So here we are, living in what we have long referred to as a “free country.” And perhaps it is still freer than other places, but here in 2023, how free do you feel, really?
After watching what happened with covid, do you feel free?
Now that the Department of Justice is not working on behalf of actual justice, but rather as the enforcement arm for a political ideology, do you feel free?
Big corporations are playing a similar role—censoring information, silencing dissidents, de-banking people for WrongThink—all in service to that same ideology. Do you feel free? Or are you wondering if you’re next?
Now that criminals are allowed to burn cities, but parents speaking out at school-board meetings are declared “domestic terrorists,” do you feel free?
Trains are derailing and chemical plants are exploding, poisoning the land, water, and air. Food-processing facilities are burning to the ground. These events have been occurring in clusters, at a rate that is statistically impossible to be merely the result of random chance. There was clearly human agency at work…but no dispositive answers as to who, what, or why. Does that make you feel free? Does it make you feel safe?
Police are slamming people to the pavement for not wearing masks. The police don’t know whether masking is pointless or not, and they don’t care. The law is the law, and they enforce the law. Do you feel free?
People are being denied medical care because they refused to allow themselves to be injected with an untested, experimental mRNA vaccine. And now, scientists at Yale are working on an airborne version of that vaccine. How safe does that make you feel? Will you be free to say no when it is in the air you breathe?
Parents are being thrown in jail for “misgendering” their own children.
Billionaire megalomaniacs and shady ideologues in foreign capitals appear to be pulling unseen strings—openly speaking of their agenda, but never leaving behind any definitive proof. Are we in control at all? Are there even real counties anymore?
People are already being concentrated in travel-restricted “smart” cities. Is that what you want?
Poor people are being burned out of their homes under extremely mysterious circumstances. Is your area next?
Do you feel free?
Or do you feel like it’s all slipping away, one surreal occurrence after another?
Then there are all the normies around you, who do everything they’re told and tell you you’re crazy for seeing any of this. They make it all-the-more surreal, don’t they?
They tell you to ‘stop whining.’
They tell you you’re ‘privileged.’
They tell you they just got their fourth booster.
Gaslighting. Sleight of hand. Hordes of mass-hypnotized pod-people calling you a ‘conspiracy theorist.’ An elite getting richer and more powerful while you are told to eat bugs to fight ‘climate change.’
Have we reached peak oppression? Obviously not. But if we got there day after tomorrow, would it even surprise you? Would anything surprise you at this point, or are you just waiting for the next bizarre escalation in a series of escalations you would never have imagined possible just a few short years ago?
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There are pivot points in history—moments when people get fed up with a situation and decide to do something about it. Here in America, we revere the events surrounding such a moment: The Boston Tea Party. The Alarm Riders. Lexington and Concord. The Declaration of Independence. Common Sense. We revere the courage of people who took a revolutionary stand for freedom.
Unfortunately, the modern world is not so simple. Today’s oppression is far more sophisticated and entrenched, and it won’t be dislodged in a few short years by a hardscrabble revolution. It is going to take time and a new approach.
In his book Underthrow: How Jefferson's Dangerous Idea Will Spark a New Revolution, and on his Substack of the same name, Max Borders gives that approach a name: today’s oppression cannot be overthrown; it must be underthrown. That is a very good way to put it.
It is easy to get stuck in old paradigms: our Patriot ancestors threw off the oppression of their day by issuing proclamations and fighting a war, and so can we. That isn’t going to work this time. This time, we do not win with open conflict, we win by opting out. We win by adopting new paradigms and not getting stuck in the past. This time, it’s evolution rather than revolution.
The first step in all this is for you to declare your independence. Not as part of a group or movement—that will come later. For now, it has to be YOU, as an individual human person.
Declaring your independence is not just a moment—it is a series of realizations and actions implemented over time. Just because you are not able to exercise every aspect of your freedom right away does not mean you should not begin the process of liberation. That process involves a number of steps, which we will be discussing in the coming weeks.
Before those steps can begin, one must first recognize the need to begin. That there is a problem that needs fixing. That there is something to declare independence from. I am calling this Step Zero. It is the necessary precursor to getting started.
If you are reading this, you are probably fairly red-pilled already. You know there’s a serious problem, and that’s a good start.
Once you’ve been red-pilled for long enough, it’s easy to start taking it for granted. Chances are, a lot of the people you interact with in social media are as well. Perhaps your feed is filled with red-pilled comments from red-pilled people, and you start to think that lots of people think this way.
Not so fast.
There are huge swaths of people who have no idea about any of this. People who believe what they’re told and do what they’re told. People who think things are just fine. People whose Overton Window is a half an inch wide. People who, in the words of Tom Woods, “have televisions for brains.”
Remember the work of Mattias Desmet (and his predecessors, such as Gustave LeBon): Roughly one third of people, once they have fallen victim to mass-formation hypnosis, will never be shaken out of it. Another third or so are also vulnerable, though less invincibly so. The final third are more resistant to mass formation. Unfortunately, that does not mean that this final third are all red-pilled consumers of knowledge outside the narrative. The truly red-pilled are a much smaller group.
So congratulations on making it this far. No one knows for sure how deep the rabbit hole goes, but you know that the hole exists, and that qualifies for Step Zero.
Yet this is only the beginning. The next steps may take you somewhat out of your comfort zone, which can be scary. But that is exactly what needs to happen.
Stay tuned for Step One…
Great writeup. Isn't the first step to ending addiction realizing you have a problem? Kinda reminds me of that. We're addicted to the modern convenience that is so often coupled with totalitarianism (that's how they get you). Many people are addicted to not thinking for themselves. Here's a good song I found a few months ago that epitomizes this type of mentality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOgnA3CnARk
After Skool did a wonderful video about Mass Psychosis on YouTube–your piece reminded me of this, especially with the mention of Gustave LeBon. "We do what we're told..." Peter Gabriel, (Milgram's 37). I'm independenting myself as I speak; from enslavement and grammar. Great piece.