“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them…”  ~Frederick Douglass

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”  ~H. L. Mencken

Libertarians always seem to be warning about the coming tyranny.  Much like people in the prepper movement, libertarians are often called alarmists.  The opposition likes to make fun of them and say that they are still waiting for these dire predictions to come true.  Of course, libertarians can just as easily point out that the dire predictions of the climate change alarmists haven’t exactly materialized yet either.

In 2021, there are still libertarians who are warning of the globalists, the Great Reset, the New World Order, and many other similar things.  When it comes down to it, they are warning about coming tyranny.

Maybe it will get worse from here, but to warn of the coming tyranny seems a little late at this point.  The tyranny already arrived in 2020.

Let’s see.  We were told to stay in our homes, don’t travel, obey a curfew, wear face masks, distance from others, businesses deemed “non-essential” were shut down, and people were told not to see their friends and families, even at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  If that’s not tyranny, I hate to see what is. The tyranny is alive and well. Libertarians who previously warned of coming tyranny have been vindicated.  I don’t care if you think there is a terribly deadly virus out there.

Land of the Free

While political correctness, “wokeism”, class warfare, socialism, climate change hysteria, virus hysteria, and a host of other things have become really bad and are an ominous sign of things to come, all hope is not lost.

There is still a sense of rugged individualism in the United States of America that just doesn’t exist in most other places on the planet.  There is a spirit of entrepreneurialism, and it is generally seen as positive when someone has a rags-to-riches story, or a story of building up a company from scratch.

There are also a lot of Americans who do question the narrative sold by politicians and the media.  Say what you will about Trump and his loyal supporters, but Trump didn’t win the presidency in 2016 (and nearly 2020) with a bunch of sheep in the country.  Sure, the hardcore anti Trumpists will say his followers are a bunch of sheep for following him, but that means they are ignoring the corporate media and the conventional opinion.

The media told Americans in 2015 and 2016 that they were stupid if they dared to vote for Trump. They essentially laughed at anyone who considered voting for anyone other than Hillary Clinton.  Yet, over 62 million Americans in 2016 voted for Trump anyway (and far more in 2020).  Some may have voted for him just because the establishment and its media were telling them that they shouldn’t vote for him.

It is similar to what happened with Brexit in Great Britain.  But when you look at the extent of the lockdowns and other authoritarian measures in Britain, it is hard to say they value liberty anywhere near as much as Americans.  The British people seemed to free themselves from the European Union while being enslaved at home anyway.

There have been mass protests in several parts of Western Europe.  I have heard some people in the U.S. who generally oppose the lockdowns comment that you aren’t seeing that in America.  But that is because the lockdowns and other restrictions in the U.S. are far milder.  And the people in places like New York and California who don’t agree with the lockdowns (and even some hypocrites who do) are vacationing in places like Florida that is open.

If there were brutal lockdowns in the U.S. like there are in places like Germany and the U.K., then you better believe there would be mass protests in the United States. There would also be a lot of people ignoring the “laws” (which are mostly just dictates from mayors and governors), just as some are doing now anyway.

While the establishment and most leftists are trying to curtail free speech (“we have to stop hate speech” – they say), you can still get away with saying most things in America as long as you aren’t threatening violence.  I also look at other issues such as gun control and homeschooling, and the U.S. typically comes out near the top in terms of liberty.

Public Opinion Matters

Politicians will do what they can get away with.  But they are eventually limited by public opinion.  This is even true to a certain extent in the most authoritarian regimes.  There has to be a certain degree of consent by those being ruled.

In Canada, Trudeau is enacting authoritarian edicts, including forcing people into quarantine in government-designated facilities (one could call them internment camps) when returning to the country, even with a negative result on a virus test.

It is happening in Canada because the people are allowing it to happen.  They may not explicitly approve of these tyrannical policies, but they generally accept them.  There are some people who don’t accept them, but they are too much of a minority right now.  The majority of people accept them, so they happen.  What politician do you know will relinquish power, knowing they can get away with using the power?

When you think of politicians, don’t think they are all entirely evil.  They will generally abuse power when available, but their reputation matters to them.

Think about the people who make up the state (i.e., the government) and the people who work for the state.  Most of these people are not evil.  Think of the police, military, judges, people who work in alphabet agencies, and even politicians. They have families.  They have to go home and talk to their families.

“Welcome home, honey. Dinner will be ready soon. How was your day today?”

“Oh, it was fine. I had to march a few more people off to the concentration camps today to be executed because they were saying some things contrary to the regime.  Other than that, there wasn’t much happening at work.”

These conversations just don’t happen.  I mean, I don’t know what conversations took place with the Clintons, if they were ever eating a family dinner together.  But the reality is that most people are not pure evil.  And for the few who are, most people around them are not pure evil.  Again, I am not talking about the Clintons.

This is why, when the state is doing something evil, they have to hide it and make it sound good. They have to take your guns for public safety.  They have to lock down businesses to keep everyone safe from the virus.  They have to steal money (taxation) in order to build infrastructure and take care of the needy.  They have to start a war in order to spread democracy or stop terrorism or confiscate weapons of mass destruction.

This is why the state so heavily relies on propaganda.  If the state lies are exposed, the whole game falls apart.  Most people are good, so the statists have to rely on lies and propaganda to convince people to consent to their own enslavement.

This is why liberty is always a matter of education.  The more people you can convince that they are being lied to and that liberty is better (morally and pragmatically) than statism, the more liberty will flourish.