Everyone pretends governments and corporations have all the power, and we’re just a bunch of helpless saps hoping to elect the right ruler to be merciful on us.

That’s the product of centuries of propaganda, and it’s wrong.

The populace holds all the power, but we can’t get our acts together to use it.

There are a few simple strategies that will rein in the system quickly, if only the masses would learn who the real enemy is and stop hating each other.

I realize not everyone can do all of these, but most of us can do some of these, and we can build communities with others who can do what we can’t:

1. Become self-employed.

2. Do as much business as possible in cash with people who are self-employed.

3. Grow your own food.

4. Buy your food from a local farmer.

5. Serve on a jury and refuse to convict unless there is an actual victim. The state is not a victim.

6. Make friends with your neighbor and talk to people who look different or may think different.

7. Homeschool your children or find/start a neighborhood/community-based homeschool program.

Most people are tired of Republicans and Democrats. There is another option and I don’t mean the Libertarian Party

Politics is so fake.

When Trump was in charge, we got bump stock bans, insane government spending, and “two weeks to flatten the curve.”

When Biden took over, we got government collusion/blackmailing of social media companies into censorship and businesses into instituting mask mandates and vaccine passports.

Trump campaigned on ending the lawfare, mass pardons, no new wars, and exposing the Epstein class and COVID regime and arresting all those who participated in the lawfare.

Instead, he had the people trying to expose the Epstein class removed from office, started new wars, and now we see people being harassed for criticizing foreign governments and talks of arresting them and “reining in the First Amendment.”

Yet people are still talking about voting in the next round of saviors and fixing the system.

The system is working as designed.

Opt out. Become self-sufficient and build communities of like-minded people.

There is no salvation at the ballot box

During my career as a libertarian, I discovered that very few are consistent, and the ones I like the most and the ones I agree with philosophically are often opponents.

That last sentence is a huge example of this entire world. There is a segment of the party and movement that likes to claim they reject “the false left/right paradigm.” But the movement, to a degree, and especially the party are divided along that very real paradigm.

I am a more conservative or right-leaning person. I identify more with that group of libertarians. Unfortunately, they often fit the stereotype and revel in hypocrisy. They do want government to enforce their views on many issues, especially immigration and vagrants in public spaces. Often they even want government to restrict private property rights in their favor. They want government to force businesses to “follow the 2nd amendment” and make it illegal for them to refuse service to people who are carrying. They wanted to make it illegal for businesses to require vaccine passports.

While I would never support a business that voluntarily requires me to wear a mask or show them my medical records, I don’t want government to tell me who I must allow on my property. In fact, I would rather know who doesn’t want me there.

The same thing goes for left libertarians though (see left & right, AND these groups tend to loathe each other far more than the state). They would agree with everything I’ve said so far because many of them liked to ignore that government was blackmailing businesses into enforcing those mandates and defended them vigorously. “Private property Vax denier!!”

But they have never been heard squealing for those same property rights when they infringe on the convenience of a minority group.

To the left libertarian there seems to be no greater offense to society than “bigotry.”

They want words that offend people phased out of society along with the people who would utter them.

Again, I want to know who the bigots are. Also though, I don’t believe in the deity of words. Words only have meaning if the individual allows them to do so. I submit that it is far more important to erase group think and wrong thing and collective offense than the words that offend the collective.

A bigot and his words can’t really harm anyone, but systemic censorship in the costume of protection can harm a great deal.

So while I don’t find it necessary to be offensive, I always found myself supporting those who were willing to be provocative and push the Overton window. We can never claim to be for the philosophy of the individual while erasing words that are deemed too harsh for a singular collective.

I just wish those who were such great champions of free speech would also be great champions of property rights, the freedom to travel, and freedom of association.

Maybe that’s why I am such an individualist, because even amongst the most esoteric group of people I still feel like an island.

My puritan anarchist friends and MAGA get mad at me for the same reason!

What does it mean to buy a 1/4 cow share?

It is likely that your local municipal government is more bloated, dysfunctional, and corrupt than the federal monster everyone complains about.

The good news, though, is that while there is little to be done about the federal government in the short term, there is much that can be done at home.

It doesn’t take a lot of hard work either—just some organization and caring.

And the best news of all: castrating local regimes will eventually render the leviathan impotent. The federal government is the Godfather, to be sure. They call the shots, but they could never function without local strongmen.

Two of the easiest things a liberty-loving person can do are to refuse to plead guilty to a so-called crime that doesn’t create a victim,

and

to serve on a jury every chance you get and refuse to convict if there is no victim.

Townships depend on traffic citations and misdemeanors to make a living. They prey on travelers like pirates or highwaymen.

They create hundreds to thousands of victims each month.

They typically hold “court” once a week to once a month, and it is a most unpleasant experience.

It consists of a local attorney the town council has appointed to serve as a judge. Often this attorney presides over many municipalities. His job is to raise money for the city and provide an illusion of due process.

From there you have a town or city prosecutor and dozens to hundreds of people overcrowding a room intentionally designed too small.

They have to sit for hours waiting for their name to be called to see the prosecutor, who gives them one last chance at a deal before seeing the judge.

Unless you have overwhelming evidence proving your innocence, this judge is going to find you guilty. His job is to raise revenue and discourage trials. He answers to a council, not a voter.

You will have to appeal to the district court, and there you will have a better chance at a “fair” trial where some semblance of “beyond a reasonable doubt” will be enforced.

We want every interaction to get to the district court.

But because the process is so well designed to be uncomfortable and laborious, any rational person would rather just pay the fine over the phone and forget about it.

Most people do. They enter a guilty plea, pay a couple hundred bucks or whatever, and go on their way.

And the monster continues to eat.

Imagine instead if a hearty portion of those lined up to pay fines and go home—and those who pay without attending court—decided to force trials instead.

The system would quickly become overloaded.

The city attorney and judge would rapidly have to work more than a few days a week.

Police would have to be pulled off the streets or called in on their off days to testify at a much higher frequency.

The system would eat itself. It would quickly cost more to victimize the public than to leave them alone.

Especially if the same critical mass were serving on juries instead of looking for ways to get out of it.

Municipal governments are growing at an alarming rate. They’re installing Flock cameras everywhere. They’re building tens-of-million-dollar police stations and jails.

They are creating the infrastructure the surveillance state is counting on. Dystopia doesn’t happen overnight. It happens incrementally, with one taking of freedom that is still more comfortable to surrender than defend at a time—until one day you wake up and it seems like it happened overnight.

The good news is you can fight it. It doesn’t take a lot either. Just some mettle and caring.

Because of where I am, I think for the large part of my productive life I don’t have to worry about some of these things, but I do worry about it for my children.

Data centers and fulfillment warehouses taking resources and making land prices unaffordable.

Flock Cameras and smart cities.

AI producing “universal high income.”

Big Ag and the regulatory state choking the independents.

It does seem there is a concerted effort to remove my way of life—the way of life I’m trying to build for my children.

The only hope I see against dystopia is education and culture change, but even that’s hard because so few people understand things on the same terms.

That’s by design.

States and corporations are a criminal enterprise running everything from psyops to language propaganda.

People blame free markets and lack of regulation on a system of corporatism and regulation.

And to get people to see that basic point would cause verbal warfare from three different levels of the Libertarian Party. And here I am trying to explain it to the commoner?

Still, I’ll keep trying. Go to the black market cattle website and buy a shirt and follow the AntiState Content Substack.

Read Lysander Spooner

Original Stories Part 2: How Everyday Actions Can Be Revolutionary