The "State People" Lied!

Last week, Ian Freeman of the Free Keeners announced that he was declaring his house in Keene a parsonage, therefore it is now exempt from taxes. He's also claiming to be a minister in the Church of the Shire. (aka the The Church of the Free Ride.) 

Free Keeners Wendy French and Darryl Perry  (Perry for President 2016), and Ian Freeman are claiming they are ministers of an interfaith church. There doesn't appear to be an actual brick and mortar church, but there is a house, owned by Ian Freeman. A  house that they don't want to pay property taxes on, so they've come up with this rather obvious tax dodge. 

This is manna from interfaith heaven for me - since I've long referred to the Free State Project as a cult. The Church of the Free Loaders has provided me with some significant justification for that claim. 

But wait - there's more! Ian Freeman has written about the spiritual journey he went on - the transformation from atheist to minister.

It's a compelling tale of a "gifted" boy from a middle class family, who realized after he started smoking pot that "those people who called themselves the state" had lied to him. Yup, they told him that "cops with weapons" would come and arrest him if he smoked pot. They lied. 

They lied to him about everything. He was miffed:

When I moved, I was still really angry at the state people.  They’d lied and lied.  Some would kill and hurt peaceful people every day here and around the globe.  I had thoughts frequently about taking them out before they take me out – that kind of violent fantasy.

I don’t think that way anymore.  I found peace.  Why and how?

I was scared.  The state people are dangerous and their belief system justifies endless aggression without any real responsibility.  They have guns and cages and aren’t afraid to use them.  Fear can lead to anger and anger to violence, especially if one feels cornered and alone, as I did in Florida, where there were few activists and no hope for liberty-oriented change.

Oh, he was angry, he was scared. The big bad STATE PEOPLE didn't want "liberty oriented change."  AND, they have guns and they're big meanies!

This reads like the diary of a pimply faced teenaged boy who was endlessly indulged by Mommy and Daddy. A boy who had all the time in the world to spend listening to Rush and reading Atlas Shrugged. And like most of the disaffected white boys who fall for libertarianism, he's never grown out of it. 

Anyone can call themselves a minister. But standing in a garage doesn't make you a car, any more than claiming to live in a parsonage makes you a minister. Ian may be setting himself up for some sort of martyrdom. (like Ed and Elaine Brown.) It's an interesting choice, given how hard the Free State Project has attempted to promote themselves as having some level of mainstream appeal. 

Bottom line - Ian's willing to say anything to get out of paying taxes. He, like all the FreeLoaders, wants to enjoy the amenities of a civilized society (roads, bridges, public water and sewer) but he doesn't want to pay for them. He especially doesn't want to pay for schools. Those "STATE schools" are bad places. Children should be homeschooled or even unschooled: the movement that allows kids to learn whatever they want when they decide to. 

In the Randian utopia of the future, everyone will only have to do things they want to do and pay for the things they want to pay for. 


“All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.” JM Barrie, Peter Pan