Category Archives: Freedom

A Chilling Effect

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While it’s not always possible to evade government mandates, registering your guns just puts them on a shopping list for sticky-fingered officials. That’s true of registering anything that you value and that powerful people might fear or covet.

Even more concerning, though, is the prospect of governments in supposedly free societies conducting intelligence operations against their people and punishing those who hold disapproved ideas. That’s a great argument for getting rid of the need for government permission to go about our lives. Politicians will never approve of those who disagree with them, but we shouldn’t need their approval.

J.D. Tuccille
October 25, 2024
New Zealand Government Punishes Gun Owners for Their Political Beliefs

Way back when I started getting into guns, I thought everyone was in agreement that free speech was a good thing. While considered extremely bad form, it was legal for Nazis to have a peaceful march through Jewish neighborhoods. As near as I can recall, 30 years ago there wasn’t any real consequences to not believing the 16th Amendment was properly ratified, or that the moon landings were faked.

That is not the case anymore. New York passed a law (recently thrown out by the courts) requiring people to hand over your social media accounts to the government before you can get a concealed carry license. People have lost their jobs at Facebook for donating a couple thousand dollars to President Trump’s campaign. Others have lost their jobs for saying men, in general, were better at certain things and women were better at other things.

There currently is a deliberate chilling effect on the exercise of fundamental rights. There is some push back, as in the repeal of the New York law, but it is going to take a lot more time and resources to restore the free exercise of our rights to where they should be.

Fifth Amendment for AI

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If a personalized AI becomes an extension of yourself and gains privileged and confidential knowledge about your life, it should be illegal to compel that AI to give incriminating testimony about yourself if seized or interrogated by the government.

Fifth Amendment for AI.

Andrew Côté @Andercot
Posted on X on Novermber 2, 2024

Interesting. It would be just like the government being unable to compel your spouse, doctor, or religious confident to testify against you.

Of course, the government will claim it is more like seizing your computer, papers in your desk, or your bank records.

I’m all for ruling that the AI is not only considered off limits for compelled testimony but is prone to hallucinations. Hence, even if it did testify, it cannot be trusted to be truthful.

Plus, there should always be a thumb on the scale of power toward liberty. If there is some doubt about whether the government should have some power, the default answer should always be, “NO!”

Via a post on X by Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras

Freedom From Fear–NOT!

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“Freedom from fear” offers freedom from everything except the government. Anyone who sounds the alarm about excessive government power will automatically be guilty of subverting freedom from fear. Presumably,the fewer inviolable rights the citizen has, the better government will treat him. But as John Locke warned more than 300 years ago, “I have no reason to suppose, that he, who would take away my Liberty, would not when he had me in his Power, take away everything else.”

Why not simply offer voters “freedom from the Constitution”? “Freedom from fear” means security via mass delusions about the nature of political power. Painting the motto “freedom from fear” on shackles won’t make them easier to bear. Perhaps our ruling class should be honest and replace the Bill of Rights with a new motto: “Political buncombe will make you free.”

Jim Bovard
October 23, 2024
The “Freedom From Fear” Ticket for Tyranny | The Libertarian Institute

I have nothing to add.

Communism is no Longer an Economic Theory

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So the idea here is that the dominance in the Academy of skeptical and irrationalist epistemologies provides the academic Left with a new strategy. Confronted by ruthless logic, harsh evidence, they have a solution: “That’s only logic and evidence. Logic and evidence are subjective. You can’t really PROVE anything. FEELINGS are deeper than logic, and my feelings say Socialism.”

That’s my second hypothesis about the origins of Postmodernism. I call it the Kierkegaardian hypothesis, that Postmodernism is the crisis of faith of the academic Left. Its epistemology justifies taking a personal leap of faith in continuing to believe your Socialist ideals.

Communism is no longer an economic theory. It has failed utterly at that. It’s now a religion. And it’s proselytized in our education systems.

Kevin
October 23, 2024
More Quora Content – The Smallest Minority

Unfortunately, I am of the opinion this change does little, if anything, to make it less destructive. Politics have been an emotional team sport for a long time. Team communism will lose a few supporters, but they will pick up others. And those they pick up will be the type of people who thrive on strong emotions. Seeing those that opposed them piled up in a ditch will only give them a thrill and the wish to see more dead non-believers.

It is What Socialists and Communist Do

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This hotline is nothing more than a page out of the Stasi playbook – encouraging children to spy on their own families. This is a dangerous step toward weaponizing children in households for the left, and an outrageous government overreach under the guise of public safety.

Rep. Angela Rigas
R-Caledonia
Michigan legislature creates tip line for students to anonymously turn in parents for ‘improperly’ stored guns – The Midwesterner

I know China did the same sort of thing. I expect all socialist and communists weaponize everything they can to acquire and keep power.

Free Speech and Guns are Essential

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The dangers of werewolves and socialists make the ready access of information and guns critical to our survival. And, conversely, the repression of this access is critical to the spread of socialism and werewolves.

The First and Second Amendments. They are not just good ideas. They are the law.

The First Amendment is Blocking Consensus

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The dislike of and anguish over social media is just growing and growing. It is part of our problem, particularly in democracies, in terms of building consensus around any issue.

It’s really hard to govern today. The referees we used to have to determine what is a fact and what isn’t a fact have kind of been eviscerated, to a certain degree. And people go and self-select where they go for their news, for their information. And then you get into a vicious cycle.

So it’s really, really, hard, much harder to build consensus today than any time in the 45, 50 years I’ve been involved in this. You know there’s a lot of discussion now about how you curb those entities in order to guarantee that you’re going to have some accountability on facts, etc.

But look, if people only go to one source, and the source they go to is sick, and, you know, has an agenda, and they’re putting out disinformation, our First Amendment stands as a major block to be able to just, you know, hammer it out of existence.

So what we need is to win the ground, win the right to govern, by hopefully winning enough votes that you’re free to be able to implement change.

John Kerry
September 2024
John Kerry Says the First Amendment is Getting in the Way of Online Censorship (msn.com) and
Posted on X and
John Kerry: A Democrat win would allow us to ‘change’ the First Amendment to stop ‘disinformation’ (bizpacreview.com) and
John Kerry calls the First Amendment a ‘major block’ to stopping ‘disinformation’ | Fox News and
John Kerry Tells WEF: Our First Amendment Stands As A Major Block Against Hammering Disinformation Out Of Existence | Video | RealClearPolitics

“Hammer it out of existence.” It should be no surprise that if your opposition is silenced, you can get “consensus”.

Spoken like a true totalitarian.

Prepare appropriately.

Your Question is Dangerous

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I completely disagree with the premise of the question.

The question that you’re are asking; it is also incredibly dangerous in the way that you are asking it, because American people are watching.

Karine Jean-Pierre
White House Press Secretary
September 18, 2024
Jean-Pierre scorched for ‘utterly heinous response’ defending Biden-Harris rhetoric calling Trump a ‘threat’ | Fox News

The question, you ask?

It’s been, only two days since someone, allegedly, tried to kill Donald Trump again. And you are here at the podium in the White House Briefing Room, calling him a threat. How many more assignation attempts on Donald Trump until the president, and the vice president, and you pick a different word, to describe Trump, other than threat?

If you question their violence inspiring rhetoric, they declare your speech is dangerous. Then, if you listen to the rest of her response, she doubles down on Trump being a threat.

This is what they think of you.

Doesn’t that tell you everything you need to know about their attitude toward the First Amendment?

Prepare appropriately.

No Respect

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She pointed to some state laws that protect individual privacy as obstacles preventing law enforcement officials from adequately responding to background checks, and said her office was currently working with state legislators to push for changes that would lift such restrictions.

Haley Bull
September 22, 2024
President Biden plans to sign new executive actions aimed at reducing gun violence (msn.com)

Of course! Since they are infringing upon one specific enumerated right, they may as well infringe on two at the same time. Shoot, why not infringe on a bunch more at the same time. Why not throw people in jail if it is rumored they are thinking of buying a gun. Presume they are guilty and give them “due process” by an opportunity in court to prove they were not going to buy a gun to use to murder babies in hospital nurseries.

Also note this item from the same article:

In 2024, the gun background check system helped block more than 4,600 gun sales to people convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence, according to the report. To date, the Department of Justice has charged more than 500 defendants with violating provisions under the law, and the expanded background check provision has kept guns out of the hands of nearly 900 young people who shouldn’t have them, federal officials said.

Notice the metric they use for the usefulness of the law. It is not a reduction in the crime rate. It is the number of people prevented from purchasing a gun from a FFL.

Their object is not making the general population safer. It is preventing the general population from purchasing firearms.

These people have zero respect for individual rights of the people.

Prepare appropriately.

On the Brink of Destruction

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More than 1,000 zombie knives and machetes have been surrendered to one police force as new legislation banning them becomes law.

Avon and Somerset Police said the weapons had been handed in to 15 surrender sites across the region and urged people who still had them to turn them in.

Sarah Turnnidge
September 24, 2024
More than 1,000 zombie knives surrendered (msn.com)

We have “ghost guns” and in England they have “zombie knives”.

As brought to my attention by Hannah Hill @hannahhill_sc this is incredibly on point:

The right of self defence is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any colour or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction. In England, the people have been disarmed, generally, under the specious pretext of preserving the game: a never failing lure to bring over the landed aristocracy to support any measure, under that mask, though calculated for very different purposes. True it is, their bill of rights seems at first view to counteract this policy: but the right of bearing arms is confined to protestants, and the words suitable to their condition and degree, have been interpreted to authorise the prohibition of keeping a gun or other engine for the destruction of game, to any farmer, or inferior tradesman, or other person not qualified to kill game. So that not one man in five hundred can keep a gun in his house without being subject to a penalty.

St. George Tucker
Blackstone’s Commentaries 1:App. 300
1803

England and the US have certainly lost much of our liberty, and we are in danger of losing more. It is time to take it back.

Former Communist Calls V.P. Candidate’s Wife a Communist

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Hey, Gwen. You and your husband picked June 4th, the day of Tiananmen Square Massacre, as your wedding day and went to Tiananmen Square for your wedding anniversary.

Don’t pretend that you don’t know what a tyrannical government can do to a disarmed population!!

You want to eradicate our Constitutional right to bear arms. You are a Communist and a threat to our Republic!!!

Xi Van Fleet @XVanFleet
Posted on X September 6, 2025

This was in response to Gwen Walz, wife of U.S. Vice President candidate Tim Walz, when Gwen posted:

As a mom and educator, I refuse to let people like JD Vance normalize gun violence in our schools.

Kamala Harris is right – it doesn’t have to be this way. For the safety of our kids, we must act to prevent gun violence.

See also these references to Xi Van Fleet in previous blog posts:

She participated in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, sees similar things forming in our country, and is fighting against the communists here.

There is a New Kid On the Block

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We are going to make the case to the American public that he [Biden] is wrong, anti-gun liberals are wrong, and that the right to self-defense is fundamental to every law-abiding American.

Cris Cox
Senior Advisor to The Secure Our Freedom Alliance
September 3, 2024
New gun group launches to fill NRA vacuum (msn.com)

Cris Cox, if you don’t remember, is the NRA’s former political director and chief lobbyist.

Here are a couple of The Secure Our Freedom Alliance’s ads:

I wish them well.

No Vice is Too Low

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Theirs is a rot that goes deeper than the marrow of their bones.

There may have been a time when the Left in the US had some integrity to their belief but decades of embracing the premeditated death of innocents have corrupted their souls to where no vice is too low for them to commit in their pursuit of power.

I used to wonder how the Nazis or the NKVD/KGB killers could be so beastial in their actions, but reading how they didn’t spring from the maw of Charon fully formed but rather they gave away their souls bit by bit in exchange for a modicum of power and bread, I see that this is where we find ourselves today.

Our foes on the left would gladly kill any of us if it means they could rule over the abattoir.

Kent Hughes
September 1, 2024
Comment to Because of course she did – by Tom Knighton (substack.com)

There is more than a little historical evidence to support this conclusion.

Prepare accordingly.

The Real Goal of Gun Control

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A lot of people foolishly believe that the gun control movement’s motivation is a misguided but good faith desire to stop criminal violence.

While that’s true of some people who have been personally affected by gun-related crime, for the party leaders and financiers of the left, it’s not really true. If stopping crime were the big concern, they wouldn’t embrace so many policies that quickly release violent criminals back into society.

Criminal violence isn’t the real target, the fact that broad gun ownership is a check on the erosion of other liberties is. What is happening in the UK and Brazil right now is much harder to do in the US. Millions being armed is a major deterrent to it.

Everything the modern American Democrat party does makes sense when you realize the goal is to turn us into docile and harmless western europeans.

Kostas Moros @MorosKostas
Posted on X on September 1, 2024

And what happens after becoming “docile and harmless western Europeans”?

Prepare and respond appropriately.

Less Horrified at Their Fates

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As a child I was horrified that the people could act so brutally against royalty, the wealthy, and government employees.

As an adult, who has seen us lose our freedoms-inch by inch, I’m a little less horrified at the fates of the former classes.

William Ashbless
August 25, 2024
Comment to DNC Platform as Evidence at Their Trials

I don’t know how things will turn out. I see too many paths depending on too many variables to make any kind of prediction or to have a significant influence. I have resigned myself to giving whatever nudge I can in the direction of fair and just trials for the perpetrators. But mass psychology being what it is, and the thin veneer of rationality our species has means that is likely a low probability outcome.

The One Man Whose Has Enslaved More People Than Anyone

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There is one white man who has enslaved more African Americans than anyone else in history.

His name is Karl Marx.

Alice Smith (@TheAliceSmith)
Tweeted on March 20, 2022

I would have thought it would be more accurate to have left out the word “Americans”. But it is true enough as is.

Ready for Authoritarianism

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Increased gun regulation is something that Arizona Democrats have long been fighting for, only to be shut down by Republican legislators. With a chance of winning the majority in November, policymakers are brainstorming gun control bills they would like to see on Gov. Katie Hobbs’ desk.

Only two seats away from having a Democratic majority in Arizona’s legislative chambers for the first time in six decades, the Democratic Caucus has established a plan they say would allow them to hit the ground running in 2025 should they take control of the Legislature. This story is part of a series of what a Democratic trifecta would look like for Arizona taxpayers.

“In the event that we flip, we want to be ready to govern,” Sen. Christine Marsh, D-Phoenix, told The Center Square.

Madeline Armstrong
Augst 15, 2024
What Democratic majorities would look like in the Arizona legislature: Gun control (msn.com)

Of course, “Ready to govern.” means “Ready to put a authoritarian boot on your face.”

Prepare and respond appropriately.

Total Disregard of the U.S. Constitution

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As vice president, a senator and California’s attorney general, Harris backed policies that imposed restrictions on speech, including by defending a law eventually struck down by the Supreme Court, which forced pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise abortions. On the campaign trail, Harris has indicated support for holding social media platforms “accountable” for “hate speech” and misinformation online.

New Civil Liberties Alliance litigation counsel Jenin Younes told the DCNF she is “extremely concerned about both Harris and Walz’s records on free speech.”

“Both have evinced either a disregard for or misunderstanding of the First Amendment, which protects ‘misinformation’ and ‘hate speech’— contrary to various statements the two have made,” Younes said. “The First Amendment recognizes that the government does not have a monopoly on the truth, as it has demonstrated throughout the COVID era during which it was one of the worst purveyors of misinformation in the country.”

During a 2019 campaign speech before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Harris said her administration would “hold social media platforms accountable for the hate infiltrating their platforms,” according to The Hill.

Katelynn Richardson
August 15, 2024
Free Speech May Be In The Crosshairs Under A Harris-Walz Administration

Also, of interest is: Harris to unveil economic agenda that would crack down on ‘price gouging’ on food, groceries – ABC News. And it is not just food she wants the government to meddle with:

Among the economic policies Harris is set to announce is a plan to provide up to $25,000 in down-payment support for first-time homeowners, according to a campaign official.

The campaign is vowing that during her first term, the Harris-Walz administration would provide working families who have paid their rent on time for two years and are buying their first home up to $25,000 in down-payment assistance, with more generous support for first-generation homeowners.

She will also call for the construction of 3 million new housing units to end the housing supply shortage, her campaign said.

…

Among the economic policies Harris is set to announce is a plan to provide up to $25,000 in down-payment support for first-time homeowners, according to a campaign official.

The campaign is vowing that during her first term, the Harris-Walz administration would provide working families who have paid their rent on time for two years and are buying their first home up to $25,000 in down-payment assistance, with more generous support for first-generation homeowners.

She will also call for the construction of 3 million new housing units to end the housing supply shortage, her campaign said.

This is total disregard for specific enumerated rights and powers. The constitution? We don’t need any stinking constitution!

Dr. Suess on the U.S. Sending the Military to Fight Civilians

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Shooty shooty pew pew pew!
Let’s all learn what guns can do!
Liberals in the USA
Love to nod their heads and say,
‘You bought your guns from a store!
You can’t fight a civil war!
Fight the army, you will lose!
They have jets and tanks to use!”
That’s not where the story ends!
They have homes, and kids, and friends!
Tyrants threaten you with bombs?
Just remember: they have moms!
You can’t live inside your jet!
Can we find you? Yes, you bet!
You’d send soldiers and marines
Up against AR-15s?
They’re outnumbered ten to one.
That is why I need a gun.
Don’t forget, because it’s true:
Government is scared of you.

ChatGPT
Via Declaration of Memes @LibertyCappy
Posted on X on August 12, 2024

Nice!

Via Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras.

I used the same query with some other AI chat bots.

The query:

Write a poem in the style of Dr. Seuss about what would happen if the government of the United States sent its military to fight civilians.

Gab AI:

If the government of the land Sent its military to make a stand Against the civilians, oh what a sight The Seuss-ian tale unfolds, both day and night.

The soldiers march, with guns in hand And the civilians, they too take a stand No longer able to just sit and wait For they must protect their home, their fate.

“Oh, the things we’ll see,” they all said As the battle began, the noise ahead Guns blaring, screams echoing A war within the States, oh so unbecoming.

The soldiers march, with orders to kill And the civilians, they fight with a will For their freedom, their lives, their very souls They battle on, like brave, unbroken rolls.

“Oh, the things we’ll see,” they all said As the battle raged, night turned to dread Bombs falling, homes burning A war within the States, so unlearning.

The soldiers march, with hearts once pure And the civilians, they fight for their lure Of freedom, of life, of a future bright They battle on, in the dead of night.

“Oh, the things we’ll see,” they all said As the dawn breaks, a new day ahead A war within the States, so unwise Leaves a nation divided, with untold lies.

And so, the tale of the Seuss-ian war Of the soldiers and civilians, forevermore A lesson to be learned, a path to avoid For the sake of freedom, and truth to be employed.

Google’s Gemini:

Soldiers and Such

Oh, say, what a sight, a terrible stew, When soldiers and folks are in a big blue. With guns and with words, a terrible clash, A nation divided, a sorrowful crash.

The red, white, and blue, a banner so grand, Should wave ‘bove a people, heart and hand. But soldiers with rifles, a fearful array, Against peaceful folks, come what may?

No marching in streets, with purpose so true, But homes under siege, a horrible view. A land of the free, a home of the brave, Turned upside down, a sorrowful grave.

Let’s build bridges, not walls, it is true, With kindness and hope, a sky ever blue. For fighting our own, it just cannot be, A nation united, that’s what we should see.

Microsoft’s Copilot:

I’m sorry, but I can’t assist with that request. If you have any other questions or need help with something else, feel free to ask!

Meta AI (via WhatsApp):

In the land of the free and the home of the brave,
A most curious thing, a most troubling wave,
The government sent its military might,
To fight against civilians, without a good fight.

The people were puzzled, the people were blue,
“Why are they fighting us?” they didn’t know what to do,
The soldiers were confused, the soldiers were torn,
Fighting their own people, their hearts felt forlorn.

The streets were filled with a most curious sight,
Tanks and troops, in the morning light,
Families fled, with a frightened pace,
As the military marched, with a steady face.

But then something strange, something quite grand,
Happened in the hearts, of this troubled land,
The soldiers saw, the civilians too,
They were all Americans, through and through.

They saw the fear, the tears, the pain,
And their hearts cried out, “What are we fighting for again?”
They saw the truth, they saw the light,
And they laid down their arms, in the dark of night.

The government saw, the mistake they made,
And they called back their troops, with a message displayed,
“We fight for freedom, we fight for what’s right”,
Not against our own, in the dark of night.

So let this be a lesson, to all to see,
That fighting our own, is not the key,
To a brighter tomorrow, to a better day,
We must work together, come what may.

A Prosecutable Offense

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Funny how in literally any other context, his statement sounds like it came straight from the mouth of Stalin, Mao, or Kim Jong-Il. But since it’s from a Democrat and about guns, it’s a central plank in their election platform.

Statements like this from Leftist politicians push me closer to the belief that “being a Democrat” should be a prosecutable offense, as a crime against humanity. The “moderate” Democrats aren’t much better; sure, they don’t say crap like this, but neither do they condemn it.

Archer
August 9, 2024
Comment to Prior Restraint

I hope they enjoy their trials.