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catfish rushdie's avatar

It ain't working. This is an act of desperation. Those who seek to imprison ideas will always fail, because the ideas they seek to censor will always escape, and become more powerful in the process. The universe of thought functions according to different laws than the world of matter, and materialist tactics don't don't kill ideas. An idea is not a piece of real estate that you can build a fence around, much less a corporeal body that can be tossed into a prison cell.

"You can't have a better press agent than a censor." -John Waters

Muchas Gracias to the entire Drop Site team. Alf Shukr!

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Tom Schwoegler's avatar

"Ideas are bulletproof." V for Vendetta

( https://youtu.be/8WZ0XSf23rs )

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Clif Brown's avatar

While true, the question is how powerful is fear? I submit that the vast majority of Americans are timid and will keep their heads down if force is out against them. Right now, using force is limited to the immigrants and those not born in America, but that could expand. There was no cost to showing up for "Hands Off" demonstrations so there was a big turnout. Bravery seems to be inversely proportional to how much one has to lose materially. This goes hand in hand with "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"

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catfish rushdie's avatar

I love the Kristofferson line. It's a lyric for the ages.

To fear or not to fear- that is the question! Revolutions happen when people lose their fear. Fear, like everything, has a beginning, a middle and an end.

When there's too much of nothing, no-one has control. No one can stop the loss of fear when it finally comes.

As James Baldwin put it, no one is more dangerous than a man who has had everything taken away and has nothing left to lose.

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catfish rushdie's avatar

Well put, Tom!

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Tom Schwoegler's avatar

I was inspired... Thanks!

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Cindy Gabriel's avatar

Love the sentiment but people are still rotting in jails around the world for speaking out against the government. So there is that. The truth has a price.

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catfish rushdie's avatar

True, that's the rub. Bodies made of matter can and do rot in jail- but ideas cannot be materially confined, nor killed outright.

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