Bad Actions Have Terrible Consequences

Bad Actions Have Terrible Consequences

Conspiracy Theorist

by Mark Luedtke

publication date: 012715

There’s no such thing as freedom from consequences of actions. If you poke a stick into a hornets’ nest, you can expect to get stung. If you poke a stick at a rabid dog, you can expect to get bitten. If you oppress and kill thousands of people every year for decades, both directly by dropping bombs on them and instigating coups and indirectly by supplying tyrants with weapons, tear gas and money to beat, torture and kill them, don’t act surprised when some of the survivors fly planes into your buildings.

Speech is also an action. If you ridicule people’s prophet and religion almost daily for years, you can expect radicals to respond violently. It’s not right. Everybody should live by the non-aggression principle. Everybody should live by the adage: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” But terrorists don’t. If you make it your mission to consistently insult, anger and incite all Muslims including terrorists, you can expect jihadists will respond with violence. That’s what happened in Paris.

Government propagandists are already trying to take advantage of the massacre. Economist Robert Wenzel observes, “I see where government opportunists are using the recent hack attack on Sony and the killings in Paris of Charlie Hebdo satirists, as an opportunity to raise national defiance against those who ‘hate our freedoms.’ Puhleeze. The fact of the matter is that both Sony employees and Charlie Hebdo employees pissed people off. This, in itself is not a good or bad thing. When you piss people off, they might come back at you. If you don't want to deal with blowback, then don't do the deed.”

Commentator Becky Akers adds, “Naturally, I do not condone murdering journalists and graphic artists. But let us be very clear that these killings have nothing to do with freedom of speech or expression, regardless of how much Our Rulers and France’s try to cast them that way. Governments are the only ones who can restrict either freedom, and so far reports of this atrocity have not implicated France’s administration regardless of its other crimes.”

It’s a sign of the decline of western civilization the boorish cartoons of Charlie Hebdo found enough audience to keep them in business. A healthy society would have shunned them, not defended them as free speech. Just because you can say something doesn’t mean you should.

Foreign policy expert Eric Margolis suggests blowback from perpetual war as another motive for the attack. “France has emerged as one of the most active interveners in the Muslim world, conducting military operations in Libya, Mali, Chad, Ivory Coast, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Abu Dhabi, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria,” he explained. “Critics accused France of a new era of Mideast and African colonialism.”

The French government is complicit in this massacre because it disarmed the victims. One of the most evil actions governments undertake is disarming the people by threatening them with violence for possessing the best tools of self defense. Gun control is an another sign of the decline of western civilization. Barbarians and brigands disarm their victims. Civilized people arm themselves and defend themselves and others.

The massacre in Paris is another spectacular example of government failure. The Sydney Herald writes, “Long before the French editor and cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier was gunned down by Islamic militants in Paris on Wednesday he had said in response to earlier threats: ‘I would rather die standing than live on my knees’.” That’s a heroic sentiment, but unbacked by effective action, it was reduced to empty bravado. Instead of taking action to keep himself and his co-workers safe, Charbonnier foolishly trusted the French government. The British Broadcasting Company reports, “Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier, 47, had received death threats in the past and was living under police protection.” Government’s police protection for Charbonnier was as effective as you would expect - not at all - for a person who is not a member of the ruling class. French police stopped watching these terrorists six months ago.

But these are exactly the kind of terrorists and the kind of attacks the National Security Agency (NSA) was created to stop. NSA spies on every communication in the world to stop attacks like these, but it failed. NSA ubiquitous spying has never stopped an attack. Republicans who support NSA spying on everyone including Americans used Charlie Hebdo to justify NSA tyranny.  Similarly, the head of Britain’s ineffective MI5 already exploited the attack to demand more power. Only government uses failure to justify its activities and demand more power.

The Sydney Herald continues with the propaganda, “[Charbonnier] died standing. He died for our freedom. Charbonnier and the others murdered on Wednesday died for the cause of freedom and enlightened scepticism. We must all stand up for that cause.”

Baloney. Charbonnier and his co-workers died because they intentionally, repeatedly, angered fanatical killers, supporting perpetual war against Muslims in the process. Government’s propagandists are painting Charbonnier and his co-workers as heroic martyrs for free speech rights for political gain. They’re not.

Originally published in the Dayton City Paper.