#dissent

Down through the centuries, this trick has been tried by various establishments throughout the world. They force people to get involved in the kind of examination that has only one aim and that is to stamp out dissent. ↗

— Pete Seeger

#been #centuries #dissent #down #establishments

Some of my ancestors were religious dissenters who came to America over three hundred years ago. Others were abolitionists in New England in the eighteen forties and fifties. ↗

— Pete Seeger

#ago #america #ancestors #came #dissenters

Free societies are societies in which the right of dissent is protected. ↗

— Natan Sharansky

#free #free societies #protected #right #societies

Will dissent be permitted? The answer to that question will determine whether the society is a free society or a fear society. ↗

— Natan Sharansky

#determine #dissent #fear #free #free society

If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity. ↗

— Albert Einstein

#activism #consent #dissent #duty #protest

People know when they are being lied to, they know when their rulers are absurd, they know they do not love their chains. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#freethought #love

Beginning with Santa Claus as a cognitive exercise, a child is encouraged to share the same idea of reality as his peers. Even if that reality is patently invented and ludicrous, belief is encouraged with gifts that support and promote the common cultural lies. The greatest consensus in modern society is our traffic systems. The way a flood of strangers can interact, sharing a path, almost all of them traveling without incident. It only takes one dissenting driver to create anarchy. ↗

— Chuck Palahniuk

#conditioning #dissent #santa #anarchy

In an average day, you may well be confronted with some species of bullying or bigotry, or some ill-phrased appeal to the general will, or some petty abuse of authority. If you have a political loyalty, you may be offered a shady reason for agreeing to a lie or a half-truth that serves some short-term purpose. Everybody devises tactics for getting through such moments; try behaving "as if" they need not be tolerated and are not inevitable. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#freethought #philosophy #bullying

I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions. ↗

— George Carlin

#freedom-of-thought #humor #patriotism #freedom

If poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, science fiction writers are its court jesters. We are Wise Fools who can leap, caper, utter prophecies, and scratch ourselves in public. We can play with Big Ideas because the garish motley of our pulp origins make us seem harmless. ↗

— Bruce Sterling

#inspirational #science-fiction #inspirational