As with anybody who has ever shared an opinion not sanctioned by our leftist ruling class, I often come across some mind-controlled foot soldier for Marxism online, trashing something I've written and using the same limited vocabulary of vulgarities to tell me why I should do something profane to myself.  Oh, well!  Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

Sometimes I get called a "damn hillbilly," and I think, "Well, thank you."  If Americans — wherever they now live — could reach deep down inside themselves to find a little leftover hillbilly from a previous generation, then America as a country would find the self-resilience, tenacity, and grit to survive with gusto any bad times that might be ahead.

Unlike the political left, I choose free speech over the government's ever-expanding war on "hate speech" and the inevitable mental slavery such criminalization of thoughts and words always brings.  That's how tyranny thrives.  First, certain language is labeled blasphemous and forbidden by polite society because it "triggers" listeners.  Then censorship is justified in order to banish potentially harmful "triggering."  Then the list of "triggering" offenses expands until every utterance is circumscribed.  And finally, only one government-enforced belief system remains because there are no longer contrary yet permissible points of view.

How do you teach millions of people to obey the State?  Forbid them from having certain thoughts or saying certain things until their natural mental powers shrivel into nothing more than command and control centers for Pavlovian routine.  Informal "hate speech" codes usher in formalized "hate crime" punishments, which always lead to one-party political authoritarianism, which usually awakens a sizable chunk of the self-conquered population to grasp that in its polite obeisance to the perpetually aggrieved, formerly free people inadvertently traded their freedom for the claptrap of "political correctness."  When that happens, those who want freedom back are forced to fight for it.  The cycle has repeated many times throughout history, and though we are modern, we are not wise.  When hard-won experience is forgotten, those who fight for freedom must remind others what they've already lost.  That is where we are today.

That said, I also sometimes come across someone online who has graciously taken the time to read something I've written yet finds what I've said too terrifying to entertain.  How can the United States of America be at the precipice of replacing liberty with outright tyranny?  Isn't this all too dark and dystopian to have any truth?  I would ask those people who do not yet see clearly what is going on in the United States to ask themselves whether they have less or more freedom than they did two years ago and, if they're old enough, whether they have less or more freedom than they did before the national security surveillance state came into existence after 9/11.  And then I would ask one more question: in the last century of the U.S. government claiming new powers for itself during some "emergency crisis" sold to the American people as a temporary expedience, has any of those "emergency powers" over the people ever been relinquished?  Governments, by their nature, will illegitimately accrue power until the people they insist on ruling have had enough and begin pushing back.  That, too, is an unequivocal yet painful lesson remembered and relinquished by man through the centuries.  Again, that is where we are today.

Should my words sometimes seem dark or foreboding, know I have a great deal of faith that the defenders of freedom will eventually prevail, even though victory will require those who understand what is at stake to pick up the boulders before them and do the heavy lifting.  I am buoyed by this certainty: "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'"  That voice is sufficient for me.

What I try to do when I write is to prepare people for the battles to come by depriving freedom's enemies of their mystique.  Governing powers attempting to subjugate their populations always use three highly effective weapons in their arsenal: (1) surprise, (2) demoralization, and (3) terror.

You thought you were exercising your constitutionally protected First Amendment rights to protest against a fraudulent election?  Surprise!  No rights for MAGA people!  Off to the dungeon without trial, cursed by lawmakers as unarmed "insurrectionists," or hunted down by the FBI for daring to trespass in the "people's house."  You were told "moderate" Biden would "unite" weary Americans?  Surprise!  Only by turning Americans against each other can the Marxist-socialists "fundamentally transform" the United States.  You thought nobody in America was above the law?  Surprise!  Clinton and Obama can use the Intelligence Community to plunge the country into chaos and nearly overthrow a duly elected president and will never see a day behind bars.  But a seventeen-year-old who shows up to protect downtown Kenosha buildings from being burned to the ground by Antifa thugs with criminal records determined to snuff out his life?  Surprise!  Self-defense is not allowed for the righteous.  The Second Amendment somehow disappears for those with "unsanctioned" beliefs.

Next comes the unceasing program to demoralize the masses.  There's a reason everything feels topsy-turvy these days; it's because constantly hitting people from all directions makes them feel overwhelmed and small.  Big Tech, Big Business, and Big Media are destroying free speech at the government's behest.  School boards are ramming racial Marxism and leftist religion into curriculums throughout the country.  The value of the dollar is decreasing daily.  The DOJ and FBI are actively using Antifa and BLM (evidenced by their overt support for both groups of domestic terrorists) as paramilitary shock troops to batter American citizens.  The Department of Homeland Security is doing everything it can (including paying lifetime windfalls to those who commit crimes) to encourage unlimited illegal immigration.  The military has chosen to prioritize "climate change" and "white rage" over national defense.  Universities and national news publications have unleashed a wave of propaganda to demonize America's founding as evil, and Hollywood pumps out movies and shows instructing Americans to hate themselves.  The only question the political left asks each day is this: how can we further demoralize the people we are conquering?

Finally, the buffet is not complete until intimidation and terror join surprise and demoralization to poison the American people.  Is it necessary for FBI regime enforcers to break through the front doors of January 6 protesters and execute arrests in the middle of the night with squads of soldiers who have weapons drawn?  No, but it sure is terrifying for anybody who watches the conveniently recorded video captured by media companies who have somehow been alerted to the government's planned "breaking and entering."  Does it make any logical sense to fire nurses, police officers, and other first responders who refuse to submit to experimental "vaccine" injections when their absence makes America less safe?  No, but it sure does intimidate and terrorize anybody who has the temerity to assert free will against the government's unconstitutional edicts.  

Surprise, demoralization, terror.  These are the weapons our enemies use today, and once you see these tools for what they are, a certain mystique imbuing them with power fades away.  A skilled warrior who has seen all his enemies' blows and knows what's hiding in every dark corner discovers bravery along the way.  And just because bad times may lie ahead, that doesn't mean we won't have great times, too.  Finding happiness in struggle is the most important struggle in life.  A hillbilly said that.  Consider it kryptonite against the communist agenda, because happiness is always communism's second victim after first killing off truth.

Image via Max Pixel.

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