8 ms·

As a non-American, it's pretty scary for the rest of us to see how your society can tolerate these Eritrean standover tactics, while still retaining this "freed

by l33tbro 11y ago

As a non-American, it's pretty scary for the rest of us to see how your society can tolerate these Eritrean standover tactics, while still retaining this "freedom loving" doublespeak in the national cinema you project into the world.

jessaustin 11y ago
It's scary for us too! At least, those of us who have noticed the cracks in the facade. This is any nation, with an unrestrained military-enforcement-industrial-complex. For instance, I don't think we're any worse off than Pakistan. Make sure to prevent the armaments manufacturers from purchasing your country's political system!
adventured 11y ago
That can be maintained because it's still extraordinarily isolated and small in occasion. America remains among the freest nations on earth in nearly every measure - even if it's not the best at every measure. Your premise though is very flawed in my opinion, I don't know very many people that are unaware of the erosion of liberty that has occurred - both sides of the voting aisle are extremely aware of it, it's constantly discussed at a national level (eg the Washington Post has run countless articles on it), and every side of the US politically have their opinions on its nature and what should be done about it. You're acting like this is affecting every American and is very common. It's not. Eritrea? That's laughable, you're intentionally dramatizing to try to insult the US. It is in fact a very, very small problem, that is very serious and needs to be put down before it gets any larger. Steps have already begun to put an end to it. Why pretend it's not an understood problem that almost everyone agrees needs to be dealt with? The only reason to pretend that, is to levy a cheap shot at the US.
- littletimmy 11y ago
  What is your yardstick? Third world banana republics? People in the United States are less free than most advanced European countries. In those countries, governments tend to respect people AND limit the power of corporations so people can be free from coercive economic activity.
- tete 11y ago
  Sorry, but even when I can to a degree see your point it sounds like you feel overly insulted by someone stating basic facts. The US has been pretty bad off when it comes to civil liberties compared to many other other countries for quite a while now. Next to civil forfeiture the US unlike most other countries still has death penalty, still has a rather big amount of the population rotting in one of the worst prison systems of the western world, still doesn't legalize things like most drugs or prostitution, still doesn't do anything against the decline of education, making it only possible for wealthy to get one, has even when compared with development countries a pretty bad health care system, many archaic laws, has things like the DMCA killing off freedom of speech, has that NSA scandal going on that made KGB and Stasi look like nothing, presidents that are dynasties of families, barely any protection against discrimination of minorities, etc. I really don't want to talk bad about the US, but your statement of "America remains among the freest nations on earth in nearly every measure" really doesn't seem anywhere close to true. What are you basing that statement on? Or are you purely talking about so called "economical freedoms"? Oh and not saying country X is better. I just think that statement you made is wrong.
  - cglace 11y ago
    > I really don't want to talk bad about the US, > has that NSA scandal going on that made KGB and Stasi look like nothing Yeah, I'm going to say you only want to talk bad about the US.
    - jessaustin 11y ago
      Patriotism: you're doing it wrong. Real patriots don't strain to find reasons for taking offense. Rather, we're pissed off that "offensive" statements happen to be objectively true. Only USA people can change USA. If you don't want to change it, then get comfortable with seeing many more rational assessments of our problems.
      - cglace 11y ago
        I have no problem calling out America for its faults. I just misinterpreted the comment and thought they were saying America was worse than Nazi Germany. I didn't realize they were talking just about data collection.
- such_a_casual 11y ago
  How are you measuring this? We have the world's largest prison population for God's sake. What on Earth could you be talking about?
Implicated 11y ago
I'm not sure our society, as a whole, does 'tolerate' it. Can you tolerate something you're completely ignorant of? I'd say the vast majority of US citizens have no idea what asset forfeiture is, how it's used, what it's legality is or isn't... and what they do know, if anything, is that it's a tool used by the police/govt to keep those pesky drug cartels in line... because that's what the media tells them.

by l33tbro 11y ago

jessaustin 11y ago

It's scary for us too! At least, those of us who have noticed the cracks in the facade. This is any nation, with an unrestrained military-enforcement-industrial-complex. For instance, I don't think we're any worse off than Pakistan. Make sure to prevent the armaments manufacturers from purchasing your country's political system!

adventured 11y ago

That can be maintained because it's still extraordinarily isolated and small in occasion. America remains among the freest nations on earth in nearly every measure - even if it's not the best at every measure. Your premise though is very flawed in my opinion, I don't know very many people that are unaware of the erosion of liberty that has occurred - both sides of the voting aisle are extremely aware of it, it's constantly discussed at a national level (eg the Washington Post has run countless articles on it), and every side of the US politically have their opinions on its nature and what should be done about it. You're acting like this is affecting every American and is very common. It's not. Eritrea? That's laughable, you're intentionally dramatizing to try to insult the US. It is in fact a very, very small problem, that is very serious and needs to be put down before it gets any larger. Steps have already begun to put an end to it. Why pretend it's not an understood problem that almost everyone agrees needs to be dealt with? The only reason to pretend that, is to levy a cheap shot at the US.

littletimmy 11y ago
What is your yardstick? Third world banana republics? People in the United States are less free than most advanced European countries. In those countries, governments tend to respect people AND limit the power of corporations so people can be free from coercive economic activity.
tete 11y ago
Sorry, but even when I can to a degree see your point it sounds like you feel overly insulted by someone stating basic facts. The US has been pretty bad off when it comes to civil liberties compared to many other other countries for quite a while now. Next to civil forfeiture the US unlike most other countries still has death penalty, still has a rather big amount of the population rotting in one of the worst prison systems of the western world, still doesn't legalize things like most drugs or prostitution, still doesn't do anything against the decline of education, making it only possible for wealthy to get one, has even when compared with development countries a pretty bad health care system, many archaic laws, has things like the DMCA killing off freedom of speech, has that NSA scandal going on that made KGB and Stasi look like nothing, presidents that are dynasties of families, barely any protection against discrimination of minorities, etc. I really don't want to talk bad about the US, but your statement of "America remains among the freest nations on earth in nearly every measure" really doesn't seem anywhere close to true. What are you basing that statement on? Or are you purely talking about so called "economical freedoms"? Oh and not saying country X is better. I just think that statement you made is wrong.
- cglace 11y ago
  > I really don't want to talk bad about the US, > has that NSA scandal going on that made KGB and Stasi look like nothing Yeah, I'm going to say you only want to talk bad about the US.
  - jessaustin 11y ago
    Patriotism: you're doing it wrong. Real patriots don't strain to find reasons for taking offense. Rather, we're pissed off that "offensive" statements happen to be objectively true. Only USA people can change USA. If you don't want to change it, then get comfortable with seeing many more rational assessments of our problems.
    - cglace 11y ago
      I have no problem calling out America for its faults. I just misinterpreted the comment and thought they were saying America was worse than Nazi Germany. I didn't realize they were talking just about data collection.
such_a_casual 11y ago
How are you measuring this? We have the world's largest prison population for God's sake. What on Earth could you be talking about?

Implicated 11y ago

I'm not sure our society, as a whole, does 'tolerate' it. Can you tolerate something you're completely ignorant of? I'd say the vast majority of US citizens have no idea what asset forfeiture is, how it's used, what it's legality is or isn't... and what they do know, if anything, is that it's a tool used by the police/govt to keep those pesky drug cartels in line... because that's what the media tells them.