A short rant about Covid lockdowns. You are not Non-Essential, and the government has no right to tell you that you, your job, your business, your religion, or even your hobbies are.
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Author: The Marginal Non-Hermit
I’m a big gamer, mostly video games, but a little tabletop here and there. There’s been a wonderful movement recently for those of us who believe in liberty–and therefore are not welcome in the socialist hellhole communities of a lot of games–to make our own games, materials, and communities as a counter.
I’m in favor of this. Let’s create stuff and make a flanking maneuver on the forces of political correctness and take our hobbies back!
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Three Cheers for Self Defense
Self-defense is one of the most important rights we have, a corollary of the right to life.
Here’s a short video that stems from the Kyle Rittenhouse case and explores some of the principles behind the right to self-defense, including application to the state, and the tools to self-defense.
I highly recommend reading the book “No Quarter: the Ravings of William Norman Grigg,” published posthumously by the Libertarian Institute. I hadn’t finished it when I made this video, but I’ve finished it now, and it’s worth a look.
It’s a great book by a great guy who only got greater later in life. His incisive criticism of police misconduct and his strong antiwar stance, coupled with his amazing presentation style make for fun reading.
You can pick it up here.
This review is available on Odysee and Bitchute.
Update: The video is now also available on YouTube.
I’m frankly surprised that this is becoming a viable topic. Secession is a hugely important part of liberty–it’s the ability of a person or a group to separate itself from a government that is not serving its purpose.
Yet at the same time, we need to be aware of inertia as a political force. If secession occurs in the U.S., we can expect that change to encourage some of the worst in government to seize as much power as possible.
Therefore, we need to support secession consistently (meaning even after a hypothetical U.S. national divorce) and work to avoid rapid polarization.
Anyway, this video is a short discussion on that topic.
Michael Rectenwald is an interesting guy who spent most of his life as a devout Marxist, only to turn over to the side of freedom quite recently. He spent a little time incognito as the “Anti-PC NYU Professor,” only to be outed and suffer a huge backlash.
He’s written a few books since then, and this is my short review of his book “Springtime for Snowflakes,” which is mostly autobiographical, but with a dash of flavor to introduce a few important topics, like Critical Theory.
…would still be just as vile.
What kinds of horrible things can the state get away with? Well, state agents can kill innocent people and get away with it. And if they declare some specific area a “war zone,” they can do it a lot, and the public doesn’t even usually care.
That’s why it’s up to those of us who love freedom to call them out for it, whenever they do it.
Here’s the article discussed in the video:
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-admits-airstrike-kabul-killed-innocent-aid-worker-children-2021-9?op=1
One of the issues people often underestimate is the state’s tenacity at finding and punishing its critics. In this video, I discuss two cases, in Quebec and Minnesota, where a Chinese student made statements on the internet about the corruption of the Chinese government while living abroad, only to discover upon returning to China that they were in significant legal trouble.
Links to the two articles are:
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/09/18/a-chinese-student-in-canada-had-two-followers-on-twitter-he-still-didnt-escape-beijings-threats-over-online-activity.html
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/01/31/prosecution-china-student-tweets-he-posted-while-studying-us-raises-free-speech
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Never Cede Linguistic Ground
Totalitarians and authoritarians of all stripes have a very common tendency to redefine words to suit their purposes, often mid-argument! This tactic is extremely dangerous and it is vital to identify it quickly (especially if used mid-argument), call it out promptly, and fight back. If you accede all definitions to your opponent, don’t be surprised if they win.
Also available at https://odysee.com/@MarginalNonHermit:3/never-cede-linguistic-ground:2
It occurred to me suddenly that there is a significant downside to co-opting psychological terminology for the purposes of “social justice.” Just watch the video, I guess.
Also available on Odysee at https://odysee.com/@MarginalNonHermit:3/drawbacks-psych-terminology:c