To a nation of snowflakes, Christmas has become yet another trigger word. Continue reading
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Author Archives: John W. Whitehead
Yes, you have the right to talk back to the government, but it could get you killed
What the architects of the police state want are submissive, compliant, cooperative, obedient, meek citizens who don’t talk back, don’t challenge government authority, don’t speak out against government misconduct, and don’t step out of line. Continue reading
This Thanksgiving, don’t just give thanks, pay your blessings forward
Listen: I know it’s been a hard, heart-wrenching, stomach-churning kind of year. Continue reading
Red flag gun laws: Yet another government weapon for compliance and control
We never learn. Continue reading
A badge of shame: The government’s war on America’s military veterans
Not all heroes wear the uniform of war. Continue reading
Has America become a dictatorship disguised as a democracy?
We’re living in two worlds, you and I. Continue reading
You want to make America great again? Start by making America free again
Living in a representative republic means that each person has the right to take a stand for what they think is right, whether that means marching outside the halls of government, wearing clothing with provocative statements, or simply holding up a sign. Continue reading
Gimme some truth: John Lennon tells it like it is
Long before Bette Midler was roundly condemned for tweeting “Women, are the n-word of the world,” John Lennon—never one to pull his punches—proclaimed in song “Woman Is the Nigger of the World.” Continue reading
Creating a suspect society: The scary side of the technological police state
It’s a given that Big Brother is always watching us. Continue reading
Empire of lies: Are ‘we the people’ useful idiots in the digital age?
“Who needs direct repression,” asked philosopher Slavoj Zizek, “when one can convince the chicken to walk freely into the slaughterhouse?” Continue reading
Suspending the Constitution: In America today, the government does whatever it wants
We can pretend that the Constitution, which was written to hold the government accountable, is still our governing document. Continue reading
What I don’t like about life in post-9/11 America
Life in a post-9/11 America increasingly feels like an endless free fall down a rabbit hole into a terrifying, dystopian alternative reality in which the citizenry has no rights, the government is no friend to freedom, and everything we ever knew and loved about the values and principles that once made this country great has been turned on its head. Continue reading
Criminalizing childhood: School safety measures aren’t making the schools any safer
It used to be that if you talked back to a teacher, or played a prank on a classmate, or just failed to do your homework, you might find yourself in detention or doing an extra writing assignment after school. Continue reading
Vigilantes with a badge: Warrior cops endanger our lives and freedoms
I have known a lot of good cops, I have defended a lot of good cops, and I have been fortunate to call a number of good cops friends. Continue reading
Battlefield America: The ongoing war on the American people
Police in a small Georgia town Tasered a 5-foot-2, 87-year-old woman who was using a kitchen knife to cut dandelions for use in a recipe. Police claim they had no choice but to Taser the old woman, who does not speak English but was smiling at police to indicate she was friendly, because she failed to comply with orders to put down the knife. Continue reading
From Boston to Ferguson to Charlottesville: The evolution of a police state lockdown
It has become way too easy to lockdown this nation. Continue reading
Institutionalizing intolerance: Bullies win, freedom suffers when we can’t agree to disagree
What a mess. Continue reading
Hiroshima revisited: Memorializing the horrors of war with 10 must-see war films
Nearly 73 years ago, the United States unleashed atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing more than 200,000 individuals, many of whom were civilians. Continue reading
No doubt about it: The Deep State is real and Trump is its latest tool
There are those who would have you believe that President Trump is an unwitting victim of the Deep State. Continue reading
It’s all fake: Reality TV that masquerades as American politics
Americans have a voracious appetite for TV entertainment, and the Trump reality show—guest starring outraged Democrats, power-hungry Republicans, and a hodgepodge of other special interest groups with dubious motives—feeds that appetite for titillating, soap opera drama. Continue reading
A New World Order: Brought to you by the Global-Industrial Deep State
There are those who will tell you that any mention of a New World Order government—a power elite conspiring to rule the world—is the stuff of conspiracy theories. Continue reading
The Constitution is not neutral: Courts of Justice should not act like Courts of Order
For those still deluded enough to believe they’re living the American dream—where the government represents the people, where the people are equal in the eyes of the law, where the courts are arbiters of justice, where the police are keepers of the peace, and where the law is applied equally as a means of protecting the rights of the people—it’s time to wake up. Continue reading
The danger is real: We need a new Declaration of Independence for modern times
Imagine living in a country where armed soldiers crash through doors to arrest and imprison citizens merely for criticizing government officials. Continue reading
Government eyes are watching you: We are all prisoners of the surveillance state
First broadcast in America 50 years ago, “The Prisoner”—a dystopian television series described as “James Bond meets George Orwell filtered through Franz Kafka”—confronted societal themes that are still relevant today: the rise of a police state, the freedom of the individual, round-the-clock surveillance, the corruption of government, totalitarianism, weaponization, group think, mass marketing, and the tendency of humankind to meekly accept their lot in life as a prisoner in a prison of their own making. Continue reading
Caging children, separating families: Has the war on immigration gone too far?
Sometimes you have to draw a line in the sand. Continue reading
There is no ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card for the president
Someone needs to alert Donald Trump: there is no “Get Out of Jail Free” card just for being president. Continue reading
Whose country is this? Is the US Constitution even welcome here anymore?
There are days I wake up and I’m not sure what country I live in anymore. Continue reading
When things fall apart: A graduation message for a dark age
Those coming of age today will face some of the greatest obstacles ever encountered by young people. Continue reading
The age of petty tyrannies
We labor today under the weight of countless tyrannies, large and small, carried out in the name of the national good by an elite class of government officials who are largely insulated from the ill effects of their actions. Continue reading
Dial T for tyranny: While America feuds, the police state shifts into high gear
What characterizes American government today is not so much dysfunctional politics as it is ruthlessly contrived governance carried out behind the entertaining, distracting and disingenuous curtain of political theater. And what political theater it is, diabolically Shakespearean at times, full of sound and fury, yet in the end, signifying nothing. Continue reading
A crisis in the making: Know your rights or you will lose them
Posted on December 14, 2018 by John W. Whitehead
We are approaching critical mass, the point at which all hell breaks loose. Continue reading →