(see "Government should fear the people...", "Power always thinks...", "Those who give up liberty for security...", et cetera)

Yes, whoever would give up liberty for security deserves neither. Okay, government should fear the people rather than people the government. Sure, the tree of liberty must be fertilized with the blood of tyrants. Right, government is a dangerous servant and fearful master. We get the point.

The problem is, nobody here is pro-tyranny. There's no one on Reddit who thinks "Wow, I was going to support government dominance of every facet of existence enforced by fear and an omnipresent police force, but this one George Washington quote really changed my mind!"

Everyone, including the people who are taking away our rights the fastest, thinks that they're doing the right thing and the other guy is supporting tyranny. Somewhere down in Alabama some conservative is thinking that thank God that Bush put into place decent laws to protect us from terrorists, but how dare that tyrant Obama try to control the populace by socializing medicine? And up in Seattle, some liberal is thinking that thank God Obama's solving the medical crisis, but that wiretapping laws are a threat to personal privacy. Who's right? The answer almost certainly doesn't lie in both sides quoting Thomas Jefferson while glancing meaningfully at the other guy.

Tyranny advances under the banner of freedom. Lenin said that everyone had to back him or else they'd be oppressed by the czar and the capitalists forever. The people who want corporations to rule everything are trying to convince you that government regulation is a form of tyranny. The whole point of the tea party protests was that the people involved thought they were opposing tyranny.

Unless there's some specific person who approves of the vague concept of tyranny whom you're arguing against, stop using Reddit to shout "I hate tyranny!" really loud, and start pointing out specific examples of tyranny or specific programs to combat it. That's where we can all become more educated and motivated and actually help to fight tyranny in a meaningful way.