White supremacy, we are told, is the cause of the New Zealand massacre, and gun control is the solution. That’s what the statists are saying. Their response is entirely predictable. My only surprise is that no one, as far as I know, is attributing the shooting to hatred for New Zealand’s “freedom and values.”
What few are pointing to, not surprisingly, is the role of the U.S. Death Star in this massacre. That’s the last thing that is going to enter the mind of a statist. After all, the Death Star is massacring people in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Africa — all far away from New Zealand. How in the world can the Death Star’s massacres over there have anything to do with a massacre in New Zealand?
Equally important, to draw a link between the U.S. Death Star and the New Zealand massacre would imply a criticism of the Death Star and the operator of the Death Star, the U.S. national-security establishment, i.e., the Pentagon and the CIA. That is a verboten concept for a statist. No one is ever supposed to criticize the Pentagon, the CIA, or the NSA, especially not with respect to their efforts to keep us “safe” through their killings, bombings, torture, assassination, coups, sanctions, embargoes, invasions, occupations, support of dictatorships, and regime-change operations.
Ever since the 9/11 attacks, statists have emphasized that the United States and the Western world are being invaded by Muslims. The 9/11 attacks, they say, were prima facie evidence of this phenomenon. Terrorist attacks since then have supposedly provided additional proof that the Muslims are coming to get us as part of a centuries-old conspiracy to establish a worldwide caliphate that would include the United States.
The anti-Muslim mindset is essentially the same as the anti-communist mindset that the U.S. national-security establishment inculcated in the American people during the Cold War, when it was the Reds who were supposedly coming to get us as part of a worldwide communist conspiracy that was supposedly based in Moscow, Russia.
I cannot begin to describe the many emails and personal critiques I have received from statists ever since 9/11, especially whenever we here at FFF have pointed out that the 9/11 attacks were “blowback” for the U.S. government’s interventionist foreign policies. That’s not what statists wanted to hear. They wanted to hear that the terrorists hate us for our “freedom and values” and that U.S. foreign interventionism has nothing to do with it.
It wasn’t long before the “war on terrorism” morphed into the “war on Muslims,” especially since the people the Death Star have been shooting and bombing over there are predominantly Muslim. Countless times I have received emails from statists, both conservatives and progressives, saying that the Muslims are conspiring to invade our country to establish their worldwide caliphate, take over our public schools, force us to study and embrace Islam, and comply with Sharia law.
And it’s always phrased in the form of an “invasion” and “invaders,” just as statists are doing today with respect to illegal immigrants. In their minds, the illegal immigrants, like Muslims, are invading our land with the intent of conquering our nation, taking over the reins of the federal government, and bending us to their will.
There is something important to note about invasions and invaders. Under Invasion Law 101, people have a right to resist an unlawful invasion of their country by killing the invaders. For example, suppose North Korean troops suddenly invaded the United States. The U.S. government would respond by killing the invading force. But so would many well-armed private American citizens. That’s how people deal with invaders.
Over the years since the 9/11 attacks, I would respond to statists who referred to Muslims or illegal immigrants as invaders with some free legal advice. (I have a law degree and was a trial attorney for 12 years in Texas.) This is what I advise the statists who write me about the “invaders,” both Muslims and illegal immigrants:
Do not under any circumstances start shooting and killing these “invaders.” You will be charged with the criminal offense of murder. When you’re hauled into court to face the charges, the judge will not permit you to tell the jury that you are a patriot who was just defending your country from invaders. You will be convicted and punished as a common criminal.
Fortunately, as far as I know, all of the statists to whom I gave this free advice have followed it. I don’t know of any instances of where people I have given my free legal advice have gone out and started killing Muslim “invaders” or illegal-immigrant “invaders.”
But in every society, there are a few people whose minds are bit off-kilter. In their minds, they are convinced that their nation really is being invaded by a hostile force and that they are just doing their part to defend “freedom” by killing the invaders. In their minds, what they are doing is simply doing what U.S. forces are doing in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Africa and have been doing for the past 28 years — killing, injuring, maiming, and destroying people who are predominantly Muslim with invasions, occupations, sanctions, embargoes, coups, bombings, shootings, torture, rendition, and regime-change operations, with the same lack of remorse or regret for the victims of all this mayhem displayed by the initiators of the private massacres.
Empire and foreign interventionism. They are the U.S. Death Star’s “gifts” that just keep giving, especially in terms of endless death, destruction, misery, and suffering. The way to restore life to normal is by bringing an end to the Death Star and its perpetual killings.