In addition to be a novelist who managed to give form to the American identity in his tales, James Fenimore Cooper also had a keen insight into America’s social and political culture. His writings on politics, culture, society, and government also magnificently captured the early American ideals of liberty, humanity, and freedom, preserving the wisdom and insight into these concepts that so many of us so desperately need today, but have lost. Drawing from his work, “The American Democrat,” I explore Cooper’s insights into subjects such as social equality, liberty, the basis of good government, the limits of political power, and more. If more people understood these truths then the world would be a freer, safer, more prosperous place for all.
Category: Left
The Catastrophic Dangers of the Attitude of Servitude
Have you ever wondered why so many submit to the obviously stupid, destructive, oppressive, and insane demands the government makes upon them? Why are people so willing to allow the ruling classes to do everything from rob them to steal their children away to be slaughtered in wars? Why do people believe what they’re told to believe and think what they’re told to think by politicos, corporate talking heads, and others who so clearly have every incentive to lie to everyone for their own gain? Why do people allow themselves to be abused constantly? And why do they lash out so violently at anyone who dares even question the ruling elites and their systems of power, nevermind those who actually challenge it?
This article is about why all these things happen and what can be done to change it.
President Biden’s Vaccine Mandates Have Been Smashed In The Courts
On Sept. 9, 2021, US President Joe Biden imperiously declared that his “patience is wearing thin” with those Americans who were not yet vaccinated. That same day he issued his first vaccine mandate with two others following in November of 2021. By December 2021 they would all be struck down by the courts, with judges ruling they were inept, nonsensical, unworkable, and – most importantly – deeply unconstitutional as they violated the separation of power and allowed the President sweeping illegal powers if allowed to continue. Here I explain these rulings and how they help us to truly understand exactly what the law is and how it functions, something too many are sadly ignorant about. These mandates are an attack on the basic ideals of individualism and democracy and a threat to the rule of law. Disobedience to them is not disobedience to the law, but preservation of it in the face of illegal power grabs by the US President.
Bioshock, Ayn Rand, and the Horrors (?) of Objectivism
I am not an Objectivist (which should be obvious to anyone who has read any of my other articles.) But I have studied it in order to understand it. And I am constantly annoyed by the multitudes who have not and yet have very loud and very pompous opinions on Objectivism and Ayn Rand. In the video game subculture, there is no game widely held to be a definitive commentary on the “true” nature of Objectivism than the 2007 game “Bioshock.” There is only one problem with this belief: From start to finish, including all the lore, at no time is anyone in the game an Objectivist nor is there any time in which Objectivism guides the people in the story. While the game is magnificent in many ways it is an absolute failure as a critique of Objectivism. Here is the definitive explanation of why it fails so badly.
Did Early Mormons Practice Socialism?
Here I use the writings of one of the most intelligent men to be a General Authority – President J. Reuben Clark – and his insightful examination of the Law of Consecration as explained in the scriptures, his evaluation of the historical practices of the early church, and the importance of private property, and the modern Church Welfare Program all to answer a singular important question:
Did early Latter-day Saints practice Socialism in Missouri and Utah?
Here Is What The Scriptures Teach About Open Borders
The issue of immigration is an excellent example of how well meaning but fundamentally deceived Christians, including most Latter-day Saints, are lied to, fooled, and manipulated by the ideologies of the world into supporting immigration actions from governments which, at their most basic level, are cruel, anti-Christian, and outright evil. The purpose of this article is straight-forward- to address what exactly the scriptures command when it comes to immigration and the treatment of immigrants (of any sort) and to establish what exactly a Christian immigration policy would look like.
Here Is Why Vaccine Mandates Are Anti-Science Insanity
Mandatory vaccination – that is when the government forces you to get a vaccination otherwise it will beat you, rob you, cage you, or kill you (i.e. arrest, fine, imprison, or kill you for resisting) – is not just scientifically wrong it is legitimately insane. It is an argument that terrorizes the public into surrendering their human rights, their basic humanity, to be ravaged by those in power. People forcibly penetrating your skin in order to inject their fluids into you against your will is a violation of the body and mind equal to rape. It isn’t just a gross evil, it is also completely and utterly wrong. Here I take on the arguments made by lifelong state bureaucrats like Anthony Fauci and show how actual science contradicts their arguments and that what they are peddling is hysterical anti-science insanity.
The Truth About the Mormon Pioneers
If you pay attention Latter-day Saint history you can pinpoint the era in which American nationalism eclipsed the truth of our past as refugees and immigrants subjected to ethnic cleansing and oppression by the American state and American people. It is the point in which those first generations began to die and their grandchildren were being born, when the myth of the Mormon American pioneer developed as a way to legitimize the Saints in the eyes of and integrate the Saints into a society that had always hated and oppressed them. Here I attempt to recapture at least part of the truth of our past and address the dangers of this myth and false tradition of our fathers to us as a people.
The Mormon Pioneers Were Refugees and Illegal Immigrants
Pioneer Day is today. Celebrating the first time a company of Saints entered the Salt Lake Valley to permanently settle there, it is the closest thing we Latter-day Saints have to our own church holy day (holiday.) But there is a lot to this story that we don’t tell on Pioneer Day, a lot of our history and precious truth that we leave on the cutting room floor. For example: The pioneers weren’t really pioneers. They were really refugees illegally immigrating into Mexico in order to escape the decades of pogroms, ethnic cleansings, exterminations, and genocide they had suffered in the United States. This article is an attempt to tell this story of our spiritual and literal ancestors so that we can apply to real lessons of our history to the world we live in today and make it a better place, a more Christ-like place, a Zion-place.
“A Quiet Place” And The Terror of Social Media
The “A Quiet Place” movies have both seemingly struck a cord with society in recent years, racking up both praise and dollars in the process. This makes sense. Good horror does more than shock us or even scare us. Good horror tells stories about human fears and thereby helps us understand ourselves and our society better. The “A Quiet Place” movies do this very well. Its stories full of monsters ready to kill people and destroy lives for speaking mirrors well the very real dangers we face in today’s toxic social media world. This article explores how the “A Quiet Place” movies explore the dangers of social media as well as the message of hope these movies have about how to defeat those dangers.