THE DEVIL’S BARGAIN: Are You Willing to Give up Liberty for Safety?
Judge Napolitano noted that Benjamin Franklin is famous for saying, 'Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.'
Gerald Celente and Judge Andrew Napolitano held their “Celente and the Judge” YouTube broadcast on Wednesday and spoke about how the American public is often told that they must give up their own personal liberties to remain safe under the blanket of the King and his government.
The U.S. says the Chinese government is going to spy on us. Nobody spies on us like the U.S. government. They [Washington] want the algorithm from TikTok so they can use it against us.
Napolitano told Celente that, in response to colonists opposed to seceding from England, Benjamin Franklin famously said, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Napolitano said we recently saw how Americans were willing to give up their freedoms during the COVID-19 lockdowns. These Americans were willing to wear masks, close down businesses, and take unproven vaccines.
Napolitano, in his recent column, wrote that Franklin used the one-liner to embarrass folks into supporting his view.
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“The king's government officials argued that in return for their subjugation — they used the euphemism "loyalty" — the colonists would be kept safe. Safe from the agitators among them — like Franklin,” Napolitano wrote.
NAPOLITANO ON LOCKDOWNS: How did the government get away with it? Because the people let them. Because the people like sheep, surrendered their liberty in return for the promise of temporary safety.
TikTok
Napolitano also noted that the popular video app is in a clash with the U.S. government over providing its algorithms due to Washington’s belief that the Chinese company, ByteDance, poses a national security threat in the U.S.
The judge said Forbes has been the only major U.S. media company reporting on the legal battle. Forbes wrote last week that the company is trying to finalize a settlement with the U.S. that could result in Washington having “near unfettered access to internal TikTok information and unprecedented control over essential functions that it does not have over any other major free speech platform.”
NAPOLITANO: It’s like the government knocking on your door saying, ‘Give me all of the codes to all of your electronic devices. Why would anybody do that? Because the government is threatening to shut TikTok down. Why? You guessed it. In the name of safety. The government wants to keep us safe from TikTok. The U.S. says the Chinese government is going to spy on us. Nobody spies on us like the U.S. government. They [Washington] want the algorithm from TikTok so they can use it against us.
Convenience is the enemy of freedom.
Many will trade freedom for convenience 9/10 times.
This is the challenge for those that value being left alone - the majority often ruin it for the minority.