation, be restricted to virtual currency they control, hear only that information they approve for us, receive only the medical care they determine we’re worth, and shut the fuck up.
Currently in Congress they’re looking at passing what is called the “Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology” bill – ominously acronymed “RESTRICT” – that will vastly amplify what the Patriot Act did to privacy. Restriction is the antithesis of Liberty.
Governments are moving to reduce food production in the name of “saving the planet.” Fertilizer restrictions, farm closures, herd reductions. Don’t think that won’t spread. The fundamentalist religion of Climate Change will see to that.
Restrictions on energy production have resulted in climbing costs not just for energy, but everything energy is used to make and transport, with no relief in sight. Again, Climate Change is the clarion call.
There are undeniable signs that world governments including our own are looking at going to strictly digital currency – a cash-free society – that will eliminate all private transactions. Remember when the Canadian government froze the bank accounts of people who donated to the trucker’s convoy? How would you like to learn that something you posted on Facebook got your accounts frozen and you can’t buy groceries or gas?
Unrestricted spending has resulted in a U.S. national debt of $31,700,000,000,000 and climbing exponentially. This is the definition of unsustainable. There has to be an end-game. The Ruling Class is arrogant, but not stupid.
In July of 1776 fifty-six men signed a document that declared:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Instead of a nation of three million, we are now a nation of more than 330 million, but more than half can’t read above a sixth grade level. Twenty percent of employed college graduates are functionally illiterate. Fewer are numerate. In 1776 the literacy rate was reportedly 90%. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published in January of 1776, sold 500,000 copies by the end of that year, again, in a nation with a population of only 3,000,000 people – one copy for every six people in the country. 2022’s best seller moved 2,729,007 copies. It was a romance novel.
I watched the recent interview of Elon Musk by Bill Maher. Elon told the story of a parent asking his high-school aged children what they knew about the first Presidents. They knew George Washington. What did they know? That he was a slave owner. Apparently their textbooks are vetted by Politifact.
If you’re paying attention, the current long train of abuses and usurpations is no longer deniable, but damned few are paying attention. There’s no group of people to stand up and say “NO MORE!” and no populace willing to back them.
Now what?
(*Thanks to TheGeekWithA.45 for editorial help on this one.)
And…there it is. Plain as day, for them who have eyes to see.
Speaking of Paine’s Common Sense, as it pertains to literacy levels, I ran that document through a reading level evaluator, just to see what grade it came out at. It turned out that Common Sense, the Declaration of Independence, and the main body of the Constitution, which were all documents intended for public consumption, contemplation and debate all weigh in at the 16th grade reading level.
The reading level estimation tool basically threw a hissy, wailing that writing at that level was going to lose most of the audience, and so you needed to dumb it down to the 6th-8th grade level if you wanted your document to be comprehensible to most people.
Lets let that sink in for a bit.
50 years ago, a car owner’s manual would tell you how to adjust the valves.
Today it warns you not to drink the water from the battery.
Why it’s almost as if some are out to burn it all down by any means necessary!
Naw, we are all egalitarian comrades in the glorious unity collective.
Forward! Si se puede!
“…if you’re intellectually honest you must admit that some very questionable things went on, some so blatant Time Magazine bragged about them. None have been adequately addressed. And we’re headed into another election that promises to be every bit as questionable.”
Nor would it matter if they were “adequately addressed” at this point. Micheal Sussman of the Hillary Clinton campaign knowingly pitched a fraudulent document to the FBI is potentially sensitive intelligence. The jury in his trial included 2 Hillary donors, an AOC donor, and a man who said up front that he hated Donald Trump so much he couldn’t be objective where Trump was concerned. Defense was not allowed a change of venue. So for practical purposes, the chance of getting a result other than what The State wants in the DC court system IS ZERO.
Proofreading alert:
“It cost Elon Musk $4B to uncover the evidence.”
That’s $44B.
Fixed.
Oops, one other thing:
“Mediocre male athletes now compete as women – and win competitions, and set records that are accepted by the sanctioning bodies. Objecting to this gets you called ‘transphobic.’ ”
If a lesbian demands that her girlfriend NOT have a penis, she’s a right-wing extremist.
Let that sink in.
Yep, we have stepped through the looking glass and are now in Bizarro world… sigh
Unlike the days of the “Declaration”, we live in an age when any attempt at even questioning government vociferously can result in one gaining “friends”.
I’m recalling a certain “plot” where the “plotters” were outnumbered by gov informants and agents who, as it seems, planted half the “ideas of the plot”.
Mr. Church warned people before I was born, but nobody listened.
We now live in a world of literal adult toddlers whose rallying cry is, “Govern me HARDER, Daddy!!!”
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
I’m going to pick on one thing, which exemplifies what matters in all this.
“The government has been collecting data […] It hasn’t stopped.”
(snowden etc.)
Back in the second year or so of the Bush Jr. administration, there was some stuff about a data-collection program called “Total Information Awareness”. I, and other Very Online people, made a fuss about it in our online circles, due to privacy, totalitarian precedents, historical precedents, etc. etc.. After a month or so the administration announced the program had been scrapped. (Obviously, based on Snowden, they lied.) I clearly remember how my co-workers were exasperated and bored by the whole thing. They didn’t want to hear me complaining about it. They didn’t want to do anything about it. They didn’t want to hear about it. Others – right-wing, gun-loving Republicans – thought I must necessarily be a commie-lovin’ hippie to complain about the obviously necessary anti-terrorist measures the God-loving America-loving terrorist-asskicking patriotic Republican administration was implementing.
The common element was that they DID NOT WANT TO HEAR criticism of the matter. They DID NOT WANT TO HEAR claims or evidence that challenged their premises. And it DID NOT MATTER what side of the poltical spectrum they were on – then, or now.
NONE of the issues you list would be issues if there was a plurality of the American population – and I’m not even talking the immigrants, just a plurality of 1950s-style Americans would be enough – that took civic responsibility seriously, understood history, kept an eye on government activity, and made it ABSOLUTELY CLEAR that transgressions would not only be not allowed but punished. Remember the TSA? Remember the new non-X-ray scanners and how they are correlated with higher rates of cancer in addition to being a “see you naked” machine? Remember how the executives of the company making them had corruption-style Hunter Biden style connections with the administration – the REPUBLICAN BUSH administration? Remember how there was a bit of a protest about it and John Pistole made it absolutely clear he did not give a shit and everybody protesting, right up to Glenn Reynolds, sort of shrugged and gave up?
John Pistole never suffered any consequences whatsoever. He should have been impeached, prosecuted, convicted, and ruined by the fines and legal expenses. Having his citizenship revoked would have been a good idea. Instead he retires with a nice pension. And when I asked Glenn Reynolds why he wasn’t continuing to agitate about TSA, he responded with words amounting to a shrug.
The government and cultural leadership is not doing these things because of some deep dark conspiracy. They are doing these things BECAUSE THE PEOPLE SPECIFICALLY AND REPEATEDLY INDICATE THEY’RE FINE WITH IT.
If you want to fix the government, you have to FIX THE PEOPLE first.
Ironically, a lot of the stuff you’re complaining about will tend to do exactly that. It will take a while, and cause a fair amount of otherwise avoidable death. But the survivors will have a much clearer understanding of reality, and those inclined to defy reality will have self-selected out of the gene pool.
It has gotten to this point because we have let it, largely being disinclined to the level of confrontation and ugliness that ‘the other side’ finds and adopts with zero hesitation. We also have been heads-down focused on our families and our jobs–few of us have been willing to dedicate large chunks of our time to protests, marches, etc. It’s just not in our nature.
The question is, “What is the best action to take now?”
Overt revolution at the Federal gov’t level is arguably a suicidal undertaking (largely owing to control over media by the Left/elites).
However, perhaps revolution at the private/sovereign property level, then neighborhood level, then town/community level, then state level could get results with less (ideally ZERO, but that may be a pipe-dream) bloodshed (for the record, the thought of violence is abhorrent to me–but the stripping of liberty, freedom, and rational thought is even more abhorrent).
Whatever the course, we need to be armed, and we need to constantly build and maintain connections–esp with people who may disagree or not understand the significance of the American ideal as defined by the Founders. This was supposed to be a function of the education system, btw, before it was overtaken by the communist/socialist Left. Side note: Education *could* and arguably should be the THE battleground–and likely the most peaceful (absent violence by the teachers’ unions). What if 1-3MM working adults committed to joining school boards, becoming teachers, starting new schools, etc…? Basically replace the Leftists in education? What change could be achieved in 5 years?
Change is possible. But it requires a clear strategy; a committed community; bravery; and ongoing action.