Have you ever said anything that deserves 34 years in prison?
I've said a lot of really mean shit in my life, but even if I wanted to be hard on myself I don't think I'd say yes to that. Guys like me can come up with some pretty nasty things if we want to in heated arguments and I think I've expended most of those opportunities because I've reached the point in life and old age where I don't hang around people that would bring that side out of me anymore. I'd rather focus that certain set of skills on the people who would throw a young mother like Salma al-Shehab in a cage for being a political dissident like you and me.
The story of al-Shehab is one of the latest examples of an outspoken person being punished by her fellow man for it. What you should be outraged about is that our entire news cycle is partially controlled by the same people who want to throw anyone like the Saudi student and mother of 2 young children into a cage to be raped and tortured for retweets.
The news reports we all receive these days come from Twitter. If you support the establishment you can tweet away, but if you pull some shit like Alex Berenson did by saying that the covid vaccines don't stop transmission and wane and have terrible side effects, then you go into the digital cage. The digital cage limits your reach, your access to people's minds, and this is done to you and all of us for the same reason the government wants to shove needles into your arm still of the fucking poison Berenson spoke of...safety.
Shehab was only given 3 years originally for using the internet to “cause public unrest and destabilize civil and national security” but an appeals court gave her a new sentence of 34 years...and a 34 year travel ban after that. She was accused of assisting dissidents by retweeting them. Apparently in the Saudi Kingdom following and retweeting multiplies the sentence, but in America...for now, it only gets you on a DHS terrorist watch list.
I know what some of you might be thinking, I have the 1st amendment to protect me, this is the greatest country in the world, we don't do that to ours. That's true, we ruin them financially first.
In today's America we have institutionalized political persecution of dissidents in our courts. Now if you wanna question the Establishment you better have a few million dollars on hand and even that won't save you. And your fellow countrymen will cheer it on as you are stripped of your wealth and property for stepping out of line. That's where my outrage kicks in because Twitter and the Saudi government and the U.S. government are all one entity. The deck gets shuffled every couple of years but the cards stay the same and we will always be dealt a shitty hand no matter what from these fucking people.
We pay for it. All of it. From the tax dollars that go to the White House Staff to the money sent overseas to the Saudis to our advertisers and influencers on Twitter you support with your purchases and clicks. We support it with our focus and attention on the information coming from Twitter and its importance and bearing on the stability of our society. We support it by allowing the people running this operation to saw people like Jamal Khashoggi into pieces and get a fist bump from our President.
We're playing in someone else's sandbox online. The reason why our people are so ignorant and so willing to throw us all into cages, digital or otherwise, is because of the influence that these institutions have on us...all of us.
If you self censor to stay on Twitter the system is working. If you pop at the next big trending story its working. If you engage with the trolls and the bots its working...and its all designed to keep you as far away from the truth and any kind of real impact in the world.
Look at the reasons that are given for people's suspensions and bans. Look at the civil cases that could arise now based on the accusations of harm done by the handful of characters you might want to arrange later on today after listening to this podcast. From what's news to people's opinions on all sides, the perception of what's real is largely in the hands of people responsible for some of the greatest crimes against humanity ever perpetrated. Do you feel that the truth is in good hands today?
Just because we don't have a Prince in a palace to sentence us to a life of imprisonment and bans from travel doesn't mean we have much more freedom than the people that do. For now, as long as you can fund your ability to speak you have some opportunity to communicate with your fellow man, but for many of us that will never be possible, and the amount of people left that can do so cannot be counted on to do the right thing.
The Twitter driven news cycle is an assault on truth, fueled by intelligence agency spin, algorithm manipulation, and fake accounts operated by your government and others. If we are ever to be able to communicate openly and freely and without the fear of persecution, the Palaces we built for our oppressors in control of these platforms and our governments need to come down...peacefully.
We here at The New Prisoners are willing to light the way to exposing the creeps behind these injustices and like the song says “We'll dance as the palaces burn.”
"...I have the 1st amendment to protect me, this is the greatest country in the world, we don't do that to ours." "We pay for it. All of it. From the tax dollars that go to the White House Staff to the money sent overseas to the Saudis to our advertisers and influencers on Twitter you support with your purchases and clicks." and " For now, as long as you can fund your ability to speak you have some opportunity to communicate with your fellow man, but for many of us that will never be possible, and the amount of people left that can do so cannot be counted on to do the right thing."
Pure Gold sir! Pure Gold! Thank you for your expression of facts!
Good stuff!
The orchestra that keeps on playing, as couples share their final drinks together, after the lifeboats all ran out, while the Titanic capsizes.
One of my challenges, is even if it all came down and we were somehow not invaded and overtaken by one of our nations enemies (China, Russia, etc...), which seems unlikely to me at such an opportune moment.
Is what could we do better than our founders that would prevent a new government (of our choice), from becoming just as corrupt within 200 years?
How can anyone future proof a government from greed and corruption?
Sure, there are lots of policies we would currently change (if "we" could all agree on ANYTHING) , but those policies weren't born of the constitution, but by perverted men and women seeking more power for their special interests.
I see it as easy for us to throw stones, not that resistance isn't important, especially now. But how do we do anything to improve our governance 200 years from now, 3 or 4 generations after people have forgotten WHY we are not only allowed but encouraged to own firearms... while it wasn't for HUNTING.
Much like the Bible, if you read our founding documents (online) in their original form, most would.... ban us from the internet or put us on some watch list.
That might be an extremely compelling podcast series, working through our founding documents, with the background and history, while placing the words in context, and explaining both sides of why each word was included. What it originally MEANT and SHOULD STILL MEAN TODAY!
Followed by how small perverse derivatives have slowly evolved into what we have today.
We can all see what's coming... a cluster fuck of chaos... but maybe a reminder of from where we came from and how the fuck such pure intentions found us here, could help lead a light back.
Or show future generations how NOT to follow our footprints to this place of inescapable doom.
How we became a nation so divided that not only is there no middle, but we are literally forced into one of two cattle troths, painted blue or red. Largely within my lifetime, the past 50 years, exponentially increased by the last 20, then the last 10.
"Conspiracy theory" is easy to write-off for most, but is real, actual, HISTORY?
While reality and history have in many ways surpassed Conspiracy Theory the past decade.
Which can have the most impact upon reaching rational minds and promoting real change? Or do we just listen to the symphony, sharing a few drinks, throwing a few stones, as our nation captsizes as the Titanic did?
I appreciate you #6 and what you are both doing and trying to do, even beyond. I don't have the answers, that's the scariest part, is that I don't know anyone who has the answers. Besides the lack of trust, how polarized we now are as a country.
Sadly, war brings unity, a common cause. Even in my marriage we kicked ass together, more than anyone could anticipate. We never began to drift apart until the largest battle, we had ever faced to date, was over, and we had won.
The same with The American Revolution... (not a history buff, so please forgive any inaccuracies), but that formed a UNIFIED PEOPLE TO DRAFT OUR FOUNDING DOCUMENTS!
We are so divided today, short of war, or apocalypse, what could ever reunite us to the point of agreeing an ANY government structure from the ground up?
Even then, we are back to HOW could we possibly future proof it from HUMAN GREED and LUST, yet unseen, 200 years down the road.
That has been the biggest factor that has prevented me in years past from jumping on the Libertarian train.
Not the I don't value the ideals and hold them above blue or red, but:
1.) I believe that all political parties should be outlawed, as nobody can serve two masters. And nobody leading our government should be beholden to any one other than the voters!
2.) I don't believe the Libertarian movement has the SOPHESTICATION and STRUCTURE (corrupt as it may be), to handle complex foreign policies, manage our military safely, without destabilizing the entire world. It is easy (and I would largely agree) that we shouldn't be fucking around in all these other countries. What our true motivations are, and we shouldn't be the global police force.
But is that naive? Would it be like when we pulled out of Afganistan and ty hey slaughtered their own people because we weren't there anymore?
When I was a kid I thought we should remain on our own soil, not fuck with anybody else, but keep our hand on the NUKE button and if anyone fucked with us, delete their country from the planet.
I find that a bit nieve as well as probably less humanitarian, than trying to fight wars without wounding (innocents) women and children, which adds tremendous complexity, on the ground presence, far more time and while increasing our own casualties, costing us a tremendous price.
I said a lot more, but I guess I found the character limit (again). Cheers!