Read Annalisa Quinn of the Boston Globe’s article about her week at the 20th Annual Porcupine Freedom Festival. This article will appear in this Sunday’s Boston Globe magazine.
Whoa–That time CNN came to PorcFest (back in 2015 long before the current NBC BOSTON docu-series). Sharing this makes me… uncomfortable?!?
1. This is close to Peak Sick for me. Not only am I overweight but that rasp in my voice was from allergies that I now have under control through lifestyle changes. Did YOU know antihistamines suppress serotonin uptake? Neither did I…
2. Of course CNN found the one guy with a Confederate flag to include. I remember that dude bc the PF producers that year had to ask him not to park his ATV & flag in the middle of our group photo. Never saw him again.
3. Seems I have a long record of calling us “weirdos.” Perhaps, like me, y’all can adopt this into your lexicon to help explain away things you don’t personally agree with but understand other ppl might choose to partake in.
As individualist, you don’t have to agree with everything other ppl are doing. It’s a permanent built-in TEACHABLE MOMENT to explain INDIVIDUALISM.
4. The current dramas have all happened before in some way, shape, or form, and the degeneracy at PF has always been WILDLY overstated.
Always has, always will be.
If you’re a complainer, ask yourself about the tradeoff between looking away or going somewhere else on a massive campground when something is not to your liking vs. complaining publicly online and creating a permanent, searchable record to be trotted out to besmirch us.
Also, may I suggest if you complain:
A. Did you volunteer yourself?
B. Did you first THANK THE ORGANIZERS & VOLUNTEERS for the 99% that WAS amazing or just hone in and complain & make demands about the one small part that wasn’t to your liking?
5. Every time you ask for a new rule at PF, you are creating a strain on the organizers and on-site staff.
It’s called an APPEAL TO AUTHORITY and we prefer YOU sort your own shit out. We DO expect ppl to stick to their words & agreements too, tho, so if you make representations to PF staff STICK TO THEM.
6. I’m struck by how in this clip, even “friendly” politicians didn’t want to attend PF, and yet, now, eight years later, we had A SLATE OF REAL PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES bending the knee bc they KNOW they NEED Free Staters to do well in NH’s First in the Nation. We have *just* enough sway to be a spoiler or tipper. This is actual evidence of our actual success on the ground in NH. Embrace it. We are going to win in the long run!
7. Life will never be perfect. There are not enough rules to be written at PF to satisfy each of the thousands of attendees personal preferences.
The ethos of “live & let live” and “don’t hurt ppl & don’t take their stuff” should be able to carry a high-trust event…
In the end, the goal of PF is to showcase all the weird & wonderful things we ARE accomplishing, showcase the growing community, attract new attendees we can persuade to move, and to leverage legacy media coverage to help more ppl learn about the Free State Project and the better future we are building in NH.
Ultimately, we want more great people like YOU to join us!
Live free or die!
Live free and thrive!
Watch this WMUR clip about RFK’s upcoming talk at PorcFest XX. Get YOUR tix today!
Very exciting to hear NH libertarians and liberty voters and people interested in self-ownership being given their due…
Posted by Carla Gericke on Monday, June 5, 2023
Catch my hilarious and poignant opening speech at Liberty Forum 2023, where you will find answers to questions like, did Carla accidentally murder the world’s funniest libertarian writer, and can you fight City Hall?
The 8th Episode of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of New Hampshire is out. WATCH NOW!
From NBC: “One of the early experiments of the Free State project was the Free Town Project, a libertarian migration to the small community of Grafton, NH. And with the libertarians….allegedly came the bears? Or did they? This episode explores the controversies a small town navigated as they became the focus of this libertarian political trial run.”
The first 7 episodes of NBC Boston’s docuseries on the Free State movement is out! Check out these short, 13 minute episodes, and then feel free to drop me questions below!
A few things you should be wondering about while watching:
Who funds Granite State Progress? (Soros/and…?)
When did Zandra Rice Hawkins moved to New Hampshire to spread socialist programs? (After me)
Why won’t ZRH allow Free Staters to attend their “public” events?
How come NH public schools cost double ($18,000+) what private schools do ($9,000)?
What is more democratic than putting hard questions to voters?
Isn’t it GREAT that Free Staters are inspiring so many people to get involved as is required for good local government?
NBC Boston has been working on a docuseries about the Free State Movement for more than half a year. The trailer dropped.
Take a look HERE.
My initial thoughts are THIS LOOKS AWESOME! Can’t wait to see the rest. Of course, they will attempt to paint us as weirdos and troublemakers, but many people are actually looking for answers to the issues of the day, and I believe those people will see what we are doing for what it is: A SOLUTION to a problem that has grown too large to solve in any other way!
While politicians pay lip service to “reforms” and “changes,” we ALL know nothing is changing, improving, or happening… In fact, things are getting worse and worse. We are getting poorer, people are suffering, and the government is rankly incompetent, and, at this stage, has possibly actually tipped to being EVIL.
As I watched the trailer, I was also thinking, who are these naysayers? Besides Nick Sarwark, who has probably put the final nail in his coffin as a Free Stater with this–he should switch to the Democrats–I recognized Zandra Rice Hawkins (the one with the beanie on the playground) and Brodie Deshaies (an outspoken critic of the proposed Constitutional amendment to peacefully leave the Union and become an independent country; he was voted out in 2022).
Ironically, Zandra Rice Hawkins, who works for an organization called Granite State Progress that is funded by progressive billionaire George Soros, moved to New Hampshire after I did, and openly admits she wants New Hampshire to become “more progressive.” When one hears people like her criticizing the Free State movement, you must ask yourself, who is actually trying to change the culture of the LIVE FREE OR DIE state? I contend it is people like her, not us.
I once attended a public meeting Zandra hosted, and gave the following speech in response to hours of inaccurate and propagandist trash-talking from her. What a monster I am!
Last month, I was interviewed by the BBC for their series on Autarky. In Episode One, around minute 21:50, I mention being an early Free State mover (2008) and how New Hampshire could be poised to become its own successful, peaceful and prosperous country, like a Switzerland or Iceland.
Lifetime achievement unlocked.
Although totally NOT how I imagined it going down.
Every writer who completed their MFAs with me at City College probably also fantasized about being in The New Yorker. THE NEW YORKER!!!
Which, this week, I am, but not as a fiction writer, but for my political and socioeconomic views. I know it sounds like hubris, but I am in New Hampshire for a reason: To save one spot on Earth for individual liberty, property rights, and the freedom to be yourself. Live free or die! Those are the stakes.
So, sometimes when you are trying to get radical ideas across, you end up sounding… well, a bit bonkers, like this. But still, look Pa & Ma, The New Yorker called me “cheerful and energetic”!
On the plus side, the Free State Project gets ink and this means new people will learn about how great NH is and join us!
I’ll make an episode about the interview and subsequent fact-check call, but briefly, here’s some nuances:
Anti-vax/mandate was lost on them.
The discussion about self-ownership, which justifies my position on abortion. I think it’s wrong. I wouldn’t do it. But I don’t own you, so other than sharing my opinion with you–free speech–you need to be free to do what you want because reasonable people disagree on when life starts.
The discussion about independence being a strategic hedge against federal overreach. A discussion about why I oppose almost all federal laws, when state laws make do just fine, i.e. federalism and states’ rights.
Definitely read the whole article! Notice at the end the real reason for it all… Democrats pivot on messaging and literally steal Trump’s platform. Go look. For reals. It’s pretty remarkable.