I'm in exile
Nations routinely purge their talented and free thinking citizens. I'm one of them.
I have come to realize that I live in exile.
Nations tend to routinely purge their talented and free thinking citizens.
As an Spaniard, I'm familiar with many who exiled during Franco's dictatorship.
And recently many Americans have exiled during the 2017-25 crackdown on crypto.
The difference is that labeling the former as exile is easy. In hindsight, we all agree that exiling from European fascism made sense. But did the masses agree at the time? Not at all.
The masses looked at those in exile with hatred. *Traitors! Criminals who ran away!*
The few that dared to understand looked at them with envy — after all, not everyone had the means or courage to leave.
I myself didn't realize that I live in exile until recently. In fact almost my entire friend group lives in exile.
We would gladly live in Spain, if it weren’t turning into a Marxist dystopia.
Modern Spanish discourse revolves about "solidarity", blaming businessmen as the problem and claiming capitalism has failed — even though the country is a pinnacle of socialism.
Most democracies today are bureaucratic oligarchies in disguise.
That's why it's hard to pinpoint who is the cause of the exiles. There's no Franco, there's no Mussolini.
It's an entire class of politicians, public workers and "private" companies funded by the government. Nearly half of the voter base in Spain consists of pensioners or public workers.
That class is driving an entire other class of people to exile. The freethinkers, the productive and the families.
The freethinkers are in exile because they cannot tolerate the local propaganda rotting their brains. Even the ones with higher tolerance end up leaving, as the brain rot intensifies with no one remaining to vent to. Eventually there are not enough freethinkers to defend freedom of speech. Then free speech gets banned, prompting the last freethinkers to exile.
The productive are pragmatic. They look at the numbers. The brain rot and increasing taxes are numbers to them. They know they are bigger than them. They work and work and work. They get taxed and taxed and taxed, every year a percentage point higher. One day they wake up, and with the same resolve they apply to their work, they decide to leave.
The families care about both freethinking and productivity. Parents don't want the brain rot to get to their kids. They want their hard work to translate to better quality of life for their kids. They want to leave something meaningful behind.
In an ideal world, no one would need to exile the country that saw them grow.
But since circumstances are as they are, I propose a reframe:
We aren't expats shopping around. We are in exile.
The former is part of the brain rot. The bureaucratic oligarchy wants to turn everyone against you for leaving. They want to make it a thoughtcrime. And they are working hard to make it an actual crime (think exit taxes). They want to portray exiles as losers and deserters.
The exile is reality. It's guilt-free. It's even heroic. By standing up for noble ideals like freedom and private property, you are starving regimes that strangle the core pillars of progress: freethinking, productivity, and families.
Not all expats are in exile. Some wouldn't want to live in their country of origin. That's fine.
But to the class of citizens routinely vilified, robbed by the unproductive majority, and stripped of their freedom of movement (via exit taxes):
Yes, you are in the exile. You are doing nothing wrong. You are doing yourself and those around you a favor. The indoctrinated will never thank you. They will hate you, they will envy you.
You have now joined the great ranks of those who exiled, such as Dante, Voltaire or Snowden.
Enjoy the exile. Let them expropriate everything that remains and fight for its scraps.
Become strong. If you have kids, raise them to be strong.
For one day weak men will perish, and from their ruins we shall rebuild our dreams.
Happy exile.
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