Outlaw Moles: Now more important than ever

If you’re hidden and submerged stay that way. Look at it this way: if the people who hid Jews in their attics had come out early to defend them, they too would be in the camps and unable to help. We’re already past the point where “a brave stand” will help. The left knows they’re losing. They can’t understand why, but they know they’re losing, and they’re angry and murderous because of it. And they won’t let go, until it all explodes in their faces. So if you are hidden, stay thus, and get ready to hide people in your metaphorical attic. Because those like me who are exposed, if they have a good bit of luck, just might manage to make it there.

The quote is from a recent blog by Sarah Hoyt.

Her posts are long, thoughtful, readable, and did I mention long? But every one of them I’ve ever read has been more than worthwhile. The above was almost a throwaway near the end of a writing about the perilous future we face, just one item in her recommendations on evaluating and preparing for danger.

But in that one simple paragraph she makes a very important point — and reminds me I haven’t addressed you Freedom Outlaw Moles in a while. I’m overdue. And Sarah’s right in perhaps more ways than she realizes. We noisier or more risk-taking Freedom Outlaws need our Mole friends more than ever — and the world needs you, too.

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First, an itty-bitty review of what a Freedom Outlaw is:

A Freedom Outlaw is (loosely) somebody who cares so much about freedom that he or she will go after it regardless of any laws or regulations blocking the way. Will go after it personally. Not petition for it. Not write letters for it. Not vote for it. But GO for it.

Also, a Freedom Outlaw has panache. Think Robin Hood. Think V. …

Freedom Outlaw. It’s not what you do; it’s how you do it. It’s an attitude — from which actions always follow. It’s a do-it-yourself occupation. And a lifetime vocation.

And on Freedom Outlaw Moles, specifically:

The Mole lives an exemplary life, obeying all possible laws, filing taxes, crossing the street only in crosswalks, holding a respectable job (maybe even a government job) … but on the side and in silence gives help to freedom causes and freedomistas. Or saves herself up for the day when a single act of sabotage or whistleblowing can bring down an enemy of liberty.

More on all the Freedom Outlaw types and characteristics here.

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Of all Freedom Outlaws (Mole, Ghost, Agitator, and the late-addition Cockapoo) Moles have the toughest job.

Ghosts have to struggle ever more valiantly to maintain their obsessive Deep Privacy in a world of omni-surveillance. Agitators risk cancellation, loss of livelihood and reputation, or even arrest. Cockapoos? Well, that’s an interesting story about which I may write another post. But Ghosts and Agitators are both doing what comes naturally. Their freedomista efforts express their most heartfelt convictions. When they face difficulties and risks it’s in the cause of doing what they most heartily believe in.

The Freedom Mole, on the other hand, lives a fractured life. In many ways it’s the classic life of a secret agent — and I’m not talking James Bond. No hordes of sexy partners, well-shaken martinis, Aston-Martins, or fancy gadgets for most hidden agents, including agents of freedom. It’s just the ever-stressful balancing act of living one way while believing another — of having to bite your tongue rather than expressing what you really think — of feeling like a hypocrite merely for going to work every day — of long periods of doing nothing useful while awaiting an opportunity for your deep burrowing within the system to pay off — of supporting people and causes you care about only in the most covert or second-hand ways.

If Freedom Outlaws are defined by what they DO, the Mole is often stuck in the limbo of either doing nothing or needing every day to do things he inwardly opposes.

But, Dear Moles, you time to shine is coming.

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What are some things Freedom Moles can do?

• Channel information to Freedom Outlaw Agitators from inside NGOs, corporations, government agencies, the “justice” system, or other establishment operations.
• Give financial support to individual Freedom Outlaw Ghosts and Agitators; to freedomista writers on Substack or blogs; or to organizations like FIRE, the Mises Institute, the Institute for Justice, FEE, or other (often tax-deductable!) groups that work for freedom. This option may not be open to those Freedom Outlaw Moles who are in positions requiring the deepest, deepest cover (say, those who have high-level security clearances and have to pretend to be as pure as Caesar’s wife). But it’s a great way for Moles in more common positions both to support causes they care about and reassure themselves that they really are doing something useful even when their day-to-day lives seem mired in excessive conformity.
• Increase preparedness efforts with emphasis on someday feeding and supplying Outlaw fugitives (who may be anything from literal freedom warriors to activists who’ve been driven underground by tyrannical laws or enforcement policies).
• Quietly offer their ordinary work expertise (whether it be coding, public relations, photography, financial advice, mechanic skills, or any one of a myriad other needed abilities) to help either individual freedomistas or freedom-based organizations.
• In a non-firebrand way, politely nudge friends and relatives toward the concepts of liberty. Catch doubt, confusion, or nascent cynicism in another person’s mind and make gentle but potent suggestions toward new ways of thinking. (Never, ever hammer anybody over the head with freedom ideas or with criticism of their own stupidity or ignorance if you want to win them over to freedom; this won’t work and it could blow your cover.)
• Blow whistles loud and clear when whistles badly need blowing. Do a Snowden. Or a Manning (but with more caution than Manning acted). Or very quietly slip something important to one of the few remaining trustworthy journalists.
• Raise great children. Take them out of government education camps. Teach them self-reliance skills. And history. And philosophy. And curiosity. And thrift.
• Be mentors to the potentially great children of others.
• Monkeywrench the systems they are part of. While opportunities for freelance monkeywrenching have shrunk since the UNPatriot Act and the growth of omni-surveillance, there are still plentiful opportunities within the workplace (especially government workplaces where employees rarely ever get fired). Commit acts of misspelling or bad data entry. Accidentally delete information. Use statistics in a misleading way. Accidentally copy emails to the wrong people. Break machinery (the original definition of monkeywrenching). Write clunky code. (For years I used to say the IRS’s barely functional, hugely expensive, half-worthless computer systems were designed by happy libertarians — and who knows, it might even have been true.) Make bureaucracy and tyranny NOT WORK.
• “Hide Jews in the attic.” And when this time comes there’s no telling who these might be. The only certainty is that when the day for this is upon us, innocents will be at grave risk and no matter how inactive they may have previously been, true Moles will step up.

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One thing a Mole does NOT do is pat herself on the back, then fail to act when push comes to shove. If you sit on your arse for years thinking, “Oh, lookit me. I’m such a cool Outlaw Mole,” but you never actually do anything at all using your Mole tunnel to preserve, restore, or build freedom, then you really are a hypocrite. And chickensh*t besides.

Unfortunately many true Moles have to live with self doubt around that very issue — particularly if they’re the kind of Moles who by dint of their placement must stay “pure” while they watch and wait for one grand opportunity to act. For instance, what was going through Edward Snowden’s mind during the part of his career before he decided to act for freedom and against his Deep State bosses? He may have had some long times of wondering what the heck he was doing in his job and whether he himself was part of the problem.

But he did act — and acted both bravely and intelligently — when the time was right.

Moles have the hard job of being relatively low key and often seemingly idle. If Sarah Hoyt is correct (and IMHO in some aspects she may even be too optimistic), then Moles will eventually have one of the hardest jobs of all — risking everything that is “normal” and secure and familiar to save lives and save freedom.