One of the few things that I think we can all agree on is that we live in a contentious world. There are really only two ways to address and resolve contention: reason or power. Speech or the sword. Brains or bullets. Both occur in an arena, though for speech it is found at tables, on stages and under tents.

In the realm of reason, we duel with ideas and fight with facts, logic, feelings and opinions. The referee is truth, and the reward is spectators with minds that are changed.

Power is subject to none of those bounds. It is the bully that tells you how you will live, what you will do, and what you will think. The only thing that power fears is reason and the only thing that can truly stop reason is power.

Totalitarian countries are built on a lack of speech and thought because those

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