Starting a Christmas tradition, here are the “20 Most Quotable Quotes – 2022”: the most compelling comments by brilliant minds harvested throughout the year from Facebook, Twitter, various cites and comments sections around the Internet (even a few of my own!). All of them focus on the ‘state of the nation’, not as customarily referenced in political terms, but as reflected in our shared reality and, pragmatically, to see a way forward for us and our posterity. Feel free – in fact, you’re encouraged – to share them with other inquiring minds.
Brian Wilson
Christmas Morning 2022.
Quotable Quotes – 2022
The very first prerequisite for being intellectually smart is skepticism. You can have a very high functioning brain–or a super-duper computer–but if you feed it bad information you’ll get bad results: garbage in; garbage out. Skepticism is what controls inputs. Without it, you’re just a quick-thinking goldfish. Intellectually smart is NOT any gauge of emotional stability.
Bob Anon
If you believe, as Americans traditionally have, that government gets its authority from the people, how does government assume authority for something that would be a crime for you and me? Is it possible that that government is criminal indeed?
“*” indicates required fields
Don Anon
“Government” is the name of a very real gang of people. It is true that many people falsely believe the gang has a special exemption from fundamental moral behavior.
That widespread false belief, along with an even more widespread refusal to resist on the grounds of self-preservation are what allows the gang to continue to exist.
A prerequisite to societal progress is that enough* people understand the error in believing anyone has an exemption from basic moral behavior. Government, by definition, rests entirely on that false exemption, and is therefore inherently illegitimate.
Once that prerequisite is met, then resistance can yield positive results provided enough* people participate.
* Enough is the operative word. Clearly if everyone participates in resisting the gang, its dissolution is assured, and with minimal violence. If only a handful resist, the gang will squash them, funded by the efforts of those who do not resist. Open to debate is the minimum percentage of resisters needed to assure dissolution. I suspect it is lower than most of us think.
Sally Mills
It’s the logical fallacy of begging the question. The government has the authority to do what it does because it’s the government. There is no valid logical argument for it. Unfortunately, most human beings can’t reason or use rational, logic or common sense to save their lives. They are ignorant, lazy sloths who care more about being seen as cool and hip and rich than more profound things like free-will, dignity and the their kid’s future.
Don Cooper
Legally, Morally, Logically, Reasonably, Objectively Authority and Power comes from and stops at one place: You. Every other entity claiming to exercise Authority and Power over you and ‘the people’, do so illegally and immorally; logic and reason thus become irrelevant since Authority combined with Power equals Force and Force does not require Reason, just the Means.
Brian Wilson
The only idea they have ever manifested as to what is a government of consent is this — that it is one to which everybody must consent, or be shot.”
Lysander Spooner
It should be abundantly clear by now that our problem isn’t the state. The state is only a symptom. The problem is our unimaginative, obsequiously obedient, statist-to-the-core population, without which the state would be a much smaller problem. We can write all the essays we want, teach all the economics we want, cite all the great thinkers in the libertarian tradition we want. It’s not going to work because the Nitwit Mob doesn’t want to be reasoned with. They don’t want to consider your point of view. They want an all-powerful state to care for them like they are livestock and they demand you take your place in the stable next to them (not to mention pay for the stable).
Tom Mullen
Just having the words on paper does not mean stated principles or written laws will be obeyed. The arbitrary, selective obedience – now in common practice by government at all levels – is what renders the Constitution and Bill of Rights worthless as any solid defense against tyranny. As a result, your freedom is merely theoretical to the moment.
A. Nonny Moose, Sayer of Confounding Things (ret.)
“I don’t think we are fighting RINOs or Ds. I think we are fighting global systems of control. Globalists. It is the same fight that Brazilians are facing … that Canadians are facing … the Brits are facing. I believe that “they” mobilized a global pandemic to stop Trump and the Brexit contagion. Stop to consider that for a moment. They showed us that they have the organization and resources to initiate a global pandemic. They showed us that they have people placed in all the right places in the US and other governments to work from the inside … their systems of control are so strong and vast that they can mobilize Big Tech and global media resources to enforce a global propaganda campaign. It’s truly mind-boggling. The demonstrated power of our enemy is astonishing. Their organization is astonishing. Their reach and penetration into all aspects of everyday life — everywhere — is astonishing…I don’t want to believe that such an organization exists … but it’s literally right in front of our eyes all the time. What other conclusion can there be?”
Ed Kilduff
It’s not a massive leap when you consider that at heart, all governments are is a large criminal conspiracy, ripe with corruption and begging to be further corrupted. To think that various criminal conspiracies would work together isn’t exactly unheard of, just the opposite actually.
If we spend too much time wondering who exactly is in charge of this conspiracy, we miss the bigger picture, which is that it’s only possible because government itself is criminal and makes this large scale crime, not only possible, but inevitable.
Of course you will get grand scale manipulation when government is allowed to grow ever larger and larger. We gave a criminal conspiracy control over every aspect of our lives, including our media decades ago. What else would you expect? Would you expect them Not to abuse that power, to line their own pockets, in any and every way possible?
And by the way, 9/11 was also pretty much a worldwide event and was treated as such. How was the immediate roll out of the Patriot act and all the wars that came after any different than this covid con? Remember the anthrax vaccine developed during that time as well? They got away with scaring everyone in America 24/7 with terrorists color coded warning and all that crap for so long, why wouldn’t they use that same exact model again and again against the people to grab more power and money?
This isn’t the first time or the last, that they will put together a world changing global level mind fuck on us.
Brad Smith
The simple statement that you cannot apply to yourself what is good for you proves that state authority crushes your most basic rights. It also crushes the basic rights of all those who are negatively impacted by any state decision. The fact that many people consider themselves donating to a supposed collective good that the state has “a mission to ensure” destroys their sense of self. Giving to a common good that hurts you materially has never been a practical measure of rationality. On the contrary, those who adopt this stance fail to live the freedom for which they were born. Throwing away the innate intellectual ability you possess. These, when well-intentioned, do not exercise their sovereignty and unconsciously submit to the will of individuals whose mentality acts strategically on the course of enslaving their fellows.
Andre Moreira
The idea is rather simple – They believe that ‘we the people’ cannot be allowed to come to our own conclusions. They think we cannot be trusted to develop the “proper” viewpoints and we are not smart enough to understand the implications of governmental decisions.
In other words, they believe the exact opposite of what is outlined in the US Constitution.
PJ O’Rourke
Liberals believe anything that advances independence limits their power and control. Guns, free speech, critical thinking are threats that must be suppressed, regulated, prohibited, or taxed until they are eradicated – along with the rights and freedom they once protected.
James Bovard
Almost every single “conspiracy claim” made by liberty groups over the past two decades has turned out to be true. There is indeed an authoritarian agenda at the core of our government today, and it has been gestating for many years. We saw this agenda enacted right out in the open during the pandemic lockdowns. The federal government and some state governments sought to erase nearly every protection outlined in the Bill of Rights, including free speech.
I don’t think people realize how close we actually came to a kinetic civil war because of the covid mandates and the attempted vaccine passports. We were two seconds away from midnight. All I can say is, the moment someone tries to force me to take an untested Big Pharma product, I’ll put them six feet under. And, almost everyone I know feels the same way.
There is no conspiracy theory, there is only conspiracy reality.
A. Nonny Moose, Absolute Absolutist (ret.)
The “free and fair elections” we may have had (by comparison) only served to bring us to where we are via the scourge of Politics and Lust for Power. “Journalism” died a slow, unnoticed death decades ago. Only today are most noticing the fetid corpse every evening on “the News”.
Brian Wilson
Under the Biden administration’s “whatever it takes” Ukraine doctrine of wanton spending, the Federal Reserve’s crippling of the economy and debasement of the dollar, and the ‘war against fossil fuels’, America will soon be bankrupt, stripped of sufficient weapons for national defense short of mutually assured nuclear destruction, drained oil reserves and crippled by unsustainable ‘green’ dictums, elimination of small businesses along with the middle class, gutting our health care system. The non-stop invasion of illegal 3rd world aliens drains our medical, social and welfare resources, overruns public schools, and erodes real estate values. Thanks to profligate federal spending, the government will soon be unable to meet the obligations of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and servicing the national debt. Combined with the unbridled ‘cancel culture’, the foundation of American society is crumbling around us. A. Nonny Moose, Clockwatcher (ret.)
The United States government has become exactly what the founding fathers were writing the declaration of independence and constitution for.
The portion in the declaration that speaks about the reticence of ordinary people to engage in a war is especially important, because it accurately states that people don’t want to possibly die in a battle and so they will basically go along and get along .
This country celebrates its military constantly, and, of course, the men and women sign a contract saying that if called upon, they will do battle for us , the citizens of the USA .
It would be a huge deal, obviously for Texas or Arizona or any border state to call out the National Guard to do the job that the federal government is failing to do, but it is exactly what has to ultimately be required if the voters expect that to be done.
Joe Biden, absolutely 100% should be impeached for this reason alone, failing to provide for the defense of the citizens of the United States.
Paul D. Meyers
The few Americans who speak passionately from podiums, sign petitions or organize the occasional demonstration, are routinely ignored by entrenched ‘elected officials’ and untouchable bureaucrats who dismiss them with the impunity of empty platitudes and promises. Left with flaccid opposition from any quarter – political or popular – virtually guarantees America’s pending demise. Prove me wrong.
Brian Wilson
“The most powerful weapon that any people can have is TRUTH. If we ever find ourselves in a position where we cannot tell the truth, or where we feel that the telling will injure us, we will have sacrificed that most powerful weapon.”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Get out of fear and stay out of fear. . . .You think a snowflake is weak and fragile until enough of them get together, and then they can shut down New York City. . . . If we can face it, God can fix it. Don’t go to fear.”
Catherine Austin Fitts
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