Name:   MAJ USA RET - Subject:   On Waking up in Chains Date:   8/3/2023 9:13:25 AM

Modern "democracy" in the West is a bastardization of medieval feudalism in which serfs labor under the delusion that they actually voted to be vassals of the State.  From time to time — especially when unworthy "lords" have caused widespread misery — the serfs begin to remember that it is they who are rightly lords over their own lives and that the State is meant to be in vassalage to their will and authority.  When "elites" decry "populism," they are really ringing alarm bells for other "elites" to hear.  It is the surest sign of "ruling class" fear that the people have begun to wake up from their slumber only to discover their own imprisonment. 

 That is when all hell breaks loose.  An army of a hundred thousand IRS agents is mustered to intimidate citizens.  The illusion of impartial justice is jettisoned, so that the State can quickly lock up its political enemies.  The regulatory bureaucracy fines and punishes anyone not toeing the government's ever-moving statutory line.  Freedoms are taken away (speech, self-defense, due process), and the theft of those freedoms is blamed on the victims.  “…If they said the right things, we would not need to silence them!  If they really wanted peace, then they would give the government all their guns!  If they have nothing to hide, then they shouldn't object to our agents spying on them without probable cause or warrants!”  When tyranny begins to choke a country, the innocent are presumed guilty until proven otherwise.       [The American Thinker]

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/08/elites_cannot_hide_from_the_consequences_of_their_actions_.html