A commenter asks an excellent question: what can we do about the many attacks on liberty from the unscientific promoters of lockdowns and mandates over the last 14 months? Billions of people worldwide haver suffered during these times because of these assaults on liberty. What can we do about it now and what can we do about preventing these attacks in the future?
Each person has to decide for him or herself what to do. The reality is that if you take a strong stand on issues like these you will get endless abuse from “friends” and family members and co-workers, among others. You will be unpopular with all kinds of people, so you must accept that from the beginning. Here are my suggestions.
1)Believe in the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and modern-day prophets. Jesus will eventually come and heal all wounds, and modern-day prophets will guide us through difficult times. I cannot over-emphasize how much peace I got from April General Conference and the messages from prophets at conference.
2)Know that standing up for other peoples’ liberty is always the right thing to do, even if many of them will not appreciate it at the time. I have been against the lockdowns and the mandates from the beginning, and this made me extremely unpopular with many people, including “friends” and family and co-workers, but in the last few weeks several people have come back to me to sheepishly admit I was right from the beginning. You will always be on the right side if you stand up for liberty.
3)Speak out on blogs and social media, in addition to making your voice heard in private conversations. Do not be argumentative. Know that you will be abused, but don’t get into heated arguments, just put forward your viewpoints and don’t allow yourself to be suckered into lengthy harangues in person or on-line. Just keep on saying you are in favor of individual liberty and keep on showing the science that is on your side. Realize that many commenters will be difficult to convince, but your job is not to convince the trolls and the fanatics on the other side — your job is to keep on saying the truth and reaching the undecideds while giving new arguments to people who may be on your side.
4)Consider running for local political offices (see the post from Lattertarian on how to speak at local meetings). There are an increasing number of liberty-minded people who have been inspired to run for school boards, city council, state house or state senate or even Congress because of the leadership of Ron Paul and other proponents of liberty. You could be one of these people.
5)Don’t be discouraged. There are other people out there who are in favor of liberty, and you give strength to others by not backing down. One of the interesting things that has happened in the last two weeks is that when people see the one guy (or woman) in the store without a mask they starting saying to themselves that maybe they will be brave enough not to wear a mask. Liberty is contagious, and courageous people standing up for freedom will inspire others.
These are my ideas. I am open to other ideas that people may want to put forward specifically on the subject of: “why did so many people allow their liberty to be taken away in the last year, and what can we do about it to prevent this to happen in the future?”