Rowan H (public) 🏳️⚧️<p>I will not live in fear.<br>I will not censor my own existence.<br>I will not censor my own speech.<br>I will not let the fascists win.<br>If I let them silence me, I have lost. </p><p>Though this stance may someday single me out for individual repression, if I pretend to be anyone other than who I am, then they have already won. If I hide who I am, then they have already won.<br>If I let them get away with trying to gaslight me into submission to their insane lie-based surreality, then they have already won.<br>I will never take up arms against anyone. After delivering death to animals with my own hands as a hunter, wildlife biologist, and farmer and helping to hold death back with my hands as an EMT, I know that I will never kill another human being, even if it meant my own death or the death of a loved one. I know that I am not a killer of humans.<br>I know that firearms are lethal machines; there is no “shooting to wound.” To take one up in anger or righteousness or defense is to accept that one is going to kill a fellow human being. That is not something I can do.</p><p>And if the pen truly is mightier than the sword, I wield a weapon far greater than any mere gun. I have my voice. I have my words. After long covid, I cannot shout any more. But I can write. And so I do.<br>And what I write is my truth. Who I am. Who I have been. <br>If I let them silence me with fear of name-calling or legal action or illegal attack, then they have already won.<br>If we all let them silence us, then they have already won. There is no cavalry. There is only us, and our bodies, and our minds, and our voices. Nobody is coming to save us. If we do not speak loudly now, they have already won, and there will be no election in 2026. And we will be their serfs in a prison state.<br>This is not politics as usual. This is a criminal takeover of our government by a convicted criminal and his gang, who are currently looting our country with the explicit support of a majority of corrupt government officials and after having destroyed the constitution so that a stacked Supreme Court can throw out 249 years and turn the Res Publica into a criminal state. They are settling in for the long haul, so they can live as kings and lord it over all of us, dispensing justice low and high.<br>If we let them silence us, we have lost. <br>Have you let them silence you? Are you already censoring what you say, thinking about what the gestapo might read into it and fearing the knock at the front door and the crash at the back in the middle of the night? Have you? Are you worried about the MAGA-SS? Be honest with yourself. Are you more careful in how you’re wording things for fear of setting off some brigade of online or IRL brownshirts? Even just a little? Or are you maintaining the same level of public speech? Speaking out or not as you always have?<br>Or, are you responding to the increasing amount of fascist lies being reported uncritically in the media by speaking out more? Telling everyone, every day?<br>If we aren’t all shouting as loud as we can, then the fascists probably will win, because they already control most of the metaphorical megaphones.</p><p>If we let them silence us, we have lost. </p><p><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/NoKings" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NoKings</span></a><br><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/FreeSpeech" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FreeSpeech</span></a><br><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/StopFascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>StopFascism</span></a><br><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/NoCrooks" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NoCrooks</span></a><br><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/BlackLivesMatter" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BlackLivesMatter</span></a> <br><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/TransRightsAreHumanRights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>TransRightsAreHumanRights</span></a> <br><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/TransRights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>TransRights</span></a><br><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/USPol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>USPol</span></a></p>