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I gave half a dozen concrete examples of the ways American citizens have had their rights infringed upon. Cherrypicking an example of progress doesn't make any

I gave half a dozen concrete examples of the ways American citizens have had their rights infringed upon. Cherrypicking an example of progress doesn't make any of those other things not true. Apparently that's not enough, so I'll add more. We've invented laws that make it so felons can't vote, or defend themselves even after their sentence has been served. This affects innocent people who are wrongly convicted. [0]We've intentionally flooded specific minority communities with crack cocaine and criminalized it as well as many other drugs in common use (despite federal studies suggesting we should not do so). --> The guy who brought that story to the press was found dead, shot in the head twice, and his death was ruled a suicide. This is the origin of a now often repeated joke/criticism about the CIA "Yeah he was shot in the back of the head twice. Worst case of suicide I've ever seen." [1]We used the uptick in 'crime' to warrant selective enforcement, leading to more single fatherhood and weaker communities. This contributed to the poverty and cycle of crime these communities have experienced. [2]Remember when I cited the 4th amendment being violated above? Yeah, that played a massive role in the above. Policies like "stop and frisk" were implemented in undeniably unconstitutional ways. Clearly, minorities haven't had it super rosy lately, either. But the rights of everyone get stepped on repeatedly, not just minorities. That's what I'm talking about [0]https://citizentruth.org/gary-webb-cia-crack-epidemic-los-angeles/ https://citizentruth.org/gary-webb-cia-crack-epidemic-los-an... [1]https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1114&context=mjrl https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article... [2]https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/stop_and_frisk https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/stop_and_frisk

asdfasgasdgasdg 7y ago
> I gave half a dozen concrete examples of the ways American citizens have had their rights infringed upon. Yeah, but none of the examples you gave are new since ww2. At most, some of them have new names. Your examples don't speak to the question of whether people are more free, politically and otherwise, today in the US than they used to be. The answer to that question is plainly "yes," especially when you take into account the plight of minorities before civil rights movement. But even white people are more free today than we were before ww2.
- Proziam 7y ago
  Both the 'Stop and Frisk' policies and the CIA nonsense in the 80s that destroyed entire communities are after WW2. > But even white people are more free today than we were before ww2. This statement proves ignorance on the subject. I'll give some more concrete examples for you to look into. 1. Before 1954, there were many places in the US you could drive without a license. Free travel is a constitutional right, the institution of the driver's license restricts that right because there's no longer a way to travel without trespassing or by car. 2. Requiring drivers to carry insurance didn't gain momentum until 1957. Placing increased economic burden on people, restricting the ability to travel freely, and taking away people's ability to 'self-insure.' Some states still have the concept of self-insurance, but it often requires more cash on hand than your car is worth. 3. You used to be able to walk, ride, swim, slide, or whatever other means of transport you deem desirable onto an empty plot of land, put down your possessions, and then proclaim that land to be yours. Oh, and without a property tax. Today, I'm not sure if any unclaimed land remains, but under the original rules most land would be claimable, which it no longer is. Property taxes are actually a massive obstacle in solving homelessness. Even if you gave every homeless person a house, many couldn't afford to keep it and it would eventually end up seized. [0]The annual tax burden on the owner of a median value home value in New Jersey is $8,104 or $675 a month. 4. Many workers today need special licenses to work in minimum wage jobs. The argument is that they need to be licensed to be able to fry french fries or carry a platter. The license fees vary, but this places a new restriction on workers and businesses. 5. [1]You used to be able to order a fully-automatic mounted machine gun to your doorstep from a catalog. Somehow, people managed to not all kill each other. Today, you cannot purchase a fully-automatic weapon built after 1986 and even just owning the parts that would potentially allow you to create one is worthy of enormous jail time. Of course, anyone who has ever fired a fully-automatic weapon could tell you that these restrictions are woefully impractical when confronted with reality. And of course, these restrictions don't apply to government entities the way they do to you or I. There is a massive list of firearms infringements. Virtually none of them are actually all that practical because building firearms is actually pretty simple business. Today you can build fully functional lower receivers for AKs AR15s and more in your garage. [2]And then there's the whole ghost gun movement. Governments all around the world love any excuse to take the rights of their citizens for some 'totally justifiable' immediate need. Those rights are never returned, and the imbalance of power between people and institutions grows ever wider as more burdens or restrictions are placed on people. Counter-intuitively in some sense, these extra burdens and restrictions are great for big business because only big businesses can afford to properly comply with a massive network of interconnected laws and regulations. People have to get really fed up with their situation and take action as a movement. Then, once things get changed for the better, those in or seeking power whittle away piece by piece to get themselves the most advantageous position possible. [0]https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-highest-and-lowest-property-taxes/11585/ https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-highest-and-lowest... [1]https://www.wideopenspaces.com/time-machine-get-a-load-of-these-vintage-gun-ads/ https://www.wideopenspaces.com/time-machine-get-a-load-of-th... [2]https://ghostgunner.net/ https://ghostgunner.net/

asdfasgasdgasdg 7y ago

> I gave half a dozen concrete examples of the ways American citizens have had their rights infringed upon. Yeah, but none of the examples you gave are new since ww2. At most, some of them have new names. Your examples don't speak to the question of whether people are more free, politically and otherwise, today in the US than they used to be. The answer to that question is plainly "yes," especially when you take into account the plight of minorities before civil rights movement. But even white people are more free today than we were before ww2.

Proziam 7y ago
Both the 'Stop and Frisk' policies and the CIA nonsense in the 80s that destroyed entire communities are after WW2. > But even white people are more free today than we were before ww2. This statement proves ignorance on the subject. I'll give some more concrete examples for you to look into. 1. Before 1954, there were many places in the US you could drive without a license. Free travel is a constitutional right, the institution of the driver's license restricts that right because there's no longer a way to travel without trespassing or by car. 2. Requiring drivers to carry insurance didn't gain momentum until 1957. Placing increased economic burden on people, restricting the ability to travel freely, and taking away people's ability to 'self-insure.' Some states still have the concept of self-insurance, but it often requires more cash on hand than your car is worth. 3. You used to be able to walk, ride, swim, slide, or whatever other means of transport you deem desirable onto an empty plot of land, put down your possessions, and then proclaim that land to be yours. Oh, and without a property tax. Today, I'm not sure if any unclaimed land remains, but under the original rules most land would be claimable, which it no longer is. Property taxes are actually a massive obstacle in solving homelessness. Even if you gave every homeless person a house, many couldn't afford to keep it and it would eventually end up seized. [0]The annual tax burden on the owner of a median value home value in New Jersey is $8,104 or $675 a month. 4. Many workers today need special licenses to work in minimum wage jobs. The argument is that they need to be licensed to be able to fry french fries or carry a platter. The license fees vary, but this places a new restriction on workers and businesses. 5. [1]You used to be able to order a fully-automatic mounted machine gun to your doorstep from a catalog. Somehow, people managed to not all kill each other. Today, you cannot purchase a fully-automatic weapon built after 1986 and even just owning the parts that would potentially allow you to create one is worthy of enormous jail time. Of course, anyone who has ever fired a fully-automatic weapon could tell you that these restrictions are woefully impractical when confronted with reality. And of course, these restrictions don't apply to government entities the way they do to you or I. There is a massive list of firearms infringements. Virtually none of them are actually all that practical because building firearms is actually pretty simple business. Today you can build fully functional lower receivers for AKs AR15s and more in your garage. [2]And then there's the whole ghost gun movement. Governments all around the world love any excuse to take the rights of their citizens for some 'totally justifiable' immediate need. Those rights are never returned, and the imbalance of power between people and institutions grows ever wider as more burdens or restrictions are placed on people. Counter-intuitively in some sense, these extra burdens and restrictions are great for big business because only big businesses can afford to properly comply with a massive network of interconnected laws and regulations. People have to get really fed up with their situation and take action as a movement. Then, once things get changed for the better, those in or seeking power whittle away piece by piece to get themselves the most advantageous position possible. [0]https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-highest-and-lowest-property-taxes/11585/ https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-highest-and-lowest... [1]https://www.wideopenspaces.com/time-machine-get-a-load-of-these-vintage-gun-ads/ https://www.wideopenspaces.com/time-machine-get-a-load-of-th... [2]https://ghostgunner.net/ https://ghostgunner.net/