[Robert Teesdale]

I would like to offer a combination of observation and speculation.

First, there's no doubt that this particular topic stirs passionate response. And by "this topic" I'm not referring to mass gun confiscation, as I think there's rather broad agreement that such an attempt would be logistically and practically a non-starter.

The "topic" that we're all discussing is armed resistance to overt State tyranny by combatants within the United States. Our counterparts on the other side of the ideological divide would undoubtedly characterize it as murder of law enforcement by paranoid violent extremists. Both are quite correct. One does not invalidate the other. Stauffenberg violently took extreme measures that violated legitimate German law, yet there are few on either side of the ideological divide that would argue moral unconscionability on his part.

The question that is everpresent but virtually never asked, is what will you do as an individual when the recognition of decision point comes? What will your individual action be? What steps will you take, how far are you willing to go, what are you willing to risk and what consequences will you damn?

It is unasked for good reason: the answer is actionable intelligence to the enemy; it is currency for the treasonous; it is prophylactic against your own success and survival. Tipping of the hand is foolish. But certain generalizations can be made, based on the stability of human nature and on the lessons of history.

Some of us have certain skills and resources, others have different abilities to apply impact to the question. Resistance will find a way. A Unix server crashed here... an officer hit with a 500 yard headshot there... a straying political spouse bludgeoned to death in a deliberately fatal honey trap. Enlistment of other regional forces in common cause for negotiated benefit, such as portions of the 10,000 Mara Salvatruchas members in the United States. Presentation of associated "nonviolent" political leaders, similar to the successful Sinn Fein.

All of this is easy and obvious. Civil war and insurrection, whether against a domestic or foreign occupying power, is not a quick story to wrap by any means. I'd add that the single biggest elephant in the room missed by our ideological opponents is this: the marriage is in trouble.

What marriage? The one between the People and the State, which is solemnized by our Constitution and its prohibitions and guarantees.

Not a single poster here is arguing that such resistance would be morally wrong.

Not a single poster here is arguing that the State is benevolent, and should be given the benefit of the doubt.

Not a single poster here is saying "gee, I never really thought about this possibility".

Waking up to find your marriage crumbled, and your spouse full of distrust and fear, and contemplating self-defense killing rather than simple divorce is not a positive state of affairs, and speaks to the depth of descent we've come culturally.

There comes a point when insistence that you are right, and backing that insistence with force, will produce a violent reaction in response. And when that moment comes, the contest may be unequal and the outcome may be unpredictable and far less than positive. I assuredly don't expect the external enemies of the United States to sit back and simply watch while our beloved country was consumed with violent civil insurrection and revolt.

I love my country. I love my people also... Americans are a good people, an optimistic and fair people, and willing to long suffer abuses before arising. I fear that the depth of attachment that Americans have to their freedom, and the violence of action they will assuredly take in defense of it, is lost on those who believe that brilliant manipulation of information and the cynical mass repetition of talking points can obscure the devastatingly cruel and horrific nature of collectivism.

A is A. Freedom is freedom, and ignorance is not strength. And while it may be sadly correct that the tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants, it also unfortunately seems to be fertilized with the ready bones of decomposing idiots who insist on taking collectivism and "doing it right" this time.

I don't think we're in a a rapturous end times battle. I think we're in a routine one, a battle revisited regularly and with some predictability. The blood and treasure it costs to remind us human beings is appalling, and while I'd just as soon love my wife and raise my children and enjoy the benefits of hard honest work... my freedom matters more. So does the freedom of my family and my descendants.

My message to the Left? Stop hitting us. We are not subjugated dependents. Stop abusing us. We are not cattle. Stop mistaking forbearance for incapacity.

Above all, stop. Now.

It isn't too late to reconcile your dreams of progessive utopia with the reality of human nature and society. Before you lies the gleaming fantasy of the lion and the lamb; behind you stalks the roaring adversary who is hungrily awaiting the next glut of blood from a million innocents, draining into yet another nameless pit dug by the murdered.

Isn't a hundred million deaths in the last hundred years enough?

[JMJJR]

Nice synopsis of the real topic Rob

Thanks

BTT

[Travis McGee]

436 is brilliance.

[BuckeyeTexan]

Excellent analysis.

[MHGinTN]

It is rare to find an off-the-cuff essay so well written and so precisely accurate. Thank you for pausing long enough to post it. Kudos. Sadly, the progressives have proven they are not paying attention to History, they are arrogantly trying to frame it, again and again, and again, and failing every time because they not only do not understand human nature, they do not comprehend that God will never endorse their evils.

[Envisioning]

Stop mistaking forbearance for incapacity.

Well said sir, very well said. People are NOT choosing inaction out of fear or weakness or apathy or sloth, but out of strength and humanity.

(((ping to 436)))

[spodefly]

... the single biggest elephant in the room missed by our ideological opponents is this: the marriage is in trouble.

An excellent summary of the most salient point. Thank you for posting.

[Smokin' Joe]

...Isn't a hundred million deaths in the last hundred years enough?

Apparently not for those who will ever blame others for their own actions. I have yet to see a Liberal/Progressive/Marxist take personal responsibility for the failings of the philosophies they force upon others, nor for the reaction to that coercion.

[Smokin' Joe]

...Isn't a hundred million deaths in the last hundred years enough?

Apparently not for those who will ever blame others for their own actions. I have yet to see a Liberal/Progressive/Marxist take personal responsibility for the failings of the philosophies they force upon others, nor for the reaction to that coercion.

[NFHale]

“...I love my country. I love my people also... Americans are a good people, an optimistic and fair people, and willing to long suffer abuses before arising....”

I love this country too, brother. And the idea of it. And the Ideal of it.

That’s what this is all about at the end of the day.

Your post is amazing, and it that statement above should make every commenter on this thread choke up and remember why we are who we are, and what we are.

This country truly IS the Last Best Hope. And if it goes away, it’ll be a long time before there’s ever anything like it again.

“I love my country...” - a sentiment that the other side has been methodically trying to erase.

(Psst...It ain’t working...we still DO)

[ThirdMate]

Excellent post.

Bump for later reflection.

[Gilbo_3]

bump #436..."Thank You Robert for that most excellent post...

the meat of it really is

My message to the Left? Stop hitting us. We are not subjugated dependents. Stop abusing us. We are not cattle. Stop mistaking forbearance for incapacity.

Above all, stop. Now.

too bad the thirst for power is too great for man to do so...

[archy]

Isn't a hundred million deaths in the last hundred years enough?

The most analagous situation I know of similar to that we now face is that of the Finnish Civil War of 1918. In short: Finland, a former Russian duchy, was *given* its independency by the successful Russian Communist revolutionaries of 1918, who wished to show the world that newly-Soviet Russia had no desire for colonies by another name. The Russian Communists were consolodating their power and were about to face a small civil war of their own, so military intervention in Finland was impractical for them anyway. But as usual, the Soviet Communists hedged their bets.

Finland's Socialists were in power, and in combination with the country's own Communist Party, declared that the nation would join with the Soviet Union by treaty- no national election or plebiscite needed, and there's nothing you can do about it, anyway. That's an oversimplification [ background and details *here*] but approximates the situation. As it turned out, there WAS something the Finns could do: they had a four-month long civil war, during which about 1% of the Finnish male population was killed or otherwise died.

During the Armerica Civil War of 1861-1865, about 2% of the USA male population died...but that was over a four YEAR period, not four months. And during the Finnish bloodletting, only about one death in four could be reasonably described as a casualty of the fighting; the rest were put up against the nearest wall or logpile and shot, or were bayoneted by recruits as an introduction to their new trade; Europe's Socialists remain wary of rifles in civilian hands with bayonet attachments to this day- and their aversion has spread to their fellows elsewhere as where.

The point being: with the US population at around 325 million, a 1% casualty rate would result in a lot of overtime for the gravediggers; you can do the math. And once it starts, I don't really expect it to be over in just four months; the Finns had a really nasty winter interfere. We generally have better conditions for that sort of thing, thus our four years of brother versus brother and neighbor versus neighbor. The youngest Red soldier executed was 9 years of age.