Thread by @GREENESJ333

Roger Froikin @rlefraim wrote,
"AMERICANS LIKE TO LOOK TO THE BILL OF RIGHTS, THE 10 AMENDMENTS TO THE US CONSTITUTION AS THE GREATEST PROTECTION OF LIBERTY,....
1)

But it only works as that protection if it is read and understood, and to really understand it, one needs to look back at what its authors intended.
2)

A. The Bill of Rights states as a fact that these are rights that are the property of the people, individually. They are not rights granted by Government or allowed by the powerful.
3)

They are the natural rights of every human being that Government or some class of people cannot restrict or remove.
4)

B. The Bill of Rights, in effect, defines democracy because it protects dissent. Majority opinions do not need protection. Minority opinions need protection from the power of the majority.
5)

When a politician tells you that “everyone knows”, or “everyone thinks”, or “everyone agrees” that politician is trying to coerce you to believe something or think something, to conform to what he or she says the majority thinks.
6)

He or she is doing this to control you, to diminish your opinion in favor of conformity to those in power.
7)

But the Bill of Rights tells you that you can speak what you wish, publish what you wish, believe in and practice a religion that you choose, and associate with whomever you want.
8)

The Bill of Rights protects dissent, and that right to dissent is the basis of any real democracy.
9)

That does not mean there should be chaos. What it does mean is that open and free discussion, debate, reasoning with one another is the way to deal with issues — not coercion, not force, and not mind games to get conformity.
10)

C. And finally the Bill of Rights, in the 10th Amendment, tells us that the Federal Government needs to be limited and a function of the will of the people as expressed through their local states.
11)

Read the Bill of Rights. Understand that these are not limits on you. They are limits on the powerful."
12)

@threader_app compile