Governments Don't Like It When We Gather Without Their Permission
Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,
Freedom of association is under attack...
There are a number of ways in which Western governments are waging war against their citizens. The United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and leftists in the United States do not believe in free speech. These Western governments also spy on their citizens without warrants or probable cause. They have transformed their court systems into ideologically-partisan dictatorships that impose rulings based upon feelings and “political correctness,” rather than black-letter law and self-restraint. An offense that often gets overlooked, however, is Western governments’ infringement of citizens’ freedom of association.
Freedom of association is our natural, God-given right to meet with likeminded people, discuss ideas, express ourselves, and promote our mutual interests. As with freedom of speech, it is fundamental to any notion of liberty. Respect for freedom of association is the bedrock for religious freedom, freedom of conscience, communal identity, and national self-determination.
Countries are born when people of common ancestry, language, history, and customs choose to work together and defend their way of life. Towns spring up when likeminded people settle and develop a region together. Religious congregations grow through common worship. Schools, skilled trade unions, clubs, sports leagues, and civic organizations of all types are formed when people come together to pursue similar interests and advance shared ideas.
At its heart, freedom of association respects human beings’ natural inclination to cooperate with others to build something together that would not be possible for any one person to build alone. As a voluntary commitment to pursue a group’s common aims, it is the collective expression of each individual’s personal liberty.
As with all God-given rights and liberties, government power (or State authority) is the greatest threat to freedom of association. When governments prevent people from discussing ideas, worshiping together, working together, or pursuing common interests, the State is using its monopoly on the lawful use of force to infringe citizens’ inalienable rights.
What we see across the West is the bureaucratic State imposing its political will in defiance of the collective will of citizens.
Perhaps the most glaring problem of the last several decades has been Western governments’ refusal to secure their national borders. There is no more natural political association than a nation state’s citizenry. Over centuries and millennia, tribes of similar peoples came together to protect their lands and resources from foreign invasion, while promoting domestic order, safety, and peace.
The rule of law traces its origin to common customs, personal duties, social obligations, religious convictions, and beliefs. Both political philosophers and ordinary people with common sense tend to define a government’s foremost obligations to include two complementary tasks: (1) to secure territory from invasion and (2) to promote the common law. Governments that successfully perform these duties advance their citizens’ natural freedoms, general welfare, and domestic peace.
By opening up their borders and inviting millions of foreigners to take over parts of their nations, Western governments have undermined their own citizens’ self-determination. They have directly attacked citizens’ freedom of association in the context of forming nation states. These governments have effectively destroyed the natural associations formed by generations of Westerners over many centuries. Because respect for the rule of law originates with common customs and beliefs, the introduction of foreign populations (who have no interest in assimilating) immediately erodes domestic safety and peace. Western governments betray their citizens twice: First, they fail to secure their territories from invasion. Second, they make domestic tranquility an impossibility.
But attacks on Westerners’ freedom of association go much further than open borders. Because Western governments are clearly conspiring to facilitate mass migration without the consent of their respective citizenries, these governments are particularly invested in preventing their peoples from resisting the invasion of their lands. In order to silence public dissent, governments have chosen to abrogate citizens’ natural freedom to assemble together and protest their governments’ criminality. We see this taking many different forms. In Europe, political parties that seek to secure borders and limit immigration are designated “right-wing,” “fascist,” “nationalist,” and “threats to national security.” Those last two insults are peculiar contradictions; Europeans who wish to protect their nations are simultaneously branded “threats” to the nation state. In the United States, any voter who supports President Trump’s border security policies risks being harassed online, de-banked from financial institutions, fired from jobs, and targeted by Democrat prosecutors. In both the Old and New Worlds, the freedom of citizens to work together to fight their governments’ dangerous open borders policies is under constant attack.
Mass migration, however, is only one of many government policies that have been deemed so “sacrosanct” that citizens are not allowed to organize against them. Western governments continue to threaten and prosecute Christians who seek to end government-sanctioned murder of unborn babies. Under the Biden administration, the FBI placed concerned parents on domestic terror watchlists for publicly opposing “transgender” indoctrination in schools. Across the West, pro-family organizations that encourage strong marriages between one man and one woman are either officially or unofficially identified as “hate groups.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center in the United States has made a fortune over the years falsely acting as an authority on what kinds of public associations should be promoted and which should be condemned. While celebrating Black Lives Matter as a civil rights group (even though its member have caused billions of dollars in property damage and left dozens of unsolved murders across the country), the SPLC routinely designates conservative organizations and publications as threats to civil rights — designations that have prompted illegitimately-predicated law enforcement investigations, IRS scrutiny, censorship, and de-banking.
During Western governments’ COVID totalitarianism, freedom of association was effectively eliminated. Friends and families were not allowed to celebrate birthdays or comfort dying loved ones. Workers were not allowed to make a living. Congregations were not allowed to attend church services. Students were not allowed to learn together. Athletes were not allowed to compete against each other. Clubs were not allowed to operate. Civic organizations were shut down. Online dissent was censored. Medical researchers who opposed lockdowns, mask mandates, and forced experimental injections were denied any opportunity to work together. Western governments essentially outlawed people from associating together and sharing their experiences and opinions. And they prohibited freedom of assembly unless that assembly was part of the violent and destructive network of Antifa and Black Lives Matter domestic terrorists intent on burning down parts of major cities.
Today, we see freedom of association under constant attack in two separate public domains: (1) the local community and (2) the online community.
During Joe Biden’s presidency, his administration transplanted over ten million foreign nationals into unsuspecting towns across the United States. In the United Kingdom, some small villages now have six migrant men to every local woman. After Spanish authorities did nothing to prevent the invasion of Ceuta, foreigners have destroyed the small enclave in a matter of days. This unnatural phenomenon is occurring in every corner of the West. The common feature is that Western governments show outright disdain for the self-determination of local communities.
Likewise, Big Tech continues to work hand in glove with Western governments to shadow-ban, demonetize, and outright censor any associations of people opposed to official government policy. Western governments claim these attacks on free speech and freedom of association are necessary to combat “disinformation,” promote online safety, and protect so-called “Western values.” But the values that Western governments are committed to securing are not Western values at all; they are shameless infringements of Western citizens’ natural, God-given rights and liberties.
When governments prevent people from choosing their next-door neighbors and online friends, they target the essence of personal freedom. Such abuse constitutes an attack on freedom of association and a war on Western citizens.
Tyler Durden Wed, 08/19/2026 - 22:35
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Pool via Reuters
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PNC Bank building in Pittsburgh, PA (Photo: Grace David / The Center Square)
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