Maintain (or gain) freedom of mind #freedomofthought #mind #consciousness

November 07, 2025 at 07:01AM

via ig https://instagr.am/p/DQwZVJ4kfss/ #ellars

Imprisoned journalists from Belarus and Georgia win the EU's Sakharov Prize for 2025.

The European Parliament awarded the European Union's top human rights honour, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, to Andrzej Poczobut from Belarus and Mzia Amaglobeli from Georgia, EP President Roberta Metsola announced on Wednesday.

https://mediafaro.org/article/20251022-imprisoned-journalists-from-belarus-and-georgia-win-the-eus-sakharov-prize-for-2025?mf_channel=mastodon&action=forward

A quotation from Charles Mackay

Keep, Galileo, to thy thought,
   And nerve thy soul to bear;
They may gloat o’er the senseless words they wring
   From the pangs of thy despair:
They may veil their eyes, but they cannot hide
   The sun’s meridian glow;
The heel of a priest may tread thee down,
   And a tyrant work thee woe;
But never a truth has been destroyed:
   They may curse it, and call it crime;
Pervert and betray, or slander and slay
   Its teachers for a time.
But the sunshine aye shall light the sky,
   As round and round we run;
And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
   And justice shall be done.

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Poem (1847), “Eternal Justice,” st. 4

More info about this quote: wist.info/mackay-charles/79828…

A quotation from Thomas Carlyle

Money? He will say: “Take my money, since you can, and it is so desirable to you; take it, — and take yourself away with it; and leave me alone to my work here. I am still here; can still work, after all the money you have taken from me!” But if they come to him, and say, “Acknowledge a Lie; pretend to say you are worshipping God, when you are not doing it: believe not the thing that you find true, but the thing that I find, or pretend to find true!” He will answer: “No; by God’s help, no! You may take my purse; but I cannot have my moral Self annihilated. The purse is any Highwayman’s who might meet me with a loaded pistol: but the Self is mine and God my Maker’s; it is not yours; and I will resist you to the death, and revolt against you, and, on the whole, front all manner of extremities, accusations and confusions, in defence of that!”

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-22), “The Hero as King,” Home House, Portman Square, London

More info about this quote: wist.info/carlyle-thomas/20789…

#ANTIFA is not an organization, it is a #PersonalBelief. And so now, #America has explicitly and officially declared that it is illegal to be against #fascism.
___
#Trump issues executive order designating antifa a 'domestic terrorist organization' - https://www.npr.org/2025/09/23/nx-s1-5551008/trump-issues-executive-order-designating-antifa-a-domestic-terrorist-organization

A quotation from Adlai Stevenson

If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain. It must be unrestricted in the play of its inquiry. If we insist on conclusions before the search is over, we are committed to playing the game of the mind with marked cards.

Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-10-08), “The Area of Freedom,” University of Wisconsin, Madison

More info about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewin…

A quotation from Adlai Stevenson

If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain. It must be unrestricted in the play of its inquiry. If we insist on conclusions before the search is over, we are committed to playing the game of the mind with marked cards.

Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-10-08), “The Area of Freedom,” University of Wisconsin, Madison

More info about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewin…

Oh, look! The Pentagon's new plan: AI propaganda to squash freedom of thought. Next up, they'll use #chatbots to #debate your grandma at #Thanksgiving. #FreedomIsOverrated
https://theintercept.com/2025/08/25/pentagon-military-ai-propaganda-influence/ #AIPropaganda #FreedomOfThought #PentagonPlan #HackerNews #ngated

One of these days you folks in the #UK will get tired of your tyranny and demand #FreedomOfSpeech, #FreedomOfThought, and #FreedomOfAssociation.

Until then, I'll just continue to shake my head and wonder when you all will wake the fuck up. #UKpol #WeAreAllPalestineAction #PalestineAction #FreeGaza #FreePalestine
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RE: https://mastodon.scot/users/Gurggles/statuses/115090022592428771

One of these days his King's subjects will rise-up and demand true #FreedomOfSpeech, #FreedomOfThought, and #FreedomOfAssembly.

Remember kids, just because something is illegal it doesn't mean it's wrong. It was once illegal for a white woman to marry a black man. It was also once illegal to teach a slave how to read and write. It was illegal for Anne Frank, Otto Frank, and the rest of the Frank family to be hidden in that attic in Amsterdam, too.

Legality != morality.

Fuck Kier Starmer and Yvette Cooper.
#UKpol #WeAreAllPalestineAction #PalestineAction #FreeGaza #FreePalestine #StopTheGenocide
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RE: https://mas.to/users/therightarticle/statuses/115090068319161391

A perfect summary.

(Link: https://xcancel.com/JehadAbusalim/status/1954913553955037592)

A quotation from Robert Ingersoll

When a fact can be demonstrated, force is unnecessary; when it cannot be demonstrated, an appeal to force is infamous. In the presence of the unknown all have an equal right to think.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Lecture (1873-12) “Individuality,” Chicago Free Religious Society

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…

Riiiiiight. Also remember that there are currents works to ban private communications and anonymity in all of the Union. Everything is well in the pure and perfect Europistan.

https://xcancel.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1938607536887779553#m

A quotation from Robert Ingersoll

There can be nothing more utterly subversive of all that is really valuable than the suppression of honest thought. No man, worthy of the form he bears, will at the command of church or state solemnly repeat a creed his reason scorns.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Lecture (1873-12) “Individuality,” Chicago Free Religious Society

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…

A quotation from Edward R. Murrow

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.

Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) American journalist
Commentary (1954-03-09), “A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy,” See It Now, CBS TV

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/murrow-edward-r/2931…

A quotation from Orwell

At some time in the future, if the human mind becomes something totally different from what it is now, we may learn to separate literary creation from intellectual honesty. At present we know only that the imagination, like certain wild animals, will not breed in captivity.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-01), “The Prevention of Literature,” Polemic

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/orwell-george/72563/

"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."

Edward R. Murrow

A quotation from Robert Ingersoll

A trial for heresy means that the spirit of persecution still lingers in the church; that it still denies the right of private judgment; that it still thinks more of creed than truth, and that it is still determined to prevent the intellectual growth of man. It means that churches are shambles in which are bought and sold the souls of men. It means that the church is still guilty of the barbarity of opposing thought with force. It means that if it had the power, the mental horizon would be bounded by a creed; that it would bring again the whips and chains and dungeon keys, the rack and fagot of the past.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Lecture (1874-05-03), “Heretics and Heresies,” Free Religious Society, Kingsbury Hall, Chicago

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…

A quotation from Virginia Woolf

Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) English modernist writer [b. Adeline Virginia Stephen]
A Room of One’s Own, ch. 4 (1929)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/woolf-virginia/26188…