Freedom by Consensus

Painful truth time.  Unless you live in isolation with no other living human being anywhere around you, you are not free.  Freedom is the biggest con we've ever fallen for.  It's a pretty myth but it's still a lie and it's a lie on so many levels, but today we're discussing the fact that anyone living around other people are subject to the whims of their neighbors.

What we have, when we're totally honest about it, is freedom by the consensus of the majority.  That means we're only really allowed to do or to say the things that the majority of our neighbors agree with.  We only have the freedom our neighbors ALLOW us.

Don't believe me?  Say the n word in public.  Dare to publicly criticize a gay person.  Call for prayer in school in public.  Comment that open carry is stupid out loud in any town in Texas.  Comment that you love the NRA out loud in any town in Vermont.  Tell a Bernie fan that you'll vote for Hillary if she gets the nomination.  Tell a room full of Christians that you're OK with allowing Muslims to build a mosque at Ground Zero. Lament climate change denial after a forest fire in Canada.  See what happens.

Perform a Wiccan ceremony in the city park. Walk around downtown in your bra and panties. Light a cigarette outside a school. Tell someone on food stamps that your taxes are paying for their meals. Fly the confederate flag.  See what happens.

If you don't get physically assaulted, you WILL get ostracized.  You will be publicly shamed, trolled, made to regret your mistake.  But it's not a mistake really.  You meant to say it, to do it.  You thought you were free to do it (that's what they say) and it's not hurting anyone so it should be ok, right? Wrong.

You're free to do a lot of things, but you're not free from the consequences and the consequences for having an opinion or doing something not approved by the masses are huge.  You will be bullied.  You will be crucified.  You will lose everything you care about.  You will lose friends.  You will be destroyed.

That's not freedom.  That's a lie.  Freedom is having whatever you say or do be accepted regardless of who's offended by it.  Freedom is when you're not blacklisted because you criticized the president or a celebrity or whatever.

You don't have freedom unless you give freedom to others.

People often ask why so many Germans went along with Nazism.  Fear of pissing off the masses.  Simply put, most Germans kept how they really felt about Hitler to themselves so they wouldn't offend anyone and be sent to a concentration camp.  If you think that's impossible or that it'll never happen again, Donald Trump. Anti Muslim rhetoric in every Christian Church and anti west rhetoric in every Muslim mosque.  It already IS happening again because it never STOPPED happening.

Of all the things I listed above, how many would you do?  Answer?  None.  You would never risk your reputation.

People who diverge from public opinion have their lives ruined.

And that's not freedom.  Freedom is a lie.