Questioning authority isn’t radical. Blind obedience to authority is.
Nearly every brutal, backwards regime in history shares the same origin story: crowds of people convinced that this government, this leader, was the one worth trusting without question. The moderate position isn’t blind trust. It’s electing a government, holding it accountable to the letter of the law, voting in a new one when it fails, and repeating that forever. None of them ever earns a free pass, especially not in America.
The American system is built on distrust of government, not faith in it. The founders wrote in checks and balances to limit government power. They added an amendment securing the right to bear arms specifically so citizens could defend themselves against tyranny if it came to that. Benjamin Franklin’s famous line, often trimmed down from a longer original, asks who exactly you’re trading your freedom to when you trade it for safety. The answer is always the government.
The founders warned about concentrated power: central banking, corporate monopolies, the military-industrial complex. Decades of misinformation and propaganda have let all three take root, not just in America but globally. Pushing back against that isn’t fringe behavior. It’s sensible. It’s moderate. It’s patriotic.
What’s actually radical is believing that, despite every precedent in human history, surrendering your freedom, your power, and your obedience to one uniquely trustworthy authoritarian leader will finally work out. It never has.
Be a moderate. Question everything.