Tag Archives: freedom

Self-Reliance is Freedom

05 Sunday Apr 2020

Posted by in Red Pill

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This recent turn of events seems to have a whole lot of people rethinking things. Like what would happen if suddenly there isn’t what you need at the store. Then what?

Well, then hopefully you already know how to provide some or all of that for yourself, or in the least can come up with some workarounds for what you can’t get.

Like let’s go right for the TMI — toilet paper. What would you do if you can’t find or get toilet paper? Easy! (And you can do this right now to conserve the paper you’ve got.)

Take one or two old towels and cut them up in squares the size of washcloths. It doesn’t need to be exact or perfect. Get a bucket and line it with a plastic grocery sack. If it’s yellow, use a towel to wipe and toss it in the bucket. If it’s brown, use the paper and flush it down. Every day or so, wash the towels on their own with detergent and a splash of bleach. If you are completely out of paper, you can just go full towel. Or you can use old magazines and the like, toss in the trash for the browns. (Don’t flush unless you want to learn how to diy plumbing, not recommended!)  Yep. Problem solved.

But back to the topic, of which the above is just one practical illustration and much better than going out and standing in line at store after store in the middle of a pandemic, possibly exposing yourself or others to a virus, when you could do the towel thing instead. It’s only for a few weeks, folks!

I think one reason for the underlying panic many are feeling (besides the irresponsible fanning of it on any major news station) is they are realizing they have no knowledge or ability to live without the system they have become dependent upon to provide for their needs.

Now would not be a bad time to order one of those self reliance, homestead type books that covers how to do everything from grow and preserve food, to generate power off the grid, to dealing with basic medical care on your own. Sure it is all on the Internet, but what if you did not have access to that for whatever reason? Books never go offline! Plus, it’s interesting stuff!

Even if you live in an apartment there is a lot you can do. I have seen people grow a crazy amount of food in pots. You can even grow sprouts in a jar for fresh eating! Basic knowledge of what plants can be foraged in your area are another source of nutrition if all else fails. Dandelion leaves, for example, are are an excellent source of vitamin A, folate, vitamin K, and vitamin C (in its raw form), and a good source of calcium and potassium.

Self-reliance also comes into play when it comes to protecting you and yours from infection. You don’t have to wait for the government to tell you what to do, all you have to do is understand viruses, how they spread, how to protect yourself, and what to do to boost your immune system in the case you do get sick. There is a LOT you can do, besides just give up and allow the virus to run its course. Like take vitamin C, salt water gargle, saline nasal rinse (neti-pot), zinc lozenges, elderberry gummies or syrup, garlic, raw honey, turmeric… look it up! There are LOTS of ways you can help your body fight back against a virus. Don’t believe, “there is nothing you can do.”

Hopefully in addition to encouraging a return to self-reliance (remember victory gardens?) this pandemic will also bring back into fashion the tried and true traditions of personal and social responsibility. If everybody practiced these, we would not need all this increasing government regulation and intervention.

If we need the government, military, and police to guide our every move and tell us what to do, then we are no longer free. It is from our own handing it over, abdicating personal and social responsibility and holding others responsible, too, that they have turned into the tyrant they have become.

So please, don’t beg the government to make things safe for you or demand they do what you really need to do for yourself. Because every time we do, we all become less and less free.

What do you think? Please share in the comments!

 

 

Busy

31 Tuesday Jul 2018

Posted by in Fempire, parenting, Red Pill

≈ 136 Comments

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This is a busy time of year for me and will be for the next few months. As they say, one must make hay while the sun shines.

That said, at this time of year I can also really question the messages I received in early childhood and beyond. That it was all about having a career, being successful, being, “just like a man.”

Perhaps all that is possible minus children, and indeed before I had kids I focused mainly on building my career. But now I find myself in the situation that my busy season coincides with my kids summer break.

I sometimes try to picture what life as, “just a mom” would be like. Sadly it’s so foreign to me, and has never been my world, that I can’t really even picture it.  What would I do with all that time? Who would I “be” without my career? I really have no idea.

One of the big reasons I was encouraged to have a career was because it was supposed to provide a woman with freedom. Freedom from dependence, freedom from being left in the lurch, the freedom of being able to support oneself.

What they don’t tell you is it becomes a trap, too. Once you have a career, especially a successful one, people naturally expect you to continue. Having a career often involves significant investment (education, time, energy, etc.) walking away from that career means losing all that investment. And having a career does provide income, income you and others then often don’t feel you can give up once you have it.

Something else they don’t tell you is everything has a price. There’s no magical path of all upside.

My career has created revenue, yes, but has come at significant cost, as well. To both myself and others. It’s simply impossible to have it all. So I have a great career, but it takes away from other spheres (important, critical ones) no matter how hard I try to “balance” it all.

So is it really freedom? Is it really better?

These are the questions I ask myself as I pay others to take my kids swimming or to enjoy some summer fun while I work.

I guess i did it. I really am just like a man, at least in one way.  Men rarely get to take summer off, spend the days playing with their kids either.

Yay feminism.

What do you think? Please share in the comments.

Residual Blue Pill Programming

03 Friday Feb 2017

Posted by in Red Pill

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Even as much as I have learned and grown over the past several years since discovering the red pill, there are still times where I realize the old residual blue pill programming still pops up in my thinking from time to time.

For example, I was following a conversation elsewhere and made the remark that it would be great if our new president took up for men’s rights.

A red piller soon pushed back that no, men did not need the government to give them men’s rights, doing so would be just as much BS as women’s rights. Instead he pointed out the government should stay out of it.

Do rights come from within, or without? Oooommmm. Wow. Mind opening moment. Hard to put into words.

I wholeheartedly agreed, thanked him for the comment, and apologized for the bad phrasing. I admitted I still have blue pill programming here and there.

“That’s OK,” he said. “It will go away with time!” Lol.

Let those who have ears hear.

What do you think? Do you have any residual blue pill beliefs still lurking about?

Are You a Critical Thinker?

21 Friday Oct 2016

Posted by in Red Pill

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Critical thinking is defined as, “the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment.”

Are you a critical thinker? Many people aren’t, and yet they don’t even know it.

We are all operating on a series of conscious or subconscious beliefs that we have been taught, absorbed, were exposed to, indoctrinated with, or in some other way influenced to believe, “this is how it is.”

Much of this happens when we are very young, under the age of 5, much too young to understand there may be other beliefs, or that the beliefs we are adopting could in fact be completely off. At the time, there is no ability to filter the beliefs we are exposed to. They simply become our own.

That’s where critical thinking comes in. I am constantly exposing myself to alternate viewpoints and beliefs in an effort to better understand and examine my own. Often the result is a better understanding of my belief and sometimes I will alter my beliefs based on consciously examining them as an adult.

Today, there is a trend in our society that discourages critical thinking. College students are demanding “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings” in an effort to avoid being exposed to opposing or alternate beliefs.

Alternate belief systems are being increasingly deemed “unacceptable” by these same people, and they are demanding others conform to their belief system. If they don’t, they reject them as “wrong” or “ignorant” or “a hater” or even demand the person be persecuted or punished for their “unacceptable” (as defined by them) beliefs.

Interestingly these same people often consider themselves “tolerant” and those who don’t agree with them “intolerant.” Ironic?

This line of thinking is exactly the opposite of the principles the United States were founded upon. We’re not a nation of conformity, group think, or censorship. Critical thinking, open debate, and freedom of self expression are all foundational principles to our democracy.

I’d challenge everyone reading this to start examining their personal beliefs, where they came from, how they compare to the beliefs of others, and where they stand up to scrutiny and where they fall short.

If someone says something you strongly react to or immediately oppose, that’s a perfect time to reflect on your reaction, step outside of your beliefs and try to see where the other person is coming from, and consider if perhaps you could learn from their belief rather than just rejecting it outright. Instead of being upset, think of it as an opportunity to grow and to refine who you truly are and what you truly believe.

Every once in awhile, you might just discover a belief you have held since childhood actually doesn’t fit your adult belief systems at all. Other times, you will find them confirmed.

Either way, you aren’t just mindlessly going through life with blinders on. Blinders you didn’t even choose yourself, but ones chosen for you long before you realized you ever even had a choice.

 

 

 

Troll Culture

15 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by in Red Pill

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The recent disputes happening at rallies seems to show troll culture has jumped from Cyberspace into the mainstream.

Trolls, in short, are folks who visit an online website, blog, or discussion thread they disagree with, but rather than just stating their points like a rational person, they seem to feel they are on some kind of crusade to disrupt, upset, and dismantle discussions that don’t suit them. They are self-appointed “thought police.” It’s as if other people having their own opinions is simply not allowed, are seen as a personal affront and threat to their own worldview rather than simply as an alternate one.

Imagine if Trump supporters started to attend rallies for his democratic opponents, heckling, destroying candidate signs, trying to jump on stage. Would the press blame the candidates themselves for those actions, or would they place the blame where it belongs — on the agitators who are on some vigilante crusade to “shut down” a legitimate and (like it or not) popular candidate?

Whether or not you or I agree with Trump or not, we should all be very, very disturbed by these events surrounding him, and how he is being blamed for those events rather than the blame being placed on those making their own choices to agitate in the opposing camp and yet expect impunity — or worse — validation or glory even. Not that I am justifying violence, but you don’t poke at a rattlesnake with a stick and then not expect a reaction, do you? What did they think was going to happen?

Because you know what? If troll culture gets a pass, we’ll start seeing it more and more often, like at this rally just moments ago for another presidential candidate!

The solution is not to allow more and safer disruption of people who really should not be there in the first place. We don’t need to protect the trolls, they need to be legally ejected or arrested if they are disruptive. To coddle them will only make things worse.

Whatever happened to agreeing to disagree? How did we get here? How do we get back to something a little more sanity based?

The slow slide of first amendment freedoms, of all personal liberties in fact, we have seen over the past few decades is not a good thing. It is not American. It is not freedom. It is not liberty. It is not justice for all.

Troll culture is not a step forward, it is a big step back.

 

 

Helicopter Neighboring

10 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by in Red Pill

≈ 45 Comments

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I have noticed a growing phenomenon in our culture, but I am not sure where it comes from — people calling the authorities to report or “tattle” on others.

For example, I live in a rural are where it is OK to burn tree limbs and such as long as there isn’t a burn ban and you have a permit from the fire department. Despite this, and my having a permit, hose, and shovel all right there as required, almost without fail every time I light my burn pile, it seems some “do gooder” driving by picks up their cell phone and reports it to 911.

This triggers a visit from the local fire department, who then see that I have the permit, shovel, and hose and that everything is in order.

Really? What a waste of time and resources!

If these people are really so concerned, why don’t they stop and check in with me themselves? Why do they feel the need to call the authorities, or even get involved at all? I could understand if my house was on fire, and of course then I would appreciate the call. But when I am clearly just burning a pile of brush?

I could list many other examples, almost all cases where neighbors talking to neighbors rather than neighbors calling the authorities on neighbors would be the best solution.

For example, not long ago another commenter (Liz, I think?) shared a story of a neighbor who called the police when they noticed the neighbor’s tween-age boy (12, if I recall correctly) was home from school but his parents were not. The boy was calmly playing basketball IN HIS OWN DRIVEWAY waiting patiently for his parents, who were minutes away. Instead of the neighbor just asking the kid if he was OK, or if he needed to use the phone to call his parents, they called 911. And the family lost custody of their son, and spent months caught up in the CPS system trying to get him back. Really?  Because they were stuck in traffic and 15 minutes late?

When and how did America become this? What are the implications to the concepts of freedom and liberty that we supposedly hold so dear?

Please share your thoughts in the comments.