andozw

The only virtue of America worth protecting, is liberty. It is a hard-fought, precious, and misunderstood civilizational ideal. It is not "equality under the law," nor "democracy," that we ought to hold as our American identity, for most modern states attempt these and America holds no special claim to them. Themes such as "diversity" or "the American dream" are consequences of liberty, not causes. Appealing to the consequence rather than the cause leads many toward all manner of obnoxious state interventions. To be "pro-America," properly defined, is to be only a stalwart defender of the ideal of liberty, understanding it as the apex principle of just civilization and the ultimate American innovation. If you're proud of the flag—or of any national symbol—it should be affection for this principle and little else. Yet not one in ten Americans understand it, and not one in a hundred advance it with any courage. The majority work actively or passively to undermine it wherever it suits them. This is why democracy itself is at least as much a danger as it is a blessing. Protectionism, patriotism, socialism... these cloud the minds of most of its citizenry, imagining the state as an instrument of communal advancement (the very affliction and mirage suffered by all other nations) rather than its only justified role as defender of its most important civic principle. To the few dozen of you out there fighting for liberty, thank you.

It is curious that those on the left—the alleged advocates of democracy—are not the more ardent supporters of gun ownership and the Second Amendment. The pro-social, pro-civilizational purpose of guns is, after all, equality. Guns' most distinct virtue is not the ability to go hunting on the weekends, nor even for use in home defense. Rather, their most distinct virtue is in the egalitarian expression of power, arguably *the* foundational prerequisite for democracy. Tyranny or fascism of any kind is most difficult among a well-armed populace. This point is indisputable. Thus, any group that advocates highly centralized, hierarchical power, should oppose broad gun ownership. And any group that advocates highly decentralized, democratic power, should so sanctify it. What are we to make of the modern Left, then? Where is their advocacy of egalitarianism on the very policy which most enables it?

Fed "independence" is a myth, a story. It is the moral cover which justifies its grotesque state-sanctioned near-monopoly power over the most important market in the world: money. The Fed is never "independent" of the banking establishment. It is of, by, and for the banks. The Fed is the banking establishment's greatest accomplishment. And because modern banking is an appendage of the state, so too is the Fed its most potent tentacle. Nobody should really care about how much the Fed spent on its building renovations. What a distraction! The Fed's crime is not an embellished construction project, but the systematic coercive distortion of money rates across the global economy for the past century.