[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Mail]  [Sign-in]  [Setup]  [Help]  [Register] 

Utopian Visionaries Who Won’t Leave People Alone

No - no - no Ain'T going To get away with iT

Pete Buttplug's Butt Plugger Trying to Turn Kids into Faggots

Mark Levin: I'm sick and tired of these attacks

Questioning the Big Bang

James Webb Data Contradicts the Big Bang

Pssst! Don't tell the creationists, but scientists don't have a clue how life began

A fine romance: how humans and chimps just couldn't let go

Early humans had sex with chimps

O’Keefe dons bulletproof vest to extract undercover journalist from NGO camp.

Biblical Contradictions (Alleged)

Catholic Church Praising Lucifer

Raising the Knife

One Of The HARDEST Videos I Had To Make..

Houthi rebels' attack severely damages a Belize-flagged ship in key strait leading to the Red Sea (British Ship)

Chinese Illegal Alien. I'm here for the moneuy

Red Tides Plague Gulf Beaches

Tucker Carlson calls out Nikki Haley, Ben Shapiro, and every other person calling for war:

{Are there 7 Deadly Sins?} I’ve heard people refer to the “7 Deadly Sins,” but I haven’t been able to find that sort of list in Scripture.

Abomination of Desolation | THEORY, BIBLE STUDY

Bible Help

Libertysflame Database Updated

Crush EVERYONE with the Alien Gambit!

Vladimir Putin tells Tucker Carlson US should stop arming Ukraine to end war

Putin hints Moscow and Washington in back-channel talks in revealing Tucker Carlson interview

Trump accuses Fulton County DA Fani Willis of lying in court response to Roman's motion

Mandatory anti-white racism at Disney.

Iceland Volcano Erupts For Third Time In 2 Months, State Of Emergency Declared

Tucker Carlson Interview with Vladamir Putin

How will Ar Mageddon / WW III End?

What on EARTH is going on in Acts 16:11? New Discovery!

2023 Hottest in over 120 Million Years

2024 and beyond in prophecy

Questions

This Speech Just Broke the Internet

This AMAZING Math Formula Will Teach You About God!

The GOSPEL of the ALIENS | Fallen Angels | Giants | Anunnaki

The IMAGE of the BEAST Revealed (REV 13) - WARNING: Not for Everyone

WEF Calls for AI to Replace Voters: ‘Why Do We Need Elections?’

The OCCULT Burger king EXPOSED

PANERA BREAD Antichrist message EXPOSED

The OCCULT Cheesecake Factory EXPOSED

Satanist And Witches Encounter The Cross

History and Beliefs of the Waldensians

Rome’s Persecution of the Bible

Evolutionists, You’ve Been Caught Lying About Fossils

Raw Streets of NYC Migrant Crisis that they don't show on Tv

Meet DarkBERT - AI Model Trained On DARK WEB

[NEW!] Jaw-dropping 666 Discovery Utterly Proves the King James Bible is God's Preserved Word

ALERT!!! THE MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION WILL SOON BE POSTED HERE


Status: Not Logged In; Sign In

United States News
See other United States News Articles

Title: Stop Treating Government With Respect
Source: Reason
URL Source: https://reason.com/2019/06/15/stop-treating-government-with-respect/
Published: Jun 16, 2019
Author: J.D. Tuccille
Post Date: 2019-06-16 09:26:57 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 1709
Comments: 6

It's become nothing but a weapon fought over by people who want to smash each other—and you.

topicslifestyle

(ioanmasay/iStock)

The government in the United States has increasingly become a powerful weapon that two warring tribes repeatedly seize control of and then use against each other. For those of us who are averse to being smashed, it's long past time to consider the machinery of the state as nothing more than a bludgeon in the hands of dangerous maniacs.

Dangerous? Indeed. It's hard to beat the insight into the malicious heart of government offered by Rep. Ted Lieu on CNN in December.

"I would love to be able to regulate the content of speech," the California Democrat told CNN's Brianna Keilar. "The First Amendment prevents me from doing so, and that's simply a function of the First Amendment."

Lieu obviously takes it for granted that many politicians would muzzle their enemies if it were permitted and that only meddlesome legal strictures prevent them from enacting their dark desires.

Those strictures no longer look so strict. New York state's blue-tribe government last year repeatedly abused regulatory power in assaults against independent institutions. First, it sought to intimidate financial firms and insurance companies into breaking ties with organizations that advocate self-defense rights. This emulated the Obama administration's earlier Operation Choke Point scheme by which "powerful bank regulatory agencies engaged in an effort of intimidation and threats to put legal industries they dislike out of business," according to John Berlau of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. New York officials followed up by threatening to declare "truant" any children attending private schools whose curricula didn't win state approval.

For his part, Donald Trump, red tribe jefe, demands unwavering personal loyalty. He promised to punish companies that defy his nationalistic economic schemes by moving production overseas. "They will be taxed like never before," he vowed last summer of Harley-Davidson. And the president, who once described freedom of the press as "frankly disgusting," doubled down on his predecessor's hostility to journalistic independence by threatening to retaliate against the critical Washington Post with antitrust action, higher postage rates, and taxes on Amazon, which shares Jeff Bezos as its owner.

Yes, politicians have misbehaved in the past. But pollsters continuously report that the dominant modern political factions hate each other to an unprecedented degree, and their chosen standard bearers are seeking to act on that loathing. It's enough to make you think government officials shouldn't be trusted with the powerful tools of the state—and to worry that the restraints intended to prevent misuse of those tools have broken down.

"We are at the end of the American project as the founders intended it," political scientist Charles Murray wrote in 2015's By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission (Crown Forum). That project, as he saw it, was an effort to "demonstrate that human beings can be left free as individuals, families, and communities to live their lives as they see fit as long as they accord the same freedom to everybody else." Given the U.S. government's intentional erosion of that ideal, however, Murray proposed mass civil disobedience against intrusive rules and overreaching officials.

"You have the right to defend yourself and others from state injustice, even when government agents act ex officio and follow the law," philosopher Jason Brennan wrote in the January 2019 issue of this magazine. "Innocent people have a right not to be subject to badly made, high-stakes political decisions," he adds in his 2018 book, When All Else Fails: The Ethics of Resistance to State Injustice (Princeton University Press). Brennan doesn't suggest that overt resistance is risk-free, but he argues that it's morally justified and often better than knuckling under.

Both Murray and Brennan see the government as frequently oppressive and out of control—but also as subject to correction, or at least a good knee-capping, if enough people are willing to gum up the works. "Government is the Wizard of Oz…impotent to impose its will in the face of widespread refusal to comply with its rules," argues Murray.

There's evidence that something as simple as shaming and social ostracism can effectively sap government agencies of energy, recruits, and resources.

Long-despised for its grabbiness and brutality, the IRS further alienated the public when it acted against Tea Party groups during the Obama years. Since then, it's lost funding, cut way back on intrusive audits into Americans' finances, and suffered deep demoralization. "Almost a third of its remaining employees will be eligible to retire in the next year, and with morale plummeting, many of them will," ProPublica reported in December. That's one-third fewer arm-twisters—at least for a while—to be called upon by Lieu and his colleagues, even as restrictions on their power erode.

Like the IRS, the FBI compounded the bad will it engendered with lethal misbehavior and the shenanigans of a habitually dishonest crime lab by allowing itself to be drawn into contentious political issues, such as investigations into the bad conduct, real and alleged, of the major 2016 presidential candidates. "Public support for the FBI has plunged," Time reported last year. And that skepticism appears to have affected juries, which are returning 11 percent fewer convictions in FBI-led cases than they did five years ago.

Employment applications to the FBI dropped from 21,000 per year to 13,000 per year, The Washington Post has reported, necessitating a marketing campaign to haul in reluctant recruits. State and local police agencies, also tainted by news reports of brutality and bias, have likewise seen sharp drops in applicants, resulting in fewer officers to enforce the government's will. "The number of full-time sworn officers per 1,000 U.S. residents has dropped from 2.42 in 1997 to 2.17…in 2016," the Post notes.

Come to think of it, that just might leave a little room in the hiring process for applicants who see Edward Snowden as a role model—or even as a starting point in the necessary process of sabotaging from within overpowerful and much-misused agencies.

Most of us will prefer quieter acts of disobedience—ignoring regulations and perhaps assisting others who get caught doing the same, as Murray recommends. We might also choose to respond to the excesses of government agents as we would those of any other thugs, without offering undeserved deference, as Brennan suggests. We could refuse private services to state employees, damage government property, dox officials, and even directly intervene in incidents of oppressive action.

There's no reason to show respect to a system that sees us as nothing more than enemies to be smashed.

(1 image)

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest

#1. To: Deckard (#0)

The government in the United States has increasingly become a powerful weapon that two warring tribes repeatedly seize control of and then use against each other. For those of us who are averse to being smashed, it's long past time to consider the machinery of the state as nothing more than a bludgeon in the hands of dangerous maniacs.

Baby killers and evil people need to be bludgeoned. Why do you care what happens to evil people?

A K A Stone  posted on  2019-06-16   10:44:55 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Deckard (#0)

And the president, who once described freedom of the press as "frankly disgusting,"

No, he did not. Trump said, "It's frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write, and people should look into it."

And he's 100% correct. Along with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Trump is critical of the 1964 case of New York Times v. Sullivan, calling for a new look at the rule that public figures cannot successfully sue for libel unless they can demonstrate that a statement was made with actual malice.

Unless we can force the press to be truthful, they'll continue to hide behind this ruling while spewing out their lies.

misterwhite  posted on  2019-06-16   11:06:11 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: misterwhite (#2)

Trump said, "It's frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write, and people should look into it."

And he's 100% correct. Along with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas...

Unless we can force the press to be truthful, they'll continue to hide behind this ruling while spewing out their lies.

+1,000,000,000,000

Trump is 1000% right.

THIS "Press" hides its constant lies behind the case you cited. "Malice" describes 95% of the MSM and Social Media Tech Giants' goal.

There are few actual "Journalists" out there any more. These days liberal arts majors living in Mommy's basement are writing headline stories for "Yahoo "News", Gxxgle "News", Vice, HuffPo, etc.

Meanwhile, the NY Times, WaPo, etc are all owned by the same Global masters. That means they are nothing but dangerous One World Gummint tools, corporate disinfo shills and propagandists.

Trump is right. They ARE dishonorable AND disgusting, having had carte blanche to lie and deceive with impunity. Such is the PTB agenda.

Liberator  posted on  2019-06-16   14:26:07 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Deckard (#0) (Edited)

The government in the United States has increasingly become a powerful weapon that two warring tribes repeatedly seize control of and then use against each other.

For those of us who are averse to being smashed, it's long past time to consider the machinery of the state as nothing more than a bludgeon in the hands of dangerous maniacs.

Potentially the headline made me anticipate some truth and promise... "I would love to be able to regulate the content of speech," the California Democrat told CNN's Brianna Keilar. "The First Amendment prevents me from doing so, and that's simply a function of the First Amendment."

I'm sure, Teddy. Uh-huh. I'll bet you wouldn't regulate JUST the speech of ONLY of "Truthers" of conservatives and Christians, eh? (OH WAIT -- the Free Speech of those demos are already "muzzled, censored, and targeted for "Hate Speech." Then again there is author J.D. Tuccille, who found NO problems (during the fascist-1A quashing 0bama-Hitlery Regime)of writing this article when it mattered. And REALLY?? Quoting Democrat Ted Lieu on Clown-show CNN? And how is it this article was written mentioning President Trump WITHOUT mentioning the ongoing Coup against him? As if the entire premise wasn't already TOTALLY discredited. "Reason.com" its author and premise was blatantly disingenuous and psyche-bait.

Half-Truths make the best propaganda.

Liberator  posted on  2019-06-16   14:42:41 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: Deckard (#0) (Edited)

I stopped decades ago - '91 to be precise.

Government consists mostly (other than those functions provided for in the Constitution, like law enforcement, the courts and military, which can only be done by government) of clockwatching parasites who could only get government jobs. Just observe the cow-eyed, spherical lumps perched on stools behind most government counters. If you weren't somehow forced to deal with them, would you hire any of them to even mow your lawn?

I have too much self-respect to offer them much respect these days.

Hank Rearden  posted on  2019-06-16   14:57:53 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: Hank Rearden, Deckard (#5)

Government consists mostly (other than those functions provided for in the Constitution, like law enforcement, the courts and military, which can only be done by government) of clockwatching parasites who could only get government jobs.

What a gig, eh?

Don't forget their talent for licensing us for daring to live and breath (as they seed the skies with toxic, sun-blocking Chemtrails)...and knowing where all the thousands of forms, pens, and citation stickers are.

Just observe the cow-eyed, spherical lumps perched on stools behind most government counters. If you weren't somehow forced to deal with them, would you hire any of them to even mow your lawn?

Now that's funny.

"Thanks for the $$. There ya go, Hank. Lawn cut. Sorry I'll have to come back on Monday to issue you a summons and red 'VIOLATION' sticker for your front door. Your grass wuz too long and the clipping are considered 'illegal debris.'"

Liberator  posted on  2019-06-16   15:16:19 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest

[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Mail]  [Sign-in]  [Setup]  [Help]  [Register] 

Please report web page problems, questions and comments to webmaster@libertysflame.com