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What If..?
The fears and hesitation that are being expressed by some of us on the Right are cringeworthy. The list of concerns is piling up, and it’s always a valuable strategy to plan for the future; but we must stop developing rhetoric and actions that paralyze us when we worry about what might happen in the future. This kind of talk is stultifying, contagious and if we are serious about fighting back against the government’s attacks on our freedom, we have to reframe what is happening. Just what am I hearing?
- The Left will initiate riots if Roe v. Wade is limited or eliminated.
- I’ll lose my job if I don’t comply with my employer’s mandates.
- The government will resort to more lockdowns and other mandates.
- The container ships stuck in the harbor will ruin our Christmas.
- The cost of gas will limit my Christmas shopping and other expenses.
- The new variant will cause a panic.
- They will try to close the schools.
- If Roe v. Wade is revoked, they will try to take our guns.
This is only a partial list; I’m sure many of you could point to other fears that are being expressed. And it’s understandable that we are alarmed about the potential freedom-limiting actions that could be tried over the next few months. But we can’t let our fear cause us to pull back or remain silent. None of these possibilities are etched in stone.
So what should we do?
- See if the riots begin again. Shout from the rooftops that law enforcement and the National Guard should shut down civil unrest at the first sign of violence. Don’t let the media dictate your words and actions. Bombard your mayors and governors with emails and demonstrations that declare our insistence on peace and calm.
- If your employer demands private medical information from you, tell them no; you don’t need to make threats. Then wait and see what happens. If they set new deadlines, ignore them again. (Hat tip to @seawriter .) You should wait to see if it’s a bluff. If they fire you, work to organize your fellow employees to protest the mandate. If enough people resist and know that others are doing the same, your employer will likely back down.
- Refuse to comply with lockdowns. If you have a business in a small town, organize your colleagues to protest and keep your businesses open. Let the town cite you. And still keep your business open.
- If you don’t receive items you planned for Christmas, be creative! Offer coupons to the people who don’t receive their gifts, to be redeemed as soon as the gifts arrive. Or reduce your gift list. Or cook, sew, knit something that offers a personal touch. Teach your kids that this is how you live big with less.
- If you have less money to shop with, don’t run up your credit card. Again, be creative. Do something as a family. Have a baking party. Design an exotic meal cooking party. Do something that everyone can participate in and enjoy their time together. It will provide memories for years to come.
- Wait and see what happens with Omicron. All indications are that it will spread widely but mildly. I said recently that since most of us will catch the virus at some point, I vote for this variant for myself.
- If they try to close the schools and you didn’t take action before, you’ll need to consider homeschooling, private school, or pod schools. We can’t tolerate hurting our children again.
- If the Left threatens to take our guns, arm yourself. I think their reaction will be a lot of empty bluster. But be ready. Pay attention.
We must couple our alarm with acting rationally in spite of our fears. This is not their country to destroy. It is our country to preserve and protect.
Let’s act like it!
[photo courtesy of unsplash.com]
Published in Culture
And threaten a lawsuit.
That’s just not going to happen. We ordered stuff earlier this year, and even if some things don’t arrive by Christmas, gift cards can make up the difference . . .
We’re on the same page, @stad! Yay!
Like Ben Franklin said, “We must all hang together…” There are more on our side than we know.
I completely agree, Joel! It’s just that people are so reluctant to speak up, because they’re concerned with what the consequences might be. We have to convince them that the consequences will be much more serious if we don’t speak out.
The problem is that I understand the abortion argument. Even sympathize with it. It is just the reality says when a life is a life and not the law
I gather that you think that most things can be “worked around” in general. I hope you’re right. I think it’s possible that at some point we will be trapped in their demands. Work arounds will be less available.
The biggest problem is more from the Left than the Right. If change the law in such a way they think they may lose they may start a civil war. It is what they did with slavery. The Left / Democrats / Progressives do not take losing well. They buy their own BS that the “arc of history bends toward justice” and they believe what they want is justice.
Susan, everything that needs to be “worked around” opens another set of eyes to what is going on, every overstep and misstep. In other words, things may happen we don’t want, but every single one exposes people to the things we’ve perceived for some time. And in all that, they shorten the time they have in power.
How does it shorten the time they will be in power? Do you expect a civil war we will win? Does anybody win a civil war?
Except they only want their own desires met–at any cost. Thanks, Fake John.
I hope you’re right, Chris. The problem is that we don’t have a whole lot of help in exposing them (as in the MSM). We have to expose them in ways that the MSM simply can’t ignore. The more that happens, the more we make a difference.
FJJG, you have the ammo, you tell me. ;-)
Look, there is a difference between being in power and having power. Despite having the House, Senate, and White House, the D’s have not governed as they wished, nor how I would have wished thanks to some GOP backbenchers (and/or Senate leadership). Rising energy costs, the border, the port crisis, all these things undermine the use of that power because the more they exercise it, the more responsibility they claim.
It’s no accident that it seems rare for a Democract Congress to produce a budget…they don’t want responsibility for it! And while they talk a mean game about many things while media extolls their virtues, they’re unable to enact an agenda that satisfies their donor class.
That’s what I mean about being “in” power: the ability to use the power they have, not just the literal authority.
Unemployed people tend to have difficulty hiring lawyers.
And of course, the left can – and does – threaten lawyers, too.
There are organizations that provide legal representation for important conservative issues. I suspect they charge little or work pro bono. And maybe more of them will appear if they know we are serious about fighting back.
PERFECT!!!
I’m retired with a safe income, grown children and enough guns that no one knows about. Personally I’m not too worried about all the “what ifs”.
However I would guess that the vast majority of people can not stand up to the threat of being fired. How many people can afford to lose their jobs? Not many.
Lol. I want to lose my job. I just can’t get my bosses to agree.
This was my immediate reaction when I read all of the bad stuff that might be coming. I hope that I am not being too flippant.
Encourage real-life friends to be aware of information & discussion sources *other* than the traditional media and the major social media platforms. Ricochet right now has a free trial offer extending thru December, and there are many other worthwhile blogs and websites.
This is really, really important. If someone gets all their news and analysis from CNN, MSNBC, New York Times, Washington Post, and PBS, then they are getting a very limited and distorted view of reality. Social media is also distorting, both because of the explicit censorship and the short-attention-span nature of the platforms, as well as the tendency for people to inhabit information & opinion bubbles.
What you say is true. CNN, MSNBC NYT, WP and PBS are all not reliable. However, neither are the Fox News Channel, OANN and Newsmax.
For twenty years from 1996 to the Spring of 2016, I watched the Fox News Channel a couple of hours every night during the week. I started to cut back when Sean Hannity attacked Ted Cruz on Trump’s behalf. I really wish that we could return to the state of the Fox News Channel before they went all Trump in the Spring of 2016. I think that there is a market for a Non-Trump conservative news network.
Tucker Carlson is opinion/analysis, not News. The difference is that the other side has nothing BUT slant.
Do.Not.Comply.
Fight Back.
I will continue to be brutally honest on my personal blog, where I fight back and speak out every day. All I need now is more followers, and more “likes” on my posts.
The anti-lockdown strategy needs a good slogan: We will show up if you do not shut down.
A small tangent to “Let’s Go Brandon!”: I have a client whose first name is Brandon. He has been hearing friends tell him “Let’s Go Brandon.”
News bias is interesting. Most main stream channels don’t even pretend to be honest and obviously coordinate among themselves on key political stories. Fox doesn’t obviously lie although they at times seem compelled to go along with their owner’s Democrat bias, then balance with the opposite views, but we can’t know much ourselves. Their opinion shows do not pretend to be unbiased news, but don’t obviously lie as the main stream stream media does. I don’t watch Hannity much as he’ll have interesting guests then do all the talking. News is a problem for all of them. There is always at every instant an infinite amount of information and some programmer has to decide what tiny piece they’ll cover. They pick stories on a very narrow spectrum. In foreign policy it’s a serious problem because we don’t know much. One has to figure out which foreign policy journalists to believe? There are a few honest journalists, but the crowd taken along with Presidents or Secretaries of States can’t do real stories. To watch that crowd pile out of the plane then pretend to be doing foreign journalism was enlightening. Those who came in to the embassy for serious talks didn’t travel with the President, but presumably could get budget to travel because the President was coming. Then then there is the problem where one doesn’t know a country at all, so it’s hard to know which journalists are honest and actually try to discern truth. I found that what I had to do was see how a journalist covered a country I did know well, then accept or reject them broadly based on that regarding countries I didn’t know at all. Some things you know by having been an insider for decades and journalists that don’t even get the basics right stand out. Actually that’s most of them.
Give adults gift certificates to local restaurants. Give college students Amazon gift cards for books or gas station gift cards. Heck many college students Starbucks gift cards. We also give wine.
Look, I have absolutely no power in the situation but complain. Not even my vote matters. The only choice is work arounds.