How do you turn a decent, forthright, conscientious and goal-oriented adolescent man into a terrorist?
By Fiat.
That is, treating him like a terrorist.
That is, to treat him very bad. Throw the whole weight of the law on him. . . for holding wrong views.
What opinions? you ask. Revolutionary Islam? White supremacy? Armed revolution?
NO. Self-defense.
And now you may have solved the problem.
The hatred of vigilantism, the absolute fear of it – the shuddering, overreaction to the very idea – is common among today’s politicians, teachers, and even some befuddled and cowardly law enforcement officers. There has been rampant demonization of guns, zero tolerance for owning and carrying “guns” – despite the Second Amendment.
Like mad? Ask Jordan the Wise.
The 18-year-old will be charged with a Class 5 felony for having a pocket knife in his EMT vest, a stun gun in the glove compartment of his car and several ASG (game) sports guns in the trunk. (Early reports suggest he did it with a pocket knife. He was carrying a gun…! I don’t know.) This was all discovered after a possibly illegal (and definitely unfair) search of his car by the high school principal and vice principal at the technical school he attended, in (I understand )Jefferson, Ohio. These two were alerted by his self-defense videos on YouTube and became hysterical.
Mr. Wiser spent thirteen days in prison. Prosecutors are determined to prosecute, reiterating their bureaucratic view that they must follow the law. Even if common sense denies it. One of the judges joined in this panic, ordering the weapons to be taken from the family home and sent to the boy’s dying grandfather, whom the accused cannot now see. . . because of the weapons that are there.
The problem is effortless to identify. It is a rejection of the philosophical foundations of a free society. The state gains the right to rule based on about our right to defend ourselves. And we do not give up these rights by staying within the country’s borders – we only give up the right to retaliation.
It would be effortless to blame liberal progressives for their advanced and decadent cult of the state. However, conservatives also contributed to the statist degradation of republican doctrine by pushing a zero tolerance position.
One thing leads to another.
This is how you lose your freedom. We are all victims, although Mr. Wiser bears the brunt of tyranny.
The surprising irony, however, is that Mr. Wiser is exactly the kind of kid you’d expect the authorities to be. care. He claims to have already received several certificates:
- Emergency vehicle operator
- Recognizing terror
- FEMA National Terrorist Defense Certificate
However, if the criminal proceedings are concluded, his career in public service will come to an end. Over. Done. Not only could he not become a firefighter, but he also couldn’t work, as he put it, as a school janitor.
He sees that his life could be ruined by the nonsense he is experiencing now. No less than a penknife, something every adolescent man of my father’s generation always carried with him.
Remember: he was targeted clearly because he publicly promoted self-defense. This is what fear mongering has caused in up-to-date America.
I started by talking about terrorism. The surest way to turn a person into a terrorist is to establish an entire justice system that is unfair to the innocent. But this process of injustice is itself a form of terrorism. State terrorism.
Just because it’s petty and stupid doesn’t make it any less terroristic. Because it is the fear of the government that these officials want to instill. Refuse to employ common sense as a test of the state’s enormous power against this adolescent man, the colors of the banner are all too clear.
