The Dissidents

"What are we all fighting over? It's who gets to rule." In this third installment of the Hot Takes Rise of Political Violence mini-series, Chris and Joia dig deeper into two fundamental root causes of America's rising political violence: massive government overreach and the collapse of character-building culture. Chris argues that our modern politics is fundamentally about power-grabbing, in stark contrast to the founders' vision of limited government protecting individual rights. The stakes are impossibly high because "the government is so powerful now, it is an institution that can be wielded to punish opponents and reward friends." Joia adds historical perspective: Frederick Douglass fought for voting rights 150 years ago when each individual vote counted so much more. Today, however, there are “so many government organizations and agencies that supersede any election cycle that they're impervious to whatever voters choose." The progressive argument that "the people can't be trusted to rule themselves" has created exactly the conditions it claimed to prevent: people are now simultaneously overwhelmed and impeded from acting, creating a recipe for grievance and disaster. But there's a deeper root cause still: we've lost character. Joia argues the loss isn't just about manners (though it includes that) - it's about civilization itself. " We've thrown out not just Western civilization's biases but civilization's moral achievements, losing an emphasis on character just as we should have been deepening it. Multiculturalism itself isn't the problem (drawing wisdom from Buddhism, Taoism, and other religious and secular philosophies is a form of progress), but abandoning Western civilization's hard-won insights about virtue has left us adrift. As the founders understood, a free society requires people who are virtuous, who have a capacity to self-govern. The solution requires both shrinking the government back to its constitutional bounds AND rebuilding a culture of character, a project Chris and Joia are exploring in depth on their Philosophical Liberal Substack. Next up: Part 4 will tackle the question everyone's asking: who bears responsibility for political violence?

"You don't really know how good a boxer you are until you face someone on the other side of the net." Facing opposition matters. This is the argument of Dr. Lyell Asher, who teaches at Lewis and Clark College and created the 15-part YouTube series Why Colleges Are Becoming Cults with Peter Boghossian. Lyell traces his free speech awakening to his father and Solzhenitsyn's A Warning to the West, but also to a rebellious middle school moment. When a teacher tried to stop flag burning, young Lyell argued so strongly for the right to burn it that the teacher offered him scissors, then yanked them away at the last moment. The real catalyst for Lyell came in 2010, when he witnessed his own institution misrepresent incidents and bury the truth. Then, three years later, the very same pattern repeated. His method for countering this? To make free speech concrete, not abstract. As Thomas Kuhn demonstrated with paradigm shifts, when you ask people to change their view of the universe, “you’re asking them to change everything in their lives." Lyell believes K-12 schools should teach each student how to articulate the position they don't believe (as inspired by an ethics class at Vanderbilt where he argued for capital punishment from the opposite side). "Free speech alone is not enough," he insists. "What you have to have is not just free speech, but a commitment to making sure that on every issue, students are exposed to the best arguments on each side." Because when ideas are "sharpened by opposition," they—and all of us—become stronger.Check out the video series Why Colleges Are Becoming Cults at: https://youtu.be/0hybqg81n-M?si=6yEd4Sp9IA6wia2d 

"The president is not supposed to have so much power. It shouldn't make such a difference who actually wields the executive pen." Chris and Joia dive deep into several of the causes behind America's rising political violence, starting with an October 2025 Pew Research survey that asked Americans why they think violence is increasing—offering eight options from "Trump/MAGA rhetoric" to "social media" to "partisan polarization." But Chris and Joia argue these are merely proximate causes that miss fundamental drivers.Throughout, Chris and Joia make clear these aren't just academic distinctions: "If we can find… just the few roots that have to be cut, then we can be much more effective with our own time and efforts in trying to solve this problem."Check out the full conversation to discover the multiple proximate and more fundamental causes they identify.Find Part I here: https://youtu.be/X_eojPaO5Ao

On the eve of America's 250th anniversary, 1776 Forward co-founders K. Joia Houheneka and Chris Bush hosted an evening that accomplished what few conversations manage: it modeled the very thing it celebrated.The event brought together original contributors to the Free Society Coalition's Philadelphia Declaration as well as current active members, including David Kelley, Lawrence Reed, Brent Hamachek, Felisa Blazek, Dan Isadore, and Craig Kreinbihl.The discussion moved across three distinct threads. First, the backstory: how roughly sixty people representing different philosophical traditions, faith backgrounds, and views on contested issues gathered in Philadelphia in 2024 and committed to finding shared moral ground upstream from politics. Participants described eleven drafting iterations, months of working sessions, and at least one full day debating the definition of agency. This was a process of seeking consensus that mirrored, as several noted, the Founding Fathers’ own long dialogue before 1776.Second, the substance: what actually made it into the declaration, and why. David Kelley articulated the document's anchoring premise — that reality, reason, individual agency, and voluntary exchange form the moral bedrock of a free society — and distinguished the negative rights the Founders enshrined in America’s originating documents from the obligation-imposing "rights" that have proliferated in the years since.Third, the practice: using the FSC's Happy Birthday Freedom brochure as a live guide, the group modeled Socratic discussion, demonstrating how probing questions about the Declaration of Independence’s most consequential phrases can open genuine reflection rather than partisan debate.Two moments stood out. Brent Hamachek's observation that consensus wasn't about finding a right word but the right word, every single one. And Dan Isadore's argument that treating someone as a genuine individual in conversation isn't just good manners, but the practical test of whether you actually believe what the Declaration says.The brochure and the Philadelphia Declaration are available at freesocietycoalition.org and fscbrochure.com. Read both documents and tune into this lively panel, which brings those documents to life, and hear about the many ways every American can take positive actions to honor the legacy of our founding 250 years ago, and how to carry forward the light of liberty into the next 250!

"Bad ideas survive when people are too afraid to speak up." Shelly Norden, Ken Pope, and Leigh Vlasblom join hosts Chris and Joia for a special episode promoting the America at 250 initiative—including an event in June to reclaim the founding principles of free speech, civil discourse, and limited government as America approaches its 250th birthday. Ken notes a disturbing ripple effect in our current culture: bad education leads to bad ideas in media, law, and every other institution. "It all comes back to education," Shelly stresses, where instead kids should learn "how to debate openly, how to not take things personally.” Leigh adds a radical proposal: simply read the founding documents—they're free, yet schools claim they have "no money." Pennsylvania's school law even requires an hour of civics education taught every week, yet "we've abandoned the original sources" in favor of "big corporations writing new textbooks that have modified history." The solution is grassroots: support educators and school board members doing good work, encourage those who could do better, and protect those being personally attacked for offering opposing opinions. About the America at 250 Event: Happening June 12-13 in Arlington, VA, the America at 250 initiative brings together leaders, educators, school board members, parents, and concerned citizens to spark a grassroots movement reclaiming the founding principles that built this nation. The event features lectures, discussions, tours, and interactive experiences designed to equip community members with the knowledge and courage to defend American values and civil discourse in their local schools and communities. Shelly, Ken, and Leigh are leading this effort to ensure that as we enter our next 250 years, we're grounded in the original sources—the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Federalist Papers—and committed to teaching the next generation how to think critically, debate respectfully, and defend the freedoms we've inherited. Whether you're a parent concerned about what's happening in classrooms, an educator seeking to restore civics education, or simply someone who believes in the power of the founding documents, America at 250 offers a platform to connect, learn, and take action.Registration and more information available at leadershipinstitute.org/americaat250.

“If it bleeds, it leads," they say—and in the algorithm age, we're all drowning in egregiously hyperbolic content designed to polarize. In the wake of the third assassination attempt on President Trump, plus Charlie Kirk's tragic murder and attacks on the UnitedHealthcare CEO and various state representatives, Chris and Joia launch a new Hot Takes mini-series confronting what the data shows is an alarming trend: Americans—especially young Americans—increasingly accept politically-oriented violence as justified.Chris and Joia argue this rise directly correlates with the decline of free speech culture, driven by the noxious idea that "speech is violence," which has blurred the lines of distinction between speech and physical force. They warn against carving out exceptions, noting that even after World War II, we responded to Nazis with the Nuremberg Trials, not with such a quick insistence on violence that so many seem to harbor today.The mission of this multi-part series will be to question, explore, and try to figure out how to reinstate some of the basic understanding and values around free speech in order to stop this trend toward violence. It’s crucial, because when you can't distinguish words from weapons, civilization itself becomes the casualty.Here are links for data, polls, and surveys referenced in this episode:https://expression.fire.org/p/gen-z-is-10-times-more-acceptinghttps://x.com/kanekoathegreat/status/2048215568118133246?s=43&t=VYiTS2LZUOf6UxNW9GkBlA Americans say politically motivated violence is increasing, and they see many reasons why Political Violence in America: Public Perceptions, Polarization, and Accountability

"I always loved school. I was one of those people who played school with my siblings." Dana Stangel-Plowe, now Chief Program Officer at the North American Values Institute (NAVI), went from lawyer to beloved high school English teacher at her kids' private school in suburban New Jersey—until she watched "an anti-intellectual, anti-liberal ideology" infiltrate the curriculum, one that focused on identity and power and fundamentally "changed the way my students interacted with each other, interacted with our books." When her concerns fell on deaf ears, Dana resigned publicly in 2021 during the height of CRT debates, arguing that while critical race theory wasn't being explicitly taught, its framework was "embedded in the curriculum, embedded in programming, embedded in the way that the school wanted the students and the teachers to relate to one another." Dana warns that "one of the scariest things of the current moment is that young people believe that words are violence"—the opposite of what a liberal society needs, where "words need to be met with more words." . Her research shows students "can't name the three branches of government" as "national literacy rates have declined," revealing how this ideological approach is failing our students. But Dana also offers hope: "Courage is contagious. I have seen with my students that where one person starts whispering, other people start whispering and soon the whispers get louder." Her advice for students living in fear? "Ask questions. When you ask a question, you're opening up other pathways to thinking. You're not necessarily expressing certainty that somebody is wrong and that you're right. You're just asking questions."Dana's work at NAVI now focuses on exposing extremist curriculum, achieving transparency so parents can see what's happening in schools, and restoring the culture of open inquiry where "free speech is a value, where people aren't afraid." Learn more about NAVI’s initiatives at: https://navivalues.org/

"You're not allowed to say that." Those four words changed everything for Joshua David "JoDavi" Washington, Director of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel (IBSI) and world-touring recording artist. Sharing what he thought were just "fun experiences" about Israel with college friends, Josh watched conversations shut down cold: "It went from 'I disagree with you' to 'you're not allowed to say that.' And that would rub me the wrong way,” he explains, “what do you mean I can't say that?"Now he's built an entire ecosystem of artists who've found a space to share unpopular opinions expressed through music. Josh argues that free speech "protects speech that's not popular," and that artists' jobs are "to hold a mirror to society.” Unfortunately, much of today's creative class seems to just practice mass virtue signaling —the opposite of icons like James Brown, who "had the integrity to stand on their convictions."Josh’s recent album Zion tackles everything from the Masada defenders' last battle against Rome to abortion's impact on the Black community—controversial topics that will get pushback when he posts about them online, but that audiences love in song form.Music, he explains, "can't be translated to a tweet"—it's a richer medium, one that reaches people differently. Josh's advice for artists afraid to speak up? "There are a lot more of us who are like-minded than you would think. We just think we're so small in number, and I don't think we are."Learn more about Josh’s work with IBSI at: https://ibsi.org/

"Ideas are more powerful than all the armies of the world. Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come." Victor Hugo’s observation resonates with Lawrence Reed, FEE's President Emeritus and author of the forthcoming Born of Ideas, who traces his liberty awakening to 1968 when Soviet tanks crushed Prague Spring. Then, he was a 14-year-old watching people who simply wanted to speak their minds get destroyed for demanding basic rights. Now, nearly 60 years into his "otherwise unemployable" career advancing liberty, Larry argues that July 4, 1776 was "this incredible combination...like a thunderclap" where "men and women of solid character" met "revolutionary ideas" about human rights. Larry teaches students that ideas—not institutions, media, or parents—determine "whether people live in a free society or an unfree society," but close behind ideas is character: "people who don't have high character...they're not likely to be free. They're not fit to be free." Free speech, he argues, is "the verbal manifestation of the freedom to think"—without it "you might as well be a robot," or in North Korea where "just thinking something and saying it can get you thrown in prison or worse." Addressing critics who dismiss the founders for not abolishing slavery immediately, Larry warns against "presentism"—judging the past by present standards, comparing it to putting the Wright Brothers in a courtroom asking "what good are you?" because their plane lacked tray tables and Wi-Fi. In closing, he offers inspiration from Valley Forge: those soldiers weren't freezing and starving for iPhones or gourmet meals but "for a principle of individual liberty. That's exciting stuff. Life without liberty is just absolutely unthinkable."Delve deeper into Larry’s work at: https://www.lawrencewreed.com/

Why do we celebrate America's birthday on July 4th and not July 2nd when the Declaration was actually voted on, or 1775 when shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, or 1783 when Britain finally acknowledged our independence in the Treaty of Paris?In this special episode, co-hosts Chris and Joia dive into why the Declaration of Independence—an act of speech—became the defining moment of America's founding."America began with an act of free speech," Chris observes, noting that this "shows how foundational speech is to freedom and to this country and why, therefore it was included in the First Amendment." The Declaration wasn't just theory—it was "planting a flag firmly in the ground," a statement that transformed British colonists into rebels declaring their identity to the world.Joia and Chris explore how the Declaration served as both America's "vision and mission statement" (while the Constitution became "the business plan"), calling the founders "the ultimate entrepreneurs" who created something purposefully new. They argue that its endurance for 250 years—making America's government structure among the longest-lasting modern governments—proves the Declaration contains "fundamentally good ideas in accord with human nature at our best."Drawing inspiration from Jefferson's inclusion of the people's right to change government when it oversteps its bounds, they see an "entrepreneurial spirit" that calls each generation to "constantly renew and experiment in new ways to better live up to the ideals it lays out."Their challenge for this semiquincentennial year? According to Joia, "this is the year for declarations"—for each person to stake their own claim about timeless principles and announce to the world, "this is what matters, let me give you clarity on my identity." Because, as Chris notes, "we inherited this great gift and it's incumbent upon us to live up to those ideals if we're to preserve it for the next generations."Happy birthday, America!