Indeed! Reading and listening are only one half of the dialogue — what do I have to say in response?  I have learned a great deal putting my thoughts down on paper and working them into an honest expression of my own.  I don't agree with everything that I write, and it gets edited or reworded until it's true.  Discernment requires some effort to separate the wheat from the chaff.

To attempt to eliminate all differences between people is futile.

It's not too hard to imagine — it's already here with social media and digital cameras covering nearly every square inch of 'public' spaces.  Even our phones and computers are spying on us — and the new 'smart' TV's.  Sheesh!  George Orwell's 1984 has essentially already happened!  Big Brother, the telescreen, the minute of hate, newspeak, face crime (on social media)!  And leftists are lapping it up...

It's not about guns or wealth or speech — it's about POWER.  Regulating the power of the people — making sure they are powerless to defend themselves against those with the most power.  Freedom, independence, individualism — REAL multiculturalism — requires 'empowered' individuals, and together is a force to be reckoned with. 

Socialism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism all require the power to be centralized to the ruling class — banks, governments, and military.  Republicanism inherently keeps power from being concentrated and empowers the individual to be self-determining.  Socialists are ever trying to disempower/disarm those that are not already in poverty (i.e. powerless).  They do not EVER raise up the poor, but merely make them dependents and supporters of the ruling class, always keeping them in enough misery that they will demand from the government they 'do something.'

Hmm, what changed your mind now that you carry a gun?

Wilson is being brutally honest about the cause of progressive liberal authoritarianism — to dominate.

How the government got the reputation of solving ANYTHING I will never know — I think it's because candidates for office will promise anything to get elected without the people ever considering whether the office has the power or authority to do so.  The biggest complaint about the Green New Deal is that it would bankrupt the country — not that Congress has NO AUTHORITY to pass such regulations!!

You're sounding more empowered, now that you are armed.  ;-)  Frankly I WOULD like to hear you say it, since you used to speak against guns.  I am curious how you reconcile this with your progressive leanings...

Excuse me?  Not true, not even close.

"The ___ are disarmed and enjoy great freedom."
Fill in the blank ... if you can.

Capitalism is just the antithesis of communism.  In the US today, our money system is communist — it is the same system called for in the Communist Manifesto and used in the USSR and China.  So, the US is NOT practicing capitalism.

Forget about the word capitalism! What are we talking about here?  COMMERCE! Private enterprise and trade.  Congress was authorized to regulate COMMERCE between states.  They have usurped their authority and are now regulating COMMERCE between people within a state.  This is unconstitutional, if we were using real money like gold/silver authorized by the Constitution.  But because we are using commercial paper, we are subject to the rules of its use.  This is not capitalism!!

It doesn't matter how many volumes Marx wrote, if the premise is flawed, so is all the rest.

Again this is not communism, this is self-determination of a voluntary community.  That's what America is all about, and is indeed the foundation of the agricultural societies that formed America.  And the local churches were central to the philosophy of the community.  Self-determination progresses when in accord with natural law.

GBO, you have identified the problem but it is not capitalism, it is 'credit-ism.'  A necessary plank of communism is a central bank that prints up the currency for the nation — it is backed by nothing other than promises.  Most of the Western world adopted central banking in the early 1900's and eventually replaced gold and silver as money.  Federal Reserve Notes are interest-bearing commercial paper that are borrowed into existence and are destroyed when the promise has been paid.  Unlike gold which is 'capital,' this fiat paper money is 'debt.'  In this system rather than people's savings being backed by real capital, the money we have is holding someone else's debt.  This allows governments to 'borrow' (i.e. create) loads of money, the interest of which is to be paid via income taxes (that's THE reason income tax was introduced, it did not exist before).

As a result, all governments have been turned into banking houses, all votes are to determine from whom to take and to whom to give.  The process itself makes the bankers the rulers of the world.  Learn about the creation and destruction of money and capital.  The word capitalism was not in common usage until it was defined as the enemy of communism.  It has since become the boogeyman to all communists. 

What people do not realize is that communism/socialism are totalitarian — the only limits to the power of authorities is that which they can seize.  They want no competition?  Game over!  The people have lost the game and all are subject to cleaning the stadium.

Absolutely!!  Thank you!

Again, this has never been realized in any communist country.  You cannot control the human desire to be self-determining.  Communism kills all spirituality — it is soulless.  Questions like 'who am I' and 'why am I here' are answered for me.  There is no truth other than what they say it is.  Communism is a prison for all.

Right on, Warren!

It takes courage to speak the truth because of the consequences of revealing the lie.  A power structure founded upon lies must ever prop up itself — if the truth is known, it all falls apart.

Yep!

An armed citizenry is the check against government power.  The power of arms rest with the People first, they charter a government to protect their rights from violation, particularly by government officers and employees.  No one can be trusted with absolute power, that is why power remains distributed and not to be centralized.  

It is a poor declaration, leaving room for legislation to determine the 'lawful' uses, and thus also the 'unlawful' uses.

There should be no question about the intent of this declaration.  I would like to suggest amending the Bill of Rights' 2nd Amendment to include this verbiage!

Denise is right.  Concealing a weapon when you can carry openly implies deception.  While the rights of humankind are inalienable, the Constitutions charter the power of the State, and if the legislature puts in a restriction of carrying concealed arms, it becomes the law of the land, whether in accordance with natural right or not.

The same issues are before us today as 2000 years ago — the truth remains the same.

Absolutely!