I’m pausing the “Our job” series to talk about what’s going on now, which is so bad it might become good.
—–
When you thought about your line in the sand I’ll bet you never thought about this.
I bet you thought about gun confiscation or internment camps or invasion by blue-helmeted “peacekeepers.” Maybe you believed your line in the sand would be reached if your religion was outlawed or your son or daughter was drafted to fight in one of the empire’s future foreign wars. Your personal line in the sand could be any one, or two, or three of a million acts of government overreach.
But who thought of this?
I’ve asked around and nobody I’ve spoken with has said, “I thought I’d reach my line in the sand when the government ordered millions to submit to an inoculation — or else lose their jobs and potentially starve.”
That it’s an ineffective treatment unworthy of the appellation “vaccine,” and the most dangerous pseudo-vaccine ever produced only make the current moment more surreal. That the orders disregard all issues of freedom, conscience, epidemiology, law, common sense, and science … yeah, that’s surreal, too. All that contributes to the line-in-sand. But the deep, universal issue, so defiantly expressed by protestors is “my body, my choice.”
Even you freedomista readers who chose to be vaxxed know that. Informed choice? Fine. Force and threat? No.
We the People have put up with a lot from the federal government. At times it’s looked as if we’d put up with anything, forever.
But when it comes to telling us, “Submit to having an experimental chemical injected into your body or lose your job …” well, I think TPTB would be shocked, if they were paying attention, at how many millions answer with a big, “Let’s go, Brandon.” Or its less polite original.
—–
The layoffs/suspensions still go on, even as a few companies and agencies give up trying to enforce self-destruction, even as the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals steps in with a no-nonsense judgment. And the defiance goes on, too.
Millions are willing to give up their livelihoods. Willing to put their futures and their families at risk. They have reached their lines in the sand.
Who are these people?
As the final scene from V for Vendetta implies, they are all of us.
Yet, most of them are not US — that is, not we the fringe-oids, not we the habitual outsiders, not we the radicals, not we the wingnuts, not we the freedomistas who’ve been observing with dread, waving our arms and shouting our Cassandra warnings, and literally expecting to reach our line in the sand.
Oh, no doubt some resisters are as determinedly libertarian as thee and me. But not all the millions now risking everything to defy a totalitarian mandate are “us.” If they were “us” in the sense of being diehard freedomistas, we’d have had a lot more freedom, a long time ago.
By ourselves, we’ve rarely ever been more than a curiosity, an annoyance, or one aspect of the vast, mostly imaginary “domestic terrorist” bogeyman.
Millions are just ordinary people who’ve had enough. Who will go no farther. And who are willing to risk all.
And that’s big.
It’s hard to say how big. But big.
Add to these newly bold resisters the newly awakened parents who are fighting school boards and pulling their children out of government schools and … we have a movement.
For the first time in most of our lives, we are not alone in resisting tyranny.
—–
This state we’re in is obviously horrible. We are governed by madmen — or if you’d prefer, by religious zealots (their religion being government power) who can’t see beyond their dogma. Or we’re ruled by ancien regime aristos who speak only to other aristos and confidently believe the peasants can always be ordered. (Sarah Hoyt has some encouraging things to say about our disorderliness.)
Whatever. It’s dire.
A stupid, venal, corrupt, and now senile president lectures us as if he were supervising five-year-olds. An energy secretary shrugs, laughs, and says she can’t do anything about energy. A transportation secretary takes endless leave during the biggest supply line crisis ever, returning briefly to give another helpless shrug and say we’ll just have to live with things as they are. A nutty fan of the old Soviet Union is nominated to regulate banks. People with no clinical experience or credibility claim authority over our health. A woman who qualifies for office solely by virtue of her sex and combo of races brays, giggles, over-acts, and expounds on global issues with all the wisdom of a contestant in a minor beauty pageant. Various apparatchiks tell us first that inflation is temporary, then that it’s good for us, then that it’s our fault because we buy too much, and always that it’s not really a big deal because of course all the right people can afford to pay more for food and fuel. The peasants (and their children) wear masks and serve the elite, who party on … and on … and on.
But the real masks — the blinders people have been wearing over their eyes all these years — are being stripped away.
We see …
We’re being ordered about by totalitarians.
And the totalitarians are bloody eejits.
—–
What will happen in the longer run?
Beats me.
If the Nazgul allow the ruling of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to stand and both THE mandate and many smaller mandates disappear, we may watch most of those marvelously defiant workers plod back to their jobs.
If the currently roused parents win a few school board victories and a few more states crack down on nutty teachings and nutty policies, those folks too may relax and return to relative docility.
If a few loons are thrown out of Congress in the next federal elections and the loon puppet-in-chief leaves office eventually, along with his looney-toon subordinates, to be replaced by someone blessedly sane, we may experience a national sigh of relief. Ah, blessed normalcy again!
Any real awakening by We the People will die.
But. But …
Maybe it won’t happen that way. Or maybe it will mostly happen that way. Except that a few of the millions of the unwanted unvaxxed won’t go back to work, a few million of the aroused parents will either keep on agitating or feed burgeoning movements of homeschooling, unschooling, or (at least) intelligent local control of education.
Those who were not previously freedomista “us,” become US.
Or perhaps, as seem likely, the current mad, incompetent, uncaring denizens of high office and corporate control will break the country, break the world, break what’s left of the fiat money systems, break all the old institutions even more than they’re already broken. But instead of their much-desired Great Reset or Build Back Better, they will get … US.
We the People in all our ungovernable glory.
Lord, I hope you are right, Claire, that more will come of this than a brief blip. I fear that we have lived too long in a culture of comfort, where being comfortable is the highest good. That too many people are like Ents, who don’t like being roused, but are they really Entish enough to storm Isengard or will they be content to just drive off the Orcs who are cutting down their trees and then go back to sleep?
I keep hoping, too, but I am not holding my breath. I still think there are far too many who cannot (or refuse to) see beyond the bread and circuses.
Maybe I’m cynical, but I don’t think any revolution will be done in a manner that will be convenient for me. It’ll drag-out, and deplete my resources, and generally just really really suck.
But, on the optimistic side, it’s nice to see the first few bubbles at the bottom of the pot, and the steam is actually visible now. Will the shriek of a rolling boil occur? Dunno, but you can’t get to the shriek without first seeing the bubbles.
Jolly
[…] https://www.clairewolfe.com/blog/2021/11/15/we-are-suddenly-not-alone/ […]
At some point the dumb masses will be pacified with a new freebie and the Libertarians will be scratching their heads wondering why the revolution never happened.
This is the central flaw to Libertarianism. It assumes everyone can or will understand the principles of freedom and embrace them. They won’t. Most are too stupid, unaware, easily pacified or self absorbed to care.
Start to understand.
A majority of the worlds population wants nothing to do with “Freedom”. All they want is their free shit, and they will willingly kill anyone who gets in the way of them getting it. The global average IQ has dropped by around 4% since 1950 to an average of less than 88. More than 85% of the worlds population live in abject poverty, living on less than $30 a day and over 65% live on less than $10 a day. And they all want what we have.
We’re experiencing the end game.
The global multicultural experiment has failed, yet the Western World has so far been completely unwilling to address the issue. There might be pockets of resistance that spring up but they will be destroyed from within by coddled do-gooders fighting for “everyone’s rights”. The third world swarms have been invading our countries for decades yet our “leaders” encourage more, and we do nothing. Even if there was a massive die-off from the NotVax, most would probably blame it on some other anomaly such as the UnVaxxed.
What do we do?
Even out here in the reddest of red states it’s difficult to find people who have the courage to see what’s going on and talk about it. You cannot reason with the Vaxxed; their normalcy bias is unbreakable and their situational awareness non existent. They think life will just go on. That the pendulum will swing back. When you ask them “what if the pendulum’s broken?”, they look at you and smirk. They won’t wake up, even when the house burns down around them. At this point the only way out is through. Muzzle first.
The reference to the V For Vendetta movie was stirring. But, like most such films, it is a very well-crafted example of wishful thinking. It was originally directed, through thinly-veiled suggestions, against those of us who profess our Christian faith. Ironically, those who were involved with that and other similar films are part of the “woke” generation of actors and (((Hollywood))) useful idiots who are beating the drums for Pedo Joe.
I would have to agree with Simon Templar’s post above. There are still way too many stupid, venal, syphilitic-thinking Sheeple all over this corrupt country. I saw this for years as a Peace Officer in SoCal. It has not changed, but only become worse and more pervasive. Now maybe there will be more blowback when the kids who have received the jab start dropping like flies. I will not hold my breath. Here in the Gem State, the corrupt, craven political hacks are assembling today in Boise to respond to the FEDGOV injection mandate. I expect most of them to roll over and wet on themselves. Stay tuned. Bleib ubrig.
Hi Claire,
My working theory for why the PTBs keep pushing this illogically is that they have FINALLY found one thing they can use as a separator for what they consider undesirables. People that think for themselves, use science instead of dogma to make decisions, refuse to comply blindly, are all going to refuse this “vaccine” for various reasons. They can other all those people in one fell swoop without bothering to sort through them one at a time and we are all in the way of their power grab. Of course they are going to seize upon the opportunity to try to rid themselves of us by whatever means they can.
GIJeff
I’m not necessarily thinking of revolution. Merely of being ungovernable and more independent.
Whether that leads to revolution (peaceful or otherwise), I have no idea. More likely it’ll lead to something like Sarah Hoyt described in her article that I linked (“When the Wheels Come Off”). Or something like the end days of the Soviet Union.
The federal government is so insane and inept now I doubt there will really be much left to fight against, eventually. The more ready we are to go our own way when that day comes, the better, and what we’re seeing now is the beginning of the middle and working classes walking away.
On one hand, vaccine mandates do make a good line in the sand on “my body, my choice” grounds.
On the other hand, the effectiveness of that line is somewhat self-sabotaged by:
1) Libertarians who don’t understand VAERS letting themselves be talked into believing that VAERS data proves anything with respect to the vaccines’ safety; and
2) Libertarians who were all for freedom of association two years ago, but who now regard private businesses choosing not to associate with un-vaccinated people as employees or customers as a violation of rights.
Bravo Claire! I am more optimistic, in some ways, although all of my time and resources are going into building a self-sufficient farm. Maybe that’s why I’m optimistic… because I made some choices after seeing the “handwriting on the wall”. I don’t know how far I’ll get with my endeavors, but it’s fulfilling just trying to get as far as I can. I’m not huddling in the dark in fear, is, I guess, what I’m thinking/saying. Some of the things that came out of the COP26, where the elites discussed their views on how People are an existential threat to Planet Earth, were so absurd as to be horrifyingly humorous. I’m not sure if it was Musk or Bezos who wants to ship people to another planet to mine minerals to send back to the people who survive on the Earth – or some such nonsense as to be almost incomprehensible. Trillionaires sitting around discussing what to do with US who made them rich in the first place. Hmmmm.
Marie Antoinette came to mind. And they all sound mentally ill. Too much time in your own bubble causes oxygen deprivation to the brain resulting in dementia. Money really doesn’t bring happiness.
I too am seeing people stand up for Freedom, more than normal, because they perceive their children are at risk. I’ve felt my children were at risk for over 40 years!! But, it’s interesting that suddenly a vax mandate for small children woke some people up. I had been wondering to myself WHAT WILL WAKE PEOPLE UP!!? I guess it’s a series of things. The “New World Order” Agenda has been pushed at a very rapid speed, using the Big C (not Cancer) as the vehicle. The speed is what is causing people to wake up and stand up. People in general don’t like to be pushed around, regardless of politics. Start pushing around people, billions of people, at the same time, around the globe… and well, expect global push back. I think the globalists are going to fail. I don’t know how or when. In my view, either God is going to intervene or it’s going to be a combination of US/God and just about everyone else who join together to topple the Elites.
Case in point: I have a family member who is rather self-absorbed, firmly uses victimization as a life calling, not particularly bright but no matter. When that family member can’t get groceries, can’t fill the gas tank, can’t turn on the electricity, can’t travel wherever and whenever, eat out, etc etc etc… then maybe that person will question what’s going on. But when that person questions, it’s going to be about blaming US. That person may die a bitter person, rather than an empowered person. Just sayin. We’re all going to die, and I’d rather die fighting for Freedom than curled up in a ball whining about not getting what I want.
The house is burning down and we’re all sitting around worrying about the petunias in the front yard getting burnt.
The lack of focus on the right is astounding.
The point of the post – as summarized in the title – is that we are not alone. Suddenly we find ourselves as part of a very, very large group. Certainly millions, probably tens of millions, and perhaps well over 100 million in the US alone. There are tens of millions more around the planet.
These new allies are not libertarians – of capital-L or small-L persuasion. They aren’t debating fine points of libertarian theory. That will only bore and distract the majority of these new allies.
The government, in its magnificent ineptitude and authoritarian squeezing has stumbled upon an issue that unites us in a way that libertarians have abjectly failed to do despite decades of effort. This is an issue that people of all political and cultural persuasions can understand, believe is important, and find the courage to resist in the face of dire and quite real threats and consequences.
For a brief and shining moment it appears as if we are finally ready to address whether bodily autonomy, self ownership, “my body my choice” has any real meaning. People of all races and political stripes are seeing the government as being too forceful, too violent, too dismissive of dissent and medical privacy. There is an organic groundswell for “enough.”
Lectures about libertarian theory will not help. The millions we find suddenly standing beside us don’t have to adapt to our beliefs. That misses the point. Any chance for real change will grow from a consensus that this problem is so bad, so unacceptable, that people are prepared to put aside their differences for the sake of uniting on an issue of extraordinary importance.
“These new allies are not libertarians – of capital-L or small-L persuasion. They aren’t debating fine points of libertarian theory. That will only bore and distract the majority of these new allies.”
Private property and freedom of association aren’t “fine points of libertarian theory.” And in the absence of a broader front than “don’t want the shot,” there are no “allies” to be had here.
Those who oppose private property and freedom of association are no more “allies” as such than those who want pot legalized but all the guns confiscated, marriage apartheid ended but confiscatory taxation of “the rich,” et al. Which is to say, of course they should be supported where they’re right, but a temporary agreement on one facet of a single issue does not an “alliance” make.
Not many people start out philosophically pure. Not many become pure by listening to lectures on libertarian principles.
Much more common for people first to be smacked upside the head by experience. THEN some learn libertarian theory and some never do. Or some become allies on more than one issue and some never do.
Personally, I’ll take what I can get. I’d rather have courageous people on my side who know their line in the sand when they experience it and ACT accordingly than to have the greatest ivory-tower philosopher of all time looking down on us and decreeing us not fit.
—–
And yes, Silver is right: the point of my post was to say we aren’t alone in our anger and our active resistance to government overreach. How many of the other resisters are “pure” is aside from my point.
Claire,
I don’t see that we’re in much disagreement, other than over the utility of pseudo-scientific attempts to turn VAERS data into evidence of large-scale vaccine injury and death. Trying to cultivate mass hysteria is more likely to backfire on us in the same way that mask cultism, etc. has been backfiring on our opponents than to prove truly useful.
As for government overreach, that needs to be opposed hip (vaccine mandates) and thigh (equally authoritarian attempts to impose non-freedom of association on private businesses which choose to require vaccination as a condition of employment, etc.. Garden variety labor market considerations will settle that latter hash one way or another in any case.
Gavin DeSantis is no more our friend than is Ron Newsom.
TPTB knows without question that if “we the people” can be kept divided “we the people” will be a weak people, but they have found a way to bring many of us together and that is our silver lining.
Not to say there are not going to be weak people, there always will be, but I do believe courage is contagious, a contagion that has little to do with gender, education, race, position, etc. A contagion that can make people strong.
And because of the tyranny of TPTB and their minions in the media, education, government, private business, just name the institution, etc, people with courage are being forced to make a stand, many of which were people who preferred to just mind their own business and live and let live, were just living their lives.
This contagion of courage is spreading like any virus and the curve will not be leveled until enough have had this contagion whereas it will then make a big difference.
TPTB failures are piling up so high that everyone who wants to see can see them now and the stink of it all is becoming to reek so bad that those with this new contagion of courage are gonna be throwing this garbage out!
How and when are the only questions that I have.
Blah blah blah never won a war.
Claire, anything that gets people to question and think for themselves – if only for a moment – is a good thing. It is possible that many go back to how they were before, but I wonder if it is not a lot like travel: once you have been somewhere else, you never look at home the same way.
Probably the most important thing to be done now is to continue to start and encourage conversations. Yes, conversations and resulting ideas are not the most glamorous things (and surely do not make for great movies), but this leads to alliances, and alliances lead to uniting, and uniting can lead to other things.
Or perhaps put a bit more bluntly: literally millions of people are actually questioning the government and system, and people question because it does not match their preconceptions of how these things are supposed to work?
“literally millions of people are actually questioning the government and system”
Really? Our kids are getting vaxxed and nothing is happening. What the fuck are you smoking?
Where I live people are standing up. There was this morning at a local school where children were being vaccinated without their parent’s knowledge a rally to make parents aware of what was taking place. There will be, let us say, an intense meeting at a county council meeting for the funding of this coming up soon.
Nurses, firemen, cops, teachers, etc. have been putting their jobs on the line.
They are democrats and republicans, Christians and atheists, union and nonunion, left and right.
They are also going to their school boards, county councils, city council meetings. Standing up for what is right.
One thing TPTB have been good at is keeping us divided however now with the mandates, CRT type programs being rammed down people throats many are not swallowing it any more. Questions are being asked.
There are those of us who will work with others who seek the same freedom we do.
There are those who are defeatist and will strive to keep us divided.
We all get to decide which side we will be on.
I know which side I am with.
Having been a candidate on the state Libertarian (capital “L”) Party slate, I have some sympathy and alignment with some libertarian (lower case “l”) principles, but I am not willing personally or societally to compromise on the Ten Commandments. The Libertarians can’t even agree on whether or not abortion violates the “non-aggression” principle (it does).
It gets even more difficult when a dogmatic libertarian (not mentioning names) insists that “private” business have a “right” to force (aggression) a choice upon a man—eat/work or jab/die. I’d argue he has no more “right” to jab or starve that man than he has a “right” to usury (classical definition, not the subjective definition) or a “right” to a market “free” of any moral restraints or fraternal obligations. Libertarians, especially (((Austrians))), claim they have a “science,” but that is as delusional as “Big Bang” cosmologists who pretend to account for scientific observations by invoking ever-larger and imaginary fudge factors. Libertarians have a religion, not science.
Though out-of-contact for too long, we have been friends for decades, Claire, and I am glad to hear we can remain friends because we do agree on some/most issues. As you say, the more of “us” the better. If I can get in the foxhole with Mr. Not-Mentioning-Names, while we are in the foxhole, he can bloody well stop belly-aching about his “right” to force life or death choices on employees and I won’t belly-ache about usury and abortion.
We do indeed seem at a tipping point. Let’s tip things in a decent direction. Best to you, my friend.
Regarding vaxxing children without parental knowledge… a family member sent a copy of a memo from their school district stating that IMPLICIT CONSENT was assumed if the child attended school on “vax day”. Since when did we move to implicit consent? If I was the parent, I would have already removed my children from the public schools. None of my grandchildren are in public education. A lot of parents from all walks of life are figuring out how to keep their children out of public education, OR they are taking the school systems, locally, back. This is a great swing in the right direction.
Ned Crabb — I’ve put you into moderation status.
If you have anything constructive to say, I’ll approve your comments. If all you do is stand on the sidelines, cheerleading for open warfare and claiming that others are doing “nothing” (even as they’re rising up by the millions), your idle, destructive words will not go through.
About eighteen months ago – as the upcoming lunacy got pretty clear – there was a post, by whom and where I’ve completely forgotten. But the gist of it was – the antidote to incrementalism is clear lines. Not to decide that today’s actions were the one, but to really think about where we say ‘enough is enough’ and to say it concretely in advance, then remember it when the time came.
So I did. I looked through those sadly prescient posts, describing the descent from ‘it’s just the flu’ to ‘it’s just another booster’ and decided that a national dictate was my bridge too far. I’m no principled freedomista – though I’m supportive and have twitches in that direction – but back when these were just groundless, paranoid conspiracy theories, it was clear that it’d get worse and I needed to make my stand somewhere.
I’ll do my share of kicking myself for letting things go so long, and not having alternate incomes/ remote living arrangements already made. The best time to start was yesterday, but the next best time is today; here’s to hoping I can find a small Wyoming community where my skills and talents are needed and we can better weather the coming storms.
I used to respect their authority. I used to appreciate rules. But they have assumed powers they should not have, were forbidden to have, and shown their disdain for me and mine. I will not comply.
…..The best time to start was yesterday, but the next best time is today;……I used to respect their authority. I used to appreciate rules. But they have assumed powers they should not have, were forbidden to have, and shown their disdain for me and mine. I will not comply.
+1
As far as temporary pacification sending things back to the way they were,… I don’t think that is possible even if TPTB wanted to do it. I think the wu-flu thing was planned for a later implementation, but the markets started to collapse in September of 2019, provoking an early launch to give cover for the financial system breakown. Since then, fully 25% of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet has been created in the last 20 months. That is no small thing to overcome. In addition, TPTB continue to push new ideas that are destructive of the remaining economy. They are not trying to cover or pacify anything or anyone. The basic structure has been failing since the depression, but it is now a creature out of control.
Things will not go back to anything similar to what they were. How that plays out for all of us probably depends more on the local cultures we have surrounded ourselves with, than anything else.
I expect nothing and everything… Pandora is loose and things will change…
Peace to all,
Jeff2
“It gets even more difficult when a dogmatic libertarian (not mentioning names) insists that ‘private’ business have a “right” to force (aggression) a choice upon a man—eat/work or jab/die.”
There’s no “force” involved.
Do I have a “right” to a 9-5, Monday-Friday job if I am only willing to agree to come in from 10-2 and only on Monday and Tuesday?
Do I have a “right” to a job if the employer’s dress code calls for slacks and a polo shirt if I insist on wearing cut-offs and an “I Farted” t-shirt instead?
The answer to both question is “no.”
As is the answer to the question “do I have a ‘right’ to a job from an employer who is only willing to hire vaccinated workers if I decline vaccination?”
All I have a “right” to is to seek employment from (or offer employment to) people who are willing to work for/with me under conditions we agree on.
“All I have a “right” to is to seek employment from (or offer employment to) people who are willing to work for/with me under conditions we agree on.”
+1 Voluntary agreement!
Right. Abstractions about rights and philosophical purity. And how things ought to be when libertarian free association rules the world.
And we are having this straw-man discussion when the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has ordered vaccination-or-else. And when many large corporations rushed to implement the GOVERNMENT RULE up to a month before any such rule was ultimately written. And long before the obviously unconstitutional, outrageous FEDERAL DIKTAT was tested in court.
Private? Is this how you define the actions of “private” business?
AND if we’re going to drop the subject of resistance to an obviously outrageous, totalitarian, GOVERNMENT EDICT and instead focus on straw men, how about we address the question of what business these days is actually “private”? Google? It’s been a deep state operation nearly from its beginning. Facebook? It’s actively censoring users under government direction. How about “private” businesses that mostly live or die on government contracts? Palantir? a CIA creation. Airlines, banks, Wall Street? How “private” are most large corporations today? How private are any of the “too big to fail” businesses, or the businesses that get newly-created Fed funny money at extremely low rates so that they can, for instance, buy housing in bulk, shutting individuals out of markets? How about industries like Big Ag and Big Pharma that basically control huge swaths of the federal government?
Of course private business and private individuals have (or should have) rights of free association, including hiring, firing, and more.
But if we’re going to talk libertarian principles, please show me which of the businesses busily claiming federal authority for massive layoffs/firings/suspensions is actually “private” in any genuine free-market sense.
BUT … that was a rhetorical question. Because I WROTE A POST CELEBRATING THE FIRST WIDESPREAD RESISTANCE TO GOVERNMENT OVERREACH IN DECADES — the most promising resistance because it is that of individuals taking steps to free themselves (not merely protesting and asking government to change itself). And I don’t want this discussion turned into the standard philosophical blather about how these people — these bold, active rebels — aren’t good enough, aren’t principled enough, aren’t snooty enough to meet the purest standards of a libertarian/Libertarian movement that has proved itself entirely useless in building real freedom in this world.
I’m grateful to everyone who has made cogent comments about the sudden real-world progress of individual freedom and what it portends. No matter how pessimistic or negative those comments might have been.
But if all you want to do is talk-talk-talk-talk-talk theory, please do it elsewhere. If you can’t celebrate, or at least acknowledge the sea-change going on right now among ordinary middle- and working-class people, then you are part of the problem, and will never be part of the solution.
“And we are having this straw-man discussion when the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has ordered vaccination-or-else.”
In Florida, DeSantis started trying to order private businesses to associate with people they didn’t want to associate with — as employees or customers — long before the federal government issued any vaccine mandates.
“And when many large corporations rushed to implement the GOVERNMENT RULE up to a month before any such rule was ultimately written.”
You might want to re-write that. Or at least re-read it. If there was no such rule, the corporations were, by definition, not implementing any such rule.
” And I don’t want this discussion turned into the standard philosophical blather about how these people — these bold, active rebels — aren’t good enough, aren’t principled enough, aren’t snooty enough to meet the purest standards of a libertarian/Libertarian movement that has proved itself entirely useless in building real freedom in this world.”
Neither do I.
I merely suggest that we should support rebellion against government mandates rather than supporting rebellion against property rights and freedom of association.
The key is people are standing against fascism whether it be in a public or a private form.
I applaud all that are and all that will.
We are getting stronger, join us and I do honestly believe those that are standing for liberty will be victorious in the end.
Again the only questions remaining are how and when.
“You might want to re-write that. Or at least re-read it. If there was no such rule, the corporations were, by definition, not implementing any such rule.”
Great job of missing my point, Tom. They were so eager to PRETEND to have government authority for their actions that they claimed, in effect, that Biden’s speech itself created the rule.
This is what “private” businesses do?
“I merely suggest that we should support rebellion against government mandates rather than supporting rebellion against property rights and freedom of association.”
No you don’t “merely suggest” that. YOU seem to have concluded that there’s some mass rebellion against property rights and freedom of association going on. I, OTOH, wrote about a rebellion against government overreach. YOU changed the subject.
And when I point out that damn few of the businesses involved are truly private, you evade that entire portion of my argument — and go on bowing to your own straw man.
I’m putting you on moderation status. If you have anything to contribute — even if it’s negative — on the actual subject of this blog post, I’ll approve your comments.
THANK YOU, Comrade X, and the many other voices of sanity, sense, and human decency prevailing in this thread.
Yes, the economic system we’re living with in the real world IS facism — or as Mussolini himself pointed out, what should really be called corporatism because it is the melding of state and corporations.
I doubt that any of us here oppose free association (including the right NOT to associate). But we live in a world where mega-corporations and governments work together, against us all.
(chuckle). I do so love fire in the belly! I agree that there is a movement afoot that is bigger than we’ve seen in my lifetime. The movement is against tyranny and it’s happening everywhere, even across the globe. It is encouraging. Since I decided that living my best life had nothing to do with the government, I’m much happier. The only “government thing” I do is file tax returns and try to pay as little as is legally possible in taxes, then choosing to give my money directly to people in true need.
“We do indeed seem at a tipping point. Let’s tip things in a decent direction. Best to you, my friend.”
Amen. We are indeed at a tipping point. Unfortunately there are those among us who would either tip it immediately into a shooting war or (perhaps even worse) tip it backwards to stasis by nitpicking every action.
“The Fascist State lays claim to rule in the economic field no less than in others; it makes its action felt throughout the length and breadth of the country by means of its corporate, social, and educational institutions, and all the political, economic, and spiritual forces of the nation, organized in their respective associations, circulate within the State.” Benito Mussolini
and we are living it!
Currently I am dealing with the DOD civilian mandate. As of today I have been told three different dates that I have to be fully vaccinated by, each new date kicks the can farther down the road. The newest is January 18, 2022.
The company I work for to date is ignoring any of the court orders and is falling completely in line with what ever the Administration puts out claiming they have no choice. They also deny any responsibility for any medical issued caused by forcing me to take the shot. To say I think they a bunch of weasels is an understatement.
Fortunately I am in the position to tell them no I am not going to take the shot. My plan is to keep working till till I am told I can’t anymore. I think that every week that goes by it’s going to be harder to push the mandate. However I also think that it going to be many months before it is completely sorted out and much wreak and ruin will ensue in the meantime.
Thomas Knapp,
Almost everyone facing “private” mandates HAD a job or WERE students BEFORE the mandates.
To pretend that unilateral “re-negotiation” of the agreement is anything other than FORCE is… (searching for a polite word)… rationalization.
Whether it is a “clump of cells” or “private” businesses or schools gorging at the tax trough, your libertarian pilpul is as flawed as it is morally bankrupt.
IMHO “the great wake-up” is happening because things are getting real.
For the last decade or so there were people who listened to Fox news, and whose YouTube algorithms fed them similar content, and there were people who watched CNN and whose Twitter algorithms fed them the party line. So nobody was talking to each other.
But when Susy comes home from school asking if she’s evil because she’s white, and Johnny comes home and says he can’t take accelerated classes because math isn’t part of “black culture,” and when grocery trips and gas fill-ups are costing more, and CNN is denying that there is inflation, and saying CRT is a myth, the model starts breaking down.
Silly politicians. They never learn that the pendulum always swings.
OTOH what I’m afraid of is that it’s starting out so far Left, it will go too far Right. A Republican blowout in 2022 could leave the country with leaders taking a “they did it to us, now it’s their turn” approach. Elections swing on independent voters, and I’m concerned the Elephant folk, instead of fixing the “too much government” problem, will go full-bore on their pet issues, and purge those who we are seeing waking up.
It will be interesting.
Miss Claire,
Thank you for your hard work in bringing light to darkness with your writing & reasoning.
I have always found the “comments” sections to be almost as important as the articles, on any thinking site, & yours is no exception. Kudos to you for your respectful moderation that does not seek to silence dissenting opinion, but rather to encourage it to be relevant to the matter(s) at hand.
We are walking in untrodden territory for US, as I have never seen this much Government overreach in my 61 yrs,
& recognizing & encouraging Freedom’s victories, no matter how small, & those who may be undergoing an “awakening”, are necessary, if we are to move forward & be successful.
Ignoring these victories would be foolish & detrimental to anything but stasis, or backwards movement, IMNSHO.
Will we win, & beat back this Tyranny? I do not know, but I will continue to live by my good friend ComradeX’s words to me one day, which I saved as a “quote”.
Regards,
ML
“I have never been on my knees, but I think once you get on them, it is real hard to get off them. So I am taking the easy route by standing.”
Comrade X 2021
Small tidbit – funny and slightly interesting. I’m not on Fakebook, but one of my family member’s is – Apparently the FB Bernie Sanders account is getting all kinds of flak from followers for supporting vax mandates. I consider Bernie followers to be extreme Left due to the socialist/communist leanings. I could be wrong. It warmed my heart and made me laugh to see that even his followers don’t like medical mandates.
On a light note, larryarnold’s last post reminded me of a quip a fellow made in a technical forum we both frequent. “The Biden administration has been good to me. My car used to hold only $30 worth of gas. Now it holds $60 worth!”
One a more serious note, my employer is, I think, exemplary of the bind many small business owners find themselves in, and one which shows the risks and bravery of those who are standing up to these diktats.
I work for a small medical practice, with a total of under 30 employees. Most are vaxxed by choice, as the medical field was targeted early before many of the risks came to light. A few employees are not vaxxed or do not divulge their vaccination status, including me. I have become a key employee over the years (ironically in part because I handle most of the odious government programs and issues imposed on medical practitioners for the practice–including our Covid-19 policy) and there is concern about what would happen if such a mandate was imposed under sanction of the courts. They could ill afford to lose me (Their works, in a discussion in my last, pre-diktat performance review) without plenty of transition time, yet they are on the hook for hundreds of thousands, if not more, dollars per year in Medicare payments if they are found in any kind of violation, even before the imposition of any kind of fines.
The senior doctor recognizes that such a diktat is not right, but struggles with his solidly entrenched penchant for doing what the government has told him to do in order to keep the business going. I am certain that his struggle is a deep one, as he was born in a communist country, his family escaped to the US when he was young, but he remembers from what they escaped.
The family that owns this business are all pretty solid conservatives politically, in a very solidly liberal community. This situation is making them realize just how unwelcome their political views are, and not just as a business. One of the family members has young kids and the school is becoming increasingly strident about getting all students vaxxed. While she has had the shot herself, she doesn’t want to have her kids get it. Yet the cost to them of note getting jabbed would very likely be great: no sports (a huge part of their life), no social life, ostracization at school (both kids and parents), and most likely a lot of parent/child discord as a result.
I don’t really have a point to this ramble, I guess, other than to say that for most people-employees and business owners alike-this is FAR more than just an academic political debate. It is costly in real life. Folks who take a stand that imposes risks or actual costs of this magnitude on them are indeed to be lauded, supported, and appreciated.
MP,
You have succinctly stated the other side of the coin we are flipping.
My wife, an Anesthesiologist, & other Dr. friends of ours who will never take this experimental biologic injection, are now submitting exemption letters that may, or may not be accepted by their employers.
But, you are not alone in this now, & history is replete with people who have stood against tyranny in the past.
Tyranny & domination will never be gone, & must always be stood up to, though many never will.
Fortunately, we have many today who are taking that stand, & they are standing on the shoulders of the men in our past, who pledged their Lives, Fortunes, & Sacred Honor.
Many of those 57 men were forced to pay one, two, or all three of those pledges. I was not taught that in school, but learned of it from the great Paul Harvey, in this short video.
Keep the faith, Patriots.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s7vqzJC0r7A
MP –
“for most people-employees and business owners alike-this is FAR more than just an academic political debate. It is costly in real life. Folks who take a stand that imposes risks or actual costs of this magnitude on them are indeed to be lauded, supported, and appreciated.”
Yep. I have been encouraging a young friend who did the courageous thing and quit her job yesterday over the mandate, without a new one lined up. She had today off, supposedly to go and get the vax. She came to my house to chat and pick up some treats I had baked for her, instead!
Claire –
“I WROTE A POST CELEBRATING THE FIRST WIDESPREAD RESISTANCE TO GOVERNMENT OVERREACH IN DECADES — the most promising resistance because it is that of individuals taking steps to free themselves (not merely protesting and asking government to change itself). And I don’t want this discussion turned into the standard philosophical blather about how these people — these bold, active rebels — aren’t good enough, aren’t principled enough, aren’t snooty enough to meet the purest standards of a libertarian/Libertarian movement that has proved itself entirely useless in building real freedom in this world.”
I have a family member who seems to think that our young friend is completely red-pilled, and shares every view he has, simply because she is standing up for her own personal medical freedom. I had to firmly correct that, and remind him that when someone says they don’t want to discuss an issue, well, NO means NO! She is still finding her way, but she is honestly seeking truth and freedom. She is definitely bold and active, even in the past having stood up for me and mine to TPTB, and she is definitely not philosophically snooty. I love her to death and I’m going to encourage all efforts toward personal freedom!
reminds me of the Arlo Guthrie song “Alice’s Restaurant” when it get to the part
“… just walk in say “Shrink, You can get
Anything you want, at Alice’s restaurant.”. And walk out. You know, if
One person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and
They won’t take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony,
They may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them.
And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in
Singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. They may think it’s an
Organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said
Fifty people a day walking in singing a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and
Walking out. And friends they may thinks it’s a movement”
I wish that I had as much faith in our fellow humans as you. Unfortunately history is not on our side. Revolutions are few and far between, and only remedy for a short time span. Eventually the sheep rebuild their idols, their Golden Calf, and then begin their lamentations anew.
Our local (award winning, and deserving those awards) medical center is also between the loss of Medicare funding rock, and the 73 percent vaccinated and can not afford to lose the other 27 percent hard place.
I don’t know who is running things in the White House, but they clearly don’t understand what’s happening outside their bubble.
President Biden is getting closer to fulfilling his campaign promise about uniting the country. He isn’t going to like the results.
“…but a temporary agreement on one facet of a single issue does not an “alliance” make.“ – nappy
It certainly can through the resolution of the shared goal. That is an astoundingly silly assertion.
Having kept up with the comments on this post, having had the opportunity to think about it for a while, and having re-read the original post, I will throw one more idea out there.
I think that having more people take a freedomista / libertarian view on certain things (particularly single, fairly narrow issues) should be looked at very closely. It seems to me that it could easily lead to the “entangling alliances” type of problem that we have been forewarned about, and which usually turn out badly, sooner or later. It also seems to me that it could lead to the “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” mode of thinking, which is very similar to the “entangling alliances” thing, and which also usually comes back to bite one on the butt, sooner or later.
Or, it could lead to a sea change of opinion on many broader issues and principles. But I think this possibility is much less likely.
So, while the prospect of some people taking what we would consider a good and proper viewpoint on certain things *may* be cause for optimism, I think it should be very cautious, very circumspect optimism.
This could be the breakthrough, Claire. But I doubt it. There are people gathered at Dealey Plaza awaiting the return of JFK, Jr so that he and President Trump can toss Biden out. Just when I think Americans can’t get any dumber, we do.
I don’t know how this could not be a wake up event, but I expect the herd to go charging right over that line in the sand, oblivious to its presence–and over the cliff. So many are reacting, so few are thinking.