I have long maintained that one of the big obstacles libertarians face in the achievement of a genuinely free society is the fact that most Americans honestly believe they are free.
When individuals are convinced of their own freedom, they lack motivation to join libertarians in striving for a truly free society. Instead, libertarianism is often dismissed as an unusual ideology claiming to create something that already exists—a free society.
Hopefully, the recent deaths of 37-year-olds Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, both everyday Americans, might help some people pierce the thick veil of indoctrination convincing them they live in freedom. How can a society be free when the government holds absolute authority to kill anyone at will?
Make no mistake: U.S. officials possess the unchecked power to kill any American they choose. This harsh truth remains unwelcome to many who prefer to believe they reside under a government akin to that established at our nation’s founding, limited by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Too many Americans avoid confronting the reality that today’s government is vastly different—marked by ruthless control similar to totalitarian regimes throughout history, exercising powers like killing, torture, and indefinite detention without due process or jury trials.
Take the drug war as a prime example of totalitarian-like authority wielded even by democratically elected officials. Consider the countless lives lost through this oppressive program over the years.
Specifically, over a hundred people were recently executed on the high seas under the guise of the drug war. This brutal assertion of absolute power involves no accountability—no prosecutions or convictions arise from these killings.
Yet Americans have allowed this relentless drug war violence to persist for decades. Despite officials never coming close to “winning,” what matters is they maintain the ability to carry on, even at the cost of our freedom being eroded by our own government.
A grim irony in this loss of liberty is how the government frequently engineers problems it then uses to justify further infringements. Drug cartels, for instance, wouldn’t exist in a truly free society, where drugs are legal. Instead, pharmacies and reputable businesses supply them, eliminating the black market and its gangs.
Rather than eliminating drug prohibition, which creates the black market, the government exploits the very existence of cartels to enlarge its powers— including the lethal authority to kill anyone suspected of breaking drug laws.
Anyone believing that this lethal power on the high seas only targets foreigners lives in profound naivety. Through these killings, the U.S. government—especially the Pentagon, CIA, and NSA—sends a clear statement to Americans: “We control this. What we do on the high seas, we can do anywhere, to anyone, including Americans, and no one can stop us. Accept it.”
Back in 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr., noted the U.S. government had become the world’s largest source of violence. Many Americans refuse to face that little has changed; if anything, the situation has worsened. While foreign nationals have often suffered most from U.S. brutality, the power to wield such ruthlessness against Americans has always existed—ready to be unleashed when deemed necessary.
This is unfolding now in the fight against illegal immigration. ICE and Border Patrol personnel have authority to kill American protesters without consequence—no prosecutions, convictions, or accountability. These agents enjoy full protection, often supported by lies, cover-ups, pardons, and legal defenses. Even if killings decline, the power to kill with impunity remains, poised for future use.
From time to time, events like Waco and Ruby Ridge remind citizens who holds ultimate authority. The U.S. government reigns supreme; citizens serve as subjects obligated to produce wealth via taxes. The government rules, sometimes with cruelty and violence—that’s the reality. Accept it.
Those breaking free from the indoctrination believing “we are free” often blame Donald Trump, ICE, Border Patrol, DEA, or military and CIA overreach. This diagnosis is mistaken. The real problem is not the individuals in power but the systems themselves—drug prohibition and America’s socialist border control regime— which cling to the federal government like malignant tumors.
To establish a truly free society, a significant portion of Americans must recognize that reforming these harmful systems or electing “better” leaders is insufficient. The true remedy is the total removal of these destructive and illegitimate institutions entangled with the federal government.
Original article: www.fff.org
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