Governments Don’t Like It When We Gather without Their Permission - Freedom of association is under attack.

American Thinker ^ | 17 Aug, 2026 | J.B. Shurk |

[MtnClimber]

There are a number of ways in which Western governments are waging war against their citizens. The United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and leftists in the United States do not believe in free speech. These Western governments also spy on their citizens without warrants or probable cause. They have transformed their court systems into ideologically-partisan dictatorships that impose rulings based upon feelings and “political correctness,” rather than black-letter law and self-restraint. An offense that often gets overlooked, however, is Western governments’ infringement of citizens’ freedom of association.

Freedom of association is our natural, God-given right to meet with likeminded people, discuss ideas, express ourselves, and promote our mutual interests. As with freedom of speech, it is fundamental to any notion of liberty. Respect for freedom of association is the bedrock for religious freedom, freedom of conscience, communal identity, and national self-determination.

Countries are born when people of common ancestry, language, history, and customs choose to work together and defend their way of life. Towns spring up when likeminded people settle and develop a region together. Religious congregations grow through common worship. Schools, skilled trade unions, clubs, sports leagues, and civic organizations of all types are formed when people come together to pursue similar interests and advance shared ideas.

At its heart, freedom of association respects human beings’ natural inclination to cooperate with others to build something together that would not be possible for any one person to build alone. As a voluntary commitment to pursue a group’s common aims, it is the collective expression of each individual’s personal liberty.

As with all God-given rights and liberties, government power (or State authority) is the greatest threat to freedom of association. When governments prevent people from discussing ideas, worshiping together, working together, or pursuing common interests,

[oldtech]

Isn’t resisting citizens having freedom of association the communist way? The governments resisting this are using it to their own purposes are they not? The difference is that when they meet they can pass laws & we(the average citizens) cannot. The average citizen outnumbers the average politician as far as I know. If they want to maintain peace in a country, the politicians should be paying attention to what the average citizens are talking about, shouldn’t they? If the politicians were honestly paying attention, I think some changes would have been made before now.

[oldtech]

I know of one family (now probably mostly dispersed)that had the kind of crowds over for holidays that would have possibly been investigated as a potential riot. Actually, they were a very decent group of people,just a very large family.

[Vaduz]

Free speech is alive and well slander not so much