From the archive

Freedom

But it's not just black and white: Ukraine has its own problems, but they are defending their country from an aggressor. I am writing all this because war itself violates my main rule in life: "Live and let live." It's a good rule. How does it work in practice? Well, if someone picks on a guy for being gay and beats him up, I'll stand up for him. But I'm not likely to hang out with gay people myself — it's just unpleasant. I have nothing against them, but they are themselves, and I am myself. Interestingly, this does not apply to lesbians — I would socialize with them (perhaps even a lot). In any case, I don't necessarily have to love/subscribe to defend a person's right to be themselves. Freedom is not "doing whatever I want." It is not living according to someone else's lies, not faking your conscience, not serving what you despise. You can be free even in prison — remember Navalny: he was honest with himself to the end and was who he was. There are many other examples: Solzhenitsyn, Brodsky, Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and many, many others. And what about you? You'll read this, and then you'll go jerk off to Japanese girls pissing on each other, dreaming, "I wish I were there so they could piss on me." Are you free? No, you're addicted. Your dopamine system was destroyed by porn when you were 13. Everyone "knows" that people try BDSM at 16 because "just sex is boring" and you need something "more exciting."