I have to wonder, what do people think the line is? When does the US become a police state? I see people claiming that because we can discuss whether we are in

I have to wonder, what do people think the line is? When does the US become a police state? I see people claiming that because we can discuss whether we are in a police state openly, we are not in one. This is a mistake because it assumes the goal of a police state is oppression. Oppression is not the goal of harsh policing or surveillance. Oppression is the means to achieve the goal of political stability. Oppression can be used to liquidate protesters which threaten stability, as it has been done in the US as well as many other places. Oppression can be used to squash unorthodox thought, as it was done in the USSR and East Germany. Oppression doesn't have to do both of these things, though. Power is free to decide what items constitute the biggest threat, and how oppression should be applied to best mitigate that threat. Openly using forceful oppression to prevent people from criticizing the government's policies is likely to stir up far more bad will and instability than merely using oppression to protect physical assets via invasive scanning etc. It is not intellectually realistic to envision a 1984-esque police state where speaking out against Big Brother gets you black bagged. That is far too obvious, and far too simple for reality. Our current situation is as real of a police state as it gets. If you live in NYC, you're 24/7 surveilled via a multitude of vectors, even if you're not suspected of any crime. The police are not accountable for anything, and allowed to conceal their methods and programs, even to your detriment. A police state.