As rational thinkers since at least the time of François-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire, have pointed out, it’s dangerous to be right when those with power are wrong.
This is because it’s always dangerous to disagree with anyone who suffers from the delusion that they have the right — or some imaginary political authority — to force you to act as they believe you must. Especially when they reserve the power to punish those who disagree.
Just look what happened to the organizers, members, and supporters of The White Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany. They acted with no guarantee their sacrifice would make a difference. Some of them died gruesome deaths at the hands of government employees, while others were cruelly imprisoned. The only “wrong” they committed was being right and exposing the wrongness of the National Socialist government. They were heroes who deserve to be remembered.
We are quickly sliding into an era in American history where you may face similar choices; where this awareness influences your every decision. Will you choose to disagree with those who have the power to hurt you for thinking for yourself, or will you cave in and go along?
Whether government is issuing mask mandates and vaccine passports, criminalizing certain guns or gun parts, or even looking for excuses to regulate a plant the public has already told them to leave alone, government is consistently on the wrong side of a great many issues.
Those who are right on any of these topics are walking on dangerous ground.
Of course, disagreeing with government doesn’t automatically make you right, either. Government does generally frown upon most of us committing murder, after all. Murder is only ignored when looking the other way promotes government power, such as when government employees, acting in support of government power, kill someone who hasn’t bought into the lie enthusiastically enough.
This is why the only measure that matters is whether an act violates the life, liberty, or property of another, not whether or not something is legal. The problem is, there can be legitimate disagreement on whether an act violates anyone. You make your choice and accept the consequences.
If you get your moral or ethical guidance from government, you’re not a good person. If you mistake politicians for role models you’re headed for disaster. If you comply or turn a blind eye to government wrongs, you are part of the problem.
