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The tendency of civil rights being cut down
Well, the topic popped up in another thread, and I think it deserves a thread of its own. Also, I don't want to derail the other one.
We're well on the way to facism and no one cares. If you do happen to care, people think you're crazy.
I can only talk about the situation in Germany, because, well, I don't know jack about US domestic politics, but I think the situation is analog in any other 'western' country.
Now, the tendency is that people freak out about terrorism, and politicians on the right half of the political spectrum (even though right and left is a sort of stupid way to classify parties and politicians, it is still the shortest one) use the public fear to cut down civil rights bit by bit. I could list examples starting from biometrical data in the passport to shooting down kidnapped planes (well, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (~Supreme Court), which I love, declared that unlawful), but since I seem to be the only German on the forum, that would make little sense.
Instead, my questions to you are: How would you rate the recent developments in your country? Why are people doing this (because in most cases, the laws passed don't make anything any safer, just less free)? Do you think the clear-thinking forces in your country will successfully stop this process or is it just downhill from now?
Posted By: hungryjoePosted By: merry_minstrelPosted By: hungryjoeIf you're not living in the US right now, you're lucky.Care to elaborate, maybe in another thread?
We're well on the way to facism and no one cares. If you do happen to care, people think you're crazy.
I can only talk about the situation in Germany, because, well, I don't know jack about US domestic politics, but I think the situation is analog in any other 'western' country.
Now, the tendency is that people freak out about terrorism, and politicians on the right half of the political spectrum (even though right and left is a sort of stupid way to classify parties and politicians, it is still the shortest one) use the public fear to cut down civil rights bit by bit. I could list examples starting from biometrical data in the passport to shooting down kidnapped planes (well, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (~Supreme Court), which I love, declared that unlawful), but since I seem to be the only German on the forum, that would make little sense.
Instead, my questions to you are: How would you rate the recent developments in your country? Why are people doing this (because in most cases, the laws passed don't make anything any safer, just less free)? Do you think the clear-thinking forces in your country will successfully stop this process or is it just downhill from now?
Comments
Fear is a very powerful motivator. Right after the world trade center tragedy occurred, a lot of people were incredibly afraid, and in fear we gave our executive branch (the "action" branch of our government) unusually liberal permissions to address threats. As our fear diminished, growing numbers of people started understanding that those executive permissions were not such a great idea.
If you look at the approval rating of our current president, you can see that when U.S. citizens were the most afraid, his rating was at its highest. In the months following the WTC tragedy, his rating is 80%+. As we became increasingly less afraid, our patience for those liberal executive permissions decreased, as did our approval the officer using them. His current rating is hovering right around 30%.
What this means is that the next president will be very different from our current president (or at least he/she will have to appear so until November 2008). The next president will need to have in mind the public's distaste for occupying foreign countries and wars against abstract enemies as well as the distaste for torture, "secret" prisons, bestowing impunity on violent mercenaries, grievous violations against civil liberties, and generally unethical practices.
In short, I'm pretty sure we'll be okay. Now if only we could do something about this rotten two-party system...
However, I'm very worried that Chimpy is going to bomb Iran, get mixed up in that quagmire, and say, "Well, this is just the type of emergency we foresaw in the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, the National Presidential Security Directive, and the Homeland Security Directive. I can't allow elections to go forward until after the emergency has passed."
Of course, you'd probably think that's crazy because nothing like that has ever happened in any society in history.
At any rate, he also can't attack Iran without Congressional consent, and he doesn't have the budget for it, either.
In addition, the links say it has to be a catastrophic homeland emergency in which state governments can't control the populace -- it's a domestic definition, not a foreign one.
Conspiracy nut ftw.
How does this only restrict the emergency to the U.S.?
Does the mere fact that someone is concerned make them a nut? Does a person have to be completely unconcerned with the state of the world to fit your defintion of sanity?
Also, as of late there are just so many people running around yelling about everything, I'm tired of it. Everybody knows all the bad stuff that's going on. No, none of us like it. We know. The people who are still on the other side are largely just ignorant, and can't be helped anyway. Unless you are going to do something to fix the situation, please shut up. Giving me a headache is not going to get our civil liberties back. This is the kind of attitude I've been feeling for the past many months. I'm just tired of it all.
I also gave some money to the Edwards campaign. I was volunteering at the Montgomery County Democratic Committee. I'm gonna have to start volunteering at Baltimore now.