Are you even capable of protecting freedom.

Excellent.

The thing I struggle with the most is the isolation. I can find a lot on-line. Many great resources. A lot of good voices. Expertise and even some comradery.

But IRL is lacking in so many ways.

I can busy myself with forming new to-do lists. New things to learn. Research, plan. Staying active and fit. But coming to terms with all that needs to be done and learned, built, planned, and stowed for tomorrow can be overwhelming.

Even more so when it feels like so much of dissident life is lived on a new frontier, a wilderness among the masses of people caught up in the world designed by our captors.

All that while the reality of straddling an economy and social landscape that are diametric to actually separating from the machine. The ability to make a living, acquire the material things needed to move toward self-sufficiency, provide healthcare and insurance, and stay ahead of the twin beasts of inflation and taxation, are real economic problems that are not solved as much as they are continually patched. Another new leak in the morning.

The other side is on the tail end of a really long war to break our most essential bonds, our identity, shared values, rites and traditions, and every physical forum and space that has historically been stewards of those generational bonds.

I can build and repair a lot around my little patch. I can grow things. I can hold together my little family and our critters. But the lack of real-life places or organizing forums to sort through all the noise and slumbering masses -- even here in flyover, is something that has been really hard to find.

I have a great little church with some good men. But none of them understand where we are or what is coming. The few that do are old and convinced its the end times and have already resigned to be called home.

I really don’t like that feeling that we have to wait for necessity to move us together again because necessity is often too late, too quick, and/or too final.

If your religion says that you can not rise up and use force (violence) against your oppressor and people that want you dead, then I say your religion was written by your enemies. Find a new religion.