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Sure - bad stuff still happens. It gets found out, some people complain, the people in power modify their behavior (sometimes by not being so evil, sometimes by
by AimHere 10y ago
Sure - bad stuff still happens. It gets found out, some people complain, the people in power modify their behavior (sometimes by not being so evil, sometimes by finding better ways of hiding it - the latter can be useful for at least slowing the bad guys down and making their lives more complicated and difficult).
But we are still in the world where the CIA and the President of the USA can be publicly pressured into not waterboarding people anymore. It's never a cure-all, but there's at least some scope for modifying the behavior of the rulers through public pressure.
That's likely to change on January 21st.
If you want to see what a leader untroubled by public condemnation of lawbreaking is like, you just have to cast your gaze towards the Phillipines, where there's a huge upsurge in state-sanctioned vigilante and police murders. How far Trump takes the USA in that direction is still grounds for speculation.
- pavlovasdog 10y ago> If you want to see what a leader untroubled by public condemnation of lawbreaking is like, you just have to cast your gaze towards the Phillipines, where there's a huge upsurge in state-sanctioned vigilante and police murders. Considering Trump has praised the murders already I would say it's anyones guess what happens now: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/03/philippines-rodrigo-duterte-donald-trump-white-house-invite https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/03/philippines-ro... For anyone looking for insight into the situation in the Philippines please read this fantastic photojournal from the NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/07/world/asia/rodrigo-duterte-philippines-drugs-killings.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/07/world/asia/rod...
- 3131s 10y ago> But we are still in the world where the CIA and the President of the USA can be publicly pressured into not waterboarding people anymore. A world where the President and the CIA can be pressured into saying that we don't waterboard anymore. Respectfully, I think it's naive to think that waterboarding and much worse are no longer occurring at CIA black sites, and that the majority of these activities ever come to light. Obama passed legislation outlawing waterboarding, but what oversight apparatus did he create? Has he punished CIA personnel responsible for torture?