I am shocked, although I know I shouldn't be, to see how many people love government and hate other people more than they value liberty.
For the first time in over 19 years, it's making me seriously reconsider the whole blogging thing.
I am just too disgusted and disappointed. Especially at people who ought to know better coming out as fans of the Police State- as long as it is aimed at people they hate.
I had often wondered how it happened that regular Germans were fine with SS troops operating openly around Germany. I don't wonder anymore. Again, some people hate others more than they love liberty.
The Police State you cheer today will be aimed at you the next time the political winds shift direction. And then you'll act surprised and mad at the situation you helped enable. In which case, I'll still take your side because I don't abandon principles. Don't say you weren't warned.
But, wow...
Tips are nice.
Ah, don't give up on the blogging thing.
ReplyDeleteEven if you convince no one -- and I suspect you've convinced people over the years -- it lets you vent your own spleen AND it gives the "I flip-flop every time the party in power changes" opponents of liberty a place to out themselves so that when the shoe switches feet and they instantly switch sides we'll know they were insincere and are not to be trusted.
Back in the 1990s when Clinton was the Bad Guy of the Moment, I made the mistake of really believing that "conservatives" were at least allied with supporters of freedom on things like national ID (they loudly opposed it), immigration (remember, Reagan and Bush ran on "open borders"), etc. So I was a LITTLE surprised when they came out for REAL ID and E-Verify, started trying to out-Democrat the Democrats on immigration authoritarianism, etc. But I had given up being surprised by the early 2000s.
I am under no illusions that advocating liberty, truth and justice will ever convert anyone else to that view who wasn’t already a proponent due to the dictates of their own individual conscience. With rare exception people are and remain as nature made them at birth and any significant changes in character or belief are generally attributable to self growth, not outside influences. It is my opinion that public statements of personal principles are primarily if not solely for the benefit of the individual making them. That standing athwart history and loudly proclaiming NO to the typical corruption and evil that is the usual behavioral ‘norm’ of this species has the main advantage of indicating and asserting that you are a-part from, not apart of the herd. Regrettably sentience is infrequently accompanied by sapience.
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