06-24-2020, 06:04 AM
2007... the year I joined a small web forum named "ATS." 13 years ago, but so much has changed it might as well be 1300. I was driving a truck OTR, accessing the Internet on a little laptop when I could. I had my health (or so I thought). But I could feel things were just not right and about to get worse.
13 years later, I join a small web forum called "Rogue Nation." I'm retired on SS Disability now, piddling around as my health allows, threatening to do unspeakable horrors to my heart if it even thinks about going on strike again, and wishing I still had my health. The world has changed around me, in many ways so drastically that I could not even have envisioned it 13 years prior, but I am still here. And I can feel things are just not right and about to get worse.
So I make this thread, to give a simple warning to the friends I have made over those last 13 years:
They are coming for you, Rogue Nation!
I made a promise to ATS when I became a Staffer: to never talk about what happens behind the scenes. I will never break that vow; those conversations and happenings will follow me to the grave and beyond. However, what has happened is not something that happened behind the scenes. It happened in front of my very eyes, in the open, publicly, conspicuously even for those who chose to see. "They" came for ATS. "They" took ATS.
We live in a world at war. Oh, not two groups of armed men on a battlefield rushing headlong toward each other to slaughter and kill. That's the movies. War is not waged on the battlefield alone; it is waged in back rooms, filled with smoke. No war has ever been fought without propaganda leading the way. A war cannot be fought without propaganda, for no one sane enough to fight a war could believe the necessity of taking the lives of others wholesale without some serious conditioning first. So it is today, except that today the rules of propaganda have changed. Today, we have YouTube removing videos, hiding videos, even banning accounts over political speech. Today, Twitter, the end-all, be-all social networking site, operates as a check valve for politically incorrect speech or dangerous ideas. Today, FaceBook, where people go to keep in touch with old friends and loved ones, has become the arbiter of what may and may not be said openly. Social websites have replaced rallies and face-to-face conversations, and TPTB have taken full advantage of this fact. They now exercise unheard-of control of what people see and know and think... they control the propaganda.
Their goal is simple: they want power. As true as it may be that these shapers of history already have power, power is addictive. The more power over others one gets, the more one wants. It's no different than a junkie lying in a gutter, in pain and agony, still craves more of the very thing that is causing their pain and agony. To get more power requires more propaganda. ATS was a threat to that, a shining beacon of impartiality and free speech. So ATS had to die. It had to be attacked from within, it's reputation maligned, it's principles threatened, and it's finances shredded. It would take many years to accomplish the unthinkable 13 short years ago, but it was done.
Now it becomes Rogue Nation's turn to brave the winds of war. It hid in the shadows of ATS for many years, and now, when needed, it has become a haven for those who are fleeing the inevitable fall of ATS. As ATS falls, the shadows of obscurity clear and a new target is acquired. We will rise as ATS did, buoyed by the people who are desperately seeking a haven to speak freely. As we rise, we will be attacked by those who oppose all we hold dear.
As the attacks come, we will all have a choice to make: will we turn on each other, listen to the naysayers, cower behind silence? Or will we stand together, recognizing each other as being not an enemy but an opponent in a friendly battle to choose the best ideas for our shared future? Will we hear the propaganda and allow it to turn us against each other, or will we hear each other and turn against the propaganda?
Time will tell. Humans are funny critters sometimes: easily manipulated, freely herded, gladly controlled. But humans are also capable of rising up together, standing tall, and saying this time... this time... we will not be the pawns in this game.
Prepare yourself, Rogue Nation. Prepare yourselves, all ye rogues, rednecks, preppers, and general mal-contents dreaming of a better future. Keep your armor sound, your eyes open, and your powder dry. They will be needed. The enemy will come.
TheRedneck
13 years later, I join a small web forum called "Rogue Nation." I'm retired on SS Disability now, piddling around as my health allows, threatening to do unspeakable horrors to my heart if it even thinks about going on strike again, and wishing I still had my health. The world has changed around me, in many ways so drastically that I could not even have envisioned it 13 years prior, but I am still here. And I can feel things are just not right and about to get worse.
So I make this thread, to give a simple warning to the friends I have made over those last 13 years:
They are coming for you, Rogue Nation!
I made a promise to ATS when I became a Staffer: to never talk about what happens behind the scenes. I will never break that vow; those conversations and happenings will follow me to the grave and beyond. However, what has happened is not something that happened behind the scenes. It happened in front of my very eyes, in the open, publicly, conspicuously even for those who chose to see. "They" came for ATS. "They" took ATS.
We live in a world at war. Oh, not two groups of armed men on a battlefield rushing headlong toward each other to slaughter and kill. That's the movies. War is not waged on the battlefield alone; it is waged in back rooms, filled with smoke. No war has ever been fought without propaganda leading the way. A war cannot be fought without propaganda, for no one sane enough to fight a war could believe the necessity of taking the lives of others wholesale without some serious conditioning first. So it is today, except that today the rules of propaganda have changed. Today, we have YouTube removing videos, hiding videos, even banning accounts over political speech. Today, Twitter, the end-all, be-all social networking site, operates as a check valve for politically incorrect speech or dangerous ideas. Today, FaceBook, where people go to keep in touch with old friends and loved ones, has become the arbiter of what may and may not be said openly. Social websites have replaced rallies and face-to-face conversations, and TPTB have taken full advantage of this fact. They now exercise unheard-of control of what people see and know and think... they control the propaganda.
Their goal is simple: they want power. As true as it may be that these shapers of history already have power, power is addictive. The more power over others one gets, the more one wants. It's no different than a junkie lying in a gutter, in pain and agony, still craves more of the very thing that is causing their pain and agony. To get more power requires more propaganda. ATS was a threat to that, a shining beacon of impartiality and free speech. So ATS had to die. It had to be attacked from within, it's reputation maligned, it's principles threatened, and it's finances shredded. It would take many years to accomplish the unthinkable 13 short years ago, but it was done.
Now it becomes Rogue Nation's turn to brave the winds of war. It hid in the shadows of ATS for many years, and now, when needed, it has become a haven for those who are fleeing the inevitable fall of ATS. As ATS falls, the shadows of obscurity clear and a new target is acquired. We will rise as ATS did, buoyed by the people who are desperately seeking a haven to speak freely. As we rise, we will be attacked by those who oppose all we hold dear.
As the attacks come, we will all have a choice to make: will we turn on each other, listen to the naysayers, cower behind silence? Or will we stand together, recognizing each other as being not an enemy but an opponent in a friendly battle to choose the best ideas for our shared future? Will we hear the propaganda and allow it to turn us against each other, or will we hear each other and turn against the propaganda?
Time will tell. Humans are funny critters sometimes: easily manipulated, freely herded, gladly controlled. But humans are also capable of rising up together, standing tall, and saying this time... this time... we will not be the pawns in this game.
Prepare yourself, Rogue Nation. Prepare yourselves, all ye rogues, rednecks, preppers, and general mal-contents dreaming of a better future. Keep your armor sound, your eyes open, and your powder dry. They will be needed. The enemy will come.
TheRedneck