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Showing content with the highest reputation on 01/14/21 in all areas

  1. 14 January 2021 We will crush their violence enacted under their feast of self-delusion and contempt for our Constitutional rule of law. The republic will prevail. The citizens on both sides are armed if it should come to that, but I expect the organized force of the American government will succeed in defense and in bringing the violators to commensurate penalty. Tony: Indeed the American citizens overwhelmingly are not so stupid as to buy into Left-tarring of the bulk of Republicans as fascists and white-supremacist. And they are overwhelmingly not so stupid as to buy into the Right-tarring of the bulk of Democrats (and Biden/Harris) as socialists or communists. Many of my relatives and friends voted for Donald Trump in 2020. Most of them have detested his behaviors with regard to the election result. What they had in common with Trump voters who bought and sold the BIG LIE of a purported Trump/Pence win of this national election being STOLEN was only a preference for that ticket over the Democratic one. It is not the case that those who showed up for the fateful Trump rally are representative of the majority of citizens who voted for Mr. Trump. ~American Republic Forever~
    3 points
  2. The one error I have to point out in your comment is that anarchism does not ignore the concept of government, it misunderstands the concept. The anarchist position denies the validity of government, but has not resolved the problem of thieves under anarchy. One view is that anarchy is a utopian ideal, which can exist only when no person would ever use force – it’s a Platonic form towards which we might strive, but it is excruciatingly unlikely that it will ever exist. A closely related next-most surreal form of anarchism, sour grapes anarchism, declares that anyone using force has ipso facto become a government. If you steal my stuff, you have become a taxing government. The third circle of anarchism, more familiar to us because it is widely held in libertarian anarcho-capitalist circles, maintains that there is no special entity, government, which has a rightful monopoly on the use of force. Instead, anyone can rightfully use force, as long as they do not initiate use of force. The point about wielding force “autonomously” is obscured by the unmodified use of the word “force”. The problem is that if some jackass threatens me with a knife, I have to act autonomously right then and there, and will not roll over and get stabbed to death because I don’t have the right to use force on the premise that only the government can use force. It is very important that we not suggest that the Objectivist ethics requires you to roll over and die when attacked (Objectivism is not pacifism). Rather, the use of force is to be put under the control of objective law. Objective law mandates that force only be chosen by certain agents of the government who compare the facts and the law to see if force is justified, but it also provides an exception for life-threatening emergencies, where you can defend yourself if attacked. I know that interjecting law as an intermediary complicates the computation of rightful use of force, but it is an essential complication. Force is to be under the control of objective law. The government states what that law is. A proper philosophy is necessary for the government to devise proper laws.
    2 points
  3. Anarchy ignores the concept of government—a monopoly on the use of physical force. Whoever is an a position to weild physical force autonomously IS the governor. The “private physical force entity” in the anarchist thought experiment IS a government.
    1 point
  4. whYNot, I thought it worth the time to further explain my earlier statements regarding the "radical Christian conservative agenda," and the reasons why I believe their position of power in mainstream politics gives them an advantage. The position of power, of which I write, is the armed forces of the United States. Ultimately, in any violent power struggle, the ones with the greater might decide what is right. The American armed forces are an institution that has grown, shrank, repeated this cycle following every war, and, since December 7th, 1941, emerged to become the most dominant and potentially destructive force the world has ever known. I am grateful for this fact, grateful that random probability permits me to live within these borders, secure from external threats, and grateful to the men and women who service in my nation's uniform. However, I find it troubling to learn of the aggressive indoctrination of American servicemen and women, pressured by dominion theology. Dominion theology is supported by Christian leaders with designs to establish biblical law. There is historical context that explains the indoctrination of US servicemen and women. I'll try to be brief: The shaping of American military force in the aftermath of 1945 has radically changed, as it has taken on the role of securing more than our national borders. It secures an American empire. Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, along with the Department of Defense perceived a lack of cohesion, a unifying ideology that would fire the imagination of men to fight to ultimate victory against the atheistic communists. It was also a time of racial integration. Spiritual leaders, such as Rev Billy Graham and Bishop Fulton Sheen, were rising stars of a religious awakening in the 1950s. The solution was to draft new codes of behavior for US servicemen, based on Bible-teachings. As this newly created ideology of Bible-based nationalism spread into the civilian realm of public schools, a minority of parents objected to religious indoctrination of their children at the expense of their tax dollars. This and the many other political movements of the 1960s ignited our present-day culture war. American service men and women come from every diverse identity group you can think of, and the transition to full integration of some of these "people of diversity" has been problematic, to say the least. Without exception, everyone either in or formerly in the Service I've spoken to in recent years is Christian. Parents of men serving tend to be Christian. I've not spoken with any who are completely comfortable with the cultural changes imposed by civilian leaders upon men in service. Herein, I believe, is the compression-point of a major problem. Whether civilian or those sworn to protect civilians, these inductees to Christ's army are very likely to turn on any collective their commanders identify as the "Army of Satan." I support my local police. But one day, they may not be sufficient to suppress the sort of uprisings we saw last summer, and many summer prior. In a Christian police state, under martial law, with all of the myriad of digital surveillance methods at our government's disposal, a free-thinker would be as welcomed as a rattlesnake. And likely to be disposed of with equal haste. Luke 19:27, "But those mine enemies, which would not that I reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."
    1 point
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