^"government will use media, social media, and internet to censor speech and the oligarchs of googlemetabookinstatwittube will fall all over themselves to do it for self- preservation and for self-promotion."
Why is it so vital and necessary for the combined monolithic apparatus of government, corporations, and NGOs, to brute force censor everyone while decimating the careers and reputations of the dissenters? Here is why:
The reason the First Amendment is prime directive order 1, is because it is the most important freedom we have for the same reason it is the first target an adversary subverts, disrupts, and destroys during a crime, a war, or a takeover—preventing a target from assembling, communicating, and organizing a response to an assault grants an enormous advantage to the aggressors.
This is and has been occurring all across the globe since the minute this COVID-19 fraud, and now Russia/Ukraine war, was propagated to every corner of the earth.
The Second Amendment is second because it is the remedy for anyone trying to subvert the First.
Everyone needs to read the following and watch all of the videos, arm yourself with knowledge, please: https://tritorch.com/takeover
100%, brother. We win this war because the best weapons are tailored for our outcome and they are probably not smart enough to even realise this. But what are we doing about it? I have all the resources to make this happen and I'm doing it. You know how to reach me.
I wish I were as well-capitalized and as smart as the two of you. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I will be gone before complete autocracy settles in, but I am worried sick for my kids.
Oh yes-- those of us who remember actually having a civil society, with neighbors and friends to support and be supported by us, will be gone before the ultimate deathly centralized Plan sets into stone; but our kids?!? Dear loving god, what kind of lives will they have?
This cannot happen soon enough. After PayPal unpersoned me at the end of August, I switched to Ko-fi, and now I've discovered they're jumping on the deplatforming bandwagon, too:
My biggest concern is Substack solely relies on Stripe for its payment processing, making both Substack and individual creators extraordinarily vulnerable. We need to address that bottleneck ASAP to build resilience here while the new economy is being constructed.
Indeed. The question would be how to replicate our spiderweb of constellations on another platform should the need (feline forfend) arise. My particular Substack and its community would be lonely without the interconnections with your and so many other pivotal Stacks.
i'm a reader of many stacks and it feels more like talking and listening to friends.
would love to see something come of this networking thingy (I am not very savvy when it comes to this stuff... trying to understand crypto/blockchain is a mind bender for me)
point is the way the world has been I feel like all you guys are my new besties
This is a real issue, to which I have yet to have heard ANY answer. I use PayPal extensively...I have far-flung operations and it makes many things possible/easier. And keeps my personally identified information from circulating.
I hate what PayPal did yesterday and was early in on pointing it out. I was shocked, and gratified, that it got resolved so quickly. I understand they lost tens of thousands of members within hours. The trend line was there and not pretty.
But I have asked everyone, and no one has been able to give me an alternate that provides the same functions but without the censorious bent. What does everyone here use instead? Please don't say "cash" because that works in a 1 mile by 1 mile radius perhaps but not in my world. Venmo is owned by Paypal. Zelle is not very good and owned by banks.
Is there any alternative? Or does one cut off one's nose to spite one's face (functionally, anyway) by quitting PayPal for nothing that works the same? If I do not like Ford I can buy Chevy -- but I just do not see the same alternatives here. Am I missing something?
I know OffGuardian uses Liberapay. I haven't had a chance to investigate the lesser-known (but likelier less censorious) options.
It is a difficult challenge. I know it took Catherine Austin Fitts to fully disentangle herself from the machine, but she felt completely liberated once she did. I have a long ways to go on that front myself.
I can always count on you to be helpful. I will check some of it out. It is a real issue and a real opportunity for the next Elon Musk, I expect. Hope we survive until then.
Yes. It's 47 pages long at the moment. It's in a gdoc in my gdrive at the biz I own. I know - not great. But, I couldn't take it any longer. Started it 6 weeks ago.
yes. seems like they tried to sneak a nasty little codicil in, got caught, and had to disavow because of loud backlash and loss of accounts.
that's the power of large networks and consumer sovereignty.
so many of these companies have committed to woke and to government collaboration because they thought it would be good for business.
but the worm is turning and the cancellers are getting canceled. "go woke, go broke" is very real and the lesson is being applied with more and more zeal.
once the dam of oppressive omerta starts to leak, it rapidly fails totally. the deluge is coming. people are sick to death of this crap and they are speaking up and each one who does makes it easier for the next.
i suspect we will kick off a 20 year period of rollback akin to the 80's and 90's. hopefully, this is the breathing room we need to build the systems that render us actually free.
Louisiana state has removed their pension cash from Blackrock stating something like ‘why should we invest in a company out to destroy our industries and decimate our economy?’
Even though PayPal has reversed course, I encourage everyone who is appalled by their actions to cancel their accounts as well. The process is painless and honestly, I don't want to do business with anyone that wants to limit my speech.
PayPal would not let me log onto my account because I did not have a cell phone which would send me a code--the code was needed to be entered in order to be able to log on to my PayPal account.
They refused to offer an alternative to send the code to; alternatives such as my landline phone, or my email.
If you have your password, you can bypass using your phone code. At one point in the process, they ask something like "log in with a password." I've also heard that people have been able to call in and cancel their accounts.
Shibumi - As well as I can recall, I don't think I got any message like "log in with a password". My trying to log onto PayPal went just straight to the screen that says to enter the code which they sent via text. (I was planning to discontinue a couple of recurring donations.)
Thank you for your advice. The next time I will be on the lookout in case "log in with a password" does appear on my screen.
The platform pre-exists the WWW and is called Usenet. It's entirely peer2peer and was once ubiquitous. The nodes are now mainly paid servers because the current traffic is huge. It was built for email traffic but has been adapted for binary where most traffic is now porn or captured tv/movies. It can be censored to a degree in a cumbersome process used for DCMA takedowns, not always honored by foreign servers. As one might imagine it includes quantities of spam and malware ready to harm the unwary. All unmoderated networks usually devolve to misuse for the naive. The use of blockchain IDs would make such networks secure but end up exposing personal info now even required for crypto currencies.
Sophisticated users have always had methods of secure communication among themselves. They generally require some knowledge of the people. Such networks exist for dealing in things you'd rather the government not be aware of, like kiddy stuff and other illegal activity. Unless carefully vetted, all of these network eventually get exposed to governments over time. Governments always have time on their side along with, in essence, unlimited resources.
I fear the answer remains with our founders and adherence to a system of laws. If that is lost, as we seem hell bent on doing, Jefferson requires refreshing the tree of liberty implying blood.
Oh Big Brother knows me quite well. Fortunately I'm retired. Hell, the Chinese know me quite well because they grabbed all the personal histories of nearly everybody who once held a security clearance.
I can feel that all of these government agencies have people who know what is going on and are anxiously waiting for the right moment to act. The dominos that have fallen to the groove of the grotesque reset will stand up and fall the other way, imploding their guts out with a lot more dominos. Next year, around March, your vision will start to sparkle in flashes. The planets show it as Pluto moves into Aquarius,
I feel like the tipping point was the Disney boycott. That seemed to be the spark that got conservatives to begin to boycott woke in big ways. Folks finally saw they had power.
my usual credit card paid. I had to confirm that I was sure I wanted a subscription to Eugyppius, but then they paid. (my other card refused and got deleted, and Paypal refused and is now unused because I can't get it deleted LOL)
Apparently there are some associated with Truth Social that are creating a PayPal alternative. But setting up parallel schemes of banking still is not quite decentralized banking. I fear it is too hard. But there have been banks setup to get Cannabis sellers free of all-cash issues. Something as simple as paying business taxes requires trucking suitcases of cash to windows. Eliminating all currency > $100 creates a bundling issue for large transactions.
Have you heard about this? I have a Gab account that I rarely look at, but they've been trying to create a parallel economy. This is their latest venture. I suspect many people won't be interested because they see it as a religious option like GiveSendGo. I don't want to use my phone for transactions, so apps are a no go for me. Some people are working on options, though, which is good news. Torba was Lindelled before Lindell was Lindelled, so I guess he was highly motivated.
New shiny Covid camps are still being built, god only knows why (we can possibly guess why). Premiers are extending their emergency powers another couple of years - legislation allows them to literally remove your clothing and forcibly vaccinate you against your will.
We really, really need you and others with a platform to keep drawing attention to Australia.
But, seriously, I pray we can all stay strong in this fight. I live in California which is just one step behind Australia in its level of tyrannical behavior.
You're welcome here in Texas. We need some offset to the influx from the woke states. We have been living "normal" for about 18 months or more. Believe it or not we are not dropping like flies.
Grow your own food, even if it’s just herbs in a windowsill.
Spread signs, stickers, anything outside the realm of the tech industry. If you’re worried about your car being vandalized, put it on a magnetic backer to remove when the cars parked.
Speak up.
Go to local meetings and speak up.
Make T shirts, even if it’s writing on a white tee in permanent marker.
Pay in cash, speak to store owners.
Remember how hard the Taliban was to control, once they just ditched all their technology? Be that. Be ungovernable.
I wear pins on my bag and carry it everywhere (I walk or cycle most places): “My Body, My Choice” and “Fight pHARMa Fascism”, I put a Canadian flag on my bike, I have a few T-shirts with relevant messages, I take a sharpie places and write DoNotComply where/when I can, I leave independent newspapers and extra copies of relevant books out, and I have been leaving photos of some of Bob Moran’s cartoons all over my neighbourhood.
Yes I do believe this spreading the word is such a great guerilla way to go!
I took what felt like fb futility--to the streets.
I'd add one thing to this plan: infrastructure. Digital currency and peer to peer internet are useless if the regime can turn off the juice. Small scale distributed production of electricity is vital.
People sneer at the idea of solar roofs and driveways, but there are more ways to make electricity than to make fossil fuels. The idea of renewable energy is good; it's just the way it's been coopted as part of a totalitarian ideology that's bad. In my opinion, reclaiming that technology for the empowerment of individual will be crucial.
there is a thesis about the future where societies basically congeal around energy production and small scale thorium reactors becomes a sort of modern castle/keep.
The technology for microgeneration is readily available, but the biggest problem has been storage. For the last five years or so, there has been quiet discussion about a glass-based battery (co-developed by the guy who invented li-on batteries) that could go a long way towards addressing this.
So the infrastructure includes transmission of messages, no? The only near-uncontrollable communication channels are via radio. At the moment the only fully secure non-attributable channel is via meteor burst signalling. Very low rate data. All RF channels are quite bandwidth constrained. Few have the patience to deal with restricted bandwidth. The WWW really came to the masses only via broadband. My days of 300 baud modems and dial-up are painful memories.
Sorry our solutions to make government return to the people is by making the government return to the founder's design which means better public awareness. I'm appalled that most of the public were so accepting of loss of freedom in this pandemic. We are the government. But WE must care. That means educating the people.
I agree with most of this, except the fiction that "we are the government." No, the entrenched political class that clings to power through corruption and murder is the government. They are abusers who do whatever they want to us, and then blame us for letting them do it.
Remember Jefferson's warning about the tree of liberty. We are many they are few. No corrupt government exists forever. Sadly it can exist longer than a generation or two. Please observe that the extremes of left or right eat themselves in their pursuit of purity and perfection.
And control leads to scarcity. As Charlie a Chaplin said in The Great Dictator, "The good Earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way ... Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want."
You are right about renewable energy. I have a solar fish feeder on my dock. It's worked great for years. Small applications first, then some technological breakthrough like a whole house generator that doesn't use fossil fuel. Nothing wrong with fossil fuels, except the supply can one day be banned by the state.
we have property, with no snow clearance so three season only. we used solar to power up a trailer and it's great if it's sunny... needless to say it's often not and you are limited by your batteries which are expensive and have a shelf life that is not great. Started using a Jackery this year. It's a portable generator with pure sign wave so you really can run appliances (fridge) off it and you can recharge with solar panels which is really cool. However we know now that many of the solar panels made in china are in fact made by slave labour. (trying to avoid buying anything from China is very hard). for next year we got a dual fuel generator... gas and propane. we'll see how the combo goes. But yes the problem really is independent power and I would add independent water. They turn off the water treatment facility and you have 3 days tops.
That's a fair question. The only answer I have is that the same question could be applied to everything else we take for granted. Food, clothing, concrete, even lumber and clean water (for urban dwellers) ... Somebody has to produce it. If we're in a situation where there's no source for silicon or copper, I suspect that inability to charge our MacBooks is not going to be our biggest problem.
Dear Lex, speaking as someone who worked extensively in physical labour (construction, dishwashing, moving) -- I would love to mine the minerals for you. It beats sitting at a desk, or pretending that we're all 'creative'.
The only caveat is that you'd have to stop pretending that our labour is worth less than yours ('yours' as 3rd person, not meaning you, Lex). Oh, and don't destroy our lungs.
For instance: I think that garbage men should be paid more than doctors, but less than surgeons. And plumbers are obviously orders of magnitude more valuable than bureaucrats and university professors and... well, just about everyone.
This is a great point! In a free society, labor would be compensated at a level commensurate with its value. After a month without garbage collection, people would be willing to pay someone enough to make it worth their while to clean it up. Likewise, if it becomes clear that you're better off not going to a doctor, the price of medical care would diminish as people become less willing to pay for it.
"it will help to remove these agencies entirely: gut them, eliminate them, disassemble their power and establish strongly enumerated limits"
I keep getting stuck in your circular argument. We escape by creating alternate systems, but the escape has to happen before we can create the systems? I'm confused.
Have you considered that BitCoin et al are nothing but beta-testing for e-money? You can bet your short hairs on every major governement and national bank having kept very close tabs on BitCoin, including having their own accounts (more than one), from day one.
It's free beta-testing of what has been in the works for at least two decades - and this isn't even a secret; the swedish national bank has for years posted regular updates on project E-Crown and what pitfalls, risks, prblems and advantages they have found or think will come up. You think the Fed in the US hasn't done this, I've got a bridge to sell you.
And when it's finally E-day, the comptrollers and controllers of crypto-currencies will be given an offer: have a seat at th kiddies table with the option of donning big boys' pants in a few years, or get eliminated any which way is the most expedient.
Want to know in advance how it will go down? Study history, namely how private money - including mints and promissory notes and all the other names it's had down the ages - was folded into what we now call national banks.
Put for early adopters there's still money to be made of course. That's the trick, to know when the table turns so you can cash in your markers beforehand.
PS: and if my soothsaying here is proven wrong down the years, you do realise it will be to my great satisfaction - I want to be wrong about this, but I don't think I am.
The Tl;Dr is basically what you said. Let the private sector work out all the bugs and get lots of people using it, then just take it over. So simple, and possibly necessary since I'm not even sure the government has the technological capability to create a new digital currency that works perfectly out of the gate
There is no technical fix for statism. As physical beings, you and I need to BE somewhere. If government can't implement income or even sales taxes, it will impose property taxes or road taxes or head taxes. If necessary, it will eyeball a home to estimate the owner's net worth and then tack a tax bill to the front door, with some arbitrary amount added for imputed hiding of assets.
If we think that any of this is unconstitutional or illegal, all we need is to look back to March 2020 to see how easily governments imposed mass house arrest around the world, constitutions be damned. Or how proof of vaccination requirements spread around society like a virus, HIPAA be damned.
Joe Biden gave the game away with his quip about using F-15s against an armed populace: they will have no qualms engaging in mass murder to stay in power.
As Judge Learned Hand once wrote, “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it."
Our only hopes lie in generating widespread enough support for liberty that State crime won't even enter into the thinking of politicians and bureaucrats, or that the costs of committing the crimes will be high enough to deter them.
Returning to the founder's vision requires an educated and alert public that we currently lack. The government we do have ensures via media that we will never join in common cause by creating divisions across any possible line. When our two party can immediately split us in half, then apply further divisions, we cannot rebel.
Apparently only in Sweden was "constitutions be damned" honored. They had a degree of voluntary contributions to the restrictions. We were not so fortunate. We got shut down "constitutions be damned" - safety, you know. As if those who died for the concept of freedom were not concerned about their safety. When even our courts have become corrupt ideological, we have no recourse. We even have a President knowingly violating the law then ignoring the courts. And some applauded his actions wanting him to push even harder to destroy our norms in favor of eliminating our system.
So what you propose is just a different flavour of gloablism, looks like.
Q: how does this system handle states outside which are organised along different lines?
Q: how does this system handle groups which follow a collectivist ideology without any opt-out clause for those born into it or living in areas where the group is represented in force?
You really need to think hard on things like religion, race and ehtnicity. Even if your above ideas are only applied to the USA, you have lots of groups who now identify as [race] first, american second, religion third, income/class fourth and fellow human being with prerogative and privileges and rights fifth (all these points are in reality blended, overlapping, intermingled, what have you).
"No, you aren't allowed to drive down this road even if you offer to pay, you are [wrong group]."
How does your idea handle stuff like that? Answering that is as a important to a liberal (and libertarians are liberals) as is answering where incentive comes from for a communist.
ability for defense will be ever more automated and distributed. arm everyone, build systems of drone and swarm defense, and become basically unattackable. you cannot project power, but why would you want to? it comes down to wealth and/or an ability to ensure second strike if need be.
i don't think the state has any role in compelling or prohibiting agency or association.
if you chose not to allow cats in your bar, that's your choice. there is no right for me to use your property against your will and creating a government that can force one (a positive right vs a negative) opens the whole can of other dictatorial mischief.
this is how ideas like enforced equity and safety always lead to tyranny.
you're rights to self determination and property are either absolute, or they are not rights at all.
i think perhaps you need to take a step back one further layer and re-assess the idea of state mandated and enforced positive rights. that's basically the road to subjugation and there is not way to "just pick the good ones."
yes what all of the techno-progressives ignore is that a defining feature of how we got here is that we cannot answer the first question of who are, the "We" in we the people. In fact, we are not allowed to ask such questions which relegates us to the domain of their premise that the people are downstream of the system and its tools. That is central to the inversion.
All of the gato's tools are relevant and useful but will fail if a People are not allowed to exist. Commerce, economics, currency, etc. are downstream of biological truths about human nature and how we organize around our nature.
The thing that libertarians and leftists have in common is that both start with the man who never existed in nature as their basis for their particular utopia. The various tools and technologies that emerge should do so as a function of systems - economies, social orders, morals, traditions, rituals, etc. of the people for which they serve. If we skip "who we are" and the uncomfortable truths about the failures of multi-cultural globalism, we are merely kicking the can ourselves and leaving the mess for our children to sort out, albeit perhaps with better "tech".
Looking at my own life, I'd trade most "tech" that emerged on my watch for even part of that nation of my ancestors that had language and culture and borders. But instead I have an i-phone, and mythology that animates empty platitudes around the campfire or NFL halftime show, complete with million dollar flyovers.
Thank you for writing this important and timely essay. Lots of food for thought and opportunity for action.
One point of clarification. You are not a serf in the USA. You are taught to think like one and the system works hard to keep you in fear and ignorance just so you will remain a serf in your mind. You can learn the truth about the history and application of the tax laws in America by reading Pete Hendrickson's book, "Cracking the Code". They put him and his wife in jail for writing and publishing his book but a large number of people, including me, have filed educated "returns" for many years with success. You can see the evidence of that at his website as well:
Read his book, confirm the actual words in the statutes and Supreme Court rulings and act accordingly. All Americans will have more resources for the coming hard times and more tools for building a robust, free and healthy decentralized society if we educate ourselves and break the walls of fear the banksters have worked at building for over a century.
Learn, Improvise, Adapt and Overcome - And be ungovernable.
But the Tl;Dr is that, Plunder explains the historical formation of the state as a mechanism to extract the surplus produced by the individual. The centralized state will be our downfall, if we allow it to be
I think the last line, "become ungovernable", is also the bottom line. And if you look at California, especially its big cities, you should recognize "being ungovernable" as the main trend. (It's been happening since at least the 1980s). The ungovernables have already taken over.
So government focuses more and more regulation and pressure upon those who play by the rules, pay taxes, and have a stake in the visible official system. But that just pushes more and more onto team ungovernable.
And the attempts to bring the ungovernables back into good standing have failed. You only have to look at California's marijuana legalization laws and the reality on the ground to understand that. Most of the pot is still sold on the black market.
But also look at the new "freedom to walk act", the new loosened restrictions on street vendors, the county DAs who intentionally free violent perpetrators, the high rate of uninsured drivers, the changes in car impoundment for unlicensed drivers, grade inflation and curriculum changes and dropout rates in schools, and LA's new First Street Bridge.
I do think being ungovernable is the answer for everyone in these times. But once you go ungovernable, you never go back. Society won't return to the days when most people willingly tried to follow laws and regulations. That's gone.
So get ready for the tax evasion of Greece, the street crime of Brazil. and the corporate-government fusion of, well, Pfizer and the FDA. California leads the way.
I love you Cat. But. I don't think a Wild West of Investment is the actual answer. Pornography, Prostitution, Human Trafficking, (formerly known as the Slave Trade,) and illegal drugs plus gambling, have always been the largest money makers on Earth.
Other than War and Finance, perhaps. Many will put their crypto there, just for the profits. How much money did pHarma just suck from us? And how many people bought those stocks?
The Mob in control of the Government of the United States is what got us into this mess, imho, that plus the twin devils of greed and ego. We need to deal with this in a way that takes money OUT of evil endeavors.
Read Whitney Webb's "One Government Under Blackmail," go down the Drug Trafficking rabbit hole with Catherine Austin Fitts or the Human Trafficking with "In Our Backyard."
Crypto can be "dissappeared" by any government if it really decides to commit the act. After the last two years and now with watching the whole hog insanity in Ukraine, funded with my tax dollars, I will put NOTHING past the criminals in office.
Only a hard asset based currency minted by a Government controlled the People control can fix this mess. One with total transparency. Imho.
But that requires a People who are honest. Decent. Moral. And educated. And ready to give all they have to reestablish Freedom. Life, Libertyand the Pursuit of Happinessfor All.
Educated on the playground, in practical life, and at university, lol!
And not for sale to the latest Pimp on the corner....
many of those were legal for more of human history than illegal and could easily be again.
prostitution, recreational chemicals, etc have certainly not been stopped by any government, just made more dangerous. gambling and pornography too. the a priori stance that such things should be banned feels assumptive and dictatorial.
how can one make such a claim about uses of personal agency that may be undertaken by peaceful, consenting adults at no inclusion of or harm to others without being guilty of values imperialism and what can only be described as tyrannical proscription of liberty?
until these actions harm someone else or violate the basic negative rights of another, how can any state lay claim to being allowed to determine them without becoming antithetical to natural rights?
you seem to be making the "big government will work if we get smarter guys next time" argument so oft used for socialism. i see no reason it would be more credible here.
current crypto can indeed be disappeared. that is why it needs to evolve into a system that cannot be. that was sort of the point of the missive.
hard asset based currencies are disasters historically, inherently arbitrary, and cause dislocation in underlying economies.
no system that requires entirely honest and altruistic participants will ever work.
instead, we must impose the discipline of the marketplace and let competition create both competence and corruption resistance.
you're never going to get wholesome government that serves rather than subjugates unless people have the right and the ability to opt out.
But, and this is a very large hurdle in my own personal world view that all concepts must cross before I will give them serious contemplation as possible cures/responses for the ills be-setting us, is, is it fundamentally based on more human Freedom or more human Enslavement?
The growth of our levels of "Do unto others as you would have done unto you?"
or growth of "he who has the Gold makes the rules?" That "Golden Rule." Which will the new solution likely feed?
Study Human Trafficking. Child Trafficking. Sexual abuse and pedophilia. Pornography is the major funding mechanism of all of the above.
Get to know Epstien and the full reach of the organizations that feed on this most evil of Humanity's sicknesses. Utilized to have compromat on everyone.
(It even gets to child sacrifice, if you dig deeply enough.) And sadly the whole "adrenochrome" thing is not an urban legend either. Horrors lurk in dark corners.
Nor are the Dark Alliance allegations that the CIA ran drugs into inner cities in America, or that Kennedy was killed because he took on the criminal class in our Government wrong. He additionally wasn't going to go along with the war decades planned for Southeast Asia the day Japan surrendered.
It's the Predators of Humanity we must finally face, and total anonymity in all financial transactions may not be they way to go, is all I'm saying, given the reality of profound evil.
Here's an example of my own evolution in thought over time---
I used to think that whatever I put in my body was no one's business but my own. Eventually I realized the depth of destruction from children being exposed to crack, meth, cocaine, fentanyl, even the pot today. And decided it might be better to go a bit more authoritarian on the whole street drug scene, especially for our kids.
The west coast of the United States is wiped out by drugs. I am stunned by all the people I have met who's lives were crashed by street drugs in Oregon. Nearly everything in the working class I have met. It's shocking.
We need sane Government and the rule of law. And morals. Which means we do not sell children as sex toys. Or slice and dice their genitalia for profit or to hide the fact that the toxins and DNA contaminants in vaccines and our environment are causing gender confusion and hyper sexualization.
Again, while I consider you have a possible solution, we always need to see the picture from as far dialed out as we can....there are many unintended consequences to every choice we make, or that those with their fingers on levers make for us...
Thank you for your perspective though. You never fail to "light up" any topic you take on, Cat of cats!
"Pornography, Prostitution, Human Trafficking, (formerly known as the Slave Trade,) and illegal drugs plus gambling, have always been the largest money makers on Earth."
No healthy person (usually a woman) participates in pornography or prostitution.
People who use illegal drugs or gamble are self destructive and destroy others.
These are inherently dysfunctional activities that no moral society should ignore or condone. They are counter to human flourishing.
Wouldn't make sense for me to ask for that service, since I don't have the requisite body part. And I know my friends and family members. I'd never ask them, but I don't have to. They'd scrub toilets before they'd consider selling themselves for cash.
Hmm... I get what you're saying... but most societies understand that people sometimes slip through the cracks, and that they sometimes need to let off steam. Even Aquinas and Augustine realized this. This isn't ideal, but it's something that every society has to deal with -- and yes, as you've intimated, this push-pull does, indeed lead to the destruction of societies.
We'll never quite get it right. I think we're just in a time-frame, at least in the west, where we're getting everything wrong...
These actions are still immoral and damaging to individuals and society as a whole. That's why we have laws against them.
The notion that mentally and emotionally healthy women (and children, and men) participate in prostitution or pornography is offensive. They are damaged human beings, and the people who use them are damaging them further.
I grew up with an alcoholic. I was surrounded by many adults who were heavy social drinkers. It was my normal, and it wasn't fun.
I grew up with kids whose lives were derailed by drugs use. Now kids lives aren't derailed by drug use. They die.
My good friend's now ex-husband gambled away their beach house and then their beautiful home and then their marriage. Their daughter's whole life was blown up (but I'm happy to say she is doing well now).
Someone always pays for that live and let live attitude...usually a child.
Oh, I completely agree with you. I tell my friends that I grew up in 'poverty', because, while my parents had no money, they never engaged in any vices -- no smoking, 1 beer a month, no cheating, no abuse etc. So my 'poverty' didn't affect me at all.
I would say I grew up with privilege. It doesn't guarantee stability, but I do think it provides a buffer for children who are spinning out of control.
Have you watched these? I first heard Catherine Austin Fitts talk in the summer of 2020. She scared the hell out of me. I hoped and prayed she was wrong. This problem is global. It goes far beyond our country (although we're a major player...perhaps, writer, director, and star).
IMHO, we need to dissolve federal banks, take back all the money they stole, cancel all debt, and put the criminals in prison or up against a wall. In the meantime, we need a way to slow them down and work around their evil plans. Like you, I'd rather have a fiat currency backed by real assets ('cause the full faith and confidence of the US govt isn't looking so good right now), but we need to slow them down...now.
Fitts woke me up to the shear evil mobsters running our Federal Government a decade or more ago. She is a Treasure!
Her take on crypto is similar to mine; too easy to destroy or steal or manipulate.
But the Evil Walking Abroad in Daylight Now.
That's a Spiritual Problem. We must rise to the challenge or go under the wave.
Shake up anyone you can reach. Elected "leaders." Health care professionals. Media minions. Teachers, first responders. Talk to your sheriff and your county commisioners. And vote with every penny you own.
Follow Reignite Freedom's plan if it suits you. (Looks good to me personally.)
Every time we pray, speak or act we shift the dynamics of the field.
^"government will use media, social media, and internet to censor speech and the oligarchs of googlemetabookinstatwittube will fall all over themselves to do it for self- preservation and for self-promotion."
Why is it so vital and necessary for the combined monolithic apparatus of government, corporations, and NGOs, to brute force censor everyone while decimating the careers and reputations of the dissenters? Here is why:
The reason the First Amendment is prime directive order 1, is because it is the most important freedom we have for the same reason it is the first target an adversary subverts, disrupts, and destroys during a crime, a war, or a takeover—preventing a target from assembling, communicating, and organizing a response to an assault grants an enormous advantage to the aggressors.
This is and has been occurring all across the globe since the minute this COVID-19 fraud, and now Russia/Ukraine war, was propagated to every corner of the earth.
The Second Amendment is second because it is the remedy for anyone trying to subvert the First.
Everyone needs to read the following and watch all of the videos, arm yourself with knowledge, please: https://tritorch.com/takeover
Excellent as always! Keep up the good work man!
100%, brother. We win this war because the best weapons are tailored for our outcome and they are probably not smart enough to even realise this. But what are we doing about it? I have all the resources to make this happen and I'm doing it. You know how to reach me.
Joel -
I have the resources as well. And I make a living raising capital.
We need to get this shit started. If we don't, someone else will attempt it - and they'll more than likely not adhere to first principles.
In other words; they'll fuck it up - thereby rendering it another "obstacle" for us.
I started a working business plan to reach such ends. I would like it to be "open" source for contribution - but I also want it private.
I don't know what else to do. When I see a problem; I look for solutions; I only know one way to get it started and that is through a business plan.
I'm not looking for money. I'm looking for change as you, Gato and others have indicated.
How else do you think we start?
I wish I were as well-capitalized and as smart as the two of you. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I will be gone before complete autocracy settles in, but I am worried sick for my kids.
Oh yes-- those of us who remember actually having a civil society, with neighbors and friends to support and be supported by us, will be gone before the ultimate deathly centralized Plan sets into stone; but our kids?!? Dear loving god, what kind of lives will they have?
I hope you're getting feedback, Ryan, as there are some amazing minds on this stack. Change for the better starts here!
Keep me posted Ryan. We've discussed that something must be done.
YES, PLEASE!! 🍒
This cannot happen soon enough. After PayPal unpersoned me at the end of August, I switched to Ko-fi, and now I've discovered they're jumping on the deplatforming bandwagon, too:
• https://reclaimthenet.org/ko-fi-unpublishes-page-of-uk-womens-rights-group/
My biggest concern is Substack solely relies on Stripe for its payment processing, making both Substack and individual creators extraordinarily vulnerable. We need to address that bottleneck ASAP to build resilience here while the new economy is being constructed.
yes, that potential point of failure worries me as well.
BUT: at least here i have all the emails of everyone, so unlike twitter, they cannot blow up this network for long.
Indeed. The question would be how to replicate our spiderweb of constellations on another platform should the need (feline forfend) arise. My particular Substack and its community would be lonely without the interconnections with your and so many other pivotal Stacks.
i'm a reader of many stacks and it feels more like talking and listening to friends.
would love to see something come of this networking thingy (I am not very savvy when it comes to this stuff... trying to understand crypto/blockchain is a mind bender for me)
point is the way the world has been I feel like all you guys are my new besties
I feel that way too, Irene 🤗
This is a real issue, to which I have yet to have heard ANY answer. I use PayPal extensively...I have far-flung operations and it makes many things possible/easier. And keeps my personally identified information from circulating.
I hate what PayPal did yesterday and was early in on pointing it out. I was shocked, and gratified, that it got resolved so quickly. I understand they lost tens of thousands of members within hours. The trend line was there and not pretty.
But I have asked everyone, and no one has been able to give me an alternate that provides the same functions but without the censorious bent. What does everyone here use instead? Please don't say "cash" because that works in a 1 mile by 1 mile radius perhaps but not in my world. Venmo is owned by Paypal. Zelle is not very good and owned by banks.
Is there any alternative? Or does one cut off one's nose to spite one's face (functionally, anyway) by quitting PayPal for nothing that works the same? If I do not like Ford I can buy Chevy -- but I just do not see the same alternatives here. Am I missing something?
Bacca400 shared this list of alternatives in a comment (https://metatron.substack.com/p/debanked-for-your-views/comment/9218878):
• https://wordsalad.info/storesharing.html#payment-services
I know OffGuardian uses Liberapay. I haven't had a chance to investigate the lesser-known (but likelier less censorious) options.
It is a difficult challenge. I know it took Catherine Austin Fitts to fully disentangle herself from the machine, but she felt completely liberated once she did. I have a long ways to go on that front myself.
Margaret,
I can always count on you to be helpful. I will check some of it out. It is a real issue and a real opportunity for the next Elon Musk, I expect. Hope we survive until then.
🤗
No worries, they’ll be rolling out the mark of the beast soon and nobody will be able to buy or sell without it. Problem solved.
https://www.paralleleconomy.com/
Haven’t used it but heard about it as a conservative, free speech alternative.
Read my comment about a business plan.
I need brain power, contribution, different skill sets, etc.
Ryan, do you have anything up that we can look at / contribute to? Working docs?
Yes. It's 47 pages long at the moment. It's in a gdoc in my gdrive at the biz I own. I know - not great. But, I couldn't take it any longer. Started it 6 weeks ago.
Part of me wants a "summit" though.
Know what I mean?
Why don't you post it as a public access doc? Allow commenting, get an iterative process started?
Margaret -
Substack is chum in the water for the sharks. It is a foregone conclusion in my mind they are coming after us.
The voice here is getting too loud to be tolerated by the state.
I would rather be on offense than defense.
Have you seen this: https://www.activistpost.com/2022/10/paypal-reverses-course-says-company-will-not-seize-money-from-people-for-promoting-misinformation.html
yes. seems like they tried to sneak a nasty little codicil in, got caught, and had to disavow because of loud backlash and loss of accounts.
that's the power of large networks and consumer sovereignty.
so many of these companies have committed to woke and to government collaboration because they thought it would be good for business.
but the worm is turning and the cancellers are getting canceled. "go woke, go broke" is very real and the lesson is being applied with more and more zeal.
once the dam of oppressive omerta starts to leak, it rapidly fails totally. the deluge is coming. people are sick to death of this crap and they are speaking up and each one who does makes it easier for the next.
i suspect we will kick off a 20 year period of rollback akin to the 80's and 90's. hopefully, this is the breathing room we need to build the systems that render us actually free.
Louisiana state has removed their pension cash from Blackrock stating something like ‘why should we invest in a company out to destroy our industries and decimate our economy?’
Way to go!
I rarely used PayPal and cancelled yesterday.
Even though PayPal has reversed course, I encourage everyone who is appalled by their actions to cancel their accounts as well. The process is painless and honestly, I don't want to do business with anyone that wants to limit my speech.
Yep, did the same after hearing that Candace Owens had been frozen out. I don't need them.
PayPal would not let me log onto my account because I did not have a cell phone which would send me a code--the code was needed to be entered in order to be able to log on to my PayPal account.
They refused to offer an alternative to send the code to; alternatives such as my landline phone, or my email.
If you have your password, you can bypass using your phone code. At one point in the process, they ask something like "log in with a password." I've also heard that people have been able to call in and cancel their accounts.
Shibumi - As well as I can recall, I don't think I got any message like "log in with a password". My trying to log onto PayPal went just straight to the screen that says to enter the code which they sent via text. (I was planning to discontinue a couple of recurring donations.)
Thank you for your advice. The next time I will be on the lookout in case "log in with a password" does appear on my screen.
Why don't we "build" a sand lot? Substack is too vulnerable imo.
We need a "platform". Our target audience is right here Gato. We could have 10,000 people literally overnight to model such systems.
I'm antsy man.
The platform pre-exists the WWW and is called Usenet. It's entirely peer2peer and was once ubiquitous. The nodes are now mainly paid servers because the current traffic is huge. It was built for email traffic but has been adapted for binary where most traffic is now porn or captured tv/movies. It can be censored to a degree in a cumbersome process used for DCMA takedowns, not always honored by foreign servers. As one might imagine it includes quantities of spam and malware ready to harm the unwary. All unmoderated networks usually devolve to misuse for the naive. The use of blockchain IDs would make such networks secure but end up exposing personal info now even required for crypto currencies.
Sophisticated users have always had methods of secure communication among themselves. They generally require some knowledge of the people. Such networks exist for dealing in things you'd rather the government not be aware of, like kiddy stuff and other illegal activity. Unless carefully vetted, all of these network eventually get exposed to governments over time. Governments always have time on their side along with, in essence, unlimited resources.
I fear the answer remains with our founders and adherence to a system of laws. If that is lost, as we seem hell bent on doing, Jefferson requires refreshing the tree of liberty implying blood.
Be careful what you write. Big brother has prying eyes. Really.
Oh Big Brother knows me quite well. Fortunately I'm retired. Hell, the Chinese know me quite well because they grabbed all the personal histories of nearly everybody who once held a security clearance.
It's crazy. But it might come to that.
I don't see any current platforms that are "pre-wired" with expandability/adaption functionalities for what's trying to be achieved here.
Youd have to replicate "pieces" from different platforms in order to achieve everything at once.
We may just have to build it. I think its a fools errand to try to do it all at once.
My biggest concern for the future would be making sure the "infrastructure" is not limited by the nature of data for at least 10 -15 years.
I'm not too hung up on the security piece or the currency stuff. That can wait. Work in progress.
The most important thing right now; is to make connection points here.
Work off a "living" business plan and figure it out. We have all the brain power, skill sets, experience, etc. Right here to get it done.
Have to get started. Hardest part. I believe it's a challenge we can tackle.
There's a huge active Telegram channel devoted to this. Jeffrey Peterson IIRC
I can feel that all of these government agencies have people who know what is going on and are anxiously waiting for the right moment to act. The dominos that have fallen to the groove of the grotesque reset will stand up and fall the other way, imploding their guts out with a lot more dominos. Next year, around March, your vision will start to sparkle in flashes. The planets show it as Pluto moves into Aquarius,
I pray for the higher octaves if Aquarius, and not its potential for technocratic authoritarianism.
Totally agree - Pluto in Aquarius will change everything.
I feel like the tipping point was the Disney boycott. That seemed to be the spark that got conservatives to begin to boycott woke in big ways. Folks finally saw they had power.
Yes, that was a welcome about-face, but the fact that they even contemplated it is harrowing.
Too late for them. I canceled my account and won't be back.
my usual credit card paid. I had to confirm that I was sure I wanted a subscription to Eugyppius, but then they paid. (my other card refused and got deleted, and Paypal refused and is now unused because I can't get it deleted LOL)
😧
Apparently there are some associated with Truth Social that are creating a PayPal alternative. But setting up parallel schemes of banking still is not quite decentralized banking. I fear it is too hard. But there have been banks setup to get Cannabis sellers free of all-cash issues. Something as simple as paying business taxes requires trucking suitcases of cash to windows. Eliminating all currency > $100 creates a bundling issue for large transactions.
Have you heard about this? I have a Gab account that I rarely look at, but they've been trying to create a parallel economy. This is their latest venture. I suspect many people won't be interested because they see it as a religious option like GiveSendGo. I don't want to use my phone for transactions, so apps are a no go for me. Some people are working on options, though, which is good news. Torba was Lindelled before Lindell was Lindelled, so I guess he was highly motivated.
GabPay.com
Torba made a presentation (I haven't watched).
https://tv.gab.com/channel/a/view/introducing-gabpay-the-paypal-alternative-6344db861097f8f1845d0a5e
I've heard about it but haven't had time to investigate. Thank you for the info, cmpalmer75!
Please keep talking about Australia. We are trapped in an abusive relationship with our government:
https://rebekahbarnett.substack.com/p/australians-are-trapped-in-an-abusive
New shiny Covid camps are still being built, god only knows why (we can possibly guess why). Premiers are extending their emergency powers another couple of years - legislation allows them to literally remove your clothing and forcibly vaccinate you against your will.
We really, really need you and others with a platform to keep drawing attention to Australia.
We are not ok down here.
Get off that island!
But, seriously, I pray we can all stay strong in this fight. I live in California which is just one step behind Australia in its level of tyrannical behavior.
Get off that not too distant (San Andreas Fault) future island
I'm researching my options 😊
You're welcome here in Texas. We need some offset to the influx from the woke states. We have been living "normal" for about 18 months or more. Believe it or not we are not dropping like flies.
We seriously thought about moving. We're still thinking about moving.
You are welcome to come if you bring conservative values. My wife & I would be glad to show you around.
Learn to barter.
Learn skills
Grow your own food, even if it’s just herbs in a windowsill.
Spread signs, stickers, anything outside the realm of the tech industry. If you’re worried about your car being vandalized, put it on a magnetic backer to remove when the cars parked.
Speak up.
Go to local meetings and speak up.
Make T shirts, even if it’s writing on a white tee in permanent marker.
Pay in cash, speak to store owners.
Remember how hard the Taliban was to control, once they just ditched all their technology? Be that. Be ungovernable.
I wear pins on my bag and carry it everywhere (I walk or cycle most places): “My Body, My Choice” and “Fight pHARMa Fascism”, I put a Canadian flag on my bike, I have a few T-shirts with relevant messages, I take a sharpie places and write DoNotComply where/when I can, I leave independent newspapers and extra copies of relevant books out, and I have been leaving photos of some of Bob Moran’s cartoons all over my neighbourhood.
Yes I do believe this spreading the word is such a great guerilla way to go!
I took what felt like fb futility--to the streets.
Guerrilla marketing is the way to go.
I'd add one thing to this plan: infrastructure. Digital currency and peer to peer internet are useless if the regime can turn off the juice. Small scale distributed production of electricity is vital.
People sneer at the idea of solar roofs and driveways, but there are more ways to make electricity than to make fossil fuels. The idea of renewable energy is good; it's just the way it's been coopted as part of a totalitarian ideology that's bad. In my opinion, reclaiming that technology for the empowerment of individual will be crucial.
this is a very useful point.
there is a thesis about the future where societies basically congeal around energy production and small scale thorium reactors becomes a sort of modern castle/keep.
The technology for microgeneration is readily available, but the biggest problem has been storage. For the last five years or so, there has been quiet discussion about a glass-based battery (co-developed by the guy who invented li-on batteries) that could go a long way towards addressing this.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/does-new-glass-battery-accelerate-the-end-of-oil
So the infrastructure includes transmission of messages, no? The only near-uncontrollable communication channels are via radio. At the moment the only fully secure non-attributable channel is via meteor burst signalling. Very low rate data. All RF channels are quite bandwidth constrained. Few have the patience to deal with restricted bandwidth. The WWW really came to the masses only via broadband. My days of 300 baud modems and dial-up are painful memories.
Sorry our solutions to make government return to the people is by making the government return to the founder's design which means better public awareness. I'm appalled that most of the public were so accepting of loss of freedom in this pandemic. We are the government. But WE must care. That means educating the people.
I agree with most of this, except the fiction that "we are the government." No, the entrenched political class that clings to power through corruption and murder is the government. They are abusers who do whatever they want to us, and then blame us for letting them do it.
Remember Jefferson's warning about the tree of liberty. We are many they are few. No corrupt government exists forever. Sadly it can exist longer than a generation or two. Please observe that the extremes of left or right eat themselves in their pursuit of purity and perfection.
I would argue this is also the past. Energy found, someone wrangled control, then access was restricted for a fee. Scarcity leads to control.
And control leads to scarcity. As Charlie a Chaplin said in The Great Dictator, "The good Earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way ... Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want."
You are right about renewable energy. I have a solar fish feeder on my dock. It's worked great for years. Small applications first, then some technological breakthrough like a whole house generator that doesn't use fossil fuel. Nothing wrong with fossil fuels, except the supply can one day be banned by the state.
we have property, with no snow clearance so three season only. we used solar to power up a trailer and it's great if it's sunny... needless to say it's often not and you are limited by your batteries which are expensive and have a shelf life that is not great. Started using a Jackery this year. It's a portable generator with pure sign wave so you really can run appliances (fridge) off it and you can recharge with solar panels which is really cool. However we know now that many of the solar panels made in china are in fact made by slave labour. (trying to avoid buying anything from China is very hard). for next year we got a dual fuel generator... gas and propane. we'll see how the combo goes. But yes the problem really is independent power and I would add independent water. They turn off the water treatment facility and you have 3 days tops.
Who's going to mine the minerals for you? Not sneering, just asking.
That's a fair question. The only answer I have is that the same question could be applied to everything else we take for granted. Food, clothing, concrete, even lumber and clean water (for urban dwellers) ... Somebody has to produce it. If we're in a situation where there's no source for silicon or copper, I suspect that inability to charge our MacBooks is not going to be our biggest problem.
Dear Lex, speaking as someone who worked extensively in physical labour (construction, dishwashing, moving) -- I would love to mine the minerals for you. It beats sitting at a desk, or pretending that we're all 'creative'.
The only caveat is that you'd have to stop pretending that our labour is worth less than yours ('yours' as 3rd person, not meaning you, Lex). Oh, and don't destroy our lungs.
For instance: I think that garbage men should be paid more than doctors, but less than surgeons. And plumbers are obviously orders of magnitude more valuable than bureaucrats and university professors and... well, just about everyone.
This is a great point! In a free society, labor would be compensated at a level commensurate with its value. After a month without garbage collection, people would be willing to pay someone enough to make it worth their while to clean it up. Likewise, if it becomes clear that you're better off not going to a doctor, the price of medical care would diminish as people become less willing to pay for it.
So very true.
How exactly does one become ungovernable? Asking for a friend.
in this case, by creating a system of communication, association, commerce, and currency that exists entirely outside and opaque to the state.
the state can never be trusted not to meddle and so the only answer is to place our lives and livelihoods beyond its vison and reach.
build it and they will come; it is our time; at our age; for our field of "dreams".
"it will help to remove these agencies entirely: gut them, eliminate them, disassemble their power and establish strongly enumerated limits"
I keep getting stuck in your circular argument. We escape by creating alternate systems, but the escape has to happen before we can create the systems? I'm confused.
Another annoying thought:
Have you considered that BitCoin et al are nothing but beta-testing for e-money? You can bet your short hairs on every major governement and national bank having kept very close tabs on BitCoin, including having their own accounts (more than one), from day one.
It's free beta-testing of what has been in the works for at least two decades - and this isn't even a secret; the swedish national bank has for years posted regular updates on project E-Crown and what pitfalls, risks, prblems and advantages they have found or think will come up. You think the Fed in the US hasn't done this, I've got a bridge to sell you.
And when it's finally E-day, the comptrollers and controllers of crypto-currencies will be given an offer: have a seat at th kiddies table with the option of donning big boys' pants in a few years, or get eliminated any which way is the most expedient.
Want to know in advance how it will go down? Study history, namely how private money - including mints and promissory notes and all the other names it's had down the ages - was folded into what we now call national banks.
Put for early adopters there's still money to be made of course. That's the trick, to know when the table turns so you can cash in your markers beforehand.
PS: and if my soothsaying here is proven wrong down the years, you do realise it will be to my great satisfaction - I want to be wrong about this, but I don't think I am.
I wrote an entire article about this, why the US government might nationalize Ethereum
https://theunhedgedcapitalist.substack.com/p/why-the-us-government-might-nationalize
The Tl;Dr is basically what you said. Let the private sector work out all the bugs and get lots of people using it, then just take it over. So simple, and possibly necessary since I'm not even sure the government has the technological capability to create a new digital currency that works perfectly out of the gate
You may wish to see https://austrianpeter.substack.com/p/praying-for-fun-truss-me-im-a-doctor where he has some videos explaining money. The notion of money as a medium of exchange is interesting.
There is no technical fix for statism. As physical beings, you and I need to BE somewhere. If government can't implement income or even sales taxes, it will impose property taxes or road taxes or head taxes. If necessary, it will eyeball a home to estimate the owner's net worth and then tack a tax bill to the front door, with some arbitrary amount added for imputed hiding of assets.
If we think that any of this is unconstitutional or illegal, all we need is to look back to March 2020 to see how easily governments imposed mass house arrest around the world, constitutions be damned. Or how proof of vaccination requirements spread around society like a virus, HIPAA be damned.
Joe Biden gave the game away with his quip about using F-15s against an armed populace: they will have no qualms engaging in mass murder to stay in power.
As Judge Learned Hand once wrote, “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it."
Our only hopes lie in generating widespread enough support for liberty that State crime won't even enter into the thinking of politicians and bureaucrats, or that the costs of committing the crimes will be high enough to deter them.
Returning to the founder's vision requires an educated and alert public that we currently lack. The government we do have ensures via media that we will never join in common cause by creating divisions across any possible line. When our two party can immediately split us in half, then apply further divisions, we cannot rebel.
Apparently only in Sweden was "constitutions be damned" honored. They had a degree of voluntary contributions to the restrictions. We were not so fortunate. We got shut down "constitutions be damned" - safety, you know. As if those who died for the concept of freedom were not concerned about their safety. When even our courts have become corrupt ideological, we have no recourse. We even have a President knowingly violating the law then ignoring the courts. And some applauded his actions wanting him to push even harder to destroy our norms in favor of eliminating our system.
Yes indeed, to everything you said.
It's a tough road ahead no matter what we do!
So what you propose is just a different flavour of gloablism, looks like.
Q: how does this system handle states outside which are organised along different lines?
Q: how does this system handle groups which follow a collectivist ideology without any opt-out clause for those born into it or living in areas where the group is represented in force?
You really need to think hard on things like religion, race and ehtnicity. Even if your above ideas are only applied to the USA, you have lots of groups who now identify as [race] first, american second, religion third, income/class fourth and fellow human being with prerogative and privileges and rights fifth (all these points are in reality blended, overlapping, intermingled, what have you).
"No, you aren't allowed to drive down this road even if you offer to pay, you are [wrong group]."
How does your idea handle stuff like that? Answering that is as a important to a liberal (and libertarians are liberals) as is answering where incentive comes from for a communist.
by out competing them.
ability for defense will be ever more automated and distributed. arm everyone, build systems of drone and swarm defense, and become basically unattackable. you cannot project power, but why would you want to? it comes down to wealth and/or an ability to ensure second strike if need be.
i don't think the state has any role in compelling or prohibiting agency or association.
if you chose not to allow cats in your bar, that's your choice. there is no right for me to use your property against your will and creating a government that can force one (a positive right vs a negative) opens the whole can of other dictatorial mischief.
this is how ideas like enforced equity and safety always lead to tyranny.
you're rights to self determination and property are either absolute, or they are not rights at all.
i think perhaps you need to take a step back one further layer and re-assess the idea of state mandated and enforced positive rights. that's basically the road to subjugation and there is not way to "just pick the good ones."
So basically reinventing the proto-form of the nation state the way it looked around the time of the Black Death.
But with modern weapons.
No. We just create our own "Pig-Latin" that is encrypted and decentralized.
out competing them is going to be easy imo.
time is ripe, my friend.............like not since the formation of our republic.
we are the change agents.
Yes, this is a very ugly truth painful to accept.
Sounds like you are describing TEXAS!
yes what all of the techno-progressives ignore is that a defining feature of how we got here is that we cannot answer the first question of who are, the "We" in we the people. In fact, we are not allowed to ask such questions which relegates us to the domain of their premise that the people are downstream of the system and its tools. That is central to the inversion.
All of the gato's tools are relevant and useful but will fail if a People are not allowed to exist. Commerce, economics, currency, etc. are downstream of biological truths about human nature and how we organize around our nature.
The thing that libertarians and leftists have in common is that both start with the man who never existed in nature as their basis for their particular utopia. The various tools and technologies that emerge should do so as a function of systems - economies, social orders, morals, traditions, rituals, etc. of the people for which they serve. If we skip "who we are" and the uncomfortable truths about the failures of multi-cultural globalism, we are merely kicking the can ourselves and leaving the mess for our children to sort out, albeit perhaps with better "tech".
Looking at my own life, I'd trade most "tech" that emerged on my watch for even part of that nation of my ancestors that had language and culture and borders. But instead I have an i-phone, and mythology that animates empty platitudes around the campfire or NFL halftime show, complete with million dollar flyovers.
I find it inspiring that someone so well versed in the details of the venality that surrounds us is capable of optimism. Catnip on the house.
blackpill is a self fulfilling prophesy of failure.
there is always a way.
My native philosophy precisely: Confront the Brutal Truths + Stockdale Paradox (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-my-karass)
Yes!
Hear, hear.
The more you know and understand about it, the more hopeful you get. Reality is intrinsically motivating.
I'm in...
We’ll have to do this AFTER we win the coming French war.. pretty sure we’ve already crossed your metaphorical event horizon
Thank you for writing this important and timely essay. Lots of food for thought and opportunity for action.
One point of clarification. You are not a serf in the USA. You are taught to think like one and the system works hard to keep you in fear and ignorance just so you will remain a serf in your mind. You can learn the truth about the history and application of the tax laws in America by reading Pete Hendrickson's book, "Cracking the Code". They put him and his wife in jail for writing and publishing his book but a large number of people, including me, have filed educated "returns" for many years with success. You can see the evidence of that at his website as well:
https://losthorizons.com/Newsletter.htm
Read his book, confirm the actual words in the statutes and Supreme Court rulings and act accordingly. All Americans will have more resources for the coming hard times and more tools for building a robust, free and healthy decentralized society if we educate ourselves and break the walls of fear the banksters have worked at building for over a century.
Learn, Improvise, Adapt and Overcome - And be ungovernable.
Production Versus Plunder is another excellent book that I think you would like. I wrote a very short review of it here,
https://theunhedgedcapitalist.substack.com/p/book-review-production-versus-plunder
But the Tl;Dr is that, Plunder explains the historical formation of the state as a mechanism to extract the surplus produced by the individual. The centralized state will be our downfall, if we allow it to be
I think the last line, "become ungovernable", is also the bottom line. And if you look at California, especially its big cities, you should recognize "being ungovernable" as the main trend. (It's been happening since at least the 1980s). The ungovernables have already taken over.
So government focuses more and more regulation and pressure upon those who play by the rules, pay taxes, and have a stake in the visible official system. But that just pushes more and more onto team ungovernable.
And the attempts to bring the ungovernables back into good standing have failed. You only have to look at California's marijuana legalization laws and the reality on the ground to understand that. Most of the pot is still sold on the black market.
But also look at the new "freedom to walk act", the new loosened restrictions on street vendors, the county DAs who intentionally free violent perpetrators, the high rate of uninsured drivers, the changes in car impoundment for unlicensed drivers, grade inflation and curriculum changes and dropout rates in schools, and LA's new First Street Bridge.
I do think being ungovernable is the answer for everyone in these times. But once you go ungovernable, you never go back. Society won't return to the days when most people willingly tried to follow laws and regulations. That's gone.
So get ready for the tax evasion of Greece, the street crime of Brazil. and the corporate-government fusion of, well, Pfizer and the FDA. California leads the way.
I love you Cat. But. I don't think a Wild West of Investment is the actual answer. Pornography, Prostitution, Human Trafficking, (formerly known as the Slave Trade,) and illegal drugs plus gambling, have always been the largest money makers on Earth.
Other than War and Finance, perhaps. Many will put their crypto there, just for the profits. How much money did pHarma just suck from us? And how many people bought those stocks?
The Mob in control of the Government of the United States is what got us into this mess, imho, that plus the twin devils of greed and ego. We need to deal with this in a way that takes money OUT of evil endeavors.
Read Whitney Webb's "One Government Under Blackmail," go down the Drug Trafficking rabbit hole with Catherine Austin Fitts or the Human Trafficking with "In Our Backyard."
Crypto can be "dissappeared" by any government if it really decides to commit the act. After the last two years and now with watching the whole hog insanity in Ukraine, funded with my tax dollars, I will put NOTHING past the criminals in office.
Only a hard asset based currency minted by a Government controlled the People control can fix this mess. One with total transparency. Imho.
But that requires a People who are honest. Decent. Moral. And educated. And ready to give all they have to reestablish Freedom. Life, Libertyand the Pursuit of Happinessfor All.
Educated on the playground, in practical life, and at university, lol!
And not for sale to the latest Pimp on the corner....
Profits notwithstanding.
many of those were legal for more of human history than illegal and could easily be again.
prostitution, recreational chemicals, etc have certainly not been stopped by any government, just made more dangerous. gambling and pornography too. the a priori stance that such things should be banned feels assumptive and dictatorial.
how can one make such a claim about uses of personal agency that may be undertaken by peaceful, consenting adults at no inclusion of or harm to others without being guilty of values imperialism and what can only be described as tyrannical proscription of liberty?
until these actions harm someone else or violate the basic negative rights of another, how can any state lay claim to being allowed to determine them without becoming antithetical to natural rights?
you seem to be making the "big government will work if we get smarter guys next time" argument so oft used for socialism. i see no reason it would be more credible here.
current crypto can indeed be disappeared. that is why it needs to evolve into a system that cannot be. that was sort of the point of the missive.
hard asset based currencies are disasters historically, inherently arbitrary, and cause dislocation in underlying economies.
no system that requires entirely honest and altruistic participants will ever work.
instead, we must impose the discipline of the marketplace and let competition create both competence and corruption resistance.
you're never going to get wholesome government that serves rather than subjugates unless people have the right and the ability to opt out.
that is where we must aim.
You are a total genius my friend the Cat of Cats.
But, and this is a very large hurdle in my own personal world view that all concepts must cross before I will give them serious contemplation as possible cures/responses for the ills be-setting us, is, is it fundamentally based on more human Freedom or more human Enslavement?
The growth of our levels of "Do unto others as you would have done unto you?"
or growth of "he who has the Gold makes the rules?" That "Golden Rule." Which will the new solution likely feed?
Study Human Trafficking. Child Trafficking. Sexual abuse and pedophilia. Pornography is the major funding mechanism of all of the above.
Get to know Epstien and the full reach of the organizations that feed on this most evil of Humanity's sicknesses. Utilized to have compromat on everyone.
(It even gets to child sacrifice, if you dig deeply enough.) And sadly the whole "adrenochrome" thing is not an urban legend either. Horrors lurk in dark corners.
Nor are the Dark Alliance allegations that the CIA ran drugs into inner cities in America, or that Kennedy was killed because he took on the criminal class in our Government wrong. He additionally wasn't going to go along with the war decades planned for Southeast Asia the day Japan surrendered.
It's the Predators of Humanity we must finally face, and total anonymity in all financial transactions may not be they way to go, is all I'm saying, given the reality of profound evil.
Here's an example of my own evolution in thought over time---
I used to think that whatever I put in my body was no one's business but my own. Eventually I realized the depth of destruction from children being exposed to crack, meth, cocaine, fentanyl, even the pot today. And decided it might be better to go a bit more authoritarian on the whole street drug scene, especially for our kids.
The west coast of the United States is wiped out by drugs. I am stunned by all the people I have met who's lives were crashed by street drugs in Oregon. Nearly everything in the working class I have met. It's shocking.
We need sane Government and the rule of law. And morals. Which means we do not sell children as sex toys. Or slice and dice their genitalia for profit or to hide the fact that the toxins and DNA contaminants in vaccines and our environment are causing gender confusion and hyper sexualization.
Again, while I consider you have a possible solution, we always need to see the picture from as far dialed out as we can....there are many unintended consequences to every choice we make, or that those with their fingers on levers make for us...
Thank you for your perspective though. You never fail to "light up" any topic you take on, Cat of cats!
; ))
"Pornography, Prostitution, Human Trafficking, (formerly known as the Slave Trade,) and illegal drugs plus gambling, have always been the largest money makers on Earth."
No healthy person (usually a woman) participates in pornography or prostitution.
People who use illegal drugs or gamble are self destructive and destroy others.
These are inherently dysfunctional activities that no moral society should ignore or condone. They are counter to human flourishing.
Not a judgment. Reality.
I know plenty of 'healthy' women who would gladly give handjobs for $200/hr.
You probably do, too.
What a repulsive thing to say.
Nope. No. I don't. You need to find better company.
LOL easy to say when you haven't actually asked!
Wouldn't make sense for me to ask for that service, since I don't have the requisite body part. And I know my friends and family members. I'd never ask them, but I don't have to. They'd scrub toilets before they'd consider selling themselves for cash.
Hmm... I get what you're saying... but most societies understand that people sometimes slip through the cracks, and that they sometimes need to let off steam. Even Aquinas and Augustine realized this. This isn't ideal, but it's something that every society has to deal with -- and yes, as you've intimated, this push-pull does, indeed lead to the destruction of societies.
We'll never quite get it right. I think we're just in a time-frame, at least in the west, where we're getting everything wrong...
Some people commit murder.
Some people rape.
Some people abuse.
Some people steal.
Some people hurt children.
These actions are still immoral and damaging to individuals and society as a whole. That's why we have laws against them.
The notion that mentally and emotionally healthy women (and children, and men) participate in prostitution or pornography is offensive. They are damaged human beings, and the people who use them are damaging them further.
I grew up with an alcoholic. I was surrounded by many adults who were heavy social drinkers. It was my normal, and it wasn't fun.
I grew up with kids whose lives were derailed by drugs use. Now kids lives aren't derailed by drug use. They die.
My good friend's now ex-husband gambled away their beach house and then their beautiful home and then their marriage. Their daughter's whole life was blown up (but I'm happy to say she is doing well now).
Someone always pays for that live and let live attitude...usually a child.
Oh, I completely agree with you. I tell my friends that I grew up in 'poverty', because, while my parents had no money, they never engaged in any vices -- no smoking, 1 beer a month, no cheating, no abuse etc. So my 'poverty' didn't affect me at all.
Other friends weren't quite so lucky.
I would say I grew up with privilege. It doesn't guarantee stability, but I do think it provides a buffer for children who are spinning out of control.
Have you watched these? I first heard Catherine Austin Fitts talk in the summer of 2020. She scared the hell out of me. I hoped and prayed she was wrong. This problem is global. It goes far beyond our country (although we're a major player...perhaps, writer, director, and star).
IMHO, we need to dissolve federal banks, take back all the money they stole, cancel all debt, and put the criminals in prison or up against a wall. In the meantime, we need a way to slow them down and work around their evil plans. Like you, I'd rather have a fiat currency backed by real assets ('cause the full faith and confidence of the US govt isn't looking so good right now), but we need to slow them down...now.
https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/we-need-to-talk-about-mr-global
https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/we-need-to-talk-about-mr-global-part
Fitts woke me up to the shear evil mobsters running our Federal Government a decade or more ago. She is a Treasure!
Her take on crypto is similar to mine; too easy to destroy or steal or manipulate.
But the Evil Walking Abroad in Daylight Now.
That's a Spiritual Problem. We must rise to the challenge or go under the wave.
Shake up anyone you can reach. Elected "leaders." Health care professionals. Media minions. Teachers, first responders. Talk to your sheriff and your county commisioners. And vote with every penny you own.
Follow Reignite Freedom's plan if it suits you. (Looks good to me personally.)
Every time we pray, speak or act we shift the dynamics of the field.
Good luck and God Bless!
Thank you. I'll check them out. God Bless you as well.