Freedom Requires Responsibility (And Other Uncomfortable Truths)
We’ve reached a bizarre moment in American culture where saying freedom comes with responsibility is treated as cruelty, and expecting people not to shit on public sidewalks is somehow controversial. This isn’t about lacking compassion. It’s about refusing to lie to ourselves about personal agency, work, and the choices that shape a life. Responsibility isn’t oppression. It’s the price of dignity.
When Did Dignity Become a GoFundMe?
I grew up poor in farm country Minnesota, back when dignity mattered more than comfort and work was how you solved your own problems. You didn’t crowdfund hardship. You handled it. Somewhere along the way, that changed. Now every setback comes with a digital tip jar, and we call it community instead of what it really is: the quiet death of personal responsibility. This isn’t about cruelty. It’s about what we lost when work ethic gave way to electronic begging, and why that should scare the hell out of us.
America Has a Freedom Problem (And We’re Yelling at the Wrong Things)
America has an anger problem. Not because we lack things to be angry about, but because we keep choosing the wrong ones.
Instead of confronting the slow erosion of individual liberty, we rage at abstractions: imaginary kings, trendy villains, and half-understood claims like “AI wastes water.” Meanwhile, the real machinery that limits freedom hums along quietly in the background, unchallenged and largely unnoticed.
This isn’t activism. It’s distraction.