The Stealth Dangers of Our Soft Despotism and What You Can Do to Fight Back

Alexis de Tocqueville warned of government usurping powers and curtailing liberties by a subtle, deceptive series of actions

“It covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence: it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.”

–Alexis de Tocqueville

French politician and historian Alexis de Tocqueville introduced the concept of “soft despotism” in his 1835 book, “Democracy in America.” Soft despotism refers to a situation where a government, while appearing to be benevolent and democratic, gradually erodes individual liberties, making citizens increasingly dependent on the state. This leads to a loss of autonomy and a weakening of civil society.

Does any of this sound familiar?

De Tocqueville, like many of our nation’s founders, knew from recorded history that many governments, even when established with the best intentions, over time slide toward tyranny. This is especially true for a straight democracy based on majority rule, especially if a slim majority becomes vindictive, weaponized, unjust, or immoral. After traveling through America on an exploratory mission, de Tocqueville saw a unique danger in the novel experiment of the constitutional republic our founding fathers had constructed and promised.

Rather than outright enslavement or directed military campaigns against citizens that violate government tenets, he saw a potential for a “soft despotism” that might use deceptive tactics to chip away at liberties and weakening individual freedoms under a facade of (taxpayer-funded) “government programs to help others” or with benevolently titled acts of overreaching legislation. Who wouldn’t support the Affordable Care Act or the Patriot Act – especially when the government’s most complicit tool, the globalist-owned media, bombards us with state-approved propaganda or contrived distractions designed to prevent thorough examinations and public debate of laws before they are passed, or spending bills before they are deployed?

De Tocqueville believed that citizens might voluntarily surrender their freedoms to an all-powerful government in exchange for material comfort, convenience, or the promise of security, ultimately leading to a loss of political liberty and individual autonomy. Had he watched the slow drip over decades, then the full-on storm that slammed ashore in America during and after the Covid operation, I’m sure he would be flabbergasted at how closely our reality matches his prediction.

We the people must stop getting caught up in the newest manufactured chaos or hysteria at the insistence of the intel-run media and captured political actors. We need to gain our own equilibrium, assess what we are hearing and seeing, and trust our God-given intuition more than ever in the face of obvious subversion and outright, manipulative lies.

But these complicit voices always leave out the most important aspect of all: we the people, individually and united, still do have the true power! The soft despotism being carried out by a group of globalist oligarchs and their public-private partnership, self-anointed stakeholders – that seem to be running as if they are a parent company above the government and our nation – can be defeated if we the people are honest with ourselves and each other about where we are and how we got here. We were lulled into complacency, apathy, or just exhaustion by any number of crises or life itself, and forgot to heed the warning that eternal vigilance and civic engagement were mandatory if we wanted to keep the Republic intact.

The great news is larger numbers of people are realizing that we are purposely being divided, instigated to fight each other, and given fake issues on which to pick sides in order to make it impossible to see that we all share a real, common enemy. That enemy is threatening the freedom, privacy, and sovereignty of every citizen of the United States and beyond, equally regardless of race, class, religion, or any other grouping.

Power for power’s sake over everything is their end goal, and they’re no longer trying to hide it. In conferences and public documents, this supranational class of billionaire bankers and their ilk publicize their plans to consolidate all natural resources, wealth, surveillance, control, truth, justice, and power. The only thing stopping them is the same thing they truly need to achieve their “sustainable global goals:” a willing 8 billion individual humans to break down from the organized chaos, give up in exasperation, and surrender to their will; walking ourselves into the digital, totalitarian-surveillance gulag, where we will be unable to escape their utopian dystopia. The audacity is jarring!

When you study this as much as I have, read their own documents and websites, watch their videos from Davos or COP conferences or any of the other lavish planning events they promote, and investigate their motives and plans in depth, it all becomes rather outlandish and absurd. Who anointed these people? They have no position or authority beyond their own insistence. It is all based on the premise that people are weak, easily manipulated, disposable, and need to be managed or eliminated in order to achieve the vision that they tell each other is theirs to create. It's not. How audacious and ridiculous.

Once you dig in and inform yourself by using their own sources, it becomes empowering beyond belief. You can decipher their newspeak and upside-down use of language immediately. You question their fake fact-checkers and ridiculous, controlled search results and “trusted” news sources like it’s a game. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it, and at this point in history, billions of people from America to Europe to Asia to Africa and beyond are seeing it clearly. They’re not going to take it anymore. People are stepping up and getting involved everywhere you look.

I often say they are not after America; they are after the world, and America is in the way. Namely the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and the people of this country who are endowed by our creator with not only inalienable rights, but with a kick-ass spirit ingrained in our DNA that loathes bullies and values strength, honor, and dignity. Embrace this moment in time as a catalyst to be your best, most empowered, and most purposeful self; engaging in the cause of freedom against soft despotism and creeping totalitarianism everywhere you see it! What a time to be alive!

Commit today to get educated and actively involved in your community’s political landscape, or find an area you are passionate about where soft despotism is rearing its head and find your voice and purpose to become a force for positive change in that area. Stand up for every individual’s rights and fundamental freedoms. Freedom of speech, religion, self-defense, and association are not to be infringed, and if they are you can be the beacon of light that stands in the way.

Invest in regularly exercising your own oversight of your local government’s activities online or in person, and actively support measures and legislation that restrict your local government's ability to encroach on personal liberties or infest your community with unconstitutional surveillance. Fight for government transparency and the separation of powers, investigate and publicize any attempt at obfuscation, and find like-minded folks to create a network of knowledge around you.

Once you engage on the path towards individual sovereignty, decentralization, auto-determination, independence, and liberty the brushfires of freedom begin to burn all around you. Light them brightly and boldly, and let them inspire you towards a better future for yourself, your family, and for all of us who share the dream of a more perfect union ahead!