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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Unfortunately guys the most critical time to speak out is before free speech becomes "penalized".

We mostly missed that opportunity. It sucks being stuck between a "live and let live" and "leave me the eff alone" mentality. If the later is not the case then the former will only make the later worse.

So now we are stuck with the second most important time to speak out:

When free speech is penalized, but before you have to build your own gulags.

Make no mistake that's where it ends.

It smells like a 30's re-run...because...well...that's exactly what's happening.

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Pi Guy's avatar

And now you know why there's a _2nd_ Amendment.

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Chiadrum's avatar

Never thought about guns until 4 years ago. Locked and loaded now.

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Pi Guy's avatar

I like to tell people that I'm a Recovering Democrat.

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Boatswain Mate's avatar

These are not Democrats, they have usurped the title! These are Jacobins! Andrew Jackson, FDR, HST, JFK those were Democrats.

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Porge's avatar

Never was a Democrat, how horrible that recovery must be! I can't imagine 😢

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Pi Guy's avatar

It's better than still being one.

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Porge's avatar

Damn! You're my hero !

* non spitty fist bump*

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Dr. K's avatar

As Frederick Douglass pointed out over a century ago, civil rights depend on (in order) three boxes: The ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box. The ballot box seems completely corrupted. We have seen the last three years of lawfare destroy the jury box. There is only one box left, sadly.

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Boatswain Mate's avatar

Uncle Joe knew: It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes. Joseph Stalin And Uncle Joe's Man: Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime.

Lavrentiy Beria

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Rosemary B's avatar

yes, My mother said this is exactly how it started in The Netherlands in the 1930's

You do not trust or speak to your neighbors

Keep your mouth shut and your eyes down

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Mickey Free's avatar

"only ideas which cannot win hearts and minds in open and honest discourse resort to gaslighting, propaganda, and suppression of dissent." Exactly. Just look at what they are suppressing, and what they are advocating, and particularly, what they are accusing US of wanting to or actually doing, and you will see precisely what the rose-colored glasses of the left are supposed to prevent you from seeing. The world is teetering on the crumbling edge of a precipice overlooking a New Dark Age that will make the one centuries ago look like a golden age. Those engineering the new descent into the modern Heart of Darkness are NOT the brightest lights on the string and have over and under estimated a number of factors. Once loosed, the Hounds of Hell will be uncontrollable and everyone and everything will be fair game, victims until none are left to victimize, nothing left but a dead planet spinning empty through eternity...or not. Organize. Connect. Mobilize. Prepare. And most of all, define, clearly, the individuals and institutions who comprise the Enemy. Last chance, folks. Me-OOOOW!

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Pi Guy's avatar

"Those engineering the new descent into the modern Heart of Darkness are NOT the brightest lights on the string and have over and under estimated a number of factors. Once loosed, the Hounds of Hell will be uncontrollable and everyone and everything will be fair game, victims until none are left to victimize, nothing left but a dead planet spinning empty through eternity"

*Wholly Schamokes, Yeats stomps into the chat*

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold"

- The Second Coming

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

if we could just start with the bureaucrats the whole damn thing might implode on itself.

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Butternut Saskatoon's avatar

Looks like a call for DAGPOPS is in order, Ryan..... and that would be: Dads Against Greedy Politicians and Obnoxious Public Servants!

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AB's avatar

I was thinking the exact same.

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Boatswain Mate's avatar

You are in good company: The right most valued by all civilized men is the right to be left alone.

Louis D. Brandeis

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

That's a keeper! Thank you

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Jimmy Gleeson's avatar

Is there an opportune time to speak out?

The need to speak out is an indicator that it is a critical time. I was quiet for years, and could very well be because I was unaware, or the offenses being done were not up close and personal. I should have realized back then...and I bet if we looked at points in history, we could keep pointing back further and further until we are at the chrysalis of our republic.

When is the critical time to speak out? The eight ball has a sticker on over it's "window" into wisdom and upon it is written "NOW." So regardless of the question as to when and why and how much cost. The answer is "NOW."

The ideas of the Constitution was predicated upon, the ability to dissent. And I imagine there have been zeniths and troughs in the times it was critical to speak up.

Slavery, Immigration, Gun Rights, Women's Suffrage, Segregation, Foreign Wars, Entitlement Programs, Daytime Talk Shows.

And what were the consequences of free speech then as opposed to now?

The problem now is we are seeing a global metastization of the cancer of tyranny.

"silence like a cancer grows." ~Simon and Garfunkel

As we also know, things can turn on a dime. Tech companies can change hands, people can be convinced to lock their doors and hide inside. What if...what if...the inverse could also be true.

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Well if we didn't believe it could change then we'd be wasting our time.

I think we "win" because these people's world view will eventually collide with reality.

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Jimmy Gleeson's avatar

It's not going to be easy. I foresee more cost, more penalties, more bad times. But to roll over and just let it happen without at least saying "hey, no bueno" Sorry, but no bueno. And i agree with you, reality will collide with these people, and it is. Their whole ideology is predicated on division. Where as, ironically, the idea of decentralization is predicated on the unity of individual autonomy. Not only do I support "you do you" I encourage it. I want a world where people be who they are, because becoming serfs of the state is no fun...and about as exciting as lukewarm water.

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Man I couldn't agree more in all aspects of what you're saying

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