Whenever a government creates a whole new category of crimes, you know it isn't about the action being criminalized; it's about the control. In her work "Atlas Shrugged," Ayn Rand (who grew up in the Soviet Union and knew all too well of what she wrote) laid out how it works very plainly in a conversation between steelmaker Henry Reardon and a government agent, Dr. Floyd Ferris:
“Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with.”
Among the various governments of the world's nebulous, ill-defined NewCrimes are "climate crimes," which neatly fit Dr. Floyd Ferris's description of laws that "...can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted." And it's gone international.
- In jolly old England, “property owners who don’t comply with new energy rules may face prison,” says the London Telegraph. “Ministers want to grant powers to create new criminal offenses and increase penalties as part of efforts to hit net zero targets,” the Telegraph continues. “Under the proposals, people who fall foul of regulations to reduce their energy consumption could face up to a year in prison and fines of up to” nearly $19,000 in U.S. dollars.
- Three guest authors writing in CarbonBrief about “climate misinformation” said that justice for those who dare challenge the global warming narrative includes “bringing in a correction or a collaborative approach after the misinformation has been received, or even putting in place punishments, such as fines or imprisonment.”
- Then there’s England’s lunatic Guardian newspaper. One of its climate correspondents has suggested “financial penalties or prison time” for oil company executives for their “40 years of lying about climate change,” as well as “the propagandists they’ve employed and the politicians they’ve funded” who so far “have largely escaped blame.”
- The United Nations has wondered if “international criminal law” should “be used against those who promote this dangerous trend” of spreading “climate denial.”
Of those four, mind you, three of them propose to penalize people for saying the wrong thing - in a word, Wrongthink. In this field of discourse, dissent is not only not patriotic but must be suppressed at all costs.
The implications of this are huge. People could, literally, be jailed for expressing an opinion. Formerly free nations would be required to stand up to a Disinformation Police, who would monitor, presumably, all of our utterances online and off and summon people before some kind of Disinformation Court to defend themselves - a sort of Inquisition, one might say, which nobody was expecting.
There is precedent. The Biden Administration is trying to regulate appliances, activists are deriding houseplants of all things, and things are bound to keep getting more and more ridiculous. This isn't about the climate; it's about control. It's always about control.
See Related: Biden Tries to Slip New Eco Regs Targeting Fridges, Freezers Past Us on Holiday Weekend
'Stop Doom-Mongering': WaPo Climate Alarmist Ridiculously Claims House Plants Are Bad for the Planet
None of these things will apply to the elites, of course. They will retain their private jets, their yachts, and their filet mignon with spotted owl appetizers. And it’s not the climate they are pushing for – it’s power, the power to control what the hoi polloi say and do, and that’s for sure and for certain. The foot soldiers of the climate movement are loud, loutish, and annoying. But the leaders – many of them – wield power, and it is their agenda on which we must stay appraised. Ayn Rand saw it coming. We are seeing it arrive.
That, of course, is the key. Liberty depends on an informed public, aware of what is going on, and on the free exchange of ideas. You don't defeat bad ideas with suppression; you defeat them with good ideas, and liberty is always the best idea. Whether we are talking about the climate, guns, speech, or anything else, we can never go wrong defaulting to liberty. The legacy media is on the side of those who would control; fortunately, there are alternatives. You're reading one of those alternatives now.
See Related: Journalism for Sale: The Associated Press Tried to Hide Its Largest Climate Change Donor
As for the climate: as always, I'll start believing there's a climate crisis when the people who keep telling me there's a climate crisis start acting like there's a climate crisis.
