Jeremy Hammond on the left-right political spectrum

People like to think that there's a free press.  People like to think that this is a free country.  But you're not free if your mind is being controlled.  And that's really what I aim to do with my work is to free peoples' minds from mental slavery so that they can see the real world around them because people are really deluded into believing fictional narratives and outright falsehoods.  So people have this worldview that is outright delusional and I want to do what I can to help free minds and to help people see what is really happening.

What really shocks me, in this day and age, when we have the internet at our fingertips, how so many Americans are so trapped in this mindset of viewing everything through this lens, this narrow political spectrum, of left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative, Democrat vs. Republican.  If you can't even escape that narrow framework of thinking - that shouldn't be too challenging - I think that's how most Americans view anything political, through that narrow linear spectrum.

My point of view is completely off that linear chart.  It doesn't fall anywhere along that narrow linear line.  I'm not left or right or center; it doesn't even apply to me in the way that I think.  So people just need to escape this mental box that they've been trapped in and that's really what I aim to do with my work.

The state religion is how I often refer to it.  We're indoctrinated from early childhood into the state religion.  What I mean by that is this belief - religious-like, cult-like faith - that the government is good, it's this benevolent force and we need the government to take care of us, and we need the government to be intervening in every aspect of our lives.  There are so many people who really fervently belief that as a matter of faith because they've been so deeply indoctrinated into that state religion.  And so we need to free people from that mental slavery.

~ Jeremy Hammond, "Interview: Assange Freed + Palestine's Ancient History," jeremyrhammond.com, 14:40 mark, July 10, 2024

(For 2 minute clip of the actual quote, click here.)