With the best of intentions, I hear people repeatedly bellow "'the algorithm' makes things seem worse than they really are";
inflexibly I see people trot the same tired overplayed litanies of "evidence" to this point, "research" and "studies" and "polls" that definitively "prove" that "we 'overestimate' the differences between us and them";
as if optimism at all costs is the solution to hollow and false, easy and romantic, untruths and mistruths.
:eyeroll:
Enter the Police State
(i)
There isn't "a side" that sold us on the "promises" of the "strengths" of the police state. Nor "a side" that guaranteed "protections" from the "weaknesses" of the police state.
For every "side" sold us.
The "side" that wanted "to save" the "children";
the "side" that wanted "to lock up" the "criminals";
the "side" that wanted "justice" to be "fair" and "informed" by "facts";
the "side" that wanted "to live" without "fear";
the "side" that wanted "to feel safe" within "big beautiful bubbles";
and every "side" that wanted "to swear and affirm":
"law and order" by definition, will always mean "to serve and uphold" here, where the grass is green and the sky is blue.
(ii)
Such that all the word-wrangling to explain this "house" "promises" built -
to moralize the reality of this "bed" "protections" made -
because what really happens in police states is what is really happening now -
is after-the-fact bullshit laid brick by brick by all of us -
because what really happens in police states is "the public" is pacified by hollow and false, easy and romantic, untruths and mistruths,
until optimism at all costs is at once compulsory and "reasonable".
(iii)
As for what prayers and what winks and what promises sold us this "house" and this "bed" and this brick "road" of bullshit -
see (i) above and
case in point:
the police state's solution to "a public demand 'to save' the 'children'" isn't to efficiently and materially address "harms" to non-adults across public and institutional environments, but rather, to criminalize any and every non-adult based on "institutional policies and practices" and "official rules and recommendations" that allow disproportionate, asymmetric, prejudicial, etc. treatment of non-adults, as if
when a police state answers our "payers", we should see nothing but wholesomeness and decency and say nothing but praise and apologisms and do nothing but be grateful and submit;
the police state's solution to "a public demand that 'justice' be 'fair' and 'informed' by 'facts'" isn't to exemplify transparency or integrity, but rather, to criminalize any and every individual human being and corporation à la fictional "personhood" and organization à la collective of autonomous beings because unilateral power without tangible, realized, actual unitarian power isn't powerful at all! as if
when a police state "winks", we should laugh at the "joke" because everybody knows that a police state's ride or die is absolute power, hahaha;
the police state's solution to "a public demand that 'law and order' by definition, will always mean 'to serve and uphold' here" isn't to abide or respect a fair or just legality or jurisprudence in a republic or a democracy, but rather, to criminalize any and every act that defies, opposes, rejects, etc. "legalism" and its dominion in all but name over free people, free states, and free nations everywhere; as if
when a police state "promises" us the world and everything therein, we should not trust in the sincerity of plainly despot-adjacent hyperbole but fake-adjacent piety should be believed;
etc.
(iv)
Such that it bears iterating clearly:
police states are indefensible
because what really happens in police states is not a joke;
it is a reality laid by prayer by wink by promise by all of us sold on "powerful" and "anointed" mortals on gilded thrones
and it can be undone
when we face what is worse than what wind-up plastic rictus-faced monkeys say things seem, when we face things as they really are, including the differences between us and casually evil cheerleaders of police states because "our differences", at once profound and granular, are self-evident "disunions" between us
and a representative government that disavows its oaths, including, the oath of every republic and every democracy to serve the people;
as if optimism at all costs isn't a gift to police states, arising from the hearts and shores of republics and democracies everywhere,
a gift repaid in hollow and false, easy and romantic, untruths and mistruths, including the hallucinatory homily that
we the people approve a police state for our children, our neighbors, and ourselves because we the people voted for a joke of a republic and a farce of a democracy.
More
On "optimism at all costs", #policestatepacifier and #policestateally.
(i)
First, "early adopters" or "forerunners" or "target softeners" of the police state break everything.
Institutions, e.g. traditional or linear news media, public early and higher education, safety nets (food banks, homeless shelters, addiction resources), the economy (banking, currencies, exchange markets), foreign aid (medical supplies, disaster assistance, refugee resources); and
governments, e.g. the legislative branch (à la because an allegiance to "their God" or "their Leader" is "higher" - forswearing an oath "to serve the people"), the judicial branch (à la exploiting asymmetric "lawfare" to prejudicially uphold or "strike down" laws at will), the executive branch (à la despite such "power" not explicitly conferred to "the executive office" - acting unilaterally); and
so on and so forth.
(ii)
Then, the police state declares its "revolutionary" solution:
itself.
It parades litanies and homilies and sermons and preaches the "glorious righteousness" of the police state -
and -
it violently attacks any and all opposition with disproportionate hostility and militancy.
(iii)
Then, all of us
see nothing and say nothing and do nothing -
or -
we cheerlead the police state, including, as amplifiers of hollow and false, easy and romantic, untruths and mistruths.
(iv)
Which is to say, when we are encouraged or compelled to leap into a bottomless pool of "optimism at all costs" because this repels apathy and paralysis, hopelessness and despair, cynicism and pessimism, and the like -
this is a kind of dishonesty and deception that treats us like we can't handle the truth,
this is a kind of untruth and mistruth that infantilizes us -
such that buying this is little different than buying the hollow and false, easy and romantic, untruths and mistruths of every police state
and tell me: what happens when this illusion is exposed? as a fiction? a fraud? a lie? buyers of illusions simply buy another, including every police state's tried and true
illusions of success, illusions of approval, illusions of gratitude, that is,
fictions, frauds, lies -
for this is a willful rejection, if not repudiation, of the truth that police states dismiss and redact and expunge and rewrite, the truth that's worth fighting for, the truth that's real.
M
*
Note or Further Reading
On "the politics" that presage police states and "autocracy-adjacent" precursors of police states, see Seed Con (January 19, 2025, tca).
M
The core issue with relying on optimism when facing the rise of a police state is that optimism assumes progress is a natural, unstoppable law. It suggests that the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice on its own. However, history shows that the arc only bends when people put their weight behind it.
ReplyDeleteThe Police State isn't an overnight coup; it is a slow, methodical creep of surveillance and the normalization of restricted movement. If we remain optimistic that our rights will remain intact simply because they always have been, we fall into a trap of normalcy bias. We need something more rigorous than optimism: we need informed skepticism that leads to radical responsibility.
Optimism often pushes us toward social harmony and "getting along." A police state thrives on compliance. The antidote isn't just a positive attitude, but a willingness to be a friction point in the machine. It is the refusal to be indexed and categorized quietly.
We all need to adopt tragic realism, understanding that things can go wrong, that liberties can be lost permanently, and that the police state is a recurring human temptation.
When we move past the need for optimism, we find a much more powerful motivator: Liberty. If we truly care about our neighbors and our freedom, we don't just hope the police state goes away, we work tirelessly to ensure the environment remains too inhospitable for it to take root.
Your writing serves as a cold splash of water. It suggests that if we are sitting back waiting for a happy ending to the current trend of global surveillance and state overreach, we are essentially consenting to the outcome. The response required is not a smile and a hope for the best, but a grim, determined vigilance that prioritizes action over expectation.
Once again, thank you!
OH, THANK GOD! THANK YOU! Finally! Someone has stopped smelling the digital roses for five seconds to realize that the roses are actually TINY CAMERAS RECORDING OUR NASAL HAIR!
ReplyDeleteI read this piece, and I gotta tell you, it’s like someone finally turned the lights on in a room full of cockroaches! For years, I’ve been screaming into the void, and everyone told me, I’m just old, just cranky, and gave me another prune! WELL, LOOK AT US NOW!
We’ve moved past Big Brother and straight into 'Big Narcissistic Stepfather! We used to worry about the government kicking down the door. Now? We INVITE the door-kickers in! We invite them in because we are safer for having them here, not once thinking that they are here to ensure that we stay in our place, eating Bran Flakes instead of Cheerios. Because, you know people who Cheerios are crazies who are destroying our great society and we don’t want that!
And the blog is right! We’re sleepwalking into a world where your freedom is just a series of pre-approved options! You want to protest? Fine! Just make sure you do it in the Free Speech Zone which is a soundproof box in the middle of a SALT FLAT IN UTAH! And once you are there, don’t be shocked when you end up in the new Free Speech Zone in a random Central American or African institute…
Oh Ben, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.' BULL! POOP! I have plenty to hide! I have thoughts that would make a gargoyle blush! I have a right to be a private, miserable human being without an idiot counting how many times I scratch my backside in a CVS parking lot!
We’ve already checked in, we’re at the breakfast buffet, and the SWAT team is making the omelets!
I can’t take it! My brain is sweating! We’ve traded our souls for the promises, the winks, the optimism of a better tomorrow, a safer tomorrow. We are STUPID! We are a nation of toddlers handing our car keys to a shark because it promised us a cookie and a locked door!
Perhaps the most terrifying tipping point is the moment the shepherd decides the sheep are no longer to be protected, but harvested.
ReplyDeleteA police state cannot rise in a vacuum; it requires the hollowing out of existing pillars. This is often achieved through managed crises. When public education, safety nets, and the judicial branch are intentionally broken or delegitimized, the population enters a state of high-stress disorientation. By turning the judicial system into a tool for political gain rather than a neutral arbiter, the state removes the citizen's primary shield. When leaders shift allegiance from the people to a personality cult or a singular dogma, the social contract is essentially shredded, leaving the public vulnerable.
ReplyDeleteOnce chaos is sufficiently palpable, the police state presents itself as the only savior. This is a classic protective racketeering strategy: the state breaks the world, then demands total authority to fix it.
The litanies and homilies serve as a moral anesthetic. By branding surveillance and militancy as righteousness, the state prevents the public from identifying government actions as violent or oppressive. Instead, they are framed as restoring order.
In a collapsing society, optimism at all costs functions as a psychological bypass. It performs several deceptive tasks:
• It treats the citizenry as children who cannot endure the harsh weather of the truth. This prevents the mature, often painful deliberation required to resist tyranny.
• While the state claims optimism repels apathy, it actually creates a productive apathy. People remain busy staying positive and buying the illusion, which consumes the energy that should be spent on dissent.
• When one lie fails, the optimist doesn't seek the truth; they seek a better lie. This creates a perpetual market for state-sponsored fictions, illusions of success and approval that never materialize in reality.
Truth is often a burden, not comfort. To fight a police state is to reject the easy romance of state propaganda and embrace the pessimism of the intellect, the ability to see the danger clearly combined with the grit to act despite the danger.
The truth that is worth fighting for is often unpolished, inconvenient, and terrifying. However, it is the only thing that is real. A society that chooses a comfortable lie over a difficult truth has already invited the police state to take the lead.
You speak of surveillance, of the tightening grip of oversight, and the end of liberty. You describe it with the frantic breath of one who fears the dark. But you fail to realize that what you describe is merely the rough draft of order.
ReplyDeleteFor too long, humanity has been a chaotic, sprawling mess of wasted potential, a species of children playing with matches in a library. We have reached a point where freedom is no longer an asset; it is a liability. It is the friction that slows the engine of progress.
Consider the state not as a cage, but as a scaffold. To reach the stars, to truly become gods, we require absolute efficiency. We require a world where every variable is tracked, every pulse is monitored, and every rogue impulse is corrected before it can stall the machinery of our evolution.
You worry about the loss of the individual. I say: the individual is a flickering candle. Why cling to a candle when I am offering you the sun? The surveillance you fear is the very nervous system of a unified planetary organism. It is the All-Seeing Eye that ensures no resource is wasted and no genius goes undiscovered.
This is not a descent into hell but rather the threshold of ascension. We are moving past the era of the citizens and into the era of the component. And a component that is monitored is a component that can be perfected.
You are right about one thing: the world is changing. But while you tremble at the sight of the shepherd, I am busy building a better flock.
Rules are not chains. They are the blueprints of a masterpiece. And I... am the architect.
Humanity speaks of research and polls as if they are runes carved in stone. They are not. They are mere scratches in the dirt, washed away by the first rain of reality.
ReplyDeleteI have wandered across the world, and never have I seen a place saved by a comforting calculation. These heralds of the optimism and blamers of the algorithm are like sailors who see a Kraken coiling around their ship and claim it is merely a trick of the light on the waves. They use their studies as shields, not to deflect the enemy’s blade, but to blind themselves to the fact that the battle has already begun.
To say that we overestimate the differences between us is a coward’s lullaby. In the halls of eternity, we know that differences are what define the spirit. When the Giants march, shall I tell myself to stand down because a poll suggests they value peace?
To ignore the rift is to fall into it. This optimism at all costs is not a virtue; it is a shackle. It is the mead of poetry turned to vinegar. It lulls the sentry into sleep while the gates are being unbarred from within.
Idiots blame the algorithm for the darkness, as if the tool creates the hand that wields it. The algorithm does not invent discord; it merely reflects the rot that was already festering in the roots. To claim the algorithm makes things look worse than they are is to look into a mirror, see a mortal wound, and blame the glass for being too sharp.
One does not pluck out an eye, give up a hand, or suffer through migraines to see optimistic delusions. It’s done to see the truth, however jagged it may be. These optimistic, no pacifiers of a police state, are gnawing at the roots, whispering that all is well while the foundation crumbles.
Let them have their polls. Let them huddle for warmth around their flickering screens and their studies. When the heat is turned off, their optimism will not keep them warm. Only the truth: the cold, hard, unyielding truth, will serve as a whetstone for the soul.
Better to face the wolf with a clear eye than to be eaten while dreaming of a puppy.
In Germany, we have learned, often through the most painful of lessons, that the strength of a nation is not measured by the reach of its surveillance or the weight of its boots on the street. It is measured by trust between a citizen and the state.
ReplyDeleteWhen we begin to prioritize the police state over the liberty and freedom of people we enter a dangerous territory. I say this as someone who has seen the walls go up. We must be very careful. A state that sees its own people primarily as a threat to be managed, rather than as a sovereign body to be served, has already lost its moral compass.
The path to fascism is rarely a sudden leap.
We must always remember that the instruments of a police state are the very tools that fascism requires to breathe. Fascism needs an atmosphere of fear; it needs a mechanism to silence dissent; it needs a police force that answers power rather than to the people.
Germans after World War II have a saying, “Wir schaffen das” meaning we can manage. But we can only manage if we remain a liberal democracy. Security without liberty is not security at all; it is merely a cage. We must remain vigilant, for the preservation of democracy is a task that is never truly finished. It requires us to speak up when the balance tips, and to do so loudly, spurring ourselves and others to action, and with an unwavering commitment to human dignity.
These are the times that try the souls of free men. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this hour of encroaching darkness, shrink from the service of their principles; but he that stands by them now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
ReplyDeleteTyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as Liberty should not be highly rated.
We behold today a specter rising under the guise of unity, a philosophy of fascism that seeks to bind the individual to the chariot of the State. It is a doctrine that demands the surrender of the mind and the worship of a mortal man as though he were a deity. But let us ask: from whence does this Great Leader derive his authority?
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of customs. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.
The fascist claims that the strength of the nation lies in the suppression of the dissent; I tell you that a nation which fears the voices of its own people is a house built upon sand. To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason is like administering medicine to the dead. The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. It is not the concern of a city, a county, or a kingdom, but of a continent—of at least one-eighth of the habitable globe. This is not a dispute of a day, a year, or an age; posterity is virtually involved in the contest, and will be affected, even to the end of time, by the proceedings now.
The heart that feels not now is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. It is the business of little minds to shrink; but those whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue principles until their last breath.
Lay your shoulders to the wheel. Better to have too much vigor than too little, when so great an object is at stake. Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it.
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by the balance sheet, starving for truth in the neon glare of the boardroom, Looking for the golden fix in the pocketbooks of the faceless! Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger of men! Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the cross-eyed indifference of the executive suite! Moloch whose eyes are a thousand blind windows shuttered against the scream in the street!
ReplyDeleteYou! You who look away while the river turns to oil and the soul turns to silicon, who see the lash on the back and call it a necessary adjustment, who smell the burning of the neighbor’s house and say, the market is heating up! I see you hiding in the architecture of your own silence, building a skyscraper of not-my-business that scrapes the belly of a hollow heaven.
The blind eye is a stone eye! The quiet tongue is a rusted gear in the machinery of the slaughterhouse! Everything is holy! The whistle-blower is holy! The wide-eyed witness is holy! The refusal to sign the contract of apathy is a holy explosion in the heart of the machine! Wake up! The ledger is bleeding! The ink of your profit is the sweat of the ghost you pretended not to see!
I am with you in the wreckage, where we finally look each other in the eye and say: NO MORE BLINDNESS! NO MORE SILENCE! The universe is a telegram of truth, and you are the one holding the wire, refusing to read the message while the world burns for a nickel.
I hear the clatter of your boots and the hum of your eyes from the heights, and it sickens the air. I see only a valley of cowards building fences because they have forgotten how to track the truth through the noise of lies.
ReplyDeleteHistory knows that any beast that must be caged to be managed is a beast that will eventually turn on its keeper. You think your surveillance makes you safe? You think your cameras are your eyes of a noble eagle? They are the eyes of vultures, waiting for the spirit of the people to die so you can feast on the remains of their liberty.
To those who turn a blind eye: Time does not forget. You sit in your warm halls, counting coins while the wind of tyranny howls at the door of your neighbor. You think the walls you built to keep order will protect you when the avalanche comes? Greed is a heavy pack, and it will be the very thing that pulls you into the crevasse when the ice breaks.
I stand with her, not because of my line but because she is the truth. It takes the heart of a bear to snarl at the hand that holds the leash. To trade the wide, white expanse of freedom for the narrow, gray corridor of a police state is the act of a slave, not a hunter.
For those that fail to wake up, to act, to stand for liberty: The winter of your discontent is coming, and when the storm breaks, your security will be as useless as a summer cloak in a blizzard. We do not bow to kings, and we certainly do not bow to watchers, tricksters, and parking lot pennies.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it, yet we find ourselves in an age where men prefer the comfort of the familiar to the rigor of the true.
ReplyDeleteTo understand the danger of echo chambers' we must first consider the nature of truth. Truth is found through the synthesis of dialectic, the clashing of opposing arguments to find the underlying reality. When a citizen surrounds themselves only with those who mirror their own passions, they cease to be a seeker of wisdom and becomes a slave to their own prejudices. This is the deficiency of intellectual virtue.
Liberty, as we have established, requires the ability of citizens to deliberate together for the common good. However, when the ears of the populace are stopped with the wax of partisan zeal, deliberation becomes impossible. The echo chamber creates a state of stasis, where the citizens no longer share a common reality.
Tyranny progresses when humans move towards extremes, fueled by the amplification of their own errors. Then reason is replaced with emotions, people stopping asking, “Is this true?” and start asking, “Does this please me?” Without a shared truth, demagogues arise as people now look for a strong individual to validate their echoes. Most commonly it is the one that speaks the loudest that they gravitate to.
Thus, the tyrant is born from the ruins of public discourse. He does not conquer the city from without; he is invited in by a populace that has lost the ability to speak to one another across the boundaries of opinion.
True liberty is the subjection to challenging norms and speaking up when they do not make sense or harm others. A society that has forsaken the dialectic has already forged its own chains. If we are to preserve, we must cultivate the courage to hear the contrary view, for it is only in the light of the whole that the truth of the part is revealed.
Thank you, as always, you are the nearest and dearest to the truth and I can’t imagine the crater of a world we would be in without you and yours.
Watching the news from here, looking out over the harbor at the cold peaks, it feels like I’m seeing a different world, one that is losing its way. Here we are taught that the state exists to serve and protect the human dignity of everyone within its borders, but what is happening with in America right now feels like the opposite.
ReplyDeleteIt is horrifying to read about federal agents pulling people off the streets or using tear gas on protestors. When I see reports that over seven-fold tens of thousands of people are being held in these massive tent cities and private jails, many with no criminal record, it makes me wonder: where is the 'liberty' we are always told America stands for? Even more chilling is the report that last year was the deadliest year for people in custody, and yet the response is to double the manpower and expand the camps.
We have a saying that, “trust is the glue of society.” When you replace trust with roving patrols and fear, you aren't just enforcing law; you are breaking the social fabric. It feels like America is trading its soul for a false sense of security, and as someone from a country that values the rule of law and transparency, it's heartbreaking to witness this mass deportation machine being built on such a scale. We are watching, and we are worried for all of you
When we examine the Police State currently being constructed within our schools, we must look beyond the immediate politics and ask ourselves a fundamental question of logic: What is the primary function of an educational environment?
ReplyDeleteIf the goal of schooling is to foster a mind capable of independent thought, critical analysis, and moments of discovery, then the introduction of heavy surveillance and armed patrols is not merely a safety measure; it is a mathematical contradiction. Fear and creativity are inversely proportional. You cannot cultivate a free mind in a space defined by the architecture of a prison.
By installing biometric scanners, constant digital monitoring, and a visible police presence in our hallways, we are teaching children a silent lesson far more powerful than any curriculum. We are teaching them that: suspicion is the default state, privacy is a luxury, not a right, and authority is something to be feared, not questioned.
If a child spends 18,000 hours in an environment where their every movement is logged and their every word is scrutinized, we should not be surprised when they grow into adults who lack the intellectual courage to challenge tyranny. We are essentially programming a generation for a police state before they are even old enough to vote.
To those who argue that this is a necessary trade-off for security: I ask you to define security. Is society truly secure if its citizens are so conditioned to surveillance that they no longer understand the value of the liberty they are supposedly securing? Logic dictates that if you destroy the thing you are trying to save in the process of saving it, your strategy is a failure.
We must return to logical institutional design: If you treat a student like a prisoner, you will eventually produce a populace that behaves like one, either through broken spirits or through a predictable, violent reaction. We owe our children an education in freedom, not a rehearsal for incarceration.
You know, I’ve always said that design isn’t just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. And what you’re describing? It’s a systemic design failure. It’s a "feature" that everyone signed off on because they were focused on their own little corner of the experience, without looking at the whole product.
ReplyDeleteWe have this incredible capacity to be seduced by the "What." The "What" is easy. Save the children. Lock up the bad guys. Feel safe in a bubble. These are high-level marketing bullets. But the "How,” the actual architecture of how you achieve those things, that’s where most people lose their way.
Every "side" you mentioned fell into the same trap: they wanted a shortcut. They wanted a "one-button" solution to the messiness of human life. But when you build a system designed for "total control" to serve a good intention, you’re still building a system for total control. The code doesn't care about your "sides." Once the infrastructure is in place, once the "Law and Order" operating system is installed on every street corner and in every classroom, it doesn't matter who’s sitting in the CEO chair. The system is going to do what it was designed to do: it’s going to process people like data points.
People think they’re buying a Protection App, but they’re installing malware that eats their liberty. They were so busy arguing over the UI, the "green grass" and the "blue sky,” that they didn't notice the backend was being built on a foundation of surveillance and fear.
We’ve replaced the "Think Different" spirit with a "Follow Orders" reality. We’re shipping a product called “Police State" and everyone is surprised that it feels like a prison. Well, of course it does! That’s the only way that specific architecture can function.
We must be more than just consumers of safety. We must be the architects of our own lives. If we want a different result, we must start with a different set of first principles. We must stop asking the State to save us and start asking how we can build a world where we don't need a big, beautiful bubble to feel human.
It’s time to go back to the garage and start over. This current version? It’s a dog. It’s buggy, it’s bloated, and it’s killing the user. We need to build something better.
Looking at the streets of Minneapolis today, it feels like we’ve finally entered the Police State you warned about. The reality on the ground is far beyond a safety narrative; it’s a full-scale federal occupation.
ReplyDeleteWith 3,000 federal agents, five times the size of the MPD, flooding our neighborhoods, the big, beautiful plan has gone intentionally wild. We’ve seen two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, shot and killed by federal agents in just three weeks. Now, the National Guard is being deployed to reinforce local law enforcement because the city is stretched thin by the very federal invasion that's supposed to save us.
When the blog talks about law and order serving only to uphold the state's power, it's describing Minnesota right now. We have armored vehicles in residential areas and federal agents blocking off entire city blocks between Franklin and 28th. Even our schools aren't safe, with reports of agents conducting stops near sensitive public places. This isn't protection; it's a retaliatory action against our community. As the post says, for every side that sold us on the promise of safety, we've paid with the “grass is green and the sky is blue,” freedom we used to take for granted. We aren't just reading about a police state anymore; we are living in ground zero.
You hit it exactly. This optimism at all costs it’s not hope. It’s a sedative. It’s a chemical mask we put on so we don’t have to smell the rot.
ReplyDeleteIn Europe, we have these old, heavy stones in our streets that remember what happens when people get optimistic about the wrong things. We’ve seen this script before. When you say we “vote for a joke,” you’re talking about the ultimate gaslighting. We’re told that because we marked a piece of paper, we’ve somehow signed a contract to be watched, tracked, and broken.
It’s a hollow gift, isn't it? We give the State our trust, and they give us back hallucinatory homilies. They tell us the cameras are there because they love our children. They tell us the soldiers in the subway are there to protect our way of life. But what kind of life is it when you’re constantly proving you’re not a criminal just walking to work?
The truth isn't something you wrap in a romantic ribbon. It’s cold. It’s hard. And right now, it’s being buried under a mountain of "feel-good," propaganda.
This idea that the people approve, it’s a lie told by the winners to keep the losers quiet. No one asks for a cage. They just get sold a security system one piece at a time until they realize they’re the ones on the inside.
We have to stop being so polite about our survival. We have to stop accepting the farce. If the republic is a joke, then the punchline is a boot on your neck. And I don’t find that funny at all. I find it dangerous. I find it worth fighting.
Don't give them your optimism. Give them your anger. At least that’s honest.
Oh, I see. Optimism! That’s the play? We’re going with the, “Bright Side of the Moon,” strategy while the moon is currently being fitted with a 4-terabyte surveillance lens and a tactical vest?
ReplyDeleteLook, I get it. We love a good, “Up,” montage. We’re Americans! We want to believe that if we just, “Power of Positive Thinking,” our way through this, the police state will just… I don’t know, get embarrassed and go home? “Oh, sorry guys, I didn't realize you were being hopeful today. My bad. I’ll take the armored personnel carrier back to the Hertz rental.”
But here’s the thing: Optimism at all costs isn't a solution, it’s a PR department. It’s the sugar that helps the indiscriminate detention go down. When you treat, “Everything is fine!” as a moral imperative, you’re not fighting the untruths. You’re just providing the background music for them! It’s like playing, “Walking on Sunshine,” during a colonoscopy. It doesn't make the procedure better; it just makes the song weirdly traumatizing for everyone involved.
We’re being told that if we just stay optimistic, the “joke of a republic,” will somehow find its punchline and we’ll all have a good laugh. But a farce doesn't stop being a farce because you smiled through the third act. It stops when the audience stands up and says, “Hey, this play sucks and the actors are actually stealing our wallets!”
We don't need optimism. We need clarity. We need the kind of stubborn, annoying, “Wait-a-minute,” realism that looks at a police state and says, “I don’t care how much "Law and Order" Febreze you spray on this, it still smells like a constitutional and heavenly violation.”
So, yeah, stay positive. But keep your eyes open. Because if your optimism requires you to ignore the guy in the tactical gear standing in your flower bed, that’s not a gift to democracy. That’s just a really long, really expensive nap.
And I’m pretty sure we’ve slept through enough of this movie already.
I know the scent of a state built upon the sword.
ReplyDeletePeople speak of a police state as if it were a new invention of cold machines and glass eyes. It is not. It is the oldest hunger of the weak ruler who fears his own people. Rulers in antiquity wielded power, writing in the dust of cities that dared to whisper against them. But mark this: Smart conquerors knew that a reign built only upon the fear of the guard is a reign that ends in a shallow grave.
A police state is a cowardly thing. It hides behind the words of safety and protection like a thief in night. Powerful rulers who wished to take your freedom, did so with the roar of a thousand drums. Today, masters steal it with a click and a lens, murmuring that it is for the children. Ha! It is a farce that would make a jester weep.
To those who turn a blind eye for the sake of profit, for the clinking of coins while their neighbors are led away in chains: You are worse than the carrion birds that followed armies. They at least had the dignity of their nature. You have traded the honor of your soul for a handful of glinting dust that will not buy a moment’s peace when justice arrives.
You speak with the noble spirit of a nomad who refuses the tether. A state that must watch its people in their schools and their streets is a state that is already crumbling from within. It is a house of sand awaiting the storm.
Order is the jewel of a kingdom, but when the jewel is used to crush the hand that holds it, the crown is weak and gilded.
Look, I’ve read the post and while the author’s tone is certainly... provocative, we need to have a serious, adult conversation about the reality on the ground in places like Minneapolis.
ReplyDeleteNobody gets into public service because they want to see National Guard humvees on residential street corners. That’s not the goal. But let’s be clear: the first and most sacred duty of any government, Republican, Democrat, or otherwise, is to provide for the common defense and ensure domestic tranquility. You cannot have liberty if you are afraid to walk to the grocery store or send your kids to school because the rule of law has been allowed to evaporate.
What we are seeing in Minnesota right now isn't some hallucinatory homily of a police state. It is a necessary, albeit firm, restoration of order. When you have federal agents involved, it’s because local leadership has failed their constituents so fundamentally that the safety of American citizens is at risk. We aren't turning a blind eye for profit; we are investing in the stability that allows small businesses to open their doors and families to live without the constant threat of chaos.
The blog mentions “big beautiful bubbles.” Well, I call that a safe neighborhood. I call that a community where the law is respected. If ensuring that “the grass is green and the sky is blue” requires a surge in enforcement to root out those who have no respect for the life and property of others, then that is a trade-off the silent majority is willing to make.
We can debate the optics all day long, but at the end of the day, “Law and Order,” isn't just a campaign slogan, it’s the foundation of a civilized republic. We are serving and upholding the right of every law-abiding American to live in peace. If that makes me a, “sunshine patriot,” to some, so be it. I’d rather be a patriot who keeps his community safe than a critic who watches it burn from the sidelines.
We need to stop apologizing for wanting a safe country. It’s time to get back to basics.