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Perhaps USians as desensitized to guns but I took pause when reading that the police officers drew their guns when chasing the fugitive in the original incident

by eecc 6y ago

Perhaps USians as desensitized to guns but I took pause when reading that the police officers drew their guns when chasing the fugitive in the original incident, about shoplifting candies from a hotel lounge? (And I wonder if the concierge that called the cops on this guy hadn’t provoked a taunt with some “kind words”.)

renewiltord 6y ago
Americans are, as a rule, highly authoritarian. You'll see it online as people use pseudo-bureaucratic corpo-speak to justify state violence: "refusal to obey a lawful order", "did not comply with a lawful request", "in violation of state regulation" etc. Having lived elsewhere and in the US (a country I practically adore), I suspect it is because Americans have not really had true authoritarianism in any sense at any point in their history. Every time they stray close to the darkness and walk away unscathed and it convinces them that they can never really be consumed by it so they're willing to walk its very edge. Perhaps the UK having a monarch and a state religion is a visible reminder of what a monstrosity the state can be. It's funny that both nations have populations that support the massive expansion of the state into human affairs: it's just that the Americans want it to enforce behaviour and the British want it to redistribute wealth. The most amusing manifestation of the American comfort with violence is the difference in how streakers are handled in British football games and American football games. The former have overweight stewards lumber after naked people, failing repeatedly to apprehend, eventually accompanying them off the field. The latter have large, muscular guards catch up to and violently tackle the streaker to the ground.
- watwut 6y ago
  > Americans have not really had true authoritarianism in any sense at any point in their histor That is not really true. American history is constant struggle between authoritarianism and opposition.

by eecc 6y ago

renewiltord 6y ago

Americans are, as a rule, highly authoritarian. You'll see it online as people use pseudo-bureaucratic corpo-speak to justify state violence: "refusal to obey a lawful order", "did not comply with a lawful request", "in violation of state regulation" etc. Having lived elsewhere and in the US (a country I practically adore), I suspect it is because Americans have not really had true authoritarianism in any sense at any point in their history. Every time they stray close to the darkness and walk away unscathed and it convinces them that they can never really be consumed by it so they're willing to walk its very edge. Perhaps the UK having a monarch and a state religion is a visible reminder of what a monstrosity the state can be. It's funny that both nations have populations that support the massive expansion of the state into human affairs: it's just that the Americans want it to enforce behaviour and the British want it to redistribute wealth. The most amusing manifestation of the American comfort with violence is the difference in how streakers are handled in British football games and American football games. The former have overweight stewards lumber after naked people, failing repeatedly to apprehend, eventually accompanying them off the field. The latter have large, muscular guards catch up to and violently tackle the streaker to the ground.

watwut 6y ago
> Americans have not really had true authoritarianism in any sense at any point in their histor That is not really true. American history is constant struggle between authoritarianism and opposition.