#dissent

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

If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking. ↗

— Benjamin Franklin

#freedom-of-thought #individuality #freedom

Freiheit ist immer die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden Freedom is always, and exclusively, freedom for the one who thinks differently. ↗

— Rosa Luxemburg

#dissent #free-expression #freedom #radical #rebel

Proclaim the truth and do not be silent through fear. ↗

— St. Catherine of Siena

#fear #freedom-of-speech #truth #truth-telling #freedom

If you believe in your heart that you are right, then you must fight with all your might to do it your way. Only dead fish swim with the stream all the time. ↗

— Linda Ellerbee

#inspiration #self-expression #inspirational