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When someone declares 'people will die' as a justification for curtailing liberty, the correct response is, 'what are you suggesting - that liberty isn't worth dying for? That those who sacrificed their lives for our freedoms made the wrong choice?' -Techdirt Forum Post by OldMugwump, 2013

Author's Note: This was originally written during the era of 9/11 boogie-man terrorism. For the purposes of modernization, please replace any instance of the word 'security' with 'bio-security', and any instance of the word 'terror' with 'virus'. None of this theater has ever been about safety. It has only ever been about control.

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We no longer know the meaning of freedom. We have traded away everything to a false prophet. We refuse to see that belonging to a government is a fate far worse than any terrorist can reap; than any madman can sow.

The word of a terrorist has no power over us. The government's word is law.

In the name of security we will lose our security. In addition to the terrorist we will have the relentless uncompromising gaze of the government.

The power of the people is born from its freedom, and it is the people who must be the guardians of that power. It is from our freedom that we draw the authority to force our government to abide its boundaries. Through the guise of security we are slowly allowing our government to relinquish that authority, and ultimately, the government will know no boundaries.

Once we allow our freedoms to categorically run dry, we, as a people, will no longer have the authority to stand up to our government.

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Those who would trade essential liberty, to purchase temporary security, deserve neither and will lose both.

-Benjamin Franklin

https://tritorch.com/liberty

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I can't agree enough. One of my brothers was killed in Afghanistan. He died very bravely, and even though it looks like that war was just a colossal waste of American (and Afghan) lives, he died well and I'm not ashamed of him because he was very brave. But so few people appreciate that; the biggest response when I'd tell people what happened was that, they said it was my family's fault for being involved in the military, we deserved what we had coming, etc. That messed with my head at the time. Now, however, I see the same people freaking out right and left about Covid. . . I ask people what they're afraid of. Well, they're afraid of death. They're afraid of losing someone close to them. I already did that. I already lost my closest friend/enemy (because what else is a sibling??) and I'm still getting out of bed every day. The average American is so weak and fearful. It's going to bite us all in the end.

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Covid has exposed the elites for the cowards they are. Real leaders make tough calls in the face of uncertainty, cowards pass the buck to 'experts'.

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POTUS wearing a mask everywhere his goes does nothing to calm the fears of the wine drunk MSNBC watching hypochondriacs that are driving public health policy.

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Been thinking about this a lot today. When we knew that the virus had a 99.7% survival rate, why did some of us shrug and move on and some of us went into panic mode? 99.7%! Think about that!! We have a serious serious mental health CRISIS in this country!!!! Forget Covid let’s find a cure for mental illness. It’s far more deadly and decimating.

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Courage is a trait that has been stripped out of American children in public schools over the last 30 years. Progressives decided that incremental changes though they would take time would certainly work. They have taught two generations of kids that compliance for the good of society is far more admirable than courage. Free people cannot long survive without courage and without leaders who exhibit it.

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Hard times produce rugged men. Rugged men produce good times. Good times produce weak men. Weak men produce hard times.

Economic collapse, civil war -- whatever it is. The survivors will rebuild and the cycle starts anew.

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That's right, and courage comes from principle. We must believe in something to fight for it.

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Ivermectin can be an effective treatment without being a “magic bullet” Alex.

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And those Canadian Freedom marchers are incredibly brave for risking their livelihood to defend the Canadian "constitution", and their freedom. Unfortunately cowards like Trudeau and Biden can only negotiate with force and bullying (so last century) and not peacekeeping conversation. When the rules of the game change and human rights are obliterated....dare I ask....how does the average person overcome fear when demanding change from tyrrants? This is hitting too close to home...

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founding

Fact: Both the United States and the entire World are less safe with Biden and Harris in the White House. The World looks to the US for strong leadership, including military assistance when needed, and that stopped last year once Trump left the White House. We had preferred 'peace through strength' with Trump for 4 years, and now have had nothing but 'chaos through weakness' with this current illegitimate admin. The current situation that's unfolded under this admin here at home, and around the World as well (Russia/Ukraine/Afghanistan etc) is a direct result of having weakness, incompetence, and unfit leaders in the White House, who shouldn't have been there in the first place (got there based on lies and false promises, and it should have been Trump for another term). Powdered unicorn dust and Brandon is Pernmantly out to lunch.

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You’re really getting into full of shit by association territory. You call people cowards so we’re supposed to associate you with courage. You question Dr Malone’s honesty so we’re supposed to accept yours. You call your own readers fanatics after you took their money, so you can tell everyone you’re attacked by nuts on both sides therefore you must be the voice of reason. Think folks can’t see the game?

Trump has issues but he’s no coward. I went to one of his early rallies. He basically had no protection, and there was a large mob of illegals and communists protesting. Los Angeles cops let them get almost on him. He almost got hit with a bottle. And he didn’t jump into any quagmires for others to die in, unlike Clinton, Bush, et ilk.

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Fantastic commentary. I’m a carpenter. A top 5 riskiest job in the US by actuarial realities. My colleagues were far better equipped to manage this pandemic than my office worker buddies. The soldiers I know in construction were even better equipped. The elite managerial class that has the reins is literally the worst possible group to navigate us through pretty much anything.

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“We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” —C.S. Lewis, Abolition of Man

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I don't disagree with you but I don't hold against anyone for not wanting to go to Vietnam. I lived through that era. No one wanted to get drafted. It was socially acceptable. It was a dreadfully unpopular war that most people didn't understand what we were even doing there. Night after night Walter and the rest of them talked body counts and how awful it was. The unlucky (poor) who had to go came back to scorn and disrespect. Interestingly enough, the protests stopped when the draft was ended. It was a terrible time.

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When the lockdowns, masks and mandates went into effect, I watched most of my friends, family and colleagues cower, comply, and dutifully obey The Science™ while the rest of us went into full warrior mode. I have never been more confident about any position I've taken in my life like the one I've taken to protect my family over the last two years. The bonds I have established with like-minded critical thinkers during this time has been nothing short of empowering and uplifting. Onward!

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Feb 19, 2022·edited Feb 19, 2022

Courage is not the absence of fear--people lacking fear are psychopaths, like Sheehan. Courage is when you are afraid but do what has to be done in spite of the fear. Nothing speaks to the lack of physical courage in our political class than the photos of Congressmen cowering in fear in the House chamber on Jan 6, 2021 in the face of a bunch of protestors carrying flags and taking selfies. Yet they waste not a second to vote to send American youths off to fight and die in other peoples' wars.

Whether you are right or not about the lack of courage in previous presidents depends upon why they refused to go fight in politicians' wars without relevance to the security of the United States. Perhaps they were simply sane. Nor do these presidents lack moral courage, as they simply didn't have any morals--in the sense of firm, fixed principles upon which they base their actions--at all. They are the perfect New American Man: they follow the flock of the media and the "experts" wherever it goes. The flock ARE their morals.

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First, Trump as president avoided starting any new wars which Washington hated him for. The Bushes hated Trump because he called out pathetic George.

With respect to courage. The first time I was diagnosed with cancer, I received that news alone with oncologist. I knew I was sick, so frankly no biggie. Oncologist was upset with me for coming to hear bad news alone. Huh? He immediately said I MUST go on antidepressant as every cancer patient does in order to deal with what is coming. His fear of my dying was more disturbing to me that hearing I had cancer. I was NOT going to die. I felt no fear. I would be fine. After all we all are sentenced to death from the moment of birth. So holding death over my head was not going to scare me.

After my diagnosis, I realized I had purposely adverted risk in my life. What I loved to do,I had quit doing because of risk. That had to change. So I picked up that discipline at age 40 plus and loved every single moment. Lots of risk. I pushed myself to do things that made me quite uncomfortable. I am so glad I did. What wonderful memories.

Once again, I would be diagnosed with cancer. This time aggressive form. I was told to quit my discipline because my cancer operations meant taking out many lymph nodes. So for several years I avoided my discipline. Then I moved. Good decision, but thrown right back into the world I love. I gave high risk much thought and have once again gotten back doing what I love so much. I have had 3 accidents this past year. Yes, I was severely injured, but recovered. I never thought about quitting, but I had to find my bravery again. I had PTSD pretty bad. Today I feel great. I have learned so much about myself, and have pushed my body to get better and better. I am a trooper. My parents would be so proud. They were amazing troopers. Nothing scared them. After all, they had been through hell a few times, and lived on, and they said their prayers each night to stay strong. It is the belief in a higher power that allows me to reach down and find courage at all costs. Courage feels great. 👏😀

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We can all do a little bit every day to become less afraid and more courageous. It will add up. Bravery doesn't drop out of the sky one day; it needs to be sought in every moment.

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How about the courage to reconsider your confirmation bias in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary, Alex?

https://pierrekory.substack.com/p/the-disinformation-campaign-against

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Every word on point ! I've made many posts throughout this ordeal in answer to other posters who expressed amazement at a variety of behaviors: multiple vaccinations after it became clear the vaccine is for all practical purposes useless, wearing of large plastic "welder like" shields completely open 3-4" all around, riding bicycles while wearing one or two masks, and washing groceries (even those in boxes, like cereal !) with wipes dipped in a disinfectant. Many also wrote they had been completely shut off from their closest relatives, even adult children telling their parents they are no longer welcome. I continued to post that FEAR IS THE ULTIMATE motivator of human beings. And you could not have explained it any better than the transformation of our CULTURE from fearless to fearful, to terrified... seeking utter and complete PROTECTION from everything, even from such things as a painting or sculpture that we find "upsetting". We have indeed become a country of cowards... as a psychologist I came to the conclusion some time ago this is primarily (not in total) the result of comfort and ease, to put it in common everyday language, we've had IT TOO GOOD FOR TOO LONG, we have forgotten completely how our parents and grandparents sacrificed during the great world wars, and how much courage it took to march off to the uncertainty of death at the age of 17, 18, 19 !

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I'm afraid we're going to find out that there are a lot of things that are worse than dying.

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Very true abt out leaders. But so many of us, as citizens, have also been cowards. Look at all the support for "mitigation" still. Even after all facts are against them, ppl (mostly in in blue states) STILL declare that they will wear masks and get more shots for the rest of their lives.

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Just a thought, but I've always considered that someone who doesn't believe in God (or just hates God, which in many cases is the same thing) really has to be scared to death of everything, and especially of death. If you've settled all this in your mind, soul, and spirit, you may not love the idea of dying (even Jesus on the cross asked for the cup to pass from Him), but you accept that that's what will eventually happen to us all, and you move on to live life as best you can. Nothing else explains the abject terror I've seen in perfectly healthy people in their 20s and 30s, scared to death that the Covid is gonna get 'em. Nothing, but nothing explains that except people who have never given serious thought to anything that matters.

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"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" The first time I read Patrick Henry's, resounding through the ages, battle cry for freedom, it gave me goosebumps (and I was a kid when I first read it.) I got it then. I get it now. Who cannot?

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Interesting post. My short list of people with courage in the face of Covid:

Senator Ron Johnson - WI (only politician on the list)

Pierre Kory MD

Peter McCullough MD

Vladimir Zelenko MD

Simone Gold MD JD

Jim Hoft (Gateway Pundit)

Joe Rogan

R F Kennedy Jr

I’m sure there are some I’m forgetting. What they have in common is that they are not captured by Big Pharma and are willing to fight for the people in this whole disaster that we’re living through.

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Feb 19, 2022·edited Feb 20, 2022

i’m not sure about ivermectin per se, but peter mccullough, robert malone, pierre kory and paul merrick (along with countless other front line doctors) are all on record saying variously that administering combinations of HCQ, ivermectin, azithromicin, and/or intravenous vitamins among other interventions would have stopped the pandemic in 2020. so alex’s fixation with NO SILVER BULLETS is odd to me. RFK spent entire chapters in his book documenting how pharma backed health authorities conducted dozens of studies, covering thousands of people, where they deliberately, severely overdosed people on HCQ in summer 2020 to discredit the drug’s effectiveness, lest it impede access to EUA.

there are plenty of drugs available that likely would have saved thousands of lives in the US but-for their *deliberate suppression* by public health authorities in favor of a strategy for which early intervention was anathema. the take home of that fact is that the response of NIAID, NIH and CDC was designed to fail, and designed to induce panic. whatever the efficacy of ivermectin, whatever other treatment options are available and to what efficacy, whether or not there’s a “silver bullet” for COVID or what that would even entail, the more the facts come out the more difficult it becomes to dispute the bad intentions of fauci et al. i think that’s the essence of people’s backlash to berenson’s IVMC commentary, and the irony of that is that i don’t think he would disagree about the ultimate conclusion.

in any case, the man’s been right about literally everything else, so far be it from me to hold this one against him.

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The best examples of courageousness and cowardice today are the truckers and Trudeau. Likewise the cowardice of western leaders and people in media to denounce Trudeau. He is trying his best to destroy the lives of people that just wanted to end the clotshot mandate.

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At some point, maybe back in the 80’s, it seems many people got very scared of things that others managed to deal with as far as kids were concerned. Knees ‘permanently’ skinned and scabbed from bike wrecks, sniffles and colds and scratchy throats (aside from strep), dirty hands from playing outside in actual dirt, fevers from mild illnesses (I actually let my kids run a low grade fever for a short while before I opened up a bottle of ‘fever reducer’, Somewhere along the way it seems a lot of kids became coddled, swiftly taken to the doctor for the first sniffle, babied and made to feel helpless and weak against adversity. Perhaps those children (and maybe even their parents) are many of the fearful, cowering adults who are so vividly on display now all across our country.

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The elites don’t ever mind getting us into a war, because it’s rarely their kids who are sent to fight it. Their kids deal with first world problems like correcting pronouns and policing the latest ‘isms’, and denigrate anyone who doesn’t prioritize that. They fear everything because they’ve never had to survive anything. Their view of the real world is completely skewed, yet they seem to be granted the loudest megaphones. How did we get here, and more importantly, how do we get out?

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so true, where is courage? truckers showed some and thats why Trudeau called war measures act and thugs to shut it down. Where are the rest? doctors, nurses, mothers speak out about what you know? and journalists? shameful so few will do journalism, thank you for your courage Alex

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I’m not surprised he avoided Viet Nam

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Courage is both macro and micro, dodging the draft being macro. I was a lone face in a sea of 99% mask compliance everywhere for the better part of a year. Sure, plenty of people were scared but plenty also knew the masks were nonsense and played along because they just "didn't want to deal with it." Much of the damage done to children, the cultural zeitgeist and economy was inflicted because those masks prolonged the amplified the hysteria. Courage means something at the grocery store as well.

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Bro... ivermectin and powdered unicorn horn? Umm... Please Alex, for your own sake, please stop beating that same drum. You look really desperate and petty. Just let it go bro.

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Of all the human flaws, the unrelenting need to be right is perhaps the most dangerous.

You my friend have it up the wazoo.

Let it go Alex, you fucked up, you shouldn't have attacked Malone and many people dislike you for it.

You are burning up what little goodwill you have left with your pettiness.

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This is something I thought about in the spring of 2020 when a sensible friend posted something on Fakebook questioning Covid mitigation measures and one of her “friend’s” comments on her post about how he thought the measures were appropriate because he didn’t want his grandparents who were in their ‘90’s to die. All I could think about was the fact that both of my grandfathers were willing to die for this country and for freedom when they were in their ‘20’s during WW II, and his grandparents are ok with everyone losing their freedom and rights because they MIGHT die from Covid in their ‘90’s?

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The most repeated phrase in the Bible is "fear not." The only one we are to fear is God. That is a recipe for a full and blessed life, but not necessarily a long life. The years ahead appear much more challenging than those in the rearview mirror. Regardless of our frailties, may we set them aside and put forth the strength of our inner lion. Let's make our remaining time on this planet count for good that lives long past us.

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Agree. This is a time for courage. Fear destroys. This is a both a historical and biblical truth. We can't be the home of the free is we are not the land of the brave.

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Mandatory military service would change everything…radically.

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In Robert Heinlein’s book from 1959 Starship Troopers he made several future predictions. The 1st was the great democracies of the 20th Century failed because the voters thought they could vote for anything they wanted without working for it. As a result the only people allowed to be citizens and vote were veterans. Not that they they could build a perfect society but at least they had put their asses on the line to defend it. As an example, can anyone imagine the passive aggressive beta male Obama leading a squad of Marine’s?

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Fear, greed and arrogance are the Buddha’s three poisons. Time changes but they are constant.

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I am proud of the Canadians, I hope they make it.

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The Article V Convention of States will restore the power to the States and restore our Federal Government back to it's limited and constrained boundaries.

It's a State's only method to amend the Constitution and bypasses Federal control.

The trick to reaching the 34 states required to call the Convention will require blue and red states having a common enemy in the Federal Government.

Go to

ConventionofStates.com

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The courage will need to come from us, the citizenry as we try to beat back the rising tide of tyranny, lies and violent attack…..from our own governments. May GOD be with us for both protection and valor.

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I sure agree with this post. I had so many friends that I thought were rational. They were scared to death. I went to work as we were an essential business and working from home is not an option. Everyone kept saying "stay safe" like we were in some great danger.

Who wants to live a "safe" life? I prefer a full life and that includes risks!

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Yes everything now revolves around avoidance: of pain, of sickness, of depression, anxiety... by doing this all of these things have become unacceptable and considered as defects. Especially being sick...omg you have the flu?? Run for cover, isolate and batten down the hatches! God forbid that anyone starts sneezing or coughing in a public place! Contagion!!!

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“ Now, of course, our leaders are cowards, and the cowardice runs across both parties. It may be the last bipartisan trait. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden all managed to dodge service in Vietnam.”

Well said.

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Personally, I think this all has to do with 3 things. 1. We’ve had it too good and are not used to the hardships our ancestors endured. We are no longer tough and resilient as they were. My great grandparents traversed an ocean to a foreign country, endured 2 world wars, the Great Depression and more; yet, still persevered and sacrificed to give their children the American Dream. For most of us, our struggles pale in comparison, and we squander the opportunity they fought so hard for. 2. We have feminized boys and conditioning them to think natural and normal male instincts are toxic and no longer needed. 3. Most importantly, we have abandoned God. We place all our emphasis on this very short human life rather than fixing our eyes on eternal life with Christ. When you only value this very brief life, you will do anything to protect it.

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it could be worse. You can be Canada. Cowards abound in our Parliament, courts and police.

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Lol.. jeez.. nobody’s getting out of here alive… not even the elites. Who cares. I live everyday like it’s my last..always have always will.. been through three pandemics.. don’t care.. got sick once .. I was 19 never got a flu again…. Never been vaccinated for anything my whole life. (I’m old) I don’t trust stupid drs.. don’t trust the FDA. Never did.. that’s not a new thing for me.. I’ve always lived and eaten healthy. I’d rather eat grass than a McDonald’s hamburger. What good is life if you can’t live it? Fear is useless. Take reasonable care of yourself. Trust your own senses. For Pete’s sake.. definitely live the life you have and fight for the things that allow that. They’re worth dying for all day long 👍🏻 I’d die 20 times for those things.

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