I've never cottoned to the idea of "New Year's resolutions." I reckon that if you have to resolve to do something you weren't already doing, then you probably still won't do it. Oh, you might try to keep the resolution for a while, but the long-term success rates for keeping such resolutions are down there with the success rate of Kamala Harris trying to sound thoughtful and intelligent. No, most people, myself included, are creatures of habit, and habits are hard to break.
As it happens, though, I do have a list of things I already do, will continue to do, and will not give up no matter how many leftist scolds wag their fingers at me. For example:
I will not give up my guns. (See photo above.) I simply won't; I'm at the point in my life now where, if some future, radical left government insists I hand them in, I'm willing to tell them, "Yeah, come and get them." I do not trust any government that does not trust me with firearms, and I'm willing to take that principle all the way, in the event it should be required; and I have lots of company. If anyone tries to disarm me at this point, I will give them the ammo first.
I will not give up my rural Alaska home. Oh, I suppose there may come a time when age and decrepitude force a move back to the lower 48, where our kids all live. Locals hereabouts will know when that happens because of the long grooves in the pavement of the Parks Highway that my fingernails leave when they drag me out. But there are climate scolds and others who rail against my presence here; they don't like our wood stove, our big four-wheel-drive truck, our ATVs, the necessity of driving 30 miles to get groceries. They can shut up; I'm staying in Alaska. Nobody's helping me to pay for that truck or the gas to drive back and forth, so it's nobody else's business.
I will not give up my understanding of basic biology. There are two sexes. Barring a few very rare genetic abnormalities that can lead to sexual ambiguities, every human has either XX or XY sex chromosomes, and if you have XX, you are a woman; if you have XY, you are a man. You can claim to "identify" as a pumpernickel bagel for all I care about, but you can't change biology. Oh, I'm big on minding my own business and don't really care what people do, so long as they leave me alone; but don't expect me to cater to it. I won't give my pronouns, I won't "celebrate" your lifestyle. I don't give one ounce of rat's droppings about your lifestyle. I don't expect you to give one ounce of rat's droppings about my lifestyle. Leave me alone. I'll leave you alone. We'll get along just fine.
I will not give up my pride in my heritage. I'm an American, above and beyond anything else, but my ethnic background is from the British Isles - Scotland, Ireland, and England - and Germany. The English-speaking people have done more to spread civilization around the world than any other group of people; these are facts. I'm proud of that heritage, and I won't stop being proud of it.
I will not surrender my right to say what I please, when I please, where I please. I live in a free-speech zone. It's called the United States of America. If you don't like what I have to say, don't listen; the First Amendment doesn't guarantee me an audience, any more than it does anyone else. The same applies in reverse; I will not mouth your slogans, cater to your hypersensitivities, or pay obedience to your neuroses.
I will not change my lifestyle to cater to the paranoia of climate scolds. I will not give up my truck or my ATVs. I will not eat bugs, I will not live in your 15-minute, rabbit-warren cities, and I will not stop eating steaks and cheeseburgers. Do those things if you like; I won't.
I will not surrender my autonomy. I am self-sufficient and will remain that way. I can hunt, I can catch fish, I can run a trapline. No matter what happens, I will not surrender that.
I will remain free. I will remain independent. I will remain a citizen, not a subject.
These things, for 2025, I can promise.
See Related: Poll: Things Are Looking Up for 2025—Unless You're a Democrat
The Evolution of New Year's Eve - A Look Back at How We Celebrated Then vs. Now
I'll add one more: I will not stop expressing my thoughts online. I'm fortunate to be able to express myself here at RedState, among a group of people who amaze and humble me every day with their dedication, intelligence, good sense, and talent. As long as the internet continues to function, I'll find an outlet. As long as the power stays on, I'll keep writing. And if the internet goes down and the power goes off, I'll go stand out in the road and shout my opinions to the birches and the black spruce. I will not be silenced.
Those, dear readers, are my anti-resolutions for 2025. Stay tuned, because, as one of my countrymen once famously said, I have not yet begun to fight.
