The Halloween season is back, yet the most frightening presence remains the State, master of the world’s most elaborate trick-or-treat scheme: taxation. Frankly, it deserves a Javier Milei-style Texas Chainsaw Massacre in its next fiscal budget.
This fall, enjoy a series of short pieces from our editorial team on the spookiest things the State does — along with a selection of specially curated Halloween-themed articles from SpeakFreely Magazine.
John Devlin – Editor-in-Chief Magazine
Scary? I’m not scared this Halloween. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I can sleep safe and sound on October 31st, without worrying about any ghouls or fiends lurking in the shadows.
This year, the key enforceable duties of the UK’s Online Safety Act (2023) came into force, meaning that citizens now effectively need ID verification to watch pornography. In my village, this blessing means it’s now much easier to make an example of sinners before the congregation. They stand in the meetinghouse with the scarlet letter of their sin while we berate them, and through their punishment we can ensure that others may fear and not do likewise. It’s a bit harsh, perhaps, but to paraphrase Matthew 5:30, it’s better to lose the hand that offends than for the whole body to go to hell.
Also, the UK banned ninja swords this year, so my village no longer needs to worry about attacks from samurai assassins.
Oscar Gill-Lewis – Correspondent Program Manager
In the United Kingdom, the scariest thing the state does is to regulate speech in person as well as on social media platforms. More than 30 people are arrested every day in the UK for “communication offences”. This equates to more than 12,000 people arrested every year. Meanwhile, more than 300 people have been arrested under the Online Safety Act since 2023, when the Act came into force. These are particularly egregious examples that are speech-related. The police have been guilty of overreach in many other aspects, for example, treating a man with great suspicion and repeatedly pestering him with questions about why he took his daughter to a hotel housing illegal migrants, for her safety. These are the same police who ignore stolen phones or bicycles that the victim can track and can share the location of the stolen item with the police. Furthermore, last year only 11% of violent and sexual offence cases were closed due to the arrest or charging of a suspect, which was a sharp decline from previous years. This is the same police department that complains they are underfunded and understaffed. A police force and government that pursues communication offences which stifle freedom of expression while ignoring genuine and important crimes across the country, while claiming victim status due to underfunding, is truly terrifying. If the police come to your door for trick or treat, I can only recommend that you keep your door firmly shut.
Ian Golan – Executive Publisher
Once again this autumn, thousands of teenage boys are abducted out of their homes. Countless young men are kidnapped under the point of a gun for months on end. They are torn away from their free lives, careers, studies, hobbies, family and friends; their pets left behind to be euthanised.
Why would a state do such a thing? Because nothing delights the state quite like free labour.
And so teenagers are herded like cattle into barracks to serve the state. They are stripped of their clothes and forcibly dressed in uniforms. Their days are filled with pointless orders to drill in obedience. Their bodies are pushed to the limits of exhaustion with forced work and training. Their lives are enslaved by the state in the conscription regime.
And yet, for many, their fate warrants no moral consideration.
No tribunal prosecutes their abductors.
No court challenges their slave wages.
No human rights organisation bothers to monitor their forced servitude.
The real nightmare this Halloween is Europe’s eagerness to enslave its youth again.
Ogechukwu Egwuatu – Editor-in-Chief Website
As usual, our knight in shining armour, Sir State, rides in to “rescue” us again. This time, from the twin terrors of “harmful speech” and “foreign influence.”
Since we the hapless citizens are clearly just a horde of mindless zombies at the mercy of the commands of our zombie overlord, Sir State insists we must be kept under constant surveillance. The old-fashioned CCTV cauldrons bubbling on every street corner are no longer enough. Now our chats are haunted, our messages possessed, and Big Brother is hosting a ghostly watch party through our phone cameras.
What’s next? Warning pop ups when we’re teetering too close to forbidden thought?
Tania Rak – Head of Partnerships
The scariest thing the state is doing today is actively feeding polarization — turning citizens against each other to keep power stable. Around the world, governments exploit division as a political strategy: framing opponents as enemies, amplifying outrage through media they quietly influence, and rewarding emotional loyalty over critical thinking. The more divided people are, the easier they are to govern. After all, they will be busy fighting each other instead of questioning authority. What’s truly frightening is that polarization isn’t an accident anymore; it’s policy. No suppression of speech is needed when you flood it to the point that truth becomes indistinguishable from rhetoric.
Paritosh Purohit – Editor
The median public fellow today might, if asked their opinion on speech, suggest that it be generally free “except for hate speech”. Not dissimilarly, asked their views on the building of homes for the poor, he might insist that regulations make certain that homes too small or too lacking in features are not built, to keep from “exploiting” those least fortunate. The impression one gets is that everything deemed Good Enough should be made mandatory and guaranteed by state fiat, and everything deemed Too Bad be banned.
That is perhaps the most chilling of the tendencies of our age; it serves to create a politics in which the herd, and not the person, is dominant, with dissenting persons forced to “assimilate” to the preferences of the mob, and it also defaults to using state power- instead of persuasion or voluntary exchange- to get things done. At the end of this road lies an ossified state trying to play parent, teacher, and moral police, and a society bereft of initiative and reduced to waiting in line, cap in hand.
Sergio Castilla Santos – Social Media Manager
The ground trembles and cracks open… darkness advances and we begin to feel tingling in the fingers. It’s the death’s cold that starts to graze us. Luckily, we can still speak. We’re far apart, but we can still shout to one another. Our voices unite us… It’s the little we have left, our patria, the language we inhabit.
Let me tell you the story of a nation whose people walk in fear that the ground may open beneath their feet. Who sleep in anxiety, never knowing when they’ll once again have to abandon civilization and “flee to the mountains.” The only nation in Europe where, even in the 20th century, a still staggering illiteracy rate led to a “communist social revolution,” where, as a result, leftist fanatics murdered businessmen, priests, or anyone deemed dangerous… for their ideas. A nation so unstable that throughout the 19th century, its politics were repeatedly overturned by military uprisings (1848, 1854, 1868…). A place where the republic was proclaimed in 1873 because the king himself voluntarily renounced the throne, declaring the country ungovernable.
Spain is that nation. It’s not foreigners who attack it with words, ink, or steel, it’s Spaniards themselves, turned against one another, as King Amadeo I suggested in his abdication. There are terrifying tales, but none frightens me more than witnessing the growing politicization of social life, the weakness now shown by liberal democracy… In this sense, Spain — like the rest of the Hispanic world — stands as a warning. Let us defend freedom; let us not fall into totalitarianism.
What can be more scary than horrid architecture?
Yonatan Daon dives into how the West has forgotten what beauty means, and argues that the often adored Cathedral in Cologne is not beautiful, it is monstrous.
Harry Potter and the Spontaneous Order (Of the Phoenix)
In Vera Kichanova’s thought-provoking piece, she delves into the Ministry of Magic’s portrayal as a nightmarish bureaucracy. From unjust incarcerations to media manipulation, the Ministry embodies the terrifying consequences of unchecked governmental power.
The Rise of Medievalism in Poland
Teodor Gluza uncovers the spine-chilling rise of medieval ideologies in Poland, where the ghost of the past is haunting the present. Grzegorz Braun, once a fringe figure, is now leading the charge towards a return to theocratic and authoritarian rule. The specter of tyranny is back, and it’s more terrifying than ever.
Through Emerald-Tinted Glasses: Authoritarianism in Wicked
In this eerie examination, José Alejandro Iturralde Camacho discusses how the Wizard’s regime uses the sentient Animals of Oz as scapegoats to justify oppression. Stripped of their rights and voices, they become the targets of fear and division, allowing the Wizard to maintain his grip on power.
Georgia’s War on Weed Is Really a War on Youth
In a chilling twist, Georgia has resurrected its most draconian drug laws from the grave. What was once a beacon of progressive reform in 2018 has now become a nightmare for the youth. Giorgi Kajaia exposes how the government’s latest crackdown on marijuana is not about public health and more about silencing dissent and punishing the next generation.
Red Streets, Queer Ghosts: A Libertarian’s Life on Via Stalingrado
Vinayakan takes readers on a spectral journey through Bologna’s Via Stalingrado, a street named in honor of a regime that once oppressed minorities. Despite the city’s progressive reputation, the street’s name serves as a haunting reminder of ideological contradictions.
The Welfare Paradox: How States Expand Welfare While Deepening Inequality
In this eerie exposé, Manuel A. Alvarez unveils the chilling contradiction at the heart of modern governance: states expanding welfare programs while deepening inequality. Drawing from Margaret Levi’s The Predatory Theory of Rule, Alvarez argues that governments, in their quest to maximize control, employ inflationary tactics that erode the purchasing power of the poor, all while cloaking their actions in the guise of benevolence.
Dexter Resurrection: the Dark Passenger becomes a YIMBY Avenger
The streets of New York are haunted by the Dark Passenger, and America’s favorite serial killer Dexter, sets his sights on a new breed of monsters: the murderous NIMBYs.
Red-Tape Continent
Our editor-in-chief Oge, explores the ghostly presence of EU regulations that loom over member states, often unseen yet ever-present. These phantom policies dictate everything from agricultural practices to digital services, creating a spectral environment where innovation is stifled and autonomy is compromised.
Émile Durkheim’s Suicide: A Study in Sociology
Beatriz Santos revisits Durkheim’s concept of fatalistic suicide, a form he deemed theoretical due to its extreme nature. Santos argues that this type of suicide is not only real but also prevalent in societies with stringent regulations and limited personal freedoms.
Gamers, Ghosts, and the Comic-Con Catastrophe
Sergio Castilla Santos uncovers the chilling tale of how a regional government turned a comic-con dream into a fiscal nightmare. Millions of euros, including EU funds, vanished into the shadows of mismanagement, leaving behind chaos, empty halls, and phantom organisers. What was meant to celebrate heroes and villains became a real-life horror story of bureaucratic greed and public money gone missing. A haunting reminder that sometimes, the scariest monsters wear suits.
