Free Keene

Citizen Cain – 11 – Trash Mountain

by conan | Nov 7, 2016 | 0 comments

City Council recap. 3 hot issues laid to rest. More on the bio fuel generator • Local political group uses auditory conditioning in their radio ad • Concord man shot over a piece of fabric • http://CitizenCain.org

Keene Activism Decentralizes: SLAP Shuts Down, Real-Life Meetups Expand

by Ian | Nov 7, 2016 | 25 comments

The former Keene Activist Center logo

About a year ago, after five years of service and many good times (and challenging times) the Keene Activist Center shut down for good. Not long after, Free Keene blogger Rich Paul launched the Church of the Invisible Hand’s Society for Love and Peace in the same historic location.

This Summer, the board of the Shire Free Church Monadnock, which owns the property at River and Leverett opted to end the activist experiment and we parted ways with Rich Paul, converting the property back into a home for rent. It quickly filled up with liberty-friendly New Hampshire natives. Plus liberty-minded folks now occupy another house on the street as the Free Streets Project has officially begun in Keene and Manchester.

While some have mourned the loss of the historic center for Keene activism, ultimately the movement in Keene is now more diverse, with even more regular real-life activist meetups than has ever happened in Keene:

Social Sundays – The longest running social gathering of liberty-minded folks in New Hampshire continues at 6pm each Sunday at Local Burger (they accept bitcoin!)
Taco Tuesdays – This super-popular gathering was created in Spring of 2016 and happens each Tuesday at Mi Jalisco at 7pm.
Bacon Breakfast Buffet – Early risers meet up at Keene State College’s Zorn Dining Commons at 8:30am every Wednesday when school is in session.

The Keene Bitcoin Network “Floating Meetup” Visits Lindy’s Diner

Keene Bitcoin Network – Twice monthly real-life meetups happen on the first Sunday of every month before Social Sundays and also on the 21st of each month at 3pm at a new location each month.

For a handy calendar listing many of the public meetups we have each month, check out the Keene Activist Calendar here.

In addition to the regular meetups, Keene activists are pushing forward in the area of online organization. While many libertarians are stuck on Facebook and are suffering from it, Keene activists have been successfully using Telegram and two-way radios for years for instant communications, plus we’re now experimenting with Trello for project organization. (more…)

Persuasion Through Moral Arguments

by Ethan Glover | Nov 6, 2016 | 8 comments

Choosing the lesser of evils, whether in voting or in philosophical decision making, is a point of contention. Do you stick to your principles? Or do you stray from them for the sake of persuasion?

There is no right or wrong answer. But research shows that we must compromise on our own ideas if we want to convince people of our ideas. It’s a counter-intuitive way of thinking, but once you start to understand it, it becomes natural.

(more…)

Why I Should Move to New Hampshire: 1 Year in the Shire

by melanie | Nov 5, 2016 | 19 comments

I moved to New Hampshire a year ago today. I hated Louisiana and I wanted to be around anarchists. I can’t and I won’t tell you to move to New Hampshire, because ‘I don’t know you; I don’t know your life.’ But I will tell you that moving to New Hampshire is the best decision I ever made, and that it has done the following things for me:

There are anarchists everywhere.

By no means is a majority of the population anarchist, and people who come here (or anywhere for that matter) expecting an anarchist utopia are very silly. Before I visited New Hampshire I had met two anarchists, and both of them were only there for school. The overwhelming majority of people I had ever met were either socialist or completely fascist. After awhile, hanging out with people who want to kill, rob, and cage you gets intolerable, and only having human contact online just isn’t the same. As far as I’ve been able to tell, New Hampshire has the highest number of anarchists anywhere on earth. Anytime I want to I can be around anarchists because there are people here who do not want to kill, rob, or cage me.

Expecting perfection is silly, (more…)

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November, 2016

by Ian | Nov 5, 2016 | 7 comments

As thousands are gathering in the streets in London around the world for the “Million Mask March“, donning Guy Fawkes masks (popularized by the excellent movie, “V for Vendetta”), it’s important to remember that Guy Fawkes was not a hero. Fawkes was willing to commit violence against people to forward his cause. While many libertarians may feel the government deserves violence in response to their violent, depraved acts, here at the Free Keene blog, we’re committed to peaceful evolution.

Violence may appear to work in the short-term, but ultimately all it does is justify the ever-increasing police state in the minds of the state actors and their supporters. Violence also brings you down to the level of the state – that’s the tool they use. We should not want to be like them. There are a myriad of peaceful solutions to moving liberty ahead in our lifetime – the most powerful of which is to concentrate liberty-minded activists in one geographic area – New Hampshire. Another major solution is to end New Hampshire’s involvement in the federal government.

To that end, for the fourth time in about a month, V-mask wearing activists gathered in Keene’s Central Square to demonstrate in favor of New Hampshire declaring peaceful independence from the United States. Normally our response from drivers and passers-by is very positive, but today people were even more excited and interested. We had at least a dozen people take photos of us from their cars or while walking around, plus one guy from Massachusetts even parked and came up to shoot video of us. People in New Hampshire love the idea of independence and setting NH free from the evil United States federal government!

Let’s keep the conversation going. If you’re new to secession, check out some of the info from the Foundation for New Hampshire Independence to learn more about why it’s the best idea for a bright, prosperous, and free future.

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Keene Activists in Central Square November 5th for Secession

Why are we wearing masks at secession demonstrations?

by Ian | Nov 4, 2016 | 21 comments

“Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy. And ideas are bulletproof.” -V

Masked Supporters of Secession Have Gathered Multiple Times in Keene in the Last Month

For the last month, activists in Keene have been appearing at Central Square for NHExit demonstrations featuring masked participants. Many of them attend wearing V masks, from the movie, “V For Vendetta”.

Why perform masked demonstrations in favor of secession? First, ’tis the Halloween season, so masks are certainly appropriate, but more importantly, masks are just more fun. Many people love to see the V masks and some will even stop their cars to take photos or park and get out to come compliment us.

At our mid-month event, a gentleman from Chicago with a fancy camera came over to say hello and express how pleased he was to see people out demonstrating for secession. He snapped some photos and kindly sent me copies. You can see them attached to this article. Thanks, Raymond. (more…)

Libertarian Candidates Under Attack Statewide As Election Looms

by Ian | Nov 3, 2016 | 41 comments

This Evil Man Wants You to Be Free

Across the state, libertarians are under major attack from the powers-that-be. This sort of thing doesn’t happen to libertarians anywhere else but New Hampshire. In other states the republicans and democrats in the establishment can safely ignore the libertarians, but in NH we are a real threat to the status quo. This year (as in previous years), untold thousands of dollars are being spent to publicly out candidates statewide as “free-staters” via blog posts and even fancy full-color direct mail propaganda flyers. Despite the haters’ efforts to stop us, our share of the legislature continues to grow.

As they did in 2014’s state elections, statist group “Granite State Progress” has published names of the people they believe to be “Free Staters”, aka libertarians who are running as republicans and democrats for state rep and state senate.

Granite State Progress did the same thing in 2014. They thought they were going to hurt the Free Staters, but all they really did was inadvertently promote the libertarians’ campaigns! The haters are publishing attack blogs and spending who knows how much money to mail hitpiece flyers to households in various towns. For a recent example, check out this year’s attack on incumbent state representative and Free State Project early mover Keith Ammon. They try to make the liberty-loving family man look like he hates families. Of course, anyone who knows Keith knows that’s not true. He loves liberty and the freedom to choose.

Former Free State Project President Carla Gericke Calls Out the Haters

In their 2016 blog expose, Granite State Progress outs dozens of alleged “Free Staters”, but as with the previous year they miss some and misidentify others. Technically, a Free Stater should be defined as someone who moved to New Hampshire as a participant in the Free State Project, but over the years the people who want to protect the status quo have turned it into a pejorative meaning anyone active at reducing government. No matter. The candidates who were named should thank GSP for the free publicity for their campaigns. They’ve effectively published a handy voter’s guide for liberty! (more…)