Enlightened insights taken from the past week’s reading:
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."
Friedrich Nietzsche
"If by treason, opponents of state independence mean a loss of faith in the federal political institutions, then they’d be correct. But why should one have faith in a government that is itself faithless? However, it is strange that those eager to declare Texans in favor of divorce as traitors seldom (if ever) consider that treason is a two-way street. If governments derive their powers through the people’s consent, then it stands to reason that governments can be guilty of treason against its people. Much like the UK’s parliament trying to undermine the sovereignty of their own people, is it any less treasonous for US and state politicians to undermine the sovereignty of Texas and other states by unconstitutional governance?
Consider the situation in the US. Routinely, the U.S. federal government operates outside its constitutional mandate, wielding powers that were either not enumerated to it or expressly forbidden. The executive branch wields legislative powers (through the bureaucracy), the Legislative branch passes laws that need to be COTUS amendments to be legal, and the Judicial branch co-opts legislative powers never enumerated it. Sure, one can point to a long tradition of such overreach, but just because one grows used to corruption doesn’t make it any less illegal. All of this effectively works to deny the people of the states their constitutional right to rule themselves. How is that not treason?"
Ran Thorson
"The socialists of all stripes including the democratic socialists completely fail to understand what has to be done to accomplish their aims. They think that by taking over government and enacting more programs they’ll make life better for workers. They think corporations or business in general are holding back the economy. They’ve got things altogether backwards. If we do what they want to do, the country will nosedive. These are almost totally benighted people who are trying to amass political power. They see that some things are wrong, but their solutions will only make them much worse."
Michael Rozeff
"The idea of the 'group' is the scourge of mankind, for when crowds gather, the individual disappears. When groups form, insanity is the result. This is the reason that the tyrannical state continually supports the group over the individual. This is the reason that the state promotes divisiveness, and pits group against group. This strategy weakens the whole of the masses, as all the strength of liberty resides in the individual and individual critical thought. Should the individual be marginalized, freedom will disappear."
Gary D. Barnett
"Anyone who qualifies as a victim and feels 'distressed' by the expressed view of someone else can bring a Title IX civil rights action against the person who caused 'distress' by expressing an opinion. In other words, the way America works today, if you can get yourself classified as a victim, you can shut up anyone to whose words you take exception.
When the 'vulnerable' have this kind of power, just how Orwellian is it to call them 'vulnerable?'
Zionists created the trick or deception of elevating themselves above criticism by accusing critics of being 'anti-semites' who intend harm to Jews. The success of this strategy has made it attractive to designated 'victim groups.' Consequently, the First Amendment only protects 'victim groups'."
Paul Craig Roberts
"Maybe there is a whole range of human values and human behaviors that have nothing to do with race — like reading to small children and helping them learn the English language so they don’t grow into adults who have to say 'know what I mean?' every other sentence because they’ve barely acquired enough language skill themselves to know what they mean. Maybe there’s something called an American common culture that contains values and behaviors worth emulating rather than opposing. Maybe 'multiculturalism' wasn’t such a good idea after all. Maybe ghetto culture is not such a precious foundation for a successful life. Maybe the Democratic Party should move out of the ghetto it’s built for itself."
James Kunstler
"It’s in the nature of a political government to not only put its own needs first (backed not by consensus, but by force), but also to continually expand its own power.
Reason is…
The bigger the government gets, the more unelected bureaucrats it employs.
And the more politicians on the payroll who don’t have to explain themselves to their voters, the more these unelected buzzards will identify their own needs with the needs of the government.
Meanwhile, whatever helps the power structures grow stronger is wrapped up tidy with neat slogans and cloaked in virtue.
And the 'Deep State' grows stronger. This would explain why, when you give the government an inch, it always takes the mile.
(And when it gets the mile, you rarely ever get even an inch back.)"
Chris Campbell
"The United States of America — the country in the singular — is too big, the scope and scale of its government too large, to be the object of true nationalism. The people of the United States are not united by a common descent, ethnic solidarity, or uniform values. The United States is not a 'nation of immigrants,' 'one nation under God,' 'the first new nation,' or an 'exceptional nation.' It’s not even a nation. National conservatives overlook or ignore that reality to their peril. The national conservatism they envision for the United States can lead only to the suppression of actual nationalism.
The United States is not a nation. Trying to make it so will stamp out any remaining nationalism in the United States."
Allen Mendenhall
"It’s bizarre—perverse, really—that the people doing the most whining about cultural appropriation by Americans don’t actually have worthwhile cultures themselves. The fact of the matter is that the only culture in the history of the world that amounts to anything is that of Western civilization. The West has given all of humanity concepts like freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of the press, free markets, individualism, science, and rationality. In addition, the West has created almost all of the world’s great music, literature, architecture, and philos.
People trying to make cultural appropriation on the part of Americans into a scandal are basically scam artists and race hustlers. I’m talking about blacks who are outraged about white women wearing African earrings. Or Hispanics picketing a couple of white girls who set up a taco stand after visiting Mexico."
Doug Casey
"I hate all robots. None of them are our equals.
I’m sure there’s a villainous name for people like me, and there will be sensitivity training for people like us. There will be whole university departments dedicated to eradicating such attitudes – all administered by robots, of course."
Larry L. Beane
"Hate crime laws are the natural progression from the concept of political correctness. Remember, everything that is public policy is politically correct and everything that is politically correct is public policy. This means that only prescribed issues can be for public debate.
Political correctness is the opposite of tolerance. PC and hate crimes are about conformity to government- and elite-approved thought, speech and deed. The government, its politicians and its idiot PC-preaching pawns do all they can to force political conformity.
Political conformity and compliance are what PC and hate crimes are all about. This is fascism which is anathema to liberty."
Bob Livingston
"Several decades ago, some crackpots had the idea that mankind’s use of fossil fuels had a warming effect on the weather. Environmentalists were pretty fired up by the notion. So were many politicians. Economists were largely tongue-tied because they had long ago conceded that there are some public goods that the market can’t handle; surely the weather is one of them.
Enough years go by, and what do you have? Politicians from all over the world — every last one of them a huckster of some sort, only pretending to represent his nation — gathering in a posh resort in Europe to tax the world and plan its weather down to precise temperatures half a century from now.
In the entire history of mankind, there has not been a more preposterous spectacle than this."
Lew Rockwell
"If you have children and they are at a crossroads to go to college, be very careful with that decision and your guidance. You could very well lose your progeny to the most murderous cult in history because the collectivists control the heights of academia and they are using it to terraform the country into a vast slave plantation."
Bill Buppert
"There are of course many immensely wealthy and powerful structures today which benefit from adherents to religion, but most of those who’ve benefited from widespread religious indoctrination aren’t even alive anymore. Governments and world religions have historically been inextricably intertwined with and supportive of each other, because religions can be used to manipulate the masses into believing that it’s virtuous to be poor, humble, meek, submissive and obedient, to 'render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s', and to believe it would be generally sinful to use the power of their numbers to kill their rulers and seize their wealth. The answer to 'Who benefits from my religious beliefs?', if you’re Christian, is something along the lines of 'All existing Christian churches, all existing political structures built around exploiting Christian beliefs for political leverage, every preacher, pope and bishop who’s ever lived, and every western ruler since Emperor Constantine'."
Caitlin Johnstone
"No family, no matter their race, income, or zip code, should have to face the violence of government gun bans. Although the irony of government assault rifles facing down children in search of assault rifles speaks for itself, it would be just as immoral if the agents were armed with pistols. Owning an AR-15 in the house does not victimize anyone. Enforcing laws against an AR-15 owning family does."
David Gornoski
"The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other – instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals."
Edward Abbey
