Be Optimistic, Libertarians!
New DHS guidelines for potential terrorists are out, and it appears I line up pretty well with who they are talking about. The irony here, of course, is that my ideological foundation rests on non-violence and the non-aggression principle – but pay that no mind, I have got to be a terrorist, believing things like this:
- I don’t like paying taxes. Indeed, I believe the income tax is unconstitutional and that most of the proceeds in the case of the United States goes to fund unjust wars and genocide, making them not only illegal but morally reprehensible. I pay taxes as do other sovereign individuals not because I believe there is any honor or right thing in doing so, but because I am aware that government will put me in a cage if I do not do so.
- I believe gold is better than paper backed by nothing but the promise of a corrupt, bankrupt government, in which neither I, nor most who call themselves US citizens, believe is acting in our individual best interests.
- I reject Keynesian economics as nothing more than a Pollyanna-ish justification for abdicating financial responsibility, individually and collectively.
- I am not impressed with costumes and badges or the people who wear them. I believe most cops are undereducated thugs with too much testosterone who exist to maintain the power structure as it is. When the power structure is threatened, they are Johnny-on-the-spot with their batons, tear gas, guns, tasers, and now armed personnel carriers and even tanks. Drones are next, but that is another story I will save for later.
- I do not support aggression, but I do support self-defense. As an individual who neither aggresses against others, nor will tolerate being aggressed against, I have found the police, when not intrusive, to be useless. Indeed, unless they are busting heads to keeping various minorities from wresting control from their masters or even exercising their rights, cops are note-takers. They show up after a crime is committed, write in their notebooks, and based on the results, they must smoke their notes because no one ever hears from them again.
- Because I see the police and military for what they are, I believe vigilantism is a far more effective way of separating the bad from the good. And, to that end it is not surprising that vigilantism is on the rise. After investigating a gang-rape for more than a year, and the after the victim committed suicide from the shame of having her own rape videotaped and put up on the Internet, the Royal Canadian Mounted Fools still could not find their own asses with a set of elk horns, much less the rapists who were hiding in plain sight. It took Anonymous all of 48 hours to identify the culprits, and only after the threat of releasing their identities into the public domain did the Canadian government at various levels decide to have another look at this tragic case instead of finding a way not to do it.
- I believe the press is nothing more than the disinformation arm of government. Its purpose is to convince the general public that their votes matter. They don’t. The left-right paradigm is deceptive and the worst kind of fiction, the kind people believe and act upon. No better example exists than George W. Bush and Barrack Obama. They are the same person with the same beliefs and the same policies. They are both self-interested, self-important minions of those in control. For power and money they have trashed the Bill of Rights, fomented war, destroyed what was left of the free market, catered to the über-wealthy and their banks, thrown bones to the poor and the working, and have dutifully preserved the status quo. Yet, even in the face of their abject in-your-face sameness, the press has been successful in moderating the pathetic pseudo-confrontation between right and left. The only real difference between right and left is how they offer up socialism – via a fascistic or communistic bent.
- I support real activists, people like Matthew Duran, Katherine Olejnik, and Matthew Pfeiffer who found out the hard way just how ruthless government can be after refusing to answer questions before a grand jury about the political opinions and affiliations of their friends who participated in Seattle’s May Day protests. They refused to participate in the Constitutional gang-fuck where federal agents sought “anti-government or anarchist literature or material,” blatantly attempting to criminalize political opinions and deter others from having an opinion outside the confines of government-approved group-think. They were imprisoned and placed into solitary confinement, itself considered torture by many experts on the subject. Olejnik went to prison because, in her words, “I truly believe that people have the right to believe whatever they want politically. And it’s none of the government’s business.” I believe that, too.
- I believe Julian Assange should be given the Medal of Freedom if such a thing exists. He has done more for transparency than a generation of flag-suckers who have come before him, rank and pathetic apologists for Uncle Sam’s version of the Stasi. The fact that some in the political moron-a-thon that is the United States Congress have called for his assassination only furthers my resolve that Assange must go free.
- I believe at a cellular level that speech should not be regulated even while government continues to cracks down on legal protests with laws specifically allowing it to do so, to include the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011, which basically declares it illegal to trespass, i.e., protest, anywhere the President or Vice President happen to be, even temporarily. It is not surprising that it was Nixon, a despot and criminal, was the first to propose and be granted such “protection.” Nearly every President since has expanded its reach.
- Finally, I object to government’s efforts to sterilize the younger generations of any connection to the Constitution and the concept of rights beyond those granted by government. By way of example, in Jacksonville, Florida, fourth grade students were recently lectured on the evils of the Second Amendment and required to write “I am willing to give up some of my Constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure.”
Perhaps it is not yet time to be afraid. Perhaps it is still time to merely be vigilant. But please be aware: differing opinions are now being labelled “terrorism.” The precedence should give you pause, if not a shudder…