Well, I've been getting opinionated online again, and the inevitable result is misinterpretation of my plain language, and demands that I unfriend people and get out for daring to dissent.
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Let's see if I can collect my thoughts here for a less-intense conversation. As always, feel free to comment below if you want a civil discourse on an admittedly messy tangle of topics.
Between the COVID-19 pandemic panic and the fallout from the George Floyd murder, it seems many of the people I once thought were libertarians have either sided with the mask mandate authoritarians or the police state crackdowns on protests. The core principle of liberty was abandoned so easily in the face of fear. Can neither side see how the police response they want against the other will be turned against themselves at the drop of a hat?
The nature of the State is to grow like a cancer and devour our liberty. Don't let fear drive you to embrace the disease as a cure just because it gives you the short-term illusion of security.
Federal paramilitary "law enforcement" has been deployed in response to protests in Portland, Oregon. Heavily-armed thugs are using unmarked vehicles for black-bagging people.
It should be clear from my posts that I am opposed to both the riots and police abuse. Nonetheless, criticism of one is presumed to be embracing the other. The false dichotomy is fatal to discourse.
Some people are already assuming the people abducted by federal secret police in Portland are guilty by virtue of the arrest. Their fear of Marxist protesters is leading them to embrace a literal police state. Then such people think I side with Marxist radicals because I vehemently object to police state overreach under any and all circumstances?
I hate to go full Godwin's Law here, but remember the Nazis used the threat of communist revolutionaries as a key part of their power grab and police state justification. While I dislike the comparisons of Trump to Hitler, and Republicans to Fascists, we are on the edge of using the threat of left-wing authoritarianism to justify right-wing authoritarianism yet again. The false dichotomy of the left/right axis is killing rational thought.
Principles mean sometimes defending people whose positions you abhor from injustice. It means defending people who will throw you under the bus when roles are reversed. Their lack of principle is no excuse to abandon principle ourselves. Grow up and stop calling people "commies" and "fascists" because they oppose abuse of the left or the right by the State.
People love to talk about what they will do when government crosses some "line in the sand." This instance of police state overreach is a line in the sand. It has been crossed. I do not care one whit about your opinion regarding AntiFa, BLM, or the yahoos of Portland. This is not an acceptable situation under any circumstances.
The fact remains that government doesn't represent us, and police do not protect us. The State is our enemy. Government monopoly promotes waste and abuse. It cannot be used to our benefit, no matter how tempting the short-term gains may seem. The enemy of my enemy is not my friend, but the majority of protesters are not violent, and are not Marxists. They have legitimate grievances against the State, and we have an opportunity to reach them with the message of liberty.
The time requiring greatest vigilance is when the government is using its power in a way that looks like it might be aligned with your principles. That is when you justify what will soon be use against you. Arresting arsonists is one of the few arguably legitimate things cops can do, but federal goons black bagging protesters, even when using arson as justification, is not the same thing.
The police are all paid with stolen money to enforce unjust laws that violate individual rights even when they are not performing extrajudicial executions in the streets or rounding up dissenters. Have you forgotten the violence against civil rights protests, the Ruby Ridge massacre, WACO, secret prisons in Chicago, the murder of LaVoy Finicum during the Malheur Wildlife Refuge occupation/protest, and the mass arrests of protesters and anyone else in the vicinity at various political conventions over the past two decades? We cannot side with such government actions, no matter how we consider the views and actions of those targeted.
Rioters assaulting innocent people and vandalizing property are not choosing a wise response, but when they burn down government buildings, at least they are attacking the right target regardless of their philosophical deficiencies. Freedom is dangerous, but embracing tyranny is far more so. Do not be governed by fear. Do not use one evil to justify another.
If you discard your principles whenever they're inconvenient, you're not pragmatic, you're unprincipled.
Apparently that view is not held by very many. Thank goodness truth is not subject to democracy!
I feel your frustration. I had to unsubscribe from one of my favourite blogs because the discourse had devolved into name-calling and fallacy-flinging, and this is among so-called intellectuals. Apparently, we can't have a rational discussion until people get the sense to shut off the propaganda box and cool their heads.
Your language can be as plain and simple and easy to understand as anything but it's not going to matter one whit when people have an idea in their heads and choose to interpret your plain simple easy to understand language as something else entirely :)
I can't defeat an idea in someone else's mind. All I can do is present them with an opportunity to do the dirty work themselves.
A thought provoking read...thanks for posting in Free Speech Community.
All of this makes me feel that I need to over explain things whenever I talk. The slightest criticism of Trump and suddenly you are treated as though you must be sleeping with Biden (and vice versa). It's ridiculous. Government should not mandate masks. Local businesses can if they want. I do think masks are a prudent precaution for now but that doesn't mean I support force to make it happen.
Where I live, masks are not really a necessary precaution. But circumstances can differ, and while I grumble about it, I wear a mask when working at the library. Not only is it policy, but people are disgusting sometimes.
As an introvert, I already tend to avoid crowds and prefer what they now call "social distancing," but what I always just considered my "personal space bubble."
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