#free-thought — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #free-thought, aggregated by home.social.
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A quotation from Henry Commager
The concept of loyalty as conformity is a false one. It is narrow and restrictive, denies freedom of thought and of conscience, and is irremediably stained by private and selfish considerations.
Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1947-09), “Who Is Loyal to America?” sec. 3, Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 195, No. 1168More about this quote: wist.info/commager-henry-steel…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #commager #henrycommager #conformity #freethought #freedomofconscience #freedomofthought #loyalty #onetrueway #orthodoxy #selfcenteredness #selfishness
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I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles. So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.
-- Kurt Vonnegut (A Man Without a Country)⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #KurtVonnegut #Bullies #CivilLiberties #FreeThought #Libraries
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Panopainting #Seashells #Everglades #Florida
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Washington never once called Jesus divine in public. That wasn't evasion — it was deism. And deism was the founding framework of American freethought, per @bledewitz.bsky.social.
#Freethought #Secularism #Deism #ChurchAndState #AmericanHistory
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📜 HERESY REBORN: Apparently, we’ve teleported back to the Middle Ages, where the real career hazards are no longer crime or marriage, but the unthinkable act of having an unpopular opinion. 🤯 Ah yes, the modern workplace, where the gallows for free thought are hidden behind trendy open floor plans and beanbag chairs. 💼🔮
https://paulgraham.com/heresy.html #HeresyReborn #MiddleAges #WorkplaceCulture #FreeThought #CareerHazards #UnpopularOpinion #HackerNews #ngated -
When liberty’s position is challenged, artists and writers are the ones who first take up the sword. They do so without persuasion, for the battle is peculiarly their own. In the nature of things, a person engaged in the flimsy business of expressing himself on paper is dependent on the large general privilege of being heard. Any intimation that this privilege may be revoked throws a writer into a panic. His is a double allegiance to freedom — an intellectual one springing from the conviction that pure thought has a right to function unimpeded, and a selfish one springing from his need, as a breadwinner, to be allowed to speak his piece.
E. B. White (1899-1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
Essay (1939-01), “One Man’s Meat,” Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 178More about this quote: wist.info/white-eb/84790/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #ebwhite #artist #censorship #control #freethought #freedomofexpression #freedomofthought #liberty #tyranny #writer
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Most secular reading lists are just 'have you tried Hitchens?' This one actually expands the frame — 10 books that survived the DNF pile.
https://onlys.ky/10-eye-opening-secular-books-for-a-new-perspective/
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RE: https://mstdn.social/@FromTheRostra/116450584293665151
Finished reading. Great coverage of freethought from late 18th to early 20th century.
Interesting to see some cyclical history. Hoffman describes an antiscriptural emphasis to the Paine era & social reform emphasis in the Robert Owen era, which prefigures a similar difference in 20th/21st century freethought between skeptical debunking and social justice emphases.
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To declare oneself a follower of Jesus is not only to insult history and reason but to apologize for the murderers of Arius, Molinos and Cranmer, the persecutors of science, the upholders of slavery and the suppressors of all free thought and speech. https://library.hrmtc.com/2026/04/23/to-declare-oneself-a-follower-of-jesus-is-not-only-to-insult-history-and-reason-but-to-apologize-for-the-murderers-of-arius-molinos-and-cranmer-the-persecutors-of-science-the-upholders-of-slavery-a/ #aleisterCrowley #all #apologize #Arius #book #declare #follower #freeSpeech #freeThought #hermeneuticon #history #iconomancy #insult #jesus #MiguelDeMolinos #Molinos #Murderers #notOnly #oneself #persecutors #quote #reason #science #slavery #speech #suppressors #TheConfessionsOfAleisterCrowley #ThomasCranmer #Thought #upholders -
Reading David C. Hoffman's American Freethought (2025) and saw the National Liberal League's 1880 presidential platform, including this plank:
"Universal education the basis of universal suffrage in this secular republic."
As true now as it was then.
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Some relevant hashtags:
#CriticalPedagogy #CriticalManagementStudies #CriticalEd #CriticalEdTech #education #EdTech #EmergentStrategy #FountainPens #freethought #HigherEd #Humanism #interbelief #interfaith #intersectionality #introduction #nonreligion #labor #LaborUnions #OrganizationalCommunication #PaperNotebooks #Paper #Pencil #Pen #rhetoric #SciFi #secular #stationery #TeachingWriting #writing #WritingTools
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Hi I'm new! Excited to join a community away from the old bones. I'm into
#writing
#mentalhealth
#Freethought
#Anarchy
#dogs
#education
#unschooling
#books
#film
#sea
#sun
#moon
#mountain
#roadtrips
#cozy
#thrifting
#mutualaid
#ACAB
And more!
HAPPY TO BE HERE -
A quotation from Adlai Stevenson
And the freedom of the mind, my friends, has served America well. The vigor of our political life, our capacity for change, our cultural, scientific, and industrial achievements, all derive from free inquiry, from the free mind — from the imagination, resourcefulness, and daring of men who are not afraid of new ideas. Most all of us favor free enterprise for business. Let us also favor free enterprise for the mind. For, in the last analysis, we would fight to the death to protect it.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-08-27), “The Nature of Patriotism,” American Legion Convention, Madison Square Garden, New York CityMore about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewin…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #adlaistevenson #America #freeenterprise #freethought #freedom #freedomofthought #ideas #imagination #inquiry #marketplaceofideas
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#FreeSpeech
without #FreeThought
is a miserable and pathetic act.For as you wave your arms
and kick your legs
while spewing your speech,
I see the strings
holding your hands,
feet, tongue & mind.I see not the human,
merely a pet,
that's been trained
and neutered. -
A quotation from William Drummond
He, who will not reason, is a bigot; he, who cannot, is a fool; and he, who dares not, is a slave.
William Drummond of Logie-Almond (1770-1828) Scottish classical scholar, philosopher, diplomat, politician
Academical Questions, Preface (1805)More about this quote: wist.info/drummond-william/273…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #williamdrummond #freethought #freedomofthought #meme #mindcontrol #reason #reasonability #reasoning #slavery #thinking #thought #tyranny #unreasoning
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A quotation from Adlai Stevenson
The anatomy of patriotism is complex. But surely intolerance and public irresponsibility cannot be cloaked in the shining armor of rectitude and righteousness. Nor can the denial of the right to hold ideas that are different — the freedom of man to think as he pleases. To strike freedom of the mind with the fist of patriotism is an old and ugly subtlety.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-08-27), “The Nature of Patriotism,” American Legion Convention, Madison Square Garden, New York CityMore about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewin…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #adlaistevenson #prejudice #liberty #freethought #freedomofthought #ideas #intolerance #irresponsibility #opinions #patriotism
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A quotation from Thomas Carlyle
No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, could ever compel the soul of a man to believe or to disbelieve: it is his own indefeasible light, that judgment of his; he will reign, and believe there, by the grace of God alone!
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-15), “The Hero as Priest,” Home House, Portman Square, LondonMore about this quote: wist.info/carlyle-thomas/6667/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #thomascarlyle #belief #compulsion #force #freethought #freedomofreligion #freedomofthought #intolerance #judgment #orthodoxy #religiousfreedom #religiousintolerance #selfdirection #soul #theocracy
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Let the human Mind loose. It must be loose; it will be loose. Superstition and Despotism cannot confine it.
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Letter (1816-11-13) to John Quincy AdamsMore about this quote: wist.info/adams-john/6140/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #johnadams #despotism #dogma #freethought #freedom #liberty #orthodoxy #superstition #tyranny #freethinking
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I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles. So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.
-- Kurt Vonnegut (A Man Without a Country)⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #KurtVonnegut #Bullies #CivilLiberties #FreeThought #Libraries
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Sunset #Kayaks #Everglades #Florida
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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt
I have been one of those who have carried the fight for complete freedom of information in the United Nations. And while accepting the fact that some of our press, our radio commentators, our prominent citizens and our movies may at times be blamed legitimately for things they have said and done, still I feel that the fundamental right of freedom of thought and expression is essential. If you curtail what the other fellow says and does, you curtail what you yourself may say and do.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1947-10-29), “My Day”More info about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/60…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #eleanorroosevelt #huaac #redscare #censorship #freespeech #freethought #freedomofexpression #freedomofinformation #freedomofspeech #freedom of thought
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"But, it wasn’t the constant degradation of women or the villainization of feminism from the summit’s speakers that disturbed me the most. Instead, what really bothered me was the all-female crowd’s eager embrace of the sermon-like remarks that urged the attendees to trade ambition for obedience, education for marriage and independence for servitude."
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A quotation from Robert Ingersoll
Whoever worships, abdicates. Whoever believes at the command of power, tramples his own individuality beneath his feet, and voluntarily robs himself of all that renders man superior to the brute.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Lecture (1873-12) “Individuality,” Chicago Free Religious SocietySourcing, notes: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertingersoll #robertgreeningersoll #belief #coercion #freethought #individuality #obedience #power #worship
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#Congressional #Freethought Caucus Asks #IRS to Reconsider Decision to Allow #Church Endorsements of #Candidates
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A quotation from Robert Ingersoll
The Church hates a thinker precisely for the same reason a robber dislikes a sheriff, or a thief despises the prosecuting witness. Tyranny likes courtiers, flatterers, followers, fawners, and superstition wants believers, disciples, zealots, hypocrites, and subscribers.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Lecture (1873-12) “Individuality,” Chicago Free Religious SocietySourcing, notes: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertingersoll #Christianity #church #freethought #rationality #religion #superstition #thought #tyranny #freethinker
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CLÉANTE:These are the arguments of all your kind:
Since they can’t see, they think that no one ought;
Whoever does, is tainted with free thought;
Whoever balks at pious affectation
Fails to hold piety in veneration.
Come now, for all your talk, I’m not afraid;
Heaven sees my heart, and I know what I’ve said.
[Voilà de vos pareils le discours ordinaire:
Ils veulent que chacun soit aveugle comme eux;
C’est être libertin que d’avoir de bons yeux;
Et qui n’adore pas de vaines simagrées
N’a ni respect ni foi pour les choses sacrées.
Allez, tous vos discours ne me font point de peur;
Je sais comme je parle, et le ciel voit mon cœur.]
Molière (1622-1673) French playwright, actor [stage name for Jean-Baptiste Poquelin]
Tartuffe, or the Hypocrite [Le Tartuffe, ou L’Imposteur], Act 1, sc. 6 (1669) [tr. Frame (1967), 1.5]Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/moliere/77776/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #moliere #tartuffe #accusations #blindness #clearseeing #conscience #devotion #freethought #freethinking #heresy #impiety #orthodoxy #piety #religion
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#Republicans are Inventing Studies to Support their BS