A lot of people, often as children, have tried their hand at magic. When I was younger I learned some tricks and illusions that would baffle at least 95% of the general public (which is no great accomplishment). These days, every once in a while I can figure out how professional magicians do what they do, but I’m still stumped pretty often.
Now imagine the world’s worst magician. He brings a top hat on stage, carrying it upside-down like a bowl. He tells you it’s empty, but he won’t let you see inside it. He says you should just take his word for it. Then he pulls out a rabbit and says, “Presto!” Would you be impressed? And what would you think of anyone who was impressed by such a pathetic “trick”?
Well, that’s exactly how I feel about anyone who still votes in presidential elections. Really, people, how transparently bogus does it have to get before you stop falling for it? It’s embarrassing to have to explain stuff that should be patently obvious to anyone with a brain. “The rabbit was already in the hat when he came out.” And… “When those in power pre-select the candidates, that’s not you choosing anything.”
If a few years ago someone did a poll asking people who—of anyone in the world—they would want to be President, approximately zero percent would have said “Hillary Clinton” and approximately zero percent would have said “Donald Trump.” Anyone with the tiniest shred of intellectual honesty would admit this. There was no grassroots movement or actual public enthusiasm to put either of those narcissistic megalomaniacs into power. None. Yet here we are, and a country full of duped sheep are bickering over which of those two candidates—whom nobody would have chosen to begin with—is going to wield nearly unlimited power. And people still take elections seriously? Still talk as if "your vote is your voice"? Really?
This upcoming election might be an especially embarrassing spectacle, but the principle has been true of every election in your lifetime. Was there a public uproar to have Bill Clinton run for President? Nope. How about Bush (either one)? Nope. Barrack Obama? No. Initially there was zero public demand for any of them to be put into power. In fact, only a trivial percentage of the population would have even recognized any of those names before the establishment decided to parade them out before the masses as potential candidates.
To think that the people are choosing anything is just profoundly stupid. It’s like a magician holding up only two cards, and when you pick one, he “magically” knows what it is. Gee, that wasn’t rigged at all, huh? After all, you were free to choose any card you wanted (any of the two the con artist offered, that is). Yet somehow it was like the guy knew and controlled the outcome! Wow! Amazing! (Duh.)
I don’t know a nice way to say this—and in fact, I think we’re well beyond the point where we should be nice to people falling for this inane bullshit: if you vote for Hillary or Trump, you’re just an idiot. As an extreme analogy, I used to ask people if they would still vote, and still think their vote mattered, if the two choices were Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. Little did I know that my outlandish analogy would eventually stop being hypothetical. Right now the choice is between Hitler and Stalin (under different names), and most of the future victims of this ridiculous atrocity are still playing the damn game, and acting like it’s legitimate and important.
“But we have to make sure that the other guy doesn’t get into power!”
If you’ve made that argument, then you’ve proven that all your oppressors need to do to keep you perpetually enslaved—and perpetually acting as an accomplice to your own enslavement—is to keep giving you two horrendously intolerable “choices.” As long as they do that, you will keep playing the game, and will keep legitimizing and advocating the violent subjugation of several hundred million people, including you.
Seriously. Hillary? And Trump? Even when those are the choices the establishment gives you, many still fall for the most transparently bogus trick imaginable. Yes, most Americans really are that gullible, that they will still participate in the stupid circus, still watch the absurd spectacle, and still think and act as if it matters. They still imagine that they have some say in the outcome. Good grief, people! If you want to hang on to a shred of dignity or self-respect, stop allowing yourselves to be manipulated and exploited so damn easily!
If a guy showed up at your front door and asked you to choose between being punched in the face or kicked in the groin, would you proudly “participate in the process”? Would you think he was “representing” you as he inflicted upon you whichever act of violence you chose? Would you feel empowered and in charge while casting your vote? Would you tell your neighbor, “Hey, if you don’t choose between being punched in the face or kicked in the crotch, then you have no right to complain about the outcome!”? Would you pontificate about how this is what makes your neighborhood great—because you have a “choice”? Would you opine that, “The system isn’t perfect, but it’s the best there is!”?
No? Then why the hell would you have those responses to a ruling class letting you “choose” between having a left jackboot or a right jackboot on your throat?
~ ~ * ~ ~
“But what about Gary Johnson?”
Sorry, but now it’s time to poop on the parade of those people silly enough to think they can somehow game the gamers, that they can somehow magically co-opt the system and the process to achieve freedom—those who think that if only we can get a third jester into the show, everything will be different!
When the magician is trying his two-card trick on you, he controls the outcome. Don’t bother trying to hijack the trick. It won’t work.
Johnsonite: “Oh yeah, Mr. Magician? Well I brought my own card, and I pick this one!”
Magician: “Nice joker. But that’s not one of the choices.”
Johnsonite: “Well I say it is!”
Magician: “Well I’m running the trick, and I say it’s not. You lose.”
Setting aside the fact that Gary Johnson is an unprincipled statist buffoon who “spreads the libertarian message” about as well as turtles explain calculus, and setting aside that no, a President cannot unilaterally create or repeal any act of legislation or disband any federal agency or department, there’s also the tiny little fact that…
GARY JOHNSON CAN’T WIN
No, really. He can’t. And won’t. No matter what. “But if we all campaign real hard….” No, not even then. “Okay, it might be a long shot, but there’s always a chance…” No, there isn’t. None. Stop lying to yourself. It only wastes your time and energy (and possibly money) and makes the-powers-that-be laugh at your pathetic and impotent efforts.
This is a system of the ruling class, by the ruling class, and for the ruling class. They have all manner of redundant systems to make sure that their puppets win. Always. Forever. They control the media. They control the voting process. And if propaganda, slander, vote rigging and tampering, censorship, or even outright assassination, ever failed to keep an actual outsider out of the game (no, Trump is not an outsider; duh), then most of the country would suddenly learn a tiny little detail about Constitutional law that they’ve never heard before:
THE PEOPLE DON’T ELECT THE PRESIDENT
Look it up. Nowhere in the Constitution will you find any mention of the public electing the President. The state legislatures appoint the electors who choose the President. Currently the various states put on a show of asking the public who they want, but on a whim they could end that in a heartbeat and appoint whoever the hell they choose, and there isn’t a damn thing anyone could do about it. (See Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution.)
This means that if by some miracle someone who actually posed a threat to the status quo ever made it that far, the state legislatures—controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties—would suddenly say it’s an emergency and totally ignore the will of the people. And it would be completely “legal” and constitutional. (Everyone who complains about the Supreme Court “stealing the election” from Al Gore needs to read the Constitution. The Florida legislature didn’t need anyone’s permission or approval to appoint whatever electors they wanted.)
At this point, those who have become psychologically invested in “participating in the process” will start to have tantrums, and say things like, “So you just want to do nothing?” or “At least I’m trying to improve things!” or “How will not voting fix anything?” So glad you asked.
1 - While I don’t suggest “doing nothing,” that would still be an improvement over voting. Voting is doing less than nothing. While having zero chance of achieving freedom, it empowers and legitimizes the system and the process whereby the parasites violently dominate everyone else, while pretending to “represent” you, and pretending they're doing so with your “consent.” They need the slaves to vote to sell that lie.
2 - Trying really, really hard at something that has absolutely no chance of success doesn’t make you smart or noble. It makes you a dupe. The entire system is specifically designed to use up people’s time, energy and money, keeping them continually bashing their heads against a brick wall, playing a hopeless game that the tyrants will always win.
3 - To use an analogy, if you had a headache, you shouldn’t try to cure it by hitting your toe with a hammer. If someone explained that to you, it would be remarkably stupid for you to then say, “But how will not hitting my toe with a hammer fix my headache?” Similarly, refraining from voting, in and of itself, won’t fix the world. It would, however, stop you from making the situation even worse.
SO WHAT WOULD CREATE FREEDOM?
The road to freedom runs in the exact opposite direction from petitioning, campaigning and voting. It starts with people giving up the silly notion that constitutions, elections, or anything else can give someone the right to rule them. If you don’t understand that yet, you’re not even free in mind, and therefore have no chance of being free in body. As long as you’re begging the masters for legislative permission to be free, it means you think that it’s their choice whether you should be free or not. And that makes you a slave, regardless of how nice or nasty your owners choose to be towards you.
There is one road to freedom, and it happens when enough people disobey and resist the parasites who claim to have the right to rule. It might be a few people here and there quietly finding ways to live outside of the reach and control of the tentacles of the state. It might be many thousands of people openly and forcibly resisting state aggression. Ultimately, when enough people have given up the superstition of “authority,” the biggest tyranny in the world can simply be ignored out of existence. When the people as a whole stop believing that gangs of crooks in suits have the moral right to rule, that is the end of ruling classes.
But the first step is for people to stop asking tyrants for freedom, and stop hallucinating legitimacy to the gang of thieves and thugs who call their violence “law” and “taxation.” If you’re still voting, it means you haven’t even made that first step yet. And if you’re still voting in this Presidential election, it means you’re about as gullible and naive as a human being can possibly be.
(P.S. Feel free to share this article anywhere you see Stockholm Syndrome statists extolling the virtues of choosing a new slavemaster.)