Well it’s about that time, folks: It’s that time that we celebrate events that happened around the North American continent around the 4th of this random summer month. It involved some group that moved here from some of the European continents, who wished to escape monarchy rule and taxes, often risking their lives to do so. It’s funny, living in this (once)great country myself, that literally billions want to move to, I have to write the following, about the demise of the freedom of the U.S. as it stands today.
Let’s be blunt, just right upfront: the two rights that set the U.S. apart from literally every other country are the first two amendments in the U.S. Constitution. The first, of course, is about Free speech: to explain it in case it goes away, it means you are not subjugated to the use of government force if you say something that other people don’t agree with (for example: you can wear the Stars & Bars here in the U.S. without fear of prosecution; you cannot wear Nazi gear in Germany). The Second is the right to bear arms, and the reason it specifies that is because firearms, when your state has them, is the best way to defend yourself against not just another government attacking your country, but your own government attacking you. Sure, you can use knives or alarms from a drugged out burglar; try using that against a SWAT team; it’s there to keep the government from taking you over without your say so, it is literally the right to defend yourself with what is available.
It is those two rights, in my opinion, that really makes the U.S. the greatest country in the world, even today. It is very unfortunate, then, that those rights are under attack right now.
The hacking down of the Second of course is pretty open, as we are seeing with the outcries of the mass shootings that have happened in this country alone. The one in Parkland, Florida being the biggest example: that horrific murder spree happened, and suddenly people like David Hogg and Emma Gonzales have a voice that causes places like Deerfield, Illonois and Boulder, Colorado to ban an arbitrary class of firearms that aren’t even used in most shooting deaths, let alone total murders. People often liken weapons like, for example, an AR-15, to a sporting and hunting rifle. Of course, a rifle like that, as the Left has rightly portrayed, is very good at dispatching well armed humans, given the usual rounds they use. I’ll leave it to you to figure out who the armed humans I am referring to.
The First, however, is being undone more under the radar, through passing laws about hate speech, and particularly with the internet as it stands today. In case you didn’t know, the ICANN agreement, which basically controls the way you are able to access any website by typing the name into a search bar (like TheGoddamnBacon.com leading you here instead of, say, typing an algorithm that’s hard to remember), has been transferred away from the U.S., which invented the internet and still has some free speech laws, to the E.U., which does not. There’s a fight, right now in the E.U., about a bill called Article 13, which basically introduces hate speech laws into websites and forces them to comply with them, before anything even gets published; in other words, you can be censored before you even say anything online, you will be silenced if you say anything the wrong people don’t like.
So what does this have to do with the U.S., since that was about the E.U.? Because the U.S. has not only given crucial freedoms over to other people, but is now following the same path, as seen up above. And since, as previously stated, those two rights are the most fundamental to making this country free and open to making great things, and therefore the most important tenets that should be upheld today. If these should fall, as the forces that be are pushing for, we shall follow the same path as Rome.
Rome, of course, was one of the biggest and most successful societies on the planet at one time, that started as a small government country that had more freedoms that other countries didn’t have and, as a consequence, were conquered by Rome. Rome also grew it’s government grow to the point that it was insolvent, to the point that the barbarians they hired in place of their own army had to sack it. This is not dissimilar to what the U.S. is headed towards: the U.S. started as the smallest government possible, and now is the biggest the planet has ever seen, with the capacity to destroy us all many times over. And, in my opinion, the only thing holding this back is the First and Second Amendment; lose the ability to use your voice to defend yourself, not to mention losing the ability to defend yourself physically, and there is nothing protecting you from pure evil taking you down.
No, this isn’t something you might want to think about during this holiday of fun. While you’re barbequing today, while you’re drinking light beers during the day, while you’re watching a bunch of fireworks going up and exploding, these aren’t pleasant thought to think about. It also doesn’t make this reality go away. So while you’re enjoying this holiday (Trust me; I will), keep in mind that the freedoms you celebrate today, the hard won rights that so much blood and time and relationships have been broken and spilled for; understand that the rights that made this holiday possible are the very ones being attacked right now, and if you really care about this place you call home and celebrate today, it is the time now to stand up, and fight for what made this country so great. Lose this fight now, or desert it, and we all go down in darkness; Enjoy The Decline, as Aaron Clarey put it, will be a certain reality, and whether you live to see it or not, your children, or the kids you care about, will have to live through the consequences of your inactions.
Celebrate the Fourth of July! Embrace it with open arms! I will, even I have no loyalty to any country, I will have loads of fun today! But understand what exactly gives you that freedom to have that fun, how fleeting that freedom is throughout history, and how easily it can be stripped away from us all in the blink of an eye. You have the ability to celebrate your country, your freedom, for a reason; are you really willing to watch it burn to the ground?
Pic Credit: http://christinprophecy.org/articles/is-it-too-late-for-america/