In the past few years, we have all witnessed Internet censorship, up to and including the censorship of the President of the United States. My initial reaction was, “Who cares? We don’t need the media in order to live our lives! Turn it all off. Ignore them!” Then, the stories started trickling out, mostly on alternative media platforms and via individual blogger websites. It wasn’t just the popular media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, WordPress, Reddit, etc.), the mainstream media organizations (CNN, MSNBC, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.), major payment processors (PayPal, for one), e-mail providers (Mailchimp, for one), web hosting providers, and the major newspapers (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, etc.), that were censoring competing or conflicting opinions and promoting “the party line”. People were actually being fired from their jobs for merely expressing their own opinions.
There was and is an uptick in violence against people who, for instance, simply have an American flag flying on their own property. We’ve all heard about the BLM and Antifa riots, which are ongoing still, occurring unimpeded in many places. Many have been arrested, but then released immediately back into the communities without any serious charges. The latest news, of course, is the fact that the China virus did, plausibly, escape a lab where gain of function research had been ongoing (and in part, funded by our own government).
And separately, but related, that Covid-19 immunity is gained by having had the virus, and therefore just as effective in protecting an individual as actually taking the covid-19 “vaccine”, that the “cure” is often more debilitating than the disease, etc. Also, recently, we learned that in fact hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin are effective in combatting Covid-19 and only conspiracy theorists, last year, believed that (/sarc). (And I won’t even mention that a Presidential election was stolen in broad daylight in the middle of a made up Pandemic, and that all Trump supporters are being blamed for a fake insurrection that the FBI – Federal Bureau of Insurrections – most likely participated in). The insanity of the past few years is mind boggling. So many lies, so little time.
GASLIGHTING ON STEROIDS
Why all the spin?! Why the extreme gaslighting? I’ve found myself singing to no one in particular, “Does anybody even know what time it is? Does anybody even care?” (Chicago, 1970). I don’t want to divert us by going through all the documented stories (evidence) of the above occurrences, circumstances, and stories, as so many have already done that. The evidence is out there if you wish to pursue the truth and do your own research. I’m not here to convince anyone of anything. I want us to think critically about what broad censorship and the silencing of dissent means in America. Unethical tactics (censorship, silencing of dissent, gaslighting, bullying, pressuring, threatening, demonetizing, de-platforming, arresting, etc.) lead to something called “cognitive dissonance”. The way I understand that concept is very simple: what you see and hear doesn’t jive with what your gut, or family history, tells you is true. This leads to uncomfortable feelings, stress, and fear. In some people, cognitive dissonance leads to aggression. It’s the same kind of creepy feelings you get when in an abusive relationship, especially with a Narcissist. You can’t reconcile what you know to be true with what you’re told is the truth. (I can hear the little Marxists in my head screaming that the reason we feel the dissonance is because we are unaware that we are white supremacists, even if some of us are black – but, I digress).
We’ve been living in some dystopian nightmare for over a year now. Actually, much longer but the tempo was quickened and we are now more aware! I think it’s important for us to deconstruct what is happening around us in a logical manner, sorting out the truth from lies, and basically, “take out the trash”. The real battle is in our minds, first, before we can take any physical actions.
FREEDOM IN AMERICA
In America, censorship and silencing dissent is against “the rules” outlined in our Constitution. Freedom is what makes or nation unique, strong, and desirable. There is no circumstance where silencing people is acceptable. None. If someone wants to shout profanities at the sky, they are free to do so. If someone truly does want a Progressive/Marxist/Communist/Socialist society, they are free to want that, and state that, and write about that. If someone wants to preach about the Gospel of Jesus Christ on every street corner, they are free to do so (well, they used to be free). If someone is a bigot, well, they are actually free to be so. All of the “controversial” things in our society, other than actual harm of another person, their family, and their property, are allowed because of FREEDOM.
Being free does not mean shoving your beliefs down someone else’s throat, codifying those beliefs into law, and forcing others to follow your beliefs. Freedom does mean that you get to choose how you want to live your life and you get to take responsibility for that. As well, we are free to associate, and disassociate, with whom we will, and that doesn’t make us any of the things we’ve been called. Society, as a whole, likes to put guardrails on certain behaviors, such as not allowing Pedophiles access to children. Society insists, in a collaborative way, what laws shall govern general behavior – this is the part that mostly backfills the concept of “democracy”… In other words, together we work out some laws we can all agree to, similar to the Ten Commandments about not murdering, stealing, cheating, fornicating (sadly, now cast out as an old fashioned idea), etc., and everything else is Free Choice. That’s America in a nutshell.
So, yes, we can “turn off” the media; we can dump the “smart phone” tracking devices; we can even turn off the Internet (come on, EMP!). But, what about our livelihoods? Yes! We can dump the corporate jobs that demand compliance with whatever fruit loop “diversity”, “equity”, and “compliance” games they come up with – you just may not like the pay cut. We don’t have to teach Critical Race Theory (CRT) or allow our children to be exposed to such racism. We don’t have to publish our “pronouns” or refer to others by their chosen ones. We don’t have to accept that “transitioning” from one biological sex to another is anything short of mutilation. We don’t have to worship in a church that has adopted Marxist theologies over the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are, actually, a lot of things we have control over, whether we want to admit that or not. We don’t have to comply with any of it, and as a matter of fact, I suggest we don’t. And here’s why…
THE DISSIDENT CHRISTIAN
Our dilemma is eerily similar to what Soviet dissidents faced. In 1974, the dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, after having spent many years in Soviet prison camps, was arrested (again) and then quickly moved to the West, out of reach of the Soviets. He released the text Live Not by Lies on that same day (February 12, 1974). You can read the full translated text. I offer this excerpt:
“And thus, overcoming our temerity, let each man choose: Will he remain a witting servant of the lies (needless to say, not due to natural predisposition, but in order to provide a living for the family, to rear the children in the spirit of lies!), or has the time come for him to stand straight as an honest man, worthy of the respect of his children and contemporaries?
And from that day onward he:
Will not write, sign, nor publish in any way, a single line distorting, so far as he can see, the truth;
Will not utter such a line in private or in public conversation, nor read it from a crib sheet, nor speak it in the role of educator, canvasser, teacher, actor;
Will not in painting, sculpture, photograph, technology, or music depict, support, or broadcast a single false thought, a single distortion of the truth as he discerns it;
Will not cite in writing or in speech a single “guiding” quote for gratification, insurance, for his success at work, unless he fully shares the cited thought and believes that it fits the context precisely;
Will not be forced to a demonstration or a rally if it runs counter to his desire and his will; will not take up and raise a banner or slogan in which he does not fully believe;
Will not raise a hand in vote for a proposal which he does not sincerely support; will not vote openly or in secret ballot for a candidate whom he deems dubious or unworthy;
Will not be impelled to a meeting where a forced and distorted discussion is expected to take place;
Will at once walk out from a session, meeting, lecture, play, or film as soon as he hears the speaker utter a lie, ideological drivel, or shameless propaganda;
Will not subscribe to, nor buy in retail, a newspaper or journal that distorts or hides the underlying facts.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of the possible and necessary ways of evading lies. But he who begins to cleanse himself will, with a cleansed eye, easily discern yet other opportunities.”
He gives us a “short list” of things we don’t have to do, and must not do, in order to preserve our freedom. He had a long time to think about all these things while imprisoned in Soviet slave labor camps. His most famous quote, you may be familiar with:
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
Tomorrow, in Part 2, I will discuss how should we then live.