Like many in the Gulch, I strove for years to discuss this worsening situation with family and friends. The discussions were fruitless. No matter how many facts and figures I could muster, nothing made a dent in their protective armor, no discussions could be had, they were right and I was wrong. I am now Gulching in place, as little media presence as possible, with a very few friends and most of my immediate family doing the same. We watch, we study, we talk with and listen to other Gulchers (or as I recently noted, Ayn's Army). They have twisted three generations at least, catching them earlier each time and our best hope is to catch the youngsters even earlier, get them out of public schools. Most people under 50 have no clue at all of what this country was.

I think that this struggle has been going on for a long time, and is nothing new. In prior struggles, the tools available to the powerful against the powerless have been less effective. Now, electronics has given tremendous powers to any group that can get together and exert it- currently it is the socialist contingent that is reigning supreme.

Every Utopian scheme, from Plato's "Republic" on, has been based on the flawed notion that all people can be seduced or forced into a collectivist mold. Most well meaning socialists begin with the belief that promising lots of free stuff and lifting of personal responsibility can seduce many into accepting being part of a coddled collective. When reality eventually lifts its ugly head, making a lie of many of the socialist promises, the socialist elite are driven to realize that people must be forced to become part of the collective, subduing their own personal interests.

Humans are naturally empathetic and cooperative, but our natural social structures are based on self interest, not the interests of a collective mass. The genius of the founders of the American republic was to recognize that a much more effective and efficient form of governance was to accept the fact of human individuality, supporting individual freedom to act as a person chooses, with oversight by a government of limited powers. Such a government acts slowly and deliberately, seeking agreement on its actions, but not blind acceptance.

We seem to go through cycles, where an affluent society becomes complacent in protecting its freedoms, with the result that those freedoms are eroded, requiring extreme action to restore them. We've become used to a world of immediate gratification, impatient with the slow moving gears of the government designed by the founders, seduced by the idea of a more powerful government that can act quickly and decisively. We've been duped into increasing authoritarian governance by an elite eager to grab power by any means possible.

What's unnerving is how open the arrogant elite have become, taking illegal and immoral actions unashamedly, indifferent to the protests of citizens concerned with the loss of individual freedom. It almost seems like a dare, challenging people to try to gain back those freedoms, facing the threat to their lives and livelihood, as well as those of their descendants.

We are dangerously close to the point of open violent conflict, but I don't think we're there yet. Enough states have taken action to prevent voter fraud in 2022, and all of the polling, even by entities that are not conservative, is showing a significant majority is not happy with the collectivist slant of the current administration. If, as I hope will happen, the GOP wrests control of the House and Senate from the Democrats, the tide will have begun to turn back to a more healthy American society.

What could happen, and I'm uncomfortably aware of this possibility, is that the power brokers who manipulate the tool in the White House could decide they can't afford to let things run their course and lose control. It's entirely possible we will see some new crisis or emergency that creates the opportunity for the administration to declare the next elections must be "postponed" due to concerns about the safety of poll workers due to disease or "domestic terrorism." If that happens, I see no alternative to a violent conflict. Optimistically I think that if that happens, the outcome will be a very effective insurrection, removing those responsible for trying to stop the elections, with little real violence. There may be some noisy protests, but the left, even with support from groups like BLM and Antifa, is not the Bolshevik insurgency of the Tsarist revolution.

Maybe they should campaign on not being for the good of the people?

This problem has been going on since time immemorial and has been falsely described as "individualism vs collectivism" for all that time. The real problem is about classic selfishness - the principle that I can only get ahead at your expense. That's been the classic lie that every tyrant - from small to great - has fallen prey to. The real truth is that the win-win scenario in life should be the goal of everyone.

The thing I find most disgusting is that the people who derive their riches at first from mutually-beneficial relationships tend to forget about this and it seems to be forgotten exponentially as these individuals pass the point at which their wealth provides for their wants - over and above their needs.

This part "why aren't Gulchers taking a more vocal approach to the problem?" is a bit of a show-stopper to me and I'm surprised this thread has taken on the life it has. The comment appears to imply assumptions. Like - this is the only place Gulchers sound off. Or - being loudly vocal is a proven technique for these problems. Eh...anyway. Just one man's opinion.

Do you know anything about Soros other than what you think you know?

He has a degree in Philosophy and is a proponent of Karl Popper, who as I assume you know, developed the "falsification method" of scientific hypotheses, and the Open Society.

I actually talked to Soros one morning about seven or eight years ago, at the request of a friend of mine. And this in regard to a town in Colorado---probably close to the fictional Galt's Gulch---called Playfair. There are things I am not at liberty to reveal.

Devolution is the plan to take back the country from the criminal Cabal without arms. See Patel Patriots work in unraveling the Devolution plan. https://patelpatriot.substack.com/
Please read it before you dismiss it.

I don't know about that. Sounds like more of one of those unprovable conspiracy theories. I don't think he is bad, so much as misplaced. In reality.

He made much moola, which he could only have done in a capitalist environment. He broke the Bank of England, and justified it by his belief the Bank had a chokehold on interest rates.

He is a fat cat by the very definition of fat cat. But that isn't what is important. What IS important is that he thinks those of us who presumabley are not as intelligent as himself (or others of his ilk) need to be dependent on---taken care of by---the "movers and shakers" of the world. And Bill Gates is of the same mind. And there are others, of course. The "vile entanglement of Leftists and Global Deep State" interests these people for more than one reason.

I too have written, at length, about the values of self interest and dangers of too much government making too many decisions. I too have been reminded, just this weekend, that we aren't speaking of political things. So, I've made my fortune against all of the social norms. For me the FJB or "Let's go Brandon" have a broader meaning. It applies to all that believe from the productivity of the energetic to the benefit of the non-producer. FJB

He is not a fat cat but a horrendous leech. He is a tool of the banking Cabal. His first fund was money from Rothschilds. He is no capitalist he is a fascist. His financial/social justice ngo’s are funded by USAID. He is the slimy little worm who has used Ukraine to pay off his puppets ,including Biden , Pelosi , Schifface , Rotteney , and others.
He didn’t make his money he used his cronies to manipulate currencies. A looter of the first degree.

Ah, thanks for the information, allosaur. I, too, believe in God. And not just by choice. I am not a Christian in the traditional sense, however.

As for Ayn Rand, I think on a very deep level she did believe in God. But look where she grew up: an environment where not just intellectuals became dissatisfied with the belief systems---Russian Orthodox for the most part---but where Bolsheviks were engaged in destroying those beliefs. Apparently it doesn't "fit their value system"!

And to be able to compete with the intellectual philosophers of the day, she would need to profess atheism. Actually, I believe that deep down inside, most atheists harbor a belief in the Divine, defined as something more than themselves. Except of course for Thoritsu, who is an atheist for reasons unbeknownst to even himself!!

Sometimes I feel the same as you: there's nothing I can really do. Parents fed up with what schools are teaching their children are labelled "domestic terrorists" and investigated by the U.S. Attorney General, and other outlandish things. What can we do?

The Democrats---Leftist/Liberals---cheated in 2012 (Eric Holder and the Black Panthers, and ACORN, and every other radical organization in America) and they tried to cheat in 2016 (Romney had done some of his own investigating after his "defeat" in 2012, so we were able to prevent it from happening again). In 2020 the overwhelming majority of Americans voted for Trump, and the trap was set. We knew Trump was the choice of Americans, so we knew they cheated.
Now, as Lenin said, what to do?
We might understand first of all that it is okay to be angry.

Then Johnson allied with MLK Jr. and The Great Society turned into this savage era of today. LBJ was a slimeball, in my very educated opinion.

(I'm right in the middle betwixt you, allosaur, and 25n56il4---is he right out of Anthem, or what?)

I'm only 69 (70 in 2 months) and +1 to you both.

When I landed in The Gulch 8 years ago (my personal member board (whatever you call it) says I've been here 7years, 12 months~~LOL!~~
I did not mind admitting I'm a Christian. Reactions to that were more harsh then than now and people like me were called mystics. Well, I looked the word up and it said anyone who believed in anything spiritual such as a religion was a mystic. So I became like okay I'm a mystic. So what? Do I have to be exactly like Ayn Rand, who had an exceptional intellect yet was still a fallible human human being since no one is perfect? Anyway, me dino chose allosaur for a moniker for being different.

Try 84 and agreeing with you. N

It depends on who the "we" are. Peons, like myself and presumably you, can complain and offer our opinions against rigged elections and go vote with the notion an overwhelming turnout for our candidate would make it harder for the opposition to cheat, which I believe is what happened in 2016 and what caused the statistical "anomalies" we saw in 2020 as the Neo Communists turned up the cheat heat. Those in charge of protecting election integrity (DOJ, FBI, etc.) are now compromised, IMHO, and have become corrupt tools of the cheaters - and it looks like there is nothing "we little people" can do about it.

Me an aged 74 old dino grew up in Alabama during the Fifties when the Democrat Party was the party of the KKK. Looks like Democrats have gone full circle.

I knew that. I didn't learn everything from "Jurassic Park", you know.

And I, me dino, am quite certain you are right. And I have made enemies in high places, shall we say. But I have friends in the FBI as well as enemies there. And I have friends in high places in other parts of the world who protect me, my family and my friends.

Is it possible to get back what the founders intended for America? Without arms? I say not.

Well, could be. But he is a capitalist, and made his money with financial investments. Something one can do only in a capitalist environment. He is a "fat cat", wealthy capitalists with a socialist ideology.

CRT, no matter how they try to conceal it, teaches that American history is solely a history of genocide and slavery. This satisfies the "power lust" of black Americans who will always feel oppressed by the "white European devils". Black Americans, in their gullibility and naivete, have been used by the Leftists to gain power for their Marxist-derived ideologies.

You say "The government is civil servants and [quasi] "elected" officials", but they are there because they promise they are working for the "good of the people", i.e. the "collective". And the stronger an "electorate" becomes a collective, the more abuse and largess predominate.

In some circles, it is believed the U.S. Constitution gives power to the people? (I would argue that, but it is an issue for another time).