the seeds of social credit
forward to the anarcho-cat-pitalist future
if you cannot see how this:
is a clear precursor for what they plan do do once they have this:
then maybe liberty is just not your thing…
the seeds of a social credit system are being planted.
you do NOT want to see that into which they flower.
(alas, probably many do. these intrusions are always sold as something popular and populist to entrench and enable such exercise of power. then everyone acts surprised when the same prerogative to do nasty things to people they do not like gets turned on them by people they despise.)
there is zero evidence or even plausible inference behind the idea that “tracking gun and ammo purchases will alleviate gun violence” in any fashion whatsoever.
it is an entirely invented rationalization.
it’s the “6 foot spacing dummy dots of distancing in supermarkets” of crime policy.
and like those dots, it has little to do with its professed purpose.
what on earth does “flagging suspicious gun sales” even signify and just how does it protect anyone?
so now we’re looking to abrogate and deny rights over subjective suspicion?
you know what this reminds me of?
note this this, like that most inaptly named of all american legislation serving as its precursor, is all about using the fear of a moment to allow and institutionalize the widespread suppression of rights without trial or even objective reason.
mere subjective suspicion is enough.
and if you think these two pieces do not form a perfectly interlocking dovetail joint to apply political and societal pressure, and that “you can’t buy guns because the neighbors say they fear you” will not rapidly morph into setups, paid tattlers, and outright “we took your guns because you criticized the government on social media” i’m exceedingly interested to hear about the color of the sky on your world.
it must have very different history books than those we have here.
the last couple years have seen some really nasty tendencies towards labeling as “domestic terrorists” those who disagree politically with “the party.”
this has been on the rise for some time and hit a really unpleasant stride under covid as teachers unions sought to get the FBI to investigate parents who called them out on masks, vaccines, critical race and gender theory, and in person schooling. teachers wanted parents designated as terrorists.
the FBI was thrilled to oblige.
this noxious nastiness really only got headed off by media attention. (and goodness how they are trying to close THAT loophole so that next time it won’t…)
meanwhile, worlds like “terrorist” and “extremist” are being mouthed by leftist leader after leftist leader in america when referring to fellow americans whose opposition they have decided not to tolerate. it feels like redshift projection.
i have no love for team donkey or for team elephant, but however one feels about politicos of whatever stripe, i’m sorry, but the sort of vilification in that speech is “what is not normal.”
and it is not random. it is planful because “extremist” and “terrorist” are not mere epithets; in the post patriot act age they are magic words to strip you of rights, due process, freedom, and even identity.
they are words that can disappear you.
and in a note perfect application of “coyote’s law” they are now being used against the party that created them in a form of boomerang assault to attack and marginalize the very folks who enacted such un-constitional outrages.
coyote’s admonition here is ever simple: “grant no power to the state without first considering how it might be wielded by the politician you despise most. because one day, it will be.”
the right wing LOVED the patriot act. they clamored and chomped at the bit for more. they applauded indefinite detention without charge and vast unaccountable apparatuses of state backed by secret warrants and secret courts. go watch some old “NCSI” or “24” episodes some time. they BRAG about it.
black bag jobs, torture, unchecked and reckless power: they scared us until we demanded it. do you think anything has changed or that it could not happen/is not happening again with a new cast of bad guys?
of course it can. of course it will.
it was cherished and courted and it in turn courted disaster that has now come to full flower.
the patriot act was a death knell for liberty and much of the covidian craziness and emergency usurpation thereof was allowed and enabled because of it.
and they finally nailed the cheat code: everything is an emergency, you’re all threats and terrorists, and we can do, say, spend, and take whatever we like including your rights because “exigent crisis.”
we created this:
and then expected what?
restraint?
i mean, what other equilibrium could this incentive set possibly have found?
it was always “when?” never “if?”
they have come for speech, association, agency, you name it.
and now they come for the right to defend yourself.
and the whole idea is ridiculous.
only 8% of violent crime in the US even uses a gun.
and based on some fairly reasonable looking math, guns are used in self defense about 4X as frequently as in a crime.
and of the crimes committed with guns, ~65% are committed with illegal guns (even politifact fact checkers admit this)
so the real “defensive use to gun crimes this law could affect” ratio is probably closer to 12:1.
how is making guns harder to get “reducing crime” or “making anyone safe”?
it’s not. it’s a political stunt under fascist style pressure from a government that runs payment systems and likely has nasty aspirations on how to weaponize them into social credit.
but even if you disagree and think this WILL create safety, consider:
it’s yet another thin end of yet another wedge as they “just one more little thing” you to fettered dependency.
the ultimate guarantor of your safety and liberty is you.
it can be no other way.
a state that has denied you this and taken such role for itself is a state that can do anything it wants to you.
and inevitably, it will.
maybe you like this exercise of power, but will you like where this ball bounces next when the party and politicians you hate are in charge and get to wield it?
real question: are you seeing anyone you’d trust with that power rattling around DC these days?
because i’m here to tell you: “24” is a lot less entertaining when you’re the one jack bauer is arbitrarily torturing because you bought some new class of proscribed goods with your visa card.
and you don’t get to cry when when the genie you let out of the lamp turns on you.
that’s what they do.
it’s going to keep coming.
and it’s going to be as relentless and dishonest as it will be ubiquitous.
and the answer is bravery.
“land of the free and the home of the brave” is a well chosen turn of phrase because, let me tell you, without that second one the first shall not long pertain.
stay brave, and you will stay free.
that’s the ballgame.
they will try to scare you. and you will say “go pound sand.”
you can wind up here:
or you can take a road less traveled and retain your peaceful and implacable self-sovereignty.
they would have you believe that this choice is theirs to make.
but it is not.
it is ours.
and the answer to the ever more intrusive aspirations of government must and ever shall be the same:
anarchy is not a lack of order. it is consensual order.
it is government deriving its just power from the consent of the governed.
you may have read some words to that effect somewhere…
and it is to be preferred to all other forms of human organization whenever possible.
this is the world of markets, not mandates, of agoras, not agencies.
the cure for overmuch government is never “more government” and “more rules.”
it must lie elsewhere.
it is we the people and not they leviathan that will tear down that which is anathema to our flourishing and build what is needful in its place.
it is from our desires and designs and agency that orders shall emerge.
brave and free.
use cash, cut up your cards, show them what it'll cost
do not let us crawl in to tyrannical totalitarianism
As lawyer once said ‘Never in writing, always in cash!’ 💯