If people are not angry enough to stand up at this point they never will be. Jailed liberty activist are helping no one. Cops have gotten away with murder many times now, even children getting needlessly shot or arrested. Politicians couldn't be more blatant with their arrogant evil then they are now. The sheeple don't care. The statists are holding all the cards, so we need to change the game or better yet, quite playing.
I agree with everything you said; in fact, I feel like I'm reading my own post!
I'll be 61 in a couple of weeks, and I have seen a gradual increase in state power for as long as I can remember, and a rapid increase since 9/11.
I railed against seat belt laws here in NYS when they passed them sometime in the '80s. I finally got a ticket about 10 years ago, and I told myself that no way in hell will the state get another penny out of me for not wearing a seatbelt, so I wore it except at night when cops couldn't tell. I felt like at least I was resisting to some degree. Then I started wearing it all the time.
Younger people do not feel this infringement on liberty because the seatbelt law was in place before they were born. This is true of many other laws also.
As James Madison said: "I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
It was true then and is true today. It is human nature to "go along."
I watch Judge Napalitano's show every night. He is the best liberty lover on national media that I'm aware of. But his daily obsession with the Constitution seems a bit silly to me. It's just another irrelevant piece of paper. Pointing out that this or that law is unconstitutional is just a big waste of time, it seems to me.
I don't see any way of turning this ship around. We are rotting from within, similar to the Roman Empire. Endless wars, debasing the currency to pay for them, widespread corruption throughout society, people are obsessed with hedonism, materialism, are rude, inconsiderate to others -- yet are ignorant about liberty and don't even seem to care about it.
Most people think that as long as they can go to the mall, a ball game, car race, concert, have tons of food available, can drive here or there, they are "free."
History is marching on and IMO Western civilization, as we know it, is on its way out. I won't be around in 50 years, but I'd bet my last dollar that it will be a very different world then. The "canaries in the coal mine" are warning about it, and if human history is a lesson then there is nothing anyone -- nor any group -- can do to reverse it.