What is a Tyrant?

It doesn't take much

I am new here. I know that people have recognized tyranny for far longer than I have. I finally saw it in 2020, when it came into my awareness that those on the left, were not interested in free speech or democracy, despite their saying many times that they were.

You know how they say, “of course I am for free speech, but “hate” speech is not free speech” I fell for this trick. I self censored for many years under the illusion that it was a fair thing to say that, there was no objection to free speech but that we must call out “hate” speech. Of course I still self censor to this day, but nowadays this is more about fear, than about me trying to be a good “ally.”

But what is this post about? It is about the definition of the word tyrant. A tyrant can take any shape or form. You do not have to a position of power to be a tyrant. Anyone can do it. Actually, just take a moment, and consider this: Have you ever been a tyrant? I know that I have and I can remember being a tyrant, not even a long time ago.

Here is my story of when I was a tyrant. I was visiting my family in September of 2023, and I was trying to convince my brother that he must get the Substack app, and subscribe to my Substack, and like and comment on my Substack. I was feeling rather desperate that I needed people to see my message. I felt it was so important that people would see my message and without the assistance of my brother, in that moment, it would never happen.

I was being irrational. He was being very resistant to my requests. It only made me more angry and irrational. “Don’t you understand? I am being shadow banned! I need your help.” Needless to say my tyrannical abuse most likely backfired as you cannot force someone to do something that they don’t want to do. And in fact it appears that the more you push someone to do something they don’t want to do, the more that they resist doing it.

In the definition of tyrant is the word authority. So by my own translation, if you come to the conclusion that you are right about something, therefore you then have some kind of authority to speak about it, such as “I am being shadow banned, and people need to hear my message.” And then if you become cruel or harsh in your conviction, you are being a tyrant.

So I do find it funny that throughout our Covid crisis, people continue to insist that there is or was no tyranny, or that the governments in Canada are not or were not tyrannical. Of course there is tyranny. People were propagandized to such a degree that they became tyrants within their own families. Families are still torn apart by this tyranny. People insisted that everyone must take the thing that did not protect the protected unless the unprotected took the thing that didn’t protect the protected.

This is tyranny. And I see the harm and the sadness of it. I want to be less of a tyrant if I can. But it takes a lot of rehabilitation to do it. I have to say though, it is quite a sight to see that those who claim to be compassionate, not recognizing within their own movement, how tyrannical and cruel it has become.