Chelsea Manning went to hell and back, and while the most logical response would be to hate the devil, that isn’t what she’s leading us to believe. Her case is still controversial to many Americans, since it goes against the ingrained sense of patriotism most of them seem to display at some point in their lives. By leaking confidential documents (known as the “war diaries”) to Wikileaks back in 2013, she was sentenced to 35 years of confinement for committing violations under the Espionage Act of 1917. President Obama conceded her a commutation as his last duty in office, a victory celebrated by millions of people around the world, including basically all self-identified libertarians. Now she enjoys her freedom, which includes random rants on Twitter and posts on Instagram, although at the same time she unveils thoughts that go against some of the most basic notions and pillars of liberty.
For the last days she has been tweeting over a wide range of subjects, from immigration (she’s pro open-borders) to health care (she’s in favour of a single-payer health-care system). The first amendment guarantees her right to free-speech, which no one can take for granted, specially in a time of recurrent attempts to subvert and to reprimand it across college campi. But some of her statements are highly overestimated and simply don’t match reality.
When she says “maybe we can start with things like getting ourselves an expansive #singlepayer #healthcare and just plain being nice to each other?” she ignores the harsh criticism on government-subsidized healthcare plans and facilities’ infrastructure. By spreading misinformation, she helps to redirect the narrative in favour of worse reforms which will only fit the socialists’ most intimate (and delusional) desires. The best remedy for all countries’ health care crises is not increasing government intervention, but increasing the influence of the patient instead. When the power to manage people’s lives is in the hands of bureaucrats (most of them unaware of real necessities and demands) instead of doctors and the patients themselves, what we see and experience is a sad common reality: “waiting lines, rationing, lack of cutting-edge medical technology, restricted access to the latest prescription drugs and inequitable distribution of care”. There is no easy and permanent way out of the situation the US finds itself today, but extending or even keeping Obamacare as it is certainly won’t help.
Chelsea goes on and shifts her thoughts to taxation. One basic premise of libertarianism as political philosophy is to condemn the initiation of force against one’s life and private property. Because of this premise, many libertarians see taxation as a form of theft: in order to stay in place, the state owns the monopoly on violence. In order to sustain politicians, bureaucrats and public servants of all types and from all areas, the population’s pockets are constantly empitied without a single hint of mercy. To affirm “taxation is a sharing of responsibility (…) only the wealthy believe that taxation is theft (…) they dont pay taxes (…) we should make them” and “its not socialism – its just common sense” is exemplified blatant ignorance.
She completely diminishes the consequences of increasing taxation and misses the point of moral wrongfulness. Most wealthy people are responsible for the jobs of thousands of others (just think about Bill Gates and Microsoft), and have the power to change their companies and their families of place at any time. Instead of forcing wealthy redistribution through government imposition, what about to lower its power, to end most bureaucracies which block the poor from becoming entrepreneurs? Sorry to break it to you Chelsea, but “we are threatened by force to participate in wage labor every day” isn’t true. Literally no one is going to your house to point a gun to your head or threaten to lock you up because you refuse to work. Although if one refuses to pay one’s taxes, all of those situations are likely to occur at some degree. Retweeting “taxation isn’t theft. It’s your membership fee for citizenship” is to comply with violence, is to justify the apparent unquestionable use of force, the force that put you in prison four years ago.
Chelsea should keep in mind we doubted the law used against her, and some of us didn’t try, not even for a second, to accept or rationalize what was imposed by the government 100 years back. Ironically, the most common excuse used to increase taxation is war, something that Manning knows a lot about, after all it was from where she got all the information leaked to Wikileaks (which resulted in zero casualties, according to reports). “We need to dismantle the military/police state, with its walls and borders and replace it with healthcare and infrastructure for all” seems like a good idea to start a freer society, but a better idea would be to A) lower taxation – so the state wouldn’t be able to fund itself – and B) to lower the current barriers blocking economic development – so all people would have viable conditions to grow and sustain their own lives.
Edward Snowden is exiled in Russia for doing the same thing Chelsea did: for exposing the corruption and villainies of an administration so trapped in itself is almost impossible to dismantle. But unlike Snowden, who’s a fervorous lover of liberty, Manning seems to forget that the more power you give to the government, the more we all suffer. We have the capacity to kill a monster by starvation and by joining forces, regardless of the amount of time it might take. The state is our capturer, and to fall in love with it is to condemn ourselves to imprisonment.
You had a taste of it Chelsea, do not wish to go back there.
Picture: YouTube ABC News
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