Hello again, hilarious Hivers! Thanks for stopping by to check out some more of my mad meanderings!
Typing Hivers up there, just now, made me revisit an Twitter conversation about whether people preferred to call us Hivers or Hivians. It took me until now to figure out the Hivian people should have changed the spelling to Hivean.
I always have an answer, just probably not when you need it.
By now, most of you probably know that I'm an American. That's not a brag, it's just where I was born. Some of the family on dad's side were Native American, and all of the family have been here since New York was still called 'The Frontier'. Again, not a brag, just some family history.
Whether or not you know where I'm from, you certainly know that Americans enjoy talking, very loudly, about their Freedom. Well, I figured that since I'M an American, I should probably talk about muh Freedoms too.
Before beginning, I should clarify that when I say 'American', I mean (as most people do) 'Occupant of the United States of America'. I realize that 'American' can also mean Mexican, or Haitian, or Venezuelan... all of whom live in The Americas.
I want to start by saying out loud, on the immutable blockchain, that most Americans are not nearly as 'free' as they think they are. We have more people in jail than any other country in the world, which is weird when you consider that we have like 1/4 the population of India, or China. We lock up twice as many people as China (they lock up the second most people), which means if you're an American, you're 8X more likely to get locked up than a Chinese person... but Americans think that they are more 'free'?
This is one of the reasons why the whole rest of the world thinks Americans are stupid.
We think we're free over here, because we have 'rights' that are 'guaranteed' on parchment. Never mind that those 'rights' are frequently trampled on by criminal organizations, corporations, local police, landlords, government... you get the idea, right? What am I saying, of course YOU get it! Most of YOU aren't Americans!
We think we're 'free' because we have our 'capitalism', and we THINK that we don't have to give away half of our income to the government to have access to health care and other social safety features. We THINK that because most of us never do the math to figure out just how much we're actually paying in taxes here in the US. Most Americans have 25%-30% taken right out of their paychecks, and they still have to use the money they have left to pay other taxes. Property taxes, sales taxes, licensing and registration fees, mandatory insurance coverage, not to mention the many court fees you're likely to pay, because even if you don't get locked up in America, you'll definitely still end up in court.
So, are Americans free? Is anyone?
I've learned, asking questions like this, that most people don't really have a solid definition of what freedom even is. Like so many other things, the reason behind this is that people are avoiding an uncomfortable truth about freedom:
True Freedom is uncomfortable. Really being free, and allowing others to do so, is ugly. It means you have to be responsible for yourself, and you have to let your cross-dressing gender fluid neighbors be responsible for themselves (pun intended). It means you have to face uncomfortable conversations like "What about thieves? Or murderers? Do we just let them be free to thieve and murder?"
Of course we don't. We pass laws. We cut off their hands, or hang them in the public square. We lock them up. Law is good, right?
Well, sometimes we see people, especially wealthy people, thwart the law. If you kill people because your factory is giving them cancer, we just fine you money, we don't necessarily lock you up. If you steal people's homes through eminent domain, you won't even get fined.
So, is wealth freedom? It certainly removes many restrictions to it, even the ones that are there for society's benefit. Still, their freedom isn't a 'right', they're buying it.
I realize that this isn't like, ROFL kinda material, it's more like 'nervous chuckle' kinda material, especially for Americans. You're free at any time to quietly exit my monologue, even if you think you can't stop now.
What I've learned about freedom, REAL freedom, is that it has nothing to do with laws, or wealth. Freedom is a state of mind. Freedom is releasing yourself from the unnecessary bullshit imposed on you in the name of 'freedom'. Freedom is simply deciding that you're going to do what you want to do, until someone or something stops you. Rights work like this, too. You have a 'right' to anything you can claim and keep.
For example, if I build a garden on my neighbors property, and nobody stops me, then I'm free to exercise my right to build that garden. It doesn't really matter what the laws are, until I actually suffer a consequence and lose the garden, those laws might as well not exist. Oh, do you think the police will stop me?
Call the police in America, and tell them someone is planting a garden in your yard. See how fast they show up. If you want the police to show up, you need to tell them there's a black man with a gun on your property. It will get them there, but when they show up and see they can't shoot a minority, they'll arrest you for a false report, and I'll finish planting my garden. Who has rights and freedom now?
Twitter is a good example of how poorly people understand their freedom. People get suspended on Twitter, and they scream about their 'freedom of speech'. Nobody took away their freedom of speech, they are still free to say what they want, all that was taken away was an audience. If anyone's freedoms are actually getting abused in that scenario, it's the audience, who are no longer free to consume the content they want on their preferred platform.
You know what I did when I got suspended from Twitter? I started this account. Now I say WHATEVER I want, and NOBODY can erase it, or stop me from saying something even worse. If you're wondering, Twitter suspended me for saying that I would punch a racist in the face to prove to him that a white man (me) could do the right thing (punching him in the face) and not get called a racist for it. I had to delete that tweet to get my account back, but I'm still free to say I'd punch that motherfucker in his face.
All I had to do to earn the right to say that was realize that Twitter doesn't control what I say.
Most Americans wouldn't know what to do with freedom. Take our democracy, for example. You can write in whoever you want to vote for, but almost every American voter will pick one of the two candidates that was chosen for them by an institution that has spent over 100 years advocating for the imprisonment of more Americans. Americans like to stick with what's comfortable, like chickens.
If you've never had the joy of raising chickens, let me explain. If you let a chicken that has always been caged out of its cage, it won't just run off and enjoy its freedom. It will hang out by the door, and then around the outside walls of the cage, then maybe on top of the cage, before it starts to wander away from the comforts of its 'home', even if that home was uncomfortable. It might take a whole day or more to start exploring the big, scary world, and it will still come 'home' when it gets dark.
What does all this mean? Hell, I don't know. It means I miss George Carlin... he was much better at this than I am. You're free to draw your own conclusions. If you didn't know that already...
You're welcome.
Now, lets see if I can find a nice, copyright-free American flag photo...
Yes, this should do...
Time to wrap this up... some jerks in police uniforms are here, banging on the door and asking about someone named 'At Paradox Timmah' who's been talking shit on Twitter...