“The Choice”: A graphic means to explain freedom vs tyranny to American teenage girls

 

By Jon Sutz

November 17, 2024

Summary: In 2011 I was challenged by a philanthropist – who’d rejected me – to design and write a single-frame graphic, that explained something vital to explaining the dividing line between freedom and tyranny. Until now, the only people with whom I shared this graphic were other philanthropists to whom I submitted funding pitches, and colleagues. It had never been in the public domain — until now.

The back story of how this challenge came about is presented below. It explains why this graphic is (a) an example of what is, and has long been, absent in our public discussions, and (b) the primary reason for its absence: the dysfunctional, often self-sabotaging operational models employed by most of the West’s top-tier nonprofits and educational institutions. This absence, more than anything any “they” are doing to us, is the reason why so young Americans are embracing totalitarian ideologies that I believe, if explained to them properly, they would reject with every fiber of their beings.

I hope that this graphic, “The Choice,” will be useful in starting to transport us to a place in which people of good will and common sense can unite, to fight for their own freedom — and over the long term, for the freedom of all people, everywhere.

Contents

(1) Preface: How many young Americans are embracing Islamist totalitarianism? Brace yourself.

(2) My creation of “The Choice”

(3) The accompanying narrative I wrote, to help prepare young American females to be receptive to consider “The Choice”

(4) The reaction I got to “The Choice”

(5) The basic truth that I believe, as to how we got to this place — and what’s going to be required to get us out of it

(6) How I envision “The Choice” being presented on TikTok and other social media platforms

(7) Additional resources to supplement “The Choice”

(8) Earlier examples of my work to raise awareness of these issues

(1) Preface: How many young Americans are embracing Islamist totalitarianism? Brace yourself.

Sometime around 2011, I was challenged by a prospective funder of my freedom activism to produce an example of what I described was lacking in our social spaces — particularly those that America’s young people use to form their impressions. Specifically, the challenge posed to me was to create a single-frame graphic that explained something vital to understand the dividing line between freedom and tyranny, in as simple of a way as I could conceive.

A brief background is necessary to understand how this challenge came about.

As part of my pitches for activism projects, documentaries, etc., I always included a sampling of my deep research (example here), indicating (a) how badly the cause of freedom was being eroded, and (b) why the existing approaches of top-tier organizations, however well-intended, simply were not an effective counter-force to the lies and distortions that were being force-fed into our children’s heads.  Children who, in a few years, would be electing our next generation of leaders, and working in our newsrooms, colleges and Hollywood.

I am not a savant. However, based on the data I’d seen, and my cultural observations, I could clearly sense where things were going, regarding America’s young people, soon after I became involved in counter-terrorism research, blogging and investigative journalism in 2007.  Sixteen years later, in the wake of the 10/7 massacre, while others were shocked to see survey numbers like these, I was not:

  • 50% of American 18-34 year olds say Hamas’s October 7 murder-rape-torture-kidnapping of Jews was “justified”
  • 48% of American college students do not blame Hamas for the October 7 terrorist attack
  • 40% of Americans under age 35 support Hamas more than Israel

I thought about this, and decided to address something that always upsets me: witnessing idealistic young Americans being taught that it is “racist” to say that some cultures are better than others — especially in the context of not saying anything unkind about fundamentalist Islam.  If you doubt me, consider this recent news story: a taxpayer-funded NJ school district apologized for calling ISIS a terrorist organization, in a quiz:

New Jersey school district apologizes for offending Muslim group with question about ISIS terror group in quiz, NY Post, June 22, 2024

The there was the 2021 case of the largest public school board in Canada canceling a speech for students by an ISIS rape slavery survivor, Nadia Murad, for the same reason as the NJ school board apologized — out of fear of inciting “Islamophobia”:

Toronto school cancels ISIS survivor event with Nadia Murad, NY Post, November 27, 2021

Then there was the 2014 case of freedom activist and former Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali being invited — then disinvited — from giving a speech at one of America’s most (supposedly) leading freedom-oriented universities… for the same reason:

Amid protests, Brandeis withdraws honour for Ayaan Hirsi Ali, defender of Muslim women and critic of Islam, National Post (Canada), April 9, 2014

Returning now to 2011, I framed this challenge in my mind as being: What could I create that, in one frame, would start the process of injecting a dose of reality into young Americans’ minds, particularly females, so they can clearly begin to understand the virtue of freedom — versus what life would be like for them, under fundamentalist totalitarian Muslim rule?  And ultimately, what could I create that would prove the truth of Ayn Rand’s adage:

“Teach men the correct principles, and their own minds will do the rest.”

(2) My creation of “The Choice”

“It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”

– Samuel Adams

Here’s what I created — an opportunity for those young Americans, in particular, young females, to evaluate two alternative worlds in which they could live, and make a choice.

The bottom image is of 11-year-old Ghulam Haider, who was forced by her family to marry this 40-year-old man, in Afghanistan. Read the details at The New York Times, here. (Also see a CNN segment about this practice, focusing on a 9-year-old girl whose family forced her to marry a 55-year-old man, here.)

The upper image used to be a similar picture I searched for and found online at the time (2011), but as I prepared this piece to be shared publicly, for the first time, I had an AI image generator create this image, based on my detailed description. Here’s what I remember of how I phrased what I wanted to see: “A mocha colored girl, running in a crop-top, with the sun behind her, her whole life ahead of her, living in freedom, and a radiant smile that shows she relishes it on a cellular level.”

(3) The accompanying narrative I wrote, to help prepare young American females to be receptive to consider “The Choice”

When I created the “The Choice” graphic, and presented it to the organization (being funded by the aforementioned philanthropist) with which I hoped to work to develop it, I also wrote the related Q&A that would help frame and support it, in the minds of young Americans — particularly teenage females:

One need not obtain a degree in philosophy, history or economics, or engage in long self-study, to grasp the virtue of human freedom. I define “freedom,” in this context, as the individual’s natural right to freely exist, think, act, express oneself, and to create, acquire and dispose of property, all as he/she wishes, without restriction, assuming that in doing so, they are not violating others’ equal rights — and in a social context, existing under a governmental apparatus that is designed and operates to protect these rights.

I believe that the vast majority of people throughout the world, especially adolescents (ages 12-17), would naturally support this definition of freedom, enthusiastically, on principle, if it were explained to them in an effective manner — meaning, that they can easily understand, validate as accurate, and relate to their own lives. Doing so does not require any special abilities, or cash investment — only the courage to approach the matter using plain, simple language, in an empathetic manner.

Basic questions

For example, here are some basic questions that I believe support this premise, that can be asked of adolescents, anywhere in the world, provided their minds have not been pickled since birth in anti-freedom ideologies:

Do you believe your body belongs to you, to do with what you want, so long as you’re not hurting others? Or, do you believe others should be allowed to force you to do things you don’t want to, or make you feel uncomfortable, or hurt you?

Do you believe you have the natural right to play/interact with the kids you like, and avoid those you don’t? Or do you believe you should be forced to play/interact with those you don’t like?

Do you believe that if your parents give you a toy, as a gift, it is yours, to use as you want, and to allow those you give permission to, to play with it? Or, do you believe you should be forced to allow all the other other kids who want to play with your toy, including those you don’t like or even know, to do so?

Do you believe that if your parent/s offer to give you a certain amount of money in exchange for you doing certain household chores (often called an “allowance”), that the money you earn is yours — to spend, save, or give away to others, as you want? Or, do you believe you should be forced to give some, most or all of your money to other kids, in your neighborhood (including those you don’t like), or in far away places, whom you’ve never met?

Do you believe people have the natural right to listen to the music they want to, watch the movies and TV shows they want to, and read the books they want to? And, to write and create the kinds of stories, music and movies they want? Or, do you believe they should be forced to listen to, watch and read what someone else tells them to? And that someone should have the power to forbid them to listen to, watch or read certain things — or to create any art, with out first obtaining permission from some authority?

And for young ladies:

Do you believe you have the natural right to decide who you will date, marry, and if and when you have children? Or, do you believe someone else should make these decisions for you, and force you to comply with them?

(4) The reaction I got to “The Choice”

The official response I received from my challenger was, essentially, “That’s not what we do.”

In one form or another, I’ve heard this five-word rejection over and over again, from organizations and philanthropists whom one might think would most value such radically different, simpler approaches to conveying vital information to general audiences, in a way that they — and especially, the young — can truly understand, relate to their own lives, and verify as accurate.

Returning now to this philanthropist and his challenge, the more I dug, my read of the “tea leaves” was that the organization he backed:

  • Believed that you can’t punch that hard, that directly, or place things into such stark, potentially “offensive” terms, that might incite “Islamophobia”
  • Was fearful that such a graphic could provoke the wrath of groups like CAIR, and a constellation of “social justice” groups, all the way up to MSNBC, which would work as one to destroy this organization (see “The Smear” by Sharyl Attkisson, 2017)
  • Felt that it’s better to take more traditional approaches, but with increased distribution

I disagreed, then, as I do to this day.  10/7 has helped to start changing things.  The mass outpouring of hatred for Israel and America that was incited in the following hours, days, weeks and months — and the unwillingness of top-tier nonprofits to publicly go head-to-head against peddlers of the biggest lies that triggered the inferno of rage — has reaffirmed my view that what this realm needs is a total reboot, and more: that there needs to be a thorough housecleaning of the “organizational leaders” who saw the metrics of where things were headed more than a decade ago, but refused to act to combat the lies, their peddlers and their enablers.

Everything that we are now witnessing is the fruit borne of their denial, dysfunction, cowardice, and worse. The good news is that at least some philanthropists, new and long-term, are coming to see the reality, and are at least willing to seriously consider radically new, different, better ways to fight — and fight to win — the battle of ideas, between freedom and tyranny.

“That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be.”

– P.C. Hodgell

(5) The basic truth that I believe, as to how we got to this place — and what’s going to be required to get us out of it

Legendary investor Peter Thiel says that a key question he asks of job applicants is:

“What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”

After analyzing how badly freedom is losing on every front in the information war, the unpopular truth I’ve arrived at is:

More than anything else, the outpouring of support among young people throughout the West for Hamas is driven by two things: (1) The official silence among top-tier advocacy organizations regarding issues relating to “The Choice,” and other matters that are essential to understanding jihadist terror and totalitarianism; and (2) Other organizations’ refusal to format such knowledge and evidence in a way that is understandable and persuasive to young people.

On a broader scale, it does not matter whether the savages under discussion are religious or atheists, anarchists or criminal gangs.  So long as they rail against America, Israel, freedom and capitalism, and use thuggery and brutality to get their way, roughly half of America’s young people now find “intersectionality” with them* — because nothing in their field of view has ever substantively challenged what they have been told throughout their lives. 

This problem is only going to get worse until and unless freedom-oriented philanthropists begin backing new organizations, that will start with an acceptance of these basic truths, and will stage a late-inning rally to fight for freedom — and fight to win. This will require creating the kinds of knowledge tools and activism strategies that are designed from the ground up to overcome decades of denial, evasions and self-sabotage by those who were supposed to be waging this war.

*Examples:

  • 58% of American Millennials say they would rather live under either communism, socialism or fascism, than under capitalism
  • 61% of Americans aged between 18 and 24 have a positive reaction to the word “socialism”
  • 70% of Millennials say they would vote for a socialist
  • The number of Millennials who say they “approve of communism” jumped from 28% in 2018 to 36% in 2019
  • 19% of American college students overall, including 22% of Republican students, believe it is “acceptable” to initiate violence to prevent a invited guest from speaking on campus, if his/her critics claim s/he makes “offensive and hurtful statements”
  • 51% of Democrats, and 37% of Republicans support passing a law that would criminalize “hate speech,” meaning any statement or expression that a racial, religious, sexual or ethnic minority might find offensive
  • 40 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 35 support government censorship of “statements that are offensive to minority groups”

(6) How I envision “The Choice” being presented on TikTok and other social media platforms

The specifics of how this would unfold, whether motion graphics or stills, is TBD. What I wanted to depict here is a basic visual structure of how the core content would be formatted for TikTok, where many if not most Americans get their “news” and information, and for other social media platforms.

(7) Additional resources to supplement “The Choice”

Here is a small sampling of items that are readily available to help advance basic knowledge regarding the clash between freedom and tyranny, as it applies to young American (and Western) females:

Learn more about this incident at:

Horrifying moment parents ‘try to choke their daughter, 17, to death in an honor killing’ outside her school – Daily Mail Online, November 14, 2024

Massacre at a music festival = Horrific.

Translation (Google):

“A 12-year-old girl is forced by her own family to marry a 62-year-old man. Look at her eyes. I’ve never seen eyes so full of pain and sadness. This is just one story of hundreds of thousands of young girls who are forcibly married in Muslim countries.”

Una niña de 12 años es obligada por su propia familia a casarse con un hombre de 62 años.

Mira sus ojos. Nunca había visto unos ojos tan llenos de dolor y tristeza.

Esto es sólo una historia de las cientos de miles de jóvenes que son casadas a la fuerza en países musulmanes.… pic.twitter.com/zRmPIqpViJ

— Salwan Momika (@Salwan_Momika1) August 12, 2024

(8) Earlier examples of my work to raise awareness of these issues

I have spent an enormous amount of time since 2008, often on a self-funded basis, to figure out new ways to help puncture the wall of silence, and responsibly address the gap between (a) normal adolescents’ actual values — and (b) the reality of what is being kept from them. Or, in the case of the infographic report, below, what is also being spoon-fed to them, by the most influential, advertiser-backed “news” organizations.

 

SLIDE SHOW: Special report: The U.S. “news” media depicts an American terrorist and her son as “Madonna & Child” — by Jon Sutz, .

A visual analysis with deep documentation that reveals how America’s biggest “news” organizations glamorized, whitewashed and championed the cause of an ISIS bride. The full report, with source evidence, is here.

 

Who benefits from the lies being spread about the “caravans”? Woman and child sex traffickers — by Jon Sutz, November 3, 2018.

I wrote this report — actually a sub-report from a larger one — for the website I used to edit, SaveTheWest.com. It was in response to the “news” media glossing over the data showing the horrors being allowed onto American soil, while labeling anyone who was concerned about them “white supremacists” or “xenophobes,” who “sound just like Trump.”

 

Project Nehad: A volunteer organization I created in 2015 to help a 17-year-old female ISIS rape slave, Nehad Barkat, to heal, and obtain whatever medical, dental and psychological support she needed, starting by relocating to a breathtaking horse ranch in central Virginia, that was owned by a friend of mine.

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