The Death of Liberty, Conformity

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a crisis on our hands. We as a people have lost sight of what makes us unique and would much rather "fit in" with the crowd. I shouldn't have to tell you how dangerous that is and how that can be used for nefarious purposes. Yet here I am. The group mentality has led to a fair majority of citizens of this planet to conform to the group in fear of being different, even when it means sacrificing individual liberties. Governments have used this mentality to pass right-limiting legislation that is borderline tyrannical.

Let us take yet another look at America because this disease is fairly easy to identify in American politics and media. In the American Constitution, ( here is a link: https://www.usconstitution.net/const.pdf) citizens are granted protection for the right to freedom of expression and the right to bear arms that shall not be infringed. But currently, the US government has placed laws into effect that essentially undermine what those very amendments say. I am referring to things such as "free speech zones" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech_zone) and the countless gun control measures pushed by the msm (mainstream media) in order to restrict the types of firearms civilians are allowed to own. An example of this would be the Firearm Owners Protection Act which among other things, prohibited the sale of automatic firearms manufactured after the date of the bill's passing. As you can see, this is a direct infringement of the second amendment, yet no one seems to care. Another example of legislation passed is the Gun-free school zones act, which while it may seem like a way to protect children, it is clearly ineffective as the amount of school shootings after the bills passing in the 1990s has skyrocketed (https://crimeresearch.org/2018/06/more-misleading-information-from-bloombergs-everytown-for-gun-safety-on-guns-analysis-of-recent-mass-shootings/). Just a little sidenote, criminals tend not to follow the law so all that act really did was take weapons away from the law abiding citizens who could possibly defend the students in schools. But back to the topic at hand, now how does all of this play into the group mentality I mentioned previously? It is actually quite simple, the mainstream media for whatever reason, has decided to also push this anti-liberty agenda.

Through a practice most commonly known as Yellow Journalism (or sensationalism), a journalist would find a topic like a recent school shooting, which shouldn't be politicized in my opinion but regardless, they then find a couple kids to essentially say "guns are bad, ban all guns". What makes this practice so biased is that they always seem to interview only anti-gun students by complete "chance". You may recall a couple months back seeing David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez appear on television desperately pleading with the nation to ban firearms after the events at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. They appeared all over mainstream media outlets and made quite a name for themselves. But I bet you didn't hear about Kyle Kashuv, a student advocate from the exact same school who advocates for safer schools all the while maintaining the second amendment. You may have not even known his name before this article and if so, that means the media's tactics worked (I for one did not even know of him before doing research for this article). The MSM has done quite a great job in making us believe that gun control is the right thing to do. This comes back to the group mentality I mentioned earlier, they report as if the only logical action to take is their proposed reform and they demonize anyone who disagrees. This practice makes those who are uneducated in the topic essentially "fall into their trap" in regards to believing whatever is told to them. You and I have fallen into this trap many times before and not even known it. Have you ever been in a conversation with someone on a recently trending topic but all you even know about it is what you heard on the news? That is exactly what I am referring to. We as citizens of planet earth are uninformed and being uninformed in the age of information never leads to good results. One day, somebody is going to come up to you after you quote something from the news or social media and they're actually going to have evidence that proves the contrary to what you say. Let me tell you how embarrassing that is. For me, that was the catalyst for my increasing desire to become informed on global events.

Because somebody justifiably called me out one time due to the fact I didn't really know something , I wanted to learn more, I was not going to get embarrassed like that again. Since that day, I always do my best to stay informed on global events and on policies in multiple nations. If only more people were to do this, our society would be so much better off. Those of you who have had a similar experience, I challenge you to try and learn more about this world we live in. I want you to inform yourself about events in a nation other than your own. Not only that, I want you to become experts in that countries' foreign policy. Also, I want you to try and convince your friends and family to inform themselves. Only by action will we change the world. I encourage you to fact check this opinion piece. I want you to start FRIENDLY debates in the comments. I want to see this community unite in the sense of working together for a common goal; a better tomorrow. Lets make this world one of informed people who will fight for the rights of the smallest minority; the individual. Together, we will make this world a better place. All it takes to start is the actions of one person, so its time for you to be that person.