Since my move to New Hampshire fell through, I’ve been occupied with furnishing my house, fighting weird allergic reactions, completing my involvement in planning my high school 20th reunion, recuperating from being ill with possibly the swine flu and otherwise getting my family and myself settled into our new lives in North America. I had big plans for my move to New Hampshire and I’m rather crushed it didn’t work out.

Life Goes On

Anyway, life goes on. Here are some things I’d like to work on. I’d love to have collaborators because right now this is looking HARD.

• Join the local libertarian Toastmasters in Conshohocken, PA. Their next meeting is July 13th.
• Do jury rights education (FIJA) at the Montgomery County, PA courthouse. Luckily I have my buddy Jake Witmer to guide me on this.
• Start a Norristown Area Liberty Lovers group, if there’s not anything like that already around here to do general liberty activism.
• Organize a South Eastern Pennsylvania ALL (Alliance of the Libertarian Left).
• Run a “Don’t Vote” campaign as if I were running for office (but without getting on the ballot of course). I haven’t decided yet if this might be counterproductive though.
• Promote the use of hard currency to my neighbors and local merchants. I thought the Liberty Dollar might be the way to go but I am getting a lot of negative comments about them.

Anyway, this is what I’m working with so far. Advice and other ideas are desperately sought.

Photo credit: vic15. Photo license.

Here is an op that appears to be entirely consistent with the peaceful evolution concept I talked about a couple days ago. The little dictators dba The Government in Keene, NH demanded that Ian Freeman (of Free Talk Live) pay them $2,700 FRN for the privilege of continued possession of his house.

Leveraging the Robbery to Forgive the Robber

I don’t fault Ian for paying. As Ayn Rand said, “Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where the gun begins.” When a bandit points his gun at your head, it is reasonable to do as he says. But Ian took the further step of buying himself some time with the bureacrauts who enabled his exploitation: he paid in $1 bills. This gave him the time to, among other things, forgive them for what they were doing! Beautiful!

Free Keene: Itself an Evolution

This is the kind of thing that makes the Free Keene project special. It’s a game-changer. This kind of genius catapults Free Keene from just an offshoot of the Free State Project to an evolutionary step up.

Jay4Liberty, an online acquaintance, said the other day that he happily forked over his tax payments knowing it would keep him out of jail and couldn’t give a damn about the consequences. Upon questioning, he confirmed that he did not care one iota about the death and destruction reigned down on innocents courtesy of his financial support for the little dictators that do business as The Government.

No Regrets about Paying Taxes is an Extreme Position

I found Jay’s cavalier attitude offensive to the maximum. Whether to submit to taxation or not is a difficult question and I don’t fault people who are too scared to try it. But even if you cave to the state’s implicit threats, why would you take such a devil-may-care attitude? What would you claim no regrets? Why would anyone be content with their decision to give in to a beast that regularly sows disorder, theft and murder worldwide? I can’t conceive of it and politely sparred with Jay - until he deleted his Twitter account, ending the discussion.

Making Myself Clearer

I was subsequently excoriated by another online acquaintance and led to believe by another that I hadn’t made myself sufficiently clear on this topic, so I will now attempt to do so.

Taxes are Tough

Let me state, first off, that the decision to comply or not with the IRS is, to put it lightly, heart-wrackingly difficult. If you comply, you are a part of the greatest evil ever known. If you resist, you, and possibly your family, may soon be in the sights of the greatest evil ever known. So I don’t have a lot of moral opprobrium for unwilling taxpayers.

Key Word: MAY

And yet, the key word here is “may”. Not complying with taxes does not carry immediate consequences. They may never get you. And herein lies the key: we must resist the robbery until such time as the gun is indeed pointed at our heads. This is the moral choice and this has the added key strategic benefit of revealing to bystanders “the gun in the room”.

A 1040 is Not an Entirely Credible Threat

I say that resisting till the bad guys pull out the gun is the moral choice because a piece of paper with a threat (1040) is not entirely credible. This regime has only achieved their current level of power because we voluntarily send in forms and payments when they ask. If the IRS had to come out and actually put the guns to our heads, the system would collapse. They simply could not afford to do it. We must speed this collapse. The difference I am positing is the one between voluntarily presenting your hands for arrest and walking yourself to and from the police car, and going limp, leaving the police with no choice but to exert the full amount of effort required to subdue and control a resister.

What about Employees?

For self-employed people, resistance is easy. You just don’t contact the IRS or send them any money. But for those with employees or who are employees, evasion is more difficult. How do you get your employer not to withhold? One option is to claim so many deductions that it eliminates your tax burden. I did this in college, but it is highly risky for an adult since it may involve perjury. The short and sweet answer of course is to cease working as an employee. Yes I recognize that this can require significant lifestyle changes. Freedom is not free.

Conclusion

My objection to Jay4Liberty was more about his attitude than about his act of complying with the government’s demands. I do NOT consider anarchists who pay their taxes to be anarchists-in-name-only. I understand their predicament at the same time that I urge them to increment their level of resistance little-by-little as their comfort level dictates. If you can’t commit to all-out resistance, at least raise their costs of enslaving you. I also urge anarchists to cease being employees in favor of self-employment (eased evasion) and self-sufficiency (an avoidance strategy).

Photo credit: wonderlane. Photo license.

Sam Dodson talks about his experience in jail in this 52-minute video recorded at PorcFest. It’s entertaining and even inspiring at times, so I recommend you at least check out the first 33 minutes. At the same time, I noticed a few things in the video that just don’t jive. Why is Sam using a member of the government to defend himself against the government? Is it tactically consistent of him to try and get a share of the government’s stolen goods? Is removing Judge Burke a useful goal?

His Lawyer is a Member of the Government

I learned in the video that Sam hired a New Hampshire state representative to defend him. This really took me aback because Sam initially said he didn’t want to use a real lawyer. They have their own ties to the government that bind them in ways counter to the interests of the people they represent. So for Sam to go out and hire one - and a state rep to boot - blows my mind. Why this change of direction Sam?

Should Libertarians Try to Get Money from the Government?

Sam also mentioned his coming civil suit. I heard about this before when it sounded just like a vague statement of fact of liability aimed at pressuring the government to do what was right in his case. But now it seems like he plans to follow through and, if successful, could be looking at a settlement as high as FRN $4.4 million.

Morally Right, Sure, but Tactically Smart?

If what we’re after is peaceful evolution, should we be exercising the right to self-defense against the government that includes demanding large amounts of money? Morally correct it is, for sure. But is it tactically consistent with a message of peaceful evolution? My initial inclination is that it is not, because our opponents would be more provoked to change by the shock of simply being forgiven. Exercising the right to self-defense like this will only raise their hackles, thus interfering with our attempts to shift their paradigm.

Meddling in the Internal Affairs of Statists

Someone in the audience asked Sam about getting Judge Burke removed. Sam thought it would be difficult if not impossible but I heard no mention of the more important question of whether his removal is even something libertarians should be seeking.

Leverage his Position to Change his Mind

Since we libertarians either are not or should not be members of the government (it is inherently contradictory to our principles), why should we as outsiders attempt to tell the government people who their leaders should be? We are not subject to this government and should make that fact evident at all times through our refusal to consent and our resistance. But if that is our tack then we can not remain consistent and attempt to meddle in internal government affairs. Instead, we should leverage Judge Burke’s position in the hot seat and use love and satyagraha to change his mind.

Conclusion

I think Sam is going down the wrong path if he pursues these options. I don’t question his right to do as he pleases with his life or his moral correctness in seeking to defend himself, I only question the strategic intelligence and consistency in pursuing these options. Obviously Sam doesn’t owe me any explanations but it’s critical that we distinguish between the inconsistent and that which is consistent and can be emulated in the future.

I’d like to add that I admire what Sam did and I spent what my wife considers to be a huge amount of time promoting his actions and defending him online. I wrote Sam multiple times while he was in jail and called the jail. I worked very hard on getting coverage for Sam’s work in both on- and off-line media. I say this to show you that I am not attempting to attack Sam on a personal level. I just want to dialog with Sam and others on this topic.

Photo credit: geishaboy500. Photo license.

Lately I’ve been getting flak for telling it like it is about minarchists and calling self-identified anarchists who participate in government anarchists-in-name-only. Is telling things straight and without candy-coating counterproductive? Am I alienating potential “converts”? Is this moralizing? Should I be catching bees with honey instead of speaking truth to people who are supposed to be my comrades?

It’s the Inconvenient Truths that Most Need Saying

I’m convinced that sometimes hard-to-hear, inconvenient truths must be said out loud, often and emphatically. And frankly I’m surprised that other ostensible liberty-lovers don’t recognize the truth in this, since being an advocate for liberty in the 21st century requires just this! You just can’t be for liberty today without recognizing that liberty itself is an inconvenient truth. People don’t want to hear about it. They tell you to shut up. They pooh-pooh your beliefs. They laugh at you.

If We’re all Allies, Why the Need to Sugarcoat?

So when libertarians do the same thing to their alleged comrades, it’s quite surprising. It’s befuddling. Even if they think the best way to promote liberty to the public is via delicate education, surely within our own circles there is no need for that? If minarchists and anarchists-in-name-only are truly allies of market anarchists, surely they don’t expect us to candy-coat things for them? Discussion is always franker inside of a group than it is when the group converses with outsiders.

On Alienation

Take a look at this claim that telling people straight out what I have determined is the truth drives them away from liberty. That’s an implicit claim that people can’t handle the truth, which implies a pessimistic outlook on human nature, something generally not even compatible with the basic libertarian choice to value liberty over security or equality. I think people are generally good and capable and can do anything they put their minds to. Not everyone reacts well to inconvenient truths, but they need to be said because the price of silence is high. Persisting in error is expensive. And even an initial bad reaction does not guarantee that the person will not continue thinking about the issue and eventually come around.

It’s not Moralizing if you’re Right

Moralize, in my dictionary, means to “comment on issues of right and wrong, typically with an unfounded air of superiority.” The operative word here is unfounded. When I say minarchism is obviously self-contradictory and is not a feasible form of government, or when I say that anarchists-in-name-only are acting immorally when they vote and run for office, I’m doing it having explained the foundation for my opinions. Therefore, I am not moralizing.

Moral Certainty is a Prerequisite

I was also recently told it was wrong of me to be so certain about the truth.

“You don’t factor in that perhaps you are wrong, or that perhaps your truth has been rejected. I’m not saying this about anarchism specifically, just in the term “wake-up” as it applies to anything.”

One poor fellow even told me that “There is no absolute truth.”, which of course is an absolute truth. Listen, liberty is all about the moral certainty that the initiation of force is wrong and/or we own ourselves. We go forth as liberty activists with that moral certainty as our most reliable and basic weapon. If you do not hold moral certainty about your beliefs, you need to find that because without it you will accomplish nothing. It’s the statists who thrive on moral uncertainty and its resultant confusion, not us.

Conclusion

Speaking truth to power - including the power that is alleged comrades’ peer pressure - is part of a long and fine tradition. It’s a respected activity and I invite all liberty-lovers to join me in it. Think hard about what is right. Get certainty and go out tell people what you think. Subject your conclusions to tests, including debate. Don’t worry about those of delicate sensibilities, they will take care of themselves eventually. Our kind of evolution requires a small band of thoughtful, dedicated, courageous gardeners anyway, and certainly not a wheelbarrow full of pansies.

Photo credit: BotheredByBees. Photo license.

Jay4Liberty recently posted a great question in the comments: “Which is worse…flat out socialists who want to increase the size, expense and tyranny of government or minarchists who want to shrink down as far as possible.” And my answer is the minarchists are worse. Counter-intuitive, perhaps, but here’s why.

Government is Inherently Evil

Government can not be saved. It is inherently evil because it can only act via the initiation of force, which is evil because it negates reason, that which man uses to guide his own life. I say it can only act via the initiation of force because without it, government loses its monopoly on the ability to set the rules of social conduct in a given geographic area - its defining characteristic. Without forcing people to obey it, government ceases to be government and becomes voluntary, which is harmless and under the purview of what we call the free market. There is no middle ground between the two.

Evil is Ultimately Self-Defeating

Evil, due to its nature, ultimately defeats itself. Since that which is good is that which aligns with the requirements for man’s survival in the universe, that which is evil is that which doesn’t. If something does not complement people’s lives, it will not exist for long. This is not to say that the evil disappears immediately. People use deception, both of others and themselves. And in some cases good people lend their names and work to promoting and sustaining the evil. Ayn Rand called this the sanction of the victim.

Bringing Good People into Evil is All that Props it Up

So I say the minarchists are worse than the socialists because they deceive good people into putting their hopes and energies into evil government. Minarchists generally have a message that government is necessary anyway so we should work on making it as good as possible. This props up the evil. This is the sanction of the victim. It’s like polishing a turd but much worse. It’s not unlike joining the KKK as an active and enthusiastic member in order to reform it.

We Must Remove Government’s Veil of Legitimacy

Government masquerades as acceptable with its veil of legitimacy. Minarchists reinforce this by saying government is necessary and that it can be reformed. Some claim government is a valid way to free people. But the only way to free people from government is to show them that it is evil. Then they will simply withdraw from it, now knowing its true nature. Thus, government’s weak point is its veneer of legitimacy. We must attack that. Minarchists strengthen it, directly working against liberty.

Minarchists: Government’s Minions

Evil can not exist without these well-intentioned minarchists, proving true yet again that good intentions really do pave the road to hell.

Socialists: Accelerating the Downfall

Socialists will simply accelerate the collapse that is inevitable with all evil schemes. See, for example, Ponzi schemes. They demand more and more government spending, putting pressure on the central banks and weakening government in all areas, even the least vulnerable ones. Socialists pave the way for that lovely day when government will overextend itself and collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. Liberty-lovers must withdraw from government and allow it to die as soon as possible.

Photo credit: satanoid. Photo license.

There are a lot of misconceptions about minarchism flying ’round the blogosphere and it’s time to correct them once and for all. First of all, minarchism is the belief that in order to prevent people from initiating force against each other we must create an organization which has the unquestionable right to initiate force against them. This is obviously stupid in a way that is beyond words.

8 Minarchistic Misconceptions

1. Minarchists are people who have woken up. See the Ron Paul folks especially. If you guys are awake, we market anarchists are on another plane of consciousness. Wake up again please.
2. Minarchists are allies of anarchists. We’re just pretending to be your friends until you really think this thing through and realize how stupid minarchism is.
3. Minarchy is a feasible form of government. It’s not because the minute an anarchist wants to opt out and you let him, it’s no longer minarchism. Minarchism doesn’t last more than 10 seconds.
4. Minarchists share the same strategic goals with anarchists. You want a government. We don’t. You’re into elections, we’re not.
5. Minarchy is less scary than anarchy. It’s just more wool. See number 3.
6. We must have minarchy because anarchy is well ANARCHY. It’s freakin chaos, dude! Anarchy is just a lack of government. McDonalds will still exist, don’t worry.
7. Minarchy is order while anarchy is disorder. Since government creates disorder, without government things will be much more orderly.
8. Minarchy enables you to avoid the leap of faith required for anarchy. See numbers 3 and 5.

Minarchists ARE the Opposition

And don’t dare post any clap here about minarchists and anarchists ignoring their differences and going to work against the opposition. You are the opposition. You are the ones cloudying our anti-aggression message with your halfway demands for just a better slavery, instead of a complete end to it.

Minarchists, come now, enough is enough.

Photo credit: jaqian. Photo license.

What is it we liberty-lovers are working towards? What’s the libertarian endgame? What kind of project is this fight for liberty and how we should be prosecuting it? I hear all the time that we’re involved in fomenting a revolution or executing a war. Or is this just a debate? None of the above, I say emphatically. We’re working on an evolution - and a peaceful one to boot.

Revolution Too Violent

I discard revolution because it has violent political overtones and is too short-sighted anyway. Revolution evokes images of whiny hippies or Latin American guerrilla movements. Establishing complete liberty is not just about changing some institutions or their leadership. It requires changing people’s minds as well. And that won’t happen in one fell swoop or by the application of force or intimidation.

War is the Tool of the Statists

War is all wrong because that’s what our opponents, the statists, do to get their way. We are not them and can not afford to be associated with them and their practices in any way. War is doing “whatever it takes” to achieve your ends, which often means cutting corners and not living in alignment with our principles. War is aggression writ large. Complete liberty - our goal - is the non-aggression principle writ large. Never the twain shall meet.

Debate is Good, but this is More

It’s not just a debate, either. Don’t get me wrong, debate is critical, and calling it mental masturbation or speaking seriously of “master debaters” is simply idiotic. Thought, concept formation and identification, discussion and debate are critical foundation-building activities for the work of advancing liberty. Without it we are chickens with our heads cut off wasting time, working against each other and doing things that only must be undone later.

Gradual, Peaceful, Voluntary Evolution

Our goal should be nothing short of a peaceful evolution of the human culture - one individual at a time - from what it is today to one where aggression, in all its forms, is absent. When I say evolution, I’m using the second definition in my dictionary for that word, to wit: “the gradual development of something, esp. from a simple to a more complex form.” Note the word “gradual”. This is what primarily distinguishes “evolution” from “revolution”.

Off-Message Tactics Will Only Hurt

So when I see comments like the below (often from minarchists and anarchists-in-name-only):

“I am willing to use whatever means are most efficient to oppose tyranny and end oppression.”

… used to defend tactics like running for office, voting, trickery and intellectual intimidation, it reveals the chasm between those who really get the zero-aggression principle, and those who aren’t actually living it. What is right is what is efficient and vice versa, there is no difference here.

Tactics Must be Aligned with Principles

In order to sell our principles, we must be living examples of them. Anything else will not carry the day. Worse, it will set us back. We distinguish ourselves with our consistent principles. Not living in alignment with them discredits us. Instead we should be using tactics that are in alignment with our shared values, such as reason, truth, directness, discussion, love, satyagraha, civil disobedience, non-voting and counter-economics.

Conclusion

Let us drop talk of wars, revolutions and the pooh-pooh-ing of debate. Let us drop this machismo that talks of doing what is necessary and focus more on doing what is right. Liberty is a philosophy of peace and trade, so let us be peaceful traders, dealing with our fellow man via reason and respect. Let our tools be consistent with our message: reason, truth, directness, discussion, love, satyagraha, civil disobedience, non-voting and counter-economics. We must assist our fellow man with his evolution - starting with ourselves.

Photo credit: coda. Photo license.

Yeah, about that move to New Hampshire to join other Free State Project members - it didn’t work out. I conducted a search from afar using Craigslist, several realtors, the MLS, word of mouth and other websites. I didn’t find much that might work for us.

My Requirements

• for rent, no way I am sinking money into such a state-controlled asset as a house, or taking out a mortgage
• accepts a big dog (golden retriever)
• a house
• within 30 mins of Keene, Manchester, Nashua or Concord
• three or more bedrooms
• have a nice kitchen

I went up to New Hampshire for three days after my extensive search turned up the same houses over and over again via different sources. I saw a few, but none worked for us.

Second Choice: Philadelphia

Meanwhile, my wife was back in Philadelphia staying with family and managing our toddler and big dog (we relocated from outside the country). It would have been unfair of me to leave her in charge of the kids and in somebody else’s house for an extended period of time. So we fell back to Philadelphia. We found a place in Montgomery County, PA and are finally settling in.

May Try Again

I may try to move to New Hampshire again in 12 or 24 months but this experience has caused my passion for the Free State Project to flag a little, for the following reasons.

• Several of the realtors I spoke with questioned me very closely about why I was moving to New Hampshire. I think they were fishing to see if I was associated with the Free State Project. Are FSPers really that unwanted?
• If it was so hard for me to find a place, how are 20,000 going to fit?
• I got less of a helping hand than I was led to believe was standard operating procedure for FSPers.
• It was suggested that my failure to move was due to my lack of commitment.

Regrouping

Of course I still wish the Free State Project the best of luck. I’m not closing the door to participating, just regrouping and evaluating my options.

Photo credit: enfi. Photo license.

Here are some ways you can help Sam Dodson get media coverage for his principled stand as he enters his fourth week of captivity in Cheshire County Jail of New Hampshire.

1. Rate the CNN iReport to help Sam get on CNN
2. Vote for Sam to get on Fox’s Freedom Watch show with Judge Napolitano
3. Send this press release to your favorite news outlet, blog or forum and start a discussion where possible.
4. Digg the video of Sam’s arrest
5. Upvote on Reddit the news about Sam’s captivity
6. Ask Reason Magazine to cover the story
7. Fan the Free Sam Dodson Facebook page
8. Ask your friends to visit FreeSamDodson.com to get the whole story and ongoing media coverage

Oh and don’t forget to write Sam a letter. It’s free and someone else will deliver it for you. Any other ideas?

If a man claims the right to dictate your life to you, and you laugh in his face, are you giving up your right to self-defense? That’s what Libertarian Party member Morey Straus claims in his essay The trouble with voluntaryists.

What separates anti-political libertarians from principled partyarchs is the advocacy of a vulgar form of unilateral disarmament. This form of pacifism is more in line with the LeFevrian stripe than in the simpler sense, in that the anarchist is more concerned with becoming part of the problem than with straightforward avoidance. But it still walks and talks like pacifism. This willful disassociation from tactics used by statists is as doomed to catch fire as was Quakerism. #

Electoral Politics is Surrender

Anyone can claim power over us, according to Straus’ logic, and we must accept their ridiculous claims, fighting on their slanted playing field in a battle we can only lose. Otherwise, we’re giving up and letting the statists win. In their own mind, perhaps! How disappointing that Straus made the intellectual journey to anarchism but embraces the government-issued wool that’s pulled over his eyes.

Analogy FAIL

Straus wants us to believe that using a government-monopolized service is morally equivalent to competing for control of the force that maintains government-monopolized services. If the government nationalized the food industry, would eating render me morally equivalent to the statists who stole the means of producing food from its owners? Of course not!

In the same way that an agorist can use the statist roads to engage in counter-economic trade, the partyarch may use the vehicle of elections to advocate the abolition of elections. #

Is Slavery a Vehicle to Set People Free?

Is it logically consistent to use murder to advocate for the abolition of murder? What are the chances that one can awake people to the evil of initiating force by initiating force? Had Straus been alive in 1855, would he have advocated the abolition of slavery by using the vehicle of slavery? Clearly, this is nonsense.

Electoral Politics an Anarchist Credibility Killer

If you’re a libertarian anarchist, you don’t think government is necessary. You might even think it’s evil. So if you tell people in your community that you’re in favor of a stateless society but then proceed to run for office and ask for their vote, it will inevitably cause confusion. Are you an anarchist or not?

In the worst case, you have alienated members of your community with your refusal to respect the state. Maybe you don’t like drivers’ licenses. Maybe you have called into local talk radio and argued against the need for state-run fire companies. People don’t understand you. They may be scared of you.

Anarchists Beating Statists at Own Game?

And now you’re going to run for office? You’re going to compete with statists to see who will wield the state’s guns? Setting aside the ridiculousness of trying to beat the statists at their own game, you have destroyed what little credibility you developed. You’re in the statists’ coliseum now. The backlash is inevitable and it will destroy your nonviolent education efforts.

Non-Voting is Principled Political Self-Defense

Non-voting is principled, because it does not involve an initiation of force, as voting does (since you’re competing to see who will give orders to everyone else). The act of non-voting says, “You go and have your silly fun. I choose productive pursuits. I choose nonviolence. I choose liberty.”

Photo credit: daquellamanera. Photo license.

UPDATE May 1: Here is the final release. Please use this one.

Download the PDF version of Press Release: Exercising Right to Remain Silent Lands Video Journalist in Jail Indefinitely here.

Keene, N.H., April 30, 2009 - Video journalists in Iran aren’t the only ones at risk for due process violations. That’s what journalist Sam Dodson learned when he was arrested April 13th at Keene District Court for videotaping in the lobby.

Dodson is being held indefinitely in unsanitary conditions on $10,000 cash bail and without access to legal representation because he refuses to disclose his legal name to authorities at Cheshire County Correctional Facility. Dodson is on a hunger strike.

“It is not supposed to work to where somebody in America is thrown in a jail cell and left there to rot until they cooperate and give up their rights in order to get whatever rights the government wants to hand out.” Dodson said during a live interview on the radio show Free Talk Live.

Grassroots support for Dodson made him the top choice of internet TV show “Freedom Watch on Fox” viewers in a recent poll, ahead of celebrities such as entertainer Penn Jillette and former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson.

More than 40 friends attended a candlelight vigil for Dodson in Keene April 19th. Some have also demonstrated in front of the jail where he is being held.

Letters from Dodson while he is in jail are being published at freekeene.com.

About Sam Dodson

Sam Dodson was living the American Dream in his native Texas when a series of events transformed him from unhappy corporate lackey to activist, filmmaker and entrepreneur. Sam’s media company, Obscured Truth Network, educates viewers about the inner workings of government. Sam’s videos can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/ObscuredTruth. Sam is also a co-host of the syndicated talk radio show Free Talk Live.

Press Contacts

George Donnelly
(941) 538-6817
me@georgedonnelly.com

Patrick Shields
(913) 484-3434
pshields@gmail.com

Plain text version available here

Please distribute this press release far and wide. Please send it to your favorite news outlets and blogs. Feel free to edit it as you like and republish it. If you have any ideas for getting it greater exposure or have already done so (yay!) I would be most grateful if you’d share them in the comments.

Thanks to Patrick, Liberty Snippet, Sams Dad, Ian, Ivy, antijingoist, LibertyTiger, Mikearchy and everyone else who helped me with this. It would not have been 1/10th of what it is without their help. Thanks especially to RevDebbie for the idea.

Are you a liberty-lover looking to connect with like-minded folks for mutual gain? Then Twitter - a service that enables you to broadcast short messages and find a network - is for you. We libertarians are so few and far between that networking is critical. It’s a force-multiplier. It’s a survival strategy.

Tons of Liberty-Advancing Ways to Use Twitter

Twitter has tons of practical uses that will advance your reputation, the causes you care about and the profile of liberty, including

• stimulate folks to be more conscious of the importance of liberty;
• radicalize existing liberty-lovers;
• share breaking news of government idiocy;
• gain new collaborators for your liberty efforts;
• disseminate examples of free market practicality; and
• demonstrate the considerable but often hidden strength of the liberty movement.

How to Get the Most out of Twitter

With that in mind, here are 10 steps on how liberty-lovers can leverage Twitter for liberty activism.

1. Check out the above video for an introduction to Twitter, sign up for a Twitter account and choose a short but meaningful username.
2. For your avatar, use a well-lit photo of yourself genuinely smiling in which your face occupies a large part of the frame. It makes a difference!
3. Fill out your bio and take advantage of the “More Info URL” field to link to your blog, Facebook page, OpenID profile or anything else that enables people to connect with you further. Take advantage of the full 160 characters and include key words such as libertarian, anarchist, voluntaryist, Ron Paul fan and/or Free State Project
4. Look for people you already know that are on Twitter and follow them.
5. Post your thoughts on something timely and/or post a link with your commentary. Don’t post that you don’t know what to post, that you’re eating dinner (unless it’s some kind of special dinner), that you’re paranoid because you’re being followed or anything else that others probably wouldn’t find interesting.
6. Find some libertarian thought leaders (see below for suggestions) on Twitter, follow them and engage with them. Find something they said that sparks your interest and reply to it.
7. Post at least once per week and ideally a few times per day.
8. When someone new follows you, follow them back if they seem like a genuine person (and not a marketing front). Even those with whom you disagree or who don’t get liberty can be a valuable part of your network.
9. Politeness matters. Rudeness does not go down well on Twitter and it’s best to avoid it.
10. Remember that Twitter is all about engaging others in productive and stimulating conversation. Everything else flows from that. Have fun!

Keep Trying New Things

I’m no social media expert so consider this a basic introduction to get you started until you feel comfortable enough to perform your own experiments. Oh and don’t forget to follow me at twitter.com/georgedonnelly.

P.S. Libertarian Thought Leaders on Twitter

Here are some good liberty-lovers to get started following on Twitter.

• @eastcoaster1237
• @jay4liberty
• @bradspangler
• @libertysnippet
• @libertypile
• @andrewtaranto
• @Jesuspower
• @sheeplescareme
• @aretepraxis
• @goodiemonster
• @leahita
• @ithacannoyed
• @dezine
• @LibertyCafe
• @LibertyMaven

Your Tips?

Please share your tips for budding libertarian Twitter activists. What’s your purpose in using Twitter, how do you achieve it and how have you fared?

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I am proud of the Not-So-Disorderly Seven. I am proud of Sam Dodson and the whole Keene crew. I am so proud to be able to say that soon I will join them in defending the nonviolent society and exposing the fraud that goes by the name of “The Government”. And here’s why:

Sam followed up on Dave Ridley’s defense of free speech rights.

This is so great because now there is a sequence. When Sam appears in court, I bet someone else will attempt to violate the ban on videotaping. Eventually this will get so big that we will win. It is simply inevitable.

Sam was clear and straightforward about his protest.

As you can hear in the audio of the incident, Sam spoke respectfully with the bailiff and explained to him why the order against videotaping was not even valid. He handled himself professionally.

Keeniacs stood by Sam even to the point of being arrested.

Those who stayed behind to protect Sam when ordered to leave the public courthouse impressed with their courage and loyalty. It tells me that this is one dedicated, determined and tight-knit group.

Multiple people recorded the incident.

More than one person was recording. Those of us who couldn’t be there benefited from multiple angles and perspectives. Being able to reach the world with media of tyranny is a critical part of defeating it.

They stood up under the pressure.

As far as I can tell, all participants stood up admirably under the pressure of cops from three different departments (Keene, Cheshire Sheriff and state cops), unlawful arrest, torturous treatment and police overreaction. These guys are good!

Patrick Shields’ message to the city of Keene.

“I’m trying to send a message to the city of Keene that violence against peaceful people is unacceptable.” Patrick was quoted as saying in the Keene Sentinel.

That someone told the cops what they are: thugs.

The cops initiated force against these folks. Even their own posited supreme law admits that freedom of the press may not be broached. The judge’s order to ban videotaping is inconsistent with their own law.

More liberty-lovers will move sooner to Keene.

Judge Burke’s outburst led to a boom in liberty activists moving to Keene - and so will this.

Support Sam! Write Him a Letter.

Sam is still in being held by the Keene police. Write him a letter of support. It costs nothing and will be delivered free of charge. Here’s my letter to Sam.

Suggestions for the Next Time

I’ve never done civil disobedience so take my comments with a grain of salt.

• Instead of calling it “going limp” let’s call it “nonviolent resistance”.
• The jeering at the cops may have been slightly over the top. I’m all for challenging them but making personal enemies out of them may not be productive.
• I wonder if there isn’t a need for greater planning. It seems like it would be more fun if multiple people were in jail at the same time.

Join the Free State Project

Even if civil disobedience seems a little scary to you right now, please move up to New Hampshire with the Free State Project. A critical mass is forming and all kinds of activism are happening, from lobbying to media to running for office. If you know that a life without liberty just doesn’t cut it then join us in New Hampshire now!

A friend of mine who recently turned on to liberty and the voluntary society wrote to ask me about the “Not-So-Disorderly Seven” that were arrested or given summons yesterday at Keene NH district court. The Keeniacs have so much going on that his confusion is understandable!

Can you give a little background on where this whole Keene NH thing got started? I mean before Sam got arrested for taping at the courthouse during Dave’s (?) arraignment for taping in the courthouse… Because frankly, someone getting arrested for videotaping, in this context, doesn’t seem that juicy to me. Or is that really the whole story?

Oh! Is this about the people whose homes are being seized by Keene for nonpayment of taxes?

Keene District Court Blocking First Amendment Rights

No, this is unrelated to the Keene city council house seizures.

Keene district court has a history of barring videotaping of the proceedings. Other courts, such as Milford’s, allow it.

For awhile now they have been going to court and being turned away for trying to enter with video cameras.

Dave Ridley, who produces a lot of video on liberty activism in NH but seems rather moderate politically, got fed up with the Keene ban apparently and disobeyed the order on purpose. This was a few weeks ago.

His arraignment was yesterday and Sam, who seems to focus on doing fewer and longer video productions than Dave, disobeyed the order on his way into the arraignment claiming that because the order not to videotape was not signed, it was not valid.

That’s about the whole story regarding this incident as far as I know.

Hope that helps.

If you have any questions about the goings on in Keene, NH, feel free to ask in the comments. I’ve been following the news from a distance for several months.

Photo credit: Keene Sentinel.