Maintaining liberty your responsibility

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for August 5, 2026)

Every system people create takes effort to keep working. Someone must keep fixing the problems which otherwise pile up until the system fails. None are "set it and forget it". This is true for all systems of government: democracies, constitutional republics, monarchies, and communist dictatorships.

It even applies in the absence of a system of government, as detractors of anarchy like to point out while they carefully ignore how the same applies to the system they prefer...read the rest...

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Politics is Mr. Hyde without Dr. Jekyll

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 1, 2026)

Politics- and specifically political opinions- can turn people into monsters. It's almost guaranteed. No one is ever a better person because of their political opinions or because they're involved in politics.

In his story, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson was writing a morality tale about the good and evil within each individual and the dangers of drug abuse, but it could apply just as well to politics. Politics is a powerful drug, and it brings the evil within each individual to the surface.

Someone may be a decent person, but add some political opinions and they can turn into beasts who want people robbed, caged, or killed because they don't have a compatible political opinion.

The more I see it happen, the less I want politics near me. I wish I could inoculate people against politics. Political addicts are hard to reach and harder to help.

Politics comes down to fighting over how best to govern other people. Since no one has a right to govern even one other person, this is a fight over how to do something no one has a right to do; an imaginary right that can't be created. It's like arguing over the best way to run your slave market. The best way is not to be involved in slavery at all; to be an abolitionist.

Well, I'm an abolitionist.

You have the right to run your life as you see fit, as long as you don't violate anyone else's life, liberty, or property. You have the right to defend yourself from anyone who tries to violate you. Anything else invariably ends up violating someone's rights.

You can't change the nature of a rights violation by framing it as a political opinion. You can't make armed extortion ethical by calling it a tax. You can't excuse censorship in the name of safety without making it political. Politics can make someone accept unethical acts as if they are necessary or desirable.

You have the right to live your liberty to the fullest. The other half of liberty, alongside freedom, is your responsibility to not violate anyone's rights. No political opinion can change this. Nor does your fear of what they might do unless you violate them first.

Don't let politics turn you into something you wouldn't want to become. The first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem.

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“I wish there were more rules”

And this is why we can’t have nice things.

This town may be threatening to impose a lot more property rules on the residents. Seeking to punish anything they subjectively don't want to see. Things like "disrepair", "clutter", and so forth.

I overheard two people talking about this, and one of them- from another town- said about her town, "I wish there were more rules". Then went on to complain about a neighbor who uses his property in a way that she doesn't approve of. She is burdened by what she sees when looking in that direction.

The one from here was practically salivating over all the potential violations she can see around town, saying, "They won't be getting away with this anymore".

This attitude disgusts me.

People have a right to use their property as they see fit- as long as doing so doesn't violate someone else's REAL rights to life, liberty, and property. Being offended by seeing something isn't a violation of your rights. It's a character problem.

"But it brings down property values." Good. Then property taxes will be lower.

There's hardly a house in town that wouldn't be targeted for one thing or another, mine included. And since it's subjective, there's really no way to anticipate what's going to get under the mayor's saddle. We've gone through various enforcement obsessions, where the current rulers get tough on one ridiculous thing or another for a year or so, until they pick something else to be up in arms about, and forget about the previous emergency enforcement situation.

I'm already mad at the town rulers for vandalizing two streets this past week by installing "speed bumps". What's next? Flock spyware?

If the town does go through with it, I will be photographing every "violation" at the mayor's property and putting it online. Yes, I will go to war.

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Don't participate in violating liberty

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 22, 2026)

Liberty is a big jewel with many facets. All its facets are important, but you can pick favorites. I do. Even then, don't try to dull the shine of the facets which don't affect you as much. To someone, those are the important ones...read the rest...

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Find better solutions without government

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for June 17, 2026)

I hear a lot of people saying the local community should have this or that. Or pointing out things they believe should be improved. But they always seem to want government, or at least someone else, to provide what they want or to fix their problems.

If you have complaints about the local community, don’t wait for government to fix them. See what you can do for yourself, maybe with help from others, with or without government permission.

Government wants you to depend on it for solutions, but its solutions can be worse than the original problem. Plus, it will use your money for any solution it tries. It would be better and more efficient to use your money directly, rather than filtering it through the waste machine of government bureaucracy.

The responsibility is yours. It always has been. Keep in mind, taking responsibility can be dangerous.

If your solution is effective, government will probably try to punish you. Just like the people around the country who've been punished for repairing potholes that local government has ignored for much too long. In some cases, government crews even dug out the repair work and returned the road to its damaged condition.

When I lived in Colorado, residents were prohibited from plowing the snow off the road to their house if local governments insisted that the road not be plowed beyond a certain point. Some defiant souls did so anyway and were punished. Others left their vehicles abandoned at the end of the plowed road all winter and used snowmobiles to cross the distance between their car and house.

You aren't "authorized" to solve problems this way. This is how you can tell that solving problems isn't government's priority.

Government is not on your side. It always has sketchy justifications for what it does.

If you come up with a good solution or improvement, and you aren't punished for it, be aware government may try to take over and claim the credit before ruining it. Then you can start over.

One of the very worst things anyone can do is to take something good and hand it over to government to administer and ultimately squander. If you have something good, whether it's an invention, a solution, or real estate, don't give it to government. Take back your control. Stay silent and don't ask government for anything, and soon you'll realize it has always been an unnecessary evil.

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Misplaced respect

Statists really can't comprehend when someone doesn't fawn along with them over some harmful part of government- such as the police or the military.

It's completely beyond them why anyone would oppose those things. (Some feel the same about the spyware.)

It doesn't matter how clearly you explain. Some say they supposedly "hate government", too.

They have a deep-seated desire to "respect" those who are the greatest danger to their liberty. A much greater threat than anyone in any other country.

In TV and movies, there are good cops and good military pawns. That's called fiction. Many people fall for the propaganda because they can't distinguish between reality and fiction.

I blame govschooling and the media.

Yes, I realize some of those government personnel were fooled into joining. Some were pressured and couldn't resist. Some didn't see another path. Some needed the money. Some thought it would make them respected. They were innocent victims... at first.

Some wanted to do good. They failed. 

Some craved the power they saw coming from such a position- either immediately or down the line. Those are the truly evil ones.

The harsh reality is that they are all hurting, not helping. They are empowering the state by remaining on the "job". That's not an ethical thing to do. It doesn't earn my respect or my thanks. Please quit!

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Takes time to build liberty cathedral

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 15, 2026)

There are times you’ll begin, or join already-in-progress, a project and discover it’s bigger, more difficult, and is going to take longer than you expected. Often, much longer. Sometimes you’ll realize it won’t be completed in your lifetime- if ever.

And it's still worth it...read the rest...

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The fear of liberty is irrational

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for June 10, 2026)

I've never considered myself a particularly brave person, but I've never been afraid enough to feel like I needed to be governed or to have you governed on my behalf. I've never been so afraid that I was willing to give up essential liberty for a false feeling of safety. I can't comprehend this level of irrational fear.

Fear makes people (and animals) unpredictable and dangerous.

Similarly, I'm not able to do everything myself. I lack the resources and skills for many important tasks. I've never seen this as justification for forcing others to do these things for me. I prefer cooperation over coercion.

If I can't afford to pay others to do things I can't do, I'll do without. Nothing is so important that I feel you need to be forced to help pay for it through taxation. It's no less a mugging if you promise that taking the money is necessary and it will be used for the common good.

If I'm unable to talk people into helping out, without threats or enslaving them, then I'll accept being on my own. Either I'll figure it out, or I won't.

I'm not willing to advocate for a government to help me force you to do things, or to force you to fund things, which I feel would be good for me or for society. Or because I'm scared.

Wouldn't it be nice if people returned the favor?

I have a hard time relating to people on the other side of these issues; the people who believe in government.

It's not a matter of preference. Preferring Pepsi or Coke doesn't harm people who prefer the other, or who prefer Dr Pepper or water. Preferring to govern others, for whatever reason, seems natural to those with this preference, but does hurt everyone else. The excuses used, even in good faith, don't diminish the harm.

If your system won't work unless you force everyone to participate, it's a failed system. If you're afraid of those who want to opt out, and you'd force them to abandon their homes to do so, your system is wrong.

Once upon a time, people couldn't see a way to keep society running without slaves. They figured it out once the option was off the table. It's going to have to happen again, sooner or later, with government. This is the next step in totally eradicating slavery. Even if it's scary.

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Yes, it should

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Their attempted insults have no power here

Just to give a clue to those out there who got really bothered by me over the past weeks for opposing spy cameras...

Calling me a "Democrat", a "Leftist", a "liberal", a "commie", a meth addict, a "criminal", or anything else doesn't work. It never will. I'm on the correct side on this issue.

Here's a selection of replies I copied and pasted (all these from one guy) to me (and others) for saying I oppose Flock cameras, and saying they aren't worth the cost:

"Looks ghey. Ill pass"

"I'm not reading some liberal garbage trying to turn ppl gay" (Both this and the one above were in response to a link to my newspaper column on the subject)

"Go get you some meth money we know the truth about you people."

"I don't break the law. I'm cool with them"

"Go play in a road transtifa"

"You a scrapper? Lol."

"Go watch an episode of first 48 and see how handy these are and solving crime from thugs"

"N!gga you retarded or a crook. Probably democrat"

It also doesn't make me angry that these clowns expose themselves. They want to believe it does, though. It's what they desperately hope for.

I'm a libertarian- I get called worse daily.

The problem for them is, I know what I'm standing up for. It has nothing to do with what they want it to be about. I also see what THEY'RE standing up for, and it's hideous and evil.

The scary thing is, you know these people v*te!!

I don't buy the lies that these cameras are an essential tool for solving crime; I'm not afraid of criminals. Even if they were used that way occasionally, it's not worth the loss of privacy and liberty. Not even close.

But some people are not only OK with them; they crave having them watch you and me 24/7.

That's disturbing. And not very smart.

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The 'rich' aren't the problem

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for June 3, 2026)

There's a lot of hostility toward "the rich". Especially billionaires. The hostility is misplaced.

The real divide is not "the rich" versus "everyone else". It is those who seek to rule, versus everyone they seek to rule.

Some of your enemies who seek to rule you are also rich; most of them are not. Even with the rich, it isn't the wealth itself causing the problem; it's how the wealth was amassed and how it is used.

If someone becomes rich by providing products and services people want and are willing to pay for, they are a benefit to us all. They are not your enemy, even if you don't like them as an individual. You are free to trade elsewhere.

Even as a child, I didn't understand the anger toward rich people. I hoped to join their ranks one day, but it didn't happen. It's not Jeff Bezos's or Elon Musk's fault I'm not a millionaire. It's weird how many people seem to imagine it is, like the economy is a pie and the size of someone else's slice means my slice has to be smaller. It doesn't work that way- the pie can keep growing exponentially. In a truly free market, there's enough pie for everyone.

Unfortunately, instead of a free market, we have governments.

Riches gained through politics are different. Political deals where your life, liberty, property, or data are the assets being traded harm you. You are violated by every one of these deals, even if you don't notice. Getting wealthy through the political means is cheating. The only real monopolies are maintained by government. You can't refuse to do "business" with those controlling the political realm.

It's not "the rich", but government, that makes you poorer.

It would be easier to build a successful business without government's roadblocks. Especially the taxes it extracts at every step of building a business, doing business, or trading. Honest businesses are forced to fund their adversary with the taxes extorted from their accounts.

Honest businesses don't use government to stifle competition, force people to do business with them, or chase government contracts. They don't help government control you.

I understand envy. It's possible to feel envy without wanting to hurt those you envy- those you wish you could join. Unless you're a "the grapes are probably sour, anyway" kind of person who thinks more money couldn't possibly do anything to improve your life- against all available evidence.

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The Call of the Wild

I've been feeling a stronger pull back into primitive survival. If I lived in a place that didn't make it nearly impossible to practice it, I'd probably be doing more of it. 

As it is, about the most I could do around here is sit in my yard, near the intersection, and stare at the dirt. Or I could go into someone's cotton field and stare at the dirt. Less fulfilling than you might imagine.

What triggered this?

Seeing the things that "normal people" say about how government treats us and our rights makes me feel sick. Seeing how they'll excuse any violation, saying "if you don't like it, change the law" is disappointing. Any spirit has been drained from these people. 

I know it's frowned upon to say so, but they are sheeple. Less than sheep- sheep still have some spark of survival instinct, even if it is weak. There's no animal as ethically weak and empty as a government supremacist bootlicker.

These people will tolerate anything if government tells them it's necessary. I honestly doubt anything could ever cross the line and make them stand up. Their love for legislative rules is too overpowering for them to resist. Oh, they'll protest a little when their puppetmasters tell them to hate a president, but that's about it. And half the time, they'll get that wrong.

The modern world has worn thin for me. Again. I'll probably get over it. Again. At least for a while.

Until then, I'll be the weird neighbor throwing knives and tomahawks in my nonexistent backyard, practicing firemaking in the living room, thinking of things I wish I could order (but don't need), and watching lots of mountainman videos.

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The base

Everything in the material world comes down to physics. 

Similarly, everything in the social world comes down to liberty.

Some people like to try to insert woo-woo into the material world, but then they are talking about something other than the material world. Maybe they are speaking of a spiritual world or something else immaterial, but you can't plot an orbit or describe a chemical reaction this way. You have to stay in the realm of physics to do so.

Others like to try to insert their antisocial desires and fetishes into the social world, but then it's no longer a social world they are talking about. They are describing a political world instead. You can't respect the rights of others while pretending there are things you "should" do to violate these rights when they make you uncomfortable.

I suspect there is even a way to merge physics and liberty; a sort of Grand Unified Theory. I can see it and feel it, but I can't articulate it. Yet. It may come to me someday.

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Political winners: Those who don't participate

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for May 27, 2026)

Every time there's an election- a religious ritual for those who believe in the imaginary authority of the state- the cheers and tears begin as soon as the votes are tallied. The reaction depends on whether the individual voter ends up on the winning or losing side. Either outcome means the state has won at the expense of liberty.

Politics is designed to divide people into winners and losers, and the only way to truly win is to refuse to play.

People who want you trapped will claim that if you don't vote, you're still voting for whatever the majority voted for. Nonsense. You're going to be handed that repulsive load regardless of what you do.

Democracy is mob rule; might (through superior numbers) makes "right". You say America isn't a democracy, but a republic? This only means it's a democracy with extra steps.

The Constitution, which was sold as the safeguard against America becoming a democracy, failed. Now the majority fetishizes democracy and demands government ignore the Constitution when it would prevent something they want. The political criminals are happy to oblige. But demand government obey the Constitution? They'll drag their feet for decades or more, until they can claim they've traditionally exercised this illegal power and it's too late to reverse course now.

Politics is what you use against your fellow humans when you can't convince them to go along with your harebrained schemes, so you cheat. Instead of using logic and persuasion, you default to threats of violence against those who would prefer a different path. Voters accept politicians, politicians make up laws, and laws are threats of violence. Do what politicians say, or government will steal your property, cage you, and escalate the situation to the point of killing you if you refuse to go along at any step of the process. A process weighted to favor the state and its opinions.

If you place your hope in a politician, you'll be disappointed.  A politician will never save you. Politicians are never the answer. Politicians can only ruin you.

Some politicians are a little better than others, and some are a lot worse than most, but none of them has the right to govern even one other person. Doing something you have no right to do, even if others approve, is the only rational definition of "crime". Why place your faith and hope in a criminal?

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Easiest "job" in the world

Being on the Supreme Court ought to be one of the easiest "jobs" in the world. Even if you pretend they have the "authority" they stole for themselves in 1803.

It shouldn't require any training as a lawyer or any political expertise whatsoever; just the ability to read and understand what you're reading. (I know that's asking a lot these days.)

This is how complicated it should be:

Someone brings a government rule, policy, or legislation to you.
You read it.
You observe if it is something the Constitution explicitly allows government to do, based on what is actually written, not on interpretations or political wishes...
And then you rule on it by that standard and none other. 

Easy-peasy.

An AI could easily do it (although crooked political humans would corrupt the programming for their political agendas).

Does the Constitution explicitly allow government to do this? Let it stand.
Does the Constitution not explicitly allow government to do this? Gone immediately. No delay; no scrambling to save it or to find a way around it. Just gone this instant.

Only political criminals would make it harder or more complicated than that. Yes, that means 99% or more of the government would be done for. That's a good first step.

My evaluation of their performance is even easier: If they rule in favor of government power, they got it wrong. Every time.

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A new way to celebrate Independence?

I'm opposed to vandalism.

I'm also opposed to ubiquitous surveillance. I'm not going to damage some individual's doorbell camera because of this. Nor would I support anyone who does.

Flock cameras and that sort of thing are an entirely different matter. The people who destroy the enemies' spy cameras are heroes to me. They are no more "vandals" than Robin Hood was a "thief". They are fighting back against the nasty modern equivalent of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Or worse. 

Flock cameras are tools of anti-American spies; dangerous invaders, even if they were born here.

I'm not proud to have reached this point. But if you're going to put cameras everywhere to provide information to government, you are a bad guy. A terrorist! I want you to lose your investment. I want it to not be worth the effort and expense to replace them, even though I know the political criminals will keep paying out the stolen money for these things because they are determined to rule us. Even if it kills us. Even if it means the end of America.

It's not about safety for you and me, but only for the political criminals who want to know what you're doing every second of every day.

I hate them, and I hate their spy cameras.

The ONLY good Flock camera is a dead Flock camera. I think Independence Day could have a new tradition beginning this year.

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How did theft (and murder) get this popular?

I have no particular love for rich people just because they are rich. Nor do I hate them for being rich.

But, watching the number of people-- including many rich political criminals-- piling on to encourage other rich people be robbed because they are rich, concerns me. Those rich political criminals fanning the flames of hate, greed, and envy from "public office" have the power to actually hurt other rich people they disagree with by imposing legislation. 

I've also seen people advocating rich people be murdered because they are "greedy". Because they aren't willing to waste their money on counterproductive "social programs" that the envious person thinks need the money. Gullible morons listen to them and act.

None of this is OK. It's creating a dangerous situation that risks getting out of control.

So how did theft and murder get so popular? Politics- it makes people stupid and at least a little bit evil, too.

I will continue to speak out against this sort of thing- even while clearly stating that any person who gets rich through the political means isn't innocent. But the solution- the only ethical solution- is to abolish the state, not to steal the money and hand it over to The Ancestral Enemy to be wasted and used against liberty. Giving more money to the state is much worse than letting a greedy, evil person keep their own money.

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Beware The Blob – its mission is creepy

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for May 20, 2026)

If you give government an inch, it will take a mile. Or, in most countries, 1.60934 kilometers. Some people refer to this as "mission creep"- government's tendency to keep moving the goal posts and grabbing more power over more things; things government has no business having any involvement with.

Those who originally justified a government with tasks like the armed defense of the territory's population and protecting the residents from criminals soon started believing government should also be involved in more things. Like "public health", education, animal ordinances, travel, property registration, and the economic lives of the people.

The idea of "the general welfare" was a cancer. It has metastasized to include anything the control freaks in government want power over. And, they want to be involved in absolutely everything; those few things they aren't yet meddling with, they'll point to and call "freedom". Until they also take that away.

Government pursues these arbitrary powers to the point where it neglects the things originally used to justify its existence, because, apparently, it's safer and more profitable to interfere with regular people.

As for those antiquated justifications for government? Now, government sends its military around the world, creating enemies out of thin air, ultimately threatening the safety of all Americans. They ignored Thomas Jefferson's advice of trade with all nations; entangling alliances with none, and we're paying the price.

Here at home, you're now more likely to have your life, liberty, or property violated by a government employee enforcing a rule or "law" than by a freelance criminal. Government has become the very threat it promised to protect you from.

Those who work for government now believe they need to watch everything we do, make sure they approve of all our activities, and verify our age and identity before we are allowed to do those things. You'll do nothing without government oversight, and possibly even a license.

Government keeps getting worse; its mission creeping like The Blob over more of our lives. This will continue until it collapses from its fatal arrogance. Some nabob will then wring their hands and say they need to try again, but they'll do it right this time. They won't. They'll make the same old mistake of not trusting liberty enough, and their new government will grow beyond any limits set for it. Any government mission will always creep because the lust to govern others is creepy.

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I don't think Texas knows what the word means

Any state that allows its armed goons to molest, rob, kidnap, or murder anyone for a "gun offense" is NOT a Constitutional carry state. It's a criminal organization. Its "law enforcers" are the criminals.

A Constitutional carry state would fire (and probably arrest) any law enforcer who attempted to enforce any such illegal rule. 

It wouldn't then compound its crime by illegally prohibiting its victim from being armed while the case is active- there would be no case. This is yet another violation of the Second Amendment. Two strikes, at least!

The Constitution doesn't allow government to dictate how a weapon "may" be carried. Shall NOT be infringed! 
Ethics don't allow a government to have any say in how a weapon may be carried.

Even if it did (it doesn't), who do they think they are to even make the spurious claim that a cupholder can't be a holster? If it is being used to contain a gun, it is a holster.

I don't know the basketball player, James Harden, or anything else about him. It's irrelevant. I don't care why he is being mistreated this way, or who is being mistreated this way; I only care that he is being mistreated by a supposedly "Constitutional carry" state that is showing what it really is.

Do the right thing. Drop the charges, fire the cop and any prosecutor or judge that allowed this case to be brought against him, give him their personal property as restitution, and stop being a criminal gang committing criminal acts!

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No good reason to reject liberty

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for May 13, 2026)

People find many reasons to reject liberty. Fear. Envy. Ignorance. Tradition. In fact, there are probably as many reasons to reject liberty as there are people on this planet.

Those whose careers depend on violating liberty will use any excuse they are handed.

If they use envy, they can impose socialism and raise taxes on the rich. They can make people believe they have a "right" to things which others must work to provide them. It can never be your right to enslave others!

Using ignorance, political criminals lie and hope that too few notice to do anything about it. It's how we get things like "assault weapon" rules, carbon credits, and the War on (some) Drugs.

They also combine ignorance with envy, so those cheated in the brain department will demand to be coddled to dumb down society so that no one feels stupid. Ignorance is simply a lack of knowledge; stupidity is a dedicated effort to remain ignorant.

Tradition, when applied to historical evils, is a particularly dangerous justification for rejecting liberty. Just because "it's always been done this way" doesn't mean it should continue to be done this way. When certain rights have been sacrificed in the past, it was wrong. It's wrong to violate rights now, even when ceasing to violate them is unthinkable. Slavery has been around for thousands of years, in every society all over the world. It was traditional everywhere. That's no reason to keep enslaving people.

Of all the reasons to reject liberty, fear may be the most common excuse, used even by some people who generally support liberty. Fear is the one thing politicians count on the most. They feed it, fan the flames, and lie about how much danger you'll be in if other people don't have their liberty crushed under the heel of The State. They'll construct nightmare outcomes they hope will scare you, so you'll beg for someone's liberty to be limited in some way. Liberty restricted is liberty violated. Nearly everyone has one fear a politician can use. You need principles to say "No".

The problem is, no matter what facet of liberty you want to consider, someone is deathly afraid of it. If your rights depended on not scaring anyone, you would have no rights. You would have no liberty to exercise.

Don't fall for any reason to reject liberty. Instead of rejecting liberty, reject the excuses used to justify violating it.

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