Fresh Tomatoes

Opportunities for grifters, liars and narcissists in the "Freedom Movement"

They come scurrying out from every direction. Many times, you’ll hear them in the walls at night, or only see leftovers of their work as evidence of their presence.

The chaotic and emotionally charged environment of the ‘Freedom Movement’ often described as some sort of organized, cohesive network of volunteer ‘freedom fighters’ is in reality, much more like an unregulated carnival than a functioning organization.

For every few dozen well intentioned souls that wanders here, there are some that aren’t well intentioned.

However, there are also those other tents.

Like any carnival, some of the games and attractions are excellent. They can be a lot of fun, produce great memories and be a rewarding experience for those that participate. The showrunners, organizers and employees take genuine pride and care in their work.

However, there are also those other tents.

The shoddily constructed patchwork assembly of bells, whistles, noises and a lanky unshaven fellow that makes everyone feel uncomfortable as he chain smokes cigarettes into the faces of young children.

We live in the age of narcissism, and these are not your ‘freedom fighters’, civil rights advocates or activists of old.

There's social capital to be had as attention and clout in the form of clicks, views, shares and mentions dominates the new online economy. A ‘social influencer’ with a significant following can pull a decent living or even a great one. Like any con artist or fraud - wherever money is trading hands, you will find them. They seek it out like a hungry dog.

So it goes.

For example you can look to the ‘Qanon’ alternate reality that is absolutely polluted with ‘Q decoders’ and other self described grandiose wizard authorities on the true nature of reality. They know the truth and are just trying to help! That they’ve sold millions in merchandising is simply an unexpected side effect. Apparently. “Queen” Romana Didulo who characterized herself as the true ruler of Canada for a time (before upgrading to Ruler of the World) had her followers financing an RV and her trips around the country to ‘speak to her people’.

Her preposterous fantasy world was being subsidized by gullible and desperate people all over the country, before eventually running out of funding and having her property seized.

God save the Queen!

She may be one of the more successful, but she is far from the only case of ‘savior of the world’ messiah complex to be found.

Most if not nearly all of these characters, despicably, know what they are doing. They know they have no real solutions. They know, that there is no magic bullet, secret treaty, loophole in the magna carta or shadow army of do-gooders waiting in the hills and the trees that will at the very last moment, come riding out on horses and save us all from the bad guys! If only you would just believe!

And send money.

I thought Scientology had cornered the market on this, but I was wrong.

I figured out the Santa Claus scam when I was 9, so I’m skeptical.

Sometimes there is no money involved. The currency those people seek is social clout and attention. For a people as divided as we are, and with many more desperate and frightened - someone appearing confident and convincing with all the answers is a tantalizing prospect.

A prospect that would otherwise have been laughed out of the room in any other time period or circumstance.

In some other more rare cases, some folks are quite honestly just screwing with people for their own amusement. This is all just off the top of the cake, before you even dig in and find out there’s also meddling and interference by Federal agencies to make sure things stay as chaotic, distrustful, outlandish and carnival like as possible.

It’s difficult to rally an effective citizens resistance when many of the figureheads open their positions by adamantly declaring birds aren’t real, the President is a cyborg, European history is all a psy-op and anyone that seems reasonable or balanced works for the illuminati-CIA reptile division (it’s new).

Maybe all of that is true, but how does that help my neighbor Gary pay for the runaway cost of living that’s strangling his wife and family? Is furiously arguing the concept of the earth being flat and breaking up friendships helping bring a real investigation in the 9/11 attacks or the Emergency Measures Act ?

They don’t.

The sad truth is that these efforts and energies being expended are, at their core, a self serving ego masturbation to feel important with little or no regard given to how this could possibly have a positive effect on someone.

This isn’t an indictment of any one person or group specifically.

Besides Romana - she remains a prisoner of Diagolon and serving an ‘until death’ sentence in the dungeon of ‘Billy Bob’s Bigot Bunker Built Back Better By Bigots for Based Beatings and Bashings’.

Rather, it needs to be acknowledged and understood at the greater ‘movement’ level, that these people exist and need to be exposed. Letting weeds fester in your garden will ultimately result in your fruit bearing plants being strangled to death by useless, self serving crabgrass.

The next time someone approaches your rally, networking event, community group or even your doorstep with the typical “You need to listen to me!” sales pitch, ask yourself “Do I need to listen to them? Or do they need me to listen to them?”

In just my humble opinion based on the years I’ve spent incarcerated inside this cartoon comedy carnival;

Those who have their hearts in the right place will embark on their own to do what they feel is right with no expectation of assistance, accolades, money, social clout or rewards. Often times, it’s expected the opposite will occur. Job losses, reputations destroyed, social circles and connections severed and potentially financial and legal trouble. But they do it anyway, because it’s what must be done.

If successful, their reputation, work and quality of the people around them will stand on its own.

Juxtapose this with those would demand the platform created through hard work and suffering of those mentioned above, demand access, demand you not support this or that. It’s a feeble, childish attempt to climb a social ladder the easy way. All the while doing little, and risking even less for what they ‘believe in’. A version of an entitled child, inheriting Daddy’s company, running it into the ground and then blaming the employees, previous owners and everyone but themselves.

Do you see the difference?

This isn’t about helping the needs of others, but satiating the needs of themselves. If their outwardly attested goal is to ‘help’, you should feel helped.

Look to their deeds, not their words.

Grifters (snake oil salesmen), liars and narcissists are weeds that must be pulled. The hard, uncomfortable dirty work of tending the garden must be pursued if we are to ever have a hope in hell of eating a fresh tomato one day.

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- For Rocky \\\