How Gun Control Laws for “Mentally Ill” Could Disarm Those Who Question Authority

This article was originally published by John Vibes at TheFreeThoughtProject.com

In the growing debate surrounding the natural right to self-defense, one of the most popular proposed methods of gun control has been restrictions on gun-ownership for those who are deemed to be mentally ill. This is a measure that is often suggested by liberals and conservatives alike, but it is important to stop and consider what something like this might entail.

When any collective group is banned from owning a gun, they are effectively turned into second-class citizens. In the case of mental illness, that classification is so vague and open to interpretation that it could possibly be applied to over half of the population, depending on which criteria you use.

Mental illness can be very hard to identify since there is no kind of official test for most conditions, most people are diagnosed according to the subjective opinions of the doctors that observe them. Even the most severe conditions, like schizophrenia, can be very difficult to identify and is often misdiagnosed.

Psychiatric drugs are another possible factor that could get someone marked by the government as mentally unstable, but a classification like this would allow for large portions of the US population to be disarmed.

According to a 2016 study by JAMA Internal Medicine, more than 1 in 6 Americans are on some type of psychiatric drug. This is not to mention the large number of people who report symptoms of depression or anxiety and don’t take medication.

A policy like this could also allow the government to disarm dissidents and political enemies. As psychiatry became more influential towards the middle of the 20th century, rulers around the world began using “mental illness” as an excuse to lock away anyone who might disagree with them. The Soviet regime became notorious for this practice by labeling all political dissidents as “mentally ill” so they could be locked away in institutions where they were no threat to the establishment.

The United States government also has a long history of slapping unruly citizens with the mark of mental illness. President Franklin Roosevelt famously called his detractors “the lunatic fringe,” and this type of attitude towards activists has carried on in the halls of government to this day.

In the dictionary of mental illnesses, known as DSM-5, published by the American Psychiatric Association, there is actually a condition listed for people who have a problem with authority. Oppositional Defiant Disorder is a name that psychiatrists made up to identify children who won’t do what they are told, and now even adults are being diagnosed with this condition as well.

Meanwhile, politicians and mainstream media are quick to label anyone who questions the official narrative as a “conspiracy theorist,” a term that has been falsely associated with mental illness in pop culture.

A study in 2017 set out to determine whether or not believing in conspiracy theories was a form of mental illness. As expected they found the exact answer that they were looking for, people who don’t trust the government and mainstream media are crazy, and suffering from something called illusory pattern perception.

There is another dilemma that arises in the discussion of disarming people who are accused of having a mental illness, and that is the fact mentally ill people are 10 times more likely to be victims of violence than the rest of society because they are often seen as easy targets.

Complicating matters further is the fact that these people can’t depend on the police to help them in these situations, as studies have shown that the mentally ill are 16 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than the average person.

According to the Virginia-based Treatment Advocacy Center, a minimum of 1 in 4 fatal police encounters ends the life of an individual with severe mental illness.

To prevent mentally ill people from owning firearms is a severe form of “ableist” discrimination, and also opens the door for nearly anyone to be classified as mentally ill.

There are sometimes extreme cases where a person’s mental instability is creating a dangerous situation for the community, like the recent Parkland shooting, for example. In this case, the shooter had a known history of violence, regularly made threats and was visited by police on numerous occasions because of his threatening behavior. In cases like this, it is reasonable to keep an eye on someone, restrict their access to firearms, or possibly quarantine them from society in the most extreme situations.

There are many laws on the books currently would have allowed the FBI or local police to intervene in their initial encounters with the shooter, but they decided that a student known for violent outbursts and talking about carrying out school shootings was not worth looking into.

As TFTP reported earlier this month, there is a law on the books known as the Extreme Risk Protection Order or ERPO, which went into effect in June of 2017. This law is used when a person is considered an “extreme” threat as reported by police and family members. An ERPO must be approved by a judge and only after this person is proven to be a danger to themselves or others can police move in to confiscate their weapons.

These types of targeted approaches specifically aimed at individuals who are a known source of violence in the community would do far more to prevent tragedies from happening, than a wide-reaching law that could threaten the rights and safety of millions of innocent gun owners.

Destiny Looms: Choose Your Way or it Drags You

This article was originally published by Doug “Uncola” Lynn at TheTollOnline.com

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. – 2 Timothy 3:3

Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant. – Seneca

Posting articles online, especially for readers of high intelligence, can be quite a balancing act. In fact, with certain topics, it is like walking a tightrope while wearing ice-skates in a crosswind. At times, the tightrope represents the delicate balance between the cerebral hemispheres. According to Left- Brain Right-Brain Theory, the left-brained technicians incline towards logic, analysis, and objectivity, and the right-brained artisans are intuitive, subjective, and romantic.

Although I can play either side, I personally favor the creative aspects of artistic, conceptual visualization. This may be why left-brained people rarely get my jokes. For instance, if I wrote how mechanical engineers design weapons and civil engineers design targets, there would be comments in the ensuing thread informing me that both types of engineers design FAR more than just those two categories. Even more importantly, extreme caution must be applied to never get the science wrong, ever. Make one mistake and medieval heretics burned at the stake will gaze up from hell and say: “There but for the grace of God, go we” as the left-brainers, with smoking pens in melted shirt pocket-protectors, dance upon my ashes.

So it’s a fine line.

Effort is required, not only to countervail the cerebral hemispheres, but to reach the blue-pilled wonders while still engaging the red-pilled cynics; to affect those in my personal circle as well as strangers; and concurrently appeal to both conspiracy speculators and the… shall we say…trusting ones.

All that was a preamble for this:

In this article, (gasp) I want to reference stories and personalities that were recorded in the Bible.

My reasons for doing this are, first, for purposes of illustration; and secondly, because the Bible stories and characters represent a universal reference point from which to begin a conversation I believe is important at this time.

To the non-believers, I say it’s no different than citing any other historical record, legend, myth, or fairy tale.

To the believers, I’d ask you to look beyond what is written here and fill in the blanks according to your faith; and remember that even the self-proclaimed Son of God used a little creative licensenow and then to make the occasional point. I say that with all due respect.

Moreover, although I have taken every precaution to be accurate, I will not quote chapter and verse in this one; it’s not that kind of essay. Finally, some of the readers may not appreciate my raising more questions than answers here. In that regard, please accept my apologies in advance.

Here goes:

Time’s Up

Can you feel the noose tightening? Can you see and smell the foul feculence flung towards the whirling flabellum?

Like the divided hemispheres of a giant brain, so is America today. Except no longer are the two sides working for the betterment of one nation. On the contrary, for the past several decades the collective schizophrenia of the Political Left has progressively degenerated. Upon the election of Donald Trump, however, a psychotic break was induced of a magnitude not seen since Jeffrey Dahmer’s final dinner party, at midnight, on Halloween.

In addition to hallucinations of Russian election hacking, and delusions of presidential obstructions of justice, the First, Second, and Fourth Amendments to the United States Constitution are under simultaneous attack by both the psychotically sadistic Deep State and their self-flagellating, collectivist gimps.

It has become so bad, the internet memes are ridiculing the same maniacal, flakes, freaks, and fruitcakes who were calling Trump “Hitler” last fall for NOW begging him to take away their guns. That is, until the Electronic Social Planners remove such politically incorrect demonstrations of online mimetic communication. Yes, just as the dingbats, dummies, dorks, dolts, and dopes descend into unredeemable devastating delirium, the World Wide Web is being pureed into soft servings for the suffering and sickly snowflakes to swallow.

Sadly, the once promising new frontier, and former Wild West of free speech, is dying.

Online censorship by Google, YouTube’s Third Strike against Alex Jones and other independent and conservative users, ever-expanding thought control by Twitter, and electronic jackbooted smackdowns by Facebook are the norm today instead of the previous random, occasional, or accidental incidences. Someone, somewhere, has turned has turned down the heat and the big freeze is on.

Chillingly, in the example of YouTube’s censorship of Alex Jones, the newly self-appointed Ministry of Truth has justified their Orwellian attacks over an allegation of Jones calling the Parkland school shooting survivors “crisis actors”. However, it appears YouTube can provide no actual proof of this allegation because Jones says it never happened.

Good luck seeking out truth on the World Wide Web anymore as online fact-checkers, like Snopes and Politifact now rise to the very top of every controversial internet search to calm the natives with lies. Even as I type this, the internet is being scrubbed harder than a Denny’s restaurant floor after hours. But who is watching the watchers?

Like Dorothy and Toto in a Brave New World, neither are we in Kansas anymore. On the contrary, we are finally seeing behind the curtain and viewing the actual wizards who were lurking in the shadows for quite some time.

But will the general public wake up from the nightmare before it’s too late? Likely not.

In the impressionable days of my youth, I recall watching a version of “Titanic” on television where the survivors on that sinking vessel we’re trying to escape to the upper decks. On the way, in an interior hallway, they came across zombie-like passengers, in a trance-like state of shock, descending down the wrong way into the abyss. Those images haunted me at the time. They still do.

These are the days of cognitive dissonance: Of those holding on to a phony Russian election hacking narrative in order to maintain faith in a nation that would never elect a misogynistic reality TV star for president; and those who believe the same president will save the United States. Unfortunately, both dreams will have the same bad ending.

I hate to be the pessimist here, but even if Trump and his Mighty Deplorables can divert sideways from the forthcoming iceberg, the greater mass beneath the surface is far too vast; and we’re traveling too fast. Like the RMS Titanic, and those who once clawed on the exterior of Noah’s Ark in the pounding rain, America will soon sink to the ocean floor under waves raging over and upon the Sea of History. The laws of nature, like physics, will not be denied. It is a matter of mathematical certainty and the manifestation of time.

In the meantime, however, it’s obvious the Orwellian Authoritarians are fighting on the side of the morons as the lunatics run wild in the asylum-like ship of state.

So what can be done?

I don’t know, but I keep thinking of three personalities as recorded in the Bible. Each one chose differently in the headwinds of tumultuous times: Barabbas, Judas Iscariot, and Daniel.

Barrabbas the Fighter

In the raging waters of history that transitioned time from BC to AD, ancient Rome ruled the Old World with an iron fist. Naturally, there were freedom fighters at that time who bravely battled against the injustice. These warriors lived and died by the sword like fleas dreaming of defeating a barbaric behemothic beast. Barabbas of the Bible was one such soldier; a true man of action. His name indicates he was the son of an important man; yet Barabbas soon became infamous as a murderer, thief, and insurgent. In the eyes of the authoritarian state, and as written in the scriptures, he was guilty as charged. Before long, the Romans had their man. Barabbas stood condemned.

Likewise, in the minds of the globalists today, the nationalists who desire to pick up their allegorical and literal swords to defend their sovereignty already stand convicted. For example, this is realized by the Afghani’s who are currently waging guerrilla warfare and daily combating superior technology on their own turf. Are they winning, or merely surviving? Either way, they likely consider themselves fortunate to have the allied assistance of other entire rogue nation-states.

By the same token, what type of fighters will fill the ranks of the American Patriot Army? How will the early musters withstand drone strikes, let alone a superior trained and organized enemy with air superiority and higher caliber firepower equipped with night-vision technology? How will patriots organize? Where will they train? How will they acquire the provisions to reload and feed their civilian army? Where will their families live, and who guards them, as the fighters wage rural and urban warfare?

In my mind, as you can see, the Biblical example of Barabbas raises some questions. What are the best answers?

‘Do you see all these great buildings?’ replied Jesus. ‘Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.’ – Mark 13:2

Judas the Sell Out

Anyone who has ever attended Sunday school, or a church sermon, has likely heard the Biblical narrative of Judas Iscariot.  He was one of the original twelve apostles and he later betrayed his leader when circumstances became grim. Throughout the millennia, Judas has become infamous as the Patron Saint of “If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em & Make a Little Money Besides”.

In the mind of Judas, his betrayal made sense at the time; although it did not work out well for him in the end. He later realized the error of his ways and even tried to make amends by giving the money back. But it was too late. That train had left the station long before.

In my opinion, Judas Iscariot is the archetype of every minion who, against their own conscience, ever did, or will do, the criminal and immoral bidding of their Totalitarian State Masters. As for those without a conscience? They never stood a chance anyway. In every instance throughout civilized history, the arrogant fools, and the greedy betrayers, ended up getting what they deserved; even if not immediately.

Whether by pride, or perceived practicality, both fighters and sell-outs will make their choices and place their faith in the wisdom of their rationalizations.

Perhaps the mutual commonality between both Barabbas and Judas Iscariot was how they each thought they knew best when the inevitable concatenation of Providence, or destiny, had other plans.

Who knew. Can anyone ever know?

…what is mankind that you are mindful of them – Psalm 8:4

Daniel in Babylon

The Biblical Book of Daniel is a challenging study because, like the Book of Revelation, the narrative is not recorded in chronological order. Not being a theologian myself, I additionally scrutinized various other examinations written by those more well-versed than me (get it?).

According to Biblical and historical record, Daniel was a teenager when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem in 606 BC. Daniel was well educated and fluent in both the Aramaic and Hebrew languages. Although, in his own language, his name translated to “God is Judge”, Daniel was taken to serve in the kingdom of Babylon where his name was changed to “Belteshazzar”, which means “Bel’s Prince”.

In captivity, however, Daniel and his friends kept their traditions and called each other by their given names. In other words they remembered who they were. They accepted their fate but only unto a certain point. For instance, they would work on behalf of the Babylonian Kingdom, but they would not bow down to worship the king; even under penalty of death. The Biblical record is clear that Daniel and his friends believed it was their God who established kingdoms and ruled over the rulers. The Christian theologians believe this carries into the New Testament as well, citing scriptures like Luke 2:1-3.

Daniel behaved as a loyal subject of the government, but only until the government tried to regulate his relations with his God. Then, he chose to obey the higher law instead of man’s law. In the New Testament, it appears the early Apostles concurred with that plan also, according to Acts 5:29.

Another interesting component in the Book of Daniel is that, unlike those who favored Barabbas and Caesar over Jesus near 6.4 centuries later, Daniel appeared to have a superior understanding of the times in which he lived. He believed it was foretold that the length of his nation’s captivity would last 70 years, so when that time was up –  the then elderly Daniel said a prayer to the same God that (he believed) enabled him to interpret dreams as a young man.

Interestingly enough, following that prayer, the Biblical record claims that God, in turn, provided mathematical equations to Daniel that predicted not only the exact times of Jesus, but into our present day as well. Of course, that is far beyond the purview of this writing.

What I do find most interesting, however, about Daniel’s prayer (Daniel 9:4-19) is not how he appears to fall on his proverbial sword rather than live by it, but in how he pleads for his nation to be restored for his God’s sake and not his own.

In the interest of moderate comparison, an appeal like Daniel’s could be distilled similar to as follows in a modern plea to either Providence, or destiny; depending upon one’s particular persuasion:

Please hear what I have to say. We were a nation once fortunate and wise; a nation that held the law in high esteem.  We had a republic but, unfortunately, we could not keep it. We lost it all because of what we did, as well as what we did not do. It was completely our fault.

We were not diligent. We were not honorable. We did not value liberty enough. We lied and we cheated. We corrupted ourselves and we let ourselves become corrupt.

As a result of both our shameful complacency and outright failures to uphold truth, honor, liberty, and justice, we have experienced, and will continue to experience, the devastating consequences.

Again, we fully deserve what has happened, what is happening now, and what will continue to happen, because of what we did, in addition to what we did not do.

It would be so great if our direction could be changed; if we could turn things around, and return our nation back to “good”. Perhaps this could be done now; not because we deserve it but, instead, for the sake of truth, honor, liberty, and justice, once more.

Can you imagine at this time, a unified modern America making such an appeal? Me neither.

So, I ask: How can a nation repair its defects and deficiencies unless it squarely, and humbly, faces them first?

Conclusion

No matter how one approaches today’s dire societal circumstances, it should be obvious we are not now facing Red-Coats arriving here by ships from across the sea. It then becomes a question whether or not a Revolutionary era call-to-arms would succeed. Our time is unique and the technological aspects of modern warfare, surveillance, and communications, are unprecedented in all of history.

Either Constitutional Law will be reestablished in America, and the treasonous cabal of Deep State minions are tried and convicted for their crimes –  or –  Trump and company turns out to be a minor speedbump on the final stretch towards the New World Order.

Can you see many other options?

Because, from my perspective, the United States is a massive debt-infused economic balloon about to burst, while plodding through minefields located in several hotspots around the globe that could start World War III, literally, with a sigh, and facing two national elections; this fall and in 2020.

If the economy deflates before either election, do you think Trump’s tax cuts and trade protectionism will be blamed in the minds and mouths of Orwell’s’ minions? Advertising works.

Regardless, even if Trump and the Deplorables pull off wins in the next two elections (in a smart and diligent effort to conserve ammo) what happens next? The Insane Snowflakes, the Military Industrial and Surveillance Complex, and the Orwellian Media Messengers will deliver mass chaos until the U.S. Constitution explodes into a thousand white and yellow fragments like the conch shell in William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”.

But what if Trump and the Deplorables lose the next two elections? Will they abide with the new leadership after seeing the revealed widespread corruption at the highest levels of government and in the media? How do those genies go back in the bottle? In truth, they can’t.

In any scenario, the civil divorce will be ugly and America’s children will suffer.

Looking back, could there have been any other outcome? Given human nature, perhaps it was always inevitable.  Maybe it’s just time. Even if one wanted to fight, how can they know they’re not fighting against destiny or something bigger; battling against that which was unavoidable anyway?

What if America’s seemingly psychotic breakdown is more spiritual in nature? Because, right now, it does seem as if the Perception Puppets are dreaming a new reality; like an incantation.

That’s a far cry from a Daniel-type appeal. Could anything less save the nation anyway?

Why Shrooms Are Illegal: Study Shows Psychedelic Experiences Make You Resist Authoritarians

A recent study found that psychedelic mushrooms tend to make people more resistant to authority and more connected with nature.

The post Why Shrooms Are Illegal: Study Shows Psychedelic Experiences Make You Resist Authoritarians appeared first on The Free Thought Project.

U.S. No Longer Considered a ‘Full Democracy’ — and It’s Not Trump’s Fault

January 25, 2017   |   Carey Wedler

(ANTIMEDIA) The United States is no longer a full democracy, according to an annual report recently released by The Economist. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s ninth annual Democracy Index details the decline of democracy not just in the U.S., but also around the world.

The rankings cover 165 countries and are determined by a variety of factors. The report (which is downloadable upon registration explains:

“The Democracy Index is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. Based on their scores on a range of indicators within these categories, each country is then itself classified as one of four types of regime: ‘full democracy’; ‘flawed democracy’; ‘hybrid regime’; and ‘authoritarian regime.’”

The number of countries ranked as “full democracies” fell from 20 to 19 in 2016, and the U.S. came in at 21 — earning the designation of a “flawed democracy.” The report explains that the U.S.’ quality of democracy has declined “ as popular confidence in the functioning of public institutions has declined.” The U.S. now ranks behind Japan, which was the highest ranked flawed democracy.

Following the chaos of the 2016 election, it is unsurprising that many Americans are losing faith in democracy. But as the report notes, Donald Trump is not entirely to blame.

“Popular trust in government, elected representatives and political parties has fallen to extremely low levels in the US… This has been a long-term trend and one that preceded the election of Mr Trump as US president in November 2016.”

In fact, it appears Trump simply capitalized on existing sentiments:

“By tapping a deep strain of political disaffection with the functioning of democracy, Mr Trump became a beneficiary of the low esteem in which US voters hold their government, elected representatives and political parties, but he was not responsible for a problem that has had a long gestation.”

The U.S. government’s attacks on civil liberties and many failed policies have become hallmarks of American policy. Unsurprisingly, the U.S. has slipped in both press and economic freedom in recent years.

But the U.S. is far from alone in its decline as “[p]opular confidence in political institutions and parties continues to decline in many other developed countries, too.”

“Some 72 countries experienced a decline in their total score compared with 2015, almost twice as many as the countries which recorded an improvement (38),” the analysis explains.

Fifty-seven countries stagnated. Eastern Europe suffered the worst losses, with 19 countries slipping in the democracy index. Countries that were deemed to be “full democracies” included Norway at number one, followed by Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark, Canada, Ireland, Switzerland, and several other European countries. Uruguay ranked 20th, outpacing other Latin American countries.

The number of authoritarian governments totaled 51. “Around 2.6bn people, more than one-third of the world’s population, live under authoritarian rule, with a large share being, of course, in China,” the report notes, adding that “‘[h]ybrid’ and ‘authoritarian’ regimes are concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa (36), the Middle East and North Africa (18 out of 20 countries), and to a lesser extent in eastern Europe (15) and Asia (13).”

Though according to the index, democracy appears to be working for some nations, others are struggling to uphold the system’s purported ideals. “Since 2006 The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has recorded a decline in the average aggregate global democracy score, from 5.62 to 5.52 in 2016,” the report notes, adding that Western Europe, North America, and Eastern Europe experienced the most declines – even as many Western European nations retained their categorization as full democracies.

These losses parallel global opinions, which increasingly reflect a loss of faith in democracy. As the report asserts, even those countries that often boast of their democratic history are crumbling:

“The crisis of democracy is expressed in the failing traditional political party system; the growing gap between elites and electorates; and the rise of populist parties. The contemporary problems of democracy are clearly not just ‘over there’—in Russia, China, the Middle East or Africa. Democracy is in trouble in the West, in the mature democracies of western Europe and the US, which are no longer obvious beacons for those striving for democracy in the nondemocratic world.”

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This article (U.S. No Longer Considered a ‘Full Democracy’ — and It’s Not Trump’s Fault) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Carey Wedler and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. Image credit: acampadapraga. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article to edits@theantimedia.org.